ASFTB 51: The Protagonist Gets Scolded 1

As Jian Chengxi’s words fell, a strange atmosphere spread across the entire table.

The nobles holding the cake, who had just been praising it, suddenly seemed to have become a hot potato—neither here nor there, awkward and hard to touch.

Pingping’s dad seemed to be choked up. “You… you…”

Jian Chengxi raised an eyebrow and said, “Is your stomach better now?”

The tiger man hadn’t said anything yet.

Pingping, standing beside, placed the cake back on the table and her little face went pale. “If Pingping eats unclean fruit, her stomach will rot!”

A three-year-old child wouldn’t know these things.

It’s just the usual lessons passed down by parents through words and actions.

Sure enough—

Li Suisui glanced at her. The little girl asked, “Pingping, how many did you eat?”

Pingping honestly said, “Two.”

“Oh,” Li Suisui nodded seriously. “So many.”

Pingping looked at Li Suisui’s face, and felt like she was being mocked. With her eyes reddening, she said, “Dad said these fruits can’t be eaten. If you eat them, you’ll get sick!”

The others were listening to the child’s innocent words.

They could have come over immediately to correct her, saying that the fruits from the Underground City were just a little sour, but actually, they were edible.

Yet no one did that.

They all stayed silent and tolerated the child’s insults because deep down, they looked down on things from poor places too.

Everyone was waiting to see Jian Chengxi’s embarrassment.

However—

Li Suisui said, “Then you’re in trouble. You already ate the fruit so your stomach will rot.”

Pingping was stunned, and muttered, “Re–really?”

Jian Chengxi was momentarily stunned. He was about to explain that the fruit wouldn’t rot the stomach, when, unexpectedly—

Li Suisui nodded her head. “Really.”

Pingping’s face immediately fell. The little girl gasped and was frightened by Li Suisui’s serious expression. With red eyes, she said, “T–then, what should Pingping do?”

Li Suisui’s fair and delicate face was smiling. “You just need to chant a spell to break it.”

Pingping asked in confusion, “What spell?”

Li Suisui said quickly and efficiently, “Just loudly chant a few times ‘I’m an idiot, I’m an idiot,’ and it will work!”

“…”

The air was filled with silence.

Someone couldn’t hold it in and let out a muffled laugh first.

Pingping’s dad realized his child had been tricked, and awkwardly said, “What’s the child babbling about? There’s no such thing as a spell. This isn’t a poisoned apple.”

This was outright provocation.

Jian Chengxi brought his daughter back, and said, “Actually, I think Suisui is right.”

Pingping’s dad was stunned.

Jian Chengxi placed his family’s cake down, and looked at him, saying, “The poisoned fruit that requires a spell to break is formless in the child’s words, but the poisoned fruit in your hearts is tangible.”

His words were powerful and resounding. It landed in everyone’s ears.

Jian Chengxi’s voice was neither too soft nor too loud, but it felt like a huge irony. Arrogance and prejudice were planted in everyone’s hearts—that is the real poisoned fruit.

The thing that needs a spell to break is not the apple.

It is the mountain of prejudices that stretches endlessly in people’s hearts.

His words inexplicably made everyone’s faces flush with heat.

Pingping’s dad spoke up, “Mr. Jian, it’s just a child’s innocent words. There’s no need to be so intolerant about it, right?”

Jian Chengxi was completely unhurried. “I don’t remember it was me who offered you the fruit, nor was I the one who started the conversation. You say I can’t tolerate a child, but who can’t even tolerate a piece of fruit?”

His words were accompanied by a smile.

Pingping’s dad was left speechless by the retort.

Are people from the Underground City all this good at talking!!

In the afternoon, the registration for other events began.

Jian Chengxi glanced at the registration form. His son’s shooting competition was at the shooting venue.

Before the competition started, Jian Chengxi adjusted his child’s clothes. He looked at his son and crouched down to his level. He said with a gentle tone, “It’s okay. Even if you lose, it’s fine, understand?”

Li Chen nodded.

Shooting sports have always been a priority for the Empire.

Because of the prolonged wars, almost everyone in the population is aware of how to use weapons, and you could even say it starts from a young age.

Therefore, this competition that is broadcasted globally can be considered especially important.

