After leaving the food street, they went to the supermarket to buy groceries. After all, it was Mid-Autumn Festival, and their little co-parenting family had to celebrate it too.
Zhong Jin held Little Tong, who was sleeping on his shoulder, in one arm, and carried a bag of groceries in the other. Qiu Sheng walked ahead, carrying a large and a small platinum handbag.
The two of them walked out of the elevator one after the other, looking very much like a wealthy lady returning home with her tall and handsome butler.
They had been arguing all the way because of a jealousy issue, and now Zhong Jin was back to his cold demeanor—holding the baby, carrying the groceries, and probably about to cook a lavish Mid-Autumn dinner with the same icy expression.
Zhong Jin, with his long legs, walked faster and reached the door before Qiu Sheng.
Then Qiu Sheng saw Zhong Jin suddenly stop in his tracks and heard him ask, "Why are you here again?"
Qiu Sheng's heart skipped a beat. She quickly walked forward and saw Wen Hechang standing at their doorstep, with many bags at his feet, presumably filled with toys and snacks.
Qiu Sheng felt her vision darken.
She hadn’t even managed to smooth things over yet, and now, what was this "living dad" of hers trying to do?
Wen Hechang looked uneasy, and he seemed a bit awkward when he saw them.
"I... bought some things for Little Tong. I didn’t have time yesterday, so I brought them over today. You weren’t home, so I waited here."
Zhong Jin gave Qiu Sheng a meaningful look, raising his eyebrows as if to say, "You handle this."
After all these years, Qiu Sheng knew Wen Hechang all too well. He was young, with a sunny and cheerful appearance, but to put it nicely, he was smooth and understood social etiquette. To put it bluntly, he was a bit oily and had a paternalistic air about him.
If they didn’t accept the things he brought, he could linger for hours.
Qiu Sheng didn’t want to have too much to do with him, so she nodded coldly and said, "Thank you. You can leave the things here."
In her mind, she was already calculating how to give him a discount on the design fee to avoid owing him anything.
Wen Hechang showed no intention of leaving. Right in front of Zhong Jin, he said,
"Qiu Sheng, I want to apologize for what happened yesterday. I was just concerned about you, and I hope this won’t affect our future collaborations."
"We’ll talk about that later," Qiu Sheng replied.
She had already decided that this would be their last collaboration. Once the current project was finished, she didn’t want to have anything more to do with him. He wasn’t a bad person, but he had no sense of boundaries, and interacting with him was exhausting.
But for now, she just wanted to get rid of Wen Hechang as quickly as possible.
Zhong Jin, watching coldly, suddenly said, "Don’t stand at the door talking. It’s a holiday. Mr. Wen, come in and join us for a simple meal."
Qiu Sheng looked at Zhong Jin in surprise, but he didn’t explain anything, just gestured for her to open the door since his hands were full.
Little Tong was placed on the sofa to sleep, covered with a small blanket, her head resting on a bone-shaped pillow.
When she woke up, Little Tong saw Wen Hechang sitting on the sofa next to her. She turned her head and saw her mother sitting at the dining table, picking vegetables.
Little Tong sat up and patted Wen Hechang’s arm. "I want water."
Wen Hechang, who seemed lost in thought, suddenly startled. "You’re awake?"
Little Tong pointed at the sippy cup on the coffee table. "I want water."
Wen Hechang picked up the cup and handed it to her. Little Tong took it and gulped down the water noisily.
After finishing most of the water, Little Tong handed the cup back to Wen Hechang. Her hair was a mess, with two little tufts sticking up, and she sat there dazed, slowly waking up from her nap.
A few minutes later, Little Tong, now fully rebooted, patted Wen Hechang’s arm again. "Let’s play."
"Play what?" Wen Hechang asked, already feeling a dull ache in his lower back as some unpleasant memories resurfaced.
Little Tong leaned forward, her hands on the sofa, her big dark eyes wide with excitement.
"Let’s play horsey!"
Wen Hechang, "...Not that again."
Little Tong tilted her round head and said bluntly, "You won’t play horsey with me because you can’t become my dad?"
Wen Hechang, "..."
Little Tong climbed down from the sofa, walked in her socks to the small room, opened the closet, and pulled out a drawer filled with neatly stacked socks. She picked out a pair of black-and-pink doodle-patterned toe socks.
She carried the socks back to the living room, tossed them onto the sofa, climbed up, and sat down. Bending over, she pulled off her current socks and threw them aside, then put on the toe socks.
After sliding them on, Little Tong used her hands to guide each of her round little toes into their respective "houses" in the socks, then pulled the sock cuffs up.
When the weather was warmer, Little Tong used to ride her little tricycle around the house barefoot. But now that it was cooler, Qiu Sheng had bought her several pairs of these toe socks with anti-slip grips on the soles. They kept her feet warm and prevented her from slipping while riding.
At first, Qiu Sheng had always helped her change the socks, but after Zhong Jin taught her a few times, Little Tong had learned to put them on by herself.
Once the socks were on, Little Tong climbed down from the sofa backward and went to the toy corner to fetch her little tricycle.
She rode it back to the sofa, picked up the discarded orange cotton socks, and placed them in the tricycle’s basket. With the socks in tow, she rode her little bike to the balcony and dropped them into the laundry basket.
