Chapter 14: Begging Li Wei To Explain A Billion Times
Riolu became the family’s newest little darling, receiving tons of love.
But what surprised Li Wei a little was that the one who treated him like the most precious treasure at home was actually his muscle-brained father.
Perhaps it was because Riolu’s Fighting-type nature was just too much to his liking.
For some reason, when it came to raising Riolu, nutrition matching, and healthy growth, his father was even more attentive than Li Wei.
Besides personally ordering cub-exclusive nutritional milk in large cans, he even consulted a nutritionist about making “mixed fruit juice,” blending freshly squeezed berries with cub-exclusive nutrition tablets and vitamins, and giving Riolu nutritional snacks every day.
He even had Gallade accompany him all day to serve as an excellent role model, all to instill a more positive “worldview” and strong battle awareness in Riolu, believing good habits should start young.
And in fact, every day Riolu watched Gallade training itself, its eyes sparkling with excitement.
However, there was one thing that worried Li Wei a bit.
For some reason, whenever Riolu watched Gallade grab Swampert during battle training and give it a brutal beating, its eyes always shone with adoration.
······
This made Li Wei, the “true trainer,” feel quite annoyed and worried.
I’m clearly the trainer here, right?
Why do all of you get more obsessed with taking care of Pokémon than I do?
Whose Riolu is this, anyway?
Though Li Wei was quite dissatisfied, looking at his Alipay transaction records, he chose to swallow his complaints silently.
After all·····
They gave way too much.
Life has many misfortunes, but what comforted Li Wei was that Riolu was still closest to him.
Maybe it was that unspoken bond between fellow substitutes···Aura Users.
All in all, Riolu safely passed its week in the infancy period under everyone’s doting care.
Pokémon are like ordinary kittens and puppies when newly born, very prone to dying from neglectful care by trainers.
But once they transition from the infancy period to the growth period, their vitality rivals that of cockroaches—they’re incredibly easy to raise.
Thinking of cockroaches, Li Wei couldn’t help but marvel at the wonders of the Pokémon World.
Thanks to Flying Type Pokémon and the prevalence of Bug-type Pokémon, there are no bugs in this world!
In this natural world of survival of the fittest, weak insects couldn’t compete with Bug-type Pokémon and went fully extinct thousands of years ago.
For Li Wei, this was truly a blessing of human life, one of the few good things he found in his textbook.
After all, for someone like Li Wei, dealing with a cockroach was way harder than handling a Bug-type Pokémon.
Meanwhile, the pampered Eevee was living luxuriously, even more indulged than Riolu.
What does Pokémon SPA mean?
A mere Eevee getting daily massages from professional masseuses and beauty treatments from beauticians alongside long-legged, slim-waisted Pokémon like Milotic, Scovillain, Mawile, Gardevoir, and others.
A mere balding Eevee······
Under this money power, its fur grew back fully in just a week.
Now Li Wei could only nitpick the slight color difference between new and old fur, stubbornly calling Eevee “bald retarded” in his mind.
During this time, idle Li Wei was forced to study textbooks in his spare time from drawing books, even taking good student notes for review before the written exam.
As someone who was still a high school student rushing about for studies and exams just days ago, this nearly pure liberal arts content was no pressure, though the memorization load was enormous.
Being dominated by literary giant Lu Xun even far from home—what kind of experience was that?
Studying was dull and boring, but Li Wei still had new experiences and discoveries.
On the second day of focused drawing book work, he noticed that when concentrating intensely on a task, familiar blue lines would appear before his eyes unbidden, pale blue light lingering around before sticking to his skin and vanishing.
Whenever this happened, he felt a refreshing coolness flowing downward from the crown of his head, extremely comfortable and even fatigue-relieving.
This cool sensation was like an enlightening immersion, making him feel strengthened.
While focused on drawing books, it felt just like grinding dungeons in a game.
