Chapter 9 Did Old Deng take the wrong medicine?
Thinking of his eldest son, Ji Zhiqi suddenly felt nervous about meeting him in person.
After losing his memory, he inexplicably became obsessed with love, falling in love at first sight with someone and trying every means to find out about the man. It took him a lot of effort to learn that the man had a white moonlight who died young and seemed to resemble him.
People in love often lose their common sense. He was so foolish as to pretend to be his ideal woman, and even adopted a child to make the lie believable, pretending it was the fruit of their love.
Such a clumsy lie was easily exposed, but the adoption was already a done deal. Fortunately, although he was a fool, he still had a certain moral bottom line and did not abandon the child or throw him back into the welfare home.
After he started running away with the ball, he devoted all his attention and time to Ji Yanyan, showing such blatant favoritism that it was deafening. He neglected Ji Zishen's feelings, and Ji Yanyan, spoiled by him, became unruly and often caused trouble for his two older brothers. His bias in the middle only exacerbated the conflict between the father and son and between the brothers.
He was quite at ease dealing with Ji Yanyan. The three-year-old's personality and worldview were not yet fully developed. As long as he taught her properly, he would be able to straighten this crooked little seedling in time.
But his eldest son, Ji Zishen, was an exception.
Ji Zishen grew up in an orphanage and experienced the coldness of human relationships and the dangers of the world at a young age. Later, because of his cute appearance, he was adopted several times, but he was particularly unlucky. His adoptive parents were all bad people who abused him behind his back.
Surviving in such a harsh environment, Ji Zishen was forced to grow up quickly. Although he is only nine years old this year, he is naturally intelligent and precocious.
It's like an adult's soul being stuffed into a child's body, creating an incongruous feeling everywhere. He hates every adult, yet desperately wants to stand on his own two feet and control his own destiny, but is constrained by his small body. He can't wait to grow up and become the "adult" he finds disgusting, which makes his psychology increasingly distorted. He will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, manipulating adults to fill the emptiness in his heart.
Thinking of this, Ji Zhi Qiu let out a long sigh.
He's had a smooth life from childhood to adulthood, never encountered any major events, and he's one of the most innocent and naive among them. He probably can't outsmart his precocious eldest son.
Ji Yanyan was oblivious to her father's mood, her mind only on playing games. She walked over and tugged at Ji Zhi Qiu's pants, "I want to ride a horse."
Ji Zhi Qiu patted his head: "Sweetie, let's do it another day. Daddy's going to pick up your older brother."
Ji Yanyan frowned, puffing out her cheeks in anger, "I don't want him, I don't like him!"
Parents are a child's first teachers, and his favoritism influenced Ji Yanyan to some extent.
This influence is subtle and gradual, and cannot be reversed overnight. Ji Zhi Qiu squatted down and looked at him seriously, "Why doesn't Yan Yan like big brother?"
Ji Yanyan pouted and kept blowing bubbles, stammering and unable to utter a complete sentence.
Ji Zhi Qiu, who knew best how to understand Long Ao Tian's thoughts, sighed and asked, "Do you think everyone likes Yan Yan?"
Ji Yanyan nodded emphatically, cupped her face in her chubby little hands, wiggled her bottom, and said in a very smug way, "Yanyan is so cute, how could anyone not like me?"
Ji Zhi Qiu playfully pinched his nose. "So, do you think your older brother likes you?"
Ji Yanyan hesitated on this issue, her little face wrinkling up in distress.
Ji Zhi Qiu gave him the answer, "If Yan Yan wants everyone to like you, then you also have to like them. Love is mutual, and only in this way can it last."
Ji Yanyan couldn't think through such a complicated question. Her big eyes blinked, "So I have to like big brother, right? Didn't Dad say that big brother took my things away?"
The last sentence made Ji Zhi Qiu blush deeply. Overwhelmed by immense guilt, he suddenly wanted to slap himself.
Ji Zhi Qiu, what kind of bastard were you in the past?!
He took a deep breath and barely managed to compose himself, his tone extremely serious: "Yan Yan, look at me."
Ji Yanyan's attention was drawn to him, and his image was reflected in her large, watery eyes.
"Yan Yan, I am your father, Shen Shen is your older brother, and Cheng Cheng is your second older brother. We are a family, understand?"
Ji Yanyan counted on her fingers and murmured softly, "There are so many people in the house."
Seeing that he didn't understand and had even missed the point, Ji Zhi Qiu gently rubbed his face. "What Dad can give you is fatherly love, and what your two older brothers can give you is brotherly affection. You are luckier than other children because you have two more people who love you. Isn't that a good thing?"
Ji Yanyan was stunned. He had a basic sensitivity to numbers and of course knew the principle that three is greater than one.
Seeing Ji Yanyan's bewildered expression, Ji Zhi Qiu smiled and patted his head.
These things can't be rushed. This father needs to do a good job to guide his three children well.
