CH 16

There is a saying, speak of the devil, and the devil will appear.

The next day Yu Le had finished his evening shift at the convenience store and returned to the community when he saw a black shadow curled up in front of his house.

It was Lele.

He seemed to have fallen asleep while squatting there, but as he heard the approaching footsteps, his eyes began to stir.

Yu Le walked over with a dull face, frowned, and gently pushed him awake, “Hey, what are you doing in front of my door so late?”

The little body raised his head sleepily, and seeing that it was Yu Le, immediately woke up, “Big brother! You’re finally home!”

Glancing at him in disgust, Yu Le’s face wasn’t getting any better, “Who is your big brother?!” He squatted down to meet the child at eye level, “What’s the matter with you this time that you came here to wait for me?”

The little boy’s eyes were red as tears began to well up, and he said in a low voice, “I had a fight with my father.”

Yu Le raised his eyebrows, “Your father? Not your grandmother this time?”

The last time he was found secretly giving flowers to Zhu Luo, Lele had taken it as a guarantee of freedom and ran here to play whenever he liked.

Because of this, the silver-haired grandmother had approached Yu Le on her own and exchanged contact information with him; after all, if she couldn’t control her grandson, she could at least ensure he was safe outside.

But this last month, Lele hadn’t been showing up as often.

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Occasionally when he got off work from the convenience store, he would meet the old lady out for a walk with her dog, but Lele wasn’t anywhere around.

The grandmother had reported that he was taken back to live with his father for a period of time.

As the little boy listened to Yu Le, he pouted and shifted his arms, “I’m angry with my father and also angry with my grandma! I don’t want to see them!”

Yu Le sighed as he stood up to open the door.

Looking at the little boy condescendingly, he stepped aside, “Come in then, I just so happen to have something to ask you.”

Of course, the little boy walked in the door unceremoniously.

Heading straight to the refrigerator, he opened it to find it empty except for a pile of vegetables, an outcome that caused his shoulders to slump even further than they already were, “What’s wrong with you?! Where’s your ice cream?”

Yu Le casually pulled a chair over and sat down beside him, “I don’t eat any ice cream, only vegetables.”

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Actually, he had just finished all his ice cream and meat earlier in the week and was putting off shopping for more, but Lele didn’t need to know that.

Sensing Yu Le’s confidence, the little boy didn’t act like usual but pulled the corners of his eyes first, showing a pitiful expression, “Today, my bastard father and I quarrelled, can you take me in for a night?”

“No,” Yu Le refused without hesitation, “Go back to your grandmother’s house obediently.”

The little fatty was stubborn, “I’m not going back!”

Resting a hand on his forehead in exasperation, Yu Le gestured to his cell phone, “I’ll call your grandmother to come fetch you.”

Seeing that his act didn’t work, the chubby little guy immediately resorted to his trump card, “If you try to kick me out, then I’ll tell everyone that you dress like a pervert and hide around neighbourhoods!” He smiled aggressively, even with his red and swollen eyes.

“Zhu Luo already knows that I sent him flowers.” This trick no longer worked as it did in the past, and Yu Le placed his hands on his knees sternly, “Well, Lele, now that you’ve told my secret, you’re still trying to threaten me with it?”

Lele was stunned, “What did you say?” He rolled his eyes at Yu Le suspiciously, “Brother are you trying to frame me on purpose? So that I don’t blackmail you?”

“Didn’t you tell him?”

“It wasn’t me!” The little fatty spread open his hands as he explained aggrievedly, “I’ve been living with my dad this month, and have fought with him every day, I don’t even have time for walks at night, let alone going back to the garden villa!” While talking, he took the chance to complain some more, “I can’t even make any friends in his stupid neighbourhood, how could I betray you?!”

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Adjusting his posture, Yu Le looked at the boy, “Kids are the best liars, I don’t believe you.”

Ignoring the accusations Yu Le brought forth, Lele blinked curiously, “Brother, the person living in the house you sent flowers to must be a pretty big sister, right? Or is it a pretty big brother?” He showed a very serious expression of thought, “I was just thinking, since the pretty big brother already knows that you sent the flowers, why don’t you just ask him how he knows?”

Yu Le glared at him.

Lele suddenly realised, “Oh! You even sent flowers secretly; you must have been discovered and dared not ask!” He laughed gloatingly, “So you’re a coward! You like him so much and still can’t say it!”

Yu Le took a deep breath as he told himself repeatedly not to stoop to a child’s level.

In the next second, he couldn’t hold back as he sneered, “Little kid, do you know what liking is?”

“Of course I do!” Lele frowned, “Isn’t it just two people XXOO, then OOXX, and then XOXX? That’s what my dad does with his lovers.”

