🍒 Chapter 48: Extra 3
Shen Shuyi got lost.
He thought he might run into bad people, but luckily, in the end, he was taken away by a police uncle.
A few days earlier, he had gone out with his father and his brothers and sisters.
He did not know why the whole family had suddenly made such a big trip. He heard that one of his father’s distant relatives, someone with a rather noble and mysterious status, had suddenly passed away, and the whole family needed to go and pay their respects.
But Shen Shuyi was still too young to understand. To him, it felt more like Father had taken the whole family out to play together.
He heard that before passing away, that relative had chosen a nice place deep in the mountains to live in seclusion.
That place was extremely remote.
The family took a plane, then transferred to a car, and drove along mountain roads for a very long time before arriving.
Once there, Shen Shuyi followed Father and his brothers and sisters as they were warmly received, and they went to meet another group of relatives.
They met many people and went to more than one place. In the end, Shen Shuyi got lost.
He was too young and knew nothing at all. No one in the family had taught him what to do if he got lost. All he knew was to cry nonstop. Back at home, Third Brother had said he was not smart. It seemed Third Brother was right.
The police uncle asked him the names of his other family members. He only knew that Third Brother was called Hanhan. As for how to write Father’s name or the others’ names, he had no idea. He was just a three-year-old child who could not read.
“Let’s check the surveillance again… If there really are no clues… then…”
He listened to the police talking about things he could not understand. At the police station, he ate, slept, slept, and ate again. He did not know how many days had passed. Finally, the police auntie who had first received him came to him and said,
“Little one, staying here all the time isn’t a solution. There’s a welfare home near our police station. There are many children there. Usually, you can play with them. The director uncle and the teachers there will take care of you too. Auntie will send you there for now. When we find your family, I’ll have them come pick you up and take you home, okay?”
Shen Shuyi was drowsily sent to the welfare home.
Since leaving the Shen family, he could no longer remember how many places he had been passed through.
So going out to play wasn’t fun at all.
He was very tired.
On top of that, the Shen family had never been very affectionate toward him. Third Brother often disliked him for being a stupid child.
He had a feeling that he might have been abandoned by the Shen family.
After being sent to the welfare home by the police auntie, he felt even more certain of it, because he heard people say that the welfare home took in children that no one wanted.
Now, Shen Shuyi had become a child no one wanted.
The director of the welfare home and the teacher aunties were quite enthusiastic toward Shen Shuyi. They brought him to a classroom. Shen Shuyi saw that beneath the podium in the small, shabby classroom sat children of all sizes, filling the room. One by one, they all stared at him with wide eyes.
“Now, teacher will introduce a new friend,” the teacher said with a smile, holding Shen Shuyi’s hand and speaking to the children below the podium. “This little friend’s name is Shen Shuyi. You can call him Shuyi. From now on, he’ll play with us and live with us. Everyone should take good care of the new friend, okay?”
“Shuyi…? That’s such a complicated name. How do you write it?”
“I haven’t started learning yet, how would I know?”
“Why are his eyes blue?”
“He’s a foreigner, right? I heard foreigners’ eyes are really pretty.”
“Will he be an Omega in the future? I think he looks really nice!”
“No idea. Anyway, right now he’s a Beta.”
Shen Shuyi could hear the children whispering about him.
They were all secretly observing him.
At his age, he did not understand many things, but he could sensitively tell whether the looks people gave him were kind or malicious.
He felt that most of the children in the welfare home did not welcome him very much.
For example, at lunchtime, when lining up to get food in the welfare home cafeteria, Shen Shuyi heard several older children behind him whispering not far away:
“He doesn’t have any illness?”
“He’s healthy. I heard Teacher Xiaohua say so.”
“Then why was he sent to the welfare home? I heard his family is still alive, no one died. Did they throw him away?”
“Seems like it. Wasn’t Guoguo like that too? Thrown at the welfare home gate by her grandma.”
“Tsk tsk. Even though he’s a Beta now, who knows if he’ll differentiate into an Omega later. He’s healthy and not sick. He’ll probably be adopted pretty soon, right?”
“No way, Xiaoshui-ge. He’s probably just a Beta. I saw that he can’t smell pheromones. You’re an Alpha, and you’re healthy too. You’re just missing a finger, that doesn’t even affect daily life. When adoptive families come, they’ll definitely choose you first!”
“How about this… let’s test him.”
Shen Shuyi could not hear the rest of the conversation.
He was a little scared and hugged tightly the small rice bowl Teacher Xiaohua had given him.
What adoption?
What healthy?
What were they talking about?
Why couldn’t he understand any of it?
Shen Shuyi walked up to the serving window. The cafeteria auntie did not see him at first and impatiently raised her voice.
