Chapter 11: The Little Teacher
In the middle of the night, Cici woke up.
The bedroom was dark, with only a thin wash of streetlight slipping in through the window. The little girl rolled over, reached out, and nudged Lucas beside her.
"Daddy. Daddy."
Lucas wasn’t sleeping deeply. His eyes opened almost at once.
"Cici, what’s wrong?"
Cici sat up, her hair all mussed from sleep, her voice still thick and drowsy.
"Daddy, I have to pee. Good kids can’t wet the bed."
Lucas snapped awake and quickly scooped her up, carrying her to the bathroom.
He had just gotten Cici settled when she peed. Any later, and the sheets probably wouldn’t have survived.
After cleaning up, Lucas carried Cici back to bed.
"Cici, do you usually wear diapers when you sleep at night?"
Cici curled into the blanket and shook her head very seriously.
"Daddy, I don’t wear diapers. I’m two. I’m not a one-year-old baby."
Lucas smiled.
"Alright. Our Cici’s grown up."
He tucked the blanket around her.
"Go back to sleep."
Cici closed her eyes and fell asleep again almost right away.
When Lucas woke up again, the sky was already bright.
Cici had woken up before him. She didn’t bother him. She just lay beside him on her stomach, watching him. The moment Lucas opened his eyes, she burst into giggles.
"Daddy, I woke up first."
She sounded very proud of herself.
"Mommy said good kids go to bed early and wake up early."
Lucas looked at her messy little bedhead and smiled too.
"Of course Cici is a good girl."
Cici burrowed into Lucas’s arms, her small hand clutching his shirt.
"Daddy, I want to wake up and see you. And I want to wake up and see Mommy."
She tipped her face up.
"Then I’ll be so happy."
Lucas muttered to himself inwardly.
He wanted to wake up and see Evelyn too.
"Cici, Mommy’s very busy." He rubbed her little head.
Cici was quiet for a while, then her voice grew softer.
"Daddy, I miss Mommy."
Her hand tightened on his shirt.
"I want to call Mommy."
Lucas sat up.
"Cici, you’ve only been with Daddy for one day," he said. "If Daddy calls now, Mommy will think Daddy can’t take good care of Cici."
Cici blinked.
Lucas struck while the iron was hot.
"Let’s get up first, eat breakfast, and then move into the new home, okay?"
Cici’s eyes lit up at once.
"Okay! Moving to the new home!"
Lucas let out a breath of relief.
Little kids were still easier to coax.
Evelyn had said yesterday not to call unless it was important. Cici missing her mother was heartbreaking, of course, but it still wasn’t something he had to call about.
The two of them got up quickly.
Cici stood in the bathroom doorway and suddenly looked up.
"Daddy, I don’t have a toothbrush."
She covered her little mouth.
"Mommy said if you don’t brush your teeth, little bugs will bite them."
Lucas glanced at the sink and immediately felt a little awkward.
Cici’s suitcase had a bath towel, clothes, and plenty of other things, but no toothbrush. He hadn’t thought to buy one yesterday either.
First time being a dad, and he was missing things left and right.
"Cici, Daddy will carry you out to buy one."
There was a small supermarket nearby. Lucas carried Cici out and soon came back with a kid’s toothbrush and toothpaste.
After they washed up, Lucas opened the fridge and checked what was inside.
"Cici, how do scrambled eggs and toast sound for breakfast?"
Cici looked up at him.
"Is there bacon?"
Lucas laughed.
"Of course. There has to be bacon."
Cici nodded, satisfied.
After breakfast, Lucas started packing for the move.
He didn’t have much stuff to begin with. The old furniture wasn’t worth bringing, and he wasn’t planning to keep some of the random junk either. The only things he really needed to move were a few sets of clothes, Cici’s suitcase, some documents, and the books and daily necessities he had bought yesterday.
Once everything was packed, one taxi would be enough.
A little after nine, Lucas brought Cici to the new place.
The empty apartment had already been cleaned yesterday. Now, with sunlight pouring in, the living room looked even better than it had the day before. Once they bought some more household items, they could settle in.
"Cici, we’re going to the big supermarket."