Wen Hechang watched Little Tong’s every move, thinking to himself, "She’s so adorable. How can a child be this cute?"
He had interacted with other children before—his siblings’ kids were around Little Tong’s age—but none of them had this heart-melting charm that Little Tong had.
In the past, Wen Hechang had thought, "If only Qiu Sheng were my wife."
Now he was thinking, "If only Qiu Sheng were my wife, and Little Tong were my daughter."
After delivering the socks, Little Tong rode her tricycle back to the living room. Qiu Sheng called out from the dining area, "Baby, come here."
Little Tong pedaled over on her tricycle.
Qiu Sheng placed a basket of green onions and some garlic cloves into the tricycle’s basket. "Take these to Daddy."
Little Tong’s chubby toes gripped the floor as she made a turn, steering her tricycle into the kitchen.
Watching all this, Wen Hechang felt a mix of emotions. Suddenly, he felt like a thief, peeking into someone else’s happiness.
After delivering the vegetables, Little Tong rode her tricycle back to the living room.
Wen Hechang waved her over and pointed to the several bags of snacks and toys by the coffee table. "These are all for you."
"Thank you, Uncle," Little Tong said earnestly.
Then she rode her tricycle back and forth, delivering the toys and snacks to their designated spots.
The toys went to the toy corner, where they were neatly arranged.
The snacks were placed in the snack cabinet next to the fridge, with a small portion set aside in the coffee table drawer for easy access.
Putting the last yogurt into the basket of the tricycle, Little Tong turned to Wen Hechang for help. "Can you help me move it? I can't reach the fridge."
Wen Hechang followed the tricycle into the kitchen.
Zhong Jin, wearing an apron, was chopping vegetables. He glanced back at them, said nothing, and returned to his task.
When Wen Hechang opened the fridge, he was stunned by what he saw.
The fridge was packed with a wide variety of items, but everything was meticulously organized and categorized. It was spotless, with not a trace of odor.
Wen Hechang came from a well-off family with three maids, yet even their fridge wasn’t this orderly.
He turned to look at Zhong Jin again. The chopped vegetables were neatly arranged in prep trays, each item sorted with precision.
Finally, he understood why there were no traces of a man living in this house—Zhong Jin was undoubtedly a perfectionist with a touch of OCD.
Sensing Wen Hechang’s gaze, Zhong Jin looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"
Wen Hechang chuckled awkwardly. "Your knife skills are impressive, Senior."
Zhong Jin held the knife and asked, "Want to know why my knife skills are so good?"
"Why?"
"Because I don’t waste time playing horsey for other people’s kids. That leaves me plenty of time to practice."
Wen Hechang felt a phantom ache in his lower back.
*
Zhong Jin brought the cooked dishes to the table.
Steamed mandarin fish, sweet and sour pork ribs, shrimp stir-fry, okra steamed egg, and a few vegetable dishes. Though they were all home-cooked meals, they looked and smelled as good as any restaurant’s offerings.
Wen Hechang wanted to compliment the spread, but the thought of Zhong Jin’s sharp tongue made him decide against it.
Zhong Jin scooped a bit of each dish into a child’s bowl, mashed it with a spoon, and mixed it well.
Little Tong cradled the bowl of "puppy food" in her hands, sitting in her high chair, and eagerly shoveled it into her mouth with a silicone spoon.
Zhong Jin asked Wen Hechang, "Care for a drink?"
In this awkward atmosphere, it seemed like alcohol might ease the tension. Wen Hechang agreed and stood up to go buy some.
Zhong Jin stopped him. "You’re in my home. Why would you need to buy anything?"
He went to the wine cabinet and pulled out two bottles of red wine.
Before Little Tong came into his life, Zhong Jin had suffered from severe insomnia. To sleep, he sometimes drank, sometimes took sleeping pills, and sometimes even combined the two. Every night was a haze.
Later, perhaps because taking care of a child during the day was so exhausting, his insomnia vanished on its own. The wine cabinet was left untouched since then.
After finishing one bottle, Zhong Jin opened another. Qiu Sheng didn’t drink, so he poured wine only into Wen Hechang’s glass.
Once Little Tong finished eating, Zhong Jin carried her out of her high chair. She didn’t fuss while the adults chatted.
She crawled into her little doggy bed, rested her round head on the entrance, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
Wen Hechang, now a bit tipsy, propped his chin on his hand and gazed at Little Tong with a soft, almost maternal smile.
Zhong Jin spoke to him, "Wen, you’re my junior, so I’ll be honest with you. You’ve liked Qiu Sheng for so many years. If something were going to happen between you two, it would have by now. Since it hasn’t, clinging to it is pointless. You need to reevaluate your love life. If you’re set on getting married, find someone who feels the same way about you."
Wen Hechang turned to look at Zhong Jin across the table of cooling dishes. His face showed a tipsy haze and a distant, dreamy smile.
He pointed at the child sleeping with her head on the doggy bed entrance. "Senior, if I find someone who loves me back, will we have a child like her?"
Zhong Jin slammed his glass on the table, his tone sharp. "I’m talking reality, and you’re over here daydreaming?"
