In the ordinary life of Crayon Shin-chan

Chapter 1341 Zheng Nan's Riddles

Inside the park, a few children sat on a building, chatting idly. For some reason, their conversation suddenly turned to riddles. When Zheng Nan heard this, he excitedly said, "Then I'll give you a riddle. The first one is, what animal is hidden inside the hat?"

Kazama scratched his head: "Inside the hat?"

"Okay, I got it. It's because it's a hat, so it's the rabbit in the magic trick!" Shin-chan's eyes lit up, and he said without hesitation.

"Uh, you answered incorrectly! Although your answer was fairly good in terms of direction." Zheng Nan said with some pride.

"What are you so smug about?" Nini said, looking at Zheng Nan's expression with displeasure.

Kazama stroked his chin and said, "Hmm, animals that usually hide in hats are small animals like hamsters or squirrels, so the answer is the classification of rats! Rodents!" Kazama said proudly.

“Kazama, maybe you’re overthinking it.” Mingxu paused for a moment, looking at Kazama with a hint of hesitation.

"Huh? Really?" Kazama looked at Masao.

"Oh dear, Kazama, you're overthinking it." Masao looked at Kazama with a wry smile.

"Huh? Isn't that right?" Kazama was a little dumbfounded.

“Ah, I know! Since it’s inside a hat, the answer is cow.” Nini suddenly thought of something and looked at Zheng Nan, because the ending sound of “cow” in the local dialect sounds very similar to “hat.”

“That’s right! Nini got it right!” Zheng Nan gave Nini a thumbs up.

"I knew you guys were going to use your dialect again," Mingxu rolled his eyes and said casually.

"...I still can't quite accept it." Kazama glanced sideways at Masao, still not accepting the answer.

"Kazama, you're good at reading, but you're not so good at riddles," Nini teased Kazama.

"How is that possible! As a future elite, I absolutely cannot be defeated by this kind of puzzle!" Kazama shouted indignantly, then looked at everyone: "Give me another one!"

Seeing this, Zheng Nan continued to laugh: "Since Xiao Xu said that using the local dialect won't work, then I'll try another one. Come on, this is the hardest question! A car can fly, guess a beverage."

"The car can fly, guess the drink?" The children were stunned for a moment, and Mingxu suddenly seemed to be thinking.

"Soda?" Kazama thought of soda and blurted it out.

“No.” Zheng Nan shook his head without hesitation, his smile growing even brighter.

"That's the soda that flies," Shin-chan blurted out.

"No, Shin-chan, you need to think of it more like a riddle." Masao looked at Shin-chan speechlessly. What kind of answers were these?

Nini looked at Mingxu beside her and asked, "Xiaoxu, what's the answer?" She saw the realization on Mingxu's face.

"Oh, coffee," Mingxu said, shrugging.

"Huh...?" Nini didn't understand for a moment how this thing was related to coffee.

Seeing that no one seemed inclined to answer, Masao laughed, "Hehe~ Everyone's stuck, right? Actually, the answer is super simple. Should I just reveal the solution? Hehehe~ Kazama, don't think it's so hard. The answer to this question is actually..." Before Masao could finish, Kazama looked at him uncertainly; "The answer isn't coffee, is it?"

"Huh?" Masao was taken aback, looking at Kazama uncertainly. He had guessed it!

"Because you said this was the hardest question, how could the answer be so simple... right? The answer must be some amazing bread that even I couldn't have imagined, right, Masao?" Kazama said, looking at Masao again. This time, Masao was sweating profusely. Seriously, your imagination is running wild.

“That’s right! If the answer is too easy, I’ll let Masao eat his cookies until he grows up!” Shin-chan said with a grin.

"Huh, why?" Zheng Nan asked, puzzled.

Before Shin-chan could answer, Kazama spoke up first: "Okay, it's a deal! I have to go to tutoring later, let's reveal the answer tomorrow. I'll think about the answer carefully!" With that, Kazama said goodbye and left.

"How... how could this be?" Zheng Nan was dumbfounded. Why had the situation turned so strange?

"It seems like things have turned out strangely." Nini sighed as well. Kazama just overthinks things.

"Hey, Shin-chan, you need to take responsibility!" Masao complained to Shin-chan.

