OEBSAS |Chapter 14

With Shao Xian there, Chen Baizhou spent the second semester of fourth grade peacefully and steadily.

At school, no one dared to make Shao Xian unhappy. At the Chen family’s home, Chen Yu also had some misgivings because of Shao Xian.

Even Bo Meijuan changed her attitude from before. She no longer let him go hungry, and she also changed him to a spacious room.

Facing all this, Chen Baizhou’s heart did not ripple at all.

He still went to and from school with Shao Xian every day, ate and did homework with him, and also practiced martial arts with Shao Xian.

Of course, no matter what they did, Wang Wenjie’s presence was always indispensable.

The martial arts coach hired by the Shao family had once been a world champion, and teaching a few little kids was nothing difficult.

Among the three of them, the coach clearly liked Chen Baizhou the most.

One reason was that he was serious and hardworking, and the second was that his talent was the highest.

Chen Baizhou did not think too much. He only hoped that he would become strong enough, stay by Shao Xian’s side forever in the future, and not bring shame to Shao Xian.

If this had been placed in the past, eating the Shao family’s food and using the Shao family’s things, he would definitely have been full of guilt and unease.

But now, he positioned himself as a member of the Shao family. It was not that he overestimated himself; he just thought of the study boys in TV dramas from big wealthy families, and he felt that he was very suitable for this role, and also liked it very much.

If Shao Xian knew what he was thinking in his heart, he would definitely knock his head and tell him not to daydream.

The future head of the Fu family, and this little bit of ambition?

After the final exams, Shao Xian no longer paid attention to grades. He dragged Wang Wenjie and Chen Baizhou along and began frantic tutoring.

Study in the morning, practice martial arts in the afternoon, and lie on the bed at night giving each other massages.

Seeing that the three of them lived rich and regular lives, Cai Yalan was also very gratified in her heart, so she no longer interfered much, and often went out with Wang Shufen to attend gatherings or beauty treatments and the like.

The two of them had not originally been from the same world, but their personalities were very compatible, and on top of that Shao Xian and Wang Wenjie got along well, so the two families became even closer.

At night, Shao Xian lay on the cushion, and Chen Baizhou was seriously using medicinal liquor to massage him.

Wang Wenjie sat nearby, leisurely peeling lychees and eating them, and while eating he also mocked him with a face, “Xianxian, your flesh is way too fragile. It clearly didn’t take much force, but it looks creepy.”

Shao Xian tilted his head to glance at him. “You only know how to eat… hiss!”

He suddenly cried out in pain, and Chen Baizhou quickly let go, saying nervously, “Sorry, I hurt you.”

Shao Xian braced himself with his arms and turned to look at Chen Baizhou.

Under the orange warm light, the child knelt by the cushion, his beautiful eyes full of remorse and self-reproach, a pair of hands not knowing where they should be placed.

After being carefully nourished for a month, Chen Baizhou had already changed beyond recognition. Before, he had been dry and thin and weak; now, although he was still thin, he absolutely did not look weak.

Shao Xian smiled and lay back down, saying, “It’s fine, keep massaging.”

He closed his eyes and could not help thinking of what it had been like after he first started martial arts classes.

Wang Wenjie had not been wrong just now. His flesh really was delicate. It turned blue and purple with just a light touch, and looked frightening.

Now he was considered to have adapted. In the first few days after learning martial arts, his body was simply unsightly.

Every night when Chen Baizhou helped him apply medicine, he would quietly shed tears while applying it.

Shao Xian did not like seeing others cry, but when Chen Baizhou cried so quietly like this, he could not feel the slightest bit of impatience.

Instead, there was a bit of sourness, and his heart also felt a little swollen.

He knew the child was feeling sorry for him.

Sometimes he had to sigh in amazement that fate really was very mysterious. He and Fu Baizhou had clearly once been at loggerheads, and he had merely been reborn one time, yet the circumstances were already completely different.

“Xianxian, Xianxian, Shao Xian!” Wang Wenjie was making noise by his ear.

Shao Xian suddenly came back to his senses, gave him a sidelong glance, and lazily asked, “What?”

