The garden that Qin Huaibei spoke of referred to a small corner in the courtyard of the villa.
This area was planted with clusters of wildflowers whose names he couldn't identify. According to Qin Huaibei, these were treasures he had planted in his youthful, carefree days.
Chloe and the other three were squatting on the ground with expressionless faces, watching Qin Huaibei vigorously digging with a small trowel, his face and hands smeared with dirty soil stains.
After a moment of silence, Chloe could no longer hold back and asked:
"What are you looking for?"
Qin Huaibei's eyes shone brightly:
"I buried a treasure here when I was little, and you'll find out soon."
Upon hearing this, Chloe's expression became somewhat strange.
Does anyone really bury treasures in their own backyard? It seems... buried quite deeply.
Chloe and Anderson exchanged a glance, and eventually found small trowels to help dig.
Seeing them all helping, Daniel and Katherine couldn't idle around either, and picked up trowels to join in.
After some time, Qin Huaibei's trowel hit a hard surface.
He paused for a moment, then shouted:
"I found it!"
He dug even more vigorously until he completely unearthed the hard box from the soil.
Looking at this box that the five of them had worked so hard to dig up, Chloe instinctively felt awe:
"What's inside?"
From the outside, this object was very plain, just a simple wooden box with no extraordinary decorations, only a simple metal lock visible.
"You wouldn't understand this," Qin Huaibei said smugly as he took out a key from his pocket and opened the box, "This contains my childhood treasure."
With a "click," the metal lock opened and the wooden box followed suit.
Inside lay numerous small plastic guns.
Upon seeing the contents, Daniel immediately burst into laughter:
"This is the treasure you mentioned? Nothing special! Whose treasure is made so cheaply?"
Qin Huaibei glared at him angrily: "What do you know?"
He picked up a plastic handgun and explained:
"This is a cycling water gun. The barrel is engraved with a magic pattern that can provide a continuous water source."
Daniel was dumbfounded: "No way, water guns?"
"Of course," Qin Huaibei raised his eyebrows at him, then suddenly turned the water gun and shot a stream of water at Daniel's face.
Daniel's entire face was drenched, and he jumped up in anger:
"You dare shoot me?"
Before he could finish, he grabbed a small water gun from the box and unleashed a furious barrage of water at Qin Huaibei.
The water stream hit Qin Huaibei squarely on his body. Qin Huaibei, of course, refused to back down and dodged while retaliating with his water gun.
Seeing the two of them in a heated battle, Chloe's fingers twitched.
It seems... quite fun?
She had previously practiced shooting with real guns and live ammunition, each shot either hitting the bullseye or an enemy's head. She had never played around like this before.
As Chloe was thinking this, a powerful stream of water hit her in the face.
Daniel grinned mischievously from across.
Chloe: "..."
You brat, just you wait.
Without further ado, Chloe grabbed a water gun and joined the fray.
Water was flying everywhere. Daniel's short red hair was soaked, dripping wet, but he was still thoroughly enjoying himself.
"Hey, you two are ganging up on me, that's not fair!"
Chloe and Qin Huaibei paid no heed and showed no mercy.
The remaining Anderson and Katherine exchanged a glance, feeling that they should join in to avoid being left out. They hesitantly picked up water guns.
Chloe's sharp eyes spotted Anderson holding a water gun, and she immediately fired at him.
Anderson's handsome face was drenched, but he still had a bewildered look.
Turning his head, he caught sight of the little lady with a mischievous smile on her lips, her voice taunting:
"Come on, or are you too scared?"
Anderson froze for a moment, tightening his grip on the water gun before resignedly joining the battle.
His first attack targeted Qin Huaibei.
Qin Huaibei: "... So you want to play dirty? Fine."
On the other side, Katherine aimed her water gun at Daniel with a cold expression.
The scene became quite chaotic.
There were sounds of laughter, anger, and Daniel's occasional muffled howl echoing through the garden, creating a lively atmosphere.
On the second floor of the villa, Qin's Father leaned against the windowsill, watching the unruly youngsters below with a furrowed brow. After a while, he finally spoke:
"So he didn't throw away those water guns. What are they making such a fuss about?"
Qin's Mother, who was reading documents, heard this and rolled her eyes without hesitation: "Let the kids play however they want. He's already so grown up, why do you still need to fuss over it?"
"Besides, if it weren't for these friends, do you think you'd ever see little Bei so happy?"
Qin's Father was taken aback, his voice growing softer as he muttered, "That's not right."
But he didn't say much else in the end.
...
In the garden, Chloe was completely soaked and in disarray.
Feeling tired, she threw down her water gun:
"I'm hungry, enough playing with those water guns. Let's go eat."
Daniel was still in the heat of the moment. Upon hearing Chloe, he instinctively aimed his water gun at her.
Another stream of water hit Chloe's face. She clicked her tongue and walked up to Daniel, landing a solid punch on his chest:
"Are you sober now?"
Daniel was winded by the punch, barely able to catch his breath as he hurriedly said, "I'm sober, I'm sober."
Damn, that punch was too painful.
The group of five, their clothes completely drenched, needed to change before they could eat.
Anderson took out a towel from some nook or cranny and draped it around Chloe's neck.
Chloe used it to wipe her face, then asked, "Are there any more?"
Anderson pursed his lips, then took out a few more towels from his mustard ring and handed one to each person.
Seeing this, Daniel exclaimed in surprise: "Whoa, we get them too! The big bro is finally not playing favorites!"
Anderson didn't say anything and turned his gaze away from them.
Chloe couldn't hold back a smirk: "Alright, dry off and let's go back."
"Got it!"
After cleaning up, the group of five headed towards the villa. Along the way, Qin Huaibei carefully tucked the wooden box with the water guns into his pocket, saying softly:
"My parents actually don't allow me to play with these. When I was little, they told me to throw them away, but I couldn't bear to, so I secretly hid them."
I see.
Chloe patted his shoulder: "It's fine, boldly play with whatever you want. No one will laugh at you."
Qin Huaibei nodded, touched: "Of course I know you guys won't laugh at me, because we're all on the same path."
Chloe let out a snort.
As they were leaving the garden, they ran into the driver who had picked them up earlier.
He seemed to be the butler of this villa as well.
The old gentleman looked at them with a kind expression, finally saying softly:
"How wonderful, the young master hasn't smiled like that in a long time."
Upon hearing this, Chloe immediately became solemn.
What was this, some ancient literary butler quote?
