Dong Hongmei adored Guoguo.
The boy was clever, but that wasn't what mattered most. What mattered was his steadiness. It had begun showing when he was just over three: he could sit still. Other children swiped around aimlessly on a phone, but Guoguo was different. He could find bloggers who told tales of legends all by himself, and he never swiped away before a story ended.
Dong Hongmei had tested him several times. Halfway through a story, she would tell Guoguo to go downstairs and ride his bike. Too much time on the phone was bad for his eyes. Guoguo never argued, cried, or made a fuss. He obediently handed over the phone, readily and without reluctance. The next time he got it, he found the same blogger in a few taps and picked up where he had left off.
He could find it without knowing how to read, and he could quickly find the exact point where he had stopped.
Dong Hongmei had secretly noted the timestamps. He got them right down to the second.
That composure was so much like Zhou Qiang's. Li Lanxiang had been clever as a child too, but she had lacked that steadiness. Having it made an enormous difference.
Dong Hongmei told Guoguo stories too, all sorts of strange and unusual tales. Guoguo listened intently, his eyes fixed on her without blinking. Whenever that happened, she felt torn.
Torn over whether to start teaching him a few things to protect himself.
Yet she didn't want Guoguo exposed to anything dirty.
She wanted him to study hard and live an ordinary, grounded life. That would be good.
His father was Zhou Qiang. He would never be short of money.
But learning a few practical things could keep him from being cheated or bullied.
Countless times,