NABC Chapter 31
Chapter 31
While eating cake in the evening, the adults began discussing the birthdays of a few children. Xiang Ruicheng reminisced, "Zi Mo was born in December. That winter in Haishan was unusually cold."
He even boasted, "I picked the name Xiang Zimo. 'Mo' is like the silent stillness of a cold winter night."
Sun Xiuwen then asked Zhong Jin, "When is Little Tong's birthday?"
Zhong Jin hesitated, realizing he hadn’t thought about it before. So he turned to Little Tong and asked, "Do you know when your birthday is?"
Little Tong was busy stuffing a massive dollop of cream into her mouth with her fork, her cheeks bulging as she stared with her big, round eyes and shook her head.
"Such a young child wouldn’t remember the date," Sun Xiuwen commented.
Zhong Jin pondered for a moment and said, "Her birthday is July 1st."
Little Tong had appeared at the police station on July 1st. Zhong Jin reasoned that since that was likely the day she arrived in this world, it made sense to consider it her birthday.
After returning from the seaside villa, Zhong Jin planned to buy another rabbit toy online for Little Tong. However, after searching through various websites, he couldn’t find the exact same one. He found a similar one and asked Little Tong, "How about this one?"
Little Tong, with her pudgy fingers painted in red nail polish, shook her hand side to side, dismissing it, "It’s kind of ugly."
"..." Zhong Jin continued his search.
After several attempts with similar rabbits, the child still refused each one. One day, while on duty, Zhong Jin passed by the toy shooting game stall and decided to ask the vendor where he had sourced the rabbit.
The vendor, seeing Zhong Jin in his police uniform, was instantly terrified, thinking he had done something wrong.
After explaining the situation, the vendor added Zhong Jin on WeChat and sent him a link to an 1888 website where he had purchased the toy. Perhaps feeling pressured by Zhong Jin’s uniform, the vendor also refunded 1300 yuan to him, admitting that the original cost of the rabbit was only 500 yuan.
Using the refunded 1300 yuan, Zhong Jin placed an order on the 1888 website for over a dozen plush toys, including the rabbit.
When Little Tong saw the large rabbit and so many toys, she was overjoyed, vigorously shaking her head. She followed Zhong Jin around, showering him with endless compliments.
From a certain perspective, Zhong Jin hadn’t even spent any money on these toys.
Everything seemed to work out perfectly.
In another development, a housekeeping agency Zhong Jin had previously contacted informed him that a live-in nanny had recently become available.
Zhong Jin had a preliminary interview with the nanny, Aunt Liang, who was 52 years old and had 15 years of experience in caring for children. She had also self-studied nutrition and appeared clean and efficient. However, her salary requirement was quite high—9000 yuan per month.
If not for Zhong Jin’s good financial situation and personal savings, raising a little "money pit" like this would have been quite taxing on his salary as a police station chief.
After confirming with Aunt Liang that she would start a trial period the next day, Zhong Jin called Little Tong, who was busy playing with her "makeup" in her room.
Ever since buying that bottle of nail polish from the shop downstairs, Little Tong had suddenly become obsessed with beauty and demanded to buy lipstick. Eventually, Zhong Jin found child-safe makeup toys online, where the cosmetics used natural plant extracts, ensuring safety for kids.
"What’s up?" Little Tong, completely engrossed in her play, frowned and walked out of her room, impatiently urging, "I’m playing."
Zhong Jin examined his daughter’s colorful face.
Her eyebrows were two thick black lines, and her cheeks were painted with two exaggerated patches of rouge. Her mouth was drawn in an exaggerated way that resembled the classic "sausage mouth" from a comedy movie. Standing there with a frown, she looked like a little monster.
He immediately pulled out his phone and said, "You look so beautiful. Come on, give a peace sign. I’ll take a photo of you."
Little Tong quickly raised both hands and formed a peace sign near her ears, baring her teeth in an exaggerated fake smile.
The sight was utterly hilarious.
Zhong Jin was reading a detective novel. He shifted his gaze from the book to see the little girl, with her clear big eyes, gazing at him expectantly.
Zhong Jin wisely did not mention the quarrel and merely asked, "How about some fried chicken?"
Little Tong's mouth broke into a big smile, and she raised her hand enthusiastically, "Okay!"
Zhong Jin blinked. Was this child a goldfish? Did she really forget the argument two hours ago?
At the mall, they ate at McDonald's. Little Tong saw the toy of Donald Duck on another table and wanted it too. Zhong Jin inquired and found out there were 6 types of Donald Duck toys, and a Happy Meal would randomly include one as a blind box.
So he bought two Happy Meals, hoping to get an extra toy for the child. He also ate the kids’ meal with her.
They got two toys from the meals. Zhong Jin looked at the descriptions, "This one is a castle explorer, this one is on Main Street, and there are 4 more toys. We'll collect the others next time we come and eat here."
Little Tong stuffed the two toys into her small backpack, pointed at the counter, and said, "Buy more."
Zhong Jin replied, "We can only buy one more."
Little Tong covered her mouth and giggled, "You’re out of money, aren’t you? Let's ask Uncle Xiang." Little Tong remembered how Xiang Zimo once mentioned his dad was very rich.
Zhong Jin was utterly speechless. "I just don't want to eat anymore. Who said I'm out of money? I’m much richer than him."
This time, they weren't so lucky, and they got a duplicate toy. Little Tong picked it up, looked at it, then slammed it onto Zhong Jin's desk, her expression bold and generous, as if giving a token to her underling, "Here, I’ll give it to you."
"I appreciate that," Zhong Jin said, completely expressionless, sipping the milk from the kid's meal, with an unopened bag of apple slices beside him.
Little Tong pointed at the counter again, "Buy more."
Finally, to distract her, Zhong Jin brought up, "Do you remember the time when Uncle Xiang Zimo’s dad took you to the mall, and you texted me that you saw a skirt with flowers? Let’s go buy it today."
The child had indeed forgotten about the toys. She frowned, trying hard to recall the skirt but eventually shook her head, "I don’t remember."
With her three-second memory, Zhong Jin didn’t expect her to truly remember. He just wanted to distract her from the toys and pretended to be disappointed, "Oh, really? Well, let’s buy it next time when you remember."
After filling their stomachs, they didn’t rush home. Little Tong held one of Zhong Jin’s fingers, leading him around the mall. When they approached the cosmetics counter, Zhong Jin calmly steered her in another direction.
Passing a bookstore, Zhong Jin asked Little Tong if she wanted to buy some picture books. Little Tong nodded, "Yes."
So they went in and picked out a few picture books.
Zhong Jin, carrying the bookstore bag, followed behind his daughter. The child trotted around tirelessly, checking out places she liked. Whenever she saw a piece of clothing or a bag she liked, she would go inside and skillfully tell the staff, "Auntie, I want that."
Then Zhong Jin would act like an emotionless ATM, scanning and paying, carrying several shopping bags behind her short legs.
As they approached the mall exit, Zhong Jin breathed a sigh of relief, finally over.
But then Little Tong suddenly stopped, pointed at the window ahead, and turned to Zhong Jin, "There's a flower skirt."
Zhong Jin looked over and saw, wedding dresses?
"You can’t wear that," Zhong Jin firmly refused.
He set the bags he was carrying on the ground, picked her up, and put her on his shoulders, then picked up the bags again, quickening his pace toward the mall exit.
And he made a decision:
From now on, whenever he came to this mall, he would definitely avoid this area.