Chapter 12: A Stormy Night Together
“Boom—!”
After drizzling all day, the sky finally let out a satisfying crack of thunder.
It looked like a downpour was about to begin.
In the middle of the night, Gu Qinian couldn’t be bothered to call the butler again. He dragged over a small stool, stood on it himself, and reached up to close the window. After thinking about it, he also carried the potted rabbit’s-foot fern from the windowsill back into the room.
The moment he turned around, he saw a little white shadow dart in and whoosh slip under his blanket.
Gu Qinian: “…”
Anyone who didn’t know better would think the Gu residence was haunted.
Young Master Gu wasn’t in any hurry to deal with the “little ghost” that had secretly snuck back in.
He set down the flowerpot, turned to the bathroom connected to his bedroom, and washed his hands clean. Only then did he slowly walk back to the bed, fold his arms, and look at the little lump bulging under the blanket—
The little lump wriggled slightly.
Then wriggled again.
The “little ghost” slowly poked his head out from under the blanket, showing only a pair of round, wide eyes. “The thunder upstairs is really scary…”
Gu Qinian said expressionlessly, “So?”
“So I came back to keep you company!”
The toddler’s voice was still soft and milky, sounding sticky and sweet. His round eyes sparkled. Even when he had no right to act that way, he still sounded completely self-righteous.
Gu Qinian raised a brow. “No need.”
Gu Tang sniffled.
The male lead really was the male lead.
He was only a three-year-old little cub, so what reason did he have for not being afraid of thunder?!
Even he was scared…
Suddenly, lightning flashed.
For one instant, the room lit up as bright as daytime.
Gu Tang was so frightened that he immediately shrank back under the blanket. The next second, a huge rumble crashed down, as though the lightning had struck right over his head.
So scary, so scary, wuwuwu…
Gu Qinian lifted one corner of the blanket. “Come down. Go back to your own room.”
Curled up beneath the blanket, Gu Tang pouted in grievance, his bright round eyes full of accusation. “You’re cold-blooded, heartless, and unreasonable!”
Gu Qinian: “…”
Where had he learned words like that?
He suspected Gu Tang had been watching too many melodramatic soap operas with Madam Su lately.
When Gu Tang moved upstairs during the day, he had been incredibly happy.
Now, he desperately didn’t want to go back.
The big room on the top floor of the Gu house had excellent airflow, that was true—but when thunder hit, it was unbelievably loud.
That one crash had nearly sent Gu Tang straight to the afterlife.
He was just a little soul who had transmigrated into a book. How was he supposed to withstand Lord Thunder’s intimidation? Of course the right thing to do was to hurry over and stick close to the most stable person in the whole book. No matter how arrogant the thunder was, it couldn’t possibly strike the male lead, right?
Gu Tang hugged the little pillow he had brought back with him and refused to leave.
If force didn’t work, then soft tactics would.
Grinning, Gu Tang said, “I like sleeping with Niannian the best.”
He had thought he’d need to coax him a few more times.
Unexpectedly, Young Master Gu was unusually easy to talk to.
Gu Qinian merely stared at him for a while with his little steamed-bun face drawn tight, then silently climbed onto the bed and lay down beside him.
Lying perfectly straight.
Gu Tang could even feel that the other boy was trying very hard to stretch himself out.
Gu Tang: “?”
After flattening himself as much as possible, Little Gu Qinian nudged Gu Tang’s foot with his own toes.
“See that?”
Young Master Gu looked solemn, as though he were discussing something extremely important. “I’m already as tall as you now.”
Gu Tang: “???”
Gu Qinian said, “From now on, you’re not allowed to call me little brother anymore.”
…That’s it?
Gu Tang nodded and relaxed, his eyelids drooping. “Okay, Niannian.”
Gu Qinian frowned. “That one also—”
Before he could finish, he heard slow, even breathing beside him.
Gu Qinian turned his head and saw that Gu Tang had already fallen asleep like a little pig.
Gu Tang: “Zzzz…”
Gu Qinian: “…”
Young Master Gu frowned as he pulled the blanket properly over Little Pig Gu Tang, then lay back down himself, slowly drifting off in a mood of “slightly annoyed but not knowing what exactly he was annoyed about.”
Outside the window, the rain suddenly came down in a violent torrent.
A curtain of water formed over the glass.
Amid the rushing sound of rain, the system very softly, very softly went ding—.
