SFBF CH11

Shen Qing suggested eating ice cream together.

Gu Duo remained unmoved.

Little Long Aotian on the bed rolled over, sat up, and said, “Auntie is a gwown-up, and you still eat ice cweam? Aren’t you ashamed?”

Gu Duo was the older child, and his thoughts ran deeper: “Are you trying to trick us into going out so you can abandon us?”

Shen Qing: “……”

Help, coaxing kids really takes a toll on “Auntie”!

However, Shen Qing didn’t mind.

He was naturally open-minded and thick-skinned. To strengthen their interaction, he had already bounded two steps to Ao Zai’s bed and rubbed Little Long Aotian’s round cheek.

He had wanted to do this for a long time.

Although he was trying to salvage the situation and get along with the little beans, Shen Qing wouldn’t act subservient.

He hadn’t personally hurt the children, so he felt no guilt.

Moreover, Shen Qing always believed that no matter how smart or precocious children were, they were still just children. Since they were children, they needed someone to act as an adult and provide correct guidance, rather than being led by the nose by the kids.

Even if, objectively speaking, these two kids were blood-related to Gu Huaiyu, the nephews Mr. Gu cared about, and the young masters of this house.

But to speak shamelessly, he was also their Auntie!

Even if he, as an Auntie, looked like he was just here to collect a paycheck… he was still their Auntie!

Although he seemingly rubbed Gu Ao’s round, soft cheek forcefully, Shen Qing’s touch was actually quite light.

Gu Ao quickly regained control of his own cheek. Changing from stunned to angry, he raised two chubby, bun-like paws and rubbed the spot Shen Qing had touched over and over again. He rubbed until his large eyes were watery, clearly shocked and disgusted, looking utterly conflicted.

Gu Duo, standing to the side, naturally wanted to rescue his brother’s face immediately. But realizing Shen Qing had only given it a quick rub, he had to pause his movements, merely staring at Shen Qing with an even more gloomy and strange gaze.

Shen Qing was used to it and didn’t mind the two little ones’ stares.

He revealed the true purpose of his visit—he reached into his pocket, took out a pendant, and turned to show it to Gu Duo.

It was a Ruyi button (jade knot).

It was something the original owner had stripped from Gu Duo. The time before last, when Ao Zai violated the family rules set by the original owner, the original owner was going to beat him. To protect his brother, Gu Duo voluntarily gave up the jade button the original owner had been coveting.

…This thing was worth ten or twenty thousand yuan.

Although it was nothing in this wealthy household, the original owner had been poor before and hadn’t seen much of the world; ten or twenty thousand was a chunk of meat to him.

And while the money he got from Mr. Gu was for household expenses—which the original owner dared not embezzle—this jade button could be counted as private property.

The original owner accepted it without much thought, even colluding with Gu Duo on a story: if his uncle asked, Gu Duo was to say he gave it voluntarily.

Shen Qing now wanted to return it to its rightful owner.

In fact, when he chased after Gu Duo three days ago, he had intended to return this item.

He knew this was left to them by the two cubs’ father.

Their parents’ story was a traditional wealthy family tragedy—the rich heiress fell in love with a poor boy, but the indifferent family wouldn’t allow their union, considering it shameful for their daughter to love a poor man.

So, the heiress chose to give up her glory and wealth to be with the poor boy.

Later, the poor boy died in an accident. The heiress raised the two children alone, resolutely refusing to return to the Gu family or accept their charity.

Their love story was indeed tear-jerking, but the cubs, the crystallization of that love, had no impression of their father who died early.

Even so, Gu Duo had carefully preserved the jade button left by his father.

But Gu Duo clearly hadn’t expected that one day he would have to use it to save himself.

—After his mother died, he and his brother suffered all kinds of disdain in the Gu family mansion, yet no one coveted his jade button.

Mainly because it was beneath their notice.

The siblings in the big mansion only mocked the item for being low-grade.

However, Gu Duo didn’t care and continued to cherish the jade button like a treasure.

He just hadn’t expected that after coming to his Little Uncle’s house, his Little Auntie would be even more detestable than his Eldest Aunt, wanting even such a “low-grade” thing.

Gu Duo knew he couldn’t keep it for the time being, so after much thought, he temporarily handed over the jade button.

Later, of course, he reclaimed that jade button.

When he grew up.

Shen Qing knew what happened later. After inheriting hundreds of millions, the original owner naturally looked down on this jade button. Before he could even sell it, he threw it away—deliberately flushing it down the sewer in front of Gu Duo.

And when the gloomy, cold Gu Duo grew up, he ordered someone to tattoo the pattern of this jade button three thousand times on the original owner’s body and face, then locked him in the sewer to rot…

Just thinking about it made him shiver with nausea. Shen Qing hurriedly stuffed the jade button back into Gu Duo’s hand.

