Su Lu really couldn’t concentrate on her painting anymore because this entire day had been just too much.
Her phone had not stopped buzzing, with messages coming in every so often.
She couldn’t get mad, after all, she had agreed to the other person’s request to stay in touch, and he hadn’t been sending anything inappropriate. Practically every message was about Zhao Xiaole.
First there was a bottle of rose perfume, held in Xiao Le’s hands.
Father and son had clearly won the three-legged race, and the photo seemed to have been taken by someone else, with both father and son wearing that orange safety helmet.
Bo Jingshen was holding Zhao Xiaole, who was holding the bottle of rose perfume.
Su Lu’s attempt at painting was interrupted once again, her eyebrows knitting into a frown. Despite this, she couldn’t help but save the photo.
Soon after, a voice message came through.
She played it and heard Zhao Xiaole’s excited voice: "Mom, Ah Shen and I won!"
Su Lu paused at the sound.
Huh? When did it become "Ah Shen"? Wasn’t it "Dad" this and "Dad" that before, full of excitement?
Then, one voice message after another came through, "Mom, Ah Shen said this perfume isn’t very high-end and if he really wanted to give you a gift, he’d buy a more expensive bottle."
"Ah Shen got hurt trying to win this bottle of perfume to bring back."
Hearing this, Su Lu was a bit surprised and replied, "How did he get hurt?"
The voice message that came back included Bo Jingshen’s voice.
"It’s nothing, the child didn’t get hurt." Bo Jingshen’s words were cut off by Zhao Xiaole’s anxious voice, "But you got hurt! If I had known, I wouldn’t have competed!"
Bo Jingshen’s voice had a hint of laughter in it, "But weren’t you very happy when we won?"
"Hmph!" Zhao Xiaole huffed.
The voice message ended abruptly there, and Su Lu, feeling a bit lost, decided to make a voice call.
It was quickly answered.
"What happened?" Su Lu asked.
"It’s really nothing, the child isn’t hurt, don’t worry," Bo Jingshen replied.
Su Lu’s brows were tightly furrowed. She was not only asking about whether the child was hurt or not. But could this man be pretending not to understand on purpose? Or did he really not understand?
After a few seconds of silence, Su Lu asked bluntly, "What about you?"
Bo Jingshen also paused for a few seconds before Su Lu could hear obvious joy in his voice despite talking about an injury, "Me? I’m fine, too. What big deal can a fall cause?" Bo Jingshen said, "Don’t worry about me."
Su Lu hummed in acknowledgment.
Bo Jingshen said, "But because of this, I can’t play with Xiao Le anymore."
Su Lu replied, "Just let him play by himself. Alright, I’m going to hang up now."
After saying that, Su Lu hung up the phone, and Bo Jingshen let out a soft sigh as he listened to the disconnect tone.
Zhao Xiaole was frowning beside him, looking grievously at him.
"You’re lying, lying is not good for children."
"Yeah, I’m a bad dad now," Bo Jingshen said with a smile, "So Little Lebao shouldn’t like me anymore."
"No way!" Xiao Le immediately rejected it, then looked at him worriedly, "Does it hurt? Ah Shen, should I blow on it for you?"
"Um... okay, then you blow on it for Ah Shen," Bo Jingshen said with a smile.
Although it didn’t actually hurt much, what pain hadn’t he experienced?
But Bo Jingshen was quite touched by the child’s tenderness and concern. As for why he was called Ah Shen...
It was because when little children spoke, the subject often jumped from one thing to another.
Zhao Xiaole had previously, for some reason, asked about his relationship with Su Lu.
Zhao Xiaole: "So, did you used to call Su Xiaolu just Su Xiaolu?"
Bo Jingshen: "Yes. Why?"
Zhao Xiaole was very serious, and seemed a bit confused as he continued to ask, "Then what did Su Xiaolu call you?"
Bo Jingshen pursed his lips, then finally let out two words, "Ah Shen."
"Ah Shen? Ah Shen!" Zhao Xiaole called him that once, sounding quite happy, "Then can I sometimes call you Ah Shen too, like Su Xiaolu does?"
"Sure," Bo Jingshen smiled.
But amidst Zhao Xiaole’s happiness, a bit of confusion arose, "But why don’t you call Su Xiaolu wife? Why doesn’t she call you husband? Zhou Xiaolong..."
Zhou Xiaolong again! Bo Jingshen thought to himself, can this Zhou Xiaolong ever give it a rest?!
"...Zhou Xiaolong’s dad calls his mom wife, and his mom calls his dad husband," Zhao Xiaole blinked.
Bo Jingshen thought for a moment; he could have brushed it off, but he felt that children were smart and that it was better not to lie to them.
Bo Jingshen: "Because Su Xiaolu and I... haven’t gotten married."
As he said this, Bo Jingshen’s voice inevitably carried a hint of regret, lowering in volume, "We were never married."
After hearing this, Zhao Xiaole was quiet for a moment, and Bo Jingshen thought he was upset.
But unexpectedly, children’s perspectives could really be unique sometimes.
Zhao Xiaole just pondered for a bit, "Then you guys haven’t divorced."
"Right," Bo Jingshen replied.
They had never been married, so there was no question of divorce.
Zhao Xiaole blinked, "So I’m not a child of divorced parents."
He seemed somewhat resistant to the concept of divorce, maybe because Jin Xiaokui’s parents had divorced, making Zhao Xiaole aware of the sadness that children from divorced families might feel, so he was sensitive to it.
But learning that they had never married and therefore couldn’t be divorced seemed to set his mind at ease.
As if the idea of his parents simply breaking up from a dating relationship somehow seemed so much better than them being divorced.
Bo Jingshen hadn’t expected Zhao Xiaole to have such a thought process, "Indeed... it’s not a divorce."
"That’s good, that’s good..." Zhao Xiaole smiled.
Then Zhao Xiaole seemed to be in an even better mood. Although he was still a bit sad about Bo Jingshen’s injuries, aside from that, he could be said to be quite cheerful.
But Bo Jingshen hadn’t heard Zhao Xiaole call him dad anymore; the kid seemed addicted to calling him Ah Shen.
Bo Jingshen was somewhat helpless but also nostalgic because, in fact, aside from Su Lu, there had been no one else who called him that.
Previously, it was because there was nobody.
Later, it was because, after she began calling him that, he became resistant to others calling him the same way, as if by doing so, it would become a nickname exclusively hers.
Well, now Zhao Xiaole had been added to the list.
Su Lu was still somewhat concerned about Zhao Xiaole’s mention of Bo Jingshen’s injuries, but it wasn’t quite appropriate to ask too much.
So although she didn’t show it, she became somewhat distracted while painting; emotions of the painter can be reflected in their brushstrokes, and it was obvious that the lines had become much rougher than before.