Shen Nianjing didn’t answer.
Su Zhiyan felt his whole body trembling.
“Why didn’t you reply to my messages or answer my calls?” Shen Nianjing let go of him, his eyes red.
Su Zhiyan’s heart jumped, and he apologized instinctively, “Sorry, I was going to reply, but this little guy kept crying and making a fuss. I couldn’t get away from him.” After saying this, he looked down at the little boy in his hand who was sniffling hard.
Shen Nianjing followed his gaze and looked down, only then noticing the child Su Zhiyan was holding. The child looked at him with teary eyes.
“…”
“I was almost at the north gate, but this kid seemed to have gotten lost while out for a walk with his family and grabbed onto my leg and wouldn’t let go.” Su Zhiyan held the little boy’s small hand. “My phone was on silent so I didn’t hear your calls.”
“I’m sorry.” He felt guilty.
Shen Nianjing’s emotions gradually calmed down. He didn’t say anything, just put his hands on his hips and stared at the little boy.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Did this little guy say who he came out with? Where does he live?”” He turned to look at Su Zhiyan and asked.
“He was crying too hard to speak earlier. I haven’t had a chance to ask yet.” Su Zhiyan pulled tissues from his pocket, crouched down, and wiped the little boy’s nose clean.
Shen Nianjing took a deep breath and couldn’t help but nod and close his eyes.
Thank goodness nothing happened.
Just now when Su Zhiyan wasn’t replying to anything, his mind really went through every possible scenario of sudden death.
“Make sure to send a message if anything happens in the future,” he opened his eyes and said softly, “It’s really scary.”
Su Zhiyan’s eyes flashed, and he pushed down his confusion and nodded seriously, “Okay.”
Then he looked at the little boy, “How old are you? Do you know where you live?”
The little boy looked about four years old. His face was streaked with tears, but he just stared at Su Zhiyan without making a sound.
Su Zhiyan asked, “Do you remember who brought you out today?”
He spoke a bit fast, and the little boy’s lips trembled like he was about to cry again.
“What’s wrong?” Su Zhiyan panicked a little. “Should I take you to the police uncles?”
Now the little boy started crying for real.
Shen Nianjing wanted to laugh when he heard this. He looked at Su Zhiyan’s worried face and saw him seriously explaining to the child that “police officers aren’t bad people, they’re protectors, they’re dedicated public servants who serve the people.”
Who talks to a little kid who can barely say a few words like that? Shen Nianjing held back his laughter, thinking Su Zhiyan didn’t seem like someone who had younger siblings at home at all.
“Ahem.” He cleared his throat and crouched down too, smiling warmly and kindly, speaking in a gentle voice, “Little friend, do you remember where you lost your daddy, mommy, gege, jiejie, grandpa, or grandma?”
Su Zhiyan listened to this long string of family titles: “…”
Shen Nianjing looked at him, “We don’t know who he came out with, so we have to ask, right?”
Su Zhiyan sighed and nodded, “Fine.”
Then he still insisted, “It’s still safer to take him to the police station. The police officers are more reliable than us, and his family is probably frantically looking for him. It’s better to stay in one place.”
“Or we could go directly to the nearby police station. I’m sure they’ll go there too.”
Shen Nianjing looked at his serious expression and couldn’t help but chuckle.
“What are you laughing at?” Su Zhiyan was confused.
“Nothing.” Shen Nianjing shook his head and reached out to the little boy, “Come on, let the big brothers take you to get something to eat first.”
He picked up the child and walked east with Su Zhiyan.
“What if his family comes looking here while we’re gone?” Su Zhiyan asked.
“You’ve been with him here for a long time and his parents still haven’t come looking. We can’t just wait here forever.” Shen Nianjing reasoned logically, “Besides, kids run around when they get lost. He might have seen a little bird and got distracted, then followed the bird here.”
“Or maybe when he realized he was lost, he saw someone whose back looked like his family, so he instinctively followed them. By the time he realized that person wasn’t his family, he was even further from where he started.”
“That’s why he just stood there crying.” At this point, Shen Nianjing gave Su Zhiyan a meaningful look, “Looks like you seem pretty reliable to little kids, Da-gege.”
Su Zhiyan put his hands in his pockets, sounding dejected, “If I was reliable, why would he keep crying?”
He cried so much that Su Zhiyan couldn’t handle it. No matter how he tried to comfort him, it didn’t work. Back when Su Zhiyao cried in front of him, it was just to throw tantrums or act cute. He’d never seen anything like this.
They walked to the morning market on East Street and randomly found a stall with empty seats among all the lively vendors and delicious smelling food.
