Shen Sixing’s legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees outside the delivery room.
From the moment Wen Ya had been wheeled inside, he had been consumed by one wave of anxiety after another. At last, the door to the delivery room opened, and the nurses came out carrying the babies. The very first thing one of them said was:
“Congratulations. It’s a set of twins.”
…
The entire family showed up on the day Wen Ya was discharged.
The scene was practically as lively as a shareholders’ meeting.
Shen Ruxu was the first to rush over, his face nearly pressed against the babies. He stared curiously at the one in his mother’s arms. “Is this one a boy or a girl?”
“This one’s your sister,” Wen Ya said. She lifted the baby with one arm.
Shen Ruxu immediately leaned in, unable to wait another moment.
The baby instantly flashed him a toothless grin, then spat a mouthful of drool all over his face.
Qin Ruolan covered her mouth and laughed. “Oh, what a darling. That baby can really spit! Just like her mother.”
Wen Ya humbly replied, “I’m not that accurate when I spit.”
Shen Shu, meanwhile, said nothing.
The old man had always disapproved of their marriage, and he had never seemed particularly enthusiastic about any of the children, either.
Today, however, he was acting strangely. With his hands clasped behind his back, Shen Shu stood in front of the cradle for a long time.
Just as Shen Sixing began to think the old man had finally been moved by familial affection, he realized that Shen Shu was still silent, merely studying the two tiny babies with a heavy gaze.
In the end, all he left behind before departing was a check.
The amount on it was so large that Shen Sixing counted the zeros three times.
Shen Sixing muttered, “I really don’t know what he came here for.”
Wen Ya glanced at the check. “At least he paid for the formula.”
“…Then we should have them come again next time.” Shen Sixing found himself quite satisfied with that idea.
The three older children silently leaned over the cradle, watching the two brand-new little creatures.
Shen Wenta wrinkled his brow, his disgust plain for all to see. “They’re both drooling. Gross.”
“They’re still very little,” Wen Ya said, unable to hold back a laugh as she patted his head. “You drooled when you were little, too.”
“She’s a gigantic baby. She’s bigger than Shen Xun, and she even hits him.” Shen Ruxu pointed at Shen Yi and seriously contemplated the potential threat to his life. “Will she bully me when she grows up?”
He had a point.
There was an obvious difference in size between the two babies.
Shen Yi was a whole size bigger than Shen Xun. Her arms were plump and segmented like lotus roots, and she was so white and chubby that she was practically a giant even by baby standards.
Wen Ya was bursting with pride. “That means your sister will be even more impressive when she grows up.”
Perhaps because he had been sickly since childhood, Shen Wenta took an interest in the one who looked a little more fragile.
He extended a finger and carefully touched Shen Xun’s cheek.
Soft. Warm. Alive.
Shen Xun grabbed his finger.
Shen Wenta’s entire body stiffened. He didn’t dare move an inch, though the tips of his ears slowly turned red.
After a long moment, he moved his finger ever so slightly and gently curled it around Shen Xun’s in return.
Meanwhile, Shen Ruxu and Shen Zhizhao were both observing Shen Yi.
Shen Zhizhao rested his chin on his little brother’s head. The brothers’ heads were stacked one on top of another, like a chain of curious little animals.
After watching for a while, Shen Zhizhao asked softly, “Can I hold her?”
Wen Ya said, “No.”
Shen Zhizhao had always known exactly how to act cute. He tilted his face up and did his best to look sincere. “Really? I’ll be very careful.”
“Still no.”
And so, on her first night home, Shen Yi fell asleep beneath the watchful eyes of her three older brothers, who took turns crowding around her.
Wen Ya hummed a lullaby as she quietly leaned over the cradle and looked at the two babies.
The longer she watched them, the more she smiled.
She bent down and kissed each child on the forehead.
Then she whispered:
“Good night, sweetheart.”
…
At eight or nine months old, babies were usually beginning to learn how to talk. For some reason—perhaps because of his personality—Shen Xun was unusually quiet.
His sister, on the other hand, was more like an ordinary child. At the age when she was learning to speak, she loved screaming at the top of her lungs.
One afternoon, Shen Wenta made his usual visit to the cradle.
