A hangover was undoubtedly a deeply agonizing experience.
All through the night, Min Zhuozhou tossed and turned under the unrestful influence of alcohol, feeling as though he were floating and sinking in a dream. Yet, in his grogginess, he completely forgot what he had dreamed about. He only vaguely recalled waking once in the middle of the night, when Pei Che had taken his wrist in a soothing manner and pressed a kiss into his damp, sweaty palm.
It was likely a sweet dream woven from his drunkenness, so gentle it felt almost like an illusion.
When he woke up again, Pei Che had already gone out. More than half of the bed was empty, and the pure cotton bedsheets felt pleasantly warm from the cascading sunlight.
Min Zhuozhou sat up from the bed. Seeing the sunlight pouring in through the window, he knew it was no longer early.
He had agreed to meet the show crew in the afternoon to film the reality show’s OP, so he prepared to make a trip back to the Min residence first. He needed to pick up his little nephew, Min Hua, who was also his upcoming child partner on the parenting show.
The Min family’s residence was located in a suburban villa district, nestled against the mountains and overlooking a lake. The red roofs and white walls were fragmented into tiny, picturesque scenes by the swaying shadows of the trees. From afar, it looked low-key; up close, it appeared elegant, serving as the final piece of dignity the Min family stubbornly clung to.
Min Zhuozhou drove in, thoroughly familiar with the route. After signing the marriage agreement, he originally had no need to come to the Min residence anymore. Yet over these years, not only did he still visit, but the frequency of his visits was actually higher than before, because Min Hua was being raised here.
Min Hua was under five years old this year. Although he carried the surname “Min,” he had little real connection to the rest of the Min family. After Min Zhuozhou’s mother gave birth to Min Zhuozhou, she remarried and had a baby girl a few years later named Guo Ailin.
Min Hua was Guo Ailin’s child.
Back when Min Zhuozhou was taken away by Min Hang, Guo Ailin had just entered her adolescence. She harbored resentment over her older brother leaving her, yet was simultaneously filled with wild fantasies about the life-changing prospect of “rising to top status overnight.” Young as she was, she strayed onto the wrong path; instead of studying properly, she fell in with a group of shady, low-grade “street people.” Right after coming of age, she was gotten pregnant by a boy who wasn’t much older than her. Due to her physical condition, an abortion wasn’t suitable, so she had no choice but to give birth to Min Hua before she even turned nineteen.
Going by age, Guo Ailin was still just a young girl herself, completely at a loss when faced with this sudden child. Her young boyfriend was equally frightened out of his wits. This pair of irresponsible young lovers hit it off on an idea and secretly abandoned the infant right at the entrance of an orphanage.
Though called an orphanage, the place was remote, desolate, and sparsely inhabited. It had been left unsupervised for a long time, with only a tiny handful of vagrants occasionally passing through to spend the night.
Fortunately, Min Zhuozhou happened to have spare time that day to go visit them. He only saw his mother and step-father, but found no sign of the child. When he asked where they had sent the child, they answered that he had been sent to the boy’s hometown. When he pressed further about where this hometown was, the two, having failed to line up their stories in advance, stuttered and couldn’t give a coherent answer.
Min Zhuozhou’s face darkened on the spot. Under his fierce interrogation, Guo Ailin finally confessed hesitantly that they had left the baby at an orphanage entrance, even concocting a fictitious story about a warm-hearted orphanage director eagerly adopting him.
No matter how presentable they tried to make it sound, they had simply thrown the child away, heartlessly abandoning him.
Back then, Min Zhuozhou drove his car to the absolute limit of safety, racing ahead of the Grim Reaper until he located that small bundle soaked, freezing cold by the torrential rain. The baby was curled up inside the thoroughly drenched fabric, closed his eyes without a trace of vitality; only his burning skin and trembling breath indicated he was still alive.
Min Zhuozhou brought the child back into his car. Only when he sat in the driver’s seat did he realize his hands were shaking so violently he couldn’t hold the steering wheel. In the end, he had no choice but to dial emergency services to urgently transport the child to the hospital.
It was hard to say whether Min Zhuozhou would have signed the marriage agreement handed over by Min Hang so decisively had this child not existed. He probably still would have, but given his personality, being exceptionally skilled at manipulating other people’s minds, he certainly wouldn’t have let Min Hang achieve his goal so comfortably.
