Chapter 168: Stepchild × Stepfather 06

Chapter 168 Stepchild × Stepfather 06

Generally, children begin to form memories around six to seven months after birth. They gradually learn language and other actions by listening to adults speak and observing their movements.

Due to differences in brain development and individual circumstances, most people vary in how much they remember from childhood, with some memories being lost to different extents.

Some people remember absolutely nothing from their childhood, while others can vaguely recall certain fragments and images. There are even those who remember every detail and every word clearly.

Zhou Erdong belongs to the latter category. He cannot remember everything from his childhood, only a few blurry scenes.

In those fragments, he clearly remembers getting lost once when he was little and recalls being picked up by some kind stranger.

As he grew older, Zhou Erdong couldn’t remember the details and only learned snippets from overheard adults chatting.

He heard that, as a child, he had stayed with that kind stranger for several days and almost became part of their family.

As he grew up, the only memories Zhou Erdong could recall from that incident were two very vague images. One was of himself walking alone along a long road that seemed to go on forever.

How he was found exactly by the stranger and taken home remained unknown to him.

The second image was of someone bathing him in a large tub. He couldn’t remember what the person looked like or what was said, only that a few yellow rubber bath toys of different sizes were floating on the water.

—The kind of common, ordinary toys you can find anywhere that squeak when squeezed.

He'd never had toys like that before, so he must have been very happy playing with them, and then he ended up sleeping at someone else’s house? He wasn’t sure; this was all just his own guess.

*

He wasn’t particularly interested in his past until Du Bin appeared. He always felt there was something strange about Du Bin—whether it was the way he treated him or the way he looked at him, it felt really off.

He pondered over it for a long time, and in a feverish, drowsy dream, he seemed to finally glimpse an answer.

In the dream, he watched his childhood self from a third-person bird's-eye view—how he got lost along the way and unintentionally witnessed a gang handling an internal traitor.

A man with an unclear face was surrounded by ten burly, strong men, his head being shoved into a nearby ditch again and again.

"Run? You actually thought you could get away? Hiding here of all places…"

The scene could only be described as "not suitable for children." In the dream, little Zhou Erdong, though unaware of what was happening, sensed danger and immediately started running.

This action quickly drew the attention of the others to the "little mouse." He was small and his steps were short, so he was soon caught by a few unfamiliar adults. In his panic, he tripped and fell…

Dust and grit got into his eyes, and he kept rubbing them, but the more he rubbed, the more they hurt. Terrified and flustered, as someone approached, he almost instinctively grabbed onto one person’s leg.

His own vision was pitch black, and he couldn’t see anything, but from the third-person perspective, Zhou Erdong saw that the leg his younger self was clinging to belonged to… Du Bin.

To be precise, a younger version of Du Bin.

"Boss, what should we do?" someone asked Du Bin, referring both to the suddenly appearing child and the barely alive traitor by the river.

"...Bury him properly." The man’s gaze fell on the little kid. "This one… bring him along for now."

The scene shifted again. In the dream, little Zhou Erdong was surrounded by a group of burly, strong men, who looked him up and down like he was some rare specimen.

"Wait, isn’t that area a demolition zone? Wasn't that area cleared out? How is there still a child here? Where did he come from? Who does he belong to?"

"That’s not the point, is it…"

"Hey, he saw what happened just now, right?"

"What do we do? What did the boss say?"

"We can’t just kill him, he’s so young…"

The unfamiliar adults were arguing heatedly, while the surrounded child remained unusually calm, not afraid of strangers at all, quietly watching everyone with dark eyes like grapes.

Du Bin leaned against the doorway, his expression serious, his eyes scrutinizing the brave kid. He didn’t say a word the entire time.

Only when he saw someone pull out a cigarette did he step forward and kicked the guy's shin. "Can’t you see there’s a child here? Go outside to smoke!"

Usually, they picked remote locations with few people, so it was rare for outsiders to intrude. Even if there were witnesses, they'd be taken care of quickly.

But this witness was too young.

They argued about whether the child would remember anything or talk about it. It was apparently a sensitive time, and they couldn't afford any slip-ups.

"What should we do, boss?"

"Enough, don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it…"

*

Zhou Erdong started school earlier than his peers. While others began first grade at six, he was already in first grade at five and a half.

At that time, Chen Xinhui was in the middle of a hot romance with a younger man. Perhaps worried that he would judge her for having a child, she didn’t tell him about her son.

Once, when the man surprised her by showing up unexpectedly, her first reaction was to tell her little son to hide outside so he wouldn’t be seen.

It was Christmas Eve, and Xinyou City saw a rare snowfall. It was colder than usual that year, but the woman didn’t realize her son had grown taller over the year—last year’s clothes didn't fit anymore. All he had was a sweatshirt.

