I Found My Future Wife Next Door - Chapter 11

Yu Qianran stood with his hands on his hips, puffing out his cheeks in anger as he pointed an accusing finger. “You kissed me again without permission!”

Lu Zhishen defended himself, “It wasn’t a sneak attack, I kissed you openly and honestly.”

“But I didn’t agree to it,” Yu Qianran pouted.

Bad Shenshen, always stealing kisses like that.

Lu Zhishen blinked innocently. “But Ranran, you never said I couldn’t kiss you.”

Yu Qianran tilted his head, thinking it over. It did seem that way.

“Then next time, you can’t kiss me unless I agree,” he emphasized the last part firmly.

“Okay,” Lu Zhishen replied, sounding a bit aggrieved.

Satisfied, Yu Qianran urged Lu Zhishen to open his gift.

The gift was wrapped in a light yellow box, with a crooked bow that served as proof Yu Qianran had wrapped it himself.

Under Yu Qianran’s eager urging, Lu Zhishen carefully untied the bow and opened the wrapping to reveal a yellow car set.

Lu Zhishen gasped in delight. “Wow! I love it so much! Thank you, Ranran!”

Yu Qianran watched as Lu Zhishen impatiently opened the box, took out the car, flipped it over to turn it on, and placed it on the floor.

The yellow car seemed to come to life. A pair of round, lively eyes appeared on the windshield, and the car rocked gently as a mechanical male voice chimed in: “Welcome to your car adventure! I’m your buddy, Little Yellow.”

Yu Qianran: !

The car could talk?!

He wasn’t particularly interested in cars and had never tried playing with one like this, so he had no idea toy cars could do such things.

Lu Zhishen crouched on the floor and commanded the car, “Hello, Little Yellow! I want to see you transform.”

“No problem!”

As soon as the car responded, a pair of hands suddenly extended from its underside, propping it up as legs stretched out. The front of the car transformed into a back, and a small head popped out from inside.

Yu Qianran silently marveled at the toy car’s capabilities, his ears filled with Lu Zhishen’s excited exclamations and the toy’s intelligent mechanical voice.

After playing with it for a while, Lu Zhishen hugged Yu Qianran tightly and refused to let go. “I love it so much!”

He had wanted this toy car for a long time, but his parents wouldn’t buy it for him, saying he had to finish all his July homework first.

Unaware of the backstory, Yu Qianran only heard Lu Zhishen say he loved it and mistakenly assumed Aunt Ji wouldn’t even buy him toys.

With a serious expression, he imitated the way Lu Zhishen usually protected him. “Don’t worry, Shenshen. As long as I have one toy, you’ll have one to play with too.”

Lu Zhishen replied, “Ranran, you’re so good to me. No wonder I liked you the moment I saw you.”

Yu Qianran looked at Shenshen, who at that moment seemed ready to follow him home just to play with the toy, and smiled softly.

He liked Shenshen too, and wanted to be together forever.

But good times are always fleeting. Soon, Lu Zhishen was called back to class with a pout, though he didn’t forget to tell Yu Qianran there were cookies he liked in the living room.

Yu Qianran happily agreed, promising he would wait for him to finish class and wouldn’t go home.

This good news kept Lu Zhishen excited throughout the lesson, and he miraculously finished his daily coursework ahead of schedule.

As the teacher was leaving, he teased, “If only you were this enthusiastic every day.”

Lu Zhishen sighed. “But I have other classes too. Even if I’m enthusiastic, I can’t play for long.”

Yu Qianran patted Lu Zhishen reassuringly. “It’s okay. I’ll keep you company during class.”

“Ranran, you’re the best,” Lu Zhishen said, his eyes welling up with emotion.

While Lu Zhishen was in class, Yu Qianran stealthily munched on cookies in the living room.

Just one more… one last one… really, the last one…

When Yu Qianran reached out his little hand to take another piece, he found nothing. His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the empty plate, not a single one left! All the delicious cookies had vanished into his little tummy.

A look of disappointment spread across Yu Qianran’s pretty face, and he let out a soft sigh. “I really wish I could have one more.”

With no cookies left, Yu Qianran settled quietly on the sofa, not wandering around or peering about. Instead, he stared blankly at the empty plate, bored.

He still really wanted to eat them. If only there were more…

Wah…

After finishing his morning classes, Lu Zhishen finally had time to spend with Yu Qianran and eagerly brought out his toys.

