No Time

While Shui Yu was filming, Shui Lai decided to rest all day at home.

It was a Saturday after all, and he deserved some rest after what happened the day before.

He decided to train since he hadn't in so long and he didn't want to slack off and lose his abs.

After 3 hours of training and target practice, he cleaned all of his precious rides with utmost care. This resulted in 3 more hours passing by.

Now it was time for lunch. And although he was too lazy and wanted to stay at home, he didn't know any good takeout numbers.

Shui Lai decided to head out and just wore slippers and a jacket over his flimsy pajamas.

He didn't expect it to be so cold outside, so shivering, he went back inside to equip himself with a parka, warm pants, gloves, a scarf, a beanie, and boots. Truly, now he was all set.

Shui Lai imagined that he was a great adventurer and trudging out in the snow in the arctic. He would have lost all his toes but come back as a national hero. Nevermind, he'd like to keep his toes.

But wait, his outfit looked too ugly! It made him look like an overgrown egg! He couldn't possibly have anyone see him in this attire!

To him, it didn't matter that everyone else looked like walking eggs because they wore many layers to rid themself of the cold. To him, all that mattered was how he looked.

'Sigh, I'll go change. I'll also bring out my new love, cabbage.' he thought.

Cabbage was his newest custom ride by the way. It was a sports car of a yellow-green tint, thus named Cabbage.

Tch tch, Shui Lai didn't have a habit of staying loyal to his favorites. He had at least 40 cars, all of them his favorites. He was like one of those emperors who had a thousand beauties, except this being only 40 "beauties".

The transport system in the base was very advanced, they had highspeed bullet trains everywhere and you barely needed to pay a thing to get to work. Good companies would let the company pay for office workers to get on time. And if the office workers came to work late, they'd pay it. A small but fit punishment.

Those who had cars usually bought them if they had too much to carry, had kids, or wanted to show off their status.

As you can probably guess, Shui Lai was firmly stuck in the 3rd category.

Cars were still widely used but ran on solar power.

Anyways, after Shui Lai went back in for the second time, he changed into fashionable clothes. But anyone looking at him would feel cold. The denim jacket he wore didn't do much in protecting Shui Lai from the cold, and he had on ripped jeans too.

On the way to get lunch, Shui Lai was craving for noodles. So he went to a Japanese restaurant that a staff member at school recommended. The soba noodles were delicious and he decided to only bring his two older brothers next time. He was still mad at his sister after all.

After lunch Shui Lai decided that it was just too wasteful to come out only to eat lunch, so he went to Shui Jing's place to see his beloved niece.

But before going over, Shui Lai made sure not to forget to buy a toy for his lovely niece. Shui Bao had already grown tired of the princess toys, she liked the animal character tv show now. As a dedicated uncle, he even knew the show's name: Dodo's Adventures.

The Dodo show was pretty popular these days, and there was plenty of merchandise in the mall and shops all over the base.

Shui Lai bought a Dodo doll the size of Shui Bao's hugging size and also bought some peach candy that the little girl loved.

Shui Jing got a notification from Shui Lai that he was visiting and cleaned up parts of the house that had toys scattered all over. Lu Han was lying on the sofa tired and Shui Jing didn't have the heart to tell him to move. Shui Jing just put a blanket over him and kissed his husband's forehead.

Then Shui Jing went to turn off the tv to get his daughter's attention. She fussed a little, saying "Dad! No!" But she was soon attracted to the ringing of the doorbell, indicating a guest had come.

"Uncle!"

"How has my princess been doing?"

Yes, it was Shui Lai. He had finally arrived.

Shui Jing scolded, "It's cold outside, what are you wearing such clothes for? Parading yourself around? When you get sick, you'll know what you've done wrong."

The house was warm and toasty. Shui Lai held his niece up high and spun around. The child giggled and wanted more "airplanes" even though she was already dizzy.

When Shui Lai brought out the doll he hid behind his back, Shui Bao squealed and happily cried out, "Dodo! Dodo!"

"What do you say?" asked Shui Jing.

Having done this routine many times, Shui Bao answered cutely, "Thank you!"

