Chapter 86

Chapter 87: She Will Grind This Dungeon

“Little ones!” Carrying a pile of toy boxes, Qian Qi stood at the orphanage gate and shouted at the top of her lungs: “Come out and greet your charitable god, Lord Qian Qi!”

A cold wind blew. The orphanage fell silent. A kid washing clothes in the yard dropped the soap with a slap. The moment he realized who had arrived, he spun and ran while yelling: “Qian Qi is back, Qian Qi is back!”

Desks and chairs scraped loudly inside. Children’s footsteps thundered for a minute, then everything went quiet again.

Qian Qi thought: […] These heartless little brats.

She stepped through the gate and saw Dean Xiang Wen Yun jogging over. The dean’s gentle, kind smile bloomed when she saw her and she said softly: “Qi Qi, you’re back.”

“Dean,” Qian Qi said, striding forward to meet Xiang Wen Yun. Her eyes landed on the dean’s worn clothes, and she lifted a brow as she asked: “I sent you money. Why didn’t you buy yourself a new outfit?”

Xiang Wen Yun paused, looked down at her clothes, and said: “These still work.”

“Alright,” Qian Qi said, not pushing it. She set the toys in the first floor multipurpose room, glanced at two little heads peeking around the stairwell, then followed Xiang Wen Yun into the dean’s office.

“Your room is all ready in the same place as before,” Xiang Wen Yun said. She rubbed her hands together and, after a moment, asked in a low voice: “Qi Qi, you still haven’t answered me. That five hundred thousand…”

“No need to pay me back,” Qian Qi said, shrugging off her coat and flopping onto a stool. “Please don’t be polite with me. If you insist on being polite, these kids might end up with no home.”

“I’ll pay you back,” Xiang Wen Yun said quickly. “Though it might take some time…”

Qian Qi gave her a direct look and asked: “How do you plan to pay it back?”

Xiang Wen Yun pressed her lips together, clearly at a loss. “I…”

“This is me repaying you for raising me,” Qian Qi said calmly. “I’m not your only child. I’m an adult now. Please spend your time and care on the little ones.”

Xiang Wen Yun lowered her head, feeling a bit ashamed and also moved. She had not expected Qian Qi to grow so fast in just half a year, so fast that she was already an adult who could decide everything for herself. In some ways, she seemed steadier than the dean.

She did not know what Qian Qi had been through. They had never been close. Even though Xiang Wen Yun supported her schooling, Qian Qi never shared her heart, and after she went to boarding high school she rarely came back.

She did not know if Qian Qi becoming so serious was good for Qian Qi herself… but at least she had enough to eat and could live on.

“Alright,” Xiang Wen Yun said after a long breath. “I won’t be pretentious then. I’ll try hard not to hold you back.”

Qian Qi nodded, picked up her backpack, and said: “Good. I’ll go check on the kids.”

Xiang Wen Yun nodded.

Qian Qi left the office for the multipurpose room. As she expected, a group of curious kids had already crowded around the toys she bought. She lowered her head and smiled with a bit of mischief, then locked the door from the inside.

“Haha, caught you!” Qian Qi bared a wicked grin and reached out her “claws” toward the small, helpless children as she growled: “The great demon king Qian Qi is going to eat kids!”

“Ah!” The ten or so kids screamed the second they saw her and scattered. But a multipurpose room is only so big. Where could they run? Qian Qi even slowed down on purpose, always almost catching them, howling behind them until they bawled and shouted for the Dean Mother.

[…You are a pervert,] the System said.

“Thanks for the compliment,” Qian Qi answered.

[That is not a compliment!]

Hearing the noise, Xiang Wen Yun came to check, then saw Qian Qi simply playing with the children and could only smile helplessly. Still, she wondered to herself: when did Qi Qi’s expression start looking so… hmm… hmm?

Inside, after Qian Qi tired herself out, she plopped onto the floor and waved a hand as she said: “I’m exhausted. Stop yelling. Come here and let big sister hold you.”

The kids huddled in the corner and shook their heads, eyes still wet like wronged little brides.

So Qian Qi picked up a toy box and patted it as she said: “Let big sister hold you, and I’ll let you play with the toys.”

[Wow, you look just like a human trafficker…]

Qian Qi flicked the grumbling System away. She opened the toy box and took out a delicate doll, then said: “Whoever lets me hold her first gets this as her special toy.”

Toys are a powerful temptation. Several kids swallowed hard and stared at the doll with wide eyes. A little girl stepped forward, but a little boy stopped her.

“I’ll go,” the boy said. He took a few testing steps toward Qian Qi. When she didn’t move, he ran the rest of the way, gave her a quick hug, then jumped back and said: “Hug done!”

He kept a wary eye on Qian Qi while staring at the doll in her hand.

“Here,” Qian Qi said, tossing him the doll. She recognized him. He and that little girl were the two who always hid in the dark corner to watch her. If she remembered right, they were Little Min and Little An.

These two were braver than the others.

Little An caught the doll and ran straight back to Little Min, pushing it into her hands. The pretty talking doll drew all the kids’ attention. They crowded around Little Min, poking the doll in wonder.

“So pretty.”

“So cute.”

“Her hair is so soft. It feels so nice…”

Qian Qi watched for a bit and couldn’t help curling her lips. She opened the other boxes and took out the rest of the toys, then said: “Go play. Big sister has to head out and won’t keep you company.”

The kids blinked and watched Qian Qi open the door and step outside. They waited a moment, then tiptoed to the doorway to peek and see if she really left.

The second they poked their heads out, they met Qian Qi’s scary ghost face.

“Hahaha, caught you peeking!”

The kids: !!!

They burst into tears: “Waaah!”

[…Are you sick?] the System asked.

“These kids are way too timid,” Qian Qi said as she walked away. “Nothing like the crew I had back then.” She nibbled a blade of grass and strolled to the back garden. Seeing the big stone with her chibi Qian Qi drawing still sitting safely on top of the Dungeon, she chuckled. “Being timid has one good point. At least they don’t dare move my stuff.”

[…]

“Let’s go take a walk inside,” Qian Qi said, patting her backpack. She had packed plenty of life-saving items. Before she came back, she had already decided. This summer, she would be a grinder.

She would grind this Dungeon like crazy.