I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

But the two kids watch it with great interest every day, and oh, even Bai Xiaoqi, their mother, can get into it.

The mother and daughter sat on the sofa watching a silly cartoon together. Chen Shuo remained silent, holding his cup and silently expressing his disgust.

Chen Qi'an sat at his desk, scratching his head as he did his homework.

"Dad, why do we have homework?"

The school assigned a lot of homework today. Chen Qi'an struggled to finish it until 8:30 p.m., and the thought that he only had half an hour left before bedtime made him feel miserable.

The thought of Da Bao watching cartoons deepened the mask of pain on his face. Just as Chen Shuo pushed open the door for the third time to check on his battle, he asked the question that almost every kid had pondered.

"I don't know the answer to this question either, but you can choose not to do it. If the teacher asks you tomorrow why you didn't hand in your homework, just say you didn't do it. If they ask you why you didn't do it, just say you were too lazy to do it."

"..."

Chen Qi'an paused for a moment, then turned back to continue his struggle with his homework. He realized that his father was just teasing him.

How could he dare to do such a thing?

Kids of this age have a natural sense of awe towards teachers, even the usually shameless and outgoing Chen Qi'an is no exception.

He didn't know why, but he was just afraid of teachers.

"Are you almost finished writing?"

"No."

"Don't you know how to do it?" Chen Shuo said as he walked over to take a look. The notebook was full of arithmetic problems. They were only in first grade and hadn't learned multiplication and division yet. They were doing addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers or three-digit numbers.

As we all know, a person only has ten fingers, and twenty fingers if you include toes. That's about all the parts of the body that can be used to count.

Oh, there need to be more men, twenty-one.

Back in kindergarten, Chen Qi'an's winning formula for solving math problems was counting on his fingers or drawing lines.

Now that I'm in elementary school, I've evolved from addition and subtraction within ten to two-digit and even three-digit numbers.

Counting on your fingers isn't enough, and drawing lines is too tiring.

Chen Qi'an wasn't yet proficient in the algorithm formulas the teacher had given him, so he could only slowly and painstakingly calculate them.

"It's not that I don't know how, it's just that I'm slow at calculating."

Chen Qi'an refused to admit that he didn't know how to do it, that he was just slow at calculating. He continued to work on the problem, his lips moving constantly as if he were muttering something in a low voice, which was so soft that it was hard to hear, like a mosquito humming.

Chen Shuo curiously leaned closer to hear what he was muttering, and after hearing it clearly, he couldn't help but laugh. This kid was quite interesting.

For example, the subtraction problem he's doing now, 71 minus 8, is something that adults or even a third-grade elementary school student can easily figure out the answer to.

But he's only a first-year student, he doesn't have that ability, he has to draw formulas.

Put 71 on top, 8 on the bottom, and mark a minus sign next to them.

Subtracting one from eight doesn't make a sum, so you have to borrow from the previous digit, and that's what Chen Qi'an was grumbling about.

Do you want to borrow it?

I'll borrow it.

Then lend it to me.

Ok.

Thank you, I'll take it.

.....

They were actually quite polite.

Chen Shuo finally understood why this kid was so slow at doing his homework. He had to act out a little skit for every problem he solved. If he wasn't slow, who would be?

"Alright, Dad knows why you're slow at doing your problems. When you're doing your problems, don't mutter to yourself, don't keep saying things like 'Will you lend me this or that?' or 'I'll lend it to you,' and then 'I've borrowed this and that.' It's a waste of time."

"Then Dad, call Da Bao in to help me with my homework. I'm sure I can finish it faster that way."

Chen Qi'an came up with a brilliant idea that would kill two birds with one stone. Not only would it increase his speed, but the thought of Chen Qinghan not being able to watch cartoons made him feel inexplicably relieved.

"..."

This unfortunate kid must have taken after someone else; he can't stand seeing others do well.

Chen Shuo turned and went to the living room, calling Chen Qinghan in to help her younger brother with his homework. The little girl was naturally reluctant, but she still nodded in agreement and reluctantly went into the house.

After her daughter went inside, Bai Xiaoqi gave him a reproachful look and asked, "Why don't you tutor your son?"

"I'm too old to get angry."

Professional tasks should be left to professionals. Chen Qi'an is working on elementary school math problems, so it's only right that Chen Qinghan, who is also an elementary school student, tutors him. That makes perfect sense.

"Besides, your son specifically requested that Da Bao go."

Bai Xiaoqi was taken aback for a moment, "...Is Da Bao teaching very well?"

"I'm afraid not, I think he did it on purpose." Chen Shuo picked up his thermos, blew on it to disperse the layer of tea leaves floating on top, and then took a sip.

People in middle age have to soak medlar in a thermos.

He doesn't admit he's middle-aged, so he brews tea—what kind of tea? Dodder seed tea—and its specific effects are kidney tonification.

"Intentional? What do you mean?"

