66 Wedge-shaped Fuel Tablets

  At night, Chengzhou couldn't sleep and got up to go to the living room.

  He didn't turn on the light, and instead sat down on the couch by the faint light coming from outside, then fumbled out a pack of cigarettes he had bought at the supermarket and lit one with his lighter.

  He doesn't smoke and he doesn't like it. This is probably also one of the reasons why his business is not as good as others, he's not used to giving people cigarettes, let alone sending them, he always thinks that sending someone cigarettes is like slowly murdering that person, unfortunately many people don't agree with this idea and think he's too stingy.

  "I think I need to come over and say thank you to you."

  A young woman with wavy long hair, average to slightly above-average looks, wearing a pair of cowboy pants on the lower half and a sleeveless waist-length dress on the upper half suddenly appeared in front of Cheng Zhou.

  Chengzhou was startled and fell backwards, with cigarette butts falling onto the sofa.

  "Sorry, hope I didn't scare you." The woman smiled.

  Cheng Zhou stroked his heart and calmed down, "Who are you...?"

  "I am Yuan Yuan's mother, and I'm Yao Fangqing."

  "Ah!" Cheng Zhou suddenly remembered, "How's your child? Are you reunited?"

  "Come on." Yao Fangqing beckoned towards the unseen depths of darkness.

  A lovely little kid jumped out from the darkness, "Uncle, hello!"

  "Uh, Yuanyuan hello."

  The child reached out to pull the corner of his mother's clothes, looked up and said softly: "Mom, we have to leave here quickly. That little brother will find us soon, I...I'm afraid of him."

  "Alright, let's go right away." Yao Fangqing picked up her child and quickly said to Cheng Zhou: "Coming over here tonight on a whim, besides wanting to express our gratitude to you, is also because..."

  "Be careful!" The child suddenly raised a finger to Cheng Zhou and said in a very low voice, "Uncle, someone is cursing you."

  Chengzhou shuddered involuntarily.

  "Who? Who is cursing me?"

  "You must be careful, the power of the curse is terrible." Yao Fangqing looked around and walked to Cheng Zhou's side, bowing down and saying in a low voice: "If there's an opportunity, help me apologize to that police officer, I didn't mean to curse him, but someone... a very powerful person, he transferred the curse."

  "Who?"

  Yao Fangqing hesitated and just opened her mouth when she was suddenly covered by a child's hand, "Mom, don't say it!"

  The child turned his head towards Cheng Zhou and said in a very soft voice: "Uncle, he can hear."

  Cheng Zhou had a lot of doubts in his mind.

  Yao Fangqing saw the anxious and fearful look on her son's face, so she simply said: "My affairs are all clear to Chen Yan, you can go ask her. The curse is a special power, you must find the source, otherwise you will..."

  "Mom! Hurry up!"

  At that moment, Cheng Zhou seemed to feel a gaze directed at himself, that gaze...

  If it was Little Monk's gaze that made him feel a deep-seated malice, then this line of sight seemed to have pressed him into an icy abyss filled with only abhorrence!

  Cheng Zhou was startled and one of his hands pressed down on the lit cigarette head.

  "Hiss!"

  Chengzhou suddenly opened his eyes, and it took him a while to realize that he had actually fallen asleep. His right hand still held a cigarette, with the ash now long enough to have dropped onto the back of his hand.

  Fortunately, it didn't fall on the sofa. Cheng Zhou quickly shook off the cigarette ash from his hand and rummaged through the old newspapers under the coffee table to press down the entire cigarette butt.

  "Wasn't someone just looking for you?" The little tyrant, dissatisfied with his territory being trampled by idle people, walked out of the bedroom with heavy footsteps.

  Cheng Zhou took a look at the red leaves and didn't press out the cigarette butt that was about to be extinguished. He lifted his leg, picked up the remaining half of the cigarette, slowly took a puff, and blew out smoke rings... but failed.

  "Hum!" A blue vein bulged on Hong Ye's forehead as he struggled to hold back the flames of anger that were surging up.

  "Let's talk." A small figure walked in front of Cheng Chou and said in a low voice.

  Cheng Zhou leaned forward and flicked cigarette ash onto the old newspaper, sneering: "What's with the serious face, kid? Trying to scare your old man? By the way, I've been wanting to ask you, am I really your biological father?"

  Who would have thought that this question, originally intended to coax the old man's temper, would suddenly explode in a loud roar: "I knew you've been acting strangely these past few days, you must be harboring some scheme! You don't want me anymore, do you? You're tired of me being a burden, aren't you? You want to get rid of me and find a younger, prettier wife, don't you!"

  "I've never married..."

  "This isn't the point! The point is you don't want me anymore! You're a heartless father who wants to abandon his son! I'm telling you, if you think you can get rid of me, no way... not even a mouse hole! I'll go and seal up all the holes in the house right now!" The little devil was probably furious, turned around and walked away.

  Chengzhou suddenly stood up, but then seemed to think of something and slowly sat back down.

  He crouched anxiously at the door and peeked into the living room, "What to do?"

  Situ yawned and squatted down beside him, "Cold mix."

  "Can't you be more serious? I've never seen a ghost who loves sleeping as much as you."

  "You don't understand, I'm enjoying the feeling of being alive. When I was alive before, I slept too little, it was busy back then." Si Tu's gaze drifted away for a moment, but quickly came back.

  He Sheng murmured: "However, you may be right, that father and son indeed need to be cooled down a bit."

  Chengzhou sat in the living room and started smoking his second cigarette. Hongye was running around the house, banging into things as she searched for holes to block.

