There was no doubt, that kid was Nan Zhi’s younger brother. Because he had woken up too early, Nan Zhi’s parents had kicked him out to play. Afraid he’d run off, they had even locked the outer-facing door, so he could only play indoors.
That was correct—because there was a pond in the courtyard, and it wasn’t shallow. If he fell in and didn’t know how to step up the pool ladder, he could drown.
Song Qing wasn’t good with words to begin with. He had basically stayed home unemployed for half a year without going out, barely interacting with anyone, and his speech and social skills had degraded to zero. He didn’t know how to get along with Nan Zhi’s parents, and naturally didn’t know how to communicate with their child either.
The child was more socially capable than him. He even asked why Song Qing was sitting, and whether he could sit too.
Song Qing told him he didn’t have legs and couldn’t stand, so he couldn’t lend the wheelchair. But he could take him out for a spin. Then he taught him how to step onto the footrest at the back of the wheelchair. The kid was pretty smart.
Back when Nan Zhi was learning it, she fiddled with it for ages. The boy figured it out in one go—stood up on the back step, held onto the handles behind the wheelchair, and had Song Qing wheel him from left to right, and from right to left. They played until the wheelchair ran out of battery and had to swap it.
—
In the far-left room, when the child was silent, it meant he was up to something. Without hearing the usual crashing, banging chaos from outside, Tang Zhi couldn’t relax and fall asleep.
She tossed and turned in bed for a while, and in the end, still forced herself up to take a look.
Sure enough—her family’s typical three-days-no-beating, about-to-tear-the-roof-off little demon was actually sitting quietly beside the young man, in the sunroom on the far right, watching what the young man was doing.
Someone was coaxing him. Someone was awake and watching him. She could finally go sleep in peace.
Without the little demon child to disturb her, she actually slept until a bit past 3 PM.
Slept especially well.
After she woke up, the kid was still tailing that young man, spinning around behind him. He didn’t disturb or annoy them one bit.
Children, this kind of creature—even if you tell them a thousand times not to disturb the adults’ nap, to go play quietly on their own, they’ll still come in every so often to check if you’ve woken up.
Every so often, they’ll come poke your eyelid to see if you’re faking sleep.
After a while, their toy shovel or toy car breaks, and they come looking for you to fix it—racking their brains for ways to wake you up. But not today.
And then, you’d start to worry whether something happened—maybe they spilled flour everywhere, maybe they got into your makeup, maybe they’re sticking their fingers into sockets.
Basically, if he was around, the adults could forget about resting properly.
But today really was unexpected.
At first, she thought it was just coincidence. But when it got to 4 PM and the boy was still sticking close, she and Lao Nan were about to go out for a stroll and asked if he wanted to come too. He didn’t. He just wanted to stay with the young man.
She and Old Nan stood at the door, exchanged a look—and both saw disbelief and relief in each other’s eyes.
This was simply too great.
Ever since having a child, they basically hadn’t had any alone entertainment time. Whenever the two of them went out for a meal, they had to reserve a spot for one more person, constantly and repeatedly warning him: don’t wander off, don’t disturb other people eating, etc.—they couldn’t even eat properly.
Now, the two of them actually felt a little guilty. Asking him to help watch the child for so long—no matter how you looked at it, it felt a bit inconsiderate. They thought of just sneaking off.
But their conscience and morals tugged at them. In the end, Tang Zhi still stood there and asked one more question, “The kid’s very noisy, isn’t he?”
This was very clearly said toward the adult.
Song Qing heard and turned back, looking at her strangely, “Not noisy. He’s very well-behaved.”
Xiao Bao [Little Treasure, the kid’s nickname] chimed in too, “I’m super well-behaved.”
Tang Zhi and Old Nan: “……”
There was actually someone saying their son was well-behaved?
At that age, kids were at their most annoying—even cats and dogs would avoid them.
“Then… then would it be okay to trouble you to help look after him a bit longer?” She felt awkward even just saying this much.
But the young man almost didn’t hesitate at all. “Okay.”
The two of them exhaled a breath of relief together. Before leaving, they left their contact information and told him: if the kid causes trouble, call either of them. After confirming he would definitely respond, they practically ran off in a hurry.
They got in the car and went somewhere far to check on the family’s developments over the years—not anywhere nearby, for fear of being recognized. Otherwise, someone might show up at the door that very night asking for a consultation.
This one day was quite rare and precious, unexpectedly granted by someone they hadn’t thought highly of. To not waste the day, they decided to spend it well.
—
Nan Zhi had gotten up a bit past 4 PM, brushed her teeth, washed her face, went out and circled the courtyard. She noticed her parents’ car was gone, and no one was in the rooms. She figured they had gone out and was just about to ask when she spotted Xiao Bao beside Song Qing.
She was a little surprised. “My parents went out without bringing Xiao Bao?”