With his short arms and legs, he wasn’t very agile and could only carry one or two at a time. So, Lu Zhishen ran off to find Uncle Butler for help.

Yu Qianran wanted to help too, but Lu Zhishen firmly pressed him back onto the sofa, declaring grandly, “You don’t need to move these. I can get them all with just a wave of my hand.”

Yu Qianran fell silent.

Yu Qianran shifted his gaze to Uncle Butler, who was pulling out a cart full of toys.

Lu Zhishen followed his gaze and waved his hand without a hint of shame. “Don’t mind the details.”

Standing in front of Yu Qianran, with an unopened box of building blocks placed to his right, Lu Zhishen spread his hands like he was scattering flowers. “Look, these building blocks are specially prepared for you.”

Yu Qianran blinked, his eyes landing on the beautiful display image, and said happily, “Thank you, Shenshen.”

Though he wasn’t as interested in building blocks as he was in puzzles, these were Tom and Jerry blocks! He could definitely like them a little.

Lu Zhishen ruffled his own hair and grinned. “Hehe, glad you like them.”

At Lu Zhishen’s urging, Yu Qianran opened the packaging. The blocks were divided into several bags, accompanied by an instruction sheet.

“Yuyu calling, Yuyu calling~”

Yu Qianran looked up, his gaze instantly locking onto the smartwatch on Lu Zhishen’s wrist.

“Why is he calling again?” Lu Zhishen grumbled, raising his hand to hang up.

Yu Qianran pursed his lips and grabbed Lu Zhishen’s wrist. “We haven’t added each other as friends.”

Before Lu Zhishen could reply, the call connected on the other end. Yuyu, having only heard half the conversation, shouted loudly, “Hey, hey, hey! What do you mean we haven’t added each other as friends?”

Yu Qianran didn’t speak, his beautiful eyes quietly fixed on Lu Zhishen.

“We’ll add each other right now,” Lu Zhishen said with a big, silly grin, lowering his head and muttering, “I’m hanging up.”

“Wait, wait, wait.”

Yuyu’s voice faded into the air. Lu Zhishen happily added Yu Qianran as a friend, thoughtfully noting his name as “[Heart] Ranran.”

Yu Qianran silently averted his gaze and changed the note to “Shenshen.”

Lu Zhishen leaned over to peek and mumbled, “Ranran, why didn’t you add a heart for me?”

Yu Qianran replied, “This is just fine.”

He withdrew his hand, no longer letting Lu Zhishen stare intently at the smartwatch on his wrist.

Lu Zhishen let out a light sigh, tinged with regret.

“Yuyu calling, Yuyu calling~”

Yu Qianran looked up again. Lu Zhishen swiftly hung up, flashing him a grin that showed all eight teeth.

Yu Qianran: “…”

“Yuyu calling, Yuyu calling~”

“Why is he calling again?” Lu Zhishen frowned, annoyed, and hung up once more.

“Yuyu calling, Yuyu calling~”

Hang up.

…

After hanging up sixteen times in this manner, Lu Zhishen finally couldn’t take it anymore and answered the call, roaring furiously, “What do you want?!”

Yuyu remained completely unaffected, practically trying to stick his whole head through the screen. “Wanna come out and play? We’ve known each other for so long, don’t you miss us at all?”

Lu Zhishen scowled. “No.”

“You’re so mean. If I had Ranran’s contact, I wouldn’t even be calling you.” Yuyu huffed, his round eyes immediately spotting Ranran, who was only visible at the edge of the screen. He happily invited, “Ranran, do you want to come out and play with us? Jiajia and Yangyang are here too.”

Yu Qianran shook his head in refusal. “No, it’s too hot outside.”

How could that be? Yuyu grew anxious and quickly tried to tempt him. “If you don’t want to go outside, you can come to my house! I have lots of toys. Whatever you like, I’ll ask my mom to buy it.”

“Who wants to play with your stupid toys? I have even more at home.” Lu Zhishen moved the screen to show the floor covered with all kinds of toys, hoping this would deter Yuyu.

Yuyu retorted in frustration, “That’s not the same! Playing with a bunch of us is way more fun than playing alone.”

“Ranran, say something!” His voice was so loud that Lu Zhishen wished he could throw the smartwatch far away.

