275: Chapter 275 Teaching her to speak

"Snai."

"Li Ming..."

"Snai, then what about me?"

"Wu Sha, hehe..."

"What are you two doing?"

"Kuzna~"

"Hey, hey, be careful." Kuznetsov walked out of the storage room, holding a laptop in her hands. "Li Ming, what are you doing?"

"Teaching her to speak." Li Ming rubbed his hands. "Her comprehension is much stronger than I imagined."

"What makes you say that?"

"She just copied Gipsy Danger and elbowed me into the wall."

"..." Kuznetsov facepalmed. "That's why you shouldn't let her watch those kinds of movies."

"We don't have any other movies at home." Li Ming spread his hands. "The others are all things like 'White Tiger', 'Stalingrad'..."

"Alright, say no more." Kuznetsov sighed. "I know I can't keep up with the times."

"It's fine, Ushakov's browsing history even has European court dramas."

"Hey, Li Ming..." Ushakov immediately started steaming.

"What's the big deal?" Li Ming patted his still-aching stomach. "I used to be interested in Pleasant Goat."

"Pleasant Goat? Is that an Eastern Radiance cartoon?"

"Yeah." Li Ming nodded. "But it's obviously not suitable for Snai... at least I don't think so. Her cognitive comprehension seems stronger than I imagined."

After all, it's only been one day, and she's already basically able to use language to communicate normally. This learning ability...

Li Ming felt inferior; he was still a childish brat until the eighth grade.

And still watching Pleasant Goat in the ninth grade.

Snai seemed always carefree. Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, she quietly floated to the edge of the dining table and picked up the toast Li Ming had left there.

Kuznetsov sat at the dining table and opened the laptop...

It wouldn't turn on.

She poked the power button twice more.

"Is it broken?"

Li Ming took out the power cord. "It should be out of battery."

"That shouldn't be, I haven't even used it..."

"It leaks electricity if you just leave it sitting."

"Isn't that very dangerous?" Kuznetsov was stunned.

"..." Li Ming opened his mouth, not knowing how to explain it for a moment. "...I mean, if you leave it for a long time, the battery will gradually drain in standby mode. Because the computer's internal clock keeps running... it's something like that."

He didn't really know, but this was the only way Li Ming could explain it.

"I see..."

She actually believed it?!

Forget it, Li Ming gave up on explaining. As long as the point got across, it was fine.

"What are you using the computer for?"

"Just like you said, Snai learns very quickly." Kuznetsov said. "I intend to teach her to read and speak."

"That depends on whether she wants to learn." Li Ming shrugged. "Snai..."

"Huhu?"

Snai floated over to Kuznetsov's side, watching her fiddle with this strange square box.

"Snai, this is a computer... um, just think of it as..."

Li Ming rubbed his head. For a little one without much common sense, explaining what a computer was really was a bit troublesome. "A... television that you can operate?"

"Ooh..."

Snai looked at the small square grids neatly arranged under the laptop screen, engraved with letters or symbols. "...Com, puter?"

"Yes, computer... or rather, a computing machine." Kuznetsov said somewhat vaguely. "Wu Sha, no drinking in front of the child."

Ushakov withdrew her hand from the liquor cabinet resentfully.

"So what do you plan to do?" Li Ming fell into thought. "Find a few early education videos for Snai?"

"Of course not..." Kuznetsov was silent for a moment, then typed in the website for the National Archives.

"No, are you sure?" Li Ming was almost dumbfounded. "Are you sure she can understand this?"

"Huhu..."

Looking at the dense Russian letters, Snai decisively developed swirl-eyes, then crawled under the table.

"See, it doesn't work."

Li Ming spread his hands.

Kuznetsov defeatedly punched Li Ming in the stomach.

"Ow!"

Li Ming lay on the ground on the spot; if you didn't know better, you'd think he was about to die.

"If that doesn't work, we should just teach her to speak normally first..." Ushakov took a bottle of vodka out of the liquor cabinet. "Can't have her humming and hawing all day..."

"Humph!"

Snai floated up, putting her hands on her hips to protest Ushakov's statement.

"See, humming and hawing." Ushakov laughed, opening the cap.

"Ha!"

"Whoa, she even huffs." Li Ming sat up, expressing surprise at this. "Could she actually be the reincarnation of a 'Hajimi'?"

"Purr..." Snai made a dissatisfied purring sound, then used the table for leverage to launch a headbutt attack at Li Ming, copying how Kuznetsov had done it yesterday to tackle Li Ming to the ground, then sat on him to declare victory.

"Ouch... although this girl doesn't look too small, but..." Li Ming patted her head. "She's so light..."

"By the way, how tall is she?"

"Looks like about 1.4 meters or so..."

Downing the vodka in one gulp, Ushakov picked up the triumphant Snai. "Indeed, so light, probably only about 30-something jin..."

"Wu yiyi..." Snai hurriedly broke free, appearing to have been overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol. She flew shakily into Kuznetsov's arms, looking at Ushakov nervously.

"Wu Sha!" Kuznetsov said helplessly. "Snai, you stop messing around too, okay?"

"Okay..."

Snai swung her legs in dissatisfaction, taking the second slice of toast Kuznetsov handed her.

"And you, Li Ming." Kuznetsov's gaze turned to Li Ming on the ground. "How long do you intend to lie there?"

Li Ming sat up in one motion. "I have an idea. If all else fails, let's teach her Chinese."

"Isn't Chinese harder to learn..."

"How come I don't think so?"

"You're from Huaxia, of course you'd think Chinese is easy!" Ushakov retorted. "Li Ming, do you want a drink?"

"No."

"Too bad." Ushakov shrugged; it was to be expected.

"By the way, Li Ming..." Kuznetsov suddenly thought of something. "Do you know of any Huaxia cartoons? Something geared towards a younger audience but not too young."

"Uh... Boonie Bears." Li Ming stood up. "The old versions are pretty good, you just need to be careful to correct her worldview."

"Then it's Boonie Bears." Kuznetsov pushed the computer toward Li Ming. "That's fine. You'll have to be responsible for the worldview stuff too."

"Wait, do I have to do all the work?"

"This is the kid you brought, you have to be responsible."

Snai blinked her eyes and curled up into Kuznetsov's arms.