Chapter 43#

Little Shen-gege#

Qin Mu felt a little helpless.

He had casually promised Qin Zhao a trip to the aquarium, but once things got busy, he forgot all about it.

Qin Mu was the forgetful type, and the little girl hadn’t made a point of reminding him.

Until today, when Qin Zhao’s teacher summoned him to the school.

Qin Yancheng was away on a business trip, and Yu Shu’s phone was off and unreachable.

In the end, the call could only be made to Qin Mu’s phone.

When he pressed for details, he learned that Qin Zhao had not gone straight home after school the day before yesterday — she had been lingering outside, and had nearly been lured away by a stranger. A passing teacher had rescued her in time, and the trafficker fled in a panic. Although the outcome was ultimately harmless, the risk had been far too great, and the teacher refused to release the child until a guardian came in person.

Qin Mu stood there obediently and listened to the teacher’s scolding.

It brought back faint memories of his mid-twenties. Qin Zhao had been unruly since she was small — Yu Shu had spoiled her rotten — and after Yu Shu left, under Qin Mu’s own lenience, she had grown completely ungovernable. During the early days of the company startup, he had been swamped with work, and the teacher’s calls never seemed to stop; he had been hauled into the office to be lectured more times than he could count.

He let out a quiet sigh.

Qin Mu picked up Qin Zhao’s little schoolbag and stepped out of the office. The little girl stood just outside the door with her head bowed and her hands clasped behind her back. The moment she saw Qin Mu emerge, she looked up at him with wide, imploring eyes.

Her rims were red and swollen — like a startled little rabbit.

Qin Mu’s feelings were complicated.

Especially when facing Qin Zhao.

He crouched down in front of her and looked up at her. He smiled gently, reaching out to wipe away the teardrop trailing down her chin. “That was very dangerous. If you’d been taken, you wouldn’t have been able to come home.”

Qin Zhao’s eyes grew even redder. She flung herself into Qin Mu’s arms and sobbed out her story in hiccupping fragments: “Wuu, he… he said… he said he knew! Knew, the way, to the aquarium! Wuuwuu…”

When Qin Zhao got upset, her stutter grew much worse. She cobbled together a few broken sentences, and through them Qin Mu pieced together what had actually happened.

Only then did he remember the promise he had made.

He felt a twinge of remorse and absently ruffled her hair. “All right, stop crying. I’ll take you, how’s that.”

Qin Zhao blinked, tears rolling down her cheeks, and smiled — her wish had come true at last.

So they went.

But Qin Zhao inexplicably worked herself into a sulk. She sat on a bench outside the park entrance, staring at Qin Mu without saying a word, biting her lip as tears quietly streamed down her face.

Qin Mu stood in front of her, but no matter what he asked, she wouldn’t answer.

He had no choice but to make a call.

“Hey, where are you? Something came up… could you come over?”

Jian Yunchen had just changed his clothes and was about to go meet Jian Xin. He glanced at the time, brow furrowing slightly. “Right now? Today doesn’t work — I have something on.”

Qin Mu slowly raised an eyebrow and glanced sidelong at 77, who was floating nearby.

77 supplied an answer based on the original storyline: 【According to the original plot, the antagonist at this point is trying to interrupt Jiang Yunhan and Qin Zheng’s date. In the end, he ends up going to the opera with Qin Zheng in his brother’s place.】

Just as 77 was wondering why no plot-point prompt had appeared, Qin Mu gave a cold smile and drew out a long “oh.”

“Jian Yunchen, you’ve got some nerve — running schemes behind my back again. Seems like you really never learn.”

Jian Yunchen was silent for a moment. “…You already know?”

Whether it was being used as a bargaining chip to get home, or that deliberate act of enticement — each incident was more than enough for Qin Mu to cut ties entirely. Jian Yunchen felt a prick of guilt. “I…”

Qin Mu gave a cold snort. “Come here now, and I won’t pursue it.”

Then he hung up.