Little Gu Duo held the jade button in his hands, looking at him with even more confusion.

At this moment, the incomprehension in the child’s eyes far outweighed the disgust; the hatred wasn’t as intense. Shen Qing suddenly felt that Gu Duo really resembled his Little Uncle—they looked alike, and their expressions were alike.

Especially when doubting and scrutinizing others…

Shen Qing quickly said, “Didn’t we make up? Uncle will never take your things again. Here, put it away safely.”

Gu Duo subconsciously clenched the jade button tightly in his palm.

“What exactly do you want?”

He was young after all, not yet as deep and calculating as the big boss he would become later; his attitude ultimately softened.

“I told you, I want you to accompany me to eat ice cream.” Shen Qing smiled harmlessly.

Gu Duo: “……”

Eating ice cream.

This transaction seemed to have no losses.

…No matter what this person was planning, since the opportunity to get back his father’s relic appeared, he had to try.

“Okay.”

Gu Duo’s agreement was so heavy it sounded like an emperor in ancient times agreeing to abdicate the throne to a treacherous minister.

Shen Qing had no intention of teasing the child, but seeing him so serious and cautious, he almost laughed.

Beside the urge to laugh, there was a little bit of heartache.

According to what he had indirectly heard from the servants, in the past, whenever the original owner was home, Gu Duo and Gu Ao rarely went out.

And this time, it was said that while he slept for three days, the two children stayed holed up in their room for three days.

…Even knowing he was injured and recovering, and likely wouldn’t come to trouble them, Gu Duo and Gu Ao still didn’t leave their room, afraid of bumping into him and violating some family rule…

Can this not make one’s heart ache?

Which family’s child doesn’t go out to play every day, soak up the sun, and play games with friends?

These two brothers not only lost the right to do those activities, but now they didn’t even dare to wander freely in their own living room…

Although the children’s room was a small suite, totaling over 150 square meters—bigger than any house Shen Qing had lived in before…

But they were children, small children!

What child isn’t active and mischievous? How can they be kept in captivity like this!

Shen Qing strengthened his conviction to go out for ice cream, even though he didn’t actually crave it that much. …It wasn’t that he suddenly wanted to eat ice cream!

Over there, since Gu Duo agreed, they acted immediately.

He had strong executive ability. He made a hand gesture to Ao Zai, and the chubby little cub, who always listened to his brother’s command and had been staring at Shen Qing with wide eyes, nimbly hopped off the bed.

Shen Qing’s sorrowful mood over the children was immediately turned around by his cuteness.

“You need to wear thick clothes to go out… where are your clothes?”

Seeing that Shen Qing seemed about to help them dress, Gu Duo bluntly and indirectly refused: “I’ll call Grandma Zhang to help us dress.”

Shen Qing agreed immediately.

The two children picked up the phone in the room to call Auntie Zhang. Standing by the bed, Shen Qing suddenly noticed that what Gu Ao had been lying on the bed reading just now was a cartoon picture book.

The open cartoon book was very thick, with only pictures and no words. The colors were bright and eye-catching, depicting a fox with a thin, pointed face and a chubby white rabbit.

This actually surprised Shen Qing a bit.

In his impression of the original novel, these two kids were natural-born geniuses—literate at three, reciting poetry at four, and mastering four languages before ten. They would never look at such useless things for learning.

But Shen Qing quickly remembered that the reason these two kids were different from ordinary children and strove so hard to learn and enrich themselves was that the original owner had always opposed their learning.

The original owner didn’t know how powerful these two children would become in the future, and at this moment, Gu Huaiyu was still alive. He hadn’t yet conceived the vicious idea of forcing the children into a mental hospital to monopolize the inheritance.

He simply saw that the children’s talent and perseverance were amazing, and with a twisted, dark psychology, he wanted to stop them from learning.

Probably out of a twisted jealousy.

And although he had successfully scared the children with his arrogance, the original owner was also afraid that once the kids grew up and became sensible, they would be uncontrollable or seek revenge. So, he intended to raise them to be useless.

The manifestation of this was that, apart from allowing Gu Duo to go to school, he forbade them from touching anything else related to learning.

Forget four languages; he didn’t even like the children learning Chinese characters or arithmetic.

After Gu Huaiyu kicked the bucket, he became even more rampant.

Every time he caught the children studying, he would fly into a rage. Worried they could search for knowledge themselves, he didn’t dare let the children use the internet. He only gave them electronic products for games and provided comic books.

Feeling that the three-and-a-half-year-old Ao Zai probably couldn’t read yet, the original owner prepared some picture books with a bright style for him.

But such suppression was evidently resisted by the two children.

The more the original owner forbade them from learning, the more they tried every way to learn.

