Speaking of Xiao Wu’s parentage, Mu Jingzhe felt that it was hard to explain in a few words.

  No wonder Shao Qihai had become the first love of the novel’s female protagonist. He was really quite charming. He had married Bai Lu, who had given birth to four smart children for him, and a mysterious woman had even given birth to Xiao Wu for him.

  The book had never mentioned who Xiao Wu’s biological mother was; she was an enigma throughout the novel.

  Mu Jingzhe scooped up Xiao Wu. “Come on, let’s go ask Shao Dong and see how much he knows.”

  She didn’t mind that the kids missed their biological mother. After all, that was their biological mother.

  Xiao Wu heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that Mu Jingzhe wasn’t feeling upset over this.

  When Shao Dong heard the question, he frowned awkwardly. “I don’t know either. He only said that Xiao Wu will be our younger brother from now onward. He didn’t say anything else.”

  Therefore, no one knew if Xiao Wu’s mother was dead or alive. After Shao Qihai’s death, no one knew the answer to this.

  Mu Jingzhe didn’t realize that Shao Dong and the others had silently changed the way they addressed Shao Qihai from ‘Dad’ to ‘He’. Their tone had also changed.

  Since she couldn’t get anything out of him, Mu Jingzhe didn’t say much. Her attention was attracted by Shao Dong’s notebook.

  “Have you finished writing the one hundred things you want to do the most?”

  Shao Dong felt a little uncomfortable. “Mm, I’ve written them.”

  “Can you let me take a look? I want to take a look to understand you better. I’ll help you realize these things in the future.”

  Shao Dong hesitated for a moment before passing the notebook to Mu Jingzhe. “Then don’t laugh at me.”

  It hadn’t been easy to come up with this list. At first, it had been fine, but because he had to write a hundred things, he’d slowly started writing down many trivial matters as well.

  “I won’t,” Mu Jingzhe promised. “I won’t laugh or let another person see it. This will be our little secret.”

  Shao Dong pursed his lips. “Okay.”

  He agreed, but he was still a little embarrassed. “I’ll go see Little Bei and the rest.”

  Although they didn’t have to attend classes on Saturday afternoon, their learning hadn’t stopped. Little Bei and the rest were still hoping to skip a grade, and they were also learning a foreign language now.

  Mu Jingzhe watched him leave before starting to peruse Shao Dong’s wishlist.

  Shao Dong was too quiet. Despite his young age, he was restrained and he rarely revealed his emotions. To a certain extent, one could gain an understanding of him through this wishlist.

  His first wish was written in a very genuine, down-to-earth manner. “Earn money. Earn lots of money. Never starve and freeze again.”

  \r \r \r

  Later on, he wrote very honestly about his hopes to become promising and so on. He also wrote that one day, he hoped to go to his mother’s grave to offer incense to her.

  He wanted to visit the big cities and the capital to look at the raised national flag, as well as go overseas to take a look.

  The wishlist he wrote had traces of erased handwriting. Based on this, one could tell that his wishes had been about his younger siblings several times during the process.

  The further down the list one went, the more trivial his wishes became. For example, his desire to drink a full cup of soda and eat a chicken drumstick because these were things he had never done before.

  Though soda was delicious and Mu Jingzhe had bought them some before, he was used to letting his younger siblings drink it.

  Chicken drumsticks were good stuff, so he had to leave them for his younger siblings too. He had never eaten one before.

  Mu Jingzhe’s heart ached.

  Lastly, he had added that he hoped to own a washing machine, a dishwasher, and a floor-cleaning machine in the future.

  He included this after being inspired by Mu Jingzhe’s words earlier.

  However, he was ultimately a future business bigshot. Owning these things wasn’t the end; it was only the beginning.

  He had added that if no one created these appliances, he wanted to manufacture them himself and sell them all over the country so that everyone could use them and not have to work so hard.

  Mu Jingzhe laughed again. “Your business acumen is already active.”