[Host, congratulations on completing the achievement mission “Occupy the Male Lead’s Bed.” Reward: 10 vitality points.]
After quietly finishing its report, the system held its breath and waited a while. When it realized it hadn’t woken the host, it finally relaxed.
Over the past two years, it and its host had developed extremely good teamwork.
They could even take each other’s rest schedules into account.
Quite often, the system would sneak off to slack around for a bit and come back to find the host had already completed a mission. Or when the host fell asleep, the system would report softly and quietly keep an eye on the incoming reward.
This was probably the most harmonious possible relationship between a system and a host.
It never wanted to switch hosts for the rest of its life!
Under the system’s supervision, the vitality bar quickly showed “+10.”
System: Very good. Time to clock out!
But right then, Gu Tang’s vitality bar suddenly flashed another “-9.”
System: ?!!
The next day, the rain had stopped and the sky was clear.
Sunlight filtered through the glass window and gently touched the little toddler’s bottom on the bed.
Gu Tang rolled over and slowly woke up.
His own little pillow was under his head, while he was hugging Gu Qinian’s pillow in his arms. The blanket had long since been kicked somewhere unknown. Probably because he was afraid Gu Tang would catch cold, Young Master Gu had tied a small towel around his stomach…
Huh, where had Young Master Gu gone?
After lying there in a daze for a moment, Gu Tang remembered.
As the future heir of the Gu family, Little Gu Qinian carried the heavy responsibility of leading a great family. Since the age of three, he had already been subjected to elite-style education far beyond what ordinary children experienced.
So he was very, very busy.
As for himself, as the number one idle cub of the Gu family, he could sleep until he woke naturally every day, then choose whatever he liked to study.
Gu Tang’s interests hadn’t changed from his previous life, so he chose painting and piano, which he had loved before. When he had time, he also learned to shake dice with Grandma Mei, drank afternoon tea, ate little pastries, and watched TV dramas and cartoons…
His life was blissful, practically immortal.
In Father Gu’s words, precious cub only needed to enjoy life. If Gu Qinian didn’t even have the ability to raise precious cub, then how could he be expected to bear the weight of the family?
Tsk, little Gu Qinian really had it rough…
Gu Tang sympathetically cherished the male lead for exactly one second in spirit.
Then he strictly followed Father Gu’s instructions and continued happily enjoying life.
Fortunately, he had saved Gu Qinian back then. Otherwise, the one now running around with all four limbs busy would be him, this cannon-fodder fake young master.
Tsk tsk tsk, being the son of a rich family wasn’t all that easy after all.
[Host…]
The system’s weak voice sounded in his mind.
Gu Tang said, “Did you go out stealing last night?”
Just from the sound of it, this was clearly a system that had stayed up all night.
[Host, may I ask whether recently you’ve felt tired very easily, always want to sleep, can’t wake up once you do fall asleep, eat more than before, and still don’t gain any weight?]
The system said a lot in one breath. Gu Tang thought about each symptom one by one.
“Mm.”
But wasn’t that all perfectly normal?
He was only three years old and still growing.
As the saying went, “A half-grown boy can eat a family poor.” What was wrong with eating more and sleeping more?
[This is a very serious problem!]
After staying up all night checking the data, the system discovered that although its host had completed many missions beyond the required amount, the gains in vitality still could not keep up with the losses. So his body remained in a long-term weak and sub-healthy state.
Gu Tang couldn’t understand all those complicated explanations, so the system simplified it—
[This is not a good thing for a three-year-old human child!]
Tilting his head, Gu Tang asked, “What will happen?”
[You’ll end up not growing tall.]
Gu Tang: “!!”
Then hurry up and report the solution immediately!
Unfortunately, the system didn’t have a particularly good solution either.
Because the root cause of everything was that Gu Tang had changed the original plot and kept the male lead at home.
[Although the main system didn’t judge your actions as a violation, the plot line really did lose the “orphanage” map. The male lead never went to the orphanage. Such a major plot change will naturally create bad side effects. You’ll have vitality deducted irregularly, and the only way to make up for it is to complete more achievements.]
But he had already done all the ones he could.
What remained were only hidden achievements, and even the system didn’t know exactly what they were. Whether or not he could complete them would depend entirely on luck.
[Then how about we do the “Torment the Male Lead x100” achievement? If you torment him one hundred times, you’ll gain 100 vitality points in total!]
