Before Jin Qingyan even knew it, he was pushed to the extreme end of the bed.
“Mommy, you’re mine,” An Youqing whined while pouting his lips sulkily. He then crawled onto An Xiaoning and laid on top of her.
Realizing that An Youqing did not fall asleep at all and was simply going against him on purpose, Jin Qingyan decided to push him off of An Xiaoning’s body.
To his surprise, An Youqing dropped his act and sprung up immediately. He then reached for the switch of the side lamp and turned on the lights. “Daddy, you’re being too much!” he exclaimed, glaring at his father angrily.
“You’re the one who crossed the line. You still have school tomorrow morning. Why aren’t you sleeping early?” Jin Qingyan retorted.
“Daddy, I’m not going to sleep unless you sleep first.”
“Why?”
“No reason,” said An Youqing, raising his chin to stare at his father.
An Xiaoning gave Jin Qingyan a nudge and said, “Stop hindering our son from getting enough sleep for school tomorrow, move aside.”
Jin Qingyan then took the extreme end of the bed while An Youqing laid in the middle.
The lights were switched off again.
Both Jin Qingyan and An Youqing soon fell asleep.
At four past midnight, Jin Qingyan woke up to go to the washroom and did not feel sleepy anymore. All energized and awake, he decided to take the chance to get intimate with An Xiaoning while his son was sleeping like a log.
Afraid that he would wake the little imp up again, Jin Qingyan pulled him to the side of the bed slowly and took the middle spot himself.
He managed to switch places with An Youqing.
He spooned An Xiaoning from behind and began fondling her with his hands.
He could fulfill his heart’s desires without getting up.
An Xiaoning was disturbed from her peaceful sleep. “What time is it?” she asked softly.
“Almost morning.”
“Seriously, you…”
“How frustrating that we have to wait ’til now to do what we were supposed to last night.”
“…”
During breakfast, An Youqing asked, “Mommy, will you be sending me to school?”
“Yes. I’ll be taking the three of you to the kindergarten,” said An Xiaoning, whose cheeks were rosy and radiant.
“Yay, I thought you weren’t going to give me a ride.” An Youqing finished his milk and got down from the chair to run upstairs.
He carried his new backpack on his shoulders and rushed downstairs again.
Jin Qingyan went to the office while An Xiaoning drove the three children to the kindergarten.
The three children had obviously warmed up to each other as they engaged in endless chatter in the backseat.
Having arrived at the entrance of the kindergarten, An Xiaoning held Wenlun and Xiaoxi by their hands while An Youqing followed beside her. They then entered together.
Xiaoxi and Wenlun ran straight to their classrooms since they were already familiar with the environment.
An Youqing followed his mother to the classroom for children attending upper kindergarten. He was in the same class as Wenlun.
Having recognized An Xiaoning, the kindergarten teacher, Ms. Tian, greeted them smilingly, “Is this An Youqing whom I’ve met the previous time?”
“Yes, he’s a transfer student. Please take good care of him,” An Xiaoning answered.
“That goes without saying. Come in with me,” said Ms. Tian as she held An Youqing’s hand and entered the classroom.
An Xiaoning then left for the staff room, in a bid to look for the Dean to pay the enrolment fees.
“Children, we have a very dashing transfer student who’s going to be your new classmate. Shall we welcome him with an applause?”
“Yes!” the children answered in unison, dancing in joy.
Ms. Tian brought An Youqing to the rostrum and said smilingly, “This is him. Shall we let him introduce himself?”
“Yes!” the children cheered loudly in excitement.
“Hi, everyone, nice to meet you. My name is An Youqing. My mother named me after a popular line in an ancient Chinese novel, ‘Summoning Spirits’. My name means ‘to dedicate one’s life to living upright with strong morals’. I’m four and a half years old this year. I hope to have an enjoyable time in kindergarten with you guys,” An Youqing introduced himself.
Ms. Tian was surprised to hear his profound introduction. There’s no question he’s An Xiaoning’s child. But, why is it that I’ve never heard about An Xiaoning having a son on the news? she thought to herself.
Judging from the child’s features, it was obvious who his father was…
“Well said. Come here, Youqing, sit together with Yuechan,” said Ms. Tian, pointing at the empty seat next to a little girl.
“Alright, thank you, Teacher.”
An Youqing sat down with his backpack on his shoulders. He looked at his table mate, a girl who looked like a real-life Barbie doll, and greeted her, “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you,” Wen Yuechan answered, her sparkly eyes glistening in the light.
—
An Xiaoning proceeded to the police station.
She was donning a pair of shades and a pair of heels on her feet. Her main purpose for visiting the police station today was to report for duty.
She did not inform the officers in the police station of her impending arrival prior to making her way there.
After entering the police station, those who recognized her quickly greeted her warmly.
She arrived at the entrance of the Special Investigation Unit office.
Sounds of a heated argument could be heard coming from inside the office.
The commotion came to an abrupt stop as soon as she pushed the door open. Staring at her colleagues, she asked, “What are you doing?”
“Team Leader! You’re back?” Ma Jianguo exclaimed, smacking his thigh in excitement as his initial fury turned into joy at the sight of her.
“Duh! Or do you think you’re talking to a ghost right now?”
“Nah. Xiaoding, hurry and bring Team Leader a cup of tea.”
An Xiaoning closed the door and declined, “It’s alright, I’m not thirsty. Ma Jianguo, what were you arguing about with Gong Le?”
“Here’s what happened. Bureau Chief just handed us a new case, and my plan was to first find out the birth characters of the victim and give them to you before discussing the other details of the case together, just like how we always do. But Gong Le insisted that we don’t inform you about it yet and instead try and solve the case ourselves,” Ma Jianguo explained.
Gong Le quickly defended himself, “Well, it’s because the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit is constantly gibing about us being incompetent and unable to solve cases without your help. Thus, I wanted to test our potential and try to crack the case ourselves.”
“Sure, I’ll give you the chance to. I’ll stay out of this case and allow the four of you to crack it,” said An Xiaoning as she took a seat.
She then turned to Zu Dong and said, “I’ve yet to praise you. You’re really awesome for making it back in one piece after completing the task as an undercover.”
“Thank you, Sis Xiaoning. I was too afraid to die there,” Zu Dong told her in thanks.
“Yes. I trust that you guys have the ability to solve the case without my help. But I’d like to remind you guys, the taunting and goading from the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit are only going to affect your efficiency at solving the case. We’re here to crack cases. I’ve never once claimed that it was my hard work alone every single time we manage to solve a case. I hope you guys won’t develop a superiority complex when it comes to case-solving. Okay, I shall leave this case to you guys. Call me when you’ve solved it,” An Xiaoning added.
She then stood up again and turned around to leave.
Ma Jianguo did not speak his mind and instead just watched her leave.
At last, he turned to Gong Le and said distastefully, “Be prepared to get slammed by the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit if we don’t manage to crack this case.”
“I’m just trying to prove our capabilities to the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit this once. I don’t mean anything else,” Gong Le explained.
“So what if we’ve proven ourselves? Does it mean we could then tell Chief that we don’t need Team Leader anymore and the four of us can just continue to solve cases on our own?”
“I said I don’t have any other intentions.”
“From the way I see it, you do.”
“Forget it if you don’t believe me.”
Ding Liang finally broke his silence and interjected, “Cut it out, you two. We should treasure the opportunity given by Sis Xiaoning and just focus on cracking the case. That’s the right thing to do.”
“You have a point. Let’s get to it.”
