After a brief break on the playground with the parents and children, Teacher Luo called the new students to line up, ready to lead them on a tour of the school.
For the children who were attending kindergarten for the first time, rules and discipline were still unfamiliar concepts. Despite Teacher Luo's repeated calls, some kids clung to their parents, refusing to let go, while others continued to run around the field.
The scene became momentarily chaotic, making Zhong Jin and Qiu Sheng feel anxious as they watched.
Fortunately, their child had already spent a few days at the daycare center and was a well-behaved listener. When Teacher Luo announced it was time to line up, Little Tong had already stood at the front of the line with her little backpack on.
The rule for lining up was usually to arrange the children by height. Little Tong often seemed short because she was surrounded by older kids. The only one close to her age was Miao Qingyue, but since Miao Qingyue couldn’t stand up to compare heights, Zhong Jin had always mistakenly thought her child was shorter than average. This led her to constantly find ways to supplement Little Tong’s nutrition.
But now, standing among children her own age, Little Tong appeared taller than the others. Because of her height, as more children joined the line, she had to step back, gradually ending up toward the rear of the group.
With her perky ponytail, she stood out like a little sapling suddenly sprouting on a flat plain.
Zhong Jin wondered aloud, “Did Little Tong suddenly grow taller?”
“It’s just a matter of perspective,” Qiu Sheng replied.
Nearby, a few parents were also discussing the children in line. One mother pointed at Little Tong and said,
“That child is so well-nourished—tall and sturdy, with shiny, healthy hair. She clearly doesn’t lack any nutrients.”
Someone next to her, possibly her husband, chimed in, “Girls should be petite and delicate to be cute. What’s so good about a girl being so tall and strong?”
Qiu Sheng gave them a strange look before turning back to Zhong Jin and saying loudly,
“Zhong Jin, do you know there’s a strange phenomenon? When a crane stands among chickens, the chickens will call the crane an outcast and look at it with odd eyes.”
Zhong Jin replied, “Why are you spouting nonsense? He wouldn’t understand. He’s just short and insecure.”
It took the middle-aged man a while to realize the two were mocking him. By the time he thought of retorting, they had already moved on with the touring group.
Little Tong seemed to like the district experimental kindergarten quite a bit. By the time they left the school after the tour, she was no longer resistant to the idea of attending kindergarten and even asked eagerly,
“When can I start going to kindergarten?”
“We’ll sign you up tomorrow. After we finish the paperwork and you get a health check-up, we’ll wait for the school to announce the start date, and then you can begin,” Zhong Jin explained.
“Okay, okay!”
The child held her father’s hand with one hand and her mother’s with the other, skipping happily between them as they walked.
Meanwhile, across the street from the kindergarten, behind the glass window of the police station, a few heads were pressed against the pane.
Little Wang said, “That’s the woman. She’s the one who came to the station the other night looking for her child.”
“Wow, she’s stunning. Look at her figure and her presence,” Rao Shishi remarked.
Hu De, holding a thermos cup, smiled contentedly. “From now on, Little Tong will have both parents in her life.”
Around 6 p.m., Zhong Jin was in the kitchen preparing dinner while Qiu Sheng and Little Tong lounged on the living room couch, snacking and watching cartoons.
Zhong Jin occasionally came out to scold them, telling them to eat fewer snacks.
Both mother and daughter had the same selective hearing, their eyes glued to the TV. When something funny happened, they laughed uproariously, sounding like a flock of ducks.
Zhong Jin sighed and went back to the kitchen.
A moment later, Qiu Sheng rushed in with her phone. “Zhong Jin, Zhong Jin, the test results are here. I’m too scared to look. Can you check for me?”
Zhong Jin took the phone calmly, though her heart was in turmoil. Over the past few days, Little Tong and Qiu Sheng had grown close. If the results were negative, Little Tong would be heartbroken. If they were positive, Zhong Jin would be the one hurting.
It was a dilemma.
She opened the image sent by the hospital and scrolled straight to the bottom. After a glance at the final result, she said calmly, “It’s not a match.”
Qiu Sheng froze.
“It’s not? How can that be?”
She muttered to herself for a moment before suddenly realizing Zhong Jin was about to throw her phone out the window.
“Ah, you liar!”
Qiu Sheng snatched the phone back and read the last line: *[Based on the DNA genetic marker analysis, the results support a parent-child relationship between Sample 1 and Sample 2.]*
“Zhong Jin, you jerk,” Qiu Sheng cursed, then ran out of the kitchen, singing and dancing, to find Little Tong.
Qiu Sheng was overjoyed, as if she’d won the lottery, showering Little Tong with kisses. Meanwhile, Zhong Jin was in the kitchen, banging the spatula against the pan.
The oblivious child, completely absorbed in the cartoon, paid no attention to her parents’ drama. Her big eyes were glued to the TV, and she clenched her little fists in suspense as Squidward tried to peek at SpongeBob’s diary. “No, no, no!”
During dinner, Qiu Sheng asked Little Tong, “Sweetie, do you want to move to Jing City with Mommy? You’ll have grandparents and an uncle who love you there. There are also great schools, and you’ll make new friends.”
The child, munching on a handmade beef meatball made by Auntie Zhong, agreed without hesitation, “I want to go.”
“You’re not going to stay with me?” Zhong Jin asked, his voice dry and strained, clearly upset.
The child nodded firmly, “I want to stay.”
Qiu Sheng was about to say more, but Zhong Jin cut her off. “She’s too young to understand what this means. Let’s not ask her anymore.”
