Chapter 94: Visiting as a Guest

Chapter 94: Chapter 94: Visiting as a Guest

Wei Shu followed Tuantuan like a little shadow, nervously clutching his own watch, staying about two body lengths behind her.

"Mom, tell me, is Tuantuan’s watch a real watch or not!" Tuantuan tried desperately to prove herself.

A huge teardrop fell heavily onto the back of Tuantuan’s hand. Her smiling face froze, and she quickly changed her tune. "Tuantuan misspoke, this isn’t a watch. Tuantuan, Tuantuan—"

When toddlers were at a loss, they pretended to be very busy. Tuantuan wanted to wipe her mother’s tears, but her little hands were too dirty. She looked left and right, then spotted the watch Wei Shu had offered just in time.

Tuantuan didn’t have time to be polite with this strange boy. She grabbed the watch and held it up for her mother to see. "This is a real watch! Tuantuan accidentally made a mistake just now. Please don’t be mad, Mom, okay?"

Tuantuan blinked, her nose stinging, but she tried hard to tell herself not to cry. A considerate little baby shouldn’t cause trouble when her mother was sad.

"Player, Player, what’s wrong with you?

"It’s not your fault that Tuantuan got sick, and it’s not your problem that she doesn’t have a watch. Don’t blame yourself!"

Mr. and Mrs. Wei couldn’t sit still any longer. From a distance, they had no idea what earth-shattering thing their son had said to actually make an adult cry!

They practically jogged over to Wei Shu’s side. Lightly tapping the back of his head, they apologized to Deng Yuyuan. "Children can be ignorant. If he said anything offensive, please don’t take it to heart. We will definitely discipline him properly."

Wei Shu had been smacked, but he didn’t utter a sound. He just kept glancing up at Tuantuan from time to time, the corners of his mouth drooping uncontrollably.

Seeing this, Mr. and Mrs. Wei’s hearts sank even further. Their son was choosing to sulk silently instead of loudly protesting the unfairness, which meant he was genuinely feeling guilty!

Startled out of her reverie by the sudden commotion, Deng Yuyuan wiped her tears and said to Tuantuan, "Mom is fine."

She hastily stood up and rubbed the back of Wei Shu’s head where he had been smacked, explaining apologetically to the parents, "It has nothing to do with your son. It’s just me. I thought of something from the past and suddenly got emotional."

When Tuantuan’s makeshift watch had been presented to her, her worries about Tuantuan’s illness and the struggle to find a good place to live had lingered in her mind, refusing to leave. Her nerves, stretched taut for days, had completely snapped. Furthermore, this way of entertaining oneself and finding joy in hardship reminded her of an older girl from the orphanage in her past life.

That older sister had made a paper watch for her, promising that after she was adopted, she would ask her adoptive parents to give Deng Yuyuan a real watch. But that sister had died in the third year after her adoption.

As Tuantuan’s only pillar of support, Deng Yuyuan had to put on an indestructible front for her child. This was true even though she was exhausted from running around for days, her university admission was full of uncertainties, and she was so overwhelmed by Tuantuan’s illness that she couldn’t spare the energy to go to school.

When faced with massive crises, Deng Yuyuan could constantly psych herself up to remain calm and collected. But these little things caught her so off guard that she hadn’t raised any mental defenses, causing her emotions to crumble under their weight.

"The watch Tuantuan made is very pretty. Mom’s eyes just hurt a bit just now, so I shed some tears. It doesn’t hurt anymore," Deng Yuyuan explained as she touched Tuantuan’s wrist. "Give the watch back to Wei Shu," she added, giving Tuantuan a gentle nudge.

Tuantuan looked at Wei Shu in confusion and handed the watch to him. "Here you go."

Wei Shu snorted but took the watch anyway.

But the very next second, Tuantuan asked, "Can I borrow your watch to look at it? Your watch can move." In Tuantuan’s mind, keeping his watch and borrowing it were two entirely different things.

Helpless, Wei Shu didn’t find Tuantuan annoying. Instead, he handed the watch back to her and explained why it ticked.

Tuantuan’s brain felt like it was melting into a puddle of cream from listening to his explanation. She awkwardly touched her face and naturally taught herself how to lie. "...So that’s how it is."

She even repeated herself defensively, like a guilty person trying to cover their tracks, "Tuantuan... Tuantuan understands now. Tuantuan gets it."

"Then repeat it back to me," Wei Shu said. He felt he was very smart; once Tuantuan repeated it, he would praise her for having a great memory and good comprehension, which would surely make her very happy.

Tuantuan’s world truly collapsed this time.

"You" meant Tuantuan, but—what was a "repeat"? Tuantuan didn’t have one of those.

"It means to say why the watch moves again." Wei Shu faintly sensed something was wrong, but he still believed this little baby was as smart as he was.

Tuantuan was indeed a smart little baby, but there was a huge difference between a two-year-old and a well-read five-year-old.

"Because... they... um," Tuantuan stammered as she listened to the tiny ticking sounds coming from the watch. She clapped her little hands, her eyes sparkling, and said in a milky voice, "It likes you! It wants you to play with it. So, there are two little people inside, TICK, TICK, TICK, running, urging you to run and play with them too!"

The three adults, who were still clearing up their earlier misunderstanding, were overwhelmed by her cuteness.

Little Wei Shu naturally couldn’t resist either. Looking at Tuantuan’s expectant face, which practically had "praise me quickly" written all over it, he forced out a single word. "Right."

Wei’s mother said, "Our Little Shu is quite introverted. We came here today hoping he could find some friends to play with. He even packed a lot of toys in his backpack specifically for this. Little Shu, why don’t you take Tuantuan to play with your toys?"

Wei Shu didn’t contradict his mother. He finally had the chance to show Tuantuan his backpack.

The three adults chatted off to the side. Deng Yuyuan’s answers were vague, only mentioning that she had taken on a task for the Agricultural Research Institute. Mr. and Mrs. Wei didn’t mind; they just needed to confirm that Deng Yuyuan was an upstanding citizen.

They took out their business cards to show Deng Yuyuan and took the opportunity to suggest an idea: since the two children were playing so well together, she should come to their house as a guest and have lunch. They also had a bathroom where she could wash the child.

Deng Yuyuan didn’t care about the rest, but the last sentence struck a chord in her heart. She had been worrying about how to bathe Tuantuan. Furthermore, the couples’ identities—one a deputy-director level cadre, the other a Party secretary of a state-owned factory, with their home landline number printed below—were prestigious to a degree that surprised her.

Beijing truly lived up to its reputation. You could run into important figures just by walking around.

Deng Yuyuan hesitated. Mr. and Mrs. Wei’s eager demeanor made them look a bit too much like human traffickers. They didn’t even mind that Tuantuan was covered in mud, saying their car could just be washed later.

In the end, it was Wei Shu who finally stepped up. When Tuantuan’s stomach began to GROWL, he asked if she wanted to come to his house to eat, mentioning that he had many novel and exciting things at home he could bring out for her to play with.

Unaware of the complex thoughts of adults, Tuantuan felt they were already good friends. She nodded and ran over to ask her mother.

Deng Yuyuan finally relented. She asked Mr. and Mrs. Wei to watch the child for a moment while she went to buy Tuantuan a change of clothes.