The little guy climbed down from the bed, dragged his slippers over to the table and looked up before asking in a small, polite voice, “Brother, I want Xiao Mi to move in too. Can it sleep on the second-floor balcony? Is that okay?”
Lu Shiying lowered his eyes and glanced at him. “No.”
Jiang Ci immediately wilted, his head drooping in disappointment. “But Xiao Ci turns into a monster at night. If Xiao Mi is by my side, I’ll feel safer…….”
Lu Shiying froze for a moment. He knew about his sleepwalking?
A child’s train of thought really was strange. In the middle of the night, he would wander around in a daze, making his way to the bathroom, the living room, or the hallway and after waking up, he simply assumed that he had gone there because he had “transformed.”
Seeing that he remained silent, Jiang Ci pitifully tugged at his knee and swayed it back and forth. “Please……”
“Brother, you’re the best.”
“Xiao Ci will be very good and listen to everything you say. I won’t make you angry. Brother, brother………………please, please…………….”
The little hand was soft and warm as it fidgeted beside him, the child’s sweet, milky scent lingering in the air. It was incredibly difficult to refuse a request from him.
Lu Shiying stared at the small face tilted up toward him and for a moment, it was as though his reason had been completely bewitched. His gaze drifted away and after a long while, he actually nodded. 《2
At the same time that Old Zhang brought the Maine Coon into the master bedroom, the private doctor also arrived with a medical kit and gave Lu Shiying an injection of anti-allergy medication.
Jiang Ci was lying behind the sofa, his little head poking out as he watched in confusion while the needle was pushed into the boy’s arm. People only got injections when they were sick, so what was wrong with Brother?
The private doctor took out two boxes of medicine. “Take the medicine on time every day. If you develop a rash, I still recommend sending the cat away. Subcutaneous desensitization treatment usually takes around one to two years. The allergen is injected gradually so that the immune system can slowly develop complete tolerance. There’s about an eighty percent chance that it can be cured. A friend of mine went through the same treatment. She’s been keeping cats for thirty years without any problems now. Her body has already developed antibodies against the allergy.” 2
Lu Shiying nodded without showing any discomfort.
After everyone had left, Lu Shiying returned to the desk and sat down again. He had only just opened his test paper when he felt something tugging at the leg of his trousers.
When he lowered his head, he saw that Jiang Ci had somehow come running over again and was now lying beside his leg, his little face tilted upward. His dark, round eyes kept darting back and forth around Lu Shiying’s arm.
“What is it?” Lu Shiying asked.
“Is Brother sick? Why did you have to get an injection?” Jiang Ci asked softly, his voice carrying a hint of cautious worry.
“You’re still too young. You wouldn’t understand even if I explained it. I’m fine. Go hug the cat and sleep.”
Even Lu Shiying himself could not explain how he had ended up making such a huge series of concessions. He had allowed another person to live under the same roof, allowed a cat into his room and even allowed that cat onto his bed.
In the past, every single one of those things would have been absolutely intolerable to him.
Yet when he looked at the soft little bundle in his arms, the irritation that had surged up earlier when the cat entered his bedroom gradually faded away, leaving not even a trace of it behind.
Sitting in his arms, Jiang Ci thought back to the noisy scene in the living room a few days ago. Everyone had wanted to take him away yet in the end, he had still remained by Lu Shiying’s side.
He thought that this meant Brother would raise him from now on, taking care of him until his parents came back. Brother was the best.
When he grew up, he would take care of Brother in return. He would take care of Brother and Grandpa.
Lu Shiying put down his pen and, with a natural motion, scooped Jiang Ci up and settled him on his thigh. “Brother will teach you how to write. What class are you in now?”
Jiang Ci’s little legs dangled in the air, swaying gently as he answered, “Kindergarten, middle class.”
Lu Shiying thought about it for a moment. Next year, the little guy would be moving up to the senior class and there were quite a few things he ought to start learning. He pulled out a sheet of white paper and uncapped his pen. “Can you write your own name?”
Jiang Ci shook his head. Their kindergarten only began teaching them how to write once they reached the senior class. In the middle class, they had only learned the simplest numbers.
“What is one plus one?”
Jiang Ci immediately held up two fingers, his voice clear and bright. “Two!”
The corners of Lu Shiying’s lips curved ever so slightly. Pretty smart. He immediately skipped ahead by a large step. “I give you fifty yuan. You go outside and buy twenty yuan worth of snacks. How much do you have left?”
Jiang Ci scratched his head, his fine little eyebrows drawing together into a tight frown. He thought about it for a long time and when he finally spoke, his voice had grown quieter and quieter. “I……don’t know…….”
“It’s okay. Brother will teach you.” Lu Shiying took hold of his little hand and guided it across the paper as he wrote the numbers with him, beginning with addition and subtraction within twenty.