“Next! Didn’t you hear me? Hurry up, you little monkeys! Stop dawdling!”
Shen Shuyi struggled to tiptoe and pushed the bowl in his arms onto the counter.
The cafeteria auntie only saw an aluminium bowl issued by the welfare home slowly slide onto the counter, followed by a pair of pale little hands gripping the edge.
“Auntie,” a childish voice came from below the counter. She still could not see him. “I’m too short. Please give me a serving of food. Thank you.”
Shen Shuyi thanked her softly in advance.
“So you’re the new one,” the auntie’s expression softened. “Children under five don’t line up here. Go to the window next door. Other aunties will serve you food there. Remember that next time, okay?”
Shen Shuyi turned his head and saw that nearby there was indeed a short line. The children there were all around his age.
They did not need to serve themselves. They only had to line up to receive pre-filled bowls.
But no one had told Shen Shuyi this beforehand.
He struggled to pull the full bowl of food down from the counter.
Because he was too short, he almost spilled it.
Yet the tall boy behind him just stood there coldly, watching his movements, with no intention of helping at all.
Shen Shuyi felt that even though it was summer, this place felt icy cold, as if it were freezing him in place.
He could not describe that feeling. It was as if the whole world had been reduced to just him alone.
Wuwu…
He wanted to go home.
Even though Third Brother always disliked him, Third Brother never made him feel this icy cold.
Third Brother was warm, like a little sun in summer that could accidentally burn his skin.
“Tsk…” Shen Shuyi heard those older children laughing at him again. “He can’t even serve food…”
But he really didn’t know before…
And at the Shen household, there had never been such a thing as “serving food.” Before coming to the welfare home, Shen Shuyi had not even had the concept of “serving food.”
Teacher Xiaomei had only told him, “Just follow the kids in front of you. Watch what they do and do the same.”
Shen Shuyi felt that for a three-year-old like him, being able to follow the other children here, learn how to queue, and know that getting food required lining up was already very good!
He simply did not know there were other rules.
He hugged his bowl full of food carefully, afraid to make another mistake. He did not dare imagine how those older children would laugh at him if he accidentally spilled the food later.
Leaving the line, he saw many children already sitting at long tables in rows inside the cafeteria.
They sat at the tables to eat.
Shen Shuyi silently observed and learned.
The children were sitting scattered around, which meant he could sit anywhere.
There probably wasn’t a rule about who had to sit where, right?
But Shen Shuyi did not want to sit too close to those children.
He had already sensed malice. He needed to stay far away from its source.
His gaze swept around and landed on a dim corner.
There were no other children there, only a silent older child.
He looked different from the other children in the welfare home.
There was no expression on his face. He looked a bit fierce, not easy to approach.
And in fact, that was true.
The other children in the welfare home stayed far away from him. They would even deliberately walk around the table where he sat, avoiding passing by him.
Yet Shen Shuyi felt that the seat beside that older child was just right.
And he was very good-looking. Better-looking than Eldest Brother.
Shen Shuyi had found a place to eat!
The welfare home felt cold, and the older child looked cold too.
But for some reason, Shen Shuyi felt that this older child could help dispel the chill in his heart.
Holding his bowl carefully, he walked over and sat down beside him.
He was too young. His legs were too short. He could barely walk steadily. Even though he was very careful, some soup still spilled from the bowl, dirtying the collar of his clothes.
He only had two sets of clothes in total. One was the one he was wearing. The other was one the police auntie had specially bought for him before sending him here.
Other than those, he had nothing else to change into.
If this one got dirty, and he wore the other one tomorrow, he might have no clothes left to wear.
Shen Shuyi lowered his head and kept rubbing the stain on his chest with his little hands.
He wanted to be a clean child.
He heard people discussing again from not far away.
“What’s wrong with that new kid… daring to sit next to that monster?”
“Leave it. Didn’t you want to give him a hard time anyway? This saves us the effort.”
“That monster… who knows how he’ll bully him…”
The rest was fragmented, and Shen Shuyi could not hear clearly.
But… monster?
They were calling the cold-looking older child next to him a monster?
That couldn’t be…
Shen Shuyi thought that he definitely was not a monster. Even though he looked cold, sitting next to him did not give Shen Shuyi that icy feeling he got when close to others.
Sitting here felt like being bathed in summer sunlight again.
The older child did not laugh at Shen Shuyi, nor did he gossip about him behind his back with the other children.
And at this moment, after Shen Shuyi sat down, he did not wave him away either.
Besides, monsters were supposed to eat children.
He looked like a child himself. How could he eat children?
Those people were so bad, always making things up!
Shen Shuyi even started feeling indignant on behalf of the older child beside him.
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