He had some time to spare, so he went to the old lady next door to ask her to take care of Ji Yanyan. After settling everything in, he left early to buy a gift for Ji Zishen.
He put Ji Zishen's gift in a paper bag, rode his bike to the school gate, where parents had already surrounded the campus in layers.
The school promotes compulsory education and took students from grades three to six to an experimental base for a week of military training. They only returned today, and the parents, who hadn't seen their children for a week, were anxiously waiting.
The three buses, each for a different age group, were lined up side by side without any obvious markings. Ji Zhi Qiu couldn't tell them apart, so she had to stand on tiptoe on the steps and search around.
******
Ji Zishen was standing at the last row of the line, his red scarf tied neatly. He looked well-behaved, with red lips and white teeth, the kind of student the teacher liked best.
After helping the teacher take attendance, he walked among his classmates.
He actually looked down on the well-protected hothouse flowers and disdained to befriend them, but he was very popular in the class, everyone liked him, and he was often the first to vote.
At the age when children are most innocent and carefree, Ji Zishen already knows how to cultivate relationships. He deliberately befriends those from well-off families, hoping that they will give him a good enough return in the future.
Several children walked out of the car chatting and laughing. One of the little boys' parents were busy with work, but they made time to pick him up. The mother was gentle and the father was considerate. They stood together, smiling and waving to their child.
Ji Zishen's eyes lit up when he saw the child, who ran happily over and threw himself into his parents' arms—a truly heartwarming scene.
He wore a smile, but a mocking curve appeared at the corner of his mouth. His eyes were devoid of any emotion, utterly indifferent. He had long since given up on such illusory things.
He walked forward in silence, planning how to deal with the two idiots in his family, one big and one small, but he had only taken one step when he was patted on the shoulder.
One of his friends looked at him cheerfully and said, "Zishen, your father has come to pick you up."
Ji Zishen was stunned for a few seconds. The title "father" was extremely unfamiliar to him, and he didn't know who it referred to for a moment.
Seeing him staring blankly, his friend assumed he hadn't seen it and smiled as he pointed in the direction, "Isn't it right there?"
Ji Zishen subconsciously looked over and saw a figure he had never expected.
Although Ji Zhi Qiu adopted him, she only had that stupid brat in her heart and never paid any attention to him. This time, she actually came back to pick him up!
Ji Zishen couldn't figure out the reason and stood there dumbfounded.
He saw Ji Zhi Qiu looking around aimlessly, and her gaze finally fell on him. The moment their eyes met, for some reason, he stiffened for a moment, and a trace of awkwardness flashed across his face.
But Ji Zhi Qiu acted as if she hadn't seen him, and shifted her gaze to the students behind her.
His best friend was puzzled by this and asked, "Zishen, why is your father ignoring you?"
Ji Zishen's hand, hanging by his side, clenched into a fist. He hadn't expected that Ji Zhiqi's first visit to pick him up would be to embarrass him. "He, he should be..."
His long-held pretense was cruelly torn away, and his face flushed. Although he was precocious, he was still just a child after all. He could no longer hold back, and after a hurried greeting, he walked quickly toward Ji Zhi Qiu.
During this time, Ji Zhi Qiu glanced at him again, but quickly looked away.
It wasn't until he stood in front of Ji Zhi Qiu and the father and son stared at each other for a few seconds that he saw Ji Zhi Qiu's eyes slowly widen, revealing an extremely surprised expression.
The father and son hadn't seen each other for a week, and Ji Zhi Qiu's first words to him were: "Why are you so short?!"
Ji Zishen: "..."
Ji Zhi Qiu searched through his phone and photo album, but he had been too biased and hadn't taken a single photo of his eldest son. He had no choice but to identify him by the adjectives in the book. He had been searching on tiptoe for a long time, but the number of children was decreasing and he still couldn't find his eldest son. He thought something had happened and broke out in a sweat.
He saw a short figure among the third-grade students, about the same height as the first-grade student next to him. He thought it was someone looking for his older brother and didn't pay much attention to it. Little did he know that it was his eldest son!
He was so shocked that he couldn't help but speak his mind, looking Ji Zishen up and down with disbelief.
Ji Zishen misunderstood him, thinking that Ji Zhiqi disliked him so much as a burden that he mocked him in public.
He bit his lower lip awkwardly, then habitually put on a smile. "Dad, I want to say goodbye to my friends."
Ji Zhi Qiu nodded, "Then I'll wait for you over there. If you want to play with your friends a little longer, that's fine too."
After Ji Zishen turned around, the cute smile on his face gradually faded, and he went to find his friends with a blank expression, saying some meaningless things.
He deliberately dawdled, figuring that Ji Zhi Qiu's patience was about to run out, before finally raising his head again. But unexpectedly, he caught sight of a figure in the corner, with his back to him, waving his hand.
...That action looked exactly like slapping oneself in the face.
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