The Main Characters Won't Stop Pampering Me!-Chapter 93: Crystal Clear

It was a vicious cycle of adolescent drama, and it was already starting.

Song Jue walked right up to Huaijin, his eyes ignoring Yuanying and Lingzhi for a moment; the calculated snub was one of his favorite attention-grabbing maneuvers.

He knelt down dramatically, placing his chin on his hands, aiming his charming smile squarely at Huaijin.

"And what about you, Little Boss Chi? Are you coming to the picnic? I was thinking, I might need a really smart, small partner for the nature scavenger hunt. The grown-ups are so boring, and your math skills are probably better than mine."

The intent was crystal clear: use the universally acknowledged "smart little sister" to make Yuanying and Lingzhi jealous and compete for his attention.

Huaijin did not even blink. She kept her face completely neutral, devoid of the starry-eyed adoration he was used to eliciting from younger children.

"My math skills are definitely better than yours, Song Jue," Huaijin stated flatly, using her most professional, disinterested tone. "However, I already have a partner for the scavenger hunt. My father and I will be a team, and that would be more than enough. We don’t have time to mentor someone who struggles with basic geometry."

She then stepped slightly to the side, maintaining her physical distance and using her father as the ultimate, unassailable excuse.

"Besides," Huaijin added, giving him a cool, dismissive glance that would have crushed a lesser man, "the purpose of the Parent-Child trip is familial bonding, not competitive dating preparation. I suggest you decide which of your classmates you wish to spend time with, and perhaps learn to appreciate them as individuals, rather than as interchangeable audience members for your performance."

The verbal torpedo hit Song Jue right in his ego. He stared at her, genuinely surprised. Most girls, even the older ones, would blush or giggle at his attention.

This tiny, serious six-year-old just analyzed his social strategy and found it deficient.

Yuanying, seeing her rival successfully rebutted, immediately seized the opportunity to regain the upper hand.

"See, Song Jue? Even Huaijin thinks you’re being childish!" Yuanying crowed, puffing out her chest. "She and I were discussing a very important parental mission. You wouldn’t understand."

"Oh, I understand," Song Jue recovered quickly, his smile becoming even wider, this time laced with mischief. He directed his gaze back to the two older girls. "But I can definitely assure you, Yuanying, that no matter how hard you plan, I’ll still find the treasure before you do at the picnic. And I’ll need a witness. Lingzhi, since you’re the most honest, you should stick with me, so I can prove I won fair and square."

Lingzhi blushed deeper, stammering, "I... I don’t know..."

Yuanying instantly bristled. "No! Lingzhi is coming with me! We’ll be practicing our skit!"

And just like that, the cycle restarted. The girls forgot Huaijin’s recent plan, forgot their truce, and focused their energy on verbally sparring over the right to be nearest the dazzling, maddening protagonist.

’It’s exhausting,’ Huaijin thought, watching the drama unfold with a sense of weary inevitability.

She had hoped her intervention might have delayed this, but Song Jue was a force of nature, the ultimate chaos agent in her meticulously planned new life.

She quietly slipped away from the fray, Chi Song trailing silently after her.

Later that afternoon, back in the small, safe haven of their apartment, Huaijin finally got her moment to tell her father the news.

Yuanfeng was already engrossed in his work, a complicated series of differential equations scrawled across a large whiteboard that dominated one wall of the living room.

He was humming softly, lost in the elegant world of mathematics.

Huaijin didn’t use any theatrical entrances this time. She simply walked up to the whiteboard and drew a large, slightly lopsided stick figure of a man wearing a party hat, holding the hand of a smaller stick figure.

Above the drawing, she wrote in neat, block letters: PAPA + ME = PICNIC!

Yuanfeng paused mid-equation. He looked down at the drawing, then back at Huaijin, a slow, genuine smile spreading across his face.

"A picnic? With a party hat?" he asked, his voice already softening with anticipation.

"The whole school, Daddy," Huaijin confirmed, dropping the last shreds of her composure and reverting to pure, happy six-year-old mode. She launched herself at him, latching onto his torso and looking up with bright, excited eyes. "Next Friday! A Parent-Child Trip to Maple Creek Park! We get to find plants and play games!"

Yuanfeng’s eyes, usually sharp with intellectual focus, immediately softened into pools of doting affection.

The mention of unstructured time with Huaijin, combined with the promise of nature and games, was his perfect storm of delight.

"Maple Creek! Oh, Huaijin, that’s wonderful!" His academic posture vanished. He scooped her up in a dizzying embrace, spinning her gently. "We can look for that rare subspecies of the Mountain Azalea I read about! And we can use the time to finally teach you about basic terrestrial navigation using the sun’s angle!"

He settled her back on his hip, already energized. "My schedule next week is a bit tricky. I have that remote consultation on the quantum stability matrix, but this is a far more important variable! I’ll delegate immediately! I’ll need to make sure I get that report finished by Wednesday night, which means I might have to pull an all-nighter, but it will be worth it! My little researcher needs her field partner!"

His joy was palpable, a radiating warmth that chased away the lingering shadows of Xu Meilin and the academic pressure.

He was jumping in happiness, just as Huaijin had predicted, ready to sacrifice sleep and complex calculations for a day of simple, silly fun with his daughter.

"And Daddy?" Huaijin said, leaning in, her eyes shining with affection and a touch of mischief. "We need to wear matching hats. Very bright ones. For optimal visibility."

"Matching hats for optimal visibility, it is," Yuanfeng agreed instantly, already mentally clearing his Friday.