When Shang Shuji’s words reached Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu, the siblings were both stunned.
”What does Dad… mean?” Shang Jingqi asked uncertainly.
Shang Jingshu stroked her chin with feigned maturity and said, “Does Dad mean that he wasn’t angry about us putting salt in Xuan Zhixia’s bowl?”
Shang Jingqi: “But it doesn’t seem like it’s completely lifeless?”
Shang Jingshu looked at the maid who delivered the message: “Sister, what does ‘unpresentable’ mean?”
The maid smiled subtly, unsure whether to answer. Although she didn’t like Xuan Zhixia, the new wife, she didn’t want to get involved and stir up trouble.
”This…sir, I also…” the maid stammered, “…isn’t something that can be presented in public…let me think…”
Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu assumed that she was also unsure, so they continued to discuss it with each other.
”It’s not presentable… Do you want to perform on stage?”
”Does Dad think that what we do is not suitable for performing on stage?”
”Ah… Although Xuan Zhixia is a bad person, it’s also wrong for us to put salt in the dish. We shouldn’t be performing on stage in the first place…”
”That……”
”I see!”
”What?”
”Dad probably thinks it’s right for us to go against Xuan Zhixia! But putting salt in the bowl makes it look messy!”
”So…we should try a different approach?”
”Dad really hates Xuan Zhixia!”
They discussed it back and forth, and after reaching a pretty good understanding, the brother and sister went upstairs, found Xuan Zhixia’s room, and knocked on the door.
Xuan Zhixia opened the door, looked down at the two children, and asked wearily, “Is something the matter?”
Both children stood tall and declared in unison, “We hate you!”
Xuan Zhixia: “…That’s it?”
Shang Jingshu added, “Dad isn’t angry. We’ll keep arguing with you!”
Xuan Zhixia leaned against the door, arms crossed, looking relaxed: “Oh, your father has spoken?”
Shang Jingqi said openly, “Dad said we can deal with you, but only in a respectable way! We won’t be afraid of you tattling on us anymore!”
“You didn’t need to be afraid of me telling on you.” Xuan Zhixia paused slightly, then frowned slightly. “Are those your dad’s exact words? It sounds like some sort of twisted ‘insect-breeding’ ritual—why doesn’t he teach you anything good?”
Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu were once again completely bewildered: “What does ‘breeding gu’ mean?”
”Sheep bones…sheep bones? What does it have to do with sheep bones?”[1]NOTE: Yǎng Gǔ =养蛊= breeding gu or insect-breeding, Yáng gǔ =羊骨= Sheep bones
So yeah this is pronunciation and pinyin problem jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2602977_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2602977_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
”You’re not allowed to speak ill of Dad!”
Xuan Zhixia smiled enigmatically: “I’m a bad person, and bad people say bad things, is there a problem with that?”
The two children: “…”
”It seems…it seems there’s no problem…” Shang Jingqi stammered.
”But…but that’s just not right!” Shang Jingshu clenched her little fists. “No!”
Xuan Zhixia stared calmly at the two children for a while, making their hearts pound.
Shang Jingshu: “You… what mischief are you up to now! Let me tell you, we’re not Cinderella!”
Shang Jingqi: “That’s right! I won’t let you bully me!”
They were trying very hard, but the two children subconsciously took two steps back, their brows furrowed with unease, as if a demon had suddenly appeared behind Xuan Zhixia.
Xuan Zhixia sighed softly: “With a father like that, plus a stepfather like me, you’re not much better off than Cinderella. It would be a contribution to society if you didn’t grow up to be bad.”
Seeing the two children’s bewildered expressions, Xuan Zhixia closed the door.
After a while, Shang Jingqi stammered, “What does he mean?”
”Is he cursing at us?” Shang Jingshu stared at the door in front of her.
”But…it seems he cursed Dad, he cursed himself, and he cursed us too?”
”He’s so strange.”
”Then…should we still deal with him?”
”Of course! Dad encouraged us! We must bravely face bad guys!”
”But…why would Dad let a bad person come to our house?”
The two children walked away in a daze.
