Ji Tingzhou's expression froze for a moment.
For a second, he wondered if he was hallucinating due to lack of sleep.
But then she spoke again, and he was certain that the little girl in the headphones, who was dismissive and critical of Bruce's research, was indeed Ji Nian.
"You’re quite creative, thinking of using methylthioethyl ester. I suggest you give up; it clashes with dcona, and the TPES is too small."
"This formula is wrong; it should be changed here..."
Ji Nian spoke quickly, and by the end, her tone was full of disdain, as if she were frustrated by the incompetence.
She sounded like a retired professor in her seventies...
Ji Tingzhou paused, took a moment to collect himself, and then continued.
He didn’t understand the technical terms she used, but from the way Bruce remained silent, being bossed around by a child, and occasionally gasping in shock, it was clear that the little girl was exceptionally talented.
In fact, she seemed to far surpass Bruce.
When Ji Tingzhou first met Bruce, he was only twenty-five, at an age where he was arrogant about his talents. It wasn’t until his research was stolen that he realized talent alone wasn’t enough. As he grew older, he gradually toned down his initial sharpness.
But his inner arrogance remained unchanged. Even Ji Tingzhou, when he doubted Bruce’s work, would provoke his anger.
But now, what did Ji Tingzhou hear?
Bruce, that self-important blue-eyed tomato, was actually fawning over Ji Nian, calling her "teacher."
The last time Bruce had acted so obsequiously was when he was begging Ji Tingzhou to fund his project.
As time went on, it seemed the child had finished whatever she was working on.
At the end of the audio, Ji Nian joked, "When you wake up, if you still remember."
"Bang!" Something fell to the ground.
Then came a series of rustling and clattering noises.
Ji Tingzhou waited for a while, but as the audio reached its end and automatically stopped, he didn’t hear the little girl’s voice again.
He took off the headset, his dark green eyes staring into the night. He seemed to be thinking about nothing, yet it felt like he was pondering a lot.
Finally, Ji Tingzhou turned to look at Ji Nian, who was clutching his clothes tightly, leaning against him with a look of complete dependence, her mouth slightly open with a trace of drool.
This foolish appearance was a stark contrast to the bold Ji Nian he had just heard, who had used blue lemonade to impersonate poison to threaten Bruce, displayed astonishing talent despite her young age, and somehow managed to knock Bruce out without a hint of panic, even cleaning up the scene and deleting the surveillance footage.
"Split personality?"
Ji Tingzhou slowly uttered the term.
How else could he explain the fact that his five-year-old, seemingly ordinary child was anything but ordinary?
The child felt something poking her face and sleepily opened her eyes, reaching out to touch it.
Then she sniffed.
Recognizing the familiar scent, she closed her eyes again, satisfied, and went back to sleep.
"Ji... Ji Tingzhou..."
Hearing the child call his name, he thought to himself how bold she was, while also marveling that she even knew his name.
"Big dummy..."
Ji Tingzhou: "......"
Ever since he discovered that Ji Nian could cure his insomnia, Ji Tingzhou rarely had trouble sleeping, unless he chose not to.
But tonight, with Ji Nian clinging tightly to him, he found himself unusually awake.
He thought about many things, taking a long time to process the overwhelming amount of information.
Aside from her appearance, Ji Nian was indeed his child, and a member of the Ji Family.
The Ji Family, with its devilish bloodline, had accumulated unimaginable wealth over generations, not just by luck, but because they often produced "geniuses" who were far beyond ordinary people.
Almost every member of the Ji Family had a natural talent, excelling in a field that was difficult for others to match.
Ji Wanting, the eldest daughter of the previous generation of the Ji Family and Ji Tingzhou's half-sister, had shown remarkable talent in painting from a young age.
However, her artistic inspiration was drawn from the suffering of others, which was why Ji Tingzhou was always reluctant to acknowledge her so-called "talent."
Others in the family also had their own areas of expertise.
