I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

Is it very painful?

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Forgive My Greed

The absurd movie finally ended. It was only less than two hours long, but it felt incredibly long.

As the audience left their seats, the theater lights came back on, and the young couple who had been cuddling and kissing just moments before naturally held hands and left together.

"Let's go."

Chen Shuo rubbed his sore eyes, stood up, and led Bai Xiaoqi out of the movie theater.

As the sun began to set in the west, in the deep winter evening, the two people who had just finished watching a movie strolled down the street, feeling lost and aimless once again.

Chen Shuo pondered his dating plans. They seemed to be over, but he felt something was missing, as if something was stuck in his chest.

Before going in, I thought the big-budget movie would be worth the ticket price, but after watching it, I felt like I got ripped off.

That movie was truly an eyesore.

"What did you think of that movie just now?" Chen Shuo couldn't help but ask, remembering that this girl had been watching it quite attentively.

Bai Xiaoqi recalled the movie's plot and gave her evaluation, "It was pretty good."

What were they talking about?

"A group of people dressed in strange clothes were fighting each other."

"........"

Uh, that seems to be the plot.

Anyone with even a slight understanding of the Three Kingdoms period will be left wondering what the hell this movie is.

But if someone knows nothing about the Three Kingdoms period, they'll be more at ease watching it... well, at least they won't be distracted.

If this person hasn't seen many movies, or even has little worldly experience, they might think this movie is good and the fight scenes are exciting.

And this girl is exactly that kind of person, perfectly fitting the criteria.

but...

“I think you can’t go on like this,” he said.

"what?"

Bai Xiaoqi looked up at him, not understanding the meaning of his seemingly nonsensical words.

"Um..."

Chen Shuo slowed his pace, his voice trailing off as he sorted out his thoughts. After a long while, he slowly said, "You have little knowledge and haven't seen much of the world. You are truly inexperienced in the ways of the world. This is your shortcoming, or rather, your weakness."

To be honest, sometimes I think it wouldn't be bad if you just continued like this.

From my perspective, at least, I can gain the upper hand in our relationship, completely control you, and instill whatever I want into you while you're still a blank slate.

Seeing her bewildered expression, Chen Shuo smiled. "Yes, that's exactly your reaction. Don't you find it unbelievable and terrifying? Are you thinking, 'So I'm actually such a bad person?'"

"No." Bai Xiaoqi shook her head. "If you were really a bad person, you wouldn't be saying these things to me."

“I’m glad you think that way. I’m not a bad person, but that’s human selfishness, very selfish, and it’s the dark side of human nature. There’s a saying that goes, ‘Judging by actions, not intentions, and no one is perfect when it comes to intentions.’ That’s probably the idea.”

As he spoke, Chen Shuo pulled her hand up and kissed it, asking, "Guess why I kissed your hand?"

"why?"

"Because I have a disease that will kill me if I don't do it myself." Chen Shuo said with a serious face, as if it were true.

"Is there such a disease?" Bai Xiaoqi was taken aback, looking at him with some suspicion, then at her own hand, wondering if she should ask him to kiss her again.

"Look, you didn't refute such an outrageous reason on the spot. Instead, you were skeptical, and you might even have believed it a little bit."

This means you're silly, and I can let you stay silly forever; it's more to my advantage.

But that's very unfair to you. You should learn more, observe more, think more, understand society better, and broaden your thinking.

Bai Xiaoqi thought for a moment and said, "But you have been teaching me, and I have been learning, and I have learned a lot."

"Yes, I am indeed teaching you and helping you improve your cognition and establish your values, but I am just instilling my things into you and letting you follow my thoughts."

Even though I'm instilling in you what I believe to be correct, if I had a bad heart and deliberately instilled wrong ideas in you, would you be able to distinguish them when you're a blank slate?

Therefore, you should have your own things, the ability to discern for yourself, and the ability to distinguish between good and bad.

This isn't something you can get by just watching food videos on your phone all day. It requires comprehensive and holistic learning to improve yourself and develop independent thinking.

By broadening your horizons through a series of learning experiences, you can elevate your thinking. The more you see and experience, the more your perspectives will change. You'll learn to think critically and evaluate things—like a movie today, which you might find entertaining, but is actually terrible. This is due to a lack of perspective.

Chen Shuo's thinking is not unrestrained; today's film is just a starting point that brings out these deeper things.

The girl in front of me is quite naive. She'll think a regular carton of yogurt is delicious, and a terrible movie is entertaining. These are all signs of limited experience.

Some people say that naive girls are the easiest to fool. Whether this statement is true or not is not up for debate, but Chen Shuo agrees, because he didn't even have to deceive her; the girl just threw herself at him.

Commonly known as giving it away for free.

Her behavior was both flattering and heartbreaking, even making people feel anxious and wonder what they had done to deserve it.

