Chapter Seventy-One: Debate

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Bai Zhijun’s younger sister was named Bai Lingyue. She looked fresh-faced and delicate, with an innocent air about her. She wore pale blue jeans and a short-sleeved tee, her hair tied back in a ponytail, lending her a certain artistic charm. At her feet sat a pink suitcase, and a yellow backpack was slung over her shoulder. The moment she saw Bai Zhijun, she called out to him with excitement and affection, giving him a sweet hug.

Yang Qing, standing to the side, watched the siblings in amazement. “Are you really from the same mother? How did all the good genes end up with one of you? Couldn’t there be a bit more fairness in the distribution?”

“What’s with that look?” Bai Zhijun, noticing Yang Qing’s odd expression—almost as if he'd heard his internal grumbling—glared and said, “Why would a grown man need to be good-looking anyway? Come on, let’s take your things and go home!”

He turned to introduce his curious sister, “This is my neighbor and business partner, Yang Qing. Just call him Brother Qing.”

“Brother Qing,” Bai Lingyue greeted sweetly, then leaned in to whisper to her brother, “What kind of big business are you in now, brother? You even have a partner?”

“I opened a congee shop,” Bai Zhijun replied, a touch of pride in his voice.

Bai Lingyue couldn’t help but giggle. “You need a partner just for a congee shop? What do you even do together?”

“You know nothing!” Bai Zhijun shot his sister a look, chin raised in pride. “Just wait till after the festival when my shop opens. I’ll show you what it means to rake in money by the bucketful!”

“Wow!” Bai Lingyue, amused by her brother’s boast, squinted her eyes in laughter. “It’s been over a year since I last saw you, and you’ve even started using idioms!”

“Of course! I’m an educated man, after all!”

“Haha… So tell me, just how much is a ‘bucketful’ of money?”

Bai Zhijun glared, “...Let’s go! Home!”

“Come on, brother, tell me!”

After picking up the youngest Bai sibling and returning home, the three set out again. Yang Qing and Bai Zhijun went to buy groceries for a feast, while Bai Lingyue tagged along, eager to get familiar with the neighborhood.

“Brother, where’s sister-in-law and Little Bai? Why aren’t they home? Isn’t today Little Bai’s day off?” Bai Lingyue asked, eyes full of curiosity as she took in the sights.

“They went out to play. Probably won’t be back until five or six,” Bai Zhijun replied.

“What? Went out to play? Where?” Bai Lingyue was surprised.

“Where… I, uh... actually don’t know,” Bai Zhijun admitted, suddenly realizing he had no idea where the kids had gone.

“Well, aren’t you the attentive father!” Bai Lingyue retorted with no small amount of disdain, then glanced at Yang Qing, who was picking out vegetables with impressive skill. “Brother, what exactly does Brother Qing do? He picks vegetables better than Mom!”

Bai Zhijun let out a cold laugh. “Curious? Go ask him yourself!”

You really are my biological brother! Is karma meant to strike so quickly?

While the Bai siblings bickered, at the zoo, the three little girls were embroiled in their own debate.

“That’s a wolf! A big bad wolf that eats little bunnies!”

“Hiahiahia… Little Bai, you’re lying! Its fur is brown, not grey—it’s a big kitty! Big kitties don’t eat bunnies, bunnies are too cute!”

“Xier, that’s not a big kitty—it’s a leopard, a very fierce one. Don’t get too close.” Xiao Qiu’er, her face tense, pulled back the eager Xier.

“It’s a big kitty!” Xier protested. “Qiu’er, we saw it in the cartoons!”

“Silly! It’s a big bad wolf!” Little Bai insisted.

“It really is a leopard,” Xiao Qiu’er pointed to the animal strolling inside the iron fence. “Look, it has lots of spots! Leopards in cartoons have lots of spots too!”

The other two girls peered closely and, sure enough, saw the spots on its coat.

Sigh...

Instantly, Xier deflated, mumbling in disappointment, “Why is it a leopard? Why isn’t it a big kitty…”

Little Bai, too, scratched her head in frustration. How could she be wrong? She’d been to kindergarten, after all. How could she have misidentified it?

She was incredulous. “Qiu’er, are you sure it’s a leopard, not a big bad wolf?”

“Hehe… Let’s go ask our sister,” Xiao Qiu’er grinned, taking her friends by the hand and leading them to Chunxia and Xia’er, who were reading the sign.

“Second sister, is this a leopard?”

“It’s a big bad wolf!”

“No, it’s a big kitty!” Xier, emboldened, looked brightly at Xia’er.

Xia’er was momentarily flustered by the barrage of questions. After a pause, she pointed at the sign. “I don’t recognize these words either, but… it’s not a big bad wolf or a leopard, and definitely not a big kitty.”

The three little ones stared at her, their eyes full of doubt. As if to say, If you can’t read the words, how do you know we’re wrong? Are you tricking us?

Xia’er seemed to read their minds, and gave each a gentle pat on the head. “I may not know these two characters, but I do know the words for cat, leopard, and wolf.”

The girls’ faces froze in place.

That was… unassailable!

Qin Xue and Tan Jin’er, standing nearby, burst out laughing at the trio’s petrified expressions.

“So… what animal is it, then?” As the two women laughed, a gentle voice sounded beside them—it was Mother Bai.

Qin Xue and Tan Jin’er exchanged baffled glances. Mother Bai just smiled calmly. “I might know even fewer words than Xia’er. It’s my first time at the zoo, too.”

A brief silence followed. Qin Xue gently slipped her arm through Mother Bai’s, feeling the roughness of her palm against her own soft skin. The touch stirred her heart as well. She spoke softly, “It’s a lynx, a kind of feline.”

Mother Bai seemed to sense something in Qin Xue’s tone. She gave her hand a reassuring pat and smiled, “Don’t worry about things like this. Life is good as it is now—the hardships of the past were the price for future happiness.” Watching Little Bai ahead, her gaze was full of love. “Every parent is the same. It doesn’t matter what they eat or drink themselves. What matters most is what their children eat and drink—they are our future.”

“Yes, every parent is great,” Qin Xue agreed softly, but as she looked at Xiao Qiu’er, Xia’er, and Chun’er holding little Dong’er’s hand, she fell silent again.

Tan Jin’er, too, was quiet. For those who had grown up in happy, whole families, parents truly were the greatest people in the world. But for Xiao Qiu’er and the others, who didn’t even know who their parents were and had only their grandmother and brother, who was greater—the parents who gave them life, or the grandmother and brother who raised them? Perhaps that was a question only they could answer when they grew up.

“Hiahiahia…” Just then, a little girl ran past them, laughing like the wind.

“Xier! Where are you running off to?” Tan Jin’er snapped out of her reverie at the familiar sound—the unmistakable laughter of her own little sister, the ever-cheerful Tan Xier.

With a sudden stop, Xier doubled back and pointed excitedly down a path. “Sister! Look, what’s in that big brother’s cage? It’s so cute! Let’s catch up and see!”

Tan Jin’er followed her gaze and her eyes lit up, too. “It’s a red panda! So adorable.”

“Hiahiahia… See, sister? Isn’t it cute? Let’s go see the red pandas!”

With her sister’s agreement, Xier was beside herself with excitement, tugging Tan Jin’er along.

“Wow! So cute! Sister, let’s go see them!” Xiao Qiu’er and Little Bai had joined Xier, mouths open in wonder.

“All right, let’s go see the red pandas,” Tan Jin’er agreed with a smile. Honestly, she was looking forward to seeing these national treasures herself.