Electronic Nezha

Chapter 119: Polite
Four middle-aged people who couldn't sleep gathered together at the fruit market.

Old Wang asked Li Ping, "Ping'er, you're here early. Did you dream about me too?"

Li Ping smiled and said, "Shameless, why would I dream about you?"

Old Wang said, "Can't we do anything besides our romantic relationship? How is it shameless of us to have a meal together and chat?"

I feigned surprise and said, "You two have romantic feelings for each other?"

Old Wang said, "I said 'except for'."

"Pah." Li Ping ignored us and opened the warehouse door to prepare for business.

I kicked the trash can again, trying to shake it open to reveal its contents. But the owner had already returned, so it would be shameless of me to rummage through it again. I had to abandon that plan.

Hu Chunyan said to Lao Wang, "Hurry up and give your boss a cigarette. He's been scavenging through the trash looking for cigarette butts all morning."

Old Wang asked in surprise, "Fengzi, didn't you have cigarettes inside?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot."

Hu Chunyan gave me a deep look.

I started to feel sleepy after sitting on the cot for less than half an hour. I couldn't help it; I woke up at four o'clock yesterday and couldn't fall back asleep. I usually don't get up until the sun is high in the sky. I sat there feeling restless. The more sleepy I was, the less I dared to sleep, and the less I dared to sleep, the more I wanted to sleep. What if this becomes a vicious cycle?

While Lao Wang was out, I took out my phone and sent a voice message to Liu Zhenhua's watch: "Son, do you think the Queen might have known my birth date and time and was hypnotizing me at home?"

After a while, Liu Zhenhua whispered back, "Dad, don't overthink it. Is it okay to use cyber voodoo dolls?"

“That’s digital hypnosis. Although their planet is terrible at building spaceships, they’ve put all their technological effort into sleeping—” At this point, I suddenly felt a chill run down my spine. “We’re doomed. If they really have 1000 billion people on Earth, a dozen of them could hypnotize one of us and take us down without firing a single shot.”

Liu Zhenhua replied: "No matter when, there will always be people who are clear-headed."

"Wow, that's a very philosophical statement." After waiting for a while without a reply, I sent another message: "Are you guys in class right now?"

"Yes, it's Professor Gao's class."

I suddenly became interested: "Turn on the call, let me see if I can still understand it."

A few minutes later, Liu Zhenhua replied, "Dad, are you so bored you have nothing better to do?"

I'm just bored, and all I can play with right now is a smartwatch—even though it's on Liu Zhenhua's arm, it feels different from making a regular phone call. What do people call this nowadays? Stealing a feeling.

Liu Zhenhua turned on the call and heard Teacher Gao passionately explaining a problem. He kept reminding the students not to be discouraged, as it was an Olympiad math problem, and only by following his line of thought could they avoid falling behind.

I only listened to two formulas before I knew I couldn't take it anymore. I felt like I would fall asleep immediately if I listened to just one more.

At this moment, Teacher Gao suddenly asked, "Liu Zhenhua, what do you think should be the final answer to this question?"

Chen Zihan lowered her voice and prompted, "Choose C."

Liu Zhenhua had already given the answer: "Choose A."

Teacher Gao said, "Oh, right, sit down. Don't talk to yourself in class anymore."

I was so scared that I quickly turned off the phone.

Around mid-morning, Aunt Xu appeared with Hao Hao.

Aunt Xu still greets everyone with a smile, but her smile has become much brighter.

Then the three of us met and started exchanging glances. I exchanged glances with Aunt Xu, Hao Hao exchanged glances with me, and Aunt Xu exchanged glances with Hao Hao as well...

While packing the cardboard boxes, Li Ping told Hu Chunyan to give the boxes to the mother and son whenever she saw them. Old Wang followed suit and started packing the boxes as well.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Aunt Xu quickly moved closer to me and whispered like a spy making a rendezvous, "Boss Liu, do you have a 'mission' for us?" "Not for now."

Aunt Xu said, "Okay, I have something to report to the organization!"

"Uh, I'm not part of any organization, but go ahead and tell me."

Aunt Xu said quickly, "Haohao is normal now, and I don't want to tie him up with a rope anymore. He has a long road ahead of him, and this can't go on like this. But I'm afraid of ruining your plans, so I'm asking you for permission first."

I thought for a moment and said, "Approved." Hao Hao has already clashed with the Queen; continuing to play dumb is just for show for passersby. What's the point? At the same time, I thought to myself, "She's a mother after all; she's so thoughtful."

At this moment, Hu Chunyan came out carrying a pile of cardboard boxes and handed them to Aunt Xu. She then patted Hao Hao's broad shoulders twice and said, "Look at this big boy, what a pity."

Aunt Xu smiled at her and said to me, "Boss Liu, could you please take Hao Hao into your room to warm up by the fire? I'll tidy up a bit."

This was creating an opportunity for us to speak. I pulled Hao Hao into the house, while Lao Wang was still looking around inside. I kicked the large cardboard box on the ground and said, "Take this to Aunt Xu."

"Then what will we eat from now on?" That's our table...

"There will be more."

Old Wang, with a heavy heart, carried the cardboard box outside.

I turned to Hao Hao and said, "I'll pick out the important part: 'Number 23' has already hypnotized me twice from a distance."

Hao Hao said urgently, "Then I have to follow you, Brother Feng."

“Listen to me. She has ulterior motives towards me. I’m safe for now. The most urgent thing is to resolve your identity issue—” I took out ten thousand yuan and handed it to him. “Give this to your mother first.” I had prepared this money long ago.

"what does this mean?"

Consider this your settling-in allowance, and I'll buy you some new clothes or something.

Hao Hao took a step back and said, "I guess my mom won't want it."

"What?"

What if she thinks this is money from selling her son?

"What kind of talk is that? I'll be paying you a monthly salary from now on."

Hao Hao said, "You should talk to her. I'll just focus on protecting you."

I stuffed the money into his pocket: "Why are you so stubborn, kid?" The decision to pay Hao Hao's salary was made a long time ago, but I was still hesitating about how much to pay. It definitely couldn't be less than Lao Wang's. That's all the ability he has. He has to accept having to bring his own food and even pay out of his own pocket. Saying it's for the future of humanity is a bit far-fetched. Who told you to have such a son?

Did the fathers of those artists who left their mark on the history of human art spend money to train them in order to improve human aesthetics?

Hao Hao dodged left and right perfectly, saying, "Brother Feng, I only want to do one thing well in my life: protect you. I don't care about anything else."

Even with his skills, I couldn't succeed. If someone sees me again, I can only sigh and say, "You don't know how good money is." I didn't know how good money was when I was three years old.

After all that fuss, I hadn't said anything useful. Aunt Xu had already been chatting with Lao Wang for ages, so I had no choice but to send Hao Hao out, quietly asking him, "How are things going with your mom?"

"Besides being happy, she seemed to be very polite to me."

I handed Hao Hao back to Aunt Xu, and as we parted, I whispered to her, "From now on, scold him or beat him if you need to. What's there to be ashamed of when it's your own son?"

Aunt Xu just smiled at me, untied the rope from Hao Hao's waist, walked in front, and Hao Hao followed behind.

It's only natural for a son to follow his mother, even a fool is no exception, so no one noticed anything amiss.

(End of this chapter)