Chapter 192: Picnic in the Red Leaves Forest

A little loli from the Princess Retail Store was in a very bad mood these days. Her usual bright smile could no longer be seen.

Alice was the happiest for Chen Rui returning safely to the Dark Moon. She rushed to the lab the second she heard the news. However, at that time, Chen Rui had explained to Shea that he had to train behind closed doors for the grand master’s test. Therefore, other than Athena’s personal protection, Shea also sent imperial guards to guard the lab entrance.

The little loli was shut outside. She wanted to use her identity as the little princess to forcibly pass. When Shea heard the news, she hurried there to take little loli back to the palace directly. The little loli threw a rare tantrum. She hadn’t talked to her sister for a few days due to anger.

There was an untactful guy just now who wanted to harass Kia, but he was caught by Alice. Alice immediately asked Kaguli to give that guy a kick. The unlucky guy rolled down from the second floor to the first floor and flew out of the gate accurately.

Now, all the guests knew that the little princess was in a bad mood. Many guys who had ulterior motives toward Kia immediately left to avoid being involved. The guests on the second floor also left tacitly.

Someone else went up to the second floor. Alice was holding her cheeks and sulking, so she didn’t bother. Yet, she didn’t see Kaguli and Kia looked surprised together. At that moment, a strange voice sounded. It seemed to be the voice spoken while holding the nose, “I want to buy this set of magic chess.”

Alice was too lazy to turn her heard, but she heard that Kia’s voice also became a little weird, “Sir, are you sure you want to buy this set?”

“Yes, can you ask the little princess to sign it for me?”

Kia looked at Alice; she seemed to be holding back from laughing, “The little princess is in a bad mood. Why don’t you two bring her out for a walk? Perhaps she will help you sign it then.”

As Alice was about to get angry, her nose suddenly sniffed sensitively and her beautiful big eyes immediately glowed with a strange brilliance. She immediately turned around, and she saw two more people on the second floor. Her gloomy face instantly changed to extreme excitement.

“Athena! Chen Rui!”

Alice yelled. She jumped high in the air and pounced at Chen Rui. Chen Rui wanted to scare little loli, but he was surprised by little loli’s exaggerated move instead. He quickly pulled Athena beside him.

The little loli hung on Athena like a koala and shouted excitedly. To prevent others from seeing the impertinence of the princess, Kaguli took the initiative to guard the stairs to the second floor. Under the influence of Alice’s emotions, “the security minister” who was usually serious had a rare smile on her face.

Athena was also very excited. She held Alice in her arms while jumping around, losing all her usual majestic. Alice glanced at Chen Rui who was snickering and whispered to Athena. Athena jumped to Chen Rui in cooperation. Alice twisted and pounced toward Chen Rui with Athena’s strength. She hung on his back and strangled Chen Rui’s neck tightly with both her arms.

“Well, Chen Rui, you dare to evade my <Spinning Piledriver> [1]. I’ll destroy you on behalf of the moon!” These messy nouns were all taught by Chen Rui to Alice. Now, he was like hoist by his own petard.

He didn’t dare to resist with too much strength, so he acted like he was suffocated while hoping that Athena or Kia at the side would help him to pull little loli away. Unexpectedly, Athena was just standing there with a smile, seemingly to “revenge” him for harassing her at the lab before this. Let alone Kia, her seductive eyes were flashing with gloat.

Woman really is an unreliable creature at critical moments…

By the time Alice came down from Chen Rui’s back, the poor human was unable to express his opinion in normal language as he was almost suffocated.

“Athena, we haven’t had a picnic for a long time!”

“Okay, little princess. Where should we go?”

“Blue Lake?”

Chen Rui shook his head quickly. He had trauma in that place. The little loli with a dizzy stick; the poison dragon that held his throat and said “brother”… Anyway, he would never take Alice to the Blue Lake for a picnic.

Athena saw Chen Rui look and smiled slightly, “How about going to the Red Leaves Forest in the south? Remember the treehouse that we built previously?”

“I remember! Let’s go to the Red Leaves Forest then!” Alice immediately agreed, so the itinerary was decided.

Alice was quite a good master. She even wanted to take Kia with her, but there seemed to be something odd between Kia and Chen Rui. So, Kia offered to stay to look after the shop. Eventually, the number of people joining the picnic event was set at 3.

After a little preparation, the little loli had put on a large coat, covering her body. There was also a beautiful little beret on her head, which made her look very cute. Athena was still dressed in the short robe while wearing the “Evil Blue Tear” around her neck, giving others a refreshing look. Only Chen Rui was still in his apprentice robe. He couldn’t even be qualified as the green leaf for the red flower.

The trio mounted on the tri-horned rhinos, left the South Gate and ran all the way.

Chen Rui hadn’t ridden on such a “bus” for a long time. He recalled the first time he rode the tri-horned rhino. That was when he first knew Athena. He felt a touch of warmth in his heart and looked at Athena. It happened that Athena also looked at him at the same time. Two of them smiled at the same time. Everything happened without saying a word.

That scene didn’t escape from Alice who had extremely good senses. She frowned, but didn’t stop talking. They were still chit-chatting.

The distance to Red Leaves Forest was nearly half the distance to Blue Lake. Soon, the trio reached their destination.

