Chapter 373: Bidding for a Brother-in-Law

"Sit."

Ning Qing pointed at a chair in the courtyard.

"You're only cutting it for me now?" Chen Shu ruffled his dripping wet hair, "It's already poking my eyes."

"Sit."

Ning Qing repeated the same word.

Such a nasty personality.

Chen Shu muttered to himself while sitting down.

Ning Qing picked up the barber cape, gave it a *whoosh* of a shake, whipped it over him, and wrapped it around his body. Then, with a comb in one hand and thinning shears in the other, she looked quite professional at first glance, like a master hairstylist.

The little girl sat by the stone table with the white cat crouching on top; both human and cat stared at them blankly.

Chen Shu still had an endless stream of questions:

"Why not cut it upstairs?"

"Are you cutting it, or am I?"

"You're cutting, you're cutting. You're paying, you're the boss."

"So..." Ning Qing's voice remained cold, "I'll cut it wherever I please."

"But there's a mirror upstairs."

"I don't need to look in a mirror."

"I need to look."

"Not my concern."

"You're being unprofessional!" Chen Shu paused, "And your service attitude is terrible too!"

"Don't distract me."

"Even if you want to cut it outside, is it that hard to move the floor mirror from your room?"

"Don't distract me."

"..."

This was the first time Chen Shu had ever had a blind haircut; he couldn't see the process at all, had no idea what the result would be until it was finished, and didn't even get to decide the hairstyle, nor would the barber tell him in advance.

A shop like this wouldn't last long in the outside world.

Chen Shu couldn't help but say to her, "Next time you do this, I'm going to charge you an extra ten yuan."

"Smack!"

A slap landed on his forehead.

She even assaults customers?

Chen Shu was completely speechless.

Then he heard a *snip-snap* above his head, crisp like countless glass threads being snapped, and strands of hair fell down one by one.

The human and cat not far away watched intently, gradually falling into deep thought.

The little girl thought this seemed quite fun; she had thought it was fun when she shaved her brother-in-law's head last time, but unfortunately, her sister had insisted on cutting it for him afterward. It sounded like her sister had paid her brother-in-law, though she didn't know how much.

Taozi's heart, however, gradually sank.

It suddenly realized that humans all had to get their hair cut, while it had never cut its hair; the fur on its body just fell out and grew back on its own, and unlike humans, the only thing it ever trimmed was the fur on the pads of its paws.

Did this count as being ostracized or treated differently? Or was this the reason its status in the family wasn't high?

Taozi stared in that direction with a profound gaze.

More and more hair drifted down.

"Hoo!"

Ning Qing blew away the fine hair clippings.

Chen Shu felt it and immediately said to her, "Don't blow your spit onto my head!"

"Smack!"

"I'm going to report you!"

"Smack!"

"You're so violent, did you inherit that from your mother?"

"Smack!"

"Just you wait, I'm going to the Bureau of Industry and Commerce to report you for operating without a license, then I'll call the police to say you assaulted a customer! I'm going to get a medical assessment for minor injuries, and I refuse to settle!"

"Smack!"

"I won't just sit there and take the abuse like President Ning."

"Smack!"

"..."

"Are you going to behave?"

"I'll behave, I'll behave..."

"Still going to report me?"

"Not reporting, not reporting..."

"Still going to file a complaint?"

"Not filing, not filing..."

"Remember what you said."

"!!"

Chen Shu hurriedly changed his tune: "I'm going to report, I'm going to report!"

Glancing at Xiaoxiao and Taozi sitting not far away, he thought, the kids are still here, why is this woman starting to talk dirty?

There was no more sound from behind.

The scissors and comb were still working on his head, and those soft hands occasionally brushed through his hair. Ning Qing stood sometimes on his left, sometimes on his right, and sometimes stood in front of him and leaned down; she had an extremely high level of charm when she was focused, especially when the thing she was focused on concerned him, her charm became infinite. Chen Shu couldn't help but reach out to disturb her, wanting to attract her attention, but only earned a slap from her.

"Hoo!"

Another puff of air.

Chen Shu didn't make a sound this time.

"Done."

Ning Qing untied the cape for him, her fingertips constantly brushing against the back of his neck, bringing a soft, boneless touch.

"Done?"

Chen Shu blinked his eyes.

Ning Qing didn't answer, just gave a *whoosh* sound as she flipped off the cape.

Chen Shu touched his own hair and could clearly feel it was much shorter than before, though the bangs weren't cut very short.

It seemed to be a middle part?

Chen Shu asked Ning Qing: "Does it look good?"

Ning Qing shook the hair off the cape with a *swish-swish*:

"It's okay."

"..."

Chen Shu glanced at Xiaoxiao to the side: "Does it look good?"

This behavior of clearly not trusting her provoked Ning Qing to roll her eyes and give him a nudge with her elbow before taking the cape and walking inside.

The little girl didn't know when she had sat on the stone table, her two legs dangling and swinging, a little girl's posture, but her face was full of seriousness:

"It looks good!"

Hearing this, Chen Shu walked into the house.

He soon arrived in front of the mirror.

It really was a middle part.

Although it wasn't the kind worn by a traitor, but rather the kind worn by a youthful "little milk dog," in all fairness it actually looked quite good, but it still made him somewhat dissatisfied—in his heart, he was sometimes a world-weary middle-aged man, sometimes a decadent shut-in, and sometimes a man with unyielding iron bones; no matter what, he was always very casual, so how could he be as refined as a trainee?

