Me at two years old, a queen!

"Why? Daddy~, getting angry is bad~, Teacher Yu often says 'I'm so angry I could die,' so getting angry can kill you. Don't get so angry you die, or people won't have a dad anymore~"

Lu Junxing watched the little girl earnestly explaining things to him, completely ignoring how she had thrown a tantrum at him before. Now, he wondered where she had learned this "only officials are allowed to set fires, while common people are not allowed to light lamps" attitude.

Lu Junxing frowned, about to speak, when Wang Jinbao interrupted him: "Hey~, buy it! An'an, your dad said he'd buy it for you, you misheard. Let's eat, okay?"

Wang Jinbao was also worried that the father and daughter might have a falling out on the way back, making it seem like he, as the host, hadn't made good arrangements. After coaxing An'an to continue eating her meal, he turned to Lu Junxing and whispered:

"A child this young wouldn't consider whether the shoes have been worn by someone else. She just knows they're pretty and wants them. We can just go back and get her a nice pair of shoes!"

After considering it over, Lu Junxing decided not to dwell on it. It's just that his little troublemaker has grown up a bit and isn't as clingy as before. Although she still loves to be pampered and occasionally annoys him, she's generally still cute and well-behaved.

Now he's got a bit of a temper; this little guy has suddenly become angry, and occasionally he'll throw a little tantrum at me, becoming a bit willful.

However, Lu Junxing felt that children should have certain principles in some matters, and that they shouldn't be allowed to do whatever they wanted.

It wasn't convenient to discuss this at the dinner table, so afterwards he found Wang Jinbao and told him not to get involved in buying the shoes for An'an, that he would handle it.

“Some things and principles cannot be easily dismissed. The fact that she can throw tantrums at me now shows that she feels safe with me. No matter how willful she is, I have the ability to indulge her.”

"But I don't want her to be a child who knows nothing! She should be able to make choices, not just accept the status quo!"

Hearing these words, Wang Jinbao suddenly understood the difference between a well-established family like the Lu family and someone like him who had worked his way up from the bottom of the land. Some things had unconsciously begun to change in his mind.

When the two grown men found the two children in the chicken coop behind the house, they saw each child riding a large yellow dog.

"Charge! Giddy up!"

Zhuangzhuang was still holding a stick. Before Lu Junxing could go over and take the troublesome boy down, Wang Jinbao's cousin came out from the low house next door, which was piled with miscellaneous items:

"Don't be afraid, it's alright. This dog is our own; it's very intelligent and won't bite."

He watched the two children play with a smile, then waved the bundle of straw vines he was holding: "This is five-finger peach, it's great for making chicken soup. I'll pack some for you later, and give me a call when you're done eating, and I'll send you some!"

Lu Junxing exchanged a few polite words, and seeing that the stray dog ​​was clean, he didn't insist on letting the child get down. He simply told the troublesome child not to move around or pull its fur.

She usually loves to tease her cat and dog. You can always find a few hairs near her and the dogs at the old house. Luckily, both of them are good-natured.

Wang Jinbao took it without ceremony, and then pulled a plastic bag from the window of the next room and put it on:

"My mom has been talking about this stuff for ages, saying that the authentic stuff is the one we make ourselves. Every time she says it's because city people are so greedy that they even fake something as small as this!"

The two brothers chatted away, one sentence at a time, and Lu Junxing didn't disturb them. He simply stood in front of the two children, watching them ride dogs, wave small, broken sticks, and pretend to be majestic generals.

Before they could even settle down for a few seconds, the troublesome manager bluntly demanded:

"Daddy~, quick! Take a picture of me, I want to show Great-Grandpa, Grandpa, and Grandma that I'm amazing!"

Zhuangzhuang: "An'an's dad, can I be in the picture too?"

And so, Lu Junxing took out his phone and awkwardly started recording a video of his child. Only then did he realize that his once empty photo album had somehow been filled with a bunch of the child's funny and quirky selfies.

He didn't know when she took the photos. Lu Junxing casually flipped through them, and seeing the strange pictures of her with her big nostrils and protruding teeth, a slight smile curved his lips. In the end, he didn't delete them and just left them there.

I posted the video of the little girl riding the dog today to the family group chat, ignored the messages, turned off my phone, and lifted the kids off the dog with one in each hand: "Let's go, we should go home!"

An'an twisted her body, unwillingly avoiding Lu Junxing's hand that was about to grab her, pushing his large hand away: "No~, let's play a little longer~,"

Remembering how Lu Junxing usually acted in his office, An'an crossed her arms and cried, "Just ten minutes! Just ten minutes, Daddy!"

"Row!"

Lu Junxing knew what kind of person she was. A child who had only learned to count last week—he didn't expect her to know how long ten minutes was. He was just about to pull her down when he heard:

"Zhuangzhuang~, come play! We can still play for another episode of Dora's Time~"

An'an watched as the man held up his wristwatch, as if he were keeping time, and happily lay down on the dog, reminding Zhuangzhuang, "Ten more minutes!"

Zhuangzhuang, who was already afraid of Lu Junxing, didn't dare to say he wanted to play more, let alone bargain with Lu Junxing like An'an did. Now that he could play a little longer, he grinned and said, "Great! General Yellow Dog, let's go!"

Just as he finished shouting, he was lifted down by a large hand. Zhuangzhuang was about to say something when he saw An'an also being lifted down. An'an looked at herself on the ground and angrily banged her head against Lu Junxing.

"Your ten minutes are up!"

"No way! When you asked Uncle Zhao to give you a report in ten minutes before, he wasn't this quick! You're lying to me, aren't you?"

Why would I lie to you? What's there to lie about you for!

Seeing that the little girl still dared to doubt him, Lu Junxing patted her head in annoyance: "Huh? Even liars wouldn't stoop to a kid like you! What could I possibly lie to you about?"

Zhuangzhuang kicked a stone at his feet: "Yeah, my dad said that he used to have no money, not even for scam calls! Even scammers wouldn't bother with him! He told me to study hard!"

Upon hearing the words "study hard," An'an fell silent; she was simply too sensitive to that phrase.

Lu Junxing picked her up, called to Zhuangzhuang behind him to follow, and as they walked toward the front yard, he raised his wristwatch: "Ten minutes, that's when this black hand moved two numbers!"

An'an grabbed the Patek Philippe watch the man offered, looking at the numbers and hands. She recognized all the numbers and curiously pointed to the dial, asking:

"How about this?"

"The shorter one is the hour hand; it moves past one number, which means one hour has passed!"

"..."

Seeing how eager she was to learn, Lu Junxing patiently explained things to her the whole way. It seems the old saying, "Children will become more sensible as they get older," wasn't without reason.

"Dad? In that case, if we stop this, can I keep playing?"

"This is just a timer. Whatever your ten minutes are, they're over now."

Lu Junxing's words were like a bucket of cold water poured on An'an's heart. The once energetic little girl now slumped onto Lu Junxing's shoulder, her eyes lifeless.

"Can't you slow it down?"

An'an struggled for a moment, then stood up again, cupped the man's face in her hands, and asked, "Daddy~, you're so amazing, you can do it, right?"

Lu Junxing knew that children's world was strange and wonderful, so he didn't say whether it was okay or not. He just watched as his cousin Wang Jinbao packed their things and asked:

What do you want to slow down time for?