"Huh?" Shin-chan looked at Masao in confusion.

"I mean you have to come up with a bread that even Kazama wouldn't think of, a bread that can't be eaten! Otherwise, I won't be able to eat cookies until I grow up!" Masao said, his voice trembling with tears.

"Alright, Shin-chan was just kidding. You can keep your cookies. As for the answer, it's coffee, and Kazama is right. Just tell him directly. If you have any questions, you can ask Kazama to come up with some riddles so you can discuss them together." Mingxu said helplessly to Zhengnan.

"Huh? Coffee? Why?" Xiaoxin looked at Mingxu with some confusion.

“Because, because ‘Car Fly’ → ‘Car Fly’ sounds like ‘coffee’ in Chinese.” Mingxu said, shrugging his hands. “It’s just a pun, but Kazama just couldn’t figure it out and kept making things up.”

"Oh, oh." Shin-chan nodded in agreement. So that's how it is.

After hearing Mingxu's explanation, Zhengnan burst into laughter through his tears: "So that's how it is. I thought Kazama could come up with some really strange and unusual answer."

“But Kazama always overcomplicates things,” Nini said, pursing her lips.

"Exactly, exactly! I thought I was going to have some huge responsibility on my shoulders," Shin-chan chimed in, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Alright everyone, let's not stand here anymore, let's go somewhere else to play," Mingxu suggested.

"Okay, okay, let's go to the slide!" Shin-chan was the first to respond, grabbing Masao's hand and running towards the slide.

Mingxu shrugged. Kids are such a hassle. Why overcomplicate things? Everything is so simple.

The next day, when Mingxu saw Zhengnan in the park, his lips twitched. "So, Zhengnan, you're overthinking things, aren't you?" he thought, looking at Zhengnan's haggard face.

"...Zhengnan, are you feeling energetic today?" Xiaoxin looked at Zhengnan uncertainly.

"Where can I find it?" Zheng Nan puffed out his cheeks and drooped his head.

"Hey, Masao, let's reveal the answer to yesterday's question. I even asked my friends at the cram school and looked up information about cars flying, but everyone thinks it's coffee. So, is this the answer?" Kazama ran over and asked them.

"Yes, the answer is coffee, and the reason is because of the English word 'car,' it's just a homonym." Zheng Nan took a deep breath and said calmly.

"Oh, I knew it. I was overthinking it." Kazama nodded, realizing he had indeed made things too complicated.

"So, Kazama, why don't you give Masao a riddle too?" Mingxu suggested, looking at Kazama.

"Great! After I got back yesterday, I also came up with a few riddles. Let's discuss them together," Kazama said, a little excited.

Kazama cleared his throat and said mysteriously, "Then I'll pose a question: What gets dirtier the more you wash it, but people eat it if you don't wash it, and nobody eats it if you do wash it?"

Zheng Nan tilted his head, thinking hard: "The more I wash it, the dirtier it gets... It's edible if I don't wash it, but inedible if I do... Hmm... Could it be fruit? No..."

"No, no." Kazama shook his head with a smile.

Nini's eyes lit up, and she said, "I know, it's mud!"

"That's not right either." Kazama maintained his mysterious smile.

"You can eat mud?" Mingxu looked at them speechlessly.

Shin-chan was scratching his head, then suddenly shouted, "I know! It's a dirty handkerchief!"

"That's still not right. You can't eat a handkerchief either." Kazama waved his hand helplessly.

Everyone looked at each other, lost in thought. Then, Mingxu slowly spoke up: "Water... if you wash things with water, they'll get dirty. If you don't wash them, people won't be drinking directly from the water in the park."

Kazama smiled and nodded: "That's right, it's water. Water gets dirty when used to wash things. We can drink water when we're not washing, but it becomes dirty water that nobody drinks."

"Oh, so that's what it is." Zheng Nan slapped his forehead, suddenly realizing.

"Then I'll give one too," Zheng Nan said eagerly. "What is something that's green when you haven't eaten it, red when you eat it, but black when you spit it out?"

“Watermelon,” Mingxu said casually.

"Hahaha~" Everyone was giving each other riddles, and laughter filled the park.

(*￣︶￣)~