Baozi laughed and said, "Why don't we take him to the amusement park? We can look at wedding dresses another day."
I said, "That won't do, we can't spoil the child." I looked down at Cao Chong and said, "When you go to school, if you get first place in your exams, Dad will take you there to play." I straightened up and explained to Baozi, "That's how my dad raised me."
"Did you get first place later?"
I said with a dark face, "Don't ask!"
Baozi laughed and said, "I remember now. Someone told me that he had never been to an amusement park since he was a child. So that's why."
The little guy probably realized we were going to change our plans for him, and said, "You guys go ahead with your business, don't worry about me."
Baozi and I looked at each other, and we both felt the pressure: it was such a pity that such a sensible child had fallen into our hands.
Later, I suggested we speed up our search for wedding dresses and then take Xiao Cao to the amusement park.
You know, with wedding dresses, you can only get a general idea because you can't try on every single one. You can only decide what style you want and then try on or alter them.
The styles on the wedding dress street were really lackluster; there were over a dozen shops, and they all displayed the same few dresses over and over again. The prices were all the same; it was practically a giant chain. I searched and searched before finally finding the shop that Li Shishi had mentioned. It was a high-end boutique that sold ready-to-wear and accepted private orders. The few wedding dresses displayed in the shop were indeed unique, but they weren't for rent.
After we came in, I pulled Cao Chong to sit down and rest. Men, no matter how old, can never compare to women when it comes to shopping.
Baozi lingered among the wedding dresses, clearly just looking at the styles. The one displayed on the far right, priced at 26,000 yuan, was something she wouldn't even consider.
As she walked to the center of the wedding dresses, she suddenly exclaimed in an excited, even trembling voice, "Qiangzi, look at this one!"
When I went over to take a look, I couldn't help but be stunned. At first glance, it was plain and unremarkable. The neckline, waist, and skirt were all just like any other ordinary wedding dress. But the designer made subtle changes to these three areas to make it look more cohesive. Apart from some lace patterns on the side and back of the skirt, it was so simple that it looked like a ray of light pouring down from the sky.
I checked the number and price tag; it was exactly the piece Li Shishi had mentioned. It seems that saying was true: true art transcends time and social groups.
Without hesitation, I picked it up and said to Baozi, "Give it a try."
Baozi glanced awkwardly at the sales assistant, then patted me lightly and said, "Are you out of your mind? We don't have the money to buy this. We can just go somewhere else and pick out a similar one."
I stubbornly said, "It won't kill you to try it on." As I spoke, I half-pulled and half-dragged her into the fitting room, and another sales assistant went in to help.
When Baozi came out again, I couldn't help but hold my breath. I never thought Baozi could be so beautiful. Her face was shy, and she was dressed in an elegant manner.
Yes, that exposed neckline and cinched waist were definitely the designer's "ulterior motives," perfectly accentuating my daughter's figure—if this designer isn't a lecher, I'll rip your head off! Its simple and straightforward skirt calmly tells people that its owner is an aristocrat, not a nouveau riche; my daughter is now a noble princess! Not only me, but everyone in the store was stunned.
The sales assistant next to us said, half-jokingly, "If I owned this store, I would give it to you!"
Cao Chong swung his legs and said, "Mom is so beautiful."
Baozi was so embarrassed that she scurried back into the fitting room.
I quickly pulled out three dollars from my bag and placed them on the counter: "I'll issue the receipt, I'll take the wedding dress."
The sales assistant probably hadn't seen me so straightforward before, and she quickly wrote out the receipt. I told her, "I have a small request. When that lady comes out later, please tell her that your shop owner is a friend of Wang Yuannan, and that this wedding dress was a gift from him."
The sales assistant was taken aback for a moment, then immediately said, "Okay, no problem."
After the steamed buns were taken out, the sales assistant gestured to another employee to pack up the wedding dress. During this time, she teased little Cao Chong, saying, "Are you and the young lady having a belated wedding ceremony?" She had just heard Cao Chong call the steamed buns "Mommy."
