Until he hung up the phone, Fu Shizhao still hadn’t turned around, keeping his back to Tang Mian the entire time and not saying a word.

Tang Mian tried to reach out and tousle his fluffy head, but he ignored him.

Clearly, he wasn’t asleep. It was strange.

Mu Zichen was too good at finding conversation topics, and Tang Mian still hadn’t found an opportunity to steer the conversation toward Fu Shizhao.

Tang Mian began to feel anxious, curling his toes in distress.

The purpose of his call to Mu Zichen was to bring Fu Shizhao and Mu Zichen closer, to make them friends like they were in the previous life.

But now Fu Shizhao seemed… upset for some reason?

Mu Zichen had been so excited and kept the conversation going energetically.

Tang Mian’s head was spinning, and he could barely think straight. In a rush, he found an excuse to end the call, “My little brother needs to sleep. Let’s talk tomorrow. Good night.”

Mu Zichen was getting enthusiastic about the conversation when he suddenly heard this. He hesitated for a moment, sounding a bit disappointed, but he still replied, “Alright, goodnight. See you tomorrow.”

‘Little cotton candy was so good to his little brother.’

After ending the call, Tang Mian tried to get Fu Shizhao’s attention by touching his fuzzy head, but Fu Shizhao remained unresponsive. Tang Mian increased the pressure and gently ruffled his hair. Even though he wasn’t asleep, Fu Shizhao didn’t respond. Tang Mian found it quite comfortable to ruffle the soft hair on Fu Shizhao’s head, a feeling he knew wouldn’t last as Fu Shizhao’s hair would become less soft as he grew older.

In his previous life, if Fu Shizhao had acted like this, Tang Mian would have confronted him and demanded an explanation. But now, dealing with a sensitive and young Fu Shizhao, he had to be cautious.

Seeing that Fu Shizhao didn’t want to turn around, Tang Mian decided to climb over him, crawling from his side to face him. He looked into Fu Shizhao’s big, wide-open eyes and asked, “What’s wrong?” Tang Mian pinched his cheek gently. However, Fu Shizhao averted his gaze and remained silent.

Fu Shizhao wasn’t naive; he quickly understood why Tang Mian had made that call to Mu Zichen – he probably wanted to connect him and Mu Zichen, hoping they would become friends. Tang Mian treated him well, and always considered his feelings.

Despite his occasional grumbling about Mu Zichen’s behavior, Fu Shizhao knew that some people were just naturally suited to be friends, and the timing would work itself out. Right now, his primary focus was on Tang Mian, and he wanted to dedicate all his time and energy to him.

He needed to put an end to Tang Mian’s attempts to connect him with Mu Zichen. It wasn’t worth wasting his time on that.

So, he decided to lie and said, “Brother, today you talked to him several times and ignored me.”

Tang Mian was slightly surprised. Did that really happen?

However, it was true that Mu Zichen had turned to talk to him several times today, and Tang Mian couldn’t remember whether he had unintentionally ignored Fu Shizhao.

After all, they were in a kindergarten, the children in the class were quite young. Sometimes during class, there would be a lot of chatter, and Fu Shizhao’s voice was always soft and small. Perhaps… he had genuinely ignored Fu Shizhao several times today?

Tang Mian also disliked being ignored when talking to others, and he could empathize with Fu Shizhao’s feelings.

Seeing Tang Mian lost in thought, Fu Shizhao continued with a somewhat pitiful tone, “Big brother, can you please talk to me more in the future? And when we’re home, don’t call him anymore.”

Tang Mian, feeling guilty, quickly agreed without realizing that he had forgotten the true purpose of his call to Mu Zichen tonight.

Getting a nod of approval from Tang Mian, Fu Shizhao’s eyes curved into small crescents, and he affectionately rubbed his face against Tang Mian’s hand, saying, “Big brother is so nice.”

Tang Mian’s heart felt even more conflicted, as if he had done something morally wrong.

–

Until he turned off the lights and lay in bed, Tang Mian was still thinking about what Fu Shizhao had said tonight. Had he unknowingly neglected Fu Shizhao just like today in his previous life?

He carefully recalled some details from his previous life but couldn’t remember anything specific. As Tang Mian thought more about it, he couldn’t fall asleep and experienced his first bout of insomnia at such a young age.

In the end, he came to the conclusion, albeit in a drowsy state: “Well, I can’t confront anyone about what happened in the past life anyway. I’ll just have to be nicer to the little troublemaker in this life.”

The next morning, when Tang Mian woke up with two big dark circles under his eyes, it startled Shen Siwan.

To avoid worrying Shen Siwan, Tang Mian could only make up an excuse, saying that he was too excited on his first day of kindergarten and couldn’t fall asleep due to the excitement.

Shen Siwan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

‘As long as Mian Mian enjoyed going to kindergarten, that was all that mattered.’

