Licking his own wounds was something the little succubus often did.
But now Lan Xi suddenly remembered: he was a demon and Fu Hui was human. They were different!
Lan Xi climbed off Fu Hui in disappointment, still clutching the tooth in his hand.
Fu Hui kept a stiff face as he tried to take it back, but he did not want to open his mouth to speak either.
Old Master Fu finally breathed a sigh of relief. He straightened his back again and called a nurse over to examine Fu Hui’s mouth.
The tooth Fu Hui had lost was a lateral incisor. It was perfectly normal and, naturally, nothing to worry about.
“If it feels sore or swollen, you can eat an ice cream bar to ease the discomfort,” the nurse said.
Lan Xi immediately raised his hand. “I’ll buy ice cream bars.”
Ever since Fu Hui had told him last time that ice cream stopped being sold in winter, Lan Xi had gone a very long time without eating anything like that.
Fu Hui murmured one word. “Mm.”
Lan Xi did not know the way, so a bodyguard took him to the supermarket.
The moment Lan Xi left, Fu Hui slipped into the bathroom right behind him.
Old Master Fu could not resist quietly following. Through the crack in the door, he saw Fu Hui discreetly pull back the corner of his mouth and inspect himself over and over in the mirror, his brows knitting tighter and tighter.
So he was embarrassed to let Lan Xi see?
Now he was finally acting like a child.
Fu Hui suddenly glanced sharply toward the door. Old Master Fu hurriedly pretended he had seen nothing and went back to his bed.
A little over ten minutes later, Lan Xi returned carrying a whole bag of ice cream bars.
Before Fu Hui could say anything, Old Master Fu blurted, “This many? Are you trying to freeze all of Fu Hui’s teeth out of his head?”
Lan Xi lined the ice cream bars up across the coffee table, his brows scrunched together. “They’re all different.”
He looked up at Fu Hui pitifully. “It’s very hard for Lan Xi to choose.”
Fu Hui opened his mouth, wanting to say that yes, they really were different.
But the moment he parted his lips even slightly, he felt the draft and immediately clamped his mouth shut again.
Old Master Fu sighed, then suddenly thought of something. “Are you coming again tomorrow?”
Lan Xi said, “Mm-hm. Fu Hui said we should keep coming until Grandpa gets better.”
Old Master Fu was a little touched, but for some reason also vaguely apprehensive.
Probably because these two children had taken over his Chinese opera time.
Old Master Fu directed the bodyguard. “Put the extra ice cream bars in the freezer for now.”
His hospital room was a small suite, fully equipped with appliances.
Fu Hui kept Lan Xi company while they sucked on their ice cream bars for a while.
Old Master Fu suddenly remembered something else. “Where’s the tooth Fu Hui lost?”
Lan Xi pointed at his own pocket.
Fu Hui pursed his lips and pointed at the trash can, indicating that Lan Xi could simply throw it away.
Lan Xi understood, but he did not agree.
He covered his pocket and said around licks of his ice cream bar, “Need to… mm… keep it…”
Fu Hui pressed his lips even tighter, looking as though he could not understand why, while also looking terribly embarrassed.
The memory stirred something in Old Master Fu. He told Fu Hui, “When your dad lost a tooth as a child, I even put it up on a roof beam for him. That’s a custom back in our hometown. They say it helps the new tooth grow in well.”
Old Master Fu casually asked another question. “What happened to the teeth you lost before?”
Fu Hui bit into his ice cream bar and answered through his closed mouth, “Threw them away.”
Old Master Fu froze, remembering that Fu Lin had probably not been home much back then.
Lan Xi found time to chime in. “From now on, throw all of them into Lan Xi’s pocket.”
As he spoke, he pulled his clothing pocket wide open, his eyes smiling.
This time Fu Hui gave a soft “Mm.”
Since Fu Hui had lost a tooth, naturally he was not going to keep practicing spoken English with Lan Xi. After finishing his ice cream bar, he went off to the side to work on his own worksheets and read.
With his head lowered, he still spoke in a muffled voice. “You practice with Lan Xi.”
Old Master Fu did not react at first. “Who?”
The secretary could see that Young Master did not want to talk much and repeated it for him. “He said you should practice with Lan Xi.”
