While eating cake in the evening, the adults began discussing the birthdays of a few children. Xiang Ruicheng reminisced, "Zi Mo was born in December. That winter in Haishan was unusually cold."
He even boasted, "I picked the na Xiang Zimo. 'Mo' is like the silent stillness of a cold winter night."
Sun Xiuwen then asked Zhong Jin, "When is Little Tong's birthday?"
Zhong Jin hesitated, realizing he hadn’t thought about it before. So he turned to Little Tong and asked, "Do you know when your birthday is?"
Little Tong was busy stuffing a massive dollop of cream into her mouth with her fork, her cheeks bulging as she stared with her big, round eyes and shook her head.
"Such a young child wouldn’t rember the date," Sun Xiuwen comnted.
Zhong Jin pondered for a mont and said, "Her birthday is July 1st."
Little Tong had appeared at the police station on July 1st. Zhong Jin reasoned that since that was likely the day she arrived in this world, it made sense to consider it her birthday.
After returning from the seaside villa, Zhong Jin planned to buy another rabbit toy online for Little Tong. However, after searching through various websites, he couldn’t find the exact sa one. He found a similar one and asked Little Tong, "How about this one?"
Little Tong, with her pudgy fingers painted in red nail polish, shook her hand side to side, dismissing it, "It’s kind of ugly."
"..." Zhong Jin continued his search.
After several attempts with similar rabbits, the child still refused each one. One day, while on duty, Zhong Jin passed by the toy shooting ga stall and decided to ask the vendor where he had sourced the rabbit.
The vendor, seeing Zhong Jin in his police uniform, was instantly terrified, thinking he had done sothing wrong.
After explaining the situation, the vendor added Zhong Jin on WeChat and sent him a link to an 1888 website where he had purchased the toy. Perhaps feeling pressured by Zhong Jin’s uniform, the vendor also refunded 1300 yuan to him, admitting that the original cost of the rabbit was only 500 yuan.
Using the refunded 1300 yuan, Zhong Jin placed an order on the 1888 website for over a dozen plush toys, including the rabbit.
When Little Tong saw the large rabbit and so many toys, she was overjoyed, vigorously shaking her head. She followed Zhong Jin around, showering him with endless complints.
From a certain perspective, Zhong Jin hadn’t even spent any money on these toys.
Everything seed to work out perfectly.
In another developnt, a housekeeping agency Zhong Jin had previously contacted inford him that a live-in nanny had recently beco available.
Zhong Jin had a preliminary interview with the nanny, Aunt Liang, who was 52 years old and had 15 years of experience in caring for children. She had also self-studied nutrition and appeared clean and efficient. However, her salary requirent was quite high—9000 yuan per month.
If not for Zhong Jin’s good financial situation and personal savings, raising a little "money pit" like this would have been quite taxing on his salary as a police station chief.
After confirming with Aunt Liang that she would start a trial period the next day, Zhong Jin called Little Tong, who was busy playing with her "makeup" in her room.
Ever since buying that bottle of nail polish from the shop downstairs, Little Tong had suddenly beco obsessed with beauty and demanded to buy lipstick. Eventually, Zhong Jin found child-safe makeup toys online, where the costics used natural plant extracts, ensuring safety for kids.
"What’s up?" Little Tong, completely engrossed in her play, frowned and walked out of her room, impatiently urging, "I’m playing."
Zhong Jin examined his daughter’s colorful face.
Her eyebrows were two thick black lines, and her cheeks were painted with two exaggerated patches of rouge. Her mouth was drawn in an exaggerated way that resembled the classic "sausage mouth" from a cody movie. Standing there with a frown, she looked like a little monster.
He imdiately pulled out his phone and said, "You look so beautiful. Co on, give a peace sign. I’ll take a photo of you."
Little Tong quickly raised both hands and ford a peace sign near her ears, baring her teeth in an exaggerated fake smile.
The sight was utterly hilarious.
