Wang Zhuo had slept for an indeterminate amount of time, awakening only to find that dinner had already passed.

During his unconsciousness, the mine's medical staff had checked him over, finding nothing amiss, so everyone had been forced to wait anxiously for him to wake up on his own.

Fortunately, Wang Zhuo finally did stir. The first words out of his mouth as he opened his eyes were, "Why is it dark?"

"You're finally awake!" Guan Yingying leaped joyfully from her chair and rushed to the bedside. "Do you know you slept for an entire day?"

"A whole day?" Wang Zhuo murmured in response, turning his head to look out the window, a faint, wry smile touching his lips.

She pressed a hand to his chest, then darted out of the room. "I'll go tell everyone."

The bedroom door wasn't closed, and Qi Fei was next door. Hearing the commotion, she hurried over. Guan Yingying gave her a sharp nod before heading downstairs to inform the others.

In no time, Lu Weimin, Meng Mingliang, Yan Xiaopeng, and others rushed in. Seeing Wang Zhuo sitting up in bed as if nothing had happened, they all let out a collective sigh of relief.

As the group erupted in chatter, Wang Zhuo took the water cup handed to him by Qi Fei, took a long drink, set it down, and hurried toward the door. "I desperately need the restroom first."

Everyone couldn't help but laugh, their worry finally easing. It seemed Wang Zhuo was truly fine; it had just been a false alarm.

Wang Zhuo spent nearly a full minute relieving himself; the odor was almost stale. After releasing the pressure built up in his body, he felt an immediate lightness in mind and spirit, immediately followed by a profound protest from his empty stomach, which let out a sound like rolling thunder.

Back in the room, the others were still discussing animatedly. Wang Zhuo listened for a moment, then smoothly wove their speculation into his own story, lying that he had always had this condition: extreme fatigue leading to deep sleep when focusing too intensely. It had happened after both his middle school and college entrance exams, the last time being during the incident at the Red House.

With that explanation, no one doubted him, immediately accepting it. Discussions then turned to superhuman feats like Wu Song fighting the tiger and the old lady lifting the car to save her grandson; compared to those extraordinary events, his brief sleep episode seemed insignificant.

Qi Fei headed to the kitchen to fry rice for Wang Zhuo. Yan Xiaopeng and Meng Mingliang soon took their leave. Wang Zhuo, meanwhile, gnawed ferociously on a baguette dipped in jam. Lu Weimin chatted with him a little longer before heading downstairs as well.

Finally, only Wang Zhuo and Guan Yingying remained in the bedroom. Guan Yingying then laughed, "Do you have any idea the commotion you caused with that nap?"

Wang Zhuo chuckled slyly. "Did the whole world find out?"

Guan Yingying giggled and nodded. "Even Elder Qin got the news. He even called me specifically to ask if I needed a helicopter."

"How did he find out?" Wang Zhuo asked, slightly puzzled.

"When we couldn't wake you, and not knowing why, we called your father. But his phone wouldn't connect, so in desperation, we called Gan Lin."

Guan Yingying paused, continuing the narrative. "Gan Lin said you'd slept like that before, which relieved us a bit. After the doctor at the mine checked you and said it wasn't serious, we decided to wait and see how you recovered naturally. Gan Lin was still worried, so she called Qin Siqing, who was there the last time you slept like that. And that’s how the news reached Elder Qin."

"An accident, purely an accident," Wang Zhuo muttered, scratching his head sheepishly. It was all because he'd been too engrossed in painting the night before, unconsciously overdrawing his inherent ability, which caused the whole mess.

"Why haven't I seen you paint before?" Guan Yingying stretched out her arm, pulling open the extendable drawer next to the bed, from which she retrieved Wang Zhuo's artwork.

"A true master conceals his true skill—" Wang Zhuo laughed heartily, reaching out to take the stack of papers. He casually flipped through them, admitting to himself that even he thought the drawings were too good, showing considerable skill.

"Hmph," Guan Yingying pouted, sniffing. "Why didn't you draw one for me?"

"I did, of course I did!" Wang Zhuo flipped to the explicit self-portrait and winked mischievously. "This one was intended for you. How is it, do you like it?"

The portrait depicted Wang Zhuo in a classic pose struck by the Monkey King in the movie A Chinese Odyssey. The serious expression created a stark contrast with the exaggerated angle of his bent legs, making the image strangely absurd and hilarious.

Guan Yingying glanced at the drawing and burst out laughing. "Li Mengling and the others saw this one too. I faintly heard them gossiping that while it was certainly a likeness, the parts you drew were just too exaggerated."

"Mine is absolutely to original proportion!" Wang Zhuo immediately protested, feigning injury. "Sister, they don't know the inside story and are just gossiping. Why didn't you correct them?"

In truth, when he painted this, he had only just mastered this method of drawing; he hadn't yet developed the technique to arbitrarily alter the visual composition. This drawing was genuinely a one-to-one depiction, with not a fraction of exaggeration added.

"I couldn't be bothered to care," Guan Yingying said, laughing triumphantly. "If you want to clear up the rumor, it’s easy. They're downstairs. Just go down there, drop your pants, and show them the real thing."

"Fine, I'll go."

Wang Zhuo made a show of getting up just as Qi Fei entered carrying a tray.