However, this newly arrived little life became the catalyst for everything. He could no longer trust Guo Ailin to raise the child, so he had to secure a shelter for him within the Min family. Because of this, he was forced to sign the marriage agreement ahead of time, and was even coerced by Min Hang into signing a declaration voluntarily relinquishing all rights to the Min family’s inheritance.
Min Zhuozhou had never harbored any desires for those possessions of the Min family. Nevertheless, the feeling of being hindered and suspected by his own biological father still left him feeling chilled to the core.
Fortunately, five years had passed in the blink of an eye, and Min Hua had grown up.
Though this child had been caught in a torrential rain as an infant, he was very fortunate not to suffer any lasting health complications. Aside from being rather quiet and taciturn, he was essentially no different from any normal child.
Min Zhuozhou had specifically consulted a pediatric doctor regarding Min Hua’s overly quiet disposition. The answer he received was that when a young child lives in a household lacking a proper parental presence, developing autistic tendencies is a relatively common phenomenon.
An autistic tendency was not the same as clinical autism. Taking advantage of the fact that all his work projects were currently put on hold, Min Zhuozhou planned to spend proper time accompanying Min Hua and let him interact more with other children.
Usually, when Min Zhuozhou was away, Min Hua was looked after by his half-brother, Min Zaiming. Compared to the harshness and coldness of the elder Min couple, Min Zaiming treated his younger brother fairly well… After all, if Min Zhuozhou hadn’t existed, the one forced into the “political marriage” would have been Min Zaiming himself.
Min Zaiming was born physically weak, so he could not bear the heavy expectation of “rising to fame again” that the Min family had pinned on his name. Overall, however, he was a very easygoing and refined man. In his daily life, he tended to flowers, practiced calligraphy, sipped tea, and appreciated antiques, possessing the gentle, scholarly physician air handed down through generations from his great-grandfather.
Influenced by his environment, Min Hua, despite being under five years old, had picked up a good deal of literary talent. He could recite and compose poetry, and his calligraphy had even won an award in the preschool division of a calligraphy competition.
When Min Zhuozhou walked into the back courtyard, filled with the fragrance of sweet osmanthus and the swaying shadows of bamboo, Min Zaiming happened to be teaching Min Hua how to write. Leaning back in a grandmaster chair, Min Zaiming placidly held a scroll of a book and read silently, occasionally glancing over at Min Hua to give him a brief pointer. Seeing Min Zhuozhou come in, he merely acknowledged him with a fleeting, faint glance.
A gentle aroma of traditional medicine floated in the air, and the courtyard was as beautiful as a painting. Stepping inside felt like instantly isolating oneself from this overly noisy modern era.
Min Zhuozhou disliked entering the main Min house, yet he was exceptionally fond of this courtyard. Every time he stepped in here, his heart would grow unusually tranquil. He walked over silently and stood behind Min Hua for a moment, watching him write: “Making friends with shared devotion, correcting each other through gentle advice”, a line from the Thousand Character Classic.
It was common for young children to memorize and write the Thousand Character Classic. Min Zaiming kept a good sense of measure; he did not lecture him on obscure, deeply complex concepts, but simply cultivated the literary temperament in Min Hua, neither wasting his natural talent nor letting him pick up any pedantic pretentiousness.
Min Zaiming truly had nothing to be criticized for when it came to Min Hua; he treated him better than if he were his own son. Min Zhuozhou was sincerely grateful. Yet, with this adult and child staying in this little courtyard every day, disconnected from worldly affairs, they resembled ancient scholars more than actual ancient scholars did.
In a generally harmonious family, there was usually one patient parent and another with a relatively lively temperament. Since Min Zaiming had taken on the role of “patient and strict,” Min Zhuozhou chose to be the “lively and playful” one.
He waited for an opportunity. Seeing that Min Hua had nearly finished writing a line, he suddenly covered the child’s eyes from behind, lowering his voice and deliberately dragging out his tone: “Guess who I am?”
The hand holding the calligraphy brush instantly hovered motionless over the paper. Probably afraid of smudging the xuan paper, Min Hua used his other tiny hand to feel around for the brush rest beside him, steadily placing the brush back on it before speaking in a completely un-surprised voice:
“Little Uncle?”
The voice was soft and milky, yet his emotional state was as steady as a little adult’s.
“Wow, you guessed it!” Min Zhuozhou used a finger to gently pinch the child’s soft, white cheek. “Our Huahua is so amazing! As a reward, how about Little Uncle takes you to eat Uncle Ken’s fast food?”