Baozi blushed, unsure what to say. Suddenly, the saleswoman appeared before Baozi like a ghost, grabbed her arm, and excitedly asked, "How do you maintain such a great figure after giving birth?" Having already made her sale, she had no need to flatter us further, so her question was clearly from the bottom of her heart…
When Baozi learned that the wedding dress was a "gift" to her, she was so happy that she jumped into my arms and punched me so hard I stumbled. We can't take the wedding dress with us yet because it's been displayed outside for a while. The store will take it out for special cleaning and then deliver it directly to our home.
After leaving the store, Baozi said to Cao Chong somewhat embarrassedly, "You should still call me 'sister' from now on."
I said, "Damn, isn't that messing up the generations?" I can't tolerate someone who called me "Dad" calling me "Brother Qiang" again.
Cao Chong opened his innocent big eyes and asked me, "Dad, why do you always put the word 'kao' (靠) before every sentence you say? What does it mean?"
I could only say, "Don't imitate what you guys were saying back then."
Cao Chong nodded, looking confused.
Afterwards, we went to the amusement park as planned, where we rode the bumper boats, the spinning ride, the Ferris wheel, and even went into the horror world. Baozi and Cao Chong's screams never stopped. I noticed that even while playing, the little guy was constantly observing the world around him, and by the time we left the park, he had learned quite a bit. Baozi asked him, "Was it fun?"
Cao Chong exclaimed, "Damn, this is so much fun!"
Baozi was so angry that she kicked me in the butt and yelled, "It's all your fault! If you ever dare to say those kinds of nonsense in front of the kids again, I'll strangle you!"
...
When we got home, Li Shishi exclaimed as soon as she saw Cao Chong, "Oh my, whose child is this? He's so cute!" She then hugged him and kissed and nibbled at him, making me incredibly jealous.
While Baozi went downstairs to buy groceries, I quickly gathered the group of five together and told them that the child's real name was Cao Chong. Only Li Shishi knew, and she asked me, "The little boy who weighed the elephant?"
Cao Chong said with a slight dissatisfaction, "Sister, I'm not just good at weighing elephants."
We all laughed. I told Cao Chong that these uncles and aunts were all from other places like him, and that he could ask them any questions he might have. I also told Xiang Yu to watch his step and not to step on or injure my son or nephew.
Cao Chong had clearly been saving up questions to ask on the way back. He suddenly saw Ersha listening to the radio, so he asked, "Uncle, why is that little box you're holding making a sound?"
Ersha chuckled confidently and said without thinking, "Because there's a little..." I covered his mouth and dragged him into the inner room, solemnly telling Cao Chong, "Spend less time with this uncle in the future. Don't believe anything he says, understand?"
Chapter 51 Fei San Kou
I'm not sure if I should talk too much about Cao Chong regarding Liu Bang, since Cao Chong's father really messed up the Han Dynasty that Liu Bang established, ultimately leading to its demise. Fortunately, Liu Bang wasn't a particularly curious person; aside from knowing he had ruined Liu Bang's empire, he didn't care who ruined his own. From the perspective of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Cao Chong and Liu Bang should have been quite close. However, history isn't something we laymen can understand. When someone rebels against another, it's usually not because of personal grudges. According to Darwin, the origin of humanity was actually a small group of monkeys on the verge of collapse. Pushing them upwards, everyone inevitably had some kind of interaction with each other—you lend me half a peach, I lend you a rock to smash hazelnuts, and so on.
When I introduced Qin Shi Huang and Xiang Yu, I just casually mentioned them to the little guy. I have to say I still treated Cao Chong like an ordinary child. Would an average 9-year-old know who Qin Shi Huang and Xiang Yu were? But I didn't expect Cao Chong to be such a knowledgeable child. This is not surprising, though. Regardless of whether Cao Cao was a cunning or a ruthless hero, he was very strict with his children's upbringing. It's not surprising that Cao Chong was familiar with history.
Cao Chong raised his head and looked up at Xiang Yu, saying, "Uncle Overlord, my father and the other strategists often talk about you."
Xiang Yu couldn't help but laugh and asked, "Oh, what did they say?"
Cao Chong jumped off Li Shishi's arms and said, "They say that you only fought one famous battle in your life, which was the decisive battle on the Zhang River. But in fact, this is a major taboo in military strategy, fighting recklessly without any calculation. If you had failed back then, the entire army would have been wiped out, and you wouldn't even have the capital to plan for the future."