Lin Han hadn't expected me to return home so suddenly. She was startled by my haggard appearance and the child I brought with me.
...
Tang Yi's clear eyes widened as she looked at Huang Huang. She picked up a toy and walked over, offering it to him. "Want to play together?"
Huang Huang shook his head and looked at me expectantly. I handed him a book. He took it and sat in a corner, engrossed in reading. Lin Han's expression was one of utter astonishment. How could a child this young read? Tang Yi didn't even know her letters yet.
"Whose child is this?"
"He's my son."
Lin Han frowned. "What kind of scheme is Cao Qian up to now?"
"She's no longer in a position to scheme."
Lin Han looked at me, then walked to my side, taking my hand. "Nan Ge, what's happened?"
"Cao Qian is dead!"
Lin Han's mouth fell open, unable to believe the news. After I finished explaining everything, she quietly walked to the corner and gently stroked Huang Huang's head as he sat reading.
"Huang Huang, would you like to live with us from now on?"
"Okay! Auntie!"
"Don't call me Auntie. Call me Mom, just like Tang Yi."
"Okay, Mom!"
"Good boy, Huang Huang, you're so sensible."
At that moment, Tang Yi came over, pouting. "He's not sensible at all. He won't play with me."
"Then I'll play with you now."
"Okay!"
Tang Yi was delighted and offered the toy again. Huang Huang glanced at Lin Han, sensing her approval, and then took the toy. Huang Huang and Tang Yi were the same age, both just little kids who didn't understand much. But Huang Huang's demeanor made him seem like an older brother to Tang Yi.
...
When I left Hebei, Cao's father told me something. Huang Huang was a strange child. He lacked emotional depth, and apart from curiosity, his other emotions were very faint.
He never cried and rarely laughed.
The child's obedience and sensibility exceeded my imagination. And it seemed to go beyond mere sensibility.
So, for the most part, I observed Huang Huang silently. I noticed that every time we stopped at a station, he would stare intently at the station signs outside the window. At first, I didn't understand. Then, I suddenly realized.
"Huang Huang, can you read?"
"Yes!"
A preschooler who could read?
I was stunned and asked in surprise, "Who taught you?"
"The kindergarten teacher."
I could understand that kindergarten might teach some characters, as Tang Yi was also in kindergarten. Teachers would use flashcards to teach some complex characters and then have the children read them aloud.
Most children could recognize and remember these characters, but they couldn't string them together. A clever child might recognize a character if you pointed it out in a book, but they wouldn't know its meaning, only how to pronounce it.
But Huang Huang was different. He was smarter than those clever children; he had already grasped the meaning of the characters, even though they were still unfamiliar to him.
"Beer, drinks, mineral water..."
At that moment, someone pushed a cart, selling goods. I stopped the vendor. "Do you have magazines?"
"Yes!"
"Give me one!"
Taking the magazine, I handed it to Tang Tang and asked seriously, "Can you understand this?"
Tang Tang shook his head, then nodded. He lacked confidence in the challenge, but for some reason, he was eager to try. So, he read, and I watched him.
Tang Tang didn't recognize many words, but he asked. After I taught him, he understood. Gradually, a magazine no longer seemed to be a challenge for him.
Honestly, this child's intelligence surpassed my comprehension. He was so smart it made my spine tingle. I had never met such an intelligent child, and this situation was beyond the understanding of an ordinary person like me.
Fortunately, my experiences as a schemer over the years had given me a different perspective on the world. There were always extraordinary people in this world, like Tao Yue, Professor Huang, Cao Qian, and even Zhang Si and Wang Ren.
I watched Tang Tang. Even as he read, when the train stopped, he would look outside. Finally, I understood why he was looking at the station signs: he was memorizing the route.
Did I really have to do this?
If I lost, this family would fall apart.
Was I going to leave Lin Han to care for three children alone? Was it because Lin Han loved me that I had to make such a cruel decision?
...
I understood Wang Ren's psychology. She wasn't a bloodthirsty demon. Even if Wang Ren used her professional knowledge to define people as future criminals, her original intention was to deal with criminals, not to have some world-destroying thoughts like in movies or TV shows. Wang Ren didn't even have the ambition of Li Jiu.
Li Jiu even wanted to use game theory to turn the country's main forces into hawks.
Zhu Guang even wanted to transmit the idea that "everyone for themselves, or heaven and earth will destroy them" into the minds of everyone who held financial power.
Similarly, Wang Ren lacked the ambition of Li Jiu and Zhu Guang, and even more so, the humanity of Zhang Si and Lao Gui. Zhang Si was greedy, while Lao Gui, Cao Shi, was also a lover of life. He had been bound by the constraints of Elder Wen De for decades, his hair graying, yet he still pursued a happy life with his family.
In fact, from the beginning, Lao Gui's pursuit was to be an ordinary person who ate and drank.
...
Without extremism, without transcending human boundaries, did Wang Ren really need me to deal with her?
I hesitated!
For the sake of the children, for the sake of this family, there seemed to be no need for me to take that risk.
...
Therefore, I didn't rush back to Beijing. Instead, in my hometown, I enrolled Huang Huang in kindergarten. Tang Yi requested that Huang Huang be in the same class as her, and I agreed.
Huang Huang didn't seem to care much about it. He was more interested in reading lately. As long as Tang Yi didn't bother him, he would read. He read any book he could get his hands on. He knew Pinyin, and Lin Han bought him a Xinhua Dictionary.
This child was about to become a demon.
One day, Huang Huang asked me, "Dad, what does a love triangle mean?"
"Children shouldn't ask about such things."
"You, Mom, and my birth mother whom I've never met – are you three in a love triangle?"
I was completely stunned, petrified by the question. So, I went to the bookstore and bought "Why?" "Grimm's Fairy Tales," and "Zizhi Tongjian," and sold all the messy magazines and novels at home to the scrap yard.
...
A few days later, Tang Tang finally stabilized a bit, but he still asked me strange questions, like, "Why do men and women together have children?"
"Because we are husband and wife!"
"Then, if Tang Yi and I become husband and wife, will we have children?"
"Tang Yi is your sister," I emphasized.
"Then what if I were with another girl?"
"You are not allowed to ask such questions."
I almost roared, then huffily went to the bookshelf, flipping through "Why?". If the content was in "Why?", I would sell that set of books to the junkyard too.
At some point, Lin Han had appeared behind me. She said, "I'm ready."
"Ready for what?"
"I'll go to Beijing with you."