Chapter 56: Sophistry, Overwhelming Intelligence

Zimo was momentarily taken aback, then forced a sheepish smile. “What are you saying, junior brother? With you being so small and adorable, how could I bear to abandon you?”

“You’re just calling me a sissy in a roundabout way, aren’t you?” Chu Junhan shot the little boy a vicious glare. For a kid so full of mischief, he really didn’t deserve even the slightest chance.

“Junior brother, you jest.” The little boy’s lips curled into a smile, his gaze deep and inscrutable. Once again, he put his arm around the little one’s shoulders. “You’re simply thinking too ill of your senior. How about this—let me take you hunting for game as an apology.”

“That’s... not... necessary.” Chu Junhan spoke as she struggled to break free. Unfortunately, the little boy was a head taller, and despite her reddening face, she failed to escape his grasp, getting dragged toward the courtyard gate.

“You’re too polite.” The boy looked extremely pleased with himself. As someone who trained in martial arts, his strength was certainly much greater than this little one’s.

At last, Chu Junhan gave up her resistance, letting the boy drape his arm around her shoulders, but secretly she memorized the path they walked.

Sensing that she had stopped struggling, Zimo finally let her go, his face brimming with self-satisfaction. “That’s better, junior brother! Be good and listen, and I’ll take you hunting for wild game. I can even help you with your schoolwork.”

His affectedly mature demeanor made Chu Junhan burst out laughing. With a disdainful look, she asked, “Since senior brother wants to enlighten me, I have a question for you right now. I hope you can answer it.”

“Ask away, junior brother.” The boy stood with his hands behind his back, his little nose practically in the air, delighted that someone was finally coming to him for advice.

Chu Junhan pressed her lips together, smiling slyly. With her decade or so of life experience, she refused to believe she could be stumped by this brat. “I’ve heard that a person can have three heads. Do you know why?”

The little boy looked at her as if she were an idiot, even reaching out to feel her forehead. “You don’t have a fever, do you? A person only has one head—how could anyone have three?”

“So you can’t answer, then?”

Zimo glanced at the smug Chu Junhan and cleared his throat. “Junior brother, don’t ask such stupid questions in the future. But if you really want to know, I can tell you.”

“Please, enlighten me.” The boy’s embarrassed look only made Chu Junhan more amused. Inwardly, she mocked him—children will be children, always trying to act big. She’d just asked at random; even a teacher would be hard-pressed to answer an unanswerable question like this.

With a flourish of his sleeve, the little boy said, “What’s so hard about this? Each of us only has one head, right?”

“Right.” Chu Junhan nodded, curious to see what he would say next.

The boy’s lips curled into a cunning smile, as if he’d just won a great victory. “No one has two heads, right?”

Faced with that sly grin, Chu Junhan felt a little uneasy, unsure what he was getting at, but she replied, “Right.”

He patted her on the shoulder, looking extremely pleased with himself. “Exactly! One person has one more head than no one, so one person has three heads.”

“What? That counts?” Chu Junhan stared in shock. This little brat wasn’t just devious—he was a master of sophistry. Truly, he was remarkably clever.

Had she really just been outwitted by a child?

“Junior brother, if you don’t hurry up and follow me, you’ll get lost. I told you, I won’t come looking for you.” The little boy’s voice sounded from up ahead; while Chu Junhan had been dumbfounded, he’d already walked some distance.