Chapter 508 The Little Turtle

Chapter 508: The Little Turtle

Su Taotao played the role of the "leader of the kids" tonight, engaging in various games with eight children, round after round.

They were currently playing the game "Who’s Pretending to Drink?"

The game was "invented" by Su Taotao—though in truth, it was lifted straight from the 21st century.

Each child took a sip of water from their own bottle and kept it in their mouths without swallowing. One of them was pretending, and Su Taotao's task was to identify the fake within ten seconds. If she failed, she lost.

Why the time limit?

Because in the previous round, the guessing took too long, and some kids couldn’t hold the water in their mouths, exposing themselves and causing the game to fail.

Su Taotao guessed correctly in just five seconds. Most of the kids forgot to wipe their mouths after drinking, leaving traces of water at the corners—ruling out half of them immediately.

Two others had taken such big sips that water spilled from the corners of their mouths, but they wiped it off. Chenchen, who didn’t "leak" at all, was quickly spotted by Su Taotao.

"This game’s no fun, Mom. Let’s play something else," Chenchen said. His teammates messed it up—he had done so well, leaving no clues, yet they still lost.

Su Taotao thought for a moment. "Then let’s play 'Undercover Agent.'"

Naturally, this was also lifted straight from the 21st century.

Su Taotao immediately wrote seven little slips of paper.

"Here are seven slips. Six of them have identities written on them—like people, animals, food, buildings… anything goes.

One slip is blank, with nothing written on it. That’s the undercover’s slip.

Everyone takes turns describing the identity they drew. The undercover can lie or follow the descriptions given by the good guys. After each round of descriptions, we’ll vote to eliminate who we think is the undercover.

If the undercover is caught, the good guys win. If the undercover survives till the end, the undercover wins."

Chenchen clapped his hands. "This is awesome! Let’s play this!"

Everyone was very interested in this "Undercover Game."

Fu got home from work just as the game was at its peak. For a moment, he thought he had walked into the wrong house—a preschool, with seven kids plus Bai Hua, so loud it sounded like a three-ring circus.

Two people had already given their descriptions, and now it was Chenchen’s turn: "A famous place in the capital. I’ve been there."

Pangpang asked, "Did I go there too?"

The "referee" Su Taotao said, "Pangpang, no asking questions. You can only describe."

Everyone burst into laughter and collectively voted Pangpang out.

Pangpang was confused. "I’m a good person! Why did you vote for me?"

Chenchen explained, "If you were a good guy, your slip would say something. Wouldn’t you know whether you’ve been there or not? Only someone with a blank slip would ask like that."

Pangpang panicked and tried to flash his slip to everyone. "I was just asking casually, of course I—"

Su Taotao, the referee, stopped him. "Pangpang, no revealing your slip. This round, Pangpang’s out. The game continues."

Pangpang was "unfairly outed."

Everyone was stumped.

Mu Mu was floored: "Did Sister-in-law Taozi make a mistake? How could Pangpang not be the undercover?"

Su Taotao shook her head: "No, the game continues."

Pangpang huffed: "I told you I'm not the undercover."

Chenchen facepalmed: "If you're not the undercover, look at the question you asked!"

Su Taotao cut in: "Alright, everyone, no more off-topic talk. The game continues."

...

Fu leaned against the doorway, listening in for a long time. Even he found this game interesting and wondered who came up with it.

A new round of statements began, and this time, everyone voted out "Mu Mu," but the game still continued.

Mu Mu wiped his face: "Now I know how it feels to be wrongfully accused. You guys are all falling for the undercover's act!"

Bai Hua said: "This is bad. The undercover might have guessed our identities and is just parroting us. That makes it really hard. Next time, don’t be so direct—try to be more subtle so the undercover can’t guess and will mess up."

Mu Mu pointed at his own nose and complained: "With brains like yours, being subtle will just get you voted out. Look at what happened to me!"

Kang Zi almost wanted to throw something at him: "Was that subtle? You were just talking nonsense! What do you mean by 'This scenery belongs only in heaven, rarely seen on earth'? Why bring out fancy poetry at a critical moment?"

Mu Mu said: "You’re being dense. What I meant was—"

*Clap clap*—Su Taotao clapped twice. "Alright, quiet down. The game continues."

When the game finally was between Chenchen and Fu Yuanhang, Su Taotao announced that the undercover had won.

Su Taotao smiled: "I won’t reveal the answer yet. Now, guess who the undercover is?"

Mu Mu wiped his face and pointed at them: "You guys are too good at this. I still can’t figure out who the undercover is."

Bai Hua rubbed his chin and shook his head: "I can’t guess either."

Pangpang said: "It has to be Uncle! Chenchen never lies!"

Mu Mu snorted: "Ah Hang never lied before this game either. Now? Who can say?"

A deep, steady voice cut in: "It’s Chenchen."

Chenchen looked toward the door, squinted his eyes, and grinned: "Daddy!" before shooting over.

Everyone stood up and called out greetings: "Brother Fu," "Uncle Fu."

Fu Zhengtu still treated Chenchen like a three-year-old, catching him and lifting him up, messing up his hair, and nodding greetings to everyone.

Only then did he ask his son: "When did you learn to lie? Hmm?"

Chenchen blinked: "Mom authorized it! She said it’s okay to lie when playing games!"

Su Taotao laughed: "Chenchen was so convincing—even I would’ve been fooled if I didn’t know in advance. How did you figure it out?"

Chenchen was also curious: "Yeah, Daddy, even Mom couldn’t tell. How did you know?"

"Secret," Fu Zhengtu said. He put him down and patted his head. "Go keep playing. Daddy’s going to get some food first."

Fu Zhengtu had studied a bit of behavioral psychology and could tell if someone was lying based on their expressions and body language.

As long as they're not professional undercover agents, most people can pick up on some clues.

Chenchen's secretly smug little eyes that fooled everyone else couldn't deceive his own father.

Pangpang widened his eyes: "You sneaky little thing, Chenchen! You acted so convincingly and had us totally fooled!"

Chenchen grinned: "Why'd you ask if you'd been there?"

Pangpang said: "Didn't we pass by a huge pavilion on the way back that day? I forgot to ask if that was the Temple of Heaven, so I didn't know if it counted as having been there."

Chenchen nodded: "Yes, we just passed by."

Over here, Kang Zi was already being had by the throat by Uncle Mu: "Isn't the Temple of Heaven literally heaven on earth? What did I get wrong?"

Kang Zi was utterly exasperated: "Fine, you win, I was wrong, okay? I admit it, alright?"

...

That night, everyone stayed up playing until midnight before finally going to bed.

Bai Hua occasionally stayed at Su Taotao's place, where she had her own room.

This time, the three big kids slept on the kang in Fu Yuanhang's room, while the three little ones and Chen Zigui slept on the kang in Chenchen's room.

Chen Zigui had never had this much fun before, even getting to sleep on the same kang with his good friends.

That night, Chen Zigui fell asleep smiling.

In his dream, there was a little turtle inching along, its short neck always retracted into its shell, shutting out the world.

The little turtle crawled like this for eleven years, until one day it met another clever and bold little turtle. Its small head began to emerge from the shell, and under the guidance of the clever little turtle, they discovered the world together, little by little.

Then suddenly one day, the clever little turtle's home was visited by a group of good friends. The little turtle played and laughed with them, like every hurt from his whole childhood had been healed...