If painting herself like a panda with markers had been a 10 on the humor scale, this exaggerated lipstick look was a solid 100, and adding the fake smile bumped it up to 1000.
Zhong Jin snapped several photos before finally bursting into laughter, covering his mouth with his hand. His shoulders trembled, and tears of mirth leaked from the corners of his eyes as his stomach ached from laughing so hard.
Little Tong, oblivious to why her father was laughing, joined in, giggling coarsely and hugging Zhong Jin’s neck, both of them laughing uncontrollably.
After a while, Zhong Jin cald down. He hadn’t laughed like this in a long ti, and his cheeks, as if losing their elasticity, felt particularly sore.
Little Tong sat curled up on Zhong Jin’s belly, adorably admiring her reflection. "Look at , aren't I pretty?"
Thinking, "You’re not pretty, you’re hilarious," Zhong Jin barely managed to suppress his laughter.
Later, Zhong Jin lifted Zhong Yuntong and turned her around so her back was facing him, finally stopping the laughter.
He cleared his throat and got down to business. "I want to talk to you about sothing. Tomorrow, Aunt Liang will co to our house. She’ll stay for a few days and take care of you. If you feel uncomfortable with her, you need to tell imdiately. If you get along well, she’ll continue to take care of you in the future."
"No, I want you," Little Tong imdiately protested, her little arms clinging tightly to Zhong Jin’s neck.
Zhong Jin patiently explained, "I have to work. You’ll stay ho with Aunt Liang, and I’ll co back to see you when I’m done."
Little Tong pouted, burying her chin in Zhong Jin’s neck and grumbling, "I want to go to the police station with you."
"The police station is a place for work. You’re a child. You need nutritious food and plenty of rest. You can’t stay at the police station all the ti."
Little Tong rolled off Zhong Jin’s belly, clenched her tiny fists, and shouted at him, "You always want to leave !"
She then grabbed Zhong Jin’s trouser leg, slid onto the carpet, and tugged hard on the ears of her large rabbit, dragging it grunting toward her room. It seed she was so angry she wanted to leave.
After a few steps, the rabbit was too heavy, and she dropped it onto the floor, turning back to Zhong Jin and yelling, "Here’s your rabbit, I don’t want to play with you anymore."
As she bolted to her room, she muttered incoherently through her anger, "*%$##**&......", words pouring out as her linguistic abilities seed to fail her.
This was the first ti Zhong Jin had ever seen Little Tong so furious, and it truly stunned him. At the sa ti, he understood sothing crucial: the thing Little Tong hated most in this world was being separated from her dad.
After a while, Zhong Jin got up and went to check on her in her room. She was lying on her side, her round little head pointed away from the door.
Judging by her position, the "makeup" on her face was probably smudged all over her pillow. But at that mont, Zhong Jin dared not say a word.
He knocked on the door and asked, "Want to go out and get so food? Fried chicken and ice cream?"
Little Tong remained unresponsive, giving him a sorrowful view of the back of her head.
Zhong Jin thought to himself, even fried chicken isn’t working now. This really is a huge problem. He ruffled the hair in front of his forehead, feeling a bit stifled.
Zhong Jin had always been terrified of his ex-wife, Qiu Sheng, being angry. Once a cold war began, Zhong Jin would imdiately start soothing her, from morning till night, accompanying her for als, play, buying gifts, and when he had ti, taking trips.
Now that his wife was gone and his daughter was here, the familiar feeling had returned.
A man’s bitter tears could only flow inwardly.
"Little Tong, don’t be angry," Zhong Jin sat down on the edge of the bed, gently pushing the child’s plump arm, taking the first step to appease her, "I’m discussing this with you. Co on, let’s talk about your thoughts. We can discuss it."
The child didn’t respond, half of her face buried in the pillow.
Zhong Jin stared at the round back of the little girl's head for a while, then suddenly raised his hand to put his arm around her shoulder and flipped her over. Sure enough... she was sleeping!!