“At this early hour, he definitely didn’t eat before coming out. Let’s get feed him first.” Shen Nianjing settled the child and went to stand in line.
Now it was just Su Zhiyan and the boy staring at each other.
Su Zhiyan: “…”
Little boy: “…”
“Gege,” after a long silence, the little boy spoke up, “why am I here?”
Su Zhiyan felt relieved.
Thank goodness, this little guy finally started talking.
Otherwise he really wouldn’t know how to find his family after they finished eating.
“So you can eat, then we’ll find your daddy, mommy, gege, jiejie, grandpa, or grandma.” His tone was unusually gentle.
“I came out with grandpa, but grandpa ran away.” The little boy was obviously getting hungry, his round eyes staring at the fried dough sticks in the pot.
Su Zhiyan’s heart sank.
Did he really run into a case of child abandonment on just one morning jog?
But little kids usually can’t tell reality clearly and say things that don’t make sense, saying unrealistic things without any basis.
“What’s your name?” he softened his voice.
“Lele.”
“Oh.” Su Zhiyan nodded. “So Lele came out for a morning walk with grandpa, then couldn’t find grandpa, right?”
Shen Nianjing was standing in line buying porridge, his gaze passing through the crowd and steaming hot air to land on the corner where Su Zhiyan was sitting.
Su Zhiyan’s jacket was casually open, with a white T-shirt underneath.
Isn’t he cold this early in the morning? Shen Nianjing thought.
He had his own zipper pulled up properly.
Su Zhiyan had a slight smile on his face, occasionally opening his mouth to say something. He seemed to be chatting with the little kid.
So the little guy was willing to talk now? Shen Nianjing felt a bit more at ease. It looked like there was hope of finding the child’s parents. It just depended on whether the kid knew where his home was or which direction from where he got lost, but remembering how he was just crying on the roadside earlier, he suddenly felt the chances of the kid remembering were pretty slim.
Shen Nianjing himself had gotten lost once as a child because he was chasing butterflies. If he had known that where he got lost was only fifty meters from his home and his parents had been calling for him just thirty meters away for ages, he definitely wouldn’t have hidden in the bushes for so long until he was found by a security guard with a flashlight that night.
Shen Nianjing looked at Su Zhiyan, whose expression was relaxed and somewhat gentle.
If he had met a big brother like that back then, it might not have been so bad. At least being taken to the police station to mooch snacks from the officers would have been much better than feeding mosquitoes in the bushes.
Thinking about Su Zhiyan’s attitude toward the forum incident yesterday and today’s events, he suddenly felt that his earlier fear and resistance had been exaggerated.
Su Zhiyan wasn’t that scary after all.
He was just a kind male classmate who usually had no expression and said annoying things.
And he was really handsome too.
His professional skills were also strong, and his efficiency was amazing both in daily life and academics.
“Hello, what will you have?”
The sudden question interrupted Shen Nianjing’s thoughts. Only then did he realize he had reached the front of the line. He quickly took out his phone to scan the code. “Three bowls of eight-treasure porridge, three meat buns, three fried dough sticks, and two sugar cakes, please.”
There was quite a bit of food, so it took him two trips to carry everything.
“Here are your sugar cakes!” Shen Nianjing put down the food and quickly sat down.
Su Zhiyan and Lele were quietly drinking porridge and eating.
Shen Nianjing: “?”
Shen Nianjing: “Why isn’t anyone talking?”
Weren’t they chatting nicely just now?
Su Zhiyan smiled and told him some of the information Lele had shared, while handing a bun to Lele.
“Thank you, Gege.” Lele held the big bun and started munching on it.
“Why don’t you thank me too, you little rascal!” Shen Nianjing protested.
“Okay, thank you, Gege.” Lele mumbled back as he wished, his mouth full.
“Hey there, young man, we meet again!”
A loud, cheerful greeting suddenly came from behind them. Shen Nianjing turned around to see the old man he had chatted with at the north entrance that morning walking over with an excited face, giving him a hard pat on the back that almost made him spit out his porridge.
“Uncle, did you finish your exercise?” He choked and coughed twice, wiping his mouth as he responded.
“Yes!” The old man sounded very proud. “Feeling great!”
“So you found your little buddy?” He looked around the table, then suddenly made a sound of surprise and frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Shen Nianjing asked.
Su Zhiyan also looked up.
“Hmm—” The old man’s gaze fixed on Lele, who was focused on munching his bun, and he said to Shen Nianjing with a smile, “That’s strange, this kid looks familiar.”
“Looks a lot like my grandson.”
Shen Nianjing: “?”
Su Zhiyan: “…”
Just then Lele suddenly looked up and shouted loudly, “Grandpa!”