To be honest, Chen Shuo sometimes asked himself questions and examined himself. He then realized that he had nothing but good looks. He had nothing to offer, no money, no time, and was a straight man. Therefore, he couldn't understand why she liked him.

Although it's inevitable to develop feelings for the opposite sex when spending so much time together, and these feelings can gradually turn into liking, her initial feelings for herself should be dependence, and can only be dependence.

Now, whether she likes or depends on herself, she probably can't even say for sure.

"Just like liking someone, I can tell that I genuinely like you, but can you tell the difference?"

"Distinguish what?"

"The difference between liking and depending on."

Chen Shuo gently held her small hand and explained, "Liking someone means wanting to be close to them unconsciously. When they're not around, you miss them and worry about them. Even doing the most boring things together makes you happy."

Dependence, on the other hand, is the feeling that someone will take care of everything for you, so you can be carefree and worry-free. In other words, liking is a feeling, while dependence is trust.

"I..."

Bai Xiaoqi opened her mouth, unsure how to respond. Her gaze fell on the hand Chen Shuo was holding, and she said with a troubled expression, "I feel like I have both, what should I do?"

"That's normal. Liking is the rudimentary form of love, and dependence to a certain extent will turn into liking. Your liking for me is a result of dependence."

Chen Shuo turned his head to look at her, then stopped and gently exhaled, watching the hot breath turn into white mist as it cooled, and then gradually dissipate.

"That's why I've always been reluctant, or rather, afraid, to broaden your horizons too much. I'm afraid that once your thinking becomes truly independent, you won't depend on me anymore, and you won't like me anymore."

But then I felt that this was wrong. I couldn't be so selfish. You should be a free individual, not my appendage. I couldn't do this.

“…”

Bai Xiaoqi lowered her eyes slightly. She felt her heart was in turmoil, not understanding why he would say these things for no reason. His somewhat somber tone made her feel very uncomfortable.

"Bai Xiaoqi".

"Ok?"

Hearing Chen Shuo call her name, she couldn't help but look up. This seemed to be the first time this person had called her by her full name.

As dusk settled, pedestrians strolled along the streets, and the gentle breeze added to the tranquility of this cold winter day.

"I really like you."

Chen Shuo opened his arms and pulled her into his embrace as if no one else was around, and whispered, "I want you to always rely on me and always like me, but I also want you to become smarter and more outstanding, and to have independent thoughts. Can you forgive my greed?"

Is this greed?

Bai Xiaoqi didn't quite understand. She simply pressed her head against Chen Shuo's chest, listening to his heartbeat, and then closed her eyes. "Okay."

Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Most Beautiful Thing in the World

Humans are inherently greedy, or rather, contradictory. Chen Shuo felt that he was very contradictory, hoping that she would be both independent and dependent, both intelligent and sometimes adorably naive.

I hope she becomes outstanding, but I also worry that once she becomes outstanding, she will soar higher and higher like a kite in the sky.

But she herself couldn't hold onto the kite string that was pulling her along.

The best way is for the two of you to grow together and become better together, so that she will be willing to let you hold her kite string.

Chen Shuo's mind was racing. He held her hand and walked slowly. Bai Xiaoqi turned to look at him and broke the silence: "How can I become smarter, more outstanding, and become the person you described?"

"Think more, observe more, learn more, see more, and ask more questions; this is what it means to investigate things and acquire knowledge."

Chen Shuo couldn't think of any good solutions, or rather, he was completely clueless; these were all he could think of.

"Investigating things to acquire knowledge?"

"That's right. It means to explore the principles of things and gain knowledge from them. Four or five hundred years ago, there was a sage who studied things every day as a child, studying one thing today and another tomorrow."

What is a sage?

"It's not important that a great person educates the world; the realm of a sage is too far removed from us."

"How far?" she asked again.

"Probably... anyway, it's quite far away, so don't keep focusing on these issues."

"Oh..."

“You’re actually very smart, but you always like to ponder some bizarre questions, which is… well, that doesn’t seem right.”

Chen Shuo scratched his head. It seemed that there was a type of person whose thinking was rather unconventional and who would ponder strange questions. Such people often achieved great success.

He now has a strange sense of déjà vu about educating a child, but he's unsure whether he should stifle her tendency to overthink.

I don't know whether I should interfere with her process of improving her thinking and broadening her horizons.

Letting her roam freely doesn't seem right; it's unfair to her, and she might go astray. She already knows about foot fetishes and clothing fetishes, so who knows what she'll become in the future.

I want to help her become a better person in my own way, but I don't know where to start.

Chen Shuo felt he had gone to great lengths to help her integrate into human society and develop the right values.

How did your parents raise you?

Although Chen Shuo doesn't think he's particularly outstanding, at least his values ​​are quite sound.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems like I haven't really paid much attention to it.