The moment Min Zhuozhou opened his mouth, his cunning nature showed. No child could resist an “Uncle Ken” kid’s meal that came with a toy. It was truly a very mischievous proposal, highly capable of distracting a child’s focus.
Min Hua’s dense eyelashes curled slightly against Min Zhuozhou’s palm. After a moment’s hesitation, he tried to negotiate with his little uncle: “Then I want to finish writing these first. We have to go shoot this afternoon, so there won’t be time later.”
“Working so hard, huh? You’re working much harder than your Little Uncle. Looks like I’ll have to learn from our Huahua in the future.”
Min Zhuozhou let go of the child with a beaming smile, adopting an attitude of “refusing to give up.” Slipping his hands down, he cupped the child’s arms and lifted him steadily off the stool into his arms, acting spoiled:
“We can talk about working hard later. Keep me company today, okay?”
“Little Uncle…”
Min Hua squirmed slightly, wiggling his little legs just for show, and then allowed Min Zhuozhou to hold him, as obedient as a large stuffed doll.
“Min Zhuozhou, you’re getting more and more out of line.”
Seeing the small stool made of yellow rosewood, specially crafted by a carpenter he had hired for Min Hua, knocked over onto the ground by Min Zhuozhou, Min Zaiming tossed aside the book scroll in his hand and spoke with a touch of displeasure.
His eyes remained fixed on Min Hua, worried that Min Zhuozhou might carelessly drop the child.
Min Zhuozhou gave the child a gentle toss, turning him around steadily to hold him securely against his chest. Then, he flashed a faint smile at Min Zaiming: “I came here to snatch the child away, after all. Of course I have to use a little effort to coax the little darling away.”
If Min Hua could be coaxed away by these few words from Min Zhuozhou, he wouldn’t be Min Hua. Seeing that Min Zhuozhou had a firm hold on the child, Min Zaiming didn’t say anything further. He said softly: “No one else is at home. Lunch has been prepared for you, so just stay here. You can take the kid to eat those ‘six-legged chickens’ tonight.”
“Don’t go scaring him,” Min Zhuozhou looked at him helplessly, then said to Min Hua, “Quick, cover your ears, those are bad words.”
Min Hua hurriedly covered his ears with his small hands.
Amused by his reaction, Min Zhuozhou pressed a kiss onto Min Hua’s fair, soft cheek, then asked him, “Did you miss Little Uncle?”
Min Hua blinked his eyes continuously as he looked at Min Zhuozhou. Then, wrapping his arms around his neck, he quickly kissed him back and said shyly, “I did.”
“So good. I haven’t doted on you for nothing.”
Satisfied, Min Zhuozhou set the child back down, straightened the little stool, and settled Min Hua back at the writing desk.
Seeing Min Hua settle down again to practice his calligraphy, Min Zaiming’s expression softened slightly. He no longer dwelled on how many wings the white-feathered chickens fried by Uncle Ken actually had, using his gaze to ask Min Zhuozhou whether he was staying for lunch.
Since Min Hang wasn’t around, Min Zhuozhou decided to stay at the residence for lunch. The main reason was that Min Zaiming had raised the child with strict routines; after eating, Min Hua was accustomed to taking a one-hour afternoon nap, and changing locations would prevent the child from sleeping peacefully.
Only after Min Hua woke up from his rest did Min Zhuozhou carry him into the car, preparing to head to the designated filming location in the city center to meet up with the production team.
The agreed time was three o’clock. However, since the Min residence was in the suburbs, Min Zhuozhou set aside extra time for unexpected traffic jams and left at one-thirty. Yet there was hardly any traffic at noon, so the journey was entirely smooth, and they arrived at the reality show OP’s filming venue just after two-thirty.
The full title of this child-rearing variety show was Childlike Heart Heading Afar. It followed a model of “live-streamed outings + older brothers taking care of kids,” featuring six pairs of guests in total. Half were ordinary people and half were celebrities, all possessing outstanding physical appearances that made for a visually pleasing combination when gathered together.
When Min Zhuozhou walked over, only one pair of guests had arrived. His gaze swept across the venue; he didn’t spot Ji Subai, but noticed an exquisitely handsome little boy sitting alone in a far corner, looking around anxiously with a sense of unease in the unfamiliar environment.
Whether it was just Min Zhuozhou’s imagination or not, he felt that the child bore a striking resemblance to Ji Subai.