Zhong Jin, I can't believe I fell for your tricks, Zhong Jin grumbled inwardly. He stood up, went to the bathroom, wrung out a hot towel, and tested the temperature on the back of his hand. Not too hot, he gently helped her wipe the color off her face.
Little Tong slept until afternoon before waking up. It seed she had forgotten about her previous anger. Once awake, she went to the living room to find Zhong Jin and said she was hungry.
Zhong Jin was reading a detective novel. He shifted his gaze from the book to see the little girl, with her clear big eyes, gazing at him expectantly.
Zhong Jin wisely did not ntion the quarrel and rely asked, "How about so fried chicken?"
Little Tong's mouth broke into a big smile, and she raised her hand enthusiastically, "Okay!"
Zhong Jin blinked. Was this child a goldfish? Did she really forget the argunt two hours ago?
At the mall, they ate at McDonald's. Little Tong saw the toy of Donald Duck on another table and wanted it too. Zhong Jin inquired and found out there were 6 types of Donald Duck toys, and a Happy al would randomly include one as a blind box.
So he bought two Happy als, hoping to get an extra toy for the child. He also ate the kids’ al with her.
They got two toys from the als. Zhong Jin looked at the descriptions, "This one is a castle explorer, this one is on Main Street, and there are 4 more toys. We'll collect the others next ti we co and eat here."
Little Tong stuffed the two toys into her small backpack, pointed at the counter, and said, "Buy more."
Zhong Jin replied, "We can only buy one more."
Little Tong covered her mouth and giggled, "You’re out of money, aren’t you? Let's ask Uncle Xiang." Little Tong rembered how Xiang Zimo once ntioned his dad was very rich.
Zhong Jin was utterly speechless. "I just don't want to eat anymore. Who said I'm out of money? I’m much richer than him."
This ti, they weren't so lucky, and they got a duplicate toy. Little Tong picked it up, looked at it, then slamd it onto Zhong Jin's desk, her expression bold and generous, as if giving a token to her underling, "Here, I’ll give it to you."
"I appreciate that," Zhong Jin said, completely expressionless, sipping the milk from the kid's al, with an unopened bag of apple slices beside him.
Little Tong pointed at the counter again, "Buy more."
Finally, to distract her, Zhong Jin brought up, "Do you rember the ti when Uncle Xiang Zimo’s dad took you to the mall, and you texted that you saw a skirt with flowers? Let’s go buy it today."
The child had indeed forgotten about the toys. She frowned, trying hard to recall the skirt but eventually shook her head, "I don’t rember."
With her three-second mory, Zhong Jin didn’t expect her to truly rember. He just wanted to distract her from the toys and pretended to be disappointed, "Oh, really? Well, let’s buy it next ti when you rember."
After filling their stomachs, they didn’t rush ho. Little Tong held one of Zhong Jin’s fingers, leading him around the mall. When they approached the costics counter, Zhong Jin calmly steered her in another direction.
Passing a bookstore, Zhong Jin asked Little Tong if she wanted to buy so picture books. Little Tong nodded, "Yes."
So they went in and picked out a few picture books.
Zhong Jin, carrying the bookstore bag, followed behind his daughter. The child trotted around tirelessly, checking out places she liked. Whenever she saw a piece of clothing or a bag she liked, she would go inside and skillfully tell the staff, "Auntie, I want that."
Then Zhong Jin would act like an emotionless ATM, scanning and paying, carrying several shopping bags behind her short legs.
As they approached the mall exit, Zhong Jin breathed a sigh of relief, finally over.
But then Little Tong suddenly stopped, pointed at the window ahead, and turned to Zhong Jin, "There's a flower skirt."
Zhong Jin looked over and saw, wedding dresses?
"You can’t wear that," Zhong Jin firmly refused.
He set the bags he was carrying on the ground, picked her up, and put her on his shoulders, then picked up the bags again, quickening his pace toward the mall exit.
And he made a decision:
From now on, whenever he ca to this mall, he would definitely avoid this area.
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