He Qiu’s series of actions almost caused Fu Yuling to lose control of her emotions just now, but fortunately she managed to regain control just before it broke down.
“I’m not crying! I’m not crying, it’s you who was crying.”
Fu Yuling didn’t actually cry, it’s just that her eyes were a bit red and she looked very aggrieved.
As for He Qiu, he didn’t cry at all. The only thing that flustered him was Fu Yuling’s current state.
“Mm-hmm, I’m crying.”
He Qiu cooperated completely and quickly wiped the nonexistent tears from his face.
Fu Yuling’s mood finally improved a bit, and she laughed, reverting back to her previous state.
“Xiao Qiu is quite the smooth talker.”
“I’m not.”
He was just mimicking the action.
Fu Yuling could probably guess as much, after all the learning ability of little kids is really quite impressive.
“Did He Jingxue hit you?”
Her tone suddenly changed, losing the playfulness from just now, and her clear voice became a bit hoarse due to her emotions.
“…Hmm.”
After a very long pause, so long that Fu Yuling thought time had frozen, He Qiu finally responded.
“…Do you want to come back with me?”
In the end, she still wanted to respect his opinion.
He Qiu stubbornly shook his head.
“I’m not going back.”
Why?
Fu Yuling had wanted to blurt that out.
But she forcefully swallowed it back down, He Qiu was still wary. He didn’t trust her.
Because he was afraid that if he went back home, she would abandon them again, and then He Jingxue definitely wouldn’t want him anymore. If that happened, He Qiu was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to take care of He Xuan and the others properly.
This was also the reason why Fu Yuling felt so pained for them one by one. They were too sensible, each one more sensible than the other.
“Why did she hit you?”
After changing the topic, He Qiu clearly relaxed a lot.
“For not doing well in exam.”
His eyes flickered as he slowly recited a few of his grades.
“100 in Chinese, 99 in Math…”
As he spoke, he also secretly observed her reaction.
This was something that Fu Yuling didn’t notice.
She kissed him on the cheek, which was soft and fluffy like cotton candy. “So amazing! This is a reward.”
Fu Yuling thought she would see a reaction similar to He Wen’s, but He Qiu’s cute face was complicated, without any hint of shyness.
This left Fu Yuling a bit frustrated. Could it be that this trick didn’t work on him?
“Don’t you like it?”
She asked directly, and He Qiu nodded to indicate that he liked it.
Got it, Fu Yuling finally figured it out. This child would just act like he likes things to make her happy, even if he’s not actually happy about it.
Bypassing this matter, she ignored it on the surface, but she kept a bottom line in her heart. And she didn’t hope that this bottom line would one day be broken through again.
“Xiao Qiu, you need to explain to me what happened with Li Cuihua.”
The change of topic caused He Qiu’s body to stiffen and his eyes involuntarily wavered a bit.
“I don’t know.”
He hurriedly explained.
Fu Yuling didn’t press him, but rather slowed down her speech. “Xiao Qiu, Li Cuihua almost died!”
“I…I didn’t mean for her to die…”
The calm facade he had maintained cracked a bit.
“But what you did ended up putting her in danger of death.”
“I didn’t spread it a lot, just a little bit…”
Seeing that he was about to cry, Fu Yuling finally softened. She reached out to hug him, gently stroking his back to comfort and support him.
“Xiao Qiu, I know you wanted to get revenge on the bad people who bullied He Wen, but have you ever thought about what would happen if someone actually died? They would quickly trace it back to you. Then what would you do?”
She liked to punish people in a secret and untraceable way, at most making them suffer a bit. So even if she had to do “bad things”, she would make sure to do it in a way that no one would know and without leaving any traces.
