Chapter 2: Stepfather (2)

Xu Lan stopped in his tracks. The boy in his arms and him stared blankly at each other. Oh, how he wished to leave the child there and then! As if things could not get worse, he left the suitcase he was bringing home at Sanhe Bridge which contained case information he had secretly copied!

“What’s your name, little boy?”

“Bai Wu,” the boy replied meekly. Sensing that Xu Lan was in an intensely foul mood based on the aura he emitted, Bai Wu tensely tucked himself back into Xu Lan’s chest.

“Where are your parents? I’ll bring you to them!” The Xu Lan who had lost his documents had a menacing and murderous look. Coupled with his unsympathetic tone, people were made to feel even more terrified of him.

Bai Wu’s tears burst forth like mountain spring, ceaseless and without warning. Bean-like beads of teardrops slid down his plump cheeks as he mumbled, “I don’t have any parents.”

Xu Lan felt like screaming until he saw Bai Wu’s pitiable look, which immediately retracted every single profanity that had been itching to escape his mouth.

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“So why did you call me ‘papa’?”

Lifting his tear-stained face to look at Xu Lan, Bai Wu flashed a smile and said, “I know you saved me.”

Xu Lan made no comment. Throughout his life, he had saved a lot of people, too many even for him to keep track of. Bai Wu was merely one out of many individuals. Xu Lan propped the child by the buttocks so the both of them were closer, then tightly wrapped his overcoat around the boy.

“You are a good person.”

Boom! Xu Lan felt as though a stream of lightning suddenly struck him, burning his exterior to a crisp while the insides remained tender. Just a few hours ago, his dream girl had friend-zoned him, and it was the child’s turn to tell him he was just a ‘nice guy’.

In twenty-eight years of his glorious life, he had never tasted a girl’s lips. His only girlfriend? A blow-up doll. How inconceivable it was for him that he looked set to become a stepfather!

“Get down from me! Walk on your own! I’ll bring you to the public security bureau tomorrow morning. Good person? Well let me tell you this, I only give the impression that I’m a good person,” Xu Lan exclaimed bitterly.

The afternoon temperature seemed to have dropped significantly. Even in his cotton-padded jacket, he was shuddering. At that time, he wanted to head back to Sanhe Bridge to see if all his stuff was still there. His payroll card, keys, handphone, and thumb drives were all in the suitcase and he hoped that he would still be able to find it.

“Papa…” called the little boy as he stretched his hands around Xu Lan’s neck and innocently blinked his misty pair of eyes.

…

After locking eyes for a couple of seconds, Xu Lan gave in. He lightly slapped himself on the forehead and grudgingly lifted the boy up so the latter would be more comfortable.

‘If I had somewhere to sow my seeds of love, I might not have found the boy to be so adorable! Surely it was because of that!’ nagged Xu Lan’s thoughts as he carried the sleeping boy in his arms.

When they arrived at the bridge, the sun had long set. Xu Lan laid himself on the ground while still hugging the child. He searched for his payroll card and handphone. With determined eyes, he scoured the area but it was all in vain. Even the cleaner lady had not seen anything. She explained that they worked in shifts and that it was not her duty to oversee the area in the morning.

There was nothing Xu Lan could do except to dejectedly return to his rented place. He had an earful from the landlady, who asked him to settle his rent.

“Mister Xu, if you don’t pay the rent by this month, you’ll be making friends with the head hobo who lives under the bridge!”

By then, the boy was already sound asleep. Xu Lan placed the boy onto his bed and tucked him in. Rent? All the money he had left was used to settle the boy’s medical fees. The landlady thought too highly of him; the head hobo might even get along better with her. Xu Lan mustered a tiny smile, but could just about taste the bitterness at the edge of his lips.

He stepped foot into the cramped toilet, wanting to take a hot bath and ease away the chilliness he had been facing the whole day. Throughout the day, his underwear had dried up, and his member was so cold that he lost all sensitivity down there. If the cold had damaged it, it would be very unfortunate for him indeed!

It took the hiss of piping hot water and it splashing on Xu Lan’s body to jolt him back to life again. He took a deep breath and cupped his member in his hands. If life were a world of feathers, he wanted to make sure it was the most beautiful feather duster ever!