Because they were confused and couldn’t figure it out, Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu were still not motivated when they arrived at kindergarten the next day. During recess, they lay on the table thinking—Xuan Zhixia, this “enemy,” was too powerful. How could they make their father satisfied?
”What’s wrong with Qiqi and Shushu?” The teacher noticed their situation and squatted down in front of their small desks to talk to them. “Are you feeling unwell? Why aren’t you playing with the other children?”
Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu didn’t want their teacher to worry, so they shook their heads and said they weren’t feeling unwell, then obediently went to play with building blocks with other children.
”Wrong! Wrong again! Qiqi, you’re so silly today!” shouted the other children playing with him.
Shang Jingshu sighed like a little adult: “Don’t blame him, we’re really troubled right now.”
”What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” the children asked all at once.
Shang Jingshu: “You all know Cinderella, right?”
Children: “We know!”
”What would you do if you were Cinderella?” Shang Jingshu asked worriedly.
A little girl answered, “I don’t want to be Cinderella! I want to be Snow White!”
Another little girl raised her hand: “Me! I want to be Sleeping Beauty!”
A little boy stood tall and proud: “I don’t want to be Cinderella! I’m a prince!”
”Then I want to be the king! The king is the prince’s father!”
”Then I want to be the queen! I want to be the mother of all the princesses and princes!”
”Haha! I want to be the magic mirror! Magic mirror, magic mirror, who is the fairest of them all? It’s myself, you idiot!”
Children’s attention spans are short, and they quickly started talking all at once, diverting the conversation. No one remembered Shang Jingshu’s initial question.
Shang Jingshu and Shang Jingqi consider themselves very smart and brave, but they feel exhausted among a group of children who still believe in fairy tales.
A teacher who was observing the students’ movements nearby heard these words and took them to heart.
During lunch break, the teacher called Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu to the toy room, gave them candy, and coaxed them, asking, “Why did Shushu ask Cinderella’s question this morning?”
The brother and sister didn’t know where to begin, looking somewhat lost with candy in their mouths.
The teacher then refined the question: “Do Shushu and Qiqi have a new mother? Like Cinderella’s stepmother?”
The teacher also recalled that the siblings’ parent-teacher communication book did not contain their parents’ contact information, only the contact information of their father’s assistant, explaining that their father was very busy and it was faster to contact the assistant. There was no mention of their mother at all.
So when Shang Jingshu mentioned Cinderella, the teacher guessed that they might have a stepmother. The two children’s listless appearance also worried the teacher that their stepmother might be mistreating them.
Shang Jingqi thought for a moment and answered the teacher, “Yes, I have a stepmother, but she is a man.”
The teacher was a little surprised, but not for long, and then asked, “Was he not good to you? Why did you mention Cinderella?”
Upon hearing this question, Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu instinctively answered, “He’s a bad person!”
The teacher was shocked: “What did he do to you?!”
”Ah…” Shang Jingshu frowned again, “It seems… he didn’t do anything?”
The teacher paused, then asked, “Why do Qiqi and Shushu think he’s a bad person?”
”Because Grandpa, Grandma, and Dad don’t like him! He insisted on coming to our house!” Shang Jingqi said.
“Moreover…we say he’s a bad person, and he himself says he’s a bad person…” Shang Jingshu added.
Shang Jingqi: “He said he would take us to school, but he didn’t!”
The teacher seemed unsure, so she talked to the brother and sister for a while longer before taking them back to the classroom and comforting them for a nap.
Back in the office, the teacher hesitated for a while, but still called the assistant of the brother and sister’s father using the phone number in the parent-teacher communication book.
…
In the afternoon, the assistant seized the opportunity to report to Shang Shuji: “Sir, the young master and young lady’s kindergarten teacher contacted me at noon.”
Shang Shuji lifted his eyelids: “What’s wrong?”
The assistant briefly recounted the situation, then said, “The teacher means that she is worried that the family situation and the relationships between family members are affecting the young master and young lady’s mental health and growth. She hopes that you, as their father, and Mr. Xuan, as the newest member of the family, can have a good talk with the young master and young lady and prevent the two children from overthinking.”
Shang Shuji calmed down and realized that Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu were just too idle, which was why they had time to overthink things. They would be fine once they got busy.
