Chapter 176

After dinner, Xiaoyu took the initiative to clear the table and then went to wash the dishes. Jiang Zhinian felt a little sleepy, so he sat on the sofa, planning to wait for Xiaoyu to wash the dishes before talking to him about the high school entrance exam.

"Shi Ye, is it really okay for Xiaoyu to have surgery after the high school entrance exam?"

Although Shi Ye had no objection to her question just now, she still felt uneasy. Once Xiaoyu had the cochlear implant, it would definitely take a long time for him to adapt to the cochlear implant, including his perception of the world and his own expression.

If things don't go well, or if they're not as good as he originally expected, she's worried that it will affect Xiaoyu's performance in high school.

"He's not a child anymore, let him make his own decision." He had just repeated all the medical questions in a textbook manner, and he believed he would be able to make his own judgment.

But Jiang Zhinian was still worried.

Shi Ye glanced at the kitchen and patted Jiang Zhinian's arm: "I'll go to the kitchen and talk to him to find out why he suddenly changed his plans."

"Okay." Jiang Zhinian knew that sometimes, some things were difficult to say to people around you, but it might be easier to say them to strangers.

Shi Ye entered the kitchen, closed the door to soundproof it, and leaned gently against the stove.

Xiaoyu glanced at him and continued washing the dishes: "What's wrong?"

“There’s a dishwasher so you don’t have to wash by hand.”

"I like to wash by hand, it's clean." Xiaoyu didn't appreciate it and washed the dishes faster.

Shi Ye shrugged, feeling that he was just childish. "Your sister asked me to ask you why you suddenly changed your mind and wanted to have the surgery earlier."

Xiaoyu kept her hands busy and glanced at him sideways: "There's no special reason, I just don't want to have any more nightmares."

Shi Ye understood: "It's the charity fund. What's the problem?"

Xiaoyu is in the welfare home, maybe she knows something that Jiang Zhinian doesn't know.

"You're quite smart." Xiaoyu glanced at the closed kitchen door and lowered her voice. "I always feel like there's something wrong with this charity, but I can't explain it specifically, so you don't need to ask me."

Shi Ye chuckled with interest: "You are more cunning than your sister."

Perhaps because he grew up in an orphanage, he is naturally more vigilant and protective of himself than ordinary people.

But children are still children after all, and they can't keep their composure.

Xiaoyu saw a hint of "mockery" in his smile and said unhappily, "Actually, I didn't like you the first time I saw you. I don't think you're worthy of my sister."

Shi Ye's smile froze. He looked up at Xiao Yu and said sarcastically, "Oh? I'm not worthy of your sister? Then who is worthy?"

He paused, staring deliberately into Xiaoyu's blue eyes, and said coldly, "You?"

Xiaoyu's face darkened, and she turned away unhappily. She touched her hearing aid and said after a long while, "I'm not worthy of her either."

He was ill and could not be cured. He never dared to have any undue thoughts about Jiang Zhinian. He still had this self-awareness.

His feelings towards Jiang Zhinian were never the kind of hormonal, romantic love, but rather—

"But I love her."

I love her as a very important person in my life, like a mother and a sister. It is precisely because of this that I have to work hard to grow up, protect her, and not allow her to be hurt by others.

Shi Ye was deeply burned by the word "love" that was so hot and sincere with the breath of youth.

"How old are you, and you're already saying love?"

Xiaoyu disagreed: "Why should love be linked to age? Even three-year-old children will say I love my mother. Love is a human instinct. Why can't I say it?"

Shi Ye smiled silently: "You are right."

Xiaoyu turned her head and looked at Shi Ye fiercely: "Remember, if I am worthy of my sister, there will be nothing left for you."

…

After Xiaoyu left, Jiang Zhinian felt sleepy as usual, and Shi Ye sat alone in the study, staring at the computer screen in a daze.

On the black screen, red numbers kept jumping. On the other end of the network, Liu Shuo kept sending big red exclamation marks to Shi Ye.

"Awesome, Brother Shi, you're fucking awesome! Our joint account has become the third largest holder of Mammon Coins. Holy shit, I've never seen so much money in my life."

When he graduated from college, he only liked to play games at home because of social anxiety and occasionally took some private work online. It was Shi Ye who found him and asked him to help him hold an emerging international virtual currency. At that time, he felt that he had never heard of Mammon Coin and was afraid that Shi Ye would lose money if he invested too much.

As a result, he now feels like a dragon with its head lying on countless gold coins. Every day he only does one thing, which is to count how many gold coins he has.

Shi Ye looked at Liu Shuo's increasingly excited words opposite him with an expressionless face. Suddenly, he put his hands on the keyboard and typed out a line of words.

"Besides your parents, have you ever loved anyone else?"

"Of course, I still love my grandma. When I was a kid, my parents were busy, so my grandma brought me up. She would always secretly buy me yogurt."

"There's no blood relationship."

"Oh, oh, you mean love? Of course it's Lily-chan. I love her so much. Lily-chan is the cutest in the universe!"

Shi Ye came to his senses and felt ridiculous for discussing such issues with Liu Shuo.

Shaking his head, closing the computer, Shi Ye leaned back in his chair.

He thought of Xiaoyu's blue eyes, and how he said the word "love" so confidently in that narrow kitchen, just like the feeling Liu Shuo gave him when he mentioned his grandmother just now.

They all have the ability to love.

What about him? Shi Ye's eyes swept across the bookcase. He stood up, took a book from the shelf, and then took out the photo he had hidden.

In the camera, the still young and beautiful Ms. Shi Mei put her arm around his shoulders and half-knelt beside him to take this photo, her eyes full of a mother's love for her child.

But it was the same face that shook its head in disappointment at him: "Shi Ye, I don't expect you to become a normal person, but I beg you to study hard, even if it means pretending or acting, to be a normal person."

At that time, he wondered how he could blend in with the crowd and pretend to be a normal person who might have a strange temper but at least looked normal.

He learned how to make friends, so he took the initiative to tutor Jiang Tao, reconciled with Wang Bo, and rescued Zhou Hongsheng who was being bullied.

He set up three friendship modes for himself to cope with three different personalities. When he went to college, he became friends with Zheng Chengfei from "Jiang Tao 2.0" and developed Liu Shuo from "Zhou Hongsheng 2.0" into a partner. The only pity is that he has not been able to find "Wang Bo 2.0" for the time being.

He thought he was living comfortably among normal people, until Jiang Zhinian showed up and made him feel for the first time what it meant that fake is always fake.

He stared at the young and unfamiliar face of Shi Mei in the photo, then gently put the photo back into the book.