Chapter 112: Strange Feeling

Hearing Shu Lingchen call her, Pei Muyin sped up organizing the papers in her hands.

"Okay, wait a moment, I'll be right there."

After she finished organizing, Shu Lingchen still didn't hand over the draft in his hand, but instead scratched his brow and said: "Um, sis, could you first swap seats with Bo Luo Zai? This problem is quite complicated; I definitely won't be able to solve it in a short while. Let's switch back after I solve it."

"Okay."

Pei Muyin got up without suspicion.

Shu Lingchen gestured for Bo Luo Zai to come over, and then the two siblings sat together at the same desk.

Pei Muyin waited obediently for Shu Lingchen to speak, but Shu Lingchen first glanced warily around, as if making sure no one was paying attention to them.

Only seeing the boy approach with a mysterious expression, he pulled out the draft book marked with the character "protect" from his chest.

"Sis, take a look—remember, you can only look, don't read it out loud."

Pei Muyin also grew nervous from Shu Lingchen's mysterious demeanor, nodded along, and the two resembled secret agents meeting at a dock; she solemnly took the draft book and solemnly opened the first page.

Then she saw:

"During the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, General a was brutal and inhumane! His character was vile! His quality was low! While marching, he raided a village; the villagers' chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs were all slaughtered, and even as he prepared to leave, he abducted a newborn baby girl from a villager."

"That baby girl was adorable as jade and lovable, winning everyone's affection; General a, on a whim, declared he would adopt her as his daughter. Unaware of the truth, the girl grew up calling General a 'dad'!"

After reading, Pei Muyin blinked: "O. o???"

Shu Lingchen eagerly asked: "Sis, did you figure out what this is?"

"Hmm..." Pei Muyin whispered her guess: "Is this the novel you're writing, brother? Only two paragraphs—won't it be too short?"

"No, not that." Shu Lingchen said: "I'm asking, through this story, did you gain any insight, uh, inspiration, yes, exactly inspiration?"

The girl shook her head, indicating she was clueless.

Shu Lingchen wouldn't give up and asked again: "Have you ever read those kinds of fable stories?"

"Yes."

"Exactly, just like those fable stories—don't people usually gain some knowledge after reading them? So what knowledge points did you gain from my story?"

Pei Muyin went back to look carefully again, and under the boy's bright, hopeful eyes, she said: "Could there be a general whose name is 'a'?"

"..."

"Is that the point!"

Shu Lingchen began to doubt whether he had been too indirect! He pointed at the draft book and couldn't help but proactively hint: "It's this baby girl, right? General a raided her home and abducted her, but she was too young, kept in the dark, and just called 'a' dad."

"You know there's an idiom, something like 'forced to acknowledge a thief as father'—how pitiful that baby girl is. Sis, do you think we should let her know the truth and then help her return to her own home?"

"..." Pei Muyin looked bewildered, still not understanding what Shu Lingchen wanted to express.

At that moment, a slender white hand reached over the two siblings, picked up the draft book, and held it up to look.

Shu Shu raised an eyebrow: "Wow, there's still a general named 'a'?"

Shu Lingchen directly: "(?'? ……)"

Shu Shu looked at her son's gloomy expression, as if she understood everything, paused, then took a workbook from her desk and handed it to her daughter: "Muyin, help proofread your brother's physics homework."

Originally, this was Shu Shu's task.

The girl replied: "Okay~"

Then Shu Shu patted her son's shoulder and said: "Come on, let's go to the convenience store to buy yogurt."

"Oh."

Shu Lingchen rose listlessly.

…

On the way to the convenience store, the boy slumped his head listlessly.

"Are you worried that your sister will leave us?"

Having his thought laid bare by his mother, Shu Lingchen silently nodded: "Hmm..."

Actually, after hearing last night that his sister said she had "reconciled" with that trafficker, the boy couldn't help but feel anxious.

"My sister came from Jing Shi, and she even calls the trafficker dad. What if the trafficker takes her back to Jing Shi? What if I can never see her every day again? She has no friends in Jing Shi—what if she gets even more heartbroken?"

"No." Shu Shu said calmly but firmly: "Your sister won't leave us."

She understands her daughter, and understands that person even better—without guessing, she knows wherever the daughter is, he will be there too.

This train of thought inevitably reminded Shu Shu of long ago——

She had finished a brief "little maid" game, while he, who clearly never liked to go out, crossed half the map and stubbornly searched that remote town until he found her.

For over ten days he endured wind and rain, his lips chapped, that handsome face grew ever paler, staring at her longingly; unless she came with him, he simply refused to leave.

…

Shu Lingchen lifted his head and asked Shu Shu: "Really?"

"Hmm, I promise you, when have I ever lied to you."

Mom's words were like a shot of adrenaline; Shu Lingchen's eyes gradually brightened, he regained energy, clenched his fists: "Hmph, if that trafficker tries to take my sister away, I'll fight him to the end!"

After a while, he recalled something and said resentfully: "No, you did lie to me—you just... when you first came, you said you slept on the street!"

Shu Shu glanced at the sky and denied: "Huh, really?"

"Did you record it? Without evidence, don't spout nonsense, or I'll sue you for slander."

Shu Lingchen: "..."

…

The father and daughter's sharing of daily life began with exchanging photos and gradually evolved into exchanging short videos.

On the conference table.

Being an overseas branch, the conference table was filled with foreign-looking staff, yet they were already well acquainted with this Chinese chairman's decisive and ruthless demeanor.

As everyone was focusing their full energy, sitting upright and preparing to respond to this meeting, they saw the man in the head seat pull out his phone, furrow his brow, raise the camera, aim it at the conference table, and sweep it around.

""

What's going on???

Just now, the chairman, did he take a video?!

OMG.

Is this still the chairman they know, who is always stern and unsmiling? How could he ever do something so 'down-to-earth'?

…

After the meeting ended, Pei Du, who had returned to his office, also received a video sent by his daughter, and he opened it.

In the video, the frame was aimed at the door, and the daughter said, 'Getting ready to go to school.'

Then, at that moment, a gentle, cheerful female voice came from the background:

"Mu Yin, did you forget to put on sunscreen? Baby, don't put on your shoes first; today you have PE class, the sun is strong, let's apply sunscreen first."

Pei Du didn't even need to distinguish; he recognized her as that girl.

Over the past two days, one could more or less find her shadow in the daughter's daily life.

That strange feeling came again.

Pei Du seemed to have figured it out a bit: why he felt the perspective was off—this girl treated his daughter with such meticulous care, not like a friend, but rather like—the concern a father would have for his daughter.

More precisely, it was as parents.

?

Pei Du's brow furrowed slightly at the thought that had popped into his head.