Fu Hui ignored the pack of wailing children and pulled Lan Xi into the bathroom.
“Fu Hui? What’s wrong with him?”
The other children were actually quite concerned. They hurriedly abandoned the damned horror movie and followed them all the way to the bathroom.
Fu Hui quickly took off Lan Xi’s hat and carefully felt all over his head.
“They’re gone, right?” Lan Xi looked at him expectantly.
The little horns that had only just begun to take shape had vanished completely.
Without realizing it, Fu Hui felt around a couple more times. The warm little bumps were gone, and for a moment he was not quite used to the missing sensation.
“Fu Hui?” Lan Xi could not help twisting his head.
“Mm. They’re gone.” To keep himself from seeming too strange, Fu Hui put the thin little hat back on Lan Xi’s head.
Lan Xi really was cute in hats.
A fluffy winter hat made him look like a little snow doll. A knitted hat in early spring made him look like a little toy. The hats he wore these days were usually light, bright colors: little pink hats, little blue hats, little yellow hats…
Today, Lan Xi was wearing a little purple hat.
Fu Hui had been tying Lan Xi’s hair into a bun for so long that he figured Lan Xi must be tired of it too. He loosened his hair a little before finally opening the door and going out.
The children had been camped outside waiting for ages. The moment they looked up, they all went, “Wow.”
Strands of purple hair spilled unevenly from beneath the hat, gleaming like satin. One child could not resist reaching out to grab it, only for Fu Hui to smack his hand away.
Of course, one show-off just had to ask, “Lan Xi, did you pee your pants because you got scared just now?”
Fu Hui was terrified Lan Xi would pull down his pants to prove otherwise. He immediately grabbed hold of him, his face turning cold. While being careful not to open his mouth too wide, he snapped, “You sound very experienced. Have you done it before?”
The other boy stared blankly, unable to argue, and covered his bottom.
Lan Xi, meanwhile, was tucked under Fu Hui’s arm and secretly rolled his eyes at the boy again.
Then he tugged Fu Hui away by the arm, looking very unhappy. “Don’t talk to him so much.”
The others immediately crowded around the boy in curiosity. “You really peed yourself from being scared before?”
“Fu Yan, why are you such a coward?”
The boy’s face turned bright red, and now he really started making a fuss about wanting to go home.
Old Master Fu’s head hurt from all the noise. He got out of bed, drew a breath, and bellowed, “All right, all right, everybody go home! You’re even watching horror movies in my hospital room!”
The children scattered in every direction.
“Grandpa, we’re leaving too.” Fu Hui had one schoolbag over his left arm and another over his right. He kept his lips pursed as he spoke in a muffled voice.
Old Master Fu stared for a second, then waved them away. “Go, go, go.”
Fu Hui led Lan Xi out by the hand. The hospital room fell into dead silence again, only for a ghostly shriek from the movie to suddenly ring through it.
Old Master Fu: “…”
He grabbed the remote and switched off the television. The room instantly felt even colder and emptier than when the ghost had been screaming.
A little while later, the secretary came over and said, “We found a worksheet Young Master dropped. Should I call him?”
Old Master Fu took it. “He can come get it himself tomorrow.”
The first thing Fu Hui asked Lan Xi when they got home was, “Do you want to go back to kindergarten?”
“Yes.” Lan Xi never hid what he wanted.
But he immediately added, “Being with Fu Hui is good even if we don’t go to school.”
“Mm.” After answering, Fu Hui tightly closed his mouth again.
Even during dinner, he barely opened his mouth, which made Lan Xi very dissatisfied.
Fu Hui would not let him look inside his mouth, and he was talking to him less too…
But that was all right.
Lan Xi brought out the same stealth he had once used to secretly eat ice cream in the middle of the night. Only after Fu Hui fell asleep did he quietly pry open his mouth.
But it was pitch-black. He could not see anything.
Lan Xi pulled out his big phone, turned on the flashlight, and shone it inside.
Fu Hui was jolted awake by the glare. “Lan Xi, what are you doing?”
Lan Xi immediately buried his head deep in Fu Hui’s chest and pretended nothing had happened.
Except the phone was still shining.
Fu Hui assumed he had been secretly playing with the phone. He immediately confiscated it and locked it in the drawer.
“Sleep,” Fu Hui said.
“Mm-hm.” Lan Xi nodded obediently, only remembering after he nodded that he was supposed to be pretending to sleep.
