The next day, as promised, Lin Zhenmo came knocking early in the morning.
Qu Tantan was sitting at the dining table munching on a meat bun, cheerfully waving at him. “Lin Zhenmo, have you eaten yet? Dad bought meat buns from the street next door, they smell amazing.”
Lin Zhenmo nodded, but Father Qu gently nudged him toward the table. “It’s fine to eat a bit more. Tantan loves these meat buns the most. You should try one too.”
Mother Qu took the schoolbag he was carrying and hung it on the coat rack, casually smiling as she said, “It’s still early anyway, and you’ll have to wait for Tantan no matter what. She’s always dawdling, you never know how long that’ll take.”
Before he knew it, the overly warm welcome had Lin Zhenmo seated beside Qu Tantan, unable to even react. Qu Tantan, as if it were the most natural thing, handed him a bottle of chocolate milk and even defended herself against her Mom’s teasing. “I’m not dawdling! The teacher said meals should be eaten slowly, no rushing!”
Then she turned to the clearly uneasy boy beside her and asked for confirmation, “Right, Lin Zhenmo?”
Lin Zhenmo hesitated for a moment but still took the milk and nodded.
Father and Mother Qu didn’t overly fuss over Lin Zhenmo. They each sat on one side of the children, chatting and laughing. It was a lively scene. And amidst this not-too-formal kind of hospitality, Lin Zhenmo somehow silently blended into the Qu family’s atmosphere, his body slowly relaxing.
He stayed quiet, listening to them talk, still finding it a little novel. He had never experienced this kind of chatting-while-eating setting. Since childhood, Lin Wan had taught him that talking was not allowed at the dining table. So at home, he and his Mom would just sit silently across from each other and eat. Afterward, they’d take turns cleaning up, then he’d return to his room to do homework.
But now, in this clearly out-of-the-ordinary atmosphere, he felt a rare sense of ease and joy. Especially since Qu Tantan was chattering beside him like a lively duckling, making it impossible for the conversation to die down.
Unconsciously, the corners of Lin Zhenmo’s lips curved up slightly. He finished the last sip of milk and politely thanked them.
Seeing that he was sitting upright waiting after finishing, Qu Tantan quickly stuffed the remaining bun into her mouth, declined her Dad’s offer of a hug with a serious face, and dragged Lin Zhenmo out the door. “Dad, hurry up! Lin Zhenmo and I are going down first!”
Father Qu was a beat late. Picking up their schoolbags, he sighed with mock jealousy, “Once she’s got a little friend, she didn’t want her Dad anymore.”
Mother Qu laughed and bumped him lightly. “Alright, alright. Hurry and catch up with them, or your little sweetheart will disappear from sight.”
That little sweetheart was still hung up about what happened yesterday. As soon as they got downstairs, she nudged her little companion on the shoulder a bit sheepishly. “Hey, did you talk things through with your Mom yesterday?”
Lin Zhenmo nodded, clearly already aware that Lin Wan had been called to school the previous day.
“Did you find out who brought Aunt Wan back yesterday?”
“It was a teacher from school. Apparently, they wanted to understand our family situation. But we didn’t let him in.”
Qu Tantan cleared her throat, then asked in a sneaky whisper, “Um… my Mom told me yesterday, did you explain about Brother Lou to Auntie Wan?”
Lin Zhenmo paused, turning to see her apologizing awkwardly. “Sorry, I didn’t think things would turn out like this. I ended up dragging you into it.”
“I didn’t say it was him.”
“Then how did you explain it to Aunt Wan?”
“I just told the truth,” Lin Zhenmo answered, as if it were no big deal. “I said we got into a fight, and they ran off scared. The whole knife thing was fake anyway, and besides, I don’t even know that guy.”
—…You’re neighbors upstairs and downstairs, and yet you’re still this distant? That’s impressive.
But thinking about how one’s like a hedgehog and the other’s socially anxious, Qu Tantan shook her head in amusement. “And your Mom believed you?”
“She did. I told her I’d explain everything to the homeroom teacher today, and she was fine with it.”
Hearing the relaxed tone in his voice, Qu Tantan couldn’t help but smile with her hands behind her back. “Looks like you two made up. That’s great!”