“Mm.” Song Qing answered while looking at his screen, “Your parents said they wanted to take a walk and asked Xiao Bao to stay with me for now.”
He happened to be dealing with a tricky bug, one that would take a long time to fix. Once he sat down, it was the whole day. Xiao Bao was beside him, occupying one of his split screens to play games. He didn’t disturb him, pretty ideal.
Nan Zhi tsk-tsked in amazement, a bit surprised Xiao Bao was actually willing to stay behind with him instead of their parents.
She remembered that just last year, he was still extremely clingy. Even when there were people at home, if the parents just went downstairs to buy soy sauce, it wouldn’t do—he had to follow them.
Even with a game in his hand, it didn’t matter. He’d drop the game to follow.
Now could games actually win over his parents?
She didn’t dwell on it too much. She sat down at her own desk and got to work. Xiao Bao was using one of Song Qing’s other monitors—not hers—so she could still use her own computer freely.
Besides, she didn’t only have one screen on her setup. She had a large horizontal screen, a large vertical screen, and a drawing tablet.
Even freeing up one of them would be enough for Xiao Bao to use.
Speaking of that, she remembered something. A few days ago, Song Qing had told her that his computer setup wasn’t enough anymore. He was trying to do everything with just one machine and two split screens, it wasn’t working. As things got more complex, with running data, software storage, etc., it was becoming a problem. So he said he’d need to buy one or two more computers.
He also wanted to try doing something else to make money.
This man really had an addiction to making money. Even though he didn’t spend much himself, he poured all his energy into thinking of ways to earn.
Maybe it was also because he wasn’t particularly smart, so all his IQ went toward making money.
Anyway, the money he earned ended up in her account. Of course she wouldn’t say no to that.
Nan Zhi almost immediately cleared out funds and bought him two more computers—had to be top configuration, because with the things he was doing, regular computers couldn’t handle it. Just from running too much data, one had already burned out.
Whether it was the host machine or the monitors, they had to be the very best kind—not caring about appearance, but the specs had to be high. As for appearance, it could be replaced. That wasn’t a big problem. If the computer looked ugly, they’d just buy a new case for it.
Nan Zhi placed the order together with him and told him it would arrive in a few days.
Song Qing nodded, and his expression looked quite happy.
Nan Zhi couldn’t understand—he used his own money, what was he silly-smiling for?
But in Song Qing’s understanding: money was already given to her, so it was hers..So, it was she who bought it for him.
If someone gives you something, of course you’d be happy.
Thinking about the way his brain worked, Nan Zhi didn’t know why, but the corners of her own lips tugged up a little.
Xiao Bao wasn’t actually as well-behaved as Song Qing said. From time to time, he would let out an “Aiya!” and make enough noise that she couldn’t calmly draw her draft. Meanwhile, on the other side, Song Qing’s hands never stopped typing on the keyboard.
The more she looked, the more Nan Zhi understood—It wasn’t that Xiao Bao was quiet. It was that Song Qing, this person, had a kind of ability to fully focus on what he was doing, unmoved by any sound or noise. So to him, Xiao Bao wasn’t noisy—actually pretty obedient. Much easier to handle than the kids of his uncles and aunts.
Probably only he would think that way.
Nan Zhi couldn’t draw anymore, so she curled up where she was and played on her phone instead, starting to gather her own assets and materials.
She was still drawing things like sofas and chairs for Song Qing’s software—constantly filling in new stuff: decorative items, daily life objects, and the like—to improve user experience.
While she was searching, she heard Xiao Bao ask, “Ge, how do you pass this part?”
…Ge? [older brother]
Since when did this little gremlin ever call anyone Ge?
He never called her “Jie” [older sister], not to mention “Da Jie” [ eldest sister]. Not once had he shown submission to anyone.
This was a once-in-a-blue-moon miracle.
Nan Zhi looked at the two of them in surprise. She didn’t even feel like searching for materials anymore, she just curled up and watched them interact.
The more she watched, the more she understood—Song Qing had recently launched a feature called 【Decorate Your Home】. Strictly speaking, it was actually a game. In order to figure out how other games worked, why people got addicted, what user engagement points they hit, he had been researching games lately.
His way of researching was different from others. He didn’t just study game strategies—he dissected and decoded them, understood them inside and out, even created an account to participate.
And coincidentally, Xiao Bao at elementary school age was right in the phase of being obsessed with games. He had run straight into Song Qing’s area of expertise.
Any part of the game he didn’t know how to play, he’d ask Song Qing. If he couldn’t beat something, he’d ask to be carried. If that didn’t work, just turn on the cheat plug-ins and go on a killing spree. Even when he took a nap, there were auto-scripts running. Didn’t affect leveling at all. In fact, it boosted efficiency. How could Xiao Bao not like him?
It was like a baby noob meeting a god-tier player, of course there was a little worship involved.