Fu Hui could not help pressing his lips together in a quiet smile. He soon closed his eyes again.
Later that night, Fu Hui fell deeply asleep once more.
Lan Xi could not get to his phone and did not dare turn on the light. After thinking for a long time, he came up with an idea and stuck a finger into Fu Hui’s mouth.
He felt around and around. Oh, there was a little gap.
Fu Hui’s tooth really had fallen out.
Lan Xi prodded and pressed around some more, putting on airs as though he were a doctor performing an examination. Finally satisfied, he withdrew his hand and went to sleep.
When Fu Hui woke the next morning, something still felt a little strange.
He had dreamed that he was eating meat. When he bit down, he suddenly discovered that what he had bitten was one of Lan Xi’s little horns. He was so frightened that he did not dare bite again.
In the dream, he kept saying, Lan Xi, don’t put your horn in my mouth.
But Lan Xi stared at him with a pair of bright, watery eyes and said, “You were obviously the one who came over and bit me.”
The dream left Fu Hui feeling terribly guilty toward Lan Xi.
It was horrifying.
He thought Lan Xi was so cute that he had actually wanted to eat him.
At breakfast, Fu Hui even turned his face away with a faintly guilty expression.
Lan Xi, on the other hand, felt no guilt whatsoever. Instead, he suddenly comforted Fu Hui. “Fu Hui, don’t be scared about losing a tooth. Fu Hui’s mouth is perfectly fine.”
“Mm…” Fu Hui answered vaguely, but he did not forget the important matter. He seriously discussed the problem of “putting away the horns” with Lan Xi.
In the end, the two children came up with two possibilities.
First, the horns had grown into their basic shape and completed their initial development, so they naturally withdrew at a certain point.
Second, they had been scared back in.
The ghost face in the horror movie had simply been too ugly.
Lan Xi did not forget to complain about that to Fu Hui.
Fu Hui hurriedly said, “Mm. We won’t watch it anymore.”
Lan Xi nodded in satisfaction, even happier than he had been the day before.
Fu Hui assumed it was because his horns had retracted properly.
Old Master Fu got up at six that morning. He watched the morning news for a while and kept glancing at the clock on the wall.
Seven o’clock.
The door was pushed open from outside by a little hand.
Lan Xi came in with his purple hair hanging over his shoulders and no hat on. “Wow! Grandpa finally got up today without someone waking him!”
The corner of Old Master Fu’s mouth twitched. “…Sure did.”
Lan Xi and Fu Hui entered one after the other.
Old Master Fu narrowed his eyes. “Wait a minute. Good grief, why is your hair so long? And why is it purple?”
Lan Xi had been wearing a hat for so many days that this was Old Master Fu’s first time seeing what he really looked like. Naturally, he was startled.
Lan Xi reached back to touch his hair and declared with complete confidence, “Pretty!”
It was pretty, admittedly…
“But a child still can’t dye his hair.” Old Master Fu had always been partial to Fu Lin, but even he could not help saying, “Give me the phone. I need to ask Fu Lin what he was thinking.”
Old Master Fu argued with Fu Lin over the phone for quite a while before reluctantly accepting that the color was natural and could not be changed.
When he turned around, Lan Xi and Fu Hui were already helping themselves to his breakfast.
Lan Xi even gave his verdict. “It tastes different from the food at home.”
Old Master Fu said, “Of course. Fu Lin has never cared much about food. I’m old and my appetite is always poor, so I specially hired an old chef.”
Lan Xi only half understood. In the end, he summarized, “Old ones are better?”
Old Master Fu could not hold back his laughter. “Right.”
The two children kept Old Master Fu company for another day. Or, more accurately, Old Master Fu spent another day accompanying them while they studied.
None of the other children of their generation came back that day. Who knew whether the horror movie had left them psychologically scarred.
Just like that, another week passed. Old Master Fu’s condition stabilized and he was discharged home. As he was getting into the car that day, he even told them, “Come back to the old residence and visit more often.”
Lan Xi took the invitation very seriously. “What’s fun there?”
Old Master Fu choked for a moment before finally coming up with, “There are lots of old things there.”
Things like antiques. They were beautiful to look at and admire.
And if he was in a good mood, he could even give some to them.
Lan Xi thought about the old chef and nodded.