The first competition to be held in the afternoon was for the kindergarten division. Children have always been the future of the Empire, so the number of viewers increased rather than decreased, with the online viewership reaching nearly 100 million.

The kindergarten principal was very worried.

The vice principal, standing beside, said, “Principal, what’s wrong?”

The principal looked at the comments online. Most of the comments were drawn to the morning’s competition, where Jian Chengxi, from the Underground City, won first place in the fair competition’s 8,000-meter long-distance race.

The impact on public opinion and online influence was truly enormous, with many netizens leaving comments saying:

“I didn’t expect people from the Underground City to be this strong now?”

“Their sports development isn’t bad at all.”

“Isn’t that place dirty, chaotic, and poor?”

“They didn’t even win against the defective products.”

“Hahaha, this is really embarrassing!”

After that, Jian Chengxi’s daughter also took first place in her relay team, although with Li Lingfeng’s help. However, with two consecutive people from the Underground City achieving great results in the Grand Sports Meet, it had already caused a huge stir.

The vice principal leaned over and said, “Principal, Li Chen has also signed up for the shooting competition in the afternoon.”

The principal’s eyes widened.”That little kid has signed up too!”

The vice principal nodded and said, “Yes, you said that child is a cripple, why did he sign up for the shooting competition? Don’t worry, he’s definitely going to make a fool of himself!”

The principal shot him a glare. “What do you know!”

When he first entered school, Li Chen, as a child who had never learned about mecha, only took one minute to assemble a small mecha model.

How can they be sure he won’t take first place in the shooting competition!

The principal became a bit anxious. “If this family wins first place in every competition, who knows what kind of bad influence it will have!”

The assistant director was stunned for a moment and said, “T–then, what should we do? We have no way of stopping it, that’s General Li Lingfeng’s son. Last time at the school, even the Head Guard Perro’s son—he also just hit him because he felt like it. What can we do this time!”

The principal fell into worry. He had met Li Lingfeng so how could he not be afraid?

However, if Li Chen wins first place again, he, as the kindergarten principal, wouldn’t be able to keep his job.

Suddenly—

The principal suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, “I have a solution!”

In the afternoon, at the shooting range.

The annual sports meet began, and the kindergarten group was the first to start the competition.

Jian Chengxi, as a parent, sat with Li Suisui on the spectator chairs not far away, watching the progress.

Li Chen and other children from his class entered the preparation room to put on their protective gear.

A lot of children from the class were participating in this competition. Many of the kids gathered around Peiqi, bustling and lively as they entered the preparation room.

“Class monitor, you’ll definitely get first place this time.”

“Does that even need to be said?”

“The class monitor was also first place last year.”

The boy from the giant clan, known as the class monitor, Peiqi, showed an expression of pride on his face. The Pei family had been in the mecha manufacturing business for three generations, and from a young age, he had been playing with guns and mechas alongside his father. There was hardly any child who was more familiar with these things than he was.

The greatest Waterloo in his life was encountering Li Chen.

Peiqi looked at Li Chen, who was silently putting on his protective gear in the corner, and said, “Hey, are you joining the competition too?”

Li Chen nodded.

Peiqi snorted lightly. “You can’t even stand properly, and you’re here for shooting?”

Li Chen looked up at him with an expressionless face. The usually silent boy’s eyes were dark, and he whispered, “Has your butt injury healed completely?”

Peiqi was choked up!

For a boy who cares about his image, this sentence was simply a fatal blow!

Peiqi’s face turned red from holding back, but being just a three-year-old, he couldn’t come up with anything harsh to say, so he could only say, “You… Li Chen, don’t get too cocky. This time in the competition Peiqi will definitely do better than you!”

Li Chen looked at him calmly. “Then you better be careful.”

Peiqi was taken aback. “You care about me?”

“I’m just afraid you’ll fall on your butt again.”

“…”

He really hates Li Chen!

The shooting competition for the children of the Imperial Capital was completely different from what Jian Chengxi had imagined.

This also allowed him to witness a technology level far beyond that of Earth. After all the participating children put on their protective gear, they would lie down in their own separate virtual pods and connect to the nervous system.

This system would automatically simulate a proportional body in the system environment based on the child’s body and characteristics.