“Papa…” the little boy suddenly said, shocking Xu Lan into a swift defensive pose as he turned his back and looked at the child.

A comical scene ensued: a hazy-eyed child standing at the bathroom entrance and strangely looking at the man inside, while the flabbergasted man hurriedly grabbed a bath towel to cover up his private parts. It was quite an odd contrast to see a well-built man making such frantic scrambling movements.

Xu Lan was the kind of man who looked slim in clothes, but not-so-slim when the clothes came off. For the past few years, he had been going to the gym four times a week, bringing with him a frightening amount of self-discipline.

“Papa…”

“Why are you awake, hm?” Now that he saw the child, Xu Lan laughed at himself and turned off the shower. He walked over to the boy and bent down. “Are you cold? Do you want to have a little bath?”

“Papa…hug me. I’m scared,” the child mumbled softly while stretching both arms toward Xu Lan.

It melted Xu Lan’s heart. He carried the child and briskly took off the boy’s clothes. Soon they were playing bubbles in the water.

‘Perhaps God gave me this to provide me with a sense of comfort,’ he thought. All that had happened in the past few days had practically caused the valiant man to feel defeated, and yet, on that very day, he met that young boy — a boy with no place to go, and nowhere to call home.

“Papa, will you abandon me?” asked the boy as he sat on Xu Lan’s thigh and lathered himself with soap.

“Hmm, I guess we’ll have to see if you behave. I have no money. I can’t possibly take care of you,” Xu Lan said in all seriousness. Out of all the people, he was probably the most concerned right now!

“I don’t eat much. Last time, my uncle and auntie gave me one steamed bun a day. But later, they couldn’t give me anymore steamed buns, so they threw me into the river…” said the little boy as sobs began to choke him. “If papa is poor, papa can give me half a steamed bun a day. I’ll be a good boy. Papa, please don’t throw me away…”

Xu Lan looked down at him. The boy’s eyes were already red and teary, but he fervently bit his lip to refrain from bursting into tears. Almost immediately, Xu Lan felt a tug in his heartstrings. After all, Bai Wu was still a small boy. How can someone be so heartless? The child was the one who suffered!

“Okay. If you are a good boy, I will not throw you away.”

Xu Lan held up the handheld showerhead and washed the boy clean, but when he ushered the boy out, the little one adamantly refused to do so, afraid of never seeing Xu Lan again. He had no other choice but to hoist the boy onto his shoulders, take a simple bath, then go out together.

It was even more awkward when bedtime came. Xu Lan’s original plan was to take the sofa and let the kid sleep on the bed, but the boy stubbornly refused to sleep alone. Unfortunately, the loft bed that Xu Lan bought just to save a bit of space could only fit the boy if he was on top of Xu Lan’s chest.

The simple-minded boy slept so soundly that saliva continuously dribbled out from his mouth. Xu Lan, however, did not have a pleasant time. The child was like an immovable boulder. If Xu Lan so much as gently shifted position, he would wake up crying and tossing from side to side. He knew exactly where Xu Lan’s weak points were: Xu Lan would never throw him out. If it were the previous family, the boy would not even dare to act like that.

It was already good enough that the boy had a bed to sleep for the night, how dare he be so unbridled!

Throughout the night, Xu Lan did not get any sleep. His eyelids only began to close when the sun started emerging from the horizon. Just as he fell asleep, he saw himself being wrapped up in the clutches of a white dragon, shocking him into taking slower steps before running away.

He was certain that it was daybreak, yet at that moment, it was completely pitch black. He could only hear a peaceful breathing sound, but as peaceful as it was, it did not sound human. It was rougher, just like that of the dragon’s moments before!

In that short span of time, Xu Lan was unable to collect his thoughts. He groped around in the dark while following the direction of the breathing sound toward the dragon. Relying on the short glimpse of the dragon a while ago, he could tell that it was no less than three meters in length and two meters tall. Those figures would surely be much larger if it stood up.