"Show what?" she chimed in, nodding toward Wang Zhuo and motioning for him to unfold the meal tray secured to the side of the bed.

Wang Zhuo detached the tray and placed it on the bed, smiling. "We were just talking about the drawings I made last night."

"They are indeed well-drawn," Qi Fei smiled, then added, "But the theme of the drawing is too awful."

Among Wang Zhuo’s ten works, the first three were the Peach Blossom Spring night scene, the RV cross-section, and the cat-and-mouse chase. The rest were rather unsuitable for minors. These included Wang Zhuo's explicit self-portrait, Lu Weimin pushing the cart under the moonlight, the pretty wife nursing the baby, and the young siblings relieving themselves together in the yard, among others. Qi Fei felt that only the Peach Blossom Spring, the cat-and-mouse, and the nursing wife pieces were acceptable. The RV cross-section was technically well-drawn but lacked a clear theme; the others were rather vulgar.

Actually, when Wang Zhuo drew the scene of the young siblings relieving themselves, he intended to express childhood innocence, but his brushwork was insufficient. He could only realistically recreate the scene but failed to convey his own emotional state as the artist, leading Qi Fei to interpret the theme as voyeurism—a quite despicable subject.

"Hey? Why is one missing?" Wang Zhuo suddenly noticed the number of sheets of paper was wrong. Counting them confirmed one was gone.

"Impossible? It’s been right here the whole time," Qi Fei said.

Guan Yingying asked, "How many were there in total? I didn't count when I brought them up. Maybe some are still downstairs."

Wang Zhuo flipped through the remaining stack casually and instantly remembered which one was missing. A sly grin spread across his face as he declared, "No need to look. I know who took that one."

The missing drawing was the one featuring his cousin Lu Weimin pushing the cart under the moonlight. In the original composition, Lu Weimin and his female companion were indoors. Wang Zhuo had used his Heaven and Earth Shifting technique to redraw them in the center of the courtyard, adding a full moon in the sky and three more couples watching from the side, transforming it into a living, Peach Blossom Spring version of modern adult entertainment.

This drawing was one of the later pieces among the ten. By this time, Wang Zhuo had begun to master the technique of localized magnification and reduction, and had just figured out the Heaven and Earth Shifting technique. Consequently, many details in the image were not rendered perfectly. Yet, even so, when Lu Weimin saw the drawing, he was utterly stunned, cooked inside and out. Considering that his posture—kneeling on one knee while pushing—was rather uncommon, seeing it vividly recreated in Wang Zhuo’s artwork was bound to shock and astonish him.

...

The seaweed and egg drop soup was light and delicious, and the fried rice was rich and fragrant. Wang Zhuo devoured everything without regard for decorum, filling the heart of Qi Fei, who had cooked, with a sense of fulfillment.

After eating his fill, Wang Zhuo patted his bulging stomach and let out a satisfied burp. Guan Yingying took the dishes to wash them, and Qi Fei folded the meal table and returned it to its place.

Once the table was put away, Qi Fei asked Wang Zhuo, "Stay one more night, then head back tomorrow morning?"

"Okay," Wang Zhuo nodded. He had been away for quite some time and had many matters back home to attend to.

With a soft sigh, Qi Fei sat down beside Wang Zhuo and spoke in a low voice. "Wang Zhuo, I want to take an extended leave. Do you agree?"

"Leave?" Wang Zhuo looked at her in surprise, smiling as he asked, "If you want time off, you can take it anytime. Do you need my permission?"

"But this time it’s a long break, and it requires your cooperation," Qi Fei smiled at him meaningfully. "I’m thinking of taking two years, or even longer."

Wang Zhuo immediately dropped his relaxed expression and spoke seriously. "I didn't quite understand that."

Qi Fei kicked off her slippers and settled into a comfortable position, resting her head on Wang Zhuo’s thigh, speaking softly. "Do you know? I'll be thirty soon."

"Even if you were eighty, you would still be my dearest sister," Wang Zhuo chuckled softly, reaching out to smooth her loose hair, his fingertips tracing gentle circles on her delicate cheek.

"I know you won't despise me," Qi Fei closed her eyes comfortably and murmured, "But as a woman gets older, the quality of a baby tends to decrease."

Wang Zhuo froze, suddenly grasping the implication of her words, and blurted out, "Are you saying... you want to be a mother?"

He instinctively activated his inherent ability, his X-ray vision instantly piercing through Qi Fei’s body, focusing on her womb. However, he detected nothing unusual.

"That's right," Qi Fei continued, her eyes still closed, asking with a faint smile, "Did that startle you?"

"Uh—" Wang Zhuo answered honestly, "I'm just very surprised. So happy I’m stunned."

He felt the same speechlessness as Bai Jingjing when she was proposed to in the movie A Chinese Odyssey and stammered that she hadn't brushed her teeth yet.

"Then, do you want to give me this chance?" Qi Fei’s face gradually flushed, her voice taking on a hint of girlish shyness.

Becoming a father? Wang Zhuo’s thoughts struggled to process the concept.

When he remained silent, Qi Fei lay quietly on his thigh, waiting patiently, serene as if asleep. A hush settled over the bedroom, broken only by the rhythmic ticking sound of the electronic wall clock mimicking an old grandfather clock as time moved forward.