Jian Yunchen stared at his phone as the screen went dark, and slowly knit his brows. He stood there a moment, wavering — then made up his mind.

He sent Jiang Sheng a text: Another time.

Read. No reply.

Qin Mu sent him the address. Jian Yunchen arrived quickly.

When he got there, he found Qin Mu standing with his arms crossed and a cold expression on his face, while a small girl sat before him crying quietly — it was rather a pitiful sight.

Jian Yunchen walked over briskly. The scene was genuinely alarming; he had already sensed several pairs of eyes watching from nearby, and if he had been any later, someone would probably have called the police.

“What’s going on?”

Qin Mu’s stony expression eased slightly at the sight of him, though it still wasn’t quite right. He rubbed his temple. “Qin Zhao — my little sister. She’s been crying for nearly an hour. She won’t answer anything I ask. I’m completely at a loss.”

Hearing Qin Mu’s reply, Jian Yunchen shifted his gaze to the small figure seated on the bench.

He noticed then that the two did share a certain resemblance in their features.

Qin Zhao spotted Jian Yunchen and blinked at him with curious eyes. Tears brimmed in her large eyes, and at the flutter of her lashes, they spilled over.

Jian Yunchen crouched down to her level and softened his voice. “You’re Qin Zhao, aren’t you? My name is Jian Yunchen — you can call me Little Shen-gege.”

Jian Yunchen’s features were naturally gentle, and once he set aside that cold, faintly sinister air of his, he looked so soft one could almost wring tenderness from him. Qin Mu stood to the side watching, his feelings growing a shade more complicated.

What he hadn’t expected was that Qin Zhao’s tears, if anything, came faster and harder.

Qin Mu felt the first stirrings of impatience.

He disliked watching people cry.

Tears were the most useless thing in the world.

Jian Yunchen panicked momentarily and scrambled to wipe her face, asking over and over whether she was hurting somewhere.

Gradually he noticed something: the more he asked, the faster he spoke — and the harder Qin Zhao cried.

A white hearing aid sat on her ear. He had spotted it the moment he arrived.

Then it suddenly dawned on him. He made a deliberate effort to open his mouth wide and spoke in an exaggeratedly slow cadence: “Are — the — bat — ter — ies — dead?”

Qin Zhao read his lips, puckered her mouth in aggrieved confirmation, and nodded.

Jian Yunchen broke into a smile, his eyes curving with relief.

Once the cause was found, the fix was simple. He quickly looked up the model of the hearing aid, bought replacement batteries, and it was only once Qin Zhao could hear the world again that her tears gradually came to a stop.

While they waited, Jian Yunchen learned the full story.

He found himself somewhat curious about why Qin Zhao had been so insistent on coming to the aquarium.

The plan to see Jian Xin had already fallen through anyway, so he decided to stay — and thus began their aquarium day out.

Children instinctively warm to people with pretty faces, and a soft, unthreatening look like Jian Yunchen’s was especially effective at winning small hearts. Within a single hour, Qin Zhao had defected completely — demoting “gege” to “Little Shen-gege” — and her bright eyes refused to leave him alone.

Qin Mu: “……”

The two of them walked pressed close together, while Qin Mu fell behind, reduced in full to his role as the one carrying the bag and paying for everything.

Along the way, Jian Yunchen glanced down at the crown of Qin Zhao’s head and asked her quietly, “Zhaozao — why didn’t you tell your gege the batteries were dead?”

Qin Zhao held his hand, leaning against his arm. She tilted her head up to look at Jian Yunchen for a moment, then pressed her lips together and looked back at Qin Mu — who was trudging behind them, stone-faced, eating the candied hawthorn skewers they had abandoned.

The little girl spoke softly, her brow wrinkling just slightly. “I was scared… gege would find out… and send me home.”

“Little Shen-gege.” Qin Zhao blinked her wide eyes and turned a winning smile up at him. “Don’t… send me home. Okay?”