Chapter Twenty-Two: New Home and Study

Tina stood at the doorway, watching as Jia Zhengjin raised his hands in the open space and summoned stone bricks out of thin air. With a casual gesture, he directed each brick to land precisely on the ground, where they arranged themselves in neat order, quickly forming a solid and elegant foundation. He then moved skillfully across the base, swiftly building up walls. At first, the process looked chaotic, but the outline soon became clear. What would ordinarily take months of arduous labor for an ordinary person—a three-story residential building—Jia Zhengjin completed in just one afternoon!

Compared to the simple matchbox room, the new residence was obviously far more beautiful, spacious, and comfortable. Tina was so absorbed by the sight that she couldn’t tell whether she was dreaming or awake.

Once Jia Zhengjin had installed the doors and windows, the house was essentially finished. The three floors were still empty, but by any standard, the new building far surpassed the shabby matchbox room. For safety, he built a five-meter-high wall around the house, adding two layers of wooden spike traps outside. This way, even if Tina stepped outside the house, as long as she stayed within the walls, she would be safe. She could even plant flowers or bask in the sun within the enclosure.

In this area, apart from the golden giant bird that had died and fallen by accident, there had been no other dangerous otherworldly creatures capable of breaching the five-meter wall or flying inside.

“Tina, from now on, we’ll live in this house!” Jia Zhengjin led Tina around the spike traps and into the walled compound, showing her the rooms inside. “We’ll use the old matchbox room as a storage warehouse.”

When Tina saw him move the sleeping bag into the new house, she understood his meaning. Joyfully, she ran up and down the three floors, her silvery laughter ringing out in the spacious, comfortable space. It was clear she was delighted with their new home!

“This will be our bedroom!” Jia Zhengjin said, catching the exuberant Tina and holding her hand with a smile. “Once I make a workbench, I’ll build us a big double bed. I’ll craft you a wardrobe for your clothes, a sofa to rest on anytime, and lay down animal fur carpets.”

Tina blinked, not understanding his words, but smiled at him nonetheless.

“This will be our kitchen. For now, we’ll have to use a stone campfire, but once the workstation is ready, I can make a better stove, an iron pot, and even some knives, forks, and bowls. When our technology advances, I’ll build a refrigerator for our food and an exhaust hood!” Jia Zhengjin led her to another area. “This is the hall. I’ll set up a dining table and chairs here, so we can enjoy our meals and leisure time. Over there is the study, where I’ll build a bookshelf and fill it with lots of books…”

At the mention of books, an idea suddenly struck Jia Zhengjin. “That’s right! Tina, you can’t understand what I’m saying, and I can’t understand your language. If I told you I wanted to learn the language of this world, you probably wouldn’t even understand what I meant. But I can teach you Chinese! Once you learn pinyin, you’ll gradually pick up my language, and then we’ll be able to communicate. In time, you can teach me your language too! Why didn’t I think of this before?”

Seeing Jia Zhengjin’s sudden excitement, Tina didn’t grasp his thoughts, but his smile made her smile in return. She affectionately hugged his arm and rested her head against his chest.

“Tina, come!” Jia Zhengjin held her close and led her to an empty room. “This will be our classroom. I’ll teach you Chinese here!”

Tina’s round eyes fixed on Jia Zhengjin, her expression blank with confusion.

“Let’s make a blackboard!” Jia Zhengjin took some wood and crafted a large signboard. In the game, this was an essential feature for building stores. The signboard, however, was white, so perhaps it should be called a whiteboard!

Tina tilted her head, eyeing the signboard with curiosity.

“Tina, sit down!” Jia Zhengjin placed a square piece of wood in front of the board as a makeshift stool and had Tina sit.

She sat obediently, looking up at Jia Zhengjin with a questioning gaze.

Jia Zhengjin took a piece of coal from his virtual backpack and waved it at her with a smile. “This will be our chalk. Am I clever or what?”

Tina didn’t respond, only watched him and smiled, since she couldn’t understand a word.

Seeing her lack of reaction, Jia Zhengjin said, “I know you don’t understand, so I’ll start teaching you Chinese now. It’s a profound and complex language, but you only need to learn enough for simple daily conversations.”

With that, he wrote the letter “a” on the signboard and said, “Repeat after me, ah—!”

Tina blinked, unsure of what he was doing, so she simply smiled sweetly and applauded to encourage him.

“I’m not performing!” Jia Zhengjin said helplessly. “Tina, repeat after me, ah—!”

Tina only laughed more, clapping her hands with greater enthusiasm.

“You silly girl!” Jia Zhengjin said, exasperated. He went over and gently touched Tina’s soft lips with his clean left hand, then exaggeratedly opened his mouth and made the sound, “Ah—!”

This time, Tina finally understood. Though she didn’t know why he wanted her to do it, she obediently opened her lovely mouth and echoed, “Ah—!”

“Wonderful!” Jia Zhengjin breathed a sigh of relief; this would be much easier now. He wrote the letter “a” again on the board and repeated, “Ah—!”

Tina immediately repeated after him.

After several repetitions, Jia Zhengjin wiped the board clean, wrote the letter again, and this time said nothing, only looked at Tina.

“Ah?” Tina blinked intelligently, then looked at Jia Zhengjin and voiced the sound with a questioning tone.

“Fantastic!” Jia Zhengjin dropped the coal, ran over, and hugged Tina’s light frame tightly. “You did it! Tina, you’re amazing! Congratulations! You’ve taken a historic first step on the path to mastering the great Chinese language!”

Tina didn’t know why Jia Zhengjin was so excited, but she hugged him back, happiness shining on her face as she opened her mouth and repeated several times, “Ah~~ ah~~ ah~~”

“Uh…” Jia Zhengjin held the golden-haired girl, his expression turning awkward. “Tina, those sounds in a row are a bit… suggestive!”