The simulated environment for this shooting competition was a rainforest. Each child would be placed in the rainforest, carrying a gun and engaging in real combat to kill magical beasts.

While everyone was waiting for the first class’s competition to begin, suddenly, a voice came from the overhead broadcast:

“Thank you to all the students for participating in this shooting competition. This year marks the school’s first attempt to livestream the competition to the entire society. In order to not take up social resources and time, we have decided to combine the participants for the upcoming kindergarten competition. This afternoon, all the competitors from each class will compete at the same time.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire venue erupted in surprise.

You have to know that in previous years, the competition was held class by class.

There has never been an inter-class competition involving all the classes.

If that’s the case, the champion’s title would be highly prestigious, and the difficulty would be much greater!

However, before everyone could fully grasp the shock—

The loudspeaker continued, “In order to increase the challenge and competitiveness, we are also holding a joint competition with the kindergarten class from another Imperial Jiang School at the same time, to achieve nationwide competitiveness.”

As these words were spoken, the gasps of surprise from the audience grew louder.

Jian Chengxi turned to the side and asked Feiyun.

Feiyun’s health was still very weak, but this time, she still came from the hospital to attend her daughter’s sports meet.

Jian Chengxi asked, “What kind of school is Imperial Jiang?”

Feiyun smiled and said, “Imperial Jiang Academy is also a public school, but this school is quite different from ours. Most of the students there are trained to serve directly for the royal family as elite guards, and each child is selected as an elite from various noble families.”

Jian Chengxi sighed and said, “That’s impressive.”

Gradually, the names of the competing children appeared on the large screen.

Feiyun said, “With this combined competition format, Alice and your child are facing a worthy opponent.”

Jian Chengxi said with a smile, “It’s okay, I don’t care about rankings. It’s all about participation for the kids.”

As soon as his words fell, the list of participants from Imperial Jiang Academy’s kindergarten appeared on the large screen, and the name at the very front completely froze Jian Chengxi’s smile on his face.

Raymond Dante.

It was the name of the male lead in his dream.

In his dream, Raymond was a very popular boy with a charismatic personality. He had a sunny personality, a strong sense of justice, and liked to punish evil and promote good, which made him extremely popular. No one could resist being attracted to Raymond. Later, it was also his gathered crowd who collectively surrounded and defeated Li Chen’s warship.

Because the emperor had died.

Raymond, who defeated the main villain, was praised by the crowd and became the new leader of the country.

The lifelong enemy of his own son appeared.

Jian Chengxi nervously straightened up in his chair.

The system’s voice popped up in his mind:【Host, the item shop has been updated, the memory fragment of Raymond requires 20 points to exchange, would you like to exchange for it?】

Jian Chengxi said in surprise, “Why are the male lead’s points more expensive than the female lead’s? Are you practicing gender discrimination?”

The system replied, feeling wronged:【It’s not because of that. It’s just that the male lead’s protagonist aura is stronger, and it will affect the world’s consciousness more, so the price to pay is higher.】

Jian Chengxi sighed and hesitated for a moment.

Yet soon, he swallowed his hesitation. “Help me exchange for one.”

Even though the points were hard to come by, he would never gamble with his child’s future or life.

The system:【Ding, the memory fragment has been opened, please check it promptly.】

Jian Chengxi immediately opened the memory fragment.

【Raymond and Alice’s first meeting began at a childhood sports meet. The boy with a strong sense of justice felt pity for the lonely and pitiful Alice, and extended a hand of justice.】

Jian Chengxi was stunned.

This sports meet is actually the first meeting between the male and female leads in their childhood?

And the meaning of this memory fragment is, did Raymond save Alice as a hero? Could this be the main plot that sets the foundation for the relationship between the two leads!

Feiyun, sitting next to Jian Chengxi, softly said, “The competition check is about to begin.”

Jian Chengxi turned his head to look. The participating children were coming out.

Li Suisui and Alice also signed up for the shooting competition. Originally, the two of them and Li Chen shouldn’t have been in the same competition.

Jian Chengxi walked over.

Li Suisui and her brother stood together, waiting for the upcoming physical check before entering the pod. This was to ensure the children didn’t have anything on them that could be used for cheating.

Jian Chengxi stood beside them and asked, “Are you nervous?”