“What were you spacing out about just now?” Wang Wenjie muttered, then asked, “When are you planning to tell Aunt Cai about skipping a grade?”

Shao Xian was calm and unhurried. “It’s only July now, what’s the rush? Have you finished reading the fifth-grade books?”

“I was just asking.” Wang Wenjie’s brows furrowed together, and he looked at the two of them resentfully. “You two are too scary. I’m just an ordinary person, I won’t compare myself to you.”

Shao Xian could not help but laugh a little.

If he had not been reborn once and borrowed the experience from his past life, he also would not have been able to pretend to be a “prodigy.”

If one really had to talk about a genius, that would be Chen Baizhou and no one else.

After the final exam results came out, no one at school questioned Chen Baizhou’s ability anymore.

Everyone sat separately, the invigilation was very strict, and there simply was no condition for cheating. Under such circumstances, Chen Baizhou got full marks in three subjects and tied with Shao Xian for first place.

Shao Xian had a cheat code, but Chen Baizhou did not.

During the summer tutoring, Chen Baizhou spent only half a month digesting all the fifth-grade textbooks.

Shao Xian secretly thought that this was still the result of him deliberately slowing down.

Not only in studying, even in martial arts practice, Chen Baizhou performed very excellently.

He seemed not to be afraid of pain at all, as if nearly ten years of suffering had all been a form of tempering, and he had long since gotten used to it, so the pain of martial arts practice simply did not count as anything to him.

Not afraid of hardship, strong in learning ability, the coach practically treated him like a treasure.

Of course, Shao Xian and Wang Wenjie were not bad at comprehending things either, and they learned quite quickly.

“Tomorrow we’ll go out and play, relax a bit.” Shao Xian suddenly said.

When Wang Wenjie heard that, he said excitedly, “Really? Where are we going to play?”

“A new arcade just opened at Century Plaza. Let’s go check it out.” Shao Xian felt that the massage was about enough, so he turned over, sat up, and replied.

He thought of how Chen Baizhou had never gone to play before, so he wanted to take him to broaden his horizons.

Chen Baizhou got up to wash his hands clean in the bathroom, then came back and sat on the cool mat, starting to peel lychees.

“An arcade? Great!” Wang Wenjie could not help but beam with delight.

Ten-year-old children all had a lot of playfulness. Shao Xian could understand his mood very well. Just as he was about to ask Chen Baizhou, he saw a peeled, milky-white lychee handed to him.

Chen Baizhou held the bottom shell that remained in his hand, not getting the flesh dirty at all.

He looked at Shao Xian quietly, long eyelashes casting shadows beneath his eyes, setting off those pupils, making them beautiful beyond belief.

Shao Xian felt something inexplicable in his heart, but he did not reach out to take the lychee. Instead, he directly lowered his head and took a small bite.

The lychee flesh was sweet and refreshing, the juice full, some of it flowing onto Chen Baizhou’s hand. He did not mind in the slightest, and even stretched out his other hand to catch it.

“Chen Baizhou, you’re too good to Xianxian, aren’t you? Why is nobody peeling mine?” Wang Wenjie cried out strangely, quite a bit saddened by being abandoned.

Shao Xian gave a dry laugh, quickly snatched the lychee over, and swallowed all the rest, his cheek bulging out into a big lump.

After he spat out the pit, he glared at Wang Wenjie. “You’re Money Crayon, so let your family’s Doraemon peel them for you.”

Chen Baizhou seemed not to hear him, doing as he pleased, continuing to peel lychees.

“You eat too.” Shao Xian felt awkward always making him peel them, or else it always felt like he was exploiting child labor.

Wang Wenjie suddenly felt that he was full. He did not understand where this feeling came from, and could only stare blankly at the two little friends in front of him.

Clearly it was a three-person journey, but only he felt lonely.

Early the next morning, Wang Wenjie came to the Shao family’s home to wait for Shao Xian.

After the three of them finished breakfast, Uncle Fang, the driver, drove them to Century Plaza.

Also going were Cai Yalan and Wang Shufen. The two mothers were not reassured about letting three little children go out to play.

After all, these days there were just too many people abducting children.