Lately, he had become fascinated with observing Shen Xun.
Quiet, thin, and small—the only normal person in the family.
He had just bent down when Shen Yi, who had been sleeping soundly, suddenly opened her eyes as though she had sensed something.
Their gazes met.
She saw Shen Wenta, who was closest to her.
Shen Yi immediately became delighted. She reached out, grabbed his cheek, and pulled it into a ridiculous shape while shrieking happily:
“Gege!”
Shen Wenta was startled. With a frown, he resigned himself to picking her up.
He was thin and frail, with narrow shoulders and a slight back. His clothes were far too large for him and hung loosely from his frame. Now that he was holding Shen Yi—the enormous baby—he looked especially strained.
Shen Yi, however, had no concept of how heavy she was.
She was happy simply to have been picked up. Eagerly, she leaned closer and planted a loud kiss on his face.
Drool smeared all over him.
“…”
Shen Wenta closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Shen Yi.”
“Gege!”
That was the only word she knew how to say at the moment.
Shen Wenta’s heart softened again.
Then she grabbed his naturally wavy bangs with both hands and gave them a hard yank.
The carefully styled, naturally curly fringe was stretched straight on the spot.
Shen Wenta: “…”
Still holding the baby, he stood there with his violently straightened bangs, saying nothing for a long, long time.
…
At the age of three, Shen Yi’s family situation was as follows:
Her mother was an assassin.
Her strikes were swift and clean, and after years in the profession, she had never received a single bad review—
Well, that was assuming the assassination business had a review app.
Her father was a corporate wage slave who moonlighted as a hacker.
Her father’s approach to parenting was remarkably progressive: she was a mature child and needed to support herself.
If the family was short on money, she could deliver takeout to earn some. And once she made money, she was expected to remember to spend it on the family.
Whenever her mother overheard him saying things like that, he would receive a thorough beating.
“She’s only three! Even labor laws don’t protect children that young, and you’re filling her head with ideas like that?”
“Mercy, my beloved wife—” Shen Sixing would crouch down and shield his head with his arms, grinning up at her without the slightest trace of remorse. “I was only joking.”
Her father loved making jokes. In particular, he adored provoking her mother with the most ridiculous things he could think of.
He would invariably get beaten for it, yet he never seemed to grow tired of trying.
When she was two, Shen Yi loved messing with everything in the house. She and Shen Xun would team up to dismantle the place.
Her father would often hold her in one arm while typing on his keyboard with the other.
Sometimes, when she became too bothersome, he would simply toss her onto the sofa.
“Daddy.” Her voice was soft and sweet.
“What?”
“What?” he answered vaguely, his eyes fixed on the screen.
Shen Yi grew excited. Kicking her little legs, she listed off her desired meal. “I want a hamburger!”
“What do you want a hamburger for? Do you think our family can afford that?” Shen Sixing had no time to deal with her. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he tracked someone’s location.
He casually pulled a few coins from his pocket and flicked them onto the coffee table. They landed with a series of metallic clinks.
“Just buy yourself a carrot to gnaw on.”
Shen Yi was so furious that she grabbed his hair and pulled hard.
“…”
Shen Yi’s older brothers came to visit her from time to time.
By “from time to time,” this meant they came whenever they happened to remember her—and vanished from the face of the earth whenever they didn’t.
As the younger of the twins, Shen Yi looked nothing like her brother, and their personalities were polar opposites.
She was always picking on Shen Xun.
This included, but was not limited to, snatching things from him and using her weight advantage to pin him down and claim victory.
Shen Xun, for his part, never took it to heart. Whenever his little sister bullied him, he would spend a few seconds looking puzzled, then watch the delighted smile on her face and reach the following conclusion:
“My little sister hits me because she loves me.”
Whenever he said this, Wen Ya would wonder if she ought to pay more attention to her children’s mental health.
When Shen Yi was three, her parents left her in the care of her eldest brother for several months.
It was the first time she had spent such a long period with him.
Her eldest brother was the most emotionally stable person in the family.
The tantrums and rolling around on the floor that worked on her parents had no effect on him.
Shen Zhizhao was usually very busy with his studies. Even when he didn’t go to school, he still had all sorts of private lessons, such as finance, law, and foreign languages.
