Hard work after winning the lottery

"Dad promises that he will never leave you for so long again."

"Daddy will always be with you, okay?"

His apology was incredibly sincere.

His gaze, like a warm beam of light, remained firmly fixed on Sitao.

Children's emotions come and go quickly.

Si Tao tilted his little head, seemingly trying to process the information. He might not have fully understood what "existence" meant, but he did understand the last sentence.

"Will you stay with us the whole time?" he asked to confirm.

Zhou Yanjin nodded vigorously: "Yes, always."

Having received an affirmative reply, Si Tao seemed satisfied.

He blinked his bright eyes, as if the enormous problem had already been solved.

The next second, his attention was drawn to a half-built castle block next to him.

He picked up a red building block and said to Sile beside him in a childish voice, "Brother, if we put this on top, the castle will be even taller!"

The world of children is that simple.

A promise seemed enough to fill the void of those five years.

But Zhou Yanjin was far from relaxed.

He slowly shifted his gaze from his two sons, who had already begun to immerse themselves in the world of building blocks, to his eldest son, who had remained silent throughout.

Si'an.

This child is the most thoughtful and sensitive.

Zhou Yanjin even had a hunch that Si'an was the last and most solid door for him to enter this family.

He had to, and could only, push it away by himself.

He adjusted his squatting posture so that his line of sight could be more comfortable when level with his son's.

"An'an".

He tried to speak, his voice even softer than when he spoke to Si Tao earlier, carrying a hint of cautious probing.

"Don't you... have anything you want to ask Dad?"

Si'an, who had been looking down at her younger brothers playing with building blocks, slowly raised her head upon hearing this.

Those deep eyes met Zhou Yanjin's gaze once again in mid-air.

Hua Yun stood to the side, her heart pounding in her throat.

She looked nervously at her eldest son, her palms already soaked with sweat.

She understood Si'an; this child had always thought more and knew more than her peers since she was little.

He won't be as easily fooled as Si Tao.

really.

Si'an pursed his beautiful thin lips tightly, his expression exactly the same as Zhou Yanjin's when he was thinking.

After a full half minute of silence, just as Zhou Yanjin's heart was about to sink to the bottom, he finally spoke.

His voice was not loud, even somewhat childish, but every word he uttered was exceptionally clear, like cold, hard pebbles, striking the ground with a resounding thud.

How can you prove you're our father?

boom--!

This question is a hundred times sharper than Si Tao's naive question just now!

It has no childishness whatsoever; instead, it is like a sharp scalpel, precisely, calmly, and ruthlessly dissecting the core of the problem.

Zhou Yanjin's heart was struck hard by this question, and it ached suffocated.

Before he could even react, he heard Si'an continue speaking.

That clear child's voice carried a hint of suppressed grievance, and a logic and coherence that was incongruous with his age.

"Just because you said it, does that mean we have to believe you?"

"Other people's fathers have been by their side since they were little."

"They teach the baby to walk, change diapers, tell stories at night, and take the baby to the hospital when they're sick..."

With each word the little guy uttered, Hua Yun's heart tightened a little more.

These were all scenes she had fantasized about countless times in the quiet of the night.

She never imagined that these missing scenes would have left such a deep imprint on Si'an's young heart.

It's not that he doesn't care; he does care.

Hua Yun's eyes instantly reddened.

She felt sorry for her son, who was so young, and had to face such complicated and heavy emotional issues.

Zhou Yanjin was speechless when asked the question.

Every scene Si'an described was a void in his life that could never be filled.

It was an unforgivable sin he committed over the past 1,800 days and nights.

Looking into her son's stubborn yet wounded eyes, Zhou Yanjin felt as if a burning cotton ball was stuck in her throat.

He never imagined that one day he would need to prove to his own son that he was his father.

This is countless times more difficult than getting him to sign a contract worth hundreds of billions.

The air in the room seemed to have frozen.

Even Sile and Sitao stopped what they were doing and stared blankly at their brother and the man who claimed to be their father.

for a long time.

Zhou Yanjin finally regained her voice.

He just looked at Si'an deeply, deeply, his gaze filled with pain, guilt, and even more so with boundless tolerance and solemnity.

It was as if he wanted to convey all the fatherly love that was five years overdue to his son through those eyes, all at once.

"An'an, that's a very good question."

He spoke, his voice calm, yet carrying a powerful, moving force.

"Dad can't show you a piece of paper with a full proof like he can with a math problem."

"Because you're right. Dad was absent from your past, and that's a fact that Dad can't deny or change no matter what."

Hua Yun felt as if an invisible hand was tightly gripping her heart, causing her so much pain that she could hardly breathe.

Looking at her son's small jawline taut with stubbornness, and his dark eyes glistening with tears from his efforts to hold back his emotions, she longed to rush forward and hug him tightly.

Tell him it's okay, it's all in the past, and Mom is here.

But she can't.

This is the first confrontation between father and son, a judgment from blood that Zhou Yanjin must face alone.

She can't get involved.

They also have no right to interfere.

Si'an's little fist clenched quietly at her side, her knuckles turning a faint white from the force.

He didn't cry or make a scene.

He simply stared intently at him with those eyes that were exactly like Zhou Yanjin's, as if trying to see through and understand this man.

Zhou Yanjin met her son's gaze without flinching.

He knew that admitting his mistake was only the first step.

He had to give an answer that his intelligent, sensitive son, who had already built high walls around his heart, could accept.

His gaze swept over Si'an, then over Si'le and Si'tao, who were watching nervously beside him.

Then, in a voice that was more firm and clearer than before, he spoke, word by word.

"But Dad can prove it to you every day from now on."

It forcefully shifted the topic from the irretrievable past back to a future full of infinite possibilities.

Zhou Yanjin's gaze was once again firmly fixed on Si'an's face, and his voice was infused with an unprecedented power, a gentle yet firm power belonging to a father.

"Dad will take you to kindergarten on time every morning, and in the afternoon, he will be the first one waiting at the door to pick you up after school."