In the middle of winter, he was wandering around outside…

"Hey, kid…"

A stranger who looked suspicious, wearing a mask and a baseball cap, stopped in front of him.

"Are you cold?"

Zhou Erdong, not yet six years old, was squatting under a streetlight, drawing in the dirt with a stick, when the toes of black leather shoes appeared before him.

The man took off his black down jacket and put it around him. The jacket was oversized, so long that it trailed on the ground, but… it was warm, really warm.

"Why are you out here alone?"

The man asked.

"I can’t go back yet. Mom will be upset," the child replied seriously, his nose tipped red from the cold. "I have to wait a while before going back."

"Have you eaten tonight?"

He shook his head.

"Then let’s go. I’ll take you to eat."

The man held the child's hand as they walked through the first snow, leaving two trails of footprints behind.

After walking for about three or four minutes, the child suddenly came to his senses and looked up to ask, "You’re not going to sell me, are you?"

*

"Hey… what’s going on? Why are you so distracted?"

Zhou Erdong snapped back to attention as someone poked his elbow with a pen. He was in a classroom, his deskmate beside him, the rustle of paper filling the air.

"Is class over?"

He stared blankly out the window.

"Of course, class just ended. Our teacher just left... said we don’t have to do the midday calisthenics today, and now we have to use all our time to review exam papers... Hey, I’m talking to you!"

Zhou Erdong's seatmate was Huang Bo, a nonstop talker. In just one month, he had already gone through three seatmates because of his nonstop mouth.

Zhou Erdong was his fourth.

"Hey, have you heard?" He chattered away, gossiping about so-and-so in the class, occasionally mixing in some rumors from other classes.

Zhou Erdong's gaze lingered on the countdown board hanging on the far side of the blackboard: xx days left until the college entrance exam. Time flies—it had already gone from three digits to two.

"Want to go to the school store at lunch?"

Huang Bo dug out a pack of spicy jerky strips from his desk drawer, tore it open like a thief, squeezed out a couple, and ate with his head down, shielding his mouth with his hand while chewing.

The smell was too strong. He hadn’t eaten more than a few when a classmate sitting behind him, who was on good terms with Huang Bo, caught a whiff and playfully reached out to ask for some.

Huang Bo shared some with the classmate behind him and, probably feeling it wouldn’t be right to leave his seatmate out, pushed the pack toward Zhou Erdong, signaling him to take some.

"No, thanks. I’m going to review the mistakes from this morning’s test..." Zhou Erdong politely declined and went back to organizing his collection of common mistake examples from where he had spaced out earlier.

*

There were no real breaks senior year of high school—it was basically one class after another. Occasionally, they were given a few minutes to use the restroom, but they had to come back immediately to continue with the lesson.

Zhou Erdong’s recent mock exam results were decent, placing him in the upper middle tier of the class.

During those few minutes when he spaced out that morning, not only did his seatmate notice, but the teacher also picked up on it. However, considering what's been going on with his family, the teacher didn’t say anything.

Only at the start of the second class did the teacher make a few pointed comments about this being a critical period and the need to stay focused, etc.

Zhou Erdong took it to heart. For the rest of the day, he didn’t space out again. Aside from two trips to the restroom and sending two messages to Du Bin in between, he spent almost all his time at his desk doing practice questions.

By the time night study session ended and he left the campus, the sky outside had long since turned completely dark.

Zhou Erdong’s ears were still echoing with the teacher’s voice, his mind filled with some important formula. So much so that he walked right past Du Bin without even noticing, until Du Bin reached out and pulled him back: "Watch the road—a car just passed..."

Only after seeing Du Bin did the tightly wound nerves from school relax slightly.

"Are you off work?"

Du Bin gave a confirming grunt. The two walked side by side toward the parking lot, not speaking a word along the way. After getting into the passenger seat, Zhou Erdong finally had time to pull out his phone and check the day-by-day check-in messages Du Bin had sent during the day.

Oh, right—because Du Bin had been quite busy lately, and Zhou Erdong himself was preparing for exams, he had already given Du Bin the key before bed the night before.

Even so, Du Bin still sent him messages to notify him each time he used the key.

On the way home, Zhou Erdong half-squinted at his phone messages, clearly seeing what time Du Bin had used the key.

"Oh, I just remembered..."

"What?"

Zhou Erdong spoke calmly and unhurriedly, mentioning a place name before fixing his gaze intently on the expression of the man in the driver’s seat. "Well, sound familiar?"

Du Bin was startled, then laughed. "That was such a long time ago. I’m surprised you still remember."