Li Suisui and Li Chen shook their heads.

Jian Chengxi looked at his son. Thinking about possibly meeting the male lead later, he gently held Li Chen’s somewhat cold little hand and said, “When you go in for the competition, just do your best and don’t force yourself, understand?”

Li Chen nodded lightly.

Jian Chengxi felt much more at ease now and he gently patted Li Chen’s head. “No matter what the ranking, you will always be your Daddy’s pride.”

He said it very seriously.

Li Chen looked at the person in front of him. His memory seemed to be better than other children of his age from an early age.

For the same complex things, he only needed to glance at them to remember.

Such a memory also added a lot of pain to him. The most vivid memory of Li Chen during his childhood was always his father’s somewhat disdainful face and words toward him.

“How did I end up with you, this burden!”

“Seeing you just annoys me.”

“Stay away from me.”

“Don’t call me Daddy!”

When he was young, he also envied the other children who could hold their daddy’s hands. Even if they fell and were hurt, a family member would immediately come forward to comfort them. 

Yet he would always have to pick himself up and dust off the dirt alone. 

He even had to worry about being beaten by his daddy if his clothes were dirty when he got home.

He had also once dreamed that one day, he would become so impressive that his daddy, who disliked him, would turn around and look at him.

The broken leg and his crippled body completely shattered his dreams.

He never imagined that one day, his daddy would also hold his hand and say, “You are your Daddy’s pride.”

Actually…

Did his daddy also love him?

Did his daddy not dislike him that much, and think he was also very outstanding?

Li Chen felt an inexplicable flutter in his heart, and in his eyes was a slight hidden hope. Unlike the cheerful and lively Li Suisui, his emotions were always restrained. “I will try my best.”

He thought his daddy would be happy, but to his surprise—

Jian Chengxi’s expression changed, thinking to himself, Son, you’d better not clash head-on with the future male lead.

He quickly leaned in and whispered, “Daddy just asked around and those kids are tough to deal with. Rankings aren’t important and you need to be opportunistic. If you can avoid it, do so. Don’t force yourself, okay?”

Li Chen: “…”

Heh.

The annual kindergarten shooting competition began.

Jian Chengxi sat in the stands while watching the live broadcast on the large screen.

All the children below entered the virtual pods in batches and put on their helmets. Before the competition started, the referee once again emphasized the rules. “After all the players enter the rainforest area, each person will be assigned 100 bullets with a 60-minute time limit. The person with the most prey at the end wins. Please note, during the hunting process, if you are bitten by a magical beast, you will be eliminated. Please pay attention to your own safety.”

Jian Chengxi asked Feiyun, “The kids’ aim may not be accurate. What if they end up shooting themselves?”

Feiyun said thoughtfully, “Don’t worry. The bullets in the virtual pods are equipped with a key body part protection system and won’t harm the children’s bodies. The schools thought of this a long time ago.”

Jian Chengxi breathed a sigh of relief.

He thought to himself that if the kids’ competition were that bloody, it would leave a huge psychological scar on them.

Soon— 

All the children were transported to the rainforest area.

The entire venue was filled with large and small split screens, almost showing the personal cameras of each child. The system-scanned virtual bodies almost achieved a 100% accurate representation of the children’s own body proportions.

Jian Chengxi’s gaze fell on Alice.

If the system’s memory fragment was correct, this should be where the female lead, while acting alone, encounters danger and is saved by the male lead. He was about to witness a historic moment!

Just as he was thinking— 

Alice, who had just been placed in the rainforest, was all alone. A look of confusion appeared on the little girl’s face as she stood by a lakeside.

The angel’s sensing ability had limitations, and in a short period of time, she could only sense the presence of one object.

Then, she clasped her hands together.

Jian Chengxi was a little nervous. What is the female lead doing? Is she sensing the magical beasts, or…?

Just as he was puzzled, Alice seemed to steady her gaze. The little angel spread her wings, and quickly flew through the bushes. Her speed was fast and her target clear—

Finally, a surprised voice sounded, “Suisui!”

Alice joyfully hugged Suisui. The angel’s beautiful face showed a smile. “I finally found you.”

Jian Chengxi: ?

No.

Female lead, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to and you’re not following the plot. Why are you looking for my daughter?