"Sorry, big brother, I just couldn't hold it in." The little girl immediately apologized.

Lin Li: "..."

Hey you stinky brat, that actually makes it worse, you know?

He was speechless for a moment; only Chen Yu Ying's suppressed soft laughter remained.

The older twin seemed to sense the weird atmosphere too. She stopped feeding, hugged the feed bag, and, together with her sister, looked uneasily at Lin Li's stiff smile.

Lin Li slowly squatted down, one hand on her shoulder and one arm around her waist, forcibly hauling Chen Yu Ying up to her feet—"You two keep feeding them, you can feed the rest, your big brother and sister have something to do, we're leaving first!"

He understood Wu Min now. Honestly, smacking kids is just human nature, especially when the abstract kid is your own.

Being able to not smack them is practically divine.

But you can't smack someone else's kid, so Lin Li decided to go nuts instead.

So…run for it!

And as she let Lin Li half-hold, half-drag her away, seeing him actually choose to flee, Chen Yu Ying finally couldn't hold back anymore. Her bright unrestrained laughter echoed along the lakeshore.

"You're still laughing!" Lin Li snapped, giving Chen Yu Ying a smack. "You and I share glory and share loss; if one goes down, we both go down, and you're still laughing?"

"Yah—!"

Chen Yu Ying jolted ramrod straight like she'd been burned, the blush that laughter had brought to her face suddenly deepening and spreading.

Lin Li had smacked her butt (•́へ•́╬).

But seeing how Lin Li was still anxiously scurrying away, Chen Yu Ying had no idea whether he'd done it on purpose, deliberately, or intentionally.

"You—"

Chen Yu Ying reflexively wanted to spit a few words at him, but the aftershocks of the laughter rolling through her whole body still hadn't faded.

Shyness and the urge to laugh duked it out violently inside her, ultimately leaving her expression twisted in a wildly animated way.

Nice, impulse won.

Getting her butt smacked a few times was whatever; right now, more than feeling ashamed or annoyed, what Chen Yu Ying wanted was to mock Lin Li.

So the girl reached out and gave Lin Li's butt a slap in retaliation. As the thought "wow, it's way, way firmer than mine" floated through her mind, she smiled and teased, "~Big bro~ are you a dumbass or what~"

Chen Yu Ying rarely swore; it was a rare occasion for the word "dumbass" to come out of her mouth.

It would've been even better if she weren't using it on herself.

They were already far from the viewing platform. Lin Li slowed his pace a bit and turned his head to look at her. He was smiling too, but as he smiled, his upper teeth still bit down on his lower lip to show his "annoyance."

"So now you're copying, huh?!"

Lin Li raised his hand again, but unfortunately she'd predicted it: both of Chen Yu Ying's hands were already covering her strategic high ground, palms facing out.

After successfully blocking, she pursed her lips and let out two smug little laughs. Her smiling eyes clearly read "a perv is a perv," with a hint of provocative pride.

"What's with kids these days, seriously. Not kidding, I didn't start swearing till at least kindergarten, so I was a year later than them."

Thick-skinned as ever, Lin Li stayed perfectly natural under that look and switched to lamenting the sorry state of the world.

"People who started swearing in kindergarten have no right to look down on others!" Chen Yu Ying said crossly.

"At least a year later, okay? That's a big gap. And back then, there's no way I'd dare swear in front of adults after learning it—more accurately, even now I still avoid it." Lin Li argued back with conviction.

Even Demon Child Lin Li would never, as a kid, have said "Big brother, are you a dumbass or what" to his big bro.

"That's true." Chen Yu Ying conceded that point.

"All I can say is kids these days get exposed to the internet way too early." Lin Li couldn't help slipping into social-commentary mode.

So many kids are addicted to the internet now. People always say the internet has pros and cons, but so far Lin Li had only seen the cons it brought them. And the pros?

Oh, right, the pros are Keli tossing Bouncing Bombs in Genshin.

Okay, correction: so far these kids have only seen the pros of the internet. And the cons?

Oh, the cons crashed. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Huh, guess the internet's just left with Keli.

"No, actually I think kids should use the internet more." So Lin Li revised his stance.

Chen Yu Ying: "?"

Why did it take him less than three seconds to contradict himself?

Then again, she was used to it. Smiling, Chen Yu Ying shook her head and gently pushed Lin Li toward the bike. "Alright, keep riding. Just chalk it up to kids saying whatever. And honestly, the way you asked that question was indeed…mm."

"What 'mm'! That's just adults teasing kids, that's normal human behavior, okay! Normal people would say that!" Lin Li complained as he swung back onto the bike.

But considering they were two little girls, it really was harmless, so he let it go.

"Rare to hear a normal 'normal people' out of your mouth." Chen Yu Ying laughed as she wrapped her arms tighter around his waist, then jerked her chin toward the front:

"Ride for another ten minutes or so and there should be a little pier renting boats. Let's go out on the lake for a bit, and your legs can get some rest too."

"Okay."

...

"Row a boat on Moon Tide Lake, and all your troubles just evaporate!"

Just like Chen Yu Ying had said, after riding another ten-some minutes, they saw vendors on the shore hawking their services.

They parked the bike, and the two of them walked up to the vendor. "Boss, we'd like to rent a boat."

"Alrighty, what type and style would you two like?" The boss handed them two orange life jackets while warmly asking.

"What types and styles are there?"

"Types are pedal boats and rowboats, and for styles, it's all these by the shore—plain black ones, swan-shaped ones…" The boss pointed to the boats by the bank and gave a quick explanation, then offered a suggestion:

"If you ask me, I'd recommend a pedal boat. It's easier and takes less effort than rowing."