  After Mu Jingzhe finished reading the list, she tried her best to memorize it. Then, she took out a bottle of soda she had bought previously and found Shao Dong.

  “Don’t give this to them. Drink it yourself. I’ll help you realize your first wish.”

  Shao Dong took the soda and blushed. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. The next time we slaughter a chicken, I’ll fulfill your second wish. I’ll give you a big drumstick.”

  Mu Jingzhe winked at Shao Dong, who smiled shyly. “Okay.”

  Urged by Mu Jingzhe, he drank an entire bottle of soda.

  For the first time, he didn’t stop after a small sip. Instead, he really drank until he burped.

  Shao Dong felt great. “I also want to manufacture soda in the future.” Instead of buying it, Shao Dong wanted to produce it himself.

  Mu Jingzhe flashed him a thumbs-up. “Sure, add it to the notebook.”

  “Mm.” Shao Dong took the small notebook and added it seriously.

  Only then did Mu Jingzhe go to work.

  As she was coming up with designs, she heard the sound of a flute coming from outside.

  Xiao Wu was playing the flute in the courtyard. Xiao Wu often played the flute and the erhu. The melodies were very pleasant to the ears and put one in a splendid mood.

  The young ladies, who had been busy all the way until the afternoon, instantly perked up when they heard the music.

  “Your Xiao Wu is so impressive. The melodies he plays are always so wonderful to listen to.”

  “Yeah, I feel good hearing that.”

  Everyone was praising Xiao Wu. Mu Jingzhe was very proud and quietly listened with everyone else.

  After a while, the flute music suddenly stopped. Then, they even heard a voice.

  Mu Jingzhe didn’t care at first, thinking that a villager had come. However, she then heard a sharp rebuke.

  Mu Jingzhe went out and happened to see a woman in a dress pushing Xiao Wu over.

  “Get out of the way, Mute.”

  “What are you doing?!” Mu Jingzhe’s expression darkened. She stepped forward and pushed the woman as well, helping Xiao Wu up from the ground. “Does it hurt?”

  Pain flashed across Xiao Wu’s face, but he shook his head. “It doesn’t hurt. I’m fine, Mommy.”

  Xiao Wu’s voice was drowned out by the woman’s curses and sharp screams of pain.

  Given Mu Jingzhe’s immense strength, one shove was all it had taken for the woman to fall to the ground.

  The fallen woman was in a sorry state and shrieked furiously. “Mu Jingzhe, are you crazy? How dare you push me?! My dress!”

  Mu Jingzhe ignored her and dusted Xiao Wu off before looking over.

  Upon closer inspection, she realized that this was Shao Qiyun, the youngest sister of the Shao siblings, her only sister-in-law, and Zhao Lan’s precious darling.

  Shao Qiyun was devoted to going to the city and marrying a rich man who lived there. Usually, she hated going home. It was unknown why she’d suddenly returned today.

  Upon looking at her dirty dress, Shao Qiyun was enraged. “This is a dress from the department store. Can you afford to compensate me if you dirty it or tear it?”

  As she cursed, she saw Shao Zhong looking at her sulkily, his eyes filled with displeasure.

  A trace of disgust flickered past her eyes. Without thinking, she lashed out at him. “What are you looking at? Stupid mute.”

  Mu Jingzhe’s gaze darkened. “Shao Qiyun, watch your words. Xiao Wu isn’t mute. He can speak now.”

  “So what? He’s still a fool.”

  Shao Qiyun looked at her dress in an extremely awful mood. “Nothing good happens when I run into him. What a jinx.”

  “You came to my house by yourself. I didn’t say that you were a jinx, yet you are complaining? If anyone is a jinx, it’s you. Do you understand?”

  Thanks to her memories, she knew that her sister-in-law hated Xiao Wu the most at home. She abhorred him so much that she wasn’t even willing to cast a glance in his direction.

  Mu Jingzhe was very dissatisfied. Xiao Wu was her nephew after all. How could she do this to him?