Shen Cang collected the "Pheasant" bones, one by one, placing them into an exquisite wooden box.
Little Taotie watched him with eager eyes.
Shen Cang, "I’ll craft a pair of gauntlets for you with them."
"Gauntlets?" Little Taotie tilted its head. "Are they pretty?"
Shen Cang couldn’t help but laugh, "Bones from the offspring of Ancient Divine Beasts and Fierce Beasts, unbreakable by anything—other people would be overjoyed; yet here you are, being picky. If they aren’t pretty, will you not wear them?"
Little Taotie pouted, mumbling, "If they’re not pretty... I don’t want them!"
Shen Cang, resigned, "As long as they aren’t ugly, that’s enough."
Little Taotie, recalling its current title of genius little designer, suddenly had sparkling eyes and looked at Shen Cang brightly, "Head Grandpa, I want to design it myself!"
Shen Cang, "...Alright then."
The mid-term exam for first grade elementary school was upon them, but Little Taotie was focused on designing right before the exam, driving Cheng Guodong and Qin Xin to the brink of desperation.
Cheng Guodong pleaded earnestly, "Sister, the exam is the most important thing, let’s put other matters aside. This is your first mid-term exam in elementary school!"
Qin Xin furrowed his brows, "What are you drawing?"
Little Taotie looked at Cheng Guodong’s distressed face and then at Qin Xin’s worried expression, speaking in a childishly sweet voice, "I’ve been studying and memorizing regularly, I’m not afraid of exams! Anyway, the exam is right around the corner, cramming for these two days is useless! The teacher said that last-minute studying is pointless because the exam questions are accumulated over time, there’s no specific focus, they could test on anything, so we can only rely on what we’ve learned over time."
Cheng Guodong, "..." That made a lot of sense.
Feeling a sudden sense of shame as someone who’d always crammed right before exams, he felt somewhat abashed.
Little Taotie turned to Qin Xin, excitement evident in its soft voice, "I’m drawing a design, the design for the gauntlets!"
"Gauntlets?" Qin Xin was surprised.
Hua Jinyan, engrossed in a foreign science and technology magazine at the side, explained for her, "She’s earned a merit, and Head wants to reward her with a pair of gauntlets. After discussing it with him, she wanted to come up with her own design so that Head could craft a beautiful pair of gauntlets just for her."
Little Taotie nodded vigorously, eyes brimming with glistening little stars, thrilled, "My own beautiful gauntlets~"
Qin Xin looked at the rather ugly designs on the paper, opened his mouth to speak, and then thought better of it.
Are these really considered pretty gauntlets?
Little Taotie drew earnestly for an entire afternoon and then handed the drawing to Hua Jinyan, "I’m done drawing, can you help me revise it?"
Qin Xin, "..." So there was outside help!
With the assistance of Hua Jinyan, a highly talented artist, the once ordinary gauntlet design instantly soared to new heights!
Little Taotie chattered non-stop about its wishes, "Gauntlets made from bones will definitely be white, and I want to add some auspicious cloud patterns on them. I want to carve a Little Beast Bai Bai on the palm—that’s my signature pattern!"
"And, if it’s just an ordinary pair of gauntlets, it won’t be fun. I want it to change, change, change!"
"Like, normally they could be gloves, but then they could sprout claws at crucial moments, and when I make a fist, spikes could shoot out of key areas. If I hit a bad guy with it, it will hurt like hell!"
"Oh right, Spider-Man’s gloves can shoot webs; my gauntlets should also spit something out. Let me think what they could spit out..."
Little Taotie would suggest an idea, and Hua Jinyan would tweak something accordingly, working in perfect sync.
Cheng Guodong marveled, "Sister’s imagination is astonishing! I bet the bigwigs in the Special Department will regret letting her design her own gauntlets!"
Qin Xin chuckled, "The gauntlets will be Sister’s first weapon, so of course they need to be formidable. I hope that bigwig can craft a pair that satisfies her."