“Um…” Yu Qianran was stunned. In the past, other kids never wanted to play with him; he’d never been in a situation where they were fighting over him.

He felt conflicted. He wanted to try playing with a group since he’d never done it before, but he was also worried he wouldn’t fit in.

He secretly glanced at Lu Zhishen, trying to gauge his reaction.

Their eyes met, and Yu Qianran quickly looked away, even turning his head to pretend it wasn’t him.

Lu Zhishen didn’t want Ranran to go play with others, but Ranran seemed like he really wanted to go. He didn’t want to stop Ranran from going because of him either.

“Ranran, do you want to go?”

Yu Qianran nodded slightly. “A little bit.” He held up a tiny finger to gesture.

“Alright then.” Lu Zhishen sighed helplessly and said to Yuyu, “Since Ranran wants to go, I guess I’ll reluctantly agree too.”

Yuyu had a question mark floating over his head and chuckled, “You don’t have to ‘reluctantly’ come.”

Lu Zhishen’s face darkened.

“Oh, right, Ranran, have Shenshen add you and send me your contact. Then next time I can ask you to play directly!” Yuyu grinned, his intentions crystal clear.

Lu Zhishen fumed, “In your dreams!”

“I’m hanging up. Just send the address.”

No one was going to take Ranran away from him. Ranran and he were the best of friends.

Yu Qianran tilted his head, blinking as he curiously studied Lu Zhishen, then a slight smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Lu Zhishen looked up and saw Yu Qianran’s expression. He moved his lips, struggling to speak. “Ranran, are you happy seeing me angry?”

“No,” Yu Qianran shook his head. His eyes curved into crescents as he pointed at Lu Zhishen’s cheeks. “When you’re angry, your cheeks puff up like a pufferfish. It’s really cute.”

A pufferfish? Cute!

“Really?” Lu Zhishen looked at him eagerly.

“Mhm.” Yu Qianran nodded emphatically. “I really like it.”

Lu Zhishen’s eyes lit up. “That’s great! I’ll get angry for you to see every day then.”

Yu Qianran wagged his index finger side to side. “No need. Seeing it once is enough. I don’t want you to be angry all the time.”

Even though it was cute, he didn’t want his friend to stay angry just to make him happy. That wasn’t good.

Lu Zhishen nodded repeatedly. “Whatever Ranran says goes.”

On the day they were supposed to go to Yuyu’s house to play, Yu Qianran woke up a bit earlier than usual. After having breakfast early, his mom dropped him off at Lu Zhishen’s house so they could head out together.

“Ranran, you’re so early.” Lu Zhishen sat at the dining table, holding a piece of strawberry toast. If not for his mother’s watchful gaze, he would have already jumped off his chair and run to Yu Qianran.

“Good morning, Auntie Ji.” Yu Qianran stood obediently, greeting her with both small hands tightly clutching the hem of his clothes, his face filled with tension and fear.

He had forgotten that Auntie Ji was still at home. The thought of how scary Auntie Ji was made him want to run home to his mother.

Someone, please save Ranran!

Lowering his head, Yu Qianran couldn’t resist stealing a curious glance, only to be caught instantly by Ji Nuan. Terrified, he obediently lowered his head and didn’t dare to look around again.

Save Ranran, it’s so scary. No wonder Shenshen is afraid too. Ranran will never come to see Shenshen this early again.

Ji Nuan glanced at the little boy and felt quite satisfied. He was so much more well-behaved than her own little troublemaker. Why couldn’t he have been her child? She lowered her voice, trying to sound as gentle as possible, and greeted him, “Good morning, Ranran. Have you eaten? Sit down and join us.”

Yu Qianran: QAQ

Even though Ji Nuan tried to soften her sharp tone, to Yu Qianran, her words still sounded fierce. He felt as if he were being watched by a terrifying monster, about to be devoured at any moment.

Ji Nuan, who hadn’t received a response for a while, asked, “Hmm?”

Yu Qianran heard the sound of a chair being pushed back and instinctively looked up to see Ji Nuan starting to walk toward him. Frightened, he took a small step back.

Ji Nuan, puzzled, asked, “What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing,” Yu Qianran shook his head frantically. “I’m not hungry, thank you.” He didn’t dare make any sudden moves, instinctively feeling that even if he tried to run, he would be caught.

After all, Ji Nuan was an adult with long legs, while he only had short little legs.