How could his future possibly be like that?
A wage slave?
Even dogs wouldn't choose that life.
Shen Sixing thought viciously.
"Really, really, you'll have lots of kids in the future, and you'll have to work hard to earn milk money. You'll be a hardworking daddy superhero."
Shen Yi was still chattering away beside him, piling on more details.
The words made his legs go weak, weaker and weaker.
Not to mention whether what she said was true or not was up for debate.
Even if it was true,
he refused to accept that kind of future.
Shen Yi had initially thought that when he said "making money," he meant doing something big.
She had already imagined following him to some underground deal site, or going to meet some dangerous contact.
She'd even prepared herself to hide in the corner and watch him get into a gunfight.
But she never expected—he was just going to work a part-time job.
At noon today, Shen Sixing led her through three streets and turned into a small repair shop on the first floor of a residential building. The owner was an old man with gray hair who glanced at Shen Sixing and jerked his chin toward the back room, saying:
"Three systems crashed."
Shen Sixing sat down in that small room piled with computer cases and cables, typing on the keyboard for half an hour at three blue-screened computers.
When he came out, he had a crumpled fifty-yuan bill in his hand.
Shen Yi had gotten bored and spent the time playing with a dog in the yard.
She never would have guessed.
So this was how plain and unremarkable the life of her supposed "old man" was.
Shen Sixing draped a white scarf around his neck, took the money, and looked down at the kid squatting beside him, waiting. "Let's go."
Shen Yi immediately fell in step behind him.
"Aren't you going to take some shady jobs, or do something dangerous to society, to make some quick cash?"
She thought that with his years of running with the wrong crowd, his style should have been more along the lines of committing every sin under the sun.
Shen Sixing: "Finding gigs isn't as fast as getting paid daily."
He had no material desires.
His pockets were cleaner than his face.
If it weren't for the sudden addition of someone who needed to eat, he wouldn't have left the house at all today.
The winter wind blew across his face. Shen Yi reached up and covered her cheeks with her hands, the cold making them itch.
She scratched at them a couple of times.
Shen Sixing showed no sign of taking off the scarf around his neck and giving it to the kid.
When he reached the bun shop at the corner, he hesitated for two seconds, then pulled out his money to buy two pork buns and two cups of soy milk.
Taking the paper bag from the owner, he shoved it into Shen Yi's arms.
"Here, take it." The young man lowered his eyes, his tone slow and unhurried, and he started guilt-tripping her with a perfectly straight face. "This is what your old man bought with his blood and sweat. Eat up. I sure don't have that kind of luck."
Shen Yi held the warm paper bag and looked up at him.
"If it weren't for you," Shen Sixing lowered his gaze, pushing the straw through the plastic film on the soy milk cup, his voice flat and calm, "I wouldn't have bothered spending money on something this expensive."
Shen Yi looked down at the paper bag in her arms.
Questioning her life.
Two buns, two cups of soy milk—together, less than ten yuan.
She looked up at Shen Sixing's face, which wore an expression of "see how good I am to you," and was silent for two seconds.
What a vicious person.
These were things he was going to eat himself anyway, yet he twisted it into sounding like he was gritting his teeth and sacrificing for her sake.
Shen Yi held the paper bag and chose not to call him out on it. She lowered her head and took a bite of the bun.
Shen Sixing stood beside her, glanced at her, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. He turned around and leaned his back against a wutong tree by the roadside, drinking his own cup of soy milk.
Shen Yi quickly finished both buns.
Shen Sixing found a bench and sat down.
He tilted his head and watched an orange cat running back and forth in a flower bed not far away.
Shen Yi, full and content, squatted down to play with the cat.
Shen Sixing couldn't be bothered to pay her any mind.
He thought this kid was pretty strange—she'd been following him around like a little tail, no matter how he tried to shake her off, and she wouldn't leave no matter how he chased her away.
He'd considered treating her like some kind of anomaly and just handing her over to his family to deal with.
The Shen family had kicked him out, but the people under him were still around. If he gave the word, someone would come pick up this kid.
No matter where she came from, they'd always find ways to make her talk.
He could have done it that way.
But he didn't.
Maybe he was a little bored, too.
He'd lived alone for three years, with nothing but that broken computer and a house full of dust. His days had passed like stagnant water, even the thrill of the gambling dens growing numb.
Then suddenly this strange thing showed up—origin unknown, muttering nonsense, claiming to know his future.
So he thought, might as well keep her around like a stray cat or dog. Feed her scraps and she'd live.
For now, he could muddle through day by day.
If she became a problem, he'd just kill her.
He looked down at Shen Yi.
She was squatting on the ground in front of the bench, reaching out a finger to tease the orange cat.
That cat actually bothered to respond to her too, tilting its head to rub against her finger, then squinting its eyes in contentment as she scratched behind its ears.
Shen Yi crouched there, a small bundled-up figure, her hair coming loose from the hair tie and falling in strands onto the back of her neck.
Shen Sixing reached out a hand, almost without thinking.
His movement was very gentle—he wanted to touch her hair. But just before he made contact, his fingertips changed direction and landed on the side of her neck.
His thumb rested against the skin at the back of her neck, feeling the faint pulse beneath it. One beat at a time, steady and rhythmic.
Press down, and she'd be dead.
A very fragile life.
Shen Sixing had killed plenty of inconvenient people this way.
No need for a knife—just find the right spot, press down with the thumb, and it was over in a few seconds.
Most of them never even had time to react.
Unaware, thinking it was just a hug, they'd have their lives quietly erased by his touch.
And here she was, so completely unguarded, squatting there petting a cat, never once considering that the person sitting behind her might make a move on her.
If Shen Yi really was some kind of spy,
then whatever organization trained her had done a spectacularly terrible job.
"If," Shen Sixing spoke softly, his fingertip still resting against her neck, "I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead."
Shen Yi turned her head back, surprised. "Then why would you want to kill me?"
She hadn't done anything to him.
"Is it because I cost you ten yuan, and you're mad enough to commit murder?"
Shen Yi had a sudden realization and got a little angry: "No wonder my third brother always told me not to spend poor people's money. So that's how it is. You're way too much."
Killing a child in a rage over ten yuan.
He was absolutely inhuman.
The two of them were operating on completely different wavelengths.
He caught the key point in her words again: "Third brother?"
"This third brother you're talking about—is he your actual brother? Not a cousin or something?"
Shen Yi nodded. "He's my brother."
Her brother...
Shen Sixing still didn't believe a word of her nonsense, but his mind was always wandering, and it took an irrevocable turn toward the spoilers she'd given him about his future as a superhero dad.
"Th-three?" Shen Sixing's calm voice began to tremble slightly at that moment.
Why would he have so many kids?
He looked down at the eight-year-old girl squatting in front of him.
A ridiculous image suddenly formed in his mind.
Himself in an apron standing in the kitchen, a crying baby in each arm, a kid at his feet tugging at his pant leg and begging for candy.
And in the living room, another son with snot running down his nose.
And on his own face was that kind of gentle, weary, yet blissful smile that Shen Sixing had never once worn in his entire life.
Ha ha.
Was this future some kind of hell?
Shen Sixing shook his head violently, trying to fling that image out of his mind.
"You're joking," he said, struggling to stay calm. "You're lying to me. I can't have three kids—wait, with you that's four?! How is that even possible."
Shen Yi crouched on the ground, her expression dead earnest.
Without a moment's hesitation, she dropped a bombshell.
"It's four, actually—plus me, you'd have five kids, Dad."
Shen Sixing: "…………"