As for Fu Shizhao, he had fallen asleep quickly the previous night and woke up to see Tang Mian’s dark circles the next morning. He immediately felt regretful, suspecting that his little tantrum last night might have been the cause. He was quite possessive and didn’t like to see Tang Mian worried or suffering.

However, Fu Shizhao didn’t want his bad habits to negatively affect Tang Mian. He was making an effort to control himself, but it wasn’t always easy.

In the following days, Fu Shizhao behaved well, except during naptime at noon when he would occasionally throw a small tantrum. Tang Mian didn’t call Mu Zichen after school either. There were a few times when Mu Zichen called, but Tang Mian quickly found an excuse to hang up. Playing with the young Fu Shizhao was fun for Tang Mian, but other kids aside from Fu Shizhao were a different story. Tang Mian, with the mature mind from his previous life, felt a generation gap.

As for Mu Zichen and Fu Shizhao becoming friends, Tang Mian decided to let it happen naturally. There was no rush; after all, in his previous life, they didn’t meet until high school.

Life at kindergarten continued to go smoothly. It was a simple and pleasant time with occasional fun incidents. Mu Zichen brought a cotton candy stick for Tang Mian every day, and in return, Tang Mian would give him some snacks. Then, they would share the cotton candy with Fu Shizhao.

Tang Mian gave the 100 yuan and the painting to the little boy who had just moved into a new house. In return, the boy gave him an expensive set of paintbrushes.

There was also a girl with a newborn baby brother who couldn’t bring her sibling to play with Fu Shizhao. Instead, she brought a beautiful doll. Tang Mian patiently taught her how to draw.

…

Tang Mian’s mother had quietly started planning to return to work once the children were in school. However, it was just a thought for now. Once Tang Mian overheard her talking to his father about it, his father naturally encouraged her. But his mother was still hesitant and wanted to wait until Tang Mian graduated from high school. However, if she waited that long, she would be quite old, and Tang Mian didn’t want his mother to waste so many years on him. He realized he needed to find a suitable opportunity to subtly hint to his mother.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until one day during an extracurricular activity, Tang Mian saw another familiar child in his class.

It was Tang Wei.

After not seeing him for a while, he was still the same, acting like a little bully among the kids in their class.

Well, they weren’t poor before the incident, and sending their only child to the best kindergarten was not a big deal. Moreover, both Chen Junyu and Tang Caihua were not fools. Naturally, they would place their only heir in the best kindergarten. The environment was good here, and they could also establish connections with other families through their children. It was a win-win situation.

Tang Mian just glanced at Tang Wei and then held Fu Shizhao’s hand, walking away from him. He didn’t want any contact with him.

Ever since his parents had erased their information from the community records, that family had stopped bothering them. Tang Mian hoped they could continue not bothering each other.

He didn’t have the ability to take revenge in this life yet. When he grew up a little more, he planned to collect evidence of their company’s illegal activities, just like in his previous life, and send them to prison again. After all, they deserved it.

Compared to the harm they had caused to his family in his previous life, this would be a relatively mild punishment.

Fu Shizhao also noticed Tang Wei, but since Tang Mian didn’t say anything, he pretended not to see him and obediently sat down on the swing next to Tang Mian. They swung gently together.

Mu Zichen, seeing this, also happily ran over and sat on the swing on the other side of Tang Mian, engaging in casual conversation with him.

Compared to the boring early education classes in the classroom, Tang Mian preferred outdoor activities. Swings, slides, trampolines… both kids and adults never seemed to lose interest in them.

Unfortunately, outdoor activities were often held together with several classes, forcing them to interact with people they didn’t like in the same space.

And… many times, things didn’t go as planned.

Tang Mian deliberately avoided Tang Wei, but Tang Wei was persistent.

–

Although Fu Shizhao had been watching Tang Wei’s movements attentively, preventing him from approaching this side, he didn’t anticipate that Tang Wei would involve other classmates to play a prank.

His target was the hearing aid on Tang Mian’s ear.

That was the most vulnerable part of Tang Mian’s entire body.

In order to prevent the hearing aid from falling off, Tang’s father and mother had specially designed a secure pendant that connected to the hearing aid. However, it couldn’t withstand the malicious actions of a five or six-year-old child.

The hearing aid was snatched away, and someone forcefully pushed Tang Mian from behind. Tang Mian suddenly felt his right ear go empty, and his entire world was split into two in an instant. Immediately, he felt intense pain in his hands and knees.

Fu Shizhao almost jumped off the swing in an instant and lunged directly at the person who had taken Tang Mian’s hearing aid.

1. ¹Hi, Translator here, I hope ya’ll post good reviews for our cuties on Novel Updates.?? I will try to post 2 chaps/day.

• 1
  Hi, Translator here, I hope ya’ll post good reviews for our cuties on Novel Updates.?? I will try to post 2 chaps/day.