“Uh…” This question made Shen Yi twirl a strand of hair around her finger.
She evasively told him, “In the future, your son will be very rich.”
Shen Sixing asked, “What about me?”
“You’ll be exiled.”
“…Why?”
Shen Yi was judging whether he could handle that answer.
The girl thought for two seconds, then said honestly, “You wanted to be with Mom, and your dad didn’t agree.”
She added, “Maybe your mom didn’t agree either.”
Shen Yi had never met her grandmother, so she wasn’t sure what her grandmother’s stance on that would have been.
Shen Sixing had already felt his future would be miserable after hearing her talk about “corporate slaves” and “stay-at-home dads.”
But exiled or something… that was way beyond the crime, wasn’t it?
The young man slowly took a deep breath. “Shen Yi.”
“Huh?” Shen Yi heard him call her by her full name.
Whatever she’d said must have hit some sensitive nerve, because this neurotic young father of hers now wore a strange expression as he stared at her gloomily.
“Am I a hopeless romantic in the future?” His tone rose slightly at the end.
Shen Yi gave a vague grunt. “That’s hard to say.”
In her memory, her parents’ relationship had always been a settled, long-married kind.
In her impression, her dad was the definition of “calm,” while her mom was more intense.
She believed a relationship needs both sides to push it forward.
As for who was the love-struck fool? That remained to be seen. Maybe it was a two-way commitment between two love-struck fools.
“I don’t really believe that,” Shen Sixing said softly. “I don’t think I’d give up everything that’s within easy reach.”
To him, rationality came before everything.
Compared to family, anyone could be discarded.
That was what his father had taught him.
Shen Sixing had practiced this philosophy all his life—no matter how much he liked a friend, in the end they were all left behind.
Shen Yi: “Then don’t say that to me. You should say that to Mom.”
She didn’t want to listen to him vent negative energy at her all day.
He bit his lip and let out a soft hum.
Shen Sixing had a good memory. Of course he remembered the string of numbers Wen Ya had told him.
He could recite it with his eyes closed.
But he definitely wasn’t going to call her on his own initiative.
He wouldn’t.
Absolutely not.
…
Midnight.
Shen Sixing lay on the floor, listening for a moment to the sounds from the bed.
Shen Yi’s breathing was even and long, and once in a while she turned over, the blanket rustling before quieting again.
He waited another two minutes, until he was sure she was completely asleep. Only then did he cautiously pull the blanket over his head, curling himself into a small lump.
The phone screen glowed inside the blanket, lighting up his face.
Shen Sixing’s finger hovered over the dial button for two seconds, then, as if making a firm decision, he pressed the number that had run through his mind a thousand times.
The call connected.
“Hello?” Wen Ya’s voice came through the receiver.
Shen Sixing opened his mouth and realized he’d forgotten to prepare a greeting.
He lowered his voice, speaking in a faint whisper, like a sneaky mouse moving around in the dead of night.
“…Miss, do you have time tomorrow?”
Wen Ya: “I do.”
She realized it was that earnest, slightly eccentric police officer from earlier today and immediately said in delight, “Are you inviting me over to your place?”
Shen Sixing: “…”
He frowned involuntarily.
Why was this person so... direct?
A woman, offering to go to a strange man’s house on her own—wasn’t she afraid of running into a bad person?
Judging by how she was dressed, she must come from a pretty well-off family, raised in such a way that she was a little too naive about the world?
While Shen Sixing was absorbed in analyzing Wen Ya’s personality, he failed to notice that the mischievous kid behind him had quietly opened her eyes, crept up from the bed, and now leaned close, whispering behind him: “Daddy…”
Shen Sixing was so startled he nearly threw the phone across the room.
“…”
Wen Ya heard a long silence on the other end and covered her mouth, thinking she must have scared him off with her enthusiasm.
A normal girl probably shouldn’t casually suggest going to a guy’s house.
Wen Ya regretted it a little. She should have found a love advisor first!
Like maybe asking some of the girls in the information department—they’d certainly know what to say and what not to say.
“Ah,” Shen Sixing came back to his senses on his end and went along with that last line. “You want to come over to my place?” He caught himself and corrected it. “I mean, if you want to—”
“Mm,” Wen Ya said, not bothering about the noise on the other end, and interrupted him. “I do.”
Shen Sixing said, “Then tomorrow at three in the afternoon?”
“Okay.”
After hanging up, Shen Sixing put the phone on his chest, stared at the ceiling, his mind blank.
Oh my god.
He had actually taken the initiative to invite someone.
Shen Yi squatted next to him, rubbing her eyes. “Mom’s coming over?”
Shen Sixing gave a dazed “Mm” and sat up from his floor mat.
Shen Yi snapped fully awake.
She looked around the messy rented room.
“Then we need to clean up, right? Daddy!”
This form of address stirred Shen Sixing's senses slightly.
He suddenly looked at her face and thought of an extremely serious problem.
Shen Sixing: "You need to call me 'brother' tomorrow."
Shen Yi's face fell. "Why?! Dad?"
"Keep your voice down." He covered her mouth, his dark eyes turning a bit heavy. "Do you think this is something to be proud of? An eighteen-year-old handsome young man with an eight-year-old daughter—your mother would be so shocked she'd grab the nearest train and hightail it out of here."
"..."
Shen Yi, with her mouth covered, stared at him wide-eyed for a few seconds. "Fine, I get it."
To welcome the future lady of the house, the father and daughter launched a truly unprecedented deep-cleaning spree at half past twelve in the middle of the night.
Shen Sixing knelt on the floor, putting all the scattered parts back in place, while Shen Yi wiped the graffiti marks off the wall with a wet cloth.
The two of them worked until two in the morning.
They collapsed in exhaustion onto the floor mat and the bed, sprawled out every which way, neither of them with any strength left to speak.
The next afternoon.
Wen Ya arrived at the door right on time.
She had changed into a light gray dress, with a cream-colored coat over it, her hair loosely pinned up at the back of her head. She looked much softer than she had that night.
The young woman stood at the doorway and took a quick look around the room.
A little over twenty square meters, a single bed, cardboard boxes stacked in the corner—it seemed quite bare.
She couldn't help but let out a soft sigh: "Your place is really..."
"Not much to look at."
As Wen Ya finished speaking, her gaze landed on the girl beside her who was staring at her intently.
Shen Yi peeked out from behind Shen Sixing's legs, tilting out half her head, her two eyes fixed on her without blinking.