They even grasped the essence of stealing internet access and self-study. But every time the original owner discovered them, it resulted in severe punishment, forcing them to play or watch things that were already childish to them. If they didn’t play, they weren’t allowed to eat.

The two sides engaged in a tug-of-war like this, causing the two children to greatly loathe those game consoles, electronics, comic books, and picture books.

So Shen Qing hadn’t expected that Ao Zai was actually reading a picture book of his own accord right now.

Did that mean it wasn’t too late for him to take over? …

Ao Zai didn’t hate picture books yet!

He was reading actively!

Shen Qing was suddenly very happy.

He felt his future was still very bright.

Aside from that, he wasn’t happy because he planned to deliberately raise these two kids to be useless like the original owner. On the contrary, he genuinely felt that children should play well while they were children and grow up happily so they could be happier adults.

The ability to feel happiness is very important for adults.

Shen Qing had always been against “chicken baby” (hothousing/high-pressure) education.

Because he himself had been pumped with “chicken blood” (pushed relentlessly) all the way up.

After experiencing countless exams and selections, going to university, graduating, working, and finally dying from overwork, he already knew that excessive forced effort actually had no meaning.

However, he had to work hard to survive because he depended on his grandmother and came from a poor family.

But these two little villains had an inheritance they couldn’t spend in several lifetimes!

Their Little Uncle had already struggled enough for them!

So why strive so hard!

Therefore, as an adult with normal values who wasn’t malicious, Shen Qing was very satisfied with Ao Zai reading a children’s book.

Thinking that a child’s room should be ventilated and disinfected frequently to stay dry, he subconsciously bent down, wanting to help Gu Ao tidy up the messy bed.

So Shen Qing picked up that big book.

The next moment, Shen Qing froze.

…Under that large picture book, at the junction with the unfolded quilt, was a piece of paper sticking halfway out.

The paper was densely packed with foreign letters. Some were in fluid ballpoint pen script, and some were in crooked pencil script.

……

Shen Qing lifted the child’s small quilt.

Looking closer, he discovered that Gu Ao’s small bed, under the unfolded quilt, was full of such papers.

There was also a pencil with bright green skin beside them.

…Clearly, Gu Ao was learning a foreign language.

And it was a foreign language Shen Qing didn’t recognize—maybe French or something else!

This was obviously the two children studying secretly. But they were too small, so when he suddenly appeared, they didn’t know where to hide it all, so they covered everything with the quilt!

…Originally, Shen Qing thought they were just too small to fold the quilt.

He didn’t expect the quilt was used for cover.

……

No wonder Gu Ao suddenly shut him out just now!

Judging solely from using a picture book as a blind, this was no longer the IQ of an ordinary three-and-a-half-year-old.

Shen Qing remembered the servants saying the two young masters hadn’t come downstairs for three days…

Did they hide in the room just to study??

At this moment, the two cubs also suddenly remembered something and turned back. Seeing their hidden secret had been discovered by Shen Qing, Gu Ao’s mouth formed a big “O” shape, and he immediately cried out in a milky voice: “Why did you touch our little quilt!”

He knew this uncle didn’t like him learning foreign words with his brother. Although he didn’t understand why, Gu Ao knew from his brother’s expression that disaster was imminent.

…Wu, he actually really wanted to go eat ice cream.

But his brother didn’t trust this uncle, and Ao Zai understood.

So from the beginning, Ao Zai had been trying hard to endure, not showing a shred of longing or desire for ice cream, so as not to embarrass his brother!

But now, the ice cream was probably gone…

Maybe there wouldn’t be anything good to eat tonight either.

Ao Zai and his brother could only drink porridge and eat pickles…

Wu.

Ao Zai subconsciously put his finger in his mouth.

He just felt his tummy was empty.

Beside Gu Ao, Gu Duo tightly held his brother’s hand to stop him from sucking his finger, then asked Shen Qing with a vigilant face: “What do you want to do?”

After a moment of stunned silence, Shen Qing bent down, gathered and organized the papers, and placed them back in their original position.

Then, acting as if nothing had happened: “Why aren’t you changing clothes yet? Didn’t we agree to go eat ice cream?”

Gu Duo: ……

Gu Ao: Ao? There is still ice cream to eat, ao?

Facing the brothers’ completely different but equally astonished expressions, Shen Qing inevitably felt both amused and distressed.

Seeing Gu Duo’s cautious expression full of suspicion again, Shen Qing didn’t keep them in suspense and simply clarified: “Accompanied by me to finish the ice cream, you can come back and study, okay.”

__

Author’s Note:

Gu Duo: Just how much does this person like ice cream!

Gu Ao: This uncle actually likes sweet and greasy ice cream, shame shame! …Although Ao Zai likes it too, gulp.

Shen Qing: Uncle doesn’t like it; Uncle is enduring humiliation for a greater burden (not really).