The secretary turned around from behind the car, both hands full of things, and handed them over. “These are gifts visitors brought while Old Master was in the hospital. He said he isn’t interested in them, so Young Master and Lan Xi can have fun opening them.”
Lan Xi loved opening presents most of all.
Especially when he did not know what was inside. Peeling back the wrapping little by little with his own hands made him very, very happy.
That night, after all his excitement wore off, Lan Xi slept deeply.
How deeply?
So deeply that, as usual, he pretended to be a doctor and examined Fu Hui’s mouth, only to fall asleep halfway through the examination.
Fu Hui woke groggily in the middle of the night and caught the hand that had been shoved into his mouth.
He restrained himself and did not shake Lan Xi awake.
He merely removed the hand in silence and pinned it down so Lan Xi could not cause trouble again.
At the breakfast table the next morning, Fu Hui said sternly, “Don’t put your hand in my mouth.”
The spoon in Lan Xi’s hand fell with a clatter. He looked genuinely amazed. “How did Fu Hui know?”
Fu Hui: “…It would be hard not to know.”
Lan Xi: ?
Free to go bareheaded again, Lan Xi arrived at kindergarten still puzzling over the mystery.
King Lan Xi quickly reclaimed his throne and reigned in glory for quite a while.
Because he kept thinking about the supposedly “impressive old things” Old Master Fu had mentioned, Lan Xi and Fu Hui began regularly returning to the old residence on weekends.
Lan Xi came to know more and more people: Fu Hui’s elders, his cousins, the people who came to visit the Fu family… Before long, he knew them all.
Lan Xi’s life became even richer and more varied.
Together with Fu Hui, he caught turtles in Old Master Fu’s pond that were older than he was, climbed old trees several times his age, played with old-fashioned toys Old Master Fu had once made for Fu Lin himself, and ate food cooked by the old chef…
They also admired the calligraphy, paintings, and antiques in Old Master Fu’s collection. Lan Xi did not like a single one and did not want any of them.
Later, an older female cousin came home and brought Lan Xi a Swarovski crystal box to play with. Lan Xi sweetly called her “Big Sister” over and over.
Old Master Fu was rendered speechless.
“You only like cheap things.” Old Master Fu turned to Fu Hui and asked, a little wounded, “Don’t tell me you look down on my collection too?”
Fu Hui had grown up surrounded by such things, so he knew their value very well.
His new tooth was growing in, and by now he no longer had to worry much about air leaking through when he spoke. He thought for a moment. “If I like something, will you give it to me?”
Old Master Fu: “…”
Fu Hui was already making plans at such a young age.
He did not yet know what kind of person he would become when he grew up, but if he had lots of antiques, he could support both himself and Lan Xi very well.
Old Master Fu coughed heavily twice. “I’ll give them to you. Your dad will inherit them someday, and then you’ll inherit them after him. They’ll all be yours.”
This was the first time Old Master Fu had ever said such a thing.
By then, Lan Xi was already calling, “Fu Hui, Fu Hui, I want to watch ghosts!”
Fu Hui lowered his head and answered, “Mm. Coming.”
Lan Xi did not know how to turn on the television and play a movie. He could have simply asked the nanny or a bodyguard to do it.
But Lan Xi did not want them. He only wanted to call Fu Hui.
Lan Xi had fallen in love with horror movies after all.
Especially when the other children were at the old residence too.
He would look at the ugly faces in the horror movie, then look at the children beside him who were on the verge of breaking down. For Lan Xi, it was double the viewing pleasure.
His second older cousin heard him say this and broke down all over again. “Aaaaaah! I told you he has the face of an angel and the heart of a devil! How can he be this awful when he’s so little?!”
He still could not keep his vow never to say anything bad about Lan Xi again.
Lan Xi did not care at all.
That night, lying on the narrow bed at the old residence with his little foot hooked around Fu Hui’s leg, Lan Xi leaned close to Fu Hui’s ear and giggled. “They said Lan Xi is a devil. A powerful devil~”
Fu Hui: “…Mm.”
“Fu Hui?” Lan Xi’s nose twitched. Smelling blood, he hurriedly pried at Fu Hui’s mouth.
Fu Hui had only just regained the freedom to speak properly when he lost another tooth.
Lan Xi’s smile disappeared completely.
Lan Xi broke down. “I don’t want Fu Hui to lose teeth! I want Fu Hui to say lots and lots of things to me!”