There's a saying that goes, "It's not scarcity that's worrisome, but inequality." It means that people are very unbalanced in their mindset. I can live without this, but you can't have it either, otherwise I'll feel uncomfortable. Our son probably has this kind of mentality.

Ugh, I'm doing my homework here while you're watching cartoons outside, what gives you the right?

No, you have to come in and write with me. I can't suffer alone.

Holding a thermos, Chen Shuo vividly explained his son's psychology to Bai Xiaoqi, and finally asked, "Do you understand now?"

"Is this child really that bad?"

"This can't be called bad, it's more like a kind of... uh..." Chen Shuo was still at a loss for words, not knowing how to describe this feeling.

But it's not really bad. Just like some stock market investors, seeing others make money is more painful than losing money themselves.

After waiting a while, seeing that Chen Shuo was still stuck, Bai Xiaoqi concluded directly, "Anyway, I think he's a bit mischievous, this child must have taken after you."

"laugh..."

Chen Shuo scoffed dismissively. Who did he take after? We don't know yet. That kid Chen Qi'an clearly took after someone else. He had evidence. First of all, they were both pretty simple-minded. And just now, he discovered that Chen Qi'an was reciting scriptures while doing his homework.

And someone else was driving and chanting scriptures.

He knew who this person was, but he didn't want to say.

Chapter 156 If a man gets old, his hair will be the first thing to age.

Days passed by, and another Spring Festival arrived. As usual, Chen Shuo sighed, "Damn it, I'm another year older."

Then I took my family to my parents' house for New Year's Eve. I don't know when it started, but I suddenly felt that time was passing by very quickly. It was as if in the blink of an eye, I had gone from a young man in his twenties to a young man in his early thirties.

Sometimes I really envy those two little kids. They have a happy Lunar New Year, don't have to go to tutoring classes, and always look forward to growing up quickly.

Unlike adults, who always hope that time will slow down, the slower the better, or even stand still, so that they can stand at the same point in time forever and continue to feel the existence of youth.

Chen Shuo reached out and touched his hair. Not bad, it was still thick and lush, which meant that although he was getting older, his physical functions had not declined, especially his kidneys.

"Why are you constantly touching your head? Is your head itchy?" Chen Jian suddenly spoke up from the side.

"No, I was just checking my hair." Chen Shuo said, taking his hand down from his head and moving closer to the old man before saying, "Dad, have you ever heard that men age first with their hair?"

"Get old first? What does that mean?"

"It starts with hair loss."

That's utter nonsense!

“…”

After a few seconds of silence, Chen Jian seemed to realize that his reaction had been a bit too strong. He paused and said, "Why are you like your mother, always reading these rumors from who-knows-where? There's no scientific basis for them at all. Hair loss is a very normal phenomenon and has nothing to do with age. Some people go bald in their twenties, like that... that actor named Xu something, wasn't he one?"

"Xu Zheng?"

"Yes, it's him. In all the TV shows and movies he's acted in, isn't he bald?"

"I think there was a Pigsy (Zhu Bajie) among them? I remember he had curly hair."

It's been so long that Chen Shuo can't quite remember it. He watched "Pigsy" when he was a kid, and he only remembers that the theme song was called "Good Spring Days." Oh, and the Little Dragon Girl in it was pretty too.

Later, Pigsy stole it.

After thinking about some random things, he looked down at the old man's head and said, "Dad, I didn't mean you're old."

“You said I’m not old. Look how young I am. I don’t look over fifty at all. A while ago, a student asked me if I was in my thirties.”

Noticing Chen Shuo's gaze, Chen Jian unconsciously patted his hair forward and stubbornly explained, "I'm not losing hair, it's just that my hairline is receding a bit."

He patted the back of his hair forward to cover his receding hairline; this was his last act of defiance.

"By the way, there's something I haven't asked you yet. Did you delete all the book reviews I posted?"

"What?"

"You know perfectly well what I'm saying, so hurry up and fix it."

"Dad, I don't know what you're talking about." Chen Shuo continued to shake his head, knowing nothing about deleting comments or not.

Besides, once it's deleted, how can it be recovered?

"..." Chen Jian was so angry he laughed. This kid still had the nerve to deny it. If he hadn't accidentally clicked on my comments that day, he wouldn't have known that all the comments he painstakingly wrote every day had been deleted by this bastard, and even the comments on those old books from a few years ago were gone.

"Come on, look here." Chen Jian took out his phone and opened a reading app. The evidence was right there; he wasn't afraid the other man wouldn't admit it.

He swiped down the screen with his finger, "See? All my comments are gone. I even went to the chapters where I wrote my comments, and they're gone too."

"How could they be gone? You still have so many, dozens or even hundreds."

"I've posted at least a thousand reviews over the years!" Chen Jian's face darkened. He had posted hundreds or even thousands of book reviews over the years, and now he only had a few left.

What does this mean?

This means that all my hard work over the past few years has been in vain.

"Oh..."

Chen Shuo gave a nonchalant "oh," still trying to get the point across, "Dad, did you post some sensitive words?"