When Ji Tingzhou was first brought back to the Ji Family, he learned about this through an introduction, and at the time, he was curious about what his own "talent" might be.
Later, he realized it was probably his incredible resilience—no matter how much he was tormented, he just wouldn’t die.
He thought about the unwavering tone in Ji Nian’s voice when she had threatened someone earlier.
Then he recalled the first time Ji Wanting had tried to harm him. She had been somewhat cautious then, pushing him into a cage with wolves that had been starved for three days, and afterward, she had viciously threatened him, who was barely alive, not to tell anyone.
But the moment he had that thought, Ji Tingzhou felt disgusted.
Ji Nian was more like him.
When he was five years old, for the sake of a meal, he had dared to deceive a trafficker from out of town, pretending to be obediently kidnapped, only to sell the trafficker to a flesh peddler he had arranged in advance, playing a game of black against black.
"Yeah, she’s more like me."
He poked the child’s soft cheek, his tone firm.
He guessed that whatever risky thing Ji Nian had done was likely to save Wei Yang.
The fact that Ji Nian wasn’t as naive as he had imagined, and could even be described as a different kind of "monster," left Ji Tingzhou with mixed feelings.
If he had known that Ji Nian had this side to her, and that she could hide it so well, back when she first came to him asking for pastries, he would never have taken her in.
But now...
Thinking of the child’s earlier meow-like call, filled with both grievance and a hint of coquetry, "Daddy," as well as the moments they had shared together, Ji Tingzhou had no intention of abandoning her, even after discovering this hidden side and the fact that she had kept so much from him.
It was good for a child to be cunning, especially if it was for self-preservation. And even if it wasn’t, wasn’t he partly to blame for making Ji Nian feel so insecure?
Ji Tingzhou felt he was beyond saving.
Now, his only thought about discovering that his child was a genius was: "This is good. At least she won’t be bullied in places I can’t see when she grows up."
If anyone made her unhappy in the future, she could just jab them with a needle.
After destroying all the audio files and their backups, Ji Tingzhou gently stroked the child’s soft hair.
The only thing he couldn’t figure out was how Ji Nian had managed to learn all these things in the isolated environment of the small building, under the watch of the malicious nanny. Who had taught her?
It couldn’t have been something she was born with.
Then he thought, forget it, there was plenty of time. He would slowly uncover all the secrets of this child.
...
Ji Nian suddenly opened her eyes in the morning, and upon seeing Ji Tingzhou beside her, she felt a bit more at ease.
She even rolled over to peek under the bed.
Good, Ji Tingzhou’s shoes were still in the same spot where he had left them the night before.
Completely unaware that she had been exposed, Ji Nian stretched and rolled into her father’s warm embrace, intending to sleep a little longer.
But she was soon awakened.
Someone was frantically knocking on the door outside.
Ji Nian buried her head under the blanket and kicked Ji Tingzhou beside her: "Daddy, go open the door..."
Ji Tingzhou, who had barely managed to fall asleep at dawn, was jolted awake by the kick, frowning as he opened his eyes.
At the same time, the noise he hadn’t heard while asleep became very clear.
He wanted to call for the pink-headed turtle, but then realized he wasn’t at home.
Finally, with a dark expression, he got out of bed. When he opened the door, he leaned his elbow against the doorframe, his dark green eyes bloodshot from a night of tossing and turning.
"Speak."
Standing outside was Bruce, looking even more disheveled than Ji Tingzhou, his blue eyes filled with terror.
"Dear boss, listen to me."
"Although I’m a staunch materialist, last night! A ghost entered my lab and created an antidote that can completely cleanse Wei Yang’s body of toxins!!!"
He nearly shouted the last sentence, his eyes wild, as if he were on the verge of abandoning his materialism to worship some kind of antidote-making deity.
Ji Tingzhou’s reaction was calm: "Is that so."
"What a clever ghost, doing good deeds without leaving a name."
"Quite like me."
Bruce: Huh???