Their situation was as awkward as any divorced couple fighting for custody—afraid of hurting the child but forced to separate her from one parent.
After finishing her meatball, Little Tong pushed her bowl toward Zhong Jin. “I want more.”
“No more meat. Finish the vegetables in your bowl.”
Little Tong then turned to Qiu Sheng. “If you let me have one more meatball, I’ll be your best friend forever.”
Qiu Sheng immediately refused. “No, Daddy’s right. Kids shouldn’t be picky eaters.”
In matters of parenting, the ex-couple temporarily agreed: they couldn’t spoil the child or let her manipulate them.
Besides, the little troublemaker was too clever, and they had to be careful not to be outsmarted by her.
*
That night, neither Zhong Jin nor Qiu Sheng slept well. The next morning, both looked exhausted, their fair skin making the dark circles under their eyes even more noticeable.
Perhaps because they were in similar situations, Qiu Sheng made a gesture of goodwill by brewing Zhong Jin a cup of coffee.
Zhong Jin took the coffee, pulled out a chair, and sat down, looking utterly drained. “You didn’t poison this, did you?”
“I thought about it, but I couldn’t find where to buy poison,” Qiu Sheng replied, sitting across from him and taking a big gulp of iced coffee.
“I had that dream again last night,” Qiu Sheng said.
“Hmm?”
“I dreamt that the big dog we used to have was injured. You cut your finger and fed it your blood to heal it. After drinking your blood, the dog’s wounds started to heal.”
Qiu Sheng finished the rest of her coffee in one go.
“What’s strange is that in the dream, I also secretly pricked my finger and fed the dog my blood when no one was looking. It felt like something I couldn’t let anyone know—I looked so guilty.”
Perhaps the blood-related aspect of the DNA test had triggered some buried memories.
After the paternity results came in, Qiu Sheng started dreaming of scenes she hadn’t recalled before.
Zhong Jin glanced over at Little Tong, who was lying on the floor, her chin resting on the ground, her little hands tucked under her belly.
He took out his phone, searched for images of a puppy lying down, and showed the picture to Qiu Sheng. "Look, doesn't her posture look just like this puppy's?"
Qiu Sheng smiled warmly, "How adorable."
"Is this really about adorableness?"
Zhong Jin put his phone away, "I suspect she might actually be that dog. Since we raised her using our own blood, the genetic test results showed she's our child. Do you remember the first time she met you, she said your scent was different from before? That proves she identifies people by smell, which is very dog-like, isn't it?"
"No, she definitely isn't a dog."
In Qiu Sheng's dreams, there was a child who looked exactly like Little Tong, as well as a large dog. She didn't connect the child to the dog as another form, so she firmly believed that a dog was just a dog, and a child was just a child.
Unable to settle the argument, the two decided to call over the poor child again.
Zhong Jin asked her, "Zhong Yuntong, do you remember we used to have a big dog?"
"Mm-hmm," the child nodded, "The Heavenly Cloud Demon Dog."
"Where is that dog now?"
The child actually thought seriously for a while, then began to speak with a straight face, "She went to work at the Krusty Krab."
Zhong Jin, "Where is this restaurant? Is it in this world?"
Qiu Sheng, "That's where SpongeBob works."
Zhong Jin, "...Never mind, go play."
The child placed her hands on the dining table, stood on her tiptoes to peek at the empty table, and pouted, "No breakfast? I'm starving."
"Let's eat out today," Zhong Jin really wasn't in the mood to make breakfast.
They went to a seafood noodle shop not far from their neighborhood. While waiting for the owner to cook the noodles, Zhong Jin dipped his finger in tea and drew relationship diagrams on the table, analyzing them for Qiu Sheng.
"Assuming Zhong Yuntong is that dog. She was injured, and I needed to use my blood to heal her. Then, this blood must have some effect of increasing intimacy. Knowing you, you wouldn't want the child to be closer only to me, so you secretly fed her your blood too. That logic makes sense, right?"
Although Qiu Sheng didn't believe Little Tong could be a dog, she admitted that if blood had the effect of increasing intimacy, she would have secretly fed the dog some blood too.
"But you're afraid of pain, so you didn't feed her much, right?"
Qiu Sheng, "...That's true."
"Since the amount of blood you fed her was far less than what I gave, her connection to me is deeper. That's why she came to me first in this world. And because she drank both of our blood, the genetic test results showed she has a parent-child relationship with us."
Zhong Jin drew clear lines on the table, then paused, "If she is the dog, and the dog is her—one soul, two forms—then everything comes full circle, right?"
"But there's one last question. She said your scent was different from before. Why would that be? We haven't figured that out yet."
Qiu Sheng followed his train of thought, "Maybe because I started using perfume?"
"Probably not. If perfume could interfere with her sense of smell, then there are too many factors that could do the same, like soap, body wash, or tobacco. It must be something deeper."
Qiu Sheng was left speechless by his reasoning until she noticed the waiter and other customers giving them puzzled looks. She quickly stopped.
Then she scoffed, "This is all just your imagination."
Qiu Sheng quickly explained to the people around them, "Sorry, we're playing a deduction game. Were we too loud? Our apologies."
A middle-aged man said, "No problem, go on. I want to hear the answer too."
Even on their way back after breakfast, Zhong Jin remained convinced that his reasoning was close to the truth.
However, when he interrogated the two "suspects," Qiu Sheng said, "She can't be a dog. In my dreams, the child and the dog are separate."
Little Tong, chewing on a milk candy, raised a finger and explained seriously again, "You're wrong. I'm a baby, okay?"
