Chapter 3: Seven flowers, not afraid.

Fourteen years have passed by in a flash.

The adorable baby boy known as Ming Xiayu had finally grown up into a handsome young man. However, that was only limited to the surface.

In truth, life as a baby had only made him more childish and lazy. After all, between his lives, he had a soul over 30 years old and he had spent half of it amongst children.

What children do you ask?

Although the orphanage was not large, it was still an orphanage nonetheless. After a long period of fourteen years, many old faces had left and many new ones had arrived.

Today, he had just turned fifteen and it was his turn to leave the orphanage as he was now considered an adult, no longer needing to be provided for according to the law.

Gathering around him were several young children, all with different features but sharing the same sad expression.

As they circled Ming Xiayu, most of them began to weep.

One pigtailed girl with purple ribbons spoke in between sobs, her name was Ling Zhu. She was not extremely pretty, but still looked rather cute. If one listened closely, they could make out her words as: "Please don't go, Brother Ming."

Besides Ming Xiayu, Ling Zhu was the oldest among the remaining orphans, but she was also the one who had been with him for the longest. Hence, she was also the saddest to see him go.

Seeing the ring of sobbing children, Ming Xiayu lightly sighed. Although he was very immature, he was not so insensitive and uncaring about others to ignore them. In fact, within some small corner of his heart, he recognized that this was his own fault.

When he had first received that quest from the system fourteen years ago, he had been eager to receive more system rewards and had greatly invested himself into the lives of the other children so that he could complete the quest.

In the end, he had never received the promised reward no matter how he 'led' them.

Instead, he was only left with the scene of crying children before him.

This allowed him to wake up from his dreams of grandeur. He realized that this was not one of his RPG games but real life; that he was not manipulating game characters but real people.

Thinking along these lines, he decided that regardless of the rewards promised by the system, he would always keep a bottom line of morals.

But, as to the limit of this line... Well, only time could tell.

Looking over at the children, Ming Xiayu thought for a moment before pulling out a ukulele.

In his previous life, Ming Xiayu had always been fond of theme music and had tried to learn how to play an instrument several times but quickly gave up due to both the difficulty and his own laziness.

After being reborn as a child and having to wait to grow up, he decided to ask Su Qinxue for an instrument to relieve him of his boredom. She easily agreed and bought him a small, cheap ukulele as she herself knew how to play the instrument to a degree.

After all these years, Ming Xiayu could be said to be quite good at playing the ukulele and had even been able to create very close copies of theme songs existing in his previous world but not in this one. Among these, there was one special theme song in his heart as well as the hearts of all otherworld Chinese.

Noticing the instrument, the children slowly stopped crying and sat in wait. The orphanage was not very large, so all of the seven children were well aware of Ming Xiayu's instrument playing as they waited with rapt attention.

Clearing his throat softly before he began, he opened his mouth as a relatively plain voice began to sing.

"Gourd Babies! Gourd Babies!

Seven flowers on a vine

Not afraid of wind and rain,

La la la la!"

Indeed, Ming Xiayu chose to sing the iconic Calabash Brothers theme song. Seeing the seven children who he had helped to raise, he could not help but think of this particular song.

The children were mystified but excited, all wearing flush expressions for reasons unknown even to them.

Although they could not understand the lyric 'gourd babies,' they still greatly enjoyed the song and were uplifted out of their somber mood.

Pumping up her small fist, Ling Zhu said, "Brother Ming is right! We all grow from the same vine, so what should we fear! We will be together, forever and always."

Hearing this, it was as if the other children came to an epiphany. They all looked at Ming Xiayu, feeling very touched by his words.

Ming Xiayu only smiled, not clearing up any misunderstandings. It was true that he wanted to encourage them, even if the words were not his own.

As he got up, none of the children continued to stop him. Instead, they looked at him with resolute expressions as they said their farewells.

Bidding goodbye, Ming Xiayu began to walk away when he heard a clear note ring in his ears.