Chapter 476: 476: Li Beijue Heard It

Baby Chi’s large eyes brimmed with reluctance, yet they also betrayed a conflicted desire as he murmured softly, “They are just bugs, not humans.”

Chi Enen patiently guided him and added a bargaining chip, “But what if you caught their mother? If their mother is taken away, trapped, and dies, how heartbroken the little fireflies would be…”

“I won’t catch them anymore!” Baby Chi immediately exclaimed.

“Didn’t you like them?” Chi Enen wasn’t just talking to him about fireflies, she was also shaping his worldviews, “Baby, we will certainly have many things and people in our lives that we like. We can like them, but we can’t only think about our own liking, disregarding others’ wishes, and not considering things from their perspective. To take what we like unilaterally is the behavior of a bad person, you know?”

Chi Jingchen seemed to half understand, “But I’d be really nice to them.”

“That’s what you think is nice, just like with the fireflies. Even if you put them in the prettiest bottle, they will still die. What they want has never been the bottle; it’s the freedom to play,” Chi Enen cited the fireflies she had just mentioned as an example, “Your liking them and catching them has already taken away their greatest joy.”

Chi Enen was simply using the fireflies to guide Baby Chi’s worldviews without any deeper implications.

However, to someone else’s ear, her words sounded like they had a pointed meaning.

Huo Yi kept stealing glances at the man standing at the staircase entrance, full of anxiety. He wanted to warn Miss Chi but was afraid of Master Jue’s outburst.

He could only watch helplessly as Chi Enen tenderly reasoned with Baby Chi, while Master Jue’s complexion at the staircase entrance grew increasingly sour—

“Woman, I understand now, I won’t catch fireflies anymore.” Although Chi Jingchen inherited a part of Li Beijue’s domineering nature, he also inherited a part of Chi Enen’s reasoning. As long as it was a rationale that made sense to him, he would listen. Of course, if it didn’t make sense, that would be a different story.

He looked up with a milky voice, endearingly obedient. Chi Enen kissed his face again, praising him, “Whose son is this, so sensible?”

“Nonsense, he’s yours, of course!” His tail shot up to the sky the moment he was praised. This trait, he’d inherited entirely from a certain person!

The two of them went back and forth in harmonious sweetness.

At the staircase entrance, Li Beijue’s hand on the handrail turned white-knuckled. His thin lips were pressed into a stern line, and he turned to go back upstairs.

Whether it was the fireflies or Chi Enen, he would not let go!

He was the bad guy; in his dictionary, liking meant possession!

The education he received since childhood was about taking, not about empathy. She could dislike or disapprove of his approach, but he would not let go.

If she were the firefly trapped in a glass bottle, living only for one night, he would accompany her for that night. Even if she were to die as the sunrise touched her the next morning, he would be with her in death, just to possess that one night of affection.

Huo Yi watched his lonely retreating figure, sweating with urgency.

What had happened between Master Jue and Miss Chi this time?

They had just taken a family photo, so how could things have turned sour in the blink of an eye?

What exactly had happened?

This afternoon, too, Master Jue descended from the Second Floor enveloped in a chill, his face ashen. Ever since Miss Chi’s arrival, he hadn’t seen Master Jue like that in a long while, like a man walking under sunlight suddenly returning to the shadows…