Jiang Ci listened with complete seriousness. Every time he heard a sentence, he would nod once. Even when he did not quite understand, he nodded with an extraordinary amount of force, looking just like a little chick pecking at grains.
“Did you understand?”
“I understood!”
“Nine plus seven. How much is it?”
Jiang Ci rubbed his little hands together before finally admitting honestly, “I didn’t understand.”
Lu Shiying’s expression was somewhat helpless. “Xiao Ci, I’m your brother. You don’t have to be afraid of me, understand?”
Jiang Ci had been feeling a little burdened because he regarded the other person as such a serious figure. The moment he heard those words, however, he immediately broke into a grin. He raised his hand, pulled down one of his lower eyelids with a finger and made a mischievous little ghost face.
“I knowww.”
“Continue studying.”
“Okay.”
Lu Shiying gently held his soft little hand. On the paper, he first wrote “Lu Shiying,” then wrote “Jiang Ci,” teaching him each character one by one.
Jiang Ci stared at the three characters and murmured them repeatedly. “Lu, Shi, Ying.”
“Mm. Remember your brother’s name.”
The summer vacation was long and Lu Shiying had no intention of keeping the little one cooped up inside the house the entire time. The following afternoon was cloudy, cool and shaded, without the usual oppressive heat. He instructed Old Zhang to drive and took Jiang Ci to the amusement park.
The Bentley drove out of the Lu family estate and took more than an hour before finally arriving at the entrance of the amusement park.
Jiang Ci pressed himself against the car window and looked outside. He noticed that every time they went out, there were always two or three black cars following behind the Bentley, while quite a few men dressed in black were scattered around them on all sides.
When he used to go out with his parents, he had never seen such a grand and imposing formation.
Although he was still very young, he vaguely understood that this unfamiliar brother was the person his parents had entrusted to take care of him.
Lu Shiying lowered his head and continued looking through his textbooks and basic course materials, his fingertip sliding back and forth across the tablet screen. Every now and then, he would raise his head and look at the little boy sitting in front of him.
Jiang Ci had long, thick eyelashes with a slight natural curl to them. His eyes were filled with pure, innocent sweetness and his baby-fat cheeks were so fair and soft that they made one want to reach out and pinch them. Whenever he smiled, dimples would sink into the fleshy sides of his cheeks, making him look more and more pleasing to the eye the longer one looked at him.
“Sit properly. Don’t lie against the car window.”
Jiang Ci immediately returned to his seat and sat up straight, obediently maintaining a proper posture without arguing back.
The Bentley arrived at the amusement park parking lot. Once the car had come to a complete stop, Old Zhang turned around and asked for instructions, “Young Master, should I go inside and take the child?”
Lu Shiying did not answer. With an expressionless face, he pulled open the car door himself and personally took Jiang Ci’s hand as they got out.
He left all the bodyguards outside. There were too many people at the amusement park and bringing such a large entourage inside would only make them unnecessarily conspicuous.
Besides, he had been practicing taekwondo since he was young. If they really encountered kidnappers, he was no longer as helpless as he had been when he was a child. Even dealing with ten or so people would not be a problem for him. 2
The amusement park was packed with people. It was the first time the eldest young master of the Lu family had ever come to a place like this and for the first time, he experienced the noisy bustle of the outside world. So this was what the world beyond his home was like.
People really did change, after all.
Including himself.
While they were waiting in line to collect their tickets, Lu Shiying lowered his head and glanced down. His palm was empty.
His heart suddenly sank.
The little hand he had been holding just moments ago had somehow slipped free without him noticing.
“Jiang Ci!”
He immediately looked around, his eyes sweeping rapidly across the crowded mass of people before finally landing on the entrance of a convenience store in the distance.
A small figure was standing there, clutching a fifty-yuan banknote in his hand. He was standing on tiptoe, stretching his little arm toward the counter.
“Boss, boss.”
The convenience store owner lowered his head and saw a fluffy little head poking up from in front of the counter. He hurriedly came around and pulled the child to the side. “Little guy, just stand right here and don’t move. I’ll have one of my staff help you find your parents.”
Jiang Ci shook his head and held the fifty-yuan note even higher. “Uncle Zhang said this is fifty yuan. I want to buy twenty yuan worth of snacks. I want candy. Thank you, Boss.”
The shopkeeper was amused by him and reached out to rub his little head. “What an adorable child. Don’t run around. Come, I’ll give you a piece of candy for free.”
“Jiang Ci.”
The little boy immediately jolted and raised his head, only to see Lu Shiying standing behind him.
He was dressed in a white shirt, while his fitted black trousers accentuated his tall, straight figure. At only fourteen years old, he had already shot up to a height of 1.7 meters. There was a maturity in his brows and eyes that seemed almost too composed for his age yet his face was filled with coldness, as though a volcano might erupt at any moment.