[How about not letting him sleep?]
For the sake of its precious host, the system had become completely evil and no longer cared at all about the male lead’s fate.
“No.”
Gu Tang shook his head and refused. “Not sleeping will stop him from growing taller. That’s too cruel.”
Male leads in novels were always tall. He definitely didn’t want his future Young Master Gu standing next to some other male lead and ending up shorter.
Gu Tang looked at his little vitality bar.
It wasn’t thick, but there was still some left. For now, he didn’t feel uncomfortable anywhere.
Gu Tang said frankly, “Let’s talk about it later.”
[…]
The system was full of worry about that.
—
Breakfast at the Gu house was always extravagant.
Since both children were in a crucial stage of growing up, the butler had the chef prepare a table loaded with food.
Gu Tang had just finished one egg when he saw little Gu Qinian, still not even as tall as the table, walk over in a white taekwondo uniform.
As the future head of the Gu family, someone whose future worth would be astronomical, his physical skills naturally couldn’t be weak.
Since childhood, he had to learn all kinds of martial arts and self-defense techniques.
Gu Tang had once practiced along with him for a couple of moves, and ended up so weak his hands and feet went limp and he just collapsed on the spot.
It was hard to imagine how Young Master Gu managed to keep going.
“Niannian, have an egg! Replenish yourself!”
This time he remembered not to call him little brother.
Gu Qinian raised his eyes and looked at him, said nothing, took the egg, and lowered his head to eat.
Little Gu Qinian was very beautiful. At only three years old, he had already reached the point where people could be amazed at first sight. His thick eyelashes were like two tiny fans, his ink-dark pupils like beautiful obsidian stones, his lips red and full, and his skin porcelain-white.
He looked as pretty as a little girl.
This was Snow White from the book turned into a spirit and climbing out of the pages!
Oh, no. Wait.
Gu Qinian was from the book. He himself was the one who had transmigrated into it, hahaha…
As Gu Tang thought and foolishly giggled to himself, beautiful Young Master Gu cast him a cool glance and said, “If you don’t eat, you won’t grow tall.”
Gu Tang: “!!”
Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!
Unlucky words!
Why was everyone talking about him not growing taller first thing in the morning?!
Gu Tang was so frightened he gulped down a whole glass of milk. He had to grow, at the very least he couldn’t be shorter than in his last life!
Meanwhile,
Gu Quan and Shen Ningqing were discussing an important issue with the family doctor—whether or not to send the children to kindergarten.
Normally, in a family like the Gu family, they would choose to hire private tutors to teach the children at home. Even at preschool age, the depth and breadth of what they learned would be different from that of ordinary children. To put it simply, it was called “winning at the starting line.”
“But Young Master Gu’s situation is special. Over the past two years, although his autistic symptoms have improved, most of the time he only interacts with Tangtang. He’s not interested in other people or things.”
For this statement from the doctor, the head of the Gu family felt it deeply.
Gu Quan nodded vigorously. “That’s true. He hardly even pays attention to me, his own father.”
Shen Ningqing glanced at her husband, then asked the doctor, “If he goes to kindergarten, will that situation improve?”
The doctor nodded. “Since he can communicate with Tangtang, it shows he doesn’t reject children his own age. In that case, he should be placed in a group environment and allowed to adapt.”
Shen Ningqing reserved judgment on that.
Wasn’t it also possible…that the reason her son was willing to interact at all was specifically because the other child was precious cub, and that it simply wouldn’t work with any other child?
Shen Ningqing put a huge question mark in her mind.
Compared with their own son, Gu Quan and Shen Ningqing had another concern.
Precious cub wasn’t very healthy. If he were sent to kindergarten together with Gu Qinian, what if he got bumped or hurt?
The Gu family was a democratic household.
Even though the children were only three years old, they were still given full respect by the adults and had the right to make their own choices.
When Shen Ningqing returned home, she asked the two little cubs, “Do you want to go to kindergarten?”
Gu Tang and Gu Qinian gave completely different answers.
Without even thinking, Gu Tang’s eyes lit up and he answered excitedly, “I do!”
Gu Qinian said, “No…”
However, after Young Master Gu clearly heard Gu Tang’s answer, he suddenly cleared his throat and changed his response—
“Whatever.”
***
Author’s Note:
Mom: My son really has no principles at all, wuwuwu..