But just as she said that, the boy’s steps visibly faltered. He suddenly stopped walking.
“What’s wrong?”
Lin Zhenmo stayed silent for a moment before replying blandly, “Nothing.”
Qu Tantan couldn’t understand what he meant, but after asking several times and getting no answer, she had to drop it when Father Qu caught up to them. By then, they’d unknowingly reached near the elementary school. She had no choice but to let her Dad hold her hand and wave goodbye to Lin Zhenmo regretfully.
At kindergarten, she was still puzzled, holding her face in her hands, deep in thought.
They had clearly cleared up their misunderstanding, and she could sense that he was no longer so defensive when talking about Lin Wan. So why did Lin Zhenmo say they hadn’t made up?
“Tantan! Look at my new haircut!”
Just as she couldn’t figure it out, her wild little Meng Dog suddenly pounced on her back, making her flop forward onto the desk. Her face nearly smacked into it.
Struggling to turn her head, she saw Meng Jiajia sporting a nearly buzz-cut, spiky hairstyle, grinning proudly with gleaming eyes like she was waiting to be praised.
Qu Tantan stared at her in horror: “……”
“What happened to you?” She couldn’t help raising her hand to expertly pat the dog’s head. Oh wow, it was still that familiar feeling. “Weren’t you perfectly fine yesterday? How did it suddenly get so short?”
—Godmother agreed to this???
Meng Jiajia giggled and also touched her own head, full of glee. “I secretly tied up my hair yesterday, but it kept falling down, and I got so mad I just took scissors and chopped it all off.
“When Mom came back, she took me to the hair salon to get a new hairstyle.”
Qu Tantan : “…” Nominee for Confusing Behavior of the Year by Human Younglings.
“Godmother didn’t beat you?” Qu Tantan asked in disbelief.
“She did.”
Meng Jiajia nodded honestly and added with some lingering fear, “She came back and dug through my hair for ages, then for some reason got really mad. My butt still kinda hurts.”
Qu Tantan : “…”
Just hearing Meng Jiajia’s description, Qu Tantan could already picture the look on Godmother’s face shattering completely when she walked in the door and saw the disaster of a haircut.
Just thinking about it made Qu Tantan heart ache on her Godmother’s behalf.
She patted the little dog’s head affectionately. “And you’re still this happy?”
“Of course! I’ve been wanting to stop tying up my hair for ages.” Meng Jiajia was genuinely happy, lying on Qu Tantan’s back, swinging excitedly with laughter. “I had to wake up super early every day and wait for Mom to tie my hair. Now I can sleep in a little longer!”
Meng Doggy looked very proud. “And Dad says he really likes my new haircut. He said I look just like him!”
Cutting her hair short just to sleep in more, no wonder this little school tyrant would one day keep a buzz cut forever and even declare, “The great thing about buzz cuts is you don’t have to fuss with washing your hair, you can just wash it while you wash your face.” This baffling logic—so the signs were already there even now?
Qu Tantan was nearly dying of laughter. She carefully checked Meng Jiajia’s hair and was relieved to see it wasn’t patchy, then grumbled and nudged her, “Get up already, you’re crushing me.”
Meng Jiajia clung to her neck, giggling and refusing to get up. “What were you thinking about just now? I called you a bunch of times and you didn’t hear me.”
Seeing she couldn’t shake off the clingy little rascal, Qu Tantan rolled her eyes but still let her hang on her back. “Didn’t I tell you before about my neighbor?”
Even though the current doggy-girl couldn’t join in her gossip anymore, Qu Tantan was still used to sharing everything going on around her.
Skipping over the details between Lin Zhenmo and Lin Wan, she briefly summarized their weird relationship, then asked in confusion, “Why do you think he said that?”
Qu Tantan hadn’t expected Meng Jiajia to give her any answers, she was just thinking out loud. But to her surprise, the little girl responded confidently, “Of course he wouldn’t forgive his Mom so easily! If I were misunderstood and got into a fight with Mom, even if she tried to make up with me, I’d still give her the cold shoulder for one, two, three… yeah, three days!”
She counted on her fingers and huffed, still holding a grudge. “Last time Mom was mad at me, she ignored me for three whole days! Dad said that’s called a cold war!”
