IBO – Chapter 17 Everyone Must Grow Up Well

This novel contains sensitive and taboo content like R*pe, Mu**er etc. Read only if you are comfortable.

What happened next unfolded exactly as Song Yiran had anticipated. The moment the two little cubs caught a whiff of the aroma wafting from the buns, their eyes lit up instantly.

Next came the “eat-for-your-life” mode—one person and two cubs. Song Yiran’s table manners were extremely elegant, yet his eating speed didn’t fall behind at all.

Song Yiran thought to himself: Come on, I’ve been eating buns for over a decade. Buns for breakfast every single day. This kind of thing is child’s play!

How could these five-year-old cubs possibly beat me?

Song Yiran: ╮(╯▽╰)╭

Compared to Song Yiran, the eating styles of Song Buli and Song Xiuhu formed a striking contrast.

From how obediently their little paws were placed on the table, it was clear they were trying their best to restrain themselves. But their wolfing-down manner of eating completely gave them away.

Both cubs were munching big mouthfuls of the fragrant buns, completely absorbed, as if their entire world consisted of nothing but the large, steaming buns in front of them—everything else had vanished from sight.

Song Buli’s tail was wagging wildly, like a tiny propeller spinning at full speed.

Song Xiuhu looked a bit more shy. His tail wasn’t wagging as frantically as Song Buli’s, but it still swayed from time to time.

Although the two cubs expressed themselves differently, Song Yiran could clearly feel their happiness from the movement of their tail tips.

After the buns were finally finished, it was time for the part Song Yiran had been looking forward to the most—drinking sweet soy milk.

He picked up his own soy milk and took a small sip, then secretly observed the two cubs’ reactions to the sweet soy milk.

Both Song Buli and Song Xiuhu were very curious about the liquid in front of them. Almost simultaneously, they leaned in and sniffed it first.

Song Xiuhu smelled sweetness. The liquid looked a bit like nutrient solution, but it didn’t smell quite the same.

All the nutrient solutions he had drunk before were sour—but those were all expired. He had never seen what a normal nutrient solution was supposed to be like.

He sniffed it again and again, but still couldn’t figure out what exactly the liquid was.

Song Buli, on the other hand, didn’t think that much. After sniffing and confirming it was sweet, he just went straight in for a sip. After only two mouthfuls, he fell in love with the taste.

This is way too delicious!

Although it wasn’t as sweet as the nutrient solution his brother had given him when he first arrived here, it tasted so good!

Meanwhile, Song Xiuhu had sniffed for ages without reaching a conclusion. Seeing how happily Song Buli was drinking, he decided to try it too.

The moment he took his first sip, he was completely captured by the unique texture of the sweet soy milk.

This is so good! He had never drunk anything this delicious before.

The two cubs exchanged a look. With just one glance, they understood exactly what the other was thinking:

You think it’s super delicious too, right? Brother/Little brother, you get me!

Then the two cubs entered full-on glug-glug-glug soy milk mode.

After finishing breakfast, both cubs’ bellies were round and bulging. They lay sprawled on the table, faces full of contentment.

Seeing their reaction, Song Yiran kept a calm expression on the surface, but the corners of his mouth were already soaring sky-high in his heart.

Heh. I knew it.

No one can resist sweet soy milk. No one!

As Song Yiran washed the dishes, he gazed out the window above the sink at the scenery outside.

A few leaves were blown off a tree by the wind. Watching them fall to the ground, Song Yiran quietly revealed a harmless, innocent smile.

Too easy. This is really too easy.

People always develop special feelings toward the first things they experience—like a first love, or a first crush.

The two little cubs were like blank sheets of paper, having experienced very little. Coloring them in? That was ridiculously easy.

They had never drunk soy milk before. So even if they were born disliking sweet soy milk, as long as they drank it once today, they would definitely remember it.

His goal today had never been to make them fall in love with sweet soy milk.

It was to make them remember sweet soy milk.

Whether they liked it or not didn’t matter. Habits are incredibly easy to form—especially when you’re this young.

Song. Truly. The. Big. Demon. King. Yiran:
What? You don’t like sweet soy milk? That’s fine—drink it every day and you’ll like it.
What? You’re not used to it? That’s fine—drink it for ten-plus years and you’ll get used to it.

At this very moment, Song Buli and Song Xiuhu were leisurely lying on the table, digesting their food, completely unaware that they had narrowly escaped a calamity.

Song Yiran also didn’t forget the little system that was waiting to be fed: “Xiao Zhong’er! I saved you breakfast. It’s in the insulated lunchbox on top of the cupboard!”

“Woohoo! A beautiful day starts with a hearty breakfast~ Young man, thanks!” The moment he heard there was food, Xiao Zhong’er instantly appeared.

Xiao Zhong’er happily opened the lunchbox. “Wow, buns for breakfast today! They look so tasty. There’s even soy milk! I love soy milk!”

At that moment, an alarm went off in Song Yiran’s head. Pretending to be casual, he asked, “Xiao Zhong’er, do you like sweet soy milk or savory soy milk?”