Lucas picked her up.
"We’ll buy more groceries, and Daddy will make you something good for lunch."
The Grove Apartments had its own shopping area, and there was a supermarket just downstairs, not far from the building. Lucas pushed the shopping cart while Cici sat inside it, both little hands gripping the edge, looking like she was inspecting her new territory.
They bought quite a lot.
Vegetables, meat, eggs, fruit, milk, plus a kid’s rinsing cup, small towels, cleaning supplies, and some crayons and drawing paper.
After they got home, the first thing Cici did was hug the new crayons.
"Daddy, I want to draw."
She hugged the paper to herself too.
"I want to draw Daddy, and Mommy, and baby."
"Okay."
Lucas spread the paper on the table and opened the crayons.
Cici was excited, but she was still too young. Her lines came out crooked and wobbly. Circles didn’t look like circles, and people didn’t look like people. She stared at her drawing for a while, and her little mouth slowly pushed into a pout.
Lucas sat beside her and held her small hand.
"Come on. Daddy will teach you."
Cici’s hand was soft in his grip, moving slowly across the paper as he guided her.
Five minutes later, the system’s voice rang in Lucas’s mind.
[Host, your drawing skill has begun to improve.]
[After accumulating ten hours, your drawing skill will reach Master level.]
[After twenty hours, it will reach Grandmaster level.]
Lucas’s hand paused.
Teaching his daughter to draw, and he could reach Master in ten hours.
This system really came through.
He looked down at the lines on the paper. A moment ago, he had just been casually guiding Cici’s hand. Now, new things began appearing in his mind: how to taper off a line, how to combine simple shapes, how to make children’s drawings easy for a child to understand without making them too complicated.
That knowledge didn’t turn his hand into someone else’s.
But he knew how to draw now.
Lucas kept drawing with Cici. A round face, hair, a little dress, and beside it, a taller figure.
Cici stared at the paper, her eyes growing wider and wider.
"Daddy, you’re amazing."
She looked up at him, her little face full of adoration.
"Daddy, will you teach me to draw?"
Lucas lowered his head and kissed her.
"Of course."
He put the crayon back into her hand.
"Besides drawing, what else do you want Daddy to teach you?"
Cici started counting on her fingers.
"I want Daddy to teach me drawing, singing, swimming."
She thought about it, then quickly added, "Also, also, I want Daddy to teach me soccer. Liam has a big soccer ball."
At the mention of Liam, her little face turned serious.
"He said I don’t know how, so he won’t play with me."
Lucas almost laughed out loud.
Soccer at a little over two years old?
But if his daughter liked it, then he would support it.
He could teach her casually, and maybe even grind up his own soccer skill while he was at it. Even if he couldn’t become a soccer star, he could at least help Cici kick Liam into admitting defeat.
"Cici, Daddy can teach you all of that."
Lucas smiled as he spoke.
"But is there anything you know how to do? Can you teach Daddy too?"
Cici tilted her head and thought for a long time.
Her little face scrunched up, like she was rummaging through every box in her head.
After quite a while, a few Spanish phrases popped out of her mouth.
"Daddy, I can speak some Spanish."
Her eyes lit up.
"I’ll teach you Spanish, okay?"
"Okay."
Lucas held out his pinky.
"Then it’s a deal."
Cici held out her little hand and hooked pinkies with him.
Then she sat up straight, looking very serious.
"Daddy, put your hands nicely."
Lucas immediately cooperated and placed his hands on his knees.
Cici nodded in satisfaction.
"Class is starting now. This is how you say good morning—"
She taught with a surprisingly proper little manner.
Her babyish little voice wasn’t exactly accurate in Spanish, but she had the teacher act down. She said one phrase, then stared at Lucas, waiting for him to copy her. Lucas repeated after her seriously, and even when some sounds came out strange, Cici still nodded.
"Daddy, good job."
Five minutes passed.
The system’s voice rang out again.
[Host, after studying for three hours, you will become proficient in Spanish.]
[After that, for every three hours you teach Cici a foreign language, you will become proficient in one more foreign language. There is no upper limit.]
