Shen Sixing parted ways with the others at noon.
When the car stopped before the wrought-iron gates, the winter wind swept through the treetops.
The security system automatically recognized Shen Sixing’s face, and the gates slid silently open from the middle, revealing a bluestone path leading to the main house.
In the living room, Shen Sigui was sprawled across the sofa, playing video games.
He was wearing a loose hoodie and looked listless—clearly, he had been up all night. Gunshots and explosions filled the screen, blending into a frantic rhythm.
Hearing footsteps, he lifted one eyelid. When he saw Shen Sixing, he raised his brows and tugged his lips into a gleeful smile.
“You’re back?” He tossed the controller aside. “Mom knows what you did, and she’s furious.”
“What did she say?” Shen Sixing asked.
“Nothing much.” Shen Sigui paused. “Since you came back, I assume you don’t plan on leaving again, do you?”
Shen Sixing had no intention of staying.
But there was no way he could say that out loud, so he merely smiled.
Shen Sigui was no fool. Back when he had been staying at Shen Sixing’s house, he had already seen how dependent his older brother was on that utterly ordinary family.
Shen Sixing didn’t like freedom. He was more like a weary bird that longed for home. Once he found a suitable nest, he would fight tooth and nail to stay there.
Shen Sigui couldn’t help becoming wary. “You’re not actually serious about her, are you, Brother?”
“Do you really think an ordinary person could accept your family background? All my old friends ran away as soon as they heard about our family. The same goes for your future wife, doesn’t it? Before becoming partners, there can’t be any deception. But what normal person would want to live such an unstable life with you?”
After earnestly going on for quite a while, Shen Sigui reached his conclusion.
“So, in the end, only the family can be your true destination.”
Shen Sixing merely glanced at him and smiled.
“Is that so?”
“Everything you’ve said is just your own subjective judgment, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know whether my destination is the family,” Shen Sixing said. “But your future destination…” He thought of the fate that had already been set and smiled faintly, his expression almost pitying. “That’s definitely going to be exhausting, isn’t it?”
“?”
What was going to be exhausting?
What was he talking about?
Shen Sigui’s brows drew together as he repeatedly turned those words over in his mind, trying to figure out what they meant.
Shen Sixing gave him no chance to press further. Instead, he said, “Besides, my family isn’t like your fake friends.”
Shen Yi didn’t care about his grimy, unsavory past.
Wen Ya naturally cared even less.
Shen Sixing could eat three people alive, and Wen Ya would still praise him for being badass.
At the thought, the corners of Shen Sixing’s mouth relaxed unconsciously. He turned and glanced at Shen Sigui, his eyes carrying a hint of calm superiority.
He had a family of his own.
Of course he couldn’t explain things to a wild man like Shen Sigui, who had no family.
The smile on Shen Sigui’s face slowly stiffened.
He had a strange feeling that he had somehow been discriminated against.
Annoyance rose in his chest. He raised his voice and shouted toward the side hall, “Mom, you absolutely have to teach him a lesson! He dares to find a woman outside today—tomorrow he’ll be killing people!”
“Dad! Mom—”
Shen Sigui yelled at the top of his lungs.
“All right.”
“Shut up.”
The two voices rang out almost simultaneously.
The first belonged to Shen Shu; the second, gentler one, came from his mother, Qin Ruolan.
Qin Ruolan moved slowly to the sofa opposite him and sat down. She crossed her legs, then lightly laced her fingers together over her knee, gripping them tightly.
It was her habitual posture when observing someone.
The atmosphere sank into silence.
She was the first to speak, slowly. “I heard you found a woman about your age and have been playing house with her.”
“I’m not playing a game.” Shen Sixing looked straight at her. “I made myself perfectly clear.”
“An unidentified woman and an eight-year-old child—and not a helpless infant, either.” Shen Shu sat in the armchair on the other side, placed his cigar on the edge of the ashtray, and continued coldly. “You’re volunteering to be someone’s stepfather?”
Shen Sixing’s gaze shifted uncertainly.
He did not answer the question about becoming a stepfather. After all, there was a good chance that, in the future, Shen Shu would also become Shen Yi’s step-grandfather.
He kept considering what he could offer and what he could get in return.
The Shen family had invested too much in him.
Not only money and effort, but also the time and patience they had poured into him.
The greater the cost, the less willing they would be to let him go.
That was the family’s consistent logic: sunk costs were never tolerated. They could only be squeezed for even greater returns.
The only thing he could gamble on was his family’s conscience.
And the despairing truth was that he knew better than anyone that his family’s conscience was practically nonexistent.
“What do you want?” Shen Sixing chose the simplest way to negotiate with them. “As long as it’s something you want and something I’m capable of doing, I’ll do it. I understand the cost of raising and training me. I’ll pay it all back, and I won’t leave you at a loss.”
Shen Shu was so enraged by that lovesick nonsense that he actually laughed.
He immediately gave Shen Sixing a task.
“Three Chinese factions control more than seventy percent of the illicit trade in the waters around the South Seas.”
“The Indonesian military intelligence agency has a network of informants independent of the national defense establishment. They’ve been watching that region for years.” His gaze was as sharp as a blade as it pressed down on the unusually thin boy across from him. “I want control of that territory.”
“Fine.” After hearing the task, Shen Sixing surprisingly offered no objections. He even proposed a deadline himself. “Give me six months. Once I’m done, can I have my freedom?”
“The task will take at least six months under the best circumstances, and you’re already in such a hurry?” Shen Shu corrected him in an unhurried tone. “Shen Sixing, you’re not naïve enough to think that completing one or two tasks will be enough to strip the Shen family’s label from you, are you?”
Qin Ruolan chimed in with a pleasant smile. “I can temporarily stop assigning people to watch you. But you’d better understand exactly where the boundaries of the word ‘temporarily’ lie.”
Shen Sixing did not argue.
He knew this was the furthest the two of them were willing to retreat.
To be honest, this task was no less difficult than asking him to launch a coup all by himself.
But he had no other choice.
Shen Sigui watched his brother leave and frowned. “Even if he completes this task, are you really going to let him go?”
He directed the question at his parents.
Qin Ruolan gave him a cool glance. “What kind of joke is that? Of course we’re not going to let him go.”
She reached out and pinched her younger son’s cheek. “Speaking of which, did you sneak off to meet that child he’s raising? Hmm?”
Shen Sigui: “…”
“She’s quite interesting.” He slowly broke into a smile. “Mom, you can change her into little dresses more often from now on.”
Qin Ruolan was somewhat surprised that he had discovered her little hobby.
Her expression remained impassive as she replied coolly, “Do I look like the kind of person who enjoys dressing little children in different outfits?”
Shen Sigui: “Don’t you? Your room is full of dolls.”
And Shen Yi was like a life-sized doll.
Far more gorgeous—and far more interesting—than the impractical dolls in his mother’s room.