Old Master Fu: “…”
He turned his head and saw Lan Xi throwing the wooden stick from his ice cream bar into the trash. Looking very well-behaved, Lan Xi asked, “Grandpa doesn’t have time?”
Old Master Fu said, “Ah…” He had not even finished.
“Lan Xi can eat another ice cream bar by himself.”
“…”
The instinctive concern of an elder who wanted to say “don’t eat too many cold things” surged up at once. Old Master Fu immediately said, “Don’t eat any more. Come here. I’ll practice with you.”
Lan Xi pouted in disappointment.
But he was very enthusiastic about studying too!
He went over and sat down, casually placing his English book on Old Master Fu’s lap.
The two children spent the whole day studying in the hospital room and left again at dusk, wrapped in the evening glow.
By the time they got home, the nanny had already cooked dinner and brought it out.
Lan Xi’s tiny face was now vividly displaying the words “deeply worried.”
He looked at Fu Hui with great concern. “Can Fu Hui still eat?”
Now it was Fu Hui’s turn to speak in single words.
“Yes.”
Lan Xi remained “deeply worried.” “Can you bite meat?”
Fu Hui: “Yes.”
Only then did Lan Xi finally relax.
Teeth were just like wings. They were weapons for demons too.
Without teeth, things could get very dangerous. You wouldn’t be able to live properly.
But Fu Hui could still live perfectly well beside Lan Xi.
After dinner, Lan Xi unusually did not go play in the garden to digest his meal. Instead, he dug out a pile of miscellaneous things he had bought from the stationery shop, sat down on the carpet, and got busy.
The little succubus was very good with his hands.
He could carve his name onto his bowls, pick up pretty stones to decorate his bedside, and stick little flowers onto the oilcloth.
Now he made a tiny wooden house for Fu Hui’s tooth, lining the middle with scraps of cloth and setting the tiny tooth on top.
After putting it in place, Lan Xi tilted his head this way and that, then decided the little wooden house still was not pretty enough.
So he took out watercolor pens and began painting the house a colorful coat.
By the time he finished fussing with it, it was almost eleven at night.
Fu Hui came over to tell him it was time for bed.
Lan Xi climbed to his feet, grabbed Fu Hui’s hand, and pulled him down.
Imitating the way Fu Hui used to check whether his little teeth had been brushed clean, Lan Xi said, “Ahh, open your mouth.”
The moment Fu Hui heard that, he pressed his lips shut even tighter.
Why was Fu Hui being so disobedient?
Lan Xi frowned and reached up to pry his mouth open again. “Lan Xi needs to look. Is it still bleeding?”
Fu Hui answered in a muffled voice. “No.”
“Need to look, need to look.”
“You can smell whether I’m bleeding.” Fu Hui turned his face slightly away and spoke softly.
Lan Xi froze. “How does Fu Hui know?”
Fu Hui reached up and rubbed the tip of his nose. “I saw it move.”
Lan Xi could only answer honestly, “Fine. You’re not bleeding anymore.”
He was disappointed that he could not inspect Fu Hui’s mouth with the same parental air Fu Hui used when inspecting his.
Fu Hui secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then silently picked Lan Xi up and carried him toward the bedroom.
Because of all the crafting, Lan Xi went to bed a little late that night, but the moment he touched the bed, he slept especially deeply.
Fu Hui reached a hand out from under the blanket and rubbed Lan Xi’s little face.
He did not wake up.
Only then did Fu Hui crawl out from beneath the blanket, not even bothering with shoes, and quietly walk into the living room.
He picked the little wooden house up from the carpet, carefully set it on the table, and just as carefully opened the brightly painted little wooden door.
His tooth sat neatly on the scrap of cloth like a tiny crown.
Fu Hui stared at it for a while, until his arms and legs felt soft and there was a noisy little commotion in his chest.
Eventually, Lan Xi seemed to notice he was gone from the bed. He shuffled out rubbing his eyes sleepily and called, “…Fu Hui?”
Fu Hui sprang to his feet, walked back over, and said without changing expression, “I went to the bathroom.”
Lan Xi: “Oh.”
Fu Hui: “Why aren’t you wearing shoes?”
Lan Xi immediately said, “You’re not wearing shoes either!”
“…Forgot.”
