Chapter 0294: Where Did I Come From

After being lectured by Zhao Fusheng, Fan Baobao actually found his words quite reasonable, feeling that her past twenty-some years of life must have been lived in vain.

Since when did Zhao Fusheng get to lecture her!

But she had to admit that what Zhao Fusheng said made sense. Thinking about how the media mocked her as a vapid花瓶 due to her lack of cultural refinement, Fan Baobao felt that such a terrifying scene was best avoided.

"Take a break for a while, and this afternoon we'll head home," Zhao Fusheng said after a moment's thought.

Fan Baobao nodded: "Okay, I want to eat the fish Auntie makes."

Zhao's mother had a special knack for cooking fish, rivaling restaurant chefs. Fan Baobao had loved her fish since childhood.

"By the way, there's ice cream in the fridge. Help yourself if you want some," Zhao Fusheng said, remembering something.

He had bought it on his way out; Fan Baobao had loved it since she was little.

"Got it." Fan Baobao nodded, then blinked and complained, "Ice cream nowadays is getting worse and worse. I miss the days when a popsicle cost five cents—they were really delicious back then."

"Come on, you're missing the taste of childhood, not that things were actually better then. Besides, ice cream now costs two mao a stick, not much different from back then," Zhao Fusheng said dismissively.

"What do you know? This is a feeling of nostalgia." Fan Baobao glared at Zhao Fusheng, clearly annoyed by his lack of sensitivity.

Zhao Fusheng shook his head. He usually dismissed such nostalgic sentiments from young people as affectation.

Under thirty, yet putting on an air of having seen it all—who were they fooling?

Dream too long and you can't stop; do too much and you can't rest. Often we find that unless we fail, in the end we're swept along, unable to stop, forced to keep moving forward.

...

...

Sitting on the sofa, Fan Baobao watched TV listlessly while Zhao Fusheng read a book. After hesitating, she said softly, "Um, when I was tidying up, I saw several computers in the room next to yours."

"What about it?" Zhao Fusheng looked up, puzzled.

"Yours?" Fan Baobao asked, surprised.

Zhao Fusheng smiled and nodded: "I used the bonus Teacher Zheng gave me for my proposal to buy the computers. I didn't tell my parents. The rest belong to my dormmates; it's not safe in the dorm, so I moved them here."

"Then why are there other things?" Fan Baobao asked skeptically.

"Oh, I bought a few servers and set up a webpage myself," Zhao Fusheng said casually. "A navigation page."

"Pfft, you're always daydreaming." Fan Baobao immediately lost interest; to her, it was too complicated.

After a pause, she asked curiously, "How much bonus did General Zheng give you for that ad?"

"Fifty thousand," Zhao Fusheng said. "Otherwise, why do you think I told you not to hold back? I earn more than you now, you know?"

"Nonsense!" Fan Baobao instantly got agitated, glaring at Zhao Fusheng. "If Sister Hua hadn't stopped them, there would be plenty of people asking me to shoot ads now."

Zhao Fusheng chuckled but said nothing.

Still, he knew Fan Baobao was telling the truth. If not for Wang Jinghua's intervention, she would have been swamped with film and ad offers.

"Just wait, when I become a big star, I'll torment you every day!" Fan Baobao said spitefully.

Zhao Fusheng glanced at her: "Good luck with that."

What is the highest level of being infuriating?

No matter how agitated the other person gets, you remain perfectly calm and composed. Under such circumstances, the other person will likely be driven crazy.

Just like Fan Baobao now, she was almost fuming from Zhao Fusheng's attitude.

If they were kids, she could have hit him. But now that they were in college and aware of gender differences, certain moves from the past were no longer appropriate. So she had to swallow her anger, silently cursing that Zhao Fusheng would get meat stuck in his teeth or bite into a salt lump while eating vegetables.

This mood lasted until they returned home in the afternoon and saw Zhao's mother and Li Yuan.

"Auntie, he's bullying me!"

As soon as she saw Zhao's mother, Fan Baobao ran over to tattle, saying pitifully, "Zhao Fusheng is bullying me!"

Zhao's mother was taken aback, then glared at her son: "You rascal, don't pick on Baobao. You're a grown man, you should know how to be considerate to girls."

Zhao Fusheng blinked but said nothing.

This scene had played out countless times since childhood. From initially trying to explain to later staying silent, he had attempted to resist many times but was always brutally suppressed by the 'ruling class.' After that, Zhao Fusheng gradually got used to it.

Li Yuan, however, snorted and looked at Fan Baobao: "You little brat, you're picking on Fusheng again, aren't you?"

She knew her daughter's temper too well. In Li Yuan's view, only Zhao Fusheng could tolerate Fan Baobao's occasional unreasonableness; anyone else would never indulge her so much.

"I'm not! Mom, you don't know, this guy..." Fan Baobao pointed at Zhao Fusheng, about to speak, when Fan Beibei, who had been ignored for a while, suddenly shouted, "Sister, can't you see me?"

"Ah?" Fan Baobao was startled. Seeing her little sister's lips pout as if she was about to cry, she quickly picked her up and cooed soothingly, naturally having no time to deal with Zhao Fusheng.

Silently giving a thumbs-up to Miss Fan the Second, Zhao Fusheng chuckled and asked his mother, "Mom, where's Dad?"

"He went to meet someone; he'll be back soon," Zhao's mother replied.

"Oh." Zhao Fusheng nodded and didn't ask further. Since his mother didn't elaborate, it was probably related to business.

Sure enough, before long, Zhao's father returned with a tired face. It was clear he had been busy lately, with a hint of fatigue in his expression.

"Dad." Zhao Fusheng looked at his father's expression and spoke.

"Uncle, you're back." Fan Baobao also greeted Zhao's father with a sweet smile.

"Yes, Baobao's back. How was it in Beijing? Did you get used to it?" Zhao's father showed a kind smile when he saw her.

Fan Baobao replied sweetly, "It was fine. I just missed you all."

"Silly girl, going out to study is a good thing. You can't stay home forever," Zhao's father said with a smile.

Zhao Fusheng's mouth twitched, and he said helplessly, "Dad, dear Dad, I'm right here. You still have a son, you know."

Zhao's father looked up at Zhao Fusheng: "Yeah, I know."

Zhao Fusheng felt that he might really be adopted.