Xiao Zhong’er was about to answer “savory soy milk,” but just as the words reached his lips, he felt something was off.

Something wasn’t right. Very not right.

An alarm also went off in Xiao Zhong’er’s head. His instincts told him that if he answered “savory soy milk” today, his future would likely involve endless “suffering.”

Xiao Zhong’er decided to trust his instincts and replied cautiously, “I—I obviously like sweet soy milk.”

Hearing that answer, Song Yiran smiled at him. “Is that so? What a coincidence—I also really like sweet soy milk! Hurry up and eat your breakfast. It won’t taste good once it gets cold.”

Only after Song Yiran turned back to washing dishes did Xiao Zhong’er finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness, thank goodness. My little radar really didn’t fail me.

That guy suddenly smiling so weirdly—there was definitely something going on! If I’d answered that I liked savory soy milk, I’d definitely have been “tortured”!

He might’ve force-fed me sweet soy milk every single day until I completely got used to it!

Just thinking about it made Xiao Zhong’er shiver. Thankfully, he’d been smart.

As expected, he really was the smartest system!

After digesting a bit of the food in his stomach, Song Buli suddenly remembered that he still had five gifts waiting to be opened.

He didn’t forget about his little brother. “Little brother, come open the presents with me.”

“Okay!” Song Xiuhu was also very curious about what was inside those boxes.

The two cubs hit it off immediately. With their round bellies sticking out, they wobbled off the table and marched proudly toward the room.

Looking at the five boxes of various sizes, Song Buli symbolically pondered for a moment, then decided to start with the smallest one.

He carefully untied the ribbon and lifted the lid. Inside lay a small red pinwheel.

Song Buli fished the pinwheel out with his little paw, and Song Xiuhu leaned in closer.

Song Buli didn’t know what it was. “Little brother, do you know what this thing is?”

Song Xiuhu shook his head. “I don’t know either. But it looks like a toy.”

Now Song Buli was in a dilemma. This time, he didn’t want to ask Song Yiran. He was already five years old—a big cub now! He wanted to figure it out by himself!

So the two cubs studied the pinwheel for quite a while.

Song Buli still couldn’t make sense of it, but Song Xiuhu suddenly noticed something.

To test his idea, Song Xiuhu blew gently at the pinwheel. “Hoo—”

The pinwheel slowly began to spin.

Song Buli exclaimed in delight, “Wow! Little brother, you’re amazing! It’s moving! So that’s how you play with it!”

Well, even if he hadn’t figured it out himself, figuring it out with his little brother still counted!

“Hoo—hoo—this is so fun!” Song Buli played happily for a long time before remembering there were still gifts left unopened.

The next gift he opened was a toy spaceship, which he also liked very much.

The remaining two gifts were a small jar of sparkling candies and a crystal ball.

The final gift was a small pull-cart—big enough to fit both Song Buli and Song Xiuhu inside with room to spare.

When Song Buli saw the cart, his eyes lit up. “Little brother, let’s play with this cart together!”

“Okay!” Song Xiuhu wanted to play too, so he agreed without hesitation.

Song Xiuhu: This is a little cart! Hesitating even one extra second would be disrespectful to the cart!

Song Buli let Song Xiuhu sit in first while he pulled the cart. “You get in first, I’ll pull. When you’re done, I’ll get in, and then you can pull.”

Song Xiuhu nodded. “Okay!”

So what was Song Yiran doing at this time?

Washing dishes?

No—he’d finished long ago.

Right now, he was choosing saplings.

Back in Song Yiran’s hometown, there was a custom: when a family was expecting a child, they would plant a tree in the courtyard before the child was born, hoping the child would grow strong and healthy like the tree.

Choosing the sapling had requirements—it had to be easy to grow, sturdy, not sickly. The type of tree also mattered.

His parents had planted a pomelo tree for him, hoping he would grow up healthy, free from illness, and protected from all evil.

In his hometown, pomelo trees were believed to ward off evil and be immune to poisons. That was why his parents chose a pomelo tree.

Now it was his turn to plant trees for the children.

Even though Song Buli and Song Xiuhu weren’t related to him by blood, who was he?

He was the director of this childcare institute!

He was going to raise these cubs from tiny little things into grown-ups. In a way, he was no different from a father.

Song Yiran couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional. He hadn’t even dated anyone yet, and he’d already jumped straight to the “planting trees for the kids” stage.

That was way too fast.

Song Yiran had decision paralysis—and it was terminal. After going back and forth in his mind for a long time, he finally made up his mind.

Song Buli would be an apple tree, and Song Xiuhu would be a persimmon tree.

The apple tree symbolized peace and safety; the persimmon tree symbolized that everything would go as one wishes.

Song Yiran took a liking to the empty plot of land behind the student dormitory. In the future, the little ones would be living in the dorms, and if the trees were planted behind them, the cubs would be able to see those trees the moment they woke up every day.

He hoped the cubs could grow up like the trees—safe and sound, healthy and strong.