”Has their summer vacation schedule been finalized?” Shang Shuji asked.
The assistant replied, “It’s almost done. I can show it to you within half an hour.”
So on this day, Shang Shuji, unusually, left work on time and returned to the Shang family with the newly released summer vacation schedule.
Then he saw the two children, Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu, covered in dirt, pulling up radishes in the vegetable garden.
The vegetable garden was cultivated by Shang Shuji’s father. After retiring, Shang’s father was bored at home, so he set up a plot of land to grow vegetables.
The two children were working hard in the vegetable garden, while Xuan Zhixia sat outside the garden, leaning against a recliner with fruit and water on the afternoon tea table beside him, and holding a book, looking very relaxed and content.
Shang Shuji watched this scene from a distance, puzzled, and asked, “What’s going on?”
Following Shang Shuji, Chen Ma replied with a complicated expression: “When the young master and young lady came back from kindergarten this afternoon, they saw Zhixia reading a book and went to talk to him. After a few words, they made a bet that the radishes in the master’s vegetable garden were ripe, and the young master, young lady and Zhixia would have a competition to see who could pull up the radishes better.”
As a result, Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu worked very hard at pulling the vegetables. Xuan Zhixia had someone help move tables, chairs, and parasols, and sat by the vegetable garden to continue reading his book. Occasionally, he would look up at the siblings and offer a few perfunctory words of encouragement.
As Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu were pulling, they realized something was wrong and asked Xuan Zhixia why he wasn’t moving.
Xuan Zhixia replied without batting an eye, “I’m an adult, and you’re children. It’s unfair for me to compete with you from the same starting line. I’m not that shameless. You go first, and I’ll come over later. You’re bound to lose.”
Provoked like this, Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu pulled up the radishes even more diligently without saying a word, taking the matter very seriously and not realizing the problem at all.
Shang Shuji: “…”
He remembered that when he first brought the two children back from the orphanage, he was quite satisfied with their intelligence. Now, only six months later, they seem to have regressed.
In the distance, in the vegetable garden, two children, covered in dirt and with mud on their usually clean faces, were pulling up radishes with great enthusiasm. Although they were competing with Xuan Zhixia in a bet, they were clearly having a good time.
Xuan Zhixia sat leisurely not far from the two children, a gentle breeze ruffling his hair and the book. He raised his hand and gently pressed down on the restless pages, then called out to Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu in the vegetable garden, “You two are so slow.”
Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu looked up, wanting to refute Xuan Zhixia, but suddenly saw Shang Shuji’s figure. Overjoyed, they quickly dropped the radishes in their hands and ran over from the vegetable garden.
”Dad!”
Xuan Zhixia followed their voices and figures and saw Shang Shuji, but he was too lazy to get up and didn’t move.
Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu were not clean, and they only realized this after running up to Shang Shuji. So they hesitated and called out again, “Dad…”
Shang Shuji nodded slightly: “Go and clean it up. I have something to tell you after dinner.”
The brother and sister both wanted to stay with Shang Shuji a little longer, but knowing that they were indeed covered in mud, they didn’t dare to act cute with Shang Shuji and obediently followed Chen Ma.
Shang Shuji watched them leave, then turned his head to look at Xuan Zhixia, who was still standing there, completely uninhibited.
Yesterday at lunch, Xuan Zhixia’s words, “Please take care of me for the next twenty years,” suddenly resurfaced in my mind.
Part of the phone call between Mr. and Mrs. Shang yesterday evening, and the phone call from the two children’s kindergarten teachers today…
Although he didn’t have deep feelings for Shang Jingqi and Shang Jingshu, Shang Shuji did indeed regard them as his future heirs and didn’t want them to be raised too naively.
As heirs, Shang Shuji doesn’t need them to have deep feelings for their father, but he does need them to have a certain sense of belonging to the Shang family, and at least not to be uneasy about Xuan Zhixia.
And Xuan Zhixia as a person…
Shang Shuji pondered for a moment, then turned and went back inside, sending a message to his assistant on the way: “Xuan Zhixia signed a contract for a parent-child variety show. Investigate.”
References[+]
So yeah this is pronunciation and pinyin problem
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