Old Man Zhang slapped his hands together. “Holy—?! Grandson?!”
Lele pouted, his little face reluctant, “Don’t talk to me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!! Look at my memory, I haven’t taken you downstairs before…”
Old Man Zhang suddenly transformed from an excited big shot into an apologizing machine in grandson-coaxing mode. Shen Nianjing and Su Zhiyan looked at each other in confusion.
“Uncle, is Lele your granchild?” Su Zhiyan asked in a serious tone.
“Yes, he insisted on following me downstairs and making a fuss about coming out to play. Then I habitually went to stroll around the park and forgot about him!” Old Man Zhang slapped his leg hard, feeling terrible about almost losing his grandson.
“Thank you so much, young men, thank you so much!” Old Man Zhang thanked them frantically.
“It’s nothing! No need to thank us.” Shen Nianjing smiled.
Su Zhiyan ignored their conversation and continued, “When parents bring children out, they need to watch them constantly. If they encounter bad people or other dangers, I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle the consequences.”
“Yes, yes, I really forgot this time.”
Lele still didn’t want to pay attention to his grandpa. Old Man Zhang coaxed him for a long time before he finally calmed down.
Su Zhiyan watched the grandfather and grandson, knowing his tone had been a bit cold just now, but he couldn’t control it.
What kind of parent brings a child of a few years old out and is so careless? Did they have to make the social news to be satisfied?
After everyone finished eating and said goodbye, when Su Zhiyan and Shen Nianjing were walking back, he was still speechless inside.
“How do you know that old man?” he asked Shen Nianjing.
“I talked to him for a few minutes while waiting for you at the north entrance today.” Shen Nianjing observed Su Zhiyan’s serious expression, then suddenly raised his hand to make a smiley face. “Hey hey, don’t get angry about things that didn’t happen.”
“It’s early morning, we should have a good mood!”
“We should be happy that Lele found his family and went home safely!”
Seeing his playful expression, Su Zhiyan rolled his eyes, then suddenly remembered when Shen Nianjing rushed across the street to hug him. At that time, his whole body was trembling, his breathing was fast and heavy. He didn’t look like someone with a “good morning mood” at all.
“Is that so?” He stopped and stared at Shen Nianjing without blinking, “then what was wrong with you this morning?”
He didn’t say exactly what he meant, but he thought Shen Nianjing should understand.
Sure enough, Shen Nianjing’s eyes suddenly became evasive. He stammered, “Oh, because… because I was really hungry. Yeah.”
Su Zhiyan’s mouth twitched. “Right. Okay.”
Seeing that he didn’t ask further, Shen Nianjing breathed a sigh of relief.
Su Zhiyan was actually pretty nice!
Shen Nianjing was in a great mood, feeling spring-like warmth for the first time in early autumn.
The next moment, that warmth was frozen in the refrigerator by the confusion that followed.
If Su Zhiyan was such a normal person, then why had he been pestering him all this time?
He didn’t have bad intentions, so there had to be some motive and purpose, right?
Not only had he been following him around before, but he also insisted on becoming friends and even followed him to training…
Shen Nianjing couldn’t figure it out.
A cyclist at the intersection rang their bell twice, the clear jingling sound coming toward them.
“What are you spacing out about again?” Su Zhiyan grabbed the dazed Shen Nianjing and pulled him back from the intersection to the crosswalk.
The sudden pull made Qin Qi’s earlier words flash through Shen Nianjing’s mind.
Su Zhiyan’s movements suddenly slowed down like movie slow motion, frame by frame in front of his eyes.
“He’s not chasing after you, is he?”
Qin Qi’s rare joking comment rushed into his ears, almost making all the confusing questions suddenly make sense.
Shen Nianjing stumbled back to the crosswalk and stood motionless, staring at Su Zhiyan. Only when the light turned green did he lift his feet to follow Su Zhiyan across to the other side.
But his walking was very stiff, mechanical, and he was even walking with the same arm and leg moving together.
“What are you doing, Prince of Awkward Walking?” Su Zhiyan looked at him with disgust, then froze.
Shen Nianjing’s face was red, his eyes straight ahead.
“What’s wrong with you?” Su Zhiyan looked shocked.
“…nothing,” Shen Nianjing’s lips opened numbly, “just got hot.”
Su Zhiyan: “…” Hot in October?
“Oh.” He waved his hand. “I’m heading off then.”
The school and Shen Nianjing’s house were in different directions, so they parted ways here.
“O-okay.” Shen Nianjing raised his hand and waved it, watching Su Zhiyan’s figure gradually disappear around the next corner.
He was still standing straight in the same spot.
His brain was buzzing.
Su Zhiyan… liked him??
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