Chapter 13: How Daddy Knew
Lucas set her down at the edge of the lawn and gently placed the ball in front of her feet.
"Cici, kick it to Daddy."
"Hyah!"
Cici swung her leg with all her might.
The soccer ball rolled two or three meters, and the direction was actually pretty decent.
"Nice."
Lucas walked over and kicked it back with barely any force.
"Cici, catch it."
Cici chased after it, her little legs pumping fast.
Five minutes later, the system’s voice rang out in Lucas’s mind.
[Host, your soccer skill has begun to improve.]
[After ten hours, it will reach Master level.]
[After twenty hours, it will reach Grandmaster level.]
Lucas couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.
Once there were levels, it was a lot clearer.
Ten hours. If he took Cici outside for one or two hours of exercise every day, then in about a week, his soccer skill would hit Master level.
At that speed, playing in the World Cup wasn’t completely impossible to imagine.
Of course, he had no plans to become a pro player.
Being a hands-on dad and taking good care of Cici—wasn’t that better?
"System," Lucas asked silently, "mastering a language only takes three hours, but soccer takes ten. Is that because soccer is harder?"
The system replied: [Yes, Host. Even three-year-old children can learn a language, so language learning is relatively low-difficulty.]
Lucas had no answer for a moment.
It sounded right, but somehow still felt wrong.
Half an hour later, Cici stopped on the grass, her little face twisting pitifully.
"Daddy, this soccer ball doesn’t listen."
She pointed at the ball, her tone very serious.
"Let’s buy a new one."
Lucas laughed.
She had missed the ball several times just now, and a few times she had kicked the grass instead. The problem obviously wasn’t the ball.
"Cici, it’s not that the soccer ball doesn’t listen."
Lucas walked over and stepped on the ball to stop it.
"Cici just needs more practice."
He thought for a second, then said, "Watch Daddy."
Lucas flicked his toe and popped the soccer ball into the air.
The ball left the grass and landed on the top of his foot. He gave it a light juggle, and the ball bounced up a little, then dropped again. His other foot caught it. The motion was small, but his control was steady.
Once.
Twice.
Ten times.
Dozens of juggles later, the soccer ball still hadn’t touched the ground.
Cici stood beside him, her mouth slowly falling open.
"Wow!"
She looked at Lucas, her eyes shining like they were full of stars.
"Daddy, Liam said his daddy is the best. He was wrong."
Her little hand clenched into a fist.
"My daddy is the best."
Lucas stopped the ball, bent down, and pressed it to the ground.
He crouched in front of Cici.
"Cici, we don’t need to compare ourselves to other people."
Cici blinked.
Lucas said patiently, "We just need to practice properly ourselves. As long as Cici practices seriously, that’s already great."
Cici didn’t understand it very well, but she still nodded.
"Mm."
"Then let’s keep practicing passes."
"Okay."
After another half hour, Cici finally couldn’t keep going.
She ran up to Lucas, a little sweat on her forehead and her small face scrunched into a ball.
"Daddy, I’m so tired."
She grabbed Lucas’s hand.
"Let’s go home and sleep."
Lucas checked the time and smiled. "You already napped at noon. We sleep at night."
Cici’s little face grew even more miserable.
"But since you’re tired, we won’t play soccer anymore." Lucas picked up the ball. "We’ll take the ball home first, then go to the bookstore and buy you some books."
Cici looked up.
"Storybooks?"
"Lots and lots of storybooks."
Cici’s eyes lit up at once.
"Okay! Daddy, let’s go to the bookstore."
...
The next day.
Lucas listened to another hour and a half of Cici’s Spanish class.
Cici sat on her little chair, trying hard to remember everything she knew. Toward the end, she started repeating words she had taught him yesterday. She hadn’t noticed at all and still looked dead serious.
That was when the system reminded him.
[Host, you have already mastered Spanish. Continuing to listen to Cici teach you will no longer improve your skill.]
Altogether, it was exactly three hours.
Cici really didn’t have much left to teach him either.
Lucas looked at her and gave a quiet laugh.
"Teacher Cici, you already taught me what you just said."
Cici’s little face turned red all at once.
She lowered her head and looked at her own fingers, whispering, "Daddy, I don’t know any more."
After a while, she looked up again.
"Daddy, you should have Mommy teach you Spanish from now on."
She said it very seriously.
"Mommy’s Spanish is really good."
Let Evelyn teach him Spanish?
Lucas’s heart gave a very unhelpful little jump.
That suggestion actually sounded pretty good.
Of course, it would be for studying.
Purely for studying.
Lucas cleared his throat.
"Cici is already really amazing. After you taught Daddy, Daddy remembered a lot of Spanish he’d forgotten."
Cici looked up at him.
Lucas picked up a small picture book and opened it to a page.
"How about this? Next, Daddy teaches you."
Cici froze.
Just like that, teacher and student switched places.
She looked at Lucas, her little face full of confusion.
How had Daddy suddenly gotten so good?