With how much this little doggy loved clinging to people, Qu Tantan didn’t believe for a second Meng Jiajia could really go three days ignoring Godmother—she probably couldn’t last even half a day.
But what Meng Jiajia said made a lot of sense.
Qu Tantan suddenly had a realization. She had been looking at things from an outsider’s perspective, naturally assuming that once the misunderstanding was cleared, they could reconcile. But she hadn’t considered Lin Zhenmo’s feelings from his point of view.
He was only seven. No matter how mature he might be, how could he possibly untangle all those complex adult emotions?
And given that mother and son had never been close—and he’d already grown used to being ignored by his Mom—even if he now knew his Mom did care about him, the emotional gap had already formed. How could one conversation be enough to smooth over his awkward feelings and instantly bring them back together?
Thinking more carefully, knowing how protective Lin Zhenmo was of Lin Wan, there must be something more he was holding back in his heart, which was why he couldn’t truly reconcile with her.
Qu Tantan felt a twinge of guilt. She had already admitted Lin Zhenmo was her friend, yet she hadn’t considered his feelings and had kept pressuring him with questions all morning.
“…Don’t you think so, Tantan?”
The little doggy on her back was still chattering away, while Qu Tantan, who hadn’t heard a word, nodded along automatically with practiced ease. “Yeah, exactly, you’re totally right.”
As expected, Meng Jiajia didn’t notice Qu Tantan zoning out and happily continued talking about the ‘battle of the century’ between her and her mom.
Gu Quan happened to pass by. Catching a glimpse of the two of them, he did a double take, then stepped back, looked again, and immediately pointed at Meng Jiajia with a big grin. “Meng Jiajia, why do you look so ugly now? Haha!”
Meng Jiajia was instantly indignant. “Nonsense! My new haircut is clearly super cute! Right, Tantan?”
Gu Quan was stunned. He didn’t believe it at all. “No way, it’s obviously ugly!”
“Oh yeah? Gu Quan, do you want me to beat you until you’re eating dirt again?”
Meng Jiajia bared her teeth and threw a fist at him. She wasn’t the same little girl who used to cry after being bullied over a paper duck. After all this time learning boxing with Dad, she had leveled up!
Gu Quan instinctively covered his face but still refused to back down, calling over his friends to support him. As their little gang started stirring up more trouble, Qu Tantan blinked and said with innocent sincerity, “But I think Jiajia looks really cool like this.”
Gu Quan had been making faces at Meng Jiajia, but the moment he heard that, he was completely thrown off. “No way! How could you think that?!”
Qu Tantan tilted her head, a sweet and adorable smile on her face, making Gu Quan blush a little as he looked at her. “But it really is very cool! The hairstyle looks just like that Big Brother who plays basketball in the TV drama. So cool!
“It’s not ugly at all, I really like how Jiajia looks now.”
Gu Quan and the little boys behind him were all stunned in place, watching as Qu Tantan cheerfully turned around and hugged Meng Jiajia. He couldn’t help sneaking another glance at Meng Jiajia’s short hair. Could it really be… cool?
After Qu Tantan’s enthusiastic praise, the other kids gathered around also started nodding.
“Yeah, yeah! I think Meng Jiajia looks just like that Big Brother who plays basketball. Super handsome!”
“I thought it looked ugly at first, but now that I look again, it’s actually really nice! I want to cut my hair short too.”
“Mm-hmm, Qu Tantan’s right. What’s ugly about it? You guys really don’t have any taste!”
Gu Quan : “…”
He exchanged looks with the other boys in their little clique, all starting to feel a bit tempted. If they got the same haircut, would Qu Tantan praise them for being handsome too?
Meanwhile, basking in the compliments from the other kids, Meng Jiajia proudly wagged her imaginary tail and started excitedly demonstrating how she transformed into her current look, teaching them how to cut their hair too.
Seeing the group of cubs all looking eager and ready to try it themselves, Qu Tantan, realizing she’d stirred up trouble, quickly grabbed the still-bragging little doggy and slipped away before the helplessly smiling teacher could arrive to intervene.
—Help! If tomorrow a bunch of hedgehog-headed little kids show up, please don’t blame me, parents!
She really didn’t mean to!!