Chapter 137: Chapter 137: Monkeys Wearing Clothes
Qin Shen wrapped his arms back around her waist, pulling her close. "Of course... I do..."
A smile touched Jiang Si’s lips. "If we get into a fight someday, who gets the log cabin? You or me?"
Qin Shen gave the perfect answer without a moment’s hesitation. "It’s yours. I’ll sleep in the bathroom, just don’t kick me out."
Jiang Si chuckled softly, suddenly looking forward to their life together.
"Alright, I’ll tell my dad tomorrow then."
"Mm-hm."
After a good night’s sleep, everyone woke up—everyone except Jiang Si and Qin Shen.
Everyone held their books, practicing basic drills while memorizing new words.
There were likely more survivors in the Northern Country.
No matter how peaceful their lives were now, mastering English could be useful later on.
They had all learned the phonetic alphabet, though their pronunciation was still halting.
But at Jiang Si’s insistence, they memorized their five new words every day.
It might only be five words a day, but that added up to one hundred and fifty a month.
Once their vocabulary reached five hundred words, basic conversation would be no problem.
With the exception of Niu Niu, everyone else found it quite challenging.
They would memorize the words for the day, only to forget the ones they had learned previously.
Jiang Si stepped forward to quiz them, and Jiang Chengwu’s face tensed up.
A man his age, yet he had the expression of a schoolboy.
Jiang Si smiled. "Grandpa, are you ready?"
Jiang Chengwu took a deep breath, his eyes darting around for help before locking onto Jiang Linhai. He was a firm believer in the principle of "better you than me."
He hurriedly said, "Quiz your dad first. Grandpa needs a little more time to prepare."
’If I can’t recite them, I’ll have to memorize an extra word. The thought is agonizing.’
Jiang Si’s gaze shifted to Jiang Linhai. He flinched, saying even more frantically than Jiang Chengwu, "I’ll go last! Dead last!"
In the end, it was Niu Niu who bravely stepped forward first, a confident look on her face. "Big Sister, I’m ready."
Jiang Si knew this would happen. "Okay, let’s start with you."
Jiang Si’s quiz covered not only the day’s vocabulary but also random words from previous lessons. Niu Niu answered everything perfectly and had even picked up Qin Shen’s fluent, accurate pronunciation.
Jiang Si gave Niu Niu the highest praise. Niu Niu lifted her head proudly and eagerly nominated Lu Zhifeng to be the next person to answer.
Lu Zhifeng and Niu Niu had already quizzed each other the previous night.
But his memory wasn’t as good as Niu Niu’s, and when he woke up that morning, everything felt jumbled.
The sight of Jiang Si only made him more nervous.
Still, he had a sliver of confidence.
He answered all the words Jiang Si quizzed him on correctly, though he was a bit slow to respond.
If they answered correctly for three consecutive days, they earned a day off.
When he heard Jiang Si declare his answers "all correct," he happily swept Niu Niu into his arms. "Another perfect day off for me!"
The remaining four shot him envious looks.
’If only they could have a day off from memorizing words,’ they all thought.
But alas, life was hard.
Shen Baoying passed, but Jiang Linhai, Jiang Chengwu, and Zhang Qingfang each missed one or two words, looking as dejected as frost-bitten eggplants.
Jiang Si cleared her throat and smiled. "Considering everyone learns at a different pace, we’ll base future rest days on effort for those who are struggling. But everyone gave it their all today, so you can all take a day off."
Suddenly, cheers erupted.
Big Black and Little Black started wagging their tails, picking up their food bowls as if to say that no matter how happy everyone was, they shouldn’t forget about breakfast.
Shen Baoying hurried to the kitchen to make breakfast.
She had already made the potstickers the night before; all she had to do was pan-fry them with a cornstarch slurry.
In addition to the potstickers, Shen Baoying had also prepared a pot of eight-treasure congee and fried a platter of eggs and ham.
She brought everything to the table, adding eight small side dishes to the spread.
If it weren’t for the convenience of the dishwasher, Shen Baoying never would have made such a lavish spread.
At the table, Jiang Linhai announced the work assignments for building the log cabin.
No one had any objections. Even with the log cabin, their main living space would still be the Icebreaker.
The cabin was just a shelter on the shore.
But since they were putting down roots, they couldn’t just build it carelessly.
They had all the necessary materials anyway, so Jiang Linhai looked at the group. "Who wants to design the floor plan?"
Neither Jiang Si nor Qin Shen had studied architecture. ’A house is a house,’ she thought. ’No matter how well you design it, it’s basically just a door and a couple of windows.’
However, Jiang Si had saved a ton of architectural designs, home renovation videos, and more in her files. Surely there was a good blueprint in there they could use.
Shen Baoying chimed in, "You’ve been building houses for half your life. How can you not know how to draw up a plan?"
Jiang Linhai said, "Look at my age, and then look at theirs. Young people have different ideas, you know? I can incorporate some of their good suggestions."
The subtext was clear: he could definitely build the house, he just wanted to know what everyone liked.
Jiang Si’s preferences included a spacious area for training, a study, and an armory.
’And,’ she suddenly recalled, ’sometimes Qin Shen can’t stop himself from transforming, so the rooms definitely need to be large.’
Jiang Si said to Jiang Linhai, "Dad, why don’t we just tell you our basic spatial needs, and then you can design it? That’ll avoid trouble with selecting materials later on."
Jiang Linhai nodded. "Sounds good."
As they sat together listing their requirements, Zhang Qingfang suddenly shot to her feet. "Oh no! I forgot to feed One and Two! They haven’t dug up the seedlings in the greenhouse to eat, have they?!"
Jiang Si said, "Let’s go have a look!"
Everyone wanted to see if One and Two had any self-control, so the whole group went over.
Shen Baoying and Jiang Si entered the greenhouse first.
One and Two were staying obediently within their enclosure.
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to eat the seedlings; rather, Qin Shen’s aura was omnipresent, suppressing them so completely that they didn’t dare make a single rash move.
When they saw Shen Baoying, they grew visibly excited, clambering onto the fence and reaching out their hands to beg for food.
Shen Baoying gave them the sea fish she had prepared. One and Two snatched it and began tearing into it, wolfing it down.
Shen Baoying frowned. "Eating raw sea fish... that won’t give them an upset stomach, will it?"
Jiang Si shook her head. "Sea fish can be eaten raw; there’s less bacteria. They should be fine. At worst, they’ll get the runs."
One and Two devoured the meal. A whole five-pound fish was gone in moments, and they were still looking at Shen Baoying as if they wanted more.
Shen Baoying sighed. "They have such huge appetites. If we had to raise a whole group of them, they’d eat us out of house and home."
Jiang Si smiled. "That’s why we need to see if they can learn to catch fish in the ocean themselves."
Shen Baoying said, "The temperature out on the water is low, and it’s windy. Should we make them vests?"
Jiang Si glanced at One and Two. "Let’s make them some. They wouldn’t even dare to leave the area around the hot spring when the temperature was low before."
Shen Baoying immediately went to the icehouse, dug out two black sable pelts, altered them into little jackets, and put them on One and Two.