  He Sheng saw Hong Ye about to lift the manhole cover and pour cement in, wanting to stop him. Si Tu grabbed his wrist, "Don't interfere with other people's business."

  "What's going on?" He whispered: "That is the drain outlet, if he blocks it, he will be in trouble. And where did he get the cement from?"

  "The family next door is renovating their house." Si Tu replied, seeing He Sheng still wanting to stop him. "He's on a short fuse now, what if he bites you? You're not Cheng Chou, it'll take a long time for you to recover from a bite."

  "But..."

  "Just block it for now, and when the time comes, he will calm down and think of a way to open it."

  "I'm afraid he'll make me... " He Sheng muttered even more quietly.

  Situ twitched at the corner of his mouth.

  "And you, you won't be able to escape either, at that time the toilet hole is yours to dig."

  Xīng heard the words and immediately stood up, walked over to the drain outlet and shouted loudly at Chéng Zhōu: "I'm telling you, old man, your son wants to use cement to block all the drains in the house. Don't you care? Or are you not planning on using the bathroom tonight?"

  "Has that kid gone crazy?" Cheng Zhou couldn't sit still in the living room anymore, he pressed the cigarette butt onto the newspaper and rushed over.

  "What's going on? Where did the cement come from? Return it to its owner!"

  Hongye raised her head and pursed her lips, showing an uncooperative attitude.

  Chengzhou turned on the bathroom light and looked at Xiaogui's unrepentant appearance, unable to help but let out a deep sigh.

  The man walked over and snatched the half-full cement bucket from Hong Ye's hand, handing it to Sutu, "Trouble you to take it back to its owner."

  Situ took over the cement bucket and left.

  Cheng Zhou picked up Hong Ye who refused to speak and took him to the pool, washed his hands for him, and then put him down.

  "Is it popular now to change the place of conversation to the toilet?" Hong Ye said sarcastically.

  "Do you really take me as your father?" Cheng Zhou looked at the little guy in front of him with a deep gaze.

  "Are you concerned about this?"

  Cheng Zhou nodded and then slowly shook his head, "I just want to know if I am really your true father."

  "Is it that important whether I'm your biological son or not?"

  "There is no one who does not value their own bloodline." He didn't mean to say that, Cheng Zhou furrowed his brow. In fact, he wasn't as concerned about whether Hong Ye was his biological son or not, what he cared about was...whether Hong Ye considered him as a father or not.

  "So you're saying that if I weren't your son, there would be no relationship between us at all, is that right?"

  "I didn't mean it like that, I..."

  "You just don't want to be a scapegoat and help others raise their sons."

  "You're just afraid I'm not your son, but some kind of evil spirit that's staying by your side to harm you."

  "After all, you still think of me as a burden!"

  Little Red Leaf sharply pointed out the harm, word by word, and saw the man being blocked from speaking a single sentence. She immediately turned around him and walked back to the bedroom without looking back.

  Cheng Chou sat down on the toilet, holding his head in both hands and sitting there for a while without thinking about anything.

  He Sheng wanted to persuade him, but was dragged away by the speed of the cement bucket and rushed back to watch the excitement. Si Tu pulled him back into the room with one hand.

  After a long time, Cheng Zhou washed his face and brushed his teeth again, came out of the bathroom, stood at the bedroom door for half a minute, and still pushed the door to enter.

  There was a familiar small bulge on the bed.

  Hong Ye didn't cover himself with a quilt and just lay on it.

  No one thought of turning on the light.

  Cheng Zhou stood in front of the bed, looking at Hong Ye who was standing still with his back to him. In the end, he was defeated by the unspoken pain in his heart and the psychological desire to escape again.

  What does it matter whether he is his real son or not?

  As long as he is still willing to call him dad, as long as he is still willing to stay by his side, then so be it.

  He got onto the bed, stretched out his arms and pulled that small, stubborn, clever, highly skilled and extremely temperamental little devil into his own embrace.

  "Red Leaf, don't refuse me." Cheng Zhou gently rubbed his cheek against the soft ear of the little kid.

  Maybe my chest is not thick enough, nor wide enough, but I still want to hold you in my own arms and let you lean on me.

  Maybe I'm really useless, but I still hope to use my own hands to protect you, wanting to support a sky for you with my back.

  Maybe I... am not your real father, but every time you call me Dad, I feel like the happiest man in the world.

  Red Leaf, you don't understand how much significance you hold for me.

  I have never regarded you as a burden, nor have I ever thought of abandoning you. On the contrary, I have always been afraid...

  I'm afraid that one day you'll look at me with a stranger's gaze, mock the sacrifices I've made for you, and tell me that to you, I am... nothing.

  I'm a grown-up, I couldn't bear to beg you desperately never to leave me, and I also know that's an impossible thing, no one can accompany anyone for a lifetime.

  But I want to ask you, at least when I'm still useful to you, at least when you're still by my side, please don't treat me so indifferently as a lowly and disposable insect.

  I want to love you wholeheartedly and give you all the best things in the world that I can offer.

  I don't expect you to love me in the same way, maybe I'm just dreaming, but I've never dared to hope. All I want is for you to call me dad, even if we both know it's just a pretence.

  You probably will never understand how much I love our current home. You, He Sheng, and even Si Tu make me feel like I have a real home of my own, and most importantly, family.

  You make me feel happy.

  The man's tears silently wetted his pillow.

  The red leaves never turned back, but his originally tense body slowly softened and stuck to the not-so-thick and strong chest behind him.

  Cheng Zhou held her tighter and tighter, pulling her small body into his embrace, as if she was his only and everything.