Peeking outside, Alex couldn't see anyone at all. Not even Sophia or Mary in the living room.
So Alex bolted towards his bedroom door, turning the door nob to open the door before entering inside.
With the door shut and locked, he finally made it back to his room safely... Until he turned around.
"W-Why are you two in my room?"
Alex panicked as he tried to cover himself in front of Meiya and Katherine, but it was far too late.
"Sorry. We just came back and were planning to talk to you... We'll wait outside."
Both of them quickly left the room, their faces blushing, leaving Alex's heart racing again as he went to his drawer.
After putting on a fresh pair of clothes, Alex finally exited the room.
"Come on in."
As Meiya and Katherine both entered the room again, there was a clear awkwardness in the room.
"Ahem, let's just pretend that never happened... Anyway, Alex, can you help us with something?'
"What is it?"
Seeing the two having to plead for his help out of all people, Alex was a little intrigued.
"Do you want me to say it, or do you want to say it yourself? " Katherine asked as she looked over to Meiya.
"I'll say it..."
"Okay, then I'm going to go cook dinner."
After Katherine left the room, Meiya and Alex sat down on the bed and looked over at each other.
"Alex, I want you to help my daughter."
"Help?"
"Yes, help... Katherine and I had been trying to make her more active. You had her as a teacher today, right?"
Alex nodded as he could still remember the tiring exercise just less than a few hours ago.
"That's one step of our plan in making Qingqing more independent. She's going to have her job first.
Then, she'll start caring for people as students rather than as her superiors.
Eventually, our plan is for her to start thinking for herself instead. Do you see what I am trying to do?"
Alex nodded again as he knew exactly what she was trying to imply.
It was trying to change a person's worldview completely, from serving others to a more usual, self-interest mindset.
"What can I do to help you guys?"
"Just act like usual. You don't really need to do anything... But try to lead her to think for herself."
The abstract answer made Alex a little confused, but he nevertheless nodded in agreement.
"Did you guys tell my sisters yet?"
"Not yet... Katherine said it's best to keep those two in the dark since they can't keep a secret well."
Without even thinking, Alex agreed with her statement, as the two had been very bad at keeping secrets.
"Okay. I'll try my best to help her with that..."
"Thank you."
As the two sat on the bed in silence, a slight hint of red appeared on Meiya's face before she got up from the bed.
"I'm going to go help Katherine."
Watching her leave the room, Alex considered all the different ways he could help their plan.
Even though her hands were feeding the bread to her mouth, her mind was on a completely different topic.
"How do I make effective physical training?" Luqing thought to herself as she continued to rip the bread.
By the time Katherine came out with Sophia and Alex, Luqing had finally snapped out of her thoughts.
"Good morning, Luqing——"
"Call her Miss Luqing. If I heard you call her Luqing, I'm going to put you into manner training."
"Okay, okay..."
Seeing Katherine staring right into her face, Sophia reluctantly changed her address for Luqing.
"Good morning Miss Luqing..."
"Katherine, you don't really need to——"
"If they call you Luqing, what does that make me? Come on, Luqing, we are in the same age group.
We can't let these youngsters call us by our first name just like that. Manners exist for a reason.
Sophia is old enough to learn this. She has to get rid of this careless, bad habit of hers."
"Katherine is right. Luqing, you really shouldn't have people a lot younger just call you by name."
Meiya chimed in as she finally woke up from her sleep and came out of her bedroom.
Luqing only silently nodded, taking in the advice that the two had told her as Sophia murmured something in her breath.
"Stupid manners."
"What did you say?" Katherine asked as she overheard her voice.
"Nothing!"
"What are you guys talking about?" Mary curiously asked as she came out of the hallway and sat down in her seat.
"Mary, Alex, you two are going to call Luqing by Miss. Do you understand me?"
Seeing Alex nodding like crazy, Mary didn't hesitate and nodded in agreement despite not knowing what happened.
"Thank god I didn't say good morning earlier..." Alex thought to himself as he began to eat the breakfast on the table.
After everyone had finished eating breakfast, Mary suddenly stopped just as they were about to leave for school.
"Mom! Where's the milk that you promised us?"
Hearing Mary mention it, Alex also realized they hadn't drunk it for a long time.
Meanwhile, Sophia's face was smiling as if she was just waiting for a perfect moment to strike.
"Yeah, Mom, where's the milk? I thought you brought a lot of them home, right?"
"I... I have to throw them out since they expired. I'll go buy them right after you guys go to school."
"Thank you, Mom!"
As Mary happily left the house with her sibling and Luqing, Katherine's face blushed more and more red.
"What kind of milk is it? Where is it from?"
Meiya curiously asked, as she could tell all three of her kids seemed to really want it.
"I-It's a special milk from the west——I mean the east. Yeah, the east..."
"Really? Can I try some of it? You can take the cost out of my salary if it costs a lot..."
With more questions being thrown at her, Katerine was forced to fabricate more lies to cover up the truth.
Eventually, she threw out a trump card that ended Meiya's attempt to have a taste of it herself.
"Only kids can drink it. It's dangerous to cultivator since it's processed with mana inside."