The scene on the phone continued to play.
After Fire Finch had departed, the television was already broadcasting Aya Jiu’s favorite cartoon. However, Aya Jiu did not immediately settle onto the sofa to watch; instead, she deftly scampered towards a nearby cabinet.
Aya Tone watched in silent recognition, for he knew that cabinet held the very milk powder his little Jiu usually drank.
‘This child…’
His hand, resting on his own slightly rounded belly, became even more unrestrained. It was plump and delightful to the touch after a good meal.
On the screen, little Aya Jiu, after preparing her milk powder, scurried into the kitchen. When she emerged once more, she cradled a bottle of freshly prepared milk. Judging by its design, it was unmistakably the same bottle that usually sat beside his bed.
‘Ah…’
Aya Tone did not continue watching, as he already knew what would transpire next. He was merely struck by the realization of how deeply Aya Jiu had hidden her capabilities from him. As her father…
‘How useless I am… Oh, woe is me.’
He had only just discovered that his four-year-old daughter, when hungry, would independently seek out food, all while watching television. And what’s more, the proficiency of her actions indicated this was far from her first time.
Devastating!
—A cry from a failed father.
****
Closing the monitoring app, Aya Tone finally noticed the dozens of unread messages in his chat software. Who could possibly have so much free time to send him so many messages so early in the morning?
With a furrowed brow, he tapped the screen, only to find they were all from someone with a chubby cartoon avatar. Big White? He hadn’t changed Big White’s contact name from ‘White Demon’… Only Big White would come up with such an eccentric, chuunibyou-esque name. Not him, of course; he was much more… *abba abba*.
Yet, Aya Tone’s attention did not linger there. Instead, his gaze fell directly upon the chat box below Big White’s, the one labeled ‘Chairman’. The latest message beneath it was a lengthy voice note. This wasn’t unusual in itself, but what struck him as odd was that the voice note had been sent at around ten o’clock that morning.
‘Ten o’clock… I was probably still playing chess with the Duke of Zhou then.’
‘Could the Duke of Zhou have borrowed my body to solicit sponsorship from the Chairman?’
Aya Tone tapped the topmost voice note, and a sweet, adorable voice filled the air.
“Fire Finch sister, could you please come help Aya Jiu turn on the TV? Aya Jiu can’t read.”
The subsequent voice notes also carried that same sweet, endearing voice, one that couldn’t help but melt one’s heart.
OMO: [Speechless]
Well, the truth was out. The Chairman had come to turn on the TV because Aya Jiu had called them.
‘That’s right.’
Aya Jiu knew his phone password, and when he had traveled to the imperial capital, the Chairman had also shown Aya Jiu his chat account.
Suddenly, Aya Tone reflected on his own childhood. What was he doing when he was four years old? At four years old… who could even remember? Certainly, he wasn’t as intelligent as Aya Jiu. He watched TV in an utterly casual manner, a phenomenon commonly known as ‘watching whatever others watched’. And as for preparing his own milk powder, that was even more unthinkable.
‘Could this be the