"Alright, you go play now. I'm going to talk with your uncle."

Shui Bao quickly ran off to play with her newly acquired toy.

Shui Lai had wanted to play with his niece, so he was confused when his brother held him back for a talk.

They sat facing each other on the small dining table and Shui Jing started the conversation.

"Yesterday, Xiao Bing called me. She got a boyfriend, but he's Jack Larson. I'm worried about her and she hasn't told Xiao Yu yet. Do you know about this?"

"Yes, Yu Ge knows too. She wanted me to tell Yu Ge about her relationship and I couldn't help but get mad at her for being irresponsible and scared of Yu Ge."

Shui Jing sighed as he watched his little brother make an angry frown on his face.

"Well, go play with Ah Bao now, I'm going to go shop for groceries."

"Wait, let me do that! I'll go grocery shopping with Ah Bao!"

Shui Lai had perked up right away.

And Shui Jing couldn't help but smile.

"Ok, be careful. Here's the list, and here's the bag. Don't buy anything useless, and don't buy anything even if Ah Bao begs for it!" 

"I know! We're going!"

With that warning, the uncle and niece pair drove with their fancy car to the fanciest supermarket around.

They bought all the vegetables, meat, milk, tofu, and other food materials that were on the list.

It was only when they passed the snack aisle that things went awry.

"Uncle, uncle," Shui Bao called.

"Hm?"

"Uncle, that. That." Shui Bao pointed towards the banana puffs she liked so much.

"But your dad said you ate a lot of snacks today..."

"Uncle, that!"

"Ah Bao, what about peach candy?"

"Peach candy?"

"Yup, delicious peach candy! It's waiting for you at home, don't you want to quickly go home?"

"Peach candy!"

"Ok, let's hurry up and get home!"

Crisis averted.

After a quickly done check out, the duo headed back.

Meanwhile, while Shui Lai and his niece were out shopping, Lu Han groggily woke up.

"You're up?" Shui Jing noticed.

"Mm."

Lu Han stretched his arms out and naturally, Shui Jing hugged him.

After sharing a kiss, Shui Jing murmured, "Don't overwork yourself."

"I'll try. Managing a clan or two and acting as a mediator is tiring. I just want to stay home and love you properly."

Shui Jing blushed and shyly replied with, "What are you saying?"

"We haven't done it in so long, why don't we leave Ah Bao to your brother just for tonight?"

"Should we?"

"We should."

"Then I'll ask during dinner."

"Dinner?"

"He went out to go get groceries with Ah Bao. He'll be eating with us."

"Ok, what are we eating?"

"Braised Beef. You and Ah Bao both liked it last time I made it."

Such was the conversation of the married couple.

When Shui Bao and Shui Lai got back, Shui Bao quickly veered towards the peach candies and Shui Lai proudly gave over the bag of ingredients.

Shui Jing thanked him and went to work in the kitchen.

Shui Bao focused on peeling the candy wrappers away from the sweets, when she heard, "Give me one too."

She happily cried out, "Daddy!" when she saw that he was awake.

Lu Han opened his mouth to receive a candy, but his daughter shot him down with a "No."

What hurt was, she was happily giggling while she did so.

"Ah Bao, give me one?" this time Shui Lai asked.

"No!" and as if afraid someone would steal her candies away, the little girl ate all the candies she peeled and closed the candy bucket's lid.

Shui Jing's voice rang from the kitchen, "Don't tease her. It's time for Dodo's adventures to air, go watch with her."

And so they went, with Ah Bao excitedly screaming "Dodo!" and bringing her new doll along.

The show ended and advertisements were shown afterward.

The dinner was delicious and Shui Lai agreed to take care of Ah Bao for the night. He had eaten the dinner and could do them at least this favor.

When Shui Yu got back from filming, he was surprised to find his brother and niece sleeping on the sofa under the cover of a parka.

He carried them both upstairs onto a bed and the three all slept soundly in peace.

For Shui Jing and Lu Shu, they had an exciting night, details being left out.

All seemed to be well.

But did you know?

There was a person traveling under the dark back into the country they once lived in.

Guess who~