"Hey, you little brat, who are you calling narcissistic? You're the most narcissistic one! Don't worry, even twenty years from now, I still won't like you, little bro!"
Duo Duo spoke with absolute certainty, then, as if struck by inspiration, her face flushed with adoration. "Moreover, I won't even need twenty years. Your sister will definitely be married by then, and to the person I love!"
Zhan Zhan disliked being called a little brat and looked disgusted. "Looking at you all flushed, do you already have someone in mind?"
"Of course!" Duo Duo replied mysteriously.
Zhan Zhan feigned curiosity. "Oh? What do they look like?"
Seeing his curiosity, Duo Duo glanced towards the door and lowered her voice. "If you can keep it a secret, I can show you my crush."
Zhan Zhan wasn't particularly interested, but seeing her so secretive, he suddenly became curious, as if he had caught a little secret of hers.
"Show me?"
Duo Duo's desire to share was instantly ignited. She figured a five-year-old like him wouldn't understand love, and he probably wouldn't tell her parents, so she pulled out her phone and beckoned Zhan Zhan closer.
Zhan Zhan trotted over. Duo Duo opened her photo album and clicked on a folder named "Crush," which contained quite a few pictures.
Zhan Zhan thought she was crushing on some celebrity. Duo Duo clicked on one picture, showing a boy who looked barely ten years old.
The boy was wearing a school uniform, slender in build. Though his hair was cut short, his features were well-defined, especially his captivating peach blossom eyes. However, his gaze held a sharpness beyond his years, tinged with a hint of melancholy, giving him an intimidating aura.
The photo was a candid shot. The album had many similar pictures of the boy in school uniform, suggesting he was a classmate.
"What do you think, handsome, right? He's my senior! His name is Gu En," Duo Duo said animatedly.
She was not one to keep secrets, but her parents forbade early romance, so she dared not tell them. Her brother was a dense blockhead, his eyes only on code, spending his days either immersed in code with their uncle or discussing code, completely ignoring her.
So, she could only talk about him at school or in her room with her close friends, but it was never satisfying.
Seeing Zhan Zhan's curious expression, she immediately opened the floodgates of conversation.
"He's eleven years old and goes to my school, in sixth grade. He has a really strong personality, very cool, and he's amazing at fighting. He's the school bully of our primary section!
"But don't think he's a bad student just because he fights. He's actually very kind-hearted and has a strong sense of justice. Once, I was cornered by some hoodlums demanding protection money, and he saved me."
Duo Duo's face beamed with happiness every time she recalled that scene. Although she was a high-ranked Taekwondo practitioner and could have handled those thugs herself, what girl didn't have princess dreams and a desire to be rescued by a hero!
"He's also a boy who's tough on the outside but soft on the inside. In a campus novel, he'd be the perfect male lead character."
"He's just so-so-looking," Zhan Zhan said indifferently. "Calling him a school bully, isn't he just a problem student? You can tell by his face he's not a good person. Only girls with love-struck brains would like him."
Seeing him disparage her crush, Duo Duo was displeased and retorted fiercely, "You're just a little brat, what do you know!"
"Don't call me a little brat, you're not that old either!" Zhan Zhan frowned.
He was already five years old, a grown man!
Duo Duo: "If you're not a little brat, what are you? At your age, you're not even old enough for primary school. You can only go to kindergarten. That makes you a little brat!"
Zhan Zhan couldn't argue with her and was furious. Crucially, he was indeed in kindergarten!
Just then, Yu He had finished checking on Kai Kai and returned to the living room with Ruan Tianxin and the others.
Zhan Zhan's eyes darted, and he turned to Yu He. "Godmother, Sister Duo Duo is in love..." *muffled*
Duo Duo hadn't expected this little brother to be so unreliable, agreeing to keep a secret and then immediately telling her mother!
She quickly covered Zhan Zhan's mouth and whispered accusingly, "How could you break your promise? You just agreed not to tell!"
"Who told you to call me a little brat?" Zhan Zhan glared at her.
Duo Duo: "If I don't call you a little brat, will you not tell?"
Zhan Zhan: "Depends on your performance!"
As soon as Ruan Tianxin entered the living room, she saw Duo Duo pouncing on Zhan Zhan, the two playing together on the sofa. She smiled fondly.
"Xiao He Miao, look, Zhan Zhan and Duo Duo are playing so well together. I think we've settled on a marriage arrangement for these two. You won't mind Zhan Zhan being young, will you? He can take care of Duo Duo when they grow up," she said to Yu He with a smile.
"If Duo Duo and they like it, then it's fine. I'm more worried about Yue Yue. Hurry up and have a daughter for my Yue Yue to marry," Yu He replied.
Duo Duo's personality was quite outgoing, her emotional intelligence inherited from Qin Beiting. At such a young age, she already understood love. Yu He was worried that Duo Duo, still a minor, was already secretly dating.
Yue Yue, on the other hand, was more like her, oblivious to the outside world and solely focused on studying. He was also very introverted, and Yu He feared he would remain like this when he grew up and wouldn't be able to find a wife.
Speaking of daughters, Ruan Tianxin also sighed. "I wish I had a daughter too. Daughters are so cute, you can dress them up however you want. But this one inside is still a boy. It seems the Shao family has no luck with daughters."
"Even if we have a daughter, there's no need for an engagement!" Shao Chen supported Ruan Tianxin as he spoke. "When the children grow up, if they truly like each other, they'll get married on their own without us interfering. If they don't like each other, no amount of forcing will work!"
He himself disliked arranged marriages, otherwise, he wouldn't have eloped.
Moreover, eloping was something he had experienced himself, so there was no need to force his children to do the same.
Ruan Tianxin thought about it. "That's true! Then it's up to them."
The adults chatted for a while, and then Ruan Tianxin's family of four left.
Duo Duo saw her parents send off the guests and then attend to their own matters without mentioning her early romance. She breathed a sigh of relief.
She had been so nervous just now. If her mother found out about her early romance, she would surely punish her severely!
The least would be transferring schools, and she couldn't even imagine the worst-case scenario.
It seemed she couldn't tell anyone about her crush anymore, especially Shao Zhan, he was too unreliable!
After secretly vowing to herself, she turned and went back to her room to chat with her girlfriends in their group chat about her crush.
She secretly wrote a campus romance novel about herself and her crush and posted it in the group every day for her girlfriends to read. Her friends would occasionally give her plot suggestions, and some plot points, just from her imagination, made her twist and writhe like a candy cane on her bed.
As the five girlfriends were chatting happily in the group, suddenly one of them, named Si Ke Tian, tagged Duo Duo:
【@Duo Duo, your crush is surrounded!】