Chapter 105: Make-up Workdays After the Holiday
Yi Zhi Xuenai: [Huh? You want me to @ Pu Tong in my new work?]
Lin Yuxi: [From the looks of it, you're the most suitable person!]
Yi Zhi Xuenai: [Then... what's the price?]
Yu Wanwan: [You wouldn't want other people to find out how terrible your sleeping posture is, would you?]
Come to think of it, the few of them had indeed stayed together during the holiday. If someone had a lot of odd sleeping habits, it would definitely be easy to notice.
But wasn't having bad sleeping posture pretty normal? Could that really be used as blackmail?
Yi Zhi Xuenai: [Alright, alright. I'll help, okay?]
Pu Tong: [So... just how bad is your sleeping posture that it actually made the Japanese girl give in?]
Lin Yuxi: [Once she falls asleep, she hugs whatever's beside her and rubs against it all over.]
Pu Tong frowned. Didn't that sound pretty normal? If someone was used to sleeping while hugging a stuffed toy, wouldn't they naturally do that?
He wasn't interested in topics between girls anyway. Yi Zhi Xuenai wouldn't upload the video until tomorrow, and by then his account verification should have been approved too.
"Your Majesty's son, come eat!"
What the hell was with "Your Majesty's son"? Was she treating herself like the empress now?
He really wanted to see what his mom had made after buying such a huge pile of ingredients.
"What are you messing around with now?" Pu Tong pushed the door open and immediately smelled something delicious from far away. It was completely different from what he'd expected.
There's no way my mom's cooking is this good...
"I'm making a hot pot!" Ni Hui took out two small bowls and gestured for Pu Tong to come mix his own dipping sauce.
So it was hot pot. That made sense.
Out of all kinds of cooking, hot pot was the easiest. If you started by stir-frying the soup base yourself, then yes, that required skill. A professional chef's base would definitely taste better than an ordinary person's. But if you just bought a ready-made base and threw ingredients into the pot, wasn't that something anyone with hands could do?
"Hurry up and eat. I still have to write my article afterward!"
For reporters, writing the article after the interview was the truly troublesome part. Most of the time, what determined the value of a news report wasn't the topic or the interview itself, but the angle and perspective of the article. Chasing trending events guaranteed a baseline, but good writing could raise the ceiling.
His mom might not be much of a cook, but her professional skills as a reporter were absolutely top-notch. He didn't need to worry about that.
"Oh, and wash the pot yourself too!" Ni Hui grinned. "Helping your mom out a little is only right, isn't it?"
Washing a hot pot after eating was such a pain. She really knew how to make things difficult...
Still, considering he'd contributed to this report too, Pu Tong reluctantly accepted the task of washing the pot so his mom could write a high-quality article.
The two chatted for a while about the aftermath of the short-video incident. When they got to Yi Zhi Xuenai tagging his account in her new video, his mom suddenly started complaining.
"That Japanese girl's submission—that nursery rhyme you recorded yesterday, right..." Ni Hui paused before saying, "Look at you. You've gone and written another song for some other girl."
She glanced at him, looking rather dejected.
"You'll write a song just because some girl you've only known for a short while asks you to. Your dad and I have never gotten that treatment after all these years... Looks like the feelings have faded, and salt's gotten expensive."
"Uh..." Pu Tong was speechless.
Actually, from his own perspective, he'd known everyone for the same amount of time since transmigrating here...
But nobody else knew that.
Thinking about it that way, he really did seem like an ungrateful brat.
Only writing songs for pretty girls... what a scumbag.
"Listen to your mother, don't let her get hurt..."
"That sounds pretty good. Sing some more!" Ni Hui quite liked the melody and lyrics and motioned for him to continue.
"That's all I've got. Treat me better, and maybe I'll get inspired to write the rest!"
He was just dangling a carrot in front of his mom. There was no need to actually release the song for now.
"Hmph." Ni Hui wasn't interested in playing mind games with her son. Once she'd eaten her fill, she went back to her room to write.
Pu Tong glanced at the mess left behind from their hot pot meal and felt a little miserable.
By the time he'd finished cleaning everything up, twenty minutes had already passed...
Why did his workload actually increase when his mom was home? She said she was taking care of him, but this was worse than when he lived alone.
Smelling the lingering hot pot odor on himself, Pu Tong quickly changed clothes and took a shower.
"I hope I can relax peacefully tomorrow..."
It was the last day. The five-day holiday was about to end.
After the sports meet ended on Friday, they had the weekend plus the first three days of the following week off, making a total of five days.