After entering the arcade, Wang Wenjie was excited like a monkey, hopping around, wanting to play with everything he saw.

Cai Yalan and Wang Shufen only watched over them from the side and did not participate in the games.

As a thirty-year-old adult male, Shao Xian was not very interested in arcades. It was all Wang Wenjie dragging him to catch plush toys, play The King of Fighters, and so on.

Chen Baizhou had been quietly following Shao Xian the whole time and had not taken the initiative to play anything.

Seeing him like this, Shao Xian felt somewhat conflicted.

During this period of getting along with Chen Baizhou, on the surface Chen Baizhou seemed very normal, but if one observed carefully, it was not hard to discover that he was very different from other children.

After nearly ten years of humiliation, his psychology could not possibly not have problems, only those problems were not yet obvious at the moment.

But what child would obediently listen every day, yet never make any requests?

And he always felt that Chen Baizhou seemed to rely on him too much. Perhaps the word rely was not appropriate, after all, Chen Baizhou always took care of him.

If one had to call it dependence, it would be better to say it was like a shadow following him.

Thinking of this, he turned his head and asked the child, “What do you want to play?”

The arcade was very noisy, and Shao Xian had to lean close to Chen Baizhou’s ear to speak.

The faint breath fell by Chen Baizhou’s ear. His ear moved slightly, and then he shook his head and replied, “I don’t really want to play anything. What do you want to play?”

Shao Xian pointed at the Mickey Mouse in the claw machine. “I want this one.”

Although he had not studied psychology, he could still tell that ten-year-old Chen Baizhou seemed to like helping him do things.

Probably because being needed made him feel that he had meaning in his existence.

He understood this psychology, but he also felt heartache.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Chen Baizhou immediately showed a smile. “I’ll catch it for you.”

He had never played before, but he had learned it from watching others operate it just now.

After inserting the game coins, he seriously and focusedly operated the claw machine, decisively grabbing a Mickey Mouse.

Shao Xian was a complete clutz and had never once successfully caught a plush toy.

By this time, he could not help but get nervous too.

The plush toy was lifted up, the claw loosely supporting Mickey Mouse as it crawled toward the exit at a snail’s pace.

Don’t fall, absolutely don’t fall!

Shao Xian stared tightly at Mickey Mouse and did not see the curve at the corner of Chen Baizhou’s lips.

At last the claw reached the exit, then let go of Mickey Mouse.

He really caught it!

A sense of pride welled up naturally in Shao Xian. He bent down to take out Mickey Mouse and sincerely praised, “Chen Baizhou, you’re amazing!”

Being praised made Chen Baizhou feel a little light-headed, and he immediately started inserting coins again.

When Wang Wenjie finished playing the pirate ship and found the two of them in front of the claw machine, he discovered that Shao Xian was already holding many Mickey Mice in his arms.

And Chen Baizhou was still tirelessly continuing to catch the few remaining plush toys.

“Chen Baizhou, you’re amazing! You caught so many plush toys!” Wang Wenjie looked a bit envious. “Give me a few.”

Chen Baizhou did not answer him, but looked at Shao Xian, as if asking for Shao Xian’s意思.

Shao Xian did not want to share Chen Baizhou’s labor results, but seeing that Wang Wenjie was truly pitiful, he very generously gave him one.

“Xianxian, when did you become so stingy?” Wang Wenjie hugged the Mickey Mouse, looking shocked.

Right then, Cai Yalan and Wang Shufen walked over, carrying a few bags, and helped Shao Xian put the Mickey Mice into them, then carried them in their hands.

“I’m going to the bathroom. Are you two going?” Shao Xian felt that the arcade was a bit stuffy, so he said.

Chen Baizhou and Wang Wenjie naturally had no objections. Good brothers should go to the bathroom together.

The three of them entered the bathroom, and just then a few children around ten years old also came in. Chen Baizhou’s brow moved slightly, then he said without batting an eye, “Shao Xian, my stomach hurts a bit. You and Wang Wenjie don’t need to wait for me. I’ll come find you in a while.”

Shao Xian looked at him carefully, then nodded.