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Huo Baichuan: "?"

The children huddled together and whispered among themselves. Then they lined up before Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan, placing the eggs they had been reluctant to eat on the table. Looking at them eagerly, they asked, "Brother Tao Yan, Brother Baichuan, we'll give you our eggs too. We'll give all our eggs to you from now on. Can you help us find our dads and moms too?"

Huo Baichuan suddenly felt a mouthful of potato pancake stick in his throat, leaving him oddly choked up.

The volunteer auntie had not expected the children to all run over there in the blink of an eye. She hurriedly led them back to their seats. "Eat properly. After breakfast, go to the classroom and do your homework. Your Brother Tao and Brother Baichuan are going to Electronics Street later. There are a lot of people there, and kidnappers specifically keep an eye on children."

The children still gazed eagerly at Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan.

Tao Yan stood up and returned the boiled eggs on the table one by one. He said gently, "Don't worry. I'll help you find your parents."

Before his words had even faded, Tao Yan saw the children's eyes light up at once.

After breakfast, the two had nothing else to do, so they simply went to the police station.

The old station chief and the officer on duty were both working at the station. When they saw Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan come in, the young policewoman Liang Xin teased them with a smile. "Oh, the ten-thousand-yuan household is here?"

Huo Baichuan waved his hand and said with great humility, "I haven't made it to that level yet. I don't deserve the title."

Liang Xin smiled with her lips pressed together. "Reporting in so early? What is it this time?"

"I wanted to ask you to help change my age?" Huo Baichuan pleaded.

After discussing it with Tao Yan the night before, he still felt that rather than trying to find a workaround elsewhere, they might as well solve the problem at its root.

"Change it from sixteen to eighteen. We were adults to begin with." Huo Baichuan spoke with absolute certainty. "Having household registration as minors is really holding us back."

"I can't make that call." Liang Xin smiled as she pointed toward the station chief's office. "You'll have to go ask the real Buddha."

Huo Baichuan immediately understood. He and Tao Yan walked to the station chief's office and knocked on the door with particular politeness.

The weather was hot in summer, and the station chief's office door had been open to begin with. Chief Shang had also heard Huo Baichuan's conversation with the officers. Before Huo Baichuan could speak, he said directly, "You two really do plan every step carefully."

"How can you put it like that!" Huo Baichuan sat down in front of the desk with a cheeky grin. "It's just that things happened to come up!"

"You see, we want to start a computer company and build a website. We might do other business later on too. Without ID cards, it's really impossible to get anywhere."

The old station chief frowned. "You want to start other companies too?"

"That's hard to say." Huo Baichuan grinned. "Business opportunities are everywhere these days. Anything can make money."

"Then do you also want to leave Jiangzhou and go somewhere else?" The old station chief's expression darkened slightly. He had actually noticed long ago that there was something strange about Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan's identities. But the two were still young, and they treated people with such sincerity that he had not thought it would cause any trouble.

But now, looking at Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan's requests, they had been going around in circles and concealing things, all because they wanted two adult identities and household registration documents.

The old station chief scrutinized them suspiciously. "Don't tell me you're from across the sea? Did you swim here? Is that why you don't have local identification or household registration?"

The more the old station chief spoke, the more plausible it seemed. If Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan really were from Hong Kong Island, that would explain why they were so proficient with electronic products and DNA fingerprint testing.

Technology and medicine over there had always been more advanced than on the mainland.

"Why did you come to the mainland? Are you looking for relatives? Or did you have a falling-out with your family?" The old station chief found it very curious. Going back several decades, he had seen plenty of young people rushing to Hong Kong Island in droves. In recent years, he had also seen some Hong Kong businessmen come to the mainland to invest. But people like Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan, who had swum back across the sea without explaining their purpose, were rare indeed.

"What are you thinking!" Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan exchanged a glance, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"We're not from Hong Kong Island." Huo Baichuan explained, "We really don't remember where our hometown is, and we can't remember who our parents are either. We don't even have any way to contact them."

The old station chief gave a soft snort, clearly unconvinced by Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan's explanation.

Huo Baichuan did not want to argue with the old station chief over this matter, so he continued persuading him. "Just change our ages for us. We promise we absolutely won't leave Jiangzhou within the next two years, unless we get into university. How about it? Is that enough this time?"

The old station chief's heart stirred, and he asked, "You want to take the university entrance exams? Didn't you two complain before that you didn't want to attend high school?"

"Not wanting to attend high school has nothing to do with wanting to go to university." Huo Baichuan corrected him. "We really won't attend high school, but we will take the university entrance exams."

The two of them had traveled back thirty years alone. They had no parents, no relatives, no family support, not even proper identification or household registration. No matter what they did, they could barely move forward. Getting into university was the most effective way for them to expand their connections and broaden their social circles.

What was more, the university professors and fellow students of this era were all exceptional people. If Tao Yan and Huo Baichuan could cultivate those relationships well, their achievements thirty years later would definitely surpass what they had accomplished before traveling back in time.

With such a beneficial path to advancement, not even a fool would give it up. Much less two pigs already standing on the winds of opportunity.

The old station chief looked at the confident Huo Baichuan and the silent Tao Yan, feeling somewhat reassured. "It's best that you can think this way. Young people should study more. No matter how smart or capable you two are, being able to study and studying more are always good things."

Huo Baichuan nodded repeatedly and asked with a smile, "Then please just help us change our ages. That way, it'll be more convenient for us to apply to university, buy train tickets, and stay in guesthouses later on."

The old station chief laughed when he heard that. "You haven't even gotten started, yet you're already thinking that far ahead."