Logically, after the holiday ended, they'd only have classes on Thursday and Friday before another weekend...
Of course, that would never happen, because there was always one rule that shattered such peaceful dreams: make-up workdays.
Whenever there was a holiday, there would inevitably be make-up work scheduling.
"Why does this make-up workday nonsense exist even in another world?!" Pu Tong couldn't help but complain.
For students and office workers alike, make-up workdays really were painful.
No helping it.
Even before the holiday notice came out, Pu Tong already knew their schedule. This week after the holiday, Saturday wouldn't be off, but Sunday would be. It was fairly humane, at least—they weren't being forced into nine straight days of classes.
Actually, it wasn't too bad for him. Whether he studied at home or at school made little difference, and personally he felt he studied better at school.
"Come to think of it... Isn't *When You Are Young* airing on Saturday night?"
Pu Tong had seen all the criticism online after the fourth episode. It could only be said that Xu Lei had brought it upon himself. The show was marketed as a high school variety show, yet he took the students to a drama set. Of course people were going to criticize that.
This time, however, the fifth episode's theme was the sports meet, bringing things back into the realm of ordinary middle and high school life. Public opinion should improve quite a bit...
That was, of course, assuming Xu Lei didn't pull any more ridiculous stunts.
After doing some practice problems, Pu Tong went to the bathroom before bed and noticed that the light in his mom's room was still on.
Looks like she planned to stay up all night finishing the article...
Since his mom had worked through the night, Pu Tong, who got up early the next morning, still didn't get any breakfast.
After his morning run, he bought breakfast for both of them on the way home. While he was out, he glanced at his phone and found that his personal identity verification had finally been approved.
After sending a screenshot to the Japanese girl, Pu Tong immediately uninstalled the app.
He'd watched a few videos using his copywriting, but they were all melodramatic youth angst stories. They weren't interesting at all. Watching short videos was honestly a waste of time, and he didn't want to leave himself open to that temptation.
Anyway, it was just a newly registered empty account with nothing on it besides the verification, so there wouldn't be any trouble.
Around five in the afternoon, the Japanese girl finally sent a message in the group chat saying she was about to upload the video.
Yi Zhi Xuenai: [I'm only posting it on the short-video platform and Letter Site. Remember to like, tip, favorite, and hit the full support combo!]
Yu Wanwan: [I don't really use Letter Site. I don't have many coins.]
Pu Tong: [Next time for sure.]
Yi Zhi Xuenai: [If you don't tip me, I'll upload your singing version as Part 2 as a bonus!]
On Letter Site, videos could be split into multiple parts, so Part 2 meant the second segment. Lots of videos used multiple parts for supplementary content.
Although he knew Yi Zhi Xuenai was joking, it seemed this incident had ultimately become embarrassing blackmail material...
At six o'clock, the Japanese girl's new upload—the *Doraemon* theme song—went live on schedule. Pu Tong opened Letter Site and take a look.
"Wait, there really is a Part 2?"
He quickly clicked on it and listened, only to discover that it was actually the Japanese version Yi Zhi Xuenai had adapted herself...
The *Doraemon* theme song had originally been in Japanese. The version he'd sent her was only a Chinese cover.
He'd only given her a few suggestions, yet she'd actually gone and sung the Japanese version too. She'd really put a lot of effort into it.
Thinking about it carefully, ever since she'd started drawing manga, she didn't seem to have missed an update even once.
"Looks like she never slacks off when it comes to things she truly likes..."
If she only slacked off on meaningless things she didn't enjoy, maybe that could even be considered a healthy kind of slacking.
There was no need to @ him on Letter Site. Although the video did credit Pu Tong for lyrics and composition, it didn't attract much attention.
The comments and bullet chats were all talking about how sweet and adorable Yi Zhi Xuenai's singing was. Hardly anyone paid attention to him as the creator.
After skimming through a few cheesy pickup lines and outrageous comments, Pu Tong could only sigh at how creative these people were.
Yu Wanwan: [Wow, Xuenai sounds so much cuter singing it! Way better than a certain someone's version!]
Lin Yuxi: [What did Pu Tong ever do to you?]
Yi Zhi Xuenai: [You shouldn't say that. Pu Tong's singing was pretty good too!]
Pu Tong: [Don't flatter me. Just say what you really want.]
She'd mocked him relentlessly before, and now she'd suddenly changed her tune. She definitely had an ulterior motive.
Yi Zhi Xuenai: [School starts again tomorrow... Let me copy your homework, okay?]
Could she be any more honest?
(End of Chapter)
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