She smiled in comfort and relief.
As soon as they reached home, Youyou scurried off to the toilet and washed himself up before trying to sneak into his bedroom.
Unfortunately, he was nabbed on the spot and was taken to the living room by his mother, where they then sat on the sofa.
In his apprehension, she squinted at him before suddenly breaking into an utterly gentle smile, asking, “Youyou, why aren’t you pestering your father to read you bedtime stories today?”
He replied with a scratch to his head. “Mommy, you have no idea how creepy daddy sounds when he reads us bedtime stories with a stoic face! It’s enough to give me nightmares!”
Mu Yazhe, who was sitting right beside them, felt his face twitching as he sent a glare in his son’s direction. “Give you nightmares?”
Putting on a solemn front, the boy mimicked his father’s frightening and creepy tone as he narrated, “‘Once upon a time, there lived a king, a queen, and a cute, little princess in a beautiful castle in the Kingdom of Aryland…’”
After reciting a small passage of the story in that tone, he accused his father. “It’ll be strange if nightmares don’t haunt our sleep after hearing that!”
His mother flicked him on the forehead.
“Don’t change the subject!”
“Okay,” he mumbled weakly with a pout on his lips.
“Do you know about the Gongs?”
As he tried his best to give an evasive answer with a ‘mn’, he thought to himself, What did uncle tell mommy? Did he tell her about that family’s background? Did he spill the beans about my deeds as well?
Jeez, I’m the classic example of a good civilian now. I didn’t do anything ‘bad’ apart from occasionally hacking into the Pentagon defense system and working on the basic development of Hurricane Group’s Deva Eye project, which I’m responsible for.
The boy warily asked, “Did uncle say something to you?”
Yun Shishi narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she studied her younger son’s expression and nodded in acknowledgment. “Yes, he said plenty of things.”
“Like what?” he asked in trepidation. “What did he say?”
The mother and son were now completely engaged in psychological warfare.
She gave him a stern look. “Don’t play any tricks with me. Confess and I’ll go hard on you, while resistance shall be met with leniency.”
“Ah?” said the boy nervously. “In that case, I’d better not confess anything!”
“Pfft—” The man choked on his cup of tea, while his older son burst into a fit of guffaws, almost tearing up upon hearing this.
In her anxiousness, the woman had completely gotten her words mixed.
A furious shade of blush crept up her face. “That was just a slip of the tongue! I’ll smack your bum if you still don’t tell the truth!”
“Okay, okay! I’ll tell you everything!” Youyou raised his hands in surrender.
After sipping on his cup of warm milk, he asked, “Mommy, do you know anything about Hurricane Group?”
“Not really.”
As he studied her expression, he carefully explained, “The Gongs aren’t simple characters. The prestigious organization, which is well-known internationally, especially in the political arena, is basically… erm… a global firearms group that’s managed by that family…”
“Fire…”—she nearly bit her tongue in shock—”F-Firearms?!”
Aren’t they… as good as… terrorists then?
He hastily added, “Yeah! That group… sells firearms to governments and organizations… It started as a sea-shipping company, which later expanded into the firearms business before eventually developing to its current impressive scale.”