The three came to a big tree with a humble house on top. There was also a rope ladder to crawl up and down. Athena and Alice built that together. Alice said that she hadn’t eaten the barbecue made by Chen Rui for a long time. Athena immediately took the task of hunting whereas Chen Rui and Alice were responsible to clean the treehouse.

As Athena had just left, before Chen Rui climbed into the treehouse to clean up, Alice already walked before him. She lifted her cloak-like robe in a spirited manner, “Chen Rui!”

That sudden movement made Chen Rui startled, “What’s wrong?”

The little loli stood with her chest upright and revealed her overbearing demeanor, “Do you think there are any special changes to me?”

Changes? Chen Rui looked at little loli for a while and nodded.

When the little loli looked joyful, Chen Rui added, “That action just now is pretty flashy.”

“Anything else?”

“This hat is quite pretty.”

“Nothing else?”

“Your robe and hat matches well.”

“Look closely. Is there anything else?”

“Nothing else…”, “…”

The little loli, who had been trying hard to keep her chest upright, suddenly lowered her head in despair. It was completely different from her energetic look just now.

“What’s wrong, little princess?” Chen Rui squatted down curiously. Did this little loli take the wrong medicine?

Alice stood up abruptly and her head hit directly on Chen Rui’s head. Chen Rui was caught off guard. He could only feel dizzy. He covered his forehead and said, “Why did you heabutt me?”

“You have to call me Alice!”The little loli stood up angrily with murderous intent in her eyes.

Did this annoying man not notice my “changes”? Even if it’s only a little bigger, it’s still bigger! Hmph!

Chen Rui didn’t understand. He had a feeling that little loli wouldn’t get angry for no reason. Then, he saw Alice took out a familiar wooden stick from her bracelet. He vaguely remembered that it was the little loli’s signature dizzy stick that had a dizzy effect. It was because this dizzy stick that his first kiss was taken by Alice. Is she trying to repeat the trick today?

Don’t forget that Athena is coming back soon!

“Alice, what are you doing?”

“Hmph! Call me little princess!”

Chen Rui knew that little loli was clearly making trouble. As a victim of this weapon, he would never repeat the mistake, so he immediately ran away. Alice took the stick and started chasing. With Chen Rui’s current strength, Alice wouldn’t be able to catch up even without using his true strength. In desperation, Alice stumbled on a stone and she fell to the ground. The stick fell off her hands, and she couldn’t stand up for a long time.

Chen Rui was startled and hurried back. Alice’s ankle was swollen. She was obviously sprained. Also, her palm was scraped.

“Don’t move, Alice!” Chen Rui took off her shoes, took out a healing potion and applied the gauze to the wound. The grand master-level potion he exchanged had obvious effects as the swelling quickly subsided. He also wiped the wound on her palm with a clean gauze.

Alice didn’t cry when she fell. Now, after being carefully taken care of by him, her eyes were a little red. Her heart felt strangely warm. It seemed like she hadn’t felt like this for a long time.

“Sorry, little princess.”

“Call me Alice, I said it the last time…”

Chen Rui rolled his eyes secretly. This loli’s heart is like a needle in a haystack; she is too difficult to understand.

Alice stood up and limped. She protruded her lips, “My leg still hurts. There are stones everywhere. I can’t move…”

Chen Rui sighed and crouched down, “Come up!”

Alice smiled as she got away with it. She leaped onto his backwith one leg, then she held onto his neck. Chen Rui stood up and walked forward. It was completely different from the chokehold at the store. The little loli was holding onto him gently. The light fragrance that he once felt up close drifted into his nose again. As little loli intentionally got close, her underdeveloped chest stuck closely to his back. Even Chen Rui couldn’t help but feel strange. Yet, the feeling quickly dispelled.

In front, Athena had brought the prey back. When he saw Chen Rui carrying Alice, she was surprised and hurried over.

“Alice, what’s wrong?”

“I fell down by accident.”

“Are you okay? Let me take a look quickly!” Athena was obviously worried about Alice’s injury.

Facing her best friend’s worries, Alice suddenly felt a little guilty, “Chen Rui already helped me to apply medication. There shouldn’t be any big problem.”

Athena knew the wondrous effect of Chen Rui’s potions, so she was relieved. Chen Rui started to barbecue. The long-lost fragrance made Alice drooled, and her eyes glowed brightly.

After feasting, the human man who lost his “value” was thrown under the tree to clean up the mess while Alice took Athena to the treehouse to chat, calling it “a conversation between women.”

Chen Rui shook his head and started to clean up. The little loli must be interested in the things at Mountain Xilang. However, Chen Rui and Athena had already matched their “confessions”. They would never reveal anything about the underground world.

Chen Rui was quite assured with Athena as it could be seen from the incident of Paglio’s “poisoning”. With his current hearing, even if he didn’t extend his senses, he could still hear Alice’s screams and shouts.

“Is it fun to ride the wyvern?”

“This necklace is so beautiful. Did Chen Rui give it to you?”

“You also built a wooden cabin in Mountain Xilang? Did you save a room for me?”

“…”

Chen Rui leaned against the big tree and looked at the ray of light passing through the wood. Faint whispers from the treehouse came to his ears, mixing with the birds’ chirps in the forest. He felt an unusual calmness in his mind.

It is different from the “calmness” in training. Perhaps, this is the ideal life in the future.

[1] https://streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/Spinning_Piledriver Spinning Piledriver is a move used by a character in street fighter.

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