Listening to some words that very much should not be coming out of such a young boy’s mouth, he slapped Lele on the head silently, “Stop talking.”

The little fat boy looked at him hesitantly, “…I know my dad doesn’t like me.” He lowered his head as he whispered, “I should be more like my mother, but even she didn’t want me in the end.”

Yu Le felt a little surprised.

Feeling this confession, he tried to comfort him as best he could, echoing, “Your father is such a scum.”

Unseen, Lele rolled his eyes before raising his head once more, “Uncle, can you lend me your mobile phone?”

Well, he became an uncle again.

“Why do you want to use it?”

“I’ve been away from home for a long time, grandma must be very worried about me. I want to call her.”

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Subconsciously feeling that something was wrong, Yu Le touched his phone defensively but handed it over anyway.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the little boy was granted access to it, he immediately opened the WeChat list with quick hands.

Yu Le immediately began to try and snatch it back, “Hey, what are you doing?”

“Uncle, were you sending flowers to this man named Azhu?”

It didn’t matter as Yu Le held his silence; the boy reached an answer looking at his wrinkled brow.

Avoiding Yu Le expertly, Lele typed in a message quickly. By the time Yu Le managed to grab his phone, the message had already been sent.

It was a simple question.

[Yu: How did you find out that it was me who sent the flowers?]

Amidst their busy tussle, Lele had even managed to complete the punctuation marks and capitalization.

Yu Le’s eyes showed a fierce look, “Why did you send him a message?!”

Shrinking his shoulders in, the little boy took the opportunity to slip away from his hand and hide behind the sofa, “Who told you not to believe me when I was telling the truth? Now that I’ve asked your Azhu, don’t you want to know the answer?”

He gritted his teeth.

Clenching his phone heavily, he simply wished he could kick the little kid out of his house right now.

But before that, he had to withdraw the message before it was seen.

As a result, when he looked down again, the message interface actually showed that the other party was typing.

Zhu Luo had seen it so quickly!

Sooner than expected, the other party sent a snapshot of a postcard.

It showed the scene of a ginkgo tree at dusk. The flowing ginkgo leaves divided the sunlight into fragments, and a love poem was written across it.

[Azhu: A Yu, this postcard shows the scenery outside your window.]

Seeing this familiar photo, Yu Le patted his head as he remembered taking it casually.

He had mixed it in while making the card, but for it to be such a big mistake was something he hadn’t expected at all!

Looking at Yu Le’s embarrassed and annoyed expression, Lele raised the corners of his mouth, “Look, the evidence is here.”

Ignoring him easily, Yu Le carefully replied to Zhu Luo, and it was only after their conversation was wrapped up that he looked back down sourly at the proud kid staring at him from afar, “…well, I wronged you this time.”

“You have to make it up to me!”

He raised an eyebrow, “I do, huh?”

“Yes!” Lele couldn’t have a more arrogant expression if he tried, “I want to eat ice cream! Uncle, go and buy it for me now!” He continued excitedly, “Hmm, I want chocolate or maybe cranberry. Vanilla is also good though, I want to buy a few, um, two…No, that’s not enough. Uncle, you bullied me and called me a liar, so you have to buy me three ice creams!”

Yu Le smiled, “What else?”

He wanted to see what outrageous demands this little boy could make.

Sure that everything was going his way, Lele raised his tail with happy eyes, “Also, I won’t go back tonight! I want to sleep with you But Uncle, your bed is too small, when do you plan on changing to a bigger one? It won’t be comfy at all if we have to squeeze in…Oh, we could do this though! Uncle, I’ll trouble you to sleep in the sofa—”

“Don’t call me uncle,” seeing this kid gaining more and more confidence; Yu Le interrupted him mid-sentence, “Have you told your grandmother that you’re here?”

Lele frowned, “…No, I don’t want to tell her.”

“No,” he refused directly, “I hate kids sleeping in my bed the most, and your father and grandmother will be worried if they don’t know where you are all night.”

Lele, who was so proud just now, lowered his head as he heard this and stared at his toes, “No, you’re wrong. They won’t worry about me.”

He was obviously depressed, but Yu Le couldn’t see his expression clearly.

“My dad only has his business in his eyes, and my grandma only has him in her eyes. As for me…I don’t fit into either of those categories. I’m always thrown to grandma to be taken care of, but she doesn’t listen to anything I like.” He rocked back and forth on his toes, the red and swollen corners of his eyes were particularly conspicuous at this moment as he whispered, “I don’t want to go back.”

Yu Le bit his lip tightly, thinking children were really troublesome.

Once they are touched, they cannot be shaken off.

Thinking of this, though, he stretched out his hand and rubbed the little boy’s hair, “You can stay, just for tonight.”