The shopkeeper met those eyes and instinctively shrank his neck.
Jiang Ci, however, had not yet realized that he had done anything wrong. He simply tilted his little face upward and looked at him.
Lu Shiying strode over in several steps, forcing himself to control his emotions and suppress the anger rising inside him. “Who gave you the money?”
“Uncle Zhang exchanged it for me……” Jiang Ci obediently opened his little palm. “I wanted to buy some snacks.”
Lu Shiying reached out and gently pinched his cheek. “When you’re outside, you have to stay with someone. If you dare to run off like that again, I won’t bring you out next time. Did you tell me before you left?”
“I’m sorry, I forgot……”
Jiang Ci raised his little hand. “Xiao Ci wanted to know how much money would be left after buying twenty yuan worth of snacks……”
Lu Shiying flicked him lightly on the forehead. He still could not even do simple addition and subtraction yet he already knew how to recognize money. This was the first time he had ever encountered a little child like this.
“Who taught you how to recognize money?”
“Grandpa taught me.”
Jiang Ci pouted, tilting his head up to look at him. “I wanted to answer Brother’s question…… If I get it right, you’ll be happy and you won’t look so fierce at me every day. Whenever Mom asked me questions before, if Xiao Ci answered correctly, she would always smile really happily.”
Lu Shiying stood frozen in place.
A five-year-old child could actually observe an adult’s emotions so carefully, thinking of ways to make someone happy. He was sensible and clever and somehow, that only made him even more heartbreaking to look at.
“So, you were trying to make me happy?”
Lu Shiying bent down and scooped him straight into his arms, resting his chin gently against the child’s soft hair. In his heart, he made a decision: from now on, he would take good care of this child and raise him properly.
He turned around and handed the fifty-yuan note to the convenience store owner. It was the first time the eldest young master had ever entered a little shop like this and he had no idea what he was supposed to buy. He simply told the owner to pick out a few candies for him and received thirty yuan in change.
Jiang Ci tightly clutched the three ten-yuan banknotes in his little hand. He stretched out all ten fingers and carefully counted them, since he already recognized money. It did not take him long before he raised his face, his expression lighting up as he happily called out, “Brother, the answer is thirty yuan!”
“Fifty minus twenty. How much is it?”
Jiang Ci froze again, his two eyes filled with confusion.
Lu Shiying let out a quiet laugh. What a little sillyhead.
Jiang Ci’s pupils widened.
So answering questions really could make an adult this happy. Brother had finally smiled.
Lu Shiying adjusted his hold, lifting him a little higher in his arms as he carried him toward the entrance of the amusement park. In a soft voice, he said, “You’re very smart.”
The convenience store owner scratched his head as he watched them disappear into the distance. He vaguely felt that the boy’s back looked familiar, almost like the eldest young master of the Lu family.
But then he thought about it again. How could a young master from a family worth billions possibly come to a tiny convenience store like this and buy candy with cash?
It must have been his aging eyes playing tricks on him. He had definitely mistaken someone else for him.
The eldest young master of the Lu family went on the carousel once and afterward, he was so dizzy that he could barely stand it.
In the end, he had no choice but to call Old Zhang over and have him accompany the little one around to play.
Lu Shiying walked over to a pavilion and found a quiet place to sit down, listening to the laughter coming from the distance.
That little boy was completely fearless. One moment, he was gripping the steering wheel of the bumper car with all his strength, enthusiastically turning it this way and that; the next, he was riding the little train, excited beyond measure.
Old Zhang was already in his forties but he could still withstand the tossing and turning. Even so, being dragged around by Jiang Ci left him being flung from side to side, while he still had to keep one hand firmly around the little boy’s safety belt to protect him.
Fleurveil: I made mistake, I thought it’s a short novel but it’s not… I won’t drop it now so let’s read it together… 🤗
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
A humble coffee offering may appease the Great Translator.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Even He, an outsider, couldn’t stand itChapter 2 · DaddyChapter 3 · Thank you for the gift!Chapter 4 · Do You want to sleep with your brother?Chapter 5 · Smart BabyChapter 6 · Life in a Wealthy FamilyChapter 7 · Genius BrotherChapter 8 · Brother’s giftChapter 9 · Xiao Ci was injured.Chapter 10 · ThoughtfulChapter 11 · Treat as treasureChapter 12 · Only recognized oneChapter 13 · Lu family coupleChapter 14 · A closed heartChapter 15 · Understanding my brotherChapter 16 · Reluctant to hitChapter 17 · UneasyChapter 18 · PossessiveChapter 19 · Teenage RebelChapter 20 Part 1 · The car accidentChapter 20 Part 2 · The car accidentChapter 20 Part 3 · The car accidentChapter 21 · My heart is racingChapter 22 · Physiological Knowledge