But three-year-old Shen Yi knew nothing about any of that. All she knew was that her eldest brother wouldn’t play with her.
She tried clinging to him.
“Big Brother, let’s go outside and play.”
“I’m in class.”
“Big Brother, let’s go outside and play.”
“I have a report to write.”
“Big Brother—”
“Shen Yi.” He set down his book and looked at her with dark eyes. His tone was gentle, but his words were merciless. “Play by yourself.”
Shen Yi hugged her toy and began to cry.
At first, she sniffled quietly, letting her tears fall tentatively. When she saw that he wasn’t reacting, she steeled herself and raised her voice, crying with impressive volume and feeling.
After crying for a while, she couldn’t help sneaking a look at him to gauge his reaction.
Shen Zhizhao was sitting on the sofa, holding his book and quietly watching her.
His dark eyes were lowered beneath his lashes, and his expression could even be described as gentle.
There was no impatience or sign of compromise in his gaze. His calm expression held the tolerant air of someone waiting to see how long she could keep crying.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
“Finished crying?” he asked.
Shen Yi felt that she had lost face. Still sniffling, she stubbornly said, “No.”
Shen Zhizhao said, “Stop crying.”
Shen Yi immediately shouted, “I want to cry!”
Shen Zhizhao turned the page of his book. “Then cry.”
“…”
By now, Shen Yi had completely run out of tears. She stared at him with her big, round eyes, utterly incredulous.
They looked at each other for a full ten seconds without either of them saying a word.
In the end, Shen Zhizhao moved first. He closed his book, leaned forward, and held out a hand.
“Come here.”
Shen Yi let out a wail and threw herself at him, smearing all her tears and snot across his shirt.
He let her do it, one hand firmly supporting the back of her head.
When she had finished crying, he took out a wet wipe and calmly cleaned her face. As he did, he said, “Shen Yi.”
“Mm?”
He told her, “Crying won’t help.”
“It does help!” Shen Yi protested. “It’s just that my tears don’t work on you. I hate you. You talk weirdly, just like Dad.”
Whenever Shen Yi tried to be clever in front of her father, she always felt embarrassed when he saw straight through her.
Shen Zhizhao made her feel the same way.
“Thank you.” He accepted the assessment. “Becoming someone like Dad is my goal.”
Shen Yi fell silent.
She stared at him in disbelief.
Dad?
In a child’s eyes, her father was the laziest, most irritating, most awful person in the world.
Whenever her friends her age talked about how capable and amazing their fathers were, or how their dads could even fix bicycles, Shen Yi would lower her head in embarrassment and pretend she hadn’t heard them.
How could anyone want to grow up to become an adult like Dad?
Shen Yi didn’t understand.
She tightened her arms around her eldest brother’s neck.
He hugged her and lowered his voice slightly. “I’m a little busy. How about I take you out tonight?”
It was the standard tone one used to coax a child.
After some hesitation, Shen Yi nodded.
But when evening came, Shen Zhizhao was still busy. He even fell asleep, resting quietly against the desk.
Shen Yi wasn’t upset that he had gone back on his word. A three-year-old could never hold a grudge for more than three minutes.
She crept over on tiptoe.
She picked up some watercolor pens and, while her eldest brother was asleep, attempted to draw on his face.
But before the pen tip could get within three centimeters of its target, her wrist was caught with pinpoint accuracy.
Shen Zhizhao opened his eyes. There was no trace of sleep in his dark gaze. He sighed and stared straight at her.
Shen Yi jumped in fright. Seeing that her prank had failed, she climbed onto her brother and wrapped her arms around his neck, trying to bite his forehead in a fit of embarrassment and anger.
“Xiao Yi.”
He spoke in a soft, unhurried voice. “Other than getting your drool all over my face, what else do you think you’ll accomplish by doing that?”
As he spoke, Shen Zhizhao extended one long finger and pressed it against her forehead, pushing her whole body back half a meter. At the same time, he smoothly took the two watercolor pens from her hand.
Seeing that her counterattack had failed, Shen Yi lowered her head and angrily rammed her forehead into his.
Shen Zhizhao took the blow squarely. He let himself fall backward and burst out laughing.
…