Did this Secretary Ning just pick it at random?

Chen Shu decided to let it grow out faster.

When he walked back out, Ning Qing had also returned to the courtyard and was cleaning up the hair on the ground.

After gathering all the hair together, she didn't throw it away, but picked a flower, dug a hole under it, and buried it inside—hair itself doesn't have much nutrition and is hard to decompose, but Chen Shu is a Six-Stage Martial Artist, and his hair contains high-quality Spirit Power; without the restraint of the human body, it would naturally dissipate into the world over a short period of time, returning to heaven and earth, and the surrounding plants could also absorb a portion, enjoying treatment similar to a "Spirit Mountain Treasure Land."

"Brother-in-law."

The little girl was still sitting on the stone table, looking up and asking him: "How much money did Sister give you to cut your hair?"

"Twenty."

"I want to cut it for you too, I'll give you thirty."

"Emmm..."

Chen Shu's gaze flew toward Ning Qing on the side.

Ning Qing was still doing her own thing and ignored him.

The little girl was also still staring at him, her gaze burning, and she added to the stakes:

"I won't hit you."

"Emmm..."

"I'll also wash your hair, and not under the faucet."

"Emmm..."

"I'll also scratch your head."

"Deal!"

Chen Shu revealed a smile; all the things like Qingqing's soft little hands, exquisite skills, and unique love were not worth mentioning in the face of a head scratch.

Ning Qing, however, was still doing her own thing, as if she hadn't heard their conversation. After finishing everything, she looked at the corner of the garden—a flower that hadn't bloomed well last year had instead bloomed the first flower of this spring.

This flower is called "Shuo Chou" (Speaking of Sorrow).

It is a type of striped rose.

Shuo Chou has a white base with rose-red to bright red stripes on it; the color and proportion of the stripes are related to the season. In this early spring season, the vast majority of this newly bloomed flower was jade-white, with only a few rose-red stripes on it, the colors light, which instead made it appear a bit more elegant.

There is another variety that is extremely similar to Shuo Chou, the difference being one has a white base with red stripes, and the other a red base with white stripes; too much red makes it look gaudy.

Ning Qing walked over and squatted down, leaning close to the flower, taking a deep breath.

It was the very common scent of a rose.

It was not rich, nor was it irritating, appearing gentle.

She herself did not like this kind of scent; she liked the citrus scents of Archangel, Dragonfly, and Zhao Ye Qing, which were fresh and refreshing, but smelling it now, she seemed to smell the gentleness in this floral fragrance, like a traditional woman standing there, smiling gently at you.

Ning Qing sniffed it a few more times carefully.

No matter how she sniffed, she couldn't get tired of it.

In fact, she rarely smelled flowers in the past.

Some people choose flowers based on appearance, some choose flowers based on resistance, some choose flowers based on fragrance, and others are devoted to low-maintenance varieties; Ning Qing was by no means the type of person who chooses flowers based on fragrance. She could accept it whether it was fragrant or not, and whether the fragrance was good or not made no difference. She had even planted a flower with a strange scent called "Madame Hardy" before, and eventually eliminated it, but that was for other reasons.

Now, however, she seemed to have learned to appreciate the fragrance of flowers, and suddenly understood those who would be devoted to or despise a certain flower because of its fragrance.

Chen Banxia's thesis has been approved.

It was revised almost only once, just adjusting the format; there were no issues whatsoever with the content, and it far exceeded the standard for a normal Yujing Academy Doctor's thesis.

Although the final formatting requirements for this year haven't been set yet, her big-shot advisor said that rules are rigid but people are flexible, so it would stay as is; no matter what, he wouldn't occupy her precious time again by making her revise it over and over, and if it really didn't work out later, they could just change the rules.

Easy-peasy, without the slightest bit of effort.

Now, she only has to wait for the defense.

Chen Banxia walked out of Yujing Academy, sending a Feixin message to her little sister-friend while walking toward the neighboring Ling'an Academy.

According to her younger brother, this little sister-friend is incredibly stupid, as if she has never used a document editor in her life, actually using a ruler to measure and adjust the thesis format; as someone with rich experience in writing theses, she decided to go help her.

She soon arrived at the little sister-friend's Dormitory.

"Mmph!"

Chen Banxia looked left and right: "Your Dormitory is kept quite clean; it's usually Qingqing or Xiaoxiao doing the cleaning, right?"

"What do you mean?" Zhang Suannai said with dissatisfaction, "I clean often too!"

"Is that so?"

"What's with that expression of yours?"

"Hahaha..."

"What made you think to come find me?"

"I finished my thesis and have some free time, so I came to see how your thesis is coming along," Chen Banxia said, "I heard you've been using a ruler against your computer screen every day to fix the format; you really don't put one's mind at ease."

"What?"

Zhang Suannai said blankly: "How did you hear about that?"

"It's practically spread all over Yujing."

"Huh?"

"Enough nonsense, bring it out quickly."

"Oh, oh..."

If her little sister-friend hadn't known about this before, perhaps she would have tried to put on a brave front, unable to let her little sister-friend know she was a good-for-nothing who couldn't even use a document editor, but since her little sister-friend already knew, she didn't act coy and directly brought out the thesis.

"Heh~~"

Chen Banxia yawned: "It's a mess... where are the format requirements?"

"On Feixin."

"Let me see."

"Here."

"I'll have it done for you in half an hour."

"Half an hour?"

Zhang Suannai opened her mouth wide in a daze.