Lan Xi giggled, bonelessly propping his head against Fu Hui’s shoulder and clinging to him as they shuffled back toward the bedroom one tiny step at a time.
Fu Hui tucked him into the blanket and wrapped his child-sized arms tightly around Lan Xi. “Sleep.”
Lan Xi’s eyes were half-open, drowsiness washing over him again.
In his daze, Lan Xi felt that when Fu Hui held him like this, it was almost as though he were still a very, very tiny baby who had not even been born yet.
Did Fu Hui feel that way too?
With effort, Lan Xi wrapped his own short little arms around Fu Hui as well.
They had gone to bed very late the night before.
Even so, the two children still reported for duty right on time at seven the next morning.
Old Master Fu wore a trace of numb resignation. He could even eat breakfast calmly now as he asked, “Have you eaten? Want some?”
That was something he really should not have asked.
The moment he did, Lan Xi responded enthusiastically. “Yes!”
Old Master Fu glanced over and saw Fu Hui still keeping his lips tightly shut. Knowing he was not escaping today either, he asked, “So I’m practicing spoken English with Lan Xi again today?”
Fu Hui: “Mm.”
Only then did the rest of the Fu family learn that Fu Hui had actually been coming to visit bright and early every day.
There was no real infighting within the Fu family, but children from a family like this inevitably wanted to look good in front of the old master.
So a little after ten that morning, the other Fu children were all sent over by their respective parents to keep Grandpa company.
The moment they came through the door, they were baffled.
What was this, some kind of English conversation club?
Then they looked again.
Lan Xi was studying English, with Grandpa teaching him.
Fu Hui was off to the side doing worksheets.
The children were stunned by how competitive this had gotten, and terrified by it.
“Am I hallucinating?”
This is terrifying!
Their dads weren’t going to make them join in too, were they?
Fu Lin, still worried, called to ask how things were going. When he heard that Lan Xi and Fu Hui were getting along very well with Old Master Fu, he was surprised and could not help feeling delighted.
He had not expected Lan Xi to become the glue holding everyone together.
After finishing that call, Fu Lin called home again to ask how the children had been doing these past few days.
“I heard Fu Hui lost a tooth. It hasn’t affected his daily life, has it?”
The bodyguard reported honestly and also mentioned the little wooden house Lan Xi had made.
Fu Lin could not resist saying, “Take a picture. Let me see.”
The photo arrived very quickly.
After a long moment, Fu Lin let out a long sigh.
“Print this one too.” He handed it to Secretary Li.
Lan Xi really is such a good little baby.
Even better than Fu Hui’s own dad, Fu Lin thought.
So later, when Secretary Li received a call from the kindergarten saying that one parent was very unhappy with Lan Xi’s bossy, tyrannical behavior, saying he was already lording it over everyone at kindergarten despite being so young,
Fu Lin’s first reaction was, “Nonsense. He’s just a baby. What could he possibly have done wrong?”
Meanwhile, back in the hospital room,
once there were more children around, the chatter naturally became nonstop.
Everyone noticed that Fu Hui, who had never talked much to begin with, was now refusing to open his mouth at all.
The eldest among them, who had plenty of experience with this, was the first to ask, “Fu Hui, did you lose a tooth?”
Fu Hui thought they were unbearably noisy.
He took control of the remote, turned on the television, and put on a movie.
Everyone actually breathed a sigh of relief. Good, Fu Hui had not become so insanely competitive that he’d lost his mind. He still had to watch TV with Lan Xi.
They could not help negotiating, though. “Can we not watch a cartoon?”
Fu Hui did not answer. He carefully selected a movie.
Everyone saw the opening and brightened. “Oh, oh! It’s not a cartoon.”
At that moment, Fu Hui slipped one arm around Lan Xi and covered Lan Xi’s eyes before anything could happen.
Ten minutes later, the children’s screams rose one after another. “Aaaaaah! Fu Hui, I don’t want to watch a horror movie! I want to go home!”
Lan Xi, however, was far too curious. He shoved Fu Hui’s hand away and twisted around to look at the screen.
The ugly ghost face made Lan Xi hiccup.
Fu Hui hurriedly covered his eyes again.
But Lan Xi raised a hand, dazedly felt around the top of his head, then leaned close and whispered in Fu Hui’s ear, “Fu Hui, my horns are gone!”