Slacker Second Gen C13

Chapter 13: School Tyrant 13

Li Xiu had been at Skyhigh Game Lounge for several days in a row. As was his habit, he went there again on the weekend, only to remember that Xiao Qian wasn’t there today, which made him feel somewhat lost for a moment.

At this point, he had completely forgotten the firm promise he made to Zai Ye about only agreeing to help look after the child for a few days.

After staying in the empty lounge for a while and feeling bored, Li Xiu scrolled through his phone, preparing to invite a few people to experience some adult thrilling activities. When he reached the door, he saw a friend walking over with his hands in his pockets, turning his keys and asking, “Where are you going? Not watching the kid today?”

Li Xiu replied, “Xiao Qian? She’s not here today.”

Upon hearing this, the friend turned and started to leave. “Hey, if she’s not here, you should’ve said so earlier. I Came all the way for nothing.”

Li Xiu laughed. “What do you mean? You aren’t here to hang out with me?, you came to see the kid?”

His friend replied, “Of course! Your place is almost like a museum now.”

As they were talking, another friend pulled up in a car, pressed the window button, and asked, “Hey, is Xiao Qian here? I bought a toy for her, can you help me move it?”

Li Xiu: “…”

He took out his phone and posted a message to his circle of friends, letting them know that Xiao Qian was off today, the exhibition hall was closed, and not to come hang out.

Meanwhile, Zai Ye, who had finally gotten some free time on the weekend, was walking through the mall holding Yu Qian’s hand, preparing to choose some furniture.

Since coming back from Mrs. Wen Ling’s place, Zai Ye had felt that the house he was living in was particularly cold and simple. He had lived there for years and had gotten used to it, but after bringing a two-year-old child into such an environment, especially when comparing the way Yu Qian behaved at Mrs. Wen Ling’s house to the state she was in here, Zai Ye felt it was necessary to change some furniture.

First, the very stylish but uncomfortable large sofa had to go.

“What do you think of this one?” He asked, pointing to a sky-blue sofa.

Yu Qian let go of his fingers, climbed onto the sofa, swayed a bit, and then jumped off. Zai Ye understood and took her further down the aisle.

They passed by many differently styled sofas in various colors, and even Yu Qian seemed a bit too lazy to move, finally finding the closest one. After climbing onto it, she refused to get up.

This was a set of orange sofas, with a long soft sofa that sank when you sat down, and a single armchair next to it, one large and one small, shaped like hollowed-out pumpkins.

Zai Ye: “This design is so ugly.”

Although he said that, he didn’t rush the lazy child to get up. Instead, he sat down and tried it himself. After testing it, he reluctantly smiled at the sales associate beside him and said, “Please get me a new one of this set.”

Father and daughter wandered around the mall, eventually buying a pile of colorful new furniture. Every time Zai Ye looked at the prices, he didn’t seem too pleased. After all, he was in the age where he thought black, white, and gray were cool, and didn’t care much for colorful things.

But his daughter, whenever she saw vibrant furniture, would lie on it or sprawl across it, expressing her wish with a lazy gesture.

Over the course of the week, Zai Ye had subtly asked some female classmates about father-daughter relationships. Although the girls thought he was acting strange recently, they still answered his questions.

One of the girls was his little brother’s girlfriend, extremely rebellious, smoking, drinking, and dating early. Zai Ye had never seen a problem with this before, but now he thought there was a major issue. So, he focused on asking her about her relationship with her father.

Her answer left a deep impression on Zai Ye.

When asked why she didn’t like her father, one of her responses was: “My dad is too self-centered and domineering. Sometimes, even when he buys me something, he never asks what I want. He just gives me what he thinks I need, without ever asking what I actually want.”

So, even though Zai Ye thought the pumpkin sofa was ugly, the orange dining table was odd, and the large pink bed was particularly unbearable, in the end, he still bought them.

Feeling that he had sacrificed a lot, Zai Ye grabbed his daughter’s small shoulder and seriously told her, “So, when you grow up, you can’t be rebellious.”

After all, he had chosen all the furniture according to her wishes.

Yu Qian tilted her head, not sure what idea her father had suddenly come up with. She looked at the massive mall and decisively stretched out her hand, “Carry me!”

She was too tired to walk anymore.

Carrying his soft, squishy daughter, Zai Ye continued to look at carpets.

He hadn’t originally planned to buy any, but the sales associate said that with a child in the house, there were frequent bumps and falls. Some children liked to crawl around on the floor, so buying a carpet could prevent them from getting hurt.

Zai Ye had often seen his daughter, as lazy as can be, lying down wherever she got tired while playing in Li Xiu’s videos. He thought the sales associate’s suggestion was right, so he bought many carpets. Unsurprisingly, when he shook Yu Qian to help choose, he ended up with a pile of rainbow-colored carpets.

He had everything sent home and arranged for someone to clean and organize it. Zai Ye wasn’t in a hurry to return, so he took Yu Qian to buy some daily necessities.

Standing in front of various shelves, Zai Ye had a moment of daze.

Shopping for daily necessities in a big mall had already become a habit for him. He would check if the items were suitable for children and look at the ingredients or scents. But thinking back to before the child arrived, he didn’t have much of an impression of shopping in a mall.