It seemed to have sensed Xu Lan and promptly woke up. In a daze, it lifted its head and opened his mouth, unfolding a tongue which then began to lick Xu Lan, leaving him wet and sticky all over.

Xu Lan wanted to ask what exactly was happening, but before he could do so, the sky suddenly turned bright. A delegation of tough-looking and formidable dragons, exactly the same as the white one, fiercely walked over.

“Leader, the execution platform is up and running, it is waiting for you to carry out the sentence.”

“Mm…” The white dragon rose from the ground. With its mouth, it carried Xu Lan by his clothes. Then it tossed him behind. Xu Lan firmly landed on the dragon’s broad back.

‘What the hell? Wings? This isn’t our Chinese dragons for sure,’ said Xu Lan in his heart.

In a flash, the scene changed and Xu Lan was now at a desolate and out-of-town mountainous plain. Curiously though, there were sounds of young women frolicking around. Xu Lan was following sounds once again. He walked to where the voices were coming from and reached the edge of a river. The sight rendered him somewhat unable to control himself.

All the girls in the river had dainty facial features and ridiculously sexy bodies. Their clothes were soaked and sticking to their bodies, faintly revealing their figure. Those perky breasts, their full and oh-so-graspable waist, and then a little further down…

Ahh!

Someone shouted, causing all the horrified girls to turn their heads and look at Xu Lan. The river started to become red and the strong smell of iron began to pierce his nostrils.

Xu Lan only realized that the scene was turning black, but he did not make anything out of it. When he woke up, he found himself on his own bed. His dream girl, Song Xi, was tidying up his room. As she fished out a dirty stinking sock, she scolded him for being an unsanitary person.

“You’re awake? Good. Now get off the bed, don’t just lie there like a dead pig.” Even as she scolded him, Xu Lan felt so warm hearing her voice. The air was filled with Song Xi’s unique scent.

‘How is this even happening? Didn’t she just reject me yesterday? Why is that she came all the way here?’ Xu Lan took in a deep breath and savored her delicious scent. An eyeful of her rocking waist and his member needed no extra effort to get up.

“You!” Song Xi was mopping the floor when she turned around and saw Xu Lan. He was redder than the crimson bedding on a matrimonial bed, and he bit his lips so hard that blood almost started flowing.

“How shameless of you!” She stamped her foot and scolded him. Xu Lan pulled her closer. She became even shyer, lowering her head and avoiding his gaze, while rapidly fluttering her eyelashes.

“Song Xi!” Xu Lan grasped her. Then came a slap. His ears buzzed and his face became numb.

Slap! Another one came.

“Papa, wake up quick papa…” A terrified Bai Wu was so scared that he took a fist at Xu Lan, solidly waking the man from his sweet dream.

“Damn…” Xu Lan groaned. Before he could react and realize what had happened, he was startled by the child’s streams of tears.

“Hey, what is it? Why are you crying again? Don’t cry, don’t cry, I’m still here,” said Xu Lan as he clutched the child close to his chest and began comforting the boy with a few pats on the back.

“Papa, a long hard stick keeps chasing me. Papa, I’ll be a good boy. Please don’t beat me. Huhu…” Bai Wu cried out and hugged Xu Lan by the neck.

“…I won’t, I won’t. How could I beat you when you are so adorable?” Xu Lan’s expression clearly showed that he was rueing the buzzkill, but even so, he still comforted the boy. He lifted the covers and saw his throbbing member taking all the credit for it.

‘What a sin, may the Lord Buddha preserve me,’ he thought. Then he lifted the child up. Only after repeatedly telling the boy that he would neither throw nor beat him did the crying stop.

“Papa!”

“Mm?” Xu Lan was still not used to Bai Wu calling him so suddenly and earnestly.

“Is it true? That you won’t leave me or hit me?”

Looking up at the ceiling, Xu Lan thought for a moment and said, “I won’t leave you, but if you don’t behave, I might still beat you.”

Bai Wu cast aside the guilt-inducing look and mumbled to himself, “I’ll never misbehave.” Even Xu Lan was amused. That kid really was a gift from heaven.

“Room two zero three! Someone’s here for you!” shouted the landlady from the patio.

“Got it. I’m coming.”