Chapter 1320: Chapter 1320: Song Xiaohua’s Ramblings [1]
The year George turned three, our family moved out of Tan Palace.
If you ask what Song Xiaohua was most reluctant to leave behind at Tan Palace, it would have to be that back garden.
That place carried her whole childhood.
And it also held way too many of her secret stashes of treasures.
But she didn’t plan to dig them up; she decided to gift them to the next President’s kids.
The night before they left, she specially went to say goodbye to all the housekeeping staff, and she gave them the number of her little Genius kids’ smartwatch—any weekend, she’d be free to meet up for afternoon tea.
Because she and George still had to go to school, living at Yunqi Villa would be inconvenient, so they were moving into a certain compound on the inner ring road, supposedly full of retired cadres.
She figured George would definitely like all those old grandpas.
Sure enough, while everyone else was moving luggage, George was the only one wandering around with his little radio in hand.
George Song was only three, but he was already worrying himself sick over national affairs.
Every morning at seven, he had to tune in to the news broadcast on time.
She had long suspected George didn’t understand a word of it and just treated the radio like a talking toy.
In fact, George had it much better than she did.
They were moving, but George didn’t even have to be separated from his little sidekick.
Yup, you didn’t read that wrong.
George had picked up a little sidekick.
Two years old this year.
He was Uncle Yuan Qin’s son, named Yuan Zidan.
Rumor had it, Yuan Zidan was an "accidental product."
As for what kind of "accident" exactly, her mom refused to tell her!
Her mom said that was beyond what kids were allowed to know.
Sigh!
In Country S, every President’s family still enjoyed Special Agent protection after the President stepped down.
Which meant Uncle He Wei, Uncle Yuan Qin, and the rest were still their security detail.
Aunt Suisui, to strengthen her marital relationship, had moved into Tan Palace after marrying Uncle Yuan Qin; now, she was packing up to move with them into the compound.
She almost forgot to mention—Suisui was already pregnant with their second child.
Aunt Suisui had gone half gray with worry over Yuan Zidan too.
As soon as Yuan Zidan learned to walk, Suisui threw him to George.
In Suisui’s own words, "you get red by staying near vermilion; let the Little Bronze tag along with a King for a few years, he should at least climb to silver."
Seeing with her own eyes George Song plopping down in front of the TV with Yuan Zidan to watch "Legal Frontline" for a solid one or two hours, she had zero faith in George’s childcare abilities.
But Yuan Zidan did seem to like George quite a bit.
Maybe because whenever it was time for George’s own milk, he never forgot to feed Yuan Zidan too.
There was one thing she had to admit.
George really was pretty smart.
He already knew how to "warm" his own milk at age two.
Granted, it was just taking his bottle off the mug warmer, but not every kid would get that; George would grab his own bottle, then hand Yuan Zidan the other bottle sitting on the warmer, and then sit back down in front of the TV, drinking milk while continuing to watch legal shows.
When adults were around, George absolutely would not bother with Yuan Zidan.
Even if Yuan Zidan fell flat on his face right in front of him, he’d still just keep playing with his Lego, not even blinking.
As his full-blooded big sister, Song Xiaohua knew George Song very well—George was the textbook definition of "Mind Your Own Business."
A George like that was obviously not mature enough.
So she discussed George’s schooling with her mom.
She believed, after being "educated" by kindergarten, George would definitely grow himself a warm heart!
Because her dad was between jobs and staying home, the family’s power dynamics had also shifted.
As soon as they moved out of Tan Palace, her mom got flooded with drama offers.
There were even variety shows wanting her mom to bring her and George on.
Her mom turned them all down.
Instead of taking a TV series with a fifty-million fee, her mom ran off to act in stage plays.
Half a year later, her mom successfully passed the public exam and "came ashore," becoming a nationally certified second-tier actress.
Another half year later, her mom became a visiting professor at her alma mater.
It was the first time Song Xiaohua realized her mom was so good at exams.
Later on, even the servants at home stopped calling her mom "Young Madam" and started calling her "Teacher Tang," and her dad followed suit.
Once she thought about it, she totally understood how her dad had no say anymore.
After all, the family breadwinner was now her mom.
And it did not feel good to be the husband holding out his hand to his wife for money!
Luckily, her dad didn’t smoke or drink; he just wrote calligraphy and tended plants at home every day.
With just a few hundred in pocket money each month, even if her mom didn’t want to give it, she could cover it—she’d saved more than twenty thousand in New Year’s money over the years; raising one dad was no pressure at all!
While she was busy refining her retirement plan for Dad, her mom got a call—
Her mom’s good friend, Aunt Hanhan, said she wasn’t getting divorced anymore.
She’d figured out two years ago that Aunt Hanhan’s marriage to her husband was fake.
But hey, who doesn’t have one or two little secrets?
So she never thought about exposing Aunt Hanhan.
She just hadn’t expected that Aunt Hanhan would tell her mom something else: her husband might have oligospermia.
They’d only found out because Aunt Hanhan accidentally injured her husband and he went to the hospital for a checkup.
Aunt Hanhan told her mom that having kids or not didn’t matter; she’d always liked filming better than having children, and it would be hard for her to find another man who treated her as well as her husband did; since he physically couldn’t have kids, she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone pushing her to get pregnant anymore.
Just like that, almost two years went by, and then something blew up in her in-laws’ family.
—Her father-in-law went and gave her husband a little brother.
—And the kid’s mom was not her mother-in-law.
She heard all of this in the kitchen while Aunt Suisui was making dessert with her mom.
Aunt Hanhan’s father-in-law brought the child home and even wanted to put the child under Aunt Hanhan and her husband’s names. Her mother-in-law was the first to explode, immediately unleashing a full set of Nine Yin White Bone Claw moves and clawing up her father-in-law’s old face.
Seeing he couldn’t win, the father-in-law started launching "character chicken" (character attacks) at Aunt Hanhan and her husband.
He said that even if his son could have kids, with Aunt Hanhan’s IQ there was no way they’d produce some peerless prodigy anyway.
Since his "main account" was useless, he might as well go get himself a "smurf account."
But her husband was a tough one too.
Within a few days, together with the group’s shareholders, he kicked his dad right off the board of directors.
After listening to this plot that was more melodramatic than a 10 p.m. soap, her head was full of complaints, and she clasped her hands behind her back and sighed—
Which is why, getting men to study the "three obediences and four virtues" is actually quite necessary.
Otherwise, if every man copied that father-in-law and refused to stick to "husbandly virtue," with fires breaking out in the backyard left and right, how were women supposed to focus on fighting their way in the outside world?
It was also that summer that her little uncle came back.
And in that early summer, seven-year-old George Song made his birthday wish—
He swore he’d become a researcher of mushroom clouds.
There were a few retired academicians living in the compound.
Song Xiaohua had every reason to suspect that George was influenced by them.
After all, aside from loving any kind of excitement, George’s favorite pastime was taking Yuan Zidan to the pavilion by the pond to watch a bunch of old grandpas play chess.
When George was ten, the moment he blew up Grandpa Zhang’s green underpants—hanging out to dry in the courtyard next door—with a homemade mini shell, his talent in chemistry was completely exposed.
——
——
Good night!
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