In the past, most of the time, it was the cleaning lady who came every week to help buy necessities, and many of the brands had stayed the same for years. He didn’t care about these details, as long as the items worked, he’d use them. Even if he didn’t like something, he never mentioned it. Sometimes, if something was missing, he would just make do.

Moreover, he didn’t always go home every day. He would often spend the night out, sometimes in a hotel, or staying overnight at Skyhigh Game Lounge with a bunch of friends. That house was just a place to crash, with no particular reason to go back.

Pushing the shopping cart with one hand, he picked up a pack of wipes from the shelf with the other, carefully checking the product details. He had never noticed any difference in wipes before, but now he knew to look for baby wipes that didn’t contain alcohol and were soft enough, otherwise, the child’s face would get red.

The child sitting in the shopping cart shifted her feet, allowing Zai Ye, who was pushing the cart, to place the items they needed to buy on the side. As the cart filled with more goods, she kept moving her feet and eventually hugged a large bag of tissues, lying on top of it.

Zai Ye suddenly noticed a pile of plastic small chairs in a corner. He picked one up and felt it, finding the weight to be quite suitable, so he grabbed two.

Yu Qian still had to step on a stool to brush her teeth, but the stool at home was a bit heavy, and she couldn’t move it. Zai Ye always helped her carry it. Sometimes, when she wanted to reach things from the cabinet or the fridge, she needed to move the stool. If there were lightweight small stools like this, it would be more convenient for her.

“Stool, red or yellow?” Zai Ye asked the child, who was dozing off on the shopping cart.

Yu Qian glanced at him and said, “Blue.”

Zai Ye: “Can’t you pick one while it’s in my hand?”

Yu Qian: “Purple!”

Zai Ye: “…” He became even more worried about his child becoming rebellious in the future.

After paying for the two carts of items, they had them delivered to their home.

Seeing that it was still early, Zai Ye planned to take Yu Qian to a nearby children’s playground. He remembered that one of the reasons a girl had once said she didn’t like her father was because he had never taken her out to play when she was little.

So, even though Zai Ye wasn’t very patient, he still arranged for some playtime with the child after shopping.

The nearby children’s playground had a marine theme, with large playful water pools, and he decided to teach the child to swim there. A few days ago, he had seen a news report about a child who drowned while playing near water. Therefore, he thought it was necessary to teach his daughter how to swim.

Zai Ye, wearing swimming trunks, entered the water and told Yu Qian, who was squatting by the shore in her flower-patterned little swimsuit, “Jump down.”

Yu Qian glanced at him, looking a bit hesitant, but still jumped in. She entered the water like a cannonball, splashing water all over Zai Ye’s face. His hair got wet, and his eyelashes were dripping water. He hadn’t even opened his eyes when he immediately pulled the cannonball-like child out of the water before she almost sank.

Finding a corner in the shallow water with fewer people, Zai Ye stood in the water with his upper body still above the surface, holding the child’s back with both hands to keep her floating.

The water rippled, and Yu Qian slowly closed her eyes while floating on the surface, but she was quickly shaken awake by the frustrated school tyrant, “I told you to swim, not to sleep here. Move.”

Yu Qian lazily kicked her legs.

“What about your arms? Why aren’t you moving them?”

Yu Qian lazily waved her hand.

“Your arms and legs should move together.”

Yu Qian started flailing around wildly in the water.

After twenty minutes of trying to teach swimming, Zai Ye, who had water splashed all over his face, finally stopped and ended the mutual torment with his rebellious daughter.

Just as they were glaring at each other, they suddenly heard a child in the water next to them saying to her mother, “Waa, I peed.”

Zai Ye: “…” His face turned slightly green, and just then, his lazy daughter, who had been drifting in the water, suddenly became agile, climbed onto him like a tree trunk, sat on his shoulder, held his head, and tucked her feet up, refusing to let a single drop of water touch her.

She only became smart at moments like this.

With a stiff face, Zai Ye, with his daughter on his shoulder, silently and quickly exited the pool. He decided never to come to places like this again.

When they got home, the previously cold house had completely transformed. As soon as they pushed open the door, it was colorful.

Zai Ye stood at the door for almost three minutes before stepping into this “completely unrecognizable” new home. With a wooden expression, he began organizing the shopping bags that had been delivered and put everything in place.

The child ran straight to her room as soon as she got home. Zai Ye didn’t mind her and went into the kitchen to unpack the new children’s wooden bowls and place them neatly.

Not long after, he heard the sound of footsteps. The child ran over, dragging the new blue plastic stool she had bought, climbed onto it, and placed a cup by the sink.

Zai Ye glanced at it and froze. It was the yellow cup he had put away in the cabinet.

It seemed she had discovered it when he was organizing things last time. Children loved rummaging through things. Just as Zai Ye opened his mouth to speak, he saw her take out a small yellow duck cup from the shopping bag and place it next to his yellow cup.

Zai Ye hadn’t even noticed when she put this cup into the shopping cart.

Yu Qian tugged at the edge of the counter with her short fingers, pointing to the big and small cups: “Yellow cup,Yours, Duck cup, mine.”

Zai Ye suddenly lost his words.

The child’s eyes were round and bright, reflecting his own shadow.

Zai Ye suddenly squatted down and silently hugged the child tightly into his arms.