The more dungeons cleared, the less stamina left, but correspondingly his experience bar would fill.
When experience maxed out, he’d level up, fully restoring stamina.
This process was a bit addictive, but fearing he’d turn into “the dragon-slaying youth becoming the monster he hated most,” Li Wei treated these “upgrades” as rest signals to avoid becoming a study lover.
On the first day of this, Li Wei slacked off for half a day.
But now, in the required 10 hours of study time, he could only slack for 3 hours.
It felt like a loss, but from an “inspirational” perspective, it was a great self-supervision habit—he was becoming the version of himself he hated most.
People always say no, but when it feels good, they’re honest.
Just like Li Wei, shouting for rest but getting hooked on studying and drawing books.
Of course, the latter hooked him more.
As Riolu’s awake time lengthened daily and curiosity grew, Li Wei’s nightly “bedtime story plan” was put on the schedule.
For newly born Pokémon, stories are secondary; colors and patterns in picture books are key.
But Eevee, though silly and dumb, had basic understanding, so she could follow Li Wei’s stories.
On the first night, Li Wei flipped through his drawing book page by page, telling a story of Riolu and Eevee setting off from Pallet Town on an adventure.
Due to their bad relationship, they argued nonstop, but when chased by a flock of fiery sparrows, they helped each other without abandoning one another, forging a wonderful friendship.
After a thunderstorm, amid a rainbow, the two Pokémon with improving relations witnessed Ho-Oh flying across the sky.
Holding the rainbow feather dropped by Ho-Oh, Eevee and Riolu vowed: “Someday, we’ll go see it together!” Then they worked hand in hand to become rainbow warriors.
The simple drawings highlighted Pokémon images and vivid backgrounds, with rich colors captivating naive, worldly-inexperienced kids like Eevee and Riolu.
The memorized story and fluent recitation had the two little ones listening raptly, even hooked, demanding Li Wei tell it a billion more times.
From then on, nightly story sessions began.
Evolving from “It’s you! Eevee!” to “Aura Warrior,” it somehow became a large family Pokémon evening story hour with “Titanic: Gallade and Gardevoir,” “JOKER Mime Jr.,” and more.
Truth be told, when it comes to storytelling and drawing books···manga, Li Wei was top-tier.
In Li Wei’s daily routine of competing for affection with Eevee and Riolu, diligent studying, and bedtime stories to fool kids, April had reached mid-month.
Evening of April 18.
“Li Wei, your mom and I have to go back to work tomorrow.”
Li Yuan Sheng said earnestly to Li Wei during dinner.
“Huh? Back to work?”
Truth be told, in Li Wei’s impression, TV drama rich heirs and CEO big shots didn’t need to work, just busy with romance daily.
Li Yuan Sheng’s sudden “back to work” gave Li Wei an inexplicable sense of dissonance.
“Yeah, no work, how do we feed you?”
Mom answered Li Wei’s question, but her tone was still very irritable.
After glaring at Li Wei, she clamped a huge chopsticks-full of celery into his bowl.
Truth be told, Li Wei hated eating that.
“April 1st you’re going for physical examination and trainer registration, right? For this major life event, your mom and I each took half a month off. Now your Riolu has entered the growth period, and Eevee doesn’t need daily doctor visits, so we’re heading back to work worry-free.”
Li Yuan Sheng continued explaining to Li Wei.
“Oh······”
These sudden words inexplicably made Li Wei a bit sentimental.
Not that he was a mama’s boy or daddy’s boy; he just found days surrounded by Pokémon with parents nearby nostalgic and likable······
“Then, go ahead with work.”
Li Wei accidentally ate a big mouthful of celery while zoning out.
The crisp texture and taste he disliked instantly furrowed his brows deeper.
“This time I probably won’t be home for months, might not make it to your competition venue to cheer.”
Li Yuan Sheng checked his phone calendar and added.
