Chapter 348
Originally, she thought the other party had seen how well the two children were doing and regretted it, so upon seeing them in the news, he wanted to take them back.
But since that day, no reporters had come.
Nor had anyone visited their home.
Si Nian could not help but feel puzzled.
Was her guess wrong?
Zhou Yueshen's dark eyes flickered.
He closed his book.
"I had someone look into it. This man is not in this city."
Si Nian was slightly surprised. "Not in this city?"
"Yes," Zhou Yueshen replied. "I checked the children's father's records before. They were fake. He is not a local."
"Then where is he from?"
Zhou Yueshen said, "Jing City."
Although it was unclear why the other party would use a fake identity to go down to the countryside, it was a time of strict crackdowns and chaos. Many university professors, wealthy farmers, and anyone slightly involved had run into trouble.
Many families were torn apart, and it wasn't until the situation improved later on that things gradually got better.
Si Nian fell silent for a moment. Jing City?
Wasn't that the capital?
Anyone who could use connections to replace someone else going down to the countryside in that era without being noticed was probably no ordinary person.
In the novel, the children were all very low-profile.
After all, none of them lived long enough to become famous.
The Eldest Child was also uninterested in fame and fortune. He never appeared in the public eye, so no news of him ever spread.
Naturally, that Scumbag Dad wouldn't have paid attention to them either.
It really proved that one shouldn't be too high-profile.
"What if he comes back to claim the children?" Si Nian began to worry again.
If he really was some big shot coming back to snatch the children, how could cannon fodder like them possibly fight him off?
Zhou Yueshen had a little money and quite a few connections, but Jing City was the kind of place straight out of a novel, usually reserved for big bosses who unlocked new maps. She was genuinely a bit worried.
Zhou Yueshen chuckled softly. "Don't be afraid."
Si Nian sighed. She was just the villain's stepmother; all she wanted was to live a peaceful life with his old father.
If there had to be any struggles, she hoped it would be the children fighting against their Scumbag Dad once they grew up.
She and Zhou Yueshen could just peacefully retire.
She didn't want to provoke anyone else.
Unwilling to talk about this troublesome matter, Si Nian said to Zhou Yueshen, "Zhou Yueshen, you should hire more people."
Zhou Yueshen listened to whatever she said and agreed without any hesitation.
He was a very agreeable man.
Satisfied, Si Nian pulled the blanket over herself. Having worked on exam papers all night, she was very tired.
Burying her face in the man's chest, she mumbled drowsily, emphasizing, "Don't work so hard. Be better to yourself."
Deep in the night, the man's pupils were strikingly bright in the darkness.
"Okay."
...
Si Nian went to the Second Middle School to hand in her homework.
Teacher Wang collected her papers, verbally telling her not to work too hard, but ended up assigning her another pile of homework.
Si Nian found it very strange. Previously, the teacher's eyes had held a trace of pity when looking at her. For some reason, her gaze now carried a bit more oddity and conflict.
At any rate, it wasn't as natural anymore.
It didn't seem like the look a teacher gives a student.
It was full of weirdness.
She didn't dwell on it and hurried back to the Foreign Language Primary School.
Only ten people remained for the final test.
The remaining ten children sat in the classroom, and her own son was among them.
Although there weren't many people, the genius cultivation class was officially established.
Si Nian only then realized that the tests over the past few days weren't exams at all.
These questions were all IQ test questions.
In other words, making it through this test proved that these children truly had extremely high IQs.
As expected of a novel, geniuses sat in rows.
Li Youcai got in as well.
This child was arrogant and spoiled by his family.
But he was genuinely smart.
Si Nian had heard before that Li Youcai had won first place in several consecutive math competitions.
This time, he had lost miserably when up against her son, likely just because his mental endurance was too poor, causing him to lose his composure and underperform.
It wasn't strange that he could get in now.
She was just a little worried about whether any trouble would arise.
However, the events that followed proved that Si Nian was overthinking it.
Ever since Li Youcai was almost trafficked by Teacher Xu and her accomplices, he hadn't caused trouble for Zhou Zedong again.
When Teacher Xu's trial began, he attended.
He learned that the people Teacher Xu wanted to harm at the time were him and Xiang'er.
It was only because his grandmother had made her pay compensation and his own attitude towards her had been poor that Teacher Xu had harbored a grudge.
Xiang'er was innocent, but because her grandfather was the principal.
Teacher Xu had been reprimanded by the principal and targeted by his grandmother, so she ended up hating her too.
Li Youcai and Chu Xiang'er were childhood sweethearts, and he liked Chu Xiang'er very much.
Chu Xiang'er was his reverse scale. Teacher Xu had almost caused Xiang'er to be sold to country folks as a child bride. If it weren't for Zhou Zedong's younger brother saving them by a stroke of luck, they might never have made it home.
So he no longer hated Zhou Zedong.
He wanted to compete with him fairly.
Over the past few days, when he passed by the first grade, he heard Zhou Zehan saying that he and his brother were going to celebrate their birthday and inviting friends to come over.
That was how he found out Zhou Zedong was having a birthday.
He figured that with Zhou Zedong's terrible temper, he definitely didn't have a single friend.
His younger brother was different, though; his brother was very popular in the first grade and would surely invite many friends over.
Wouldn't it be incredibly awkward for Zhou Zedong to have no friends at all?
Li Youcai took the initiative to approach Zhou Zedong and said, "I heard you're celebrating your birthday tomorrow?"
Zhou Zedong looked up, baffled. Seeing it was him, his brows visibly furrowed.
He didn't speak.
Li Youcai was already used to Zhou Zedong's cold treatment. In the past, he would have been furious.
But he had grown stronger and no longer felt angry.
Instead, he felt that Zhou Zedong was quite pitiful. He must have become like this because no one played with him.
Comforting himself like this made him feel much better.
In a condescending tone, he offered, "Tomorrow, Xiang'er and I will go celebrate your birthday. I see your brother invited a lot of friends. It's quite pathetic that you don't have any friends."
Zhou Zedong was speechless.
Too lazy to bother with him, he packed his books and prepared to leave.
The ignored Li Youcai: "..."
Early the next morning, Si Nian went to buy cake molds.
Making a cake was relatively simple. Compared to buying one outside, she preferred letting the children and their little friends experience the fun of baking a cake together.
Jiang Jiu had heard the night before that there would be cake today. He got up in the morning, didn't even wash his face, and came knocking on the Zhou family's door with sleep still in his eyes.
The Second Child rubbed his eyes and opened the window. As soon as Jiang Jiu saw Zhou Zehan, he shouted loudly, "Second Brother, happy birthday!"
"Hurry up and get out of bed, we're making a cake!"
Children were always very interested in novel things.
For example, Jiang Jiu never lacked cakes to eat, but he had never made one with his own hands before.