“Me too, in June I’m going to Gaul for fashion week and shows·····son, mom can’t be there to cheer either.”
Tian Lan looked at her packed June schedule, frowning with slight regret as she spoke to Li Wei.
“Mm.”
Li Wei nodded to show he understood; after all, he was grown up, always taking a “go with the flow” attitude, like Schrödinger’s parents at sports day—presence or absence the same, and no parents meant less restraint.
But Li Wei’s “indifferent” demeanor was interpreted by the dramatically internal Mrs. Li and Mr. Li as “wronged.”
“Li Wei, don’t feel too wronged; mom will watch the live stream and cheer for you—want me to send you some planes?”
······
“Mom, that’s sending planes to the official channel; what does it have to do with me?”
Li Wei twitched his mouth, unsure how to roast his mom’s thought process.
“Then create a fan support group for you? Have cheerleaders bring our enthusiasm to cheer?”
“No thanks, no thanks, don’t embarrass me to death.”
“Then······”
Tian Lan paused silently, then after some operations, Li Wei’s phone chimed pleasantly.
Ding, Alipay deposit, 100,000 yuan.
??????
Seeing mom’s action, his dad picked up his phone, did the same······
Ding, Alipay deposit, 100,001 yuan.
??????
“Go buy stuff you like; consider it dad’s compensation.”
Li Yuan Sheng said, patting Li Wei’s shoulder.
For a moment, Li Wei wanted to rush forward, hug his parents, eyes teary, and say deeply, “Dad! Mom! Go work! Even half a year on business is fine!”
This windfall completely shattered Li Wei’s last attachment to his current plain, warm life.
“I’ll be staying at the gym lately; apprentice has some matters, and I haven’t shown up at the dojo in ages—any longer and the league will get mad.
Got a mission in May too; won’t go into details. For anything recent, call or come to the gym.”
Li Yuan Sheng continued instructing Li Wei, seemingly uneasy about leaving him home alone.
“Got it.”
After dad finished, mom added more instructions, her eyes full of concern, as if leaving Li Wei alone would make him eat poop.
“No dropping you at grandpa and grandma’s this time; stay home, train Pokémon, prep for exams.”
“OK.”
“Mm······ I’ll leave Mime Jr. home to care for you. For contacting dad or shopping, just boss around Dragonair.”
Mom added.
“Right, I was gonna leave him home. He flies fast; if too lazy to go out or rainy day inconvenient, hang a list on him and send him shopping.”
“Uh··· okay.”
Li Wei felt Dragonair had it rough living to this point—a fine pseudo-legendary turned tool dragon.
In this world, thanks to Pokémon, express delivery was quirky; takeout not big, logistics via Pidgeot, Pelipper, Delibird, Dragonite, etc., not SF or best.
Errand running fell to good-tempered Pokémon like Electabuzz, Mime Jr.
Rich families using Dragonair for errands was rare, but normal here.
As long as small money’s there, mall staff can do anything.
Pokémon neck with two tags—one payment code, one shopping list; just 5% item value tip to staff, they fetch for Pokémon, trainer confirms scan-pay on phone—safe, home one-click.
This······
Reading browser explanation, Li Wei was speechless at this convenience.
Basically an advanced version of Meituan and Ele.me errands!
And even better!!
Timo’s fan behavior: 《Whole world knows I’m a big shot except me》 on sale today, 12:10 update, go subscribe!!!!!!
Today’s plug
《Starting from the Night of Clan Extermination》 link below, check it out if interested.
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Timo’s Flop Diary
June 19, cloudy to sunny
Friday, even rest day, today’s sales still dismal.
Backstage data didn’t turn cloudy to sunny like the weather, but cloudy to thunderstorm.
Seeing group big shots with daily sales over 10k shouting “flop, flop!” my heart extra aches and sighs.
ε=(ο｀*)))sigh
When will we flops rise?
Wait, I don’t even qualify to call myself a flop now.
