The Baby Seizes Fortune - Chapter 36
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 36
[111010011010011110000000111010111000111010101000111011011001010110110100 (10%)]
What, what are those numbers…?
‘Interpret them, Noah. They look like binary code.’
[Decryption of the code is impossible at the current upgrade level. This is not normal binary code.]
‘What does that mean? Could he also be…’
I looked at Hee-jae with suspicious eyes and thought.
‘An AI?’
[No! Kang Hee-jae is definitely human. ૮₍⌐■ ᴥ ■⌐₎ა]
Noah wagged his tail with a bright expression.
‘So his inner thoughts can’t be interpreted, is that it.’
I knew he wasn’t an ordinary kid, but unlike Junho whose thoughts were completely transparent, Hee-jae’s inner thoughts pouring out as numbers were fascinating and aroused my curiosity.
Hee-jae, who had made eye contact with me while I wore a displeased expression, turned his gaze back to his desk.
For a moment, clouds covered the sun and cast shadows over Hee-jae’s seat.
Feeling my heart stir for some reason, I stood up and quietly approached Hee-jae.
On Hee-jae’s desk lay a single notebook.
Like a sketchbook, it had no lines and was white, and on the paper that was appropriately sized for small children to use, only a few numbers were written.
I sat in the seat in front of Hee-jae and turned my chair to face him.
The child’s gaze, as if asking what I was doing, pierced into me.
A look that neither welcomed nor pushed away.
‘How should I say this…’
Could I become ‘friends’ with this kid?
I saw the Sub Quest that appeared after the Main Quest before my eyes.
[Sub Quest: ‘Making Friends’. Try becoming real friends with someone your age.
Tip! There might be a friend candidate nearby who could change your destiny? ૮₍ •̀ ᴥ •́ ₎ა✦]
[Reward: List of stocks that will surge over the next 6 months]
Even though I know the general information about the future, nearly doubling my current assets in just 9 months would be quite an adventurous undertaking.
Excessive greed brings disaster, and I might end up resetting my assets myself before getting reset.
But if I complete the Sub Quest that appeared at the right time, and thus obtain the list of surging stocks, the Main Quest would proceed more smoothly.
‘The problem is…’
The Hidden Quest is ‘Making Friends’.
And real friends at that!
The possibility of me, with an adult mind in a child’s body, truly recognizing a peer preschooler as a real friend was extremely low.
‘But there’s one exception.’
A child who can communicate with me on some intellectual level, who can read books like ‘Crime and Punishment’, Kang Hee-jae!
So Hee-jae is the only possibility for me to complete the Sub Quest.
‘…But it’s difficult…’
I can’t read the expression of this five-year-old child at all.
It was when I was about to swallow a small sigh and get up.
Something flew through the air with a whoosh and landed on Hee-jae’s desk.
It was none other than a white paper airplane made by folding notebook paper.
“Ah, my airplane!”
From far away, the handsome boy who had thrown the airplane came running over.
Then he picked up the paper airplane from Hee-jae’s desk and asked us energetically.
“Do you guys want to play by flying paper airplanes too?”
“….”
I glanced at Hee-jae.
Due to the dark shadow mixed on the child’s face, his expression wasn’t clearly visible.
Sensing the unusual atmosphere, I spoke up instead.
“No, it’s okay.”
“But.”
“Shoo.”
I turned the excited child holding the airplane around and sent him away, then sat back down.
Under the desk, Hee-jae’s fist was tightly clenched.
It wasn’t from anger. It wasn’t from sadness either.
It was just because of some unbearably rising emotion that he had no choice but to clench something.
‘I know that reason.’
Because I was once like that too.
A child who seemed unshakeable was shaking.
But he was persistently hiding it.
“You don’t look at the sky.”
I opened my lips and tried to start a conversation.
Hee-jae slowly raised his gaze to look at me.
I continued speaking with as calm an expression as possible.
“I often look up at the sky because I feel like Mom is watching over me from there.”
“….”
Deep bewilderment flashed across Hee-jae’s face.
“You always just look straight ahead.”
As if to say ‘I’ve been found out.’
For the first time, a childlike emotion showed through.
After a moment of silence, Hee-jae opened his mouth.
“If I look…
The small child’s voice hit me right in the chest.
“…it feels like everything will fall. Anything. Everything.”
Hee-jae’s black eyes had sunk back to their usual cold state.
“….”
In the sudden rush of confusion, I speculated.
A child who lost his parents in a plane crash.
Perhaps he had even seen that plane falling with his own eyes.
“Like my parents.”
‘I just wanted to open the door to his heart and enter slightly, but did I unnecessarily touch a deep wound?’
“Please go back to your seat now.”
Hee-jae said to me without making eye contact.
His attitude suggested he didn’t want to talk anymore.
My heart was pounding.
I felt regret that I might have crossed the line in my greed to complete the Sub Quest.
‘I should have learned more before opening the door.’
This approach won’t work.
Suddenly, Junho’s face came to mind.
I had learned well from Junho and Saebyeol that what reaches people is sincerity, not calculation and intention.
“Then…”
I raised my hand and tore Hee-jae’s notebook.
‘Now it’s do or die.’
Hee-jae looked at me with his eyebrows twitching in surprise.
I immediately picked up scissors and started cutting the notebook into strip shapes.
Because I remembered one thing I was good at.
“How about something that absolutely won’t fall?”
Hee-jae slightly frowned one eye as if asking what I was talking about.
“Just wait and see!”
Having finished my preparations, I began folding the strip with my small hands.
Since they were still small and clumsy hands, I couldn’t do it as well as an adult, but the shape came together quickly.
“….”
Hee-jae stared intently at me as I focused on paper folding, not going back even though he told me to.
I deliberately avoided making eye contact.
Because I was a little scared.
“Done!”
Having finally finished the paper folding, I grabbed Hee-jae’s wrist and placed it on his hand.
My heart was pounding.
‘I hope this comfort reaches him.’
Hee-jae stared intently at what I had given him.
It was none other than a small star.
I smiled brightly and said to Hee-jae.
“It’s the North Star.”
The story Junho told me last night had been helpful.
“Chaea, that’s the North Star, the only star in the sky that appears to barely move. All the other stars in the sky spin around it in circles, isn’t that amazing? The reason this phenomenon happens is…”
“The North Star doesn’t fall down.”
Hee-jae, holding the small star in his hand, slowly raised his gaze to look at me.
“It stands still in its place and shines the brightest every single day!”
“….”
At that moment, as if a star was falling, a strange light seemed to settle in the child’s eyes.
The child’s lips didn’t open, and it seemed like they wouldn’t open in the future either…
But I could see a small change.
I stood up from my seat and said.
“So when you feel anxious, look at this.”
Feeling my chest grow a little heavy somehow, I returned to my seat.
The Sub Quest completion alarm didn’t sound, but my heart felt a little more at ease.
* * *
“I’m back.”
After greeting Grandfather upon returning from school, Hee-jae went up to his room.
His expression was calm as always, and the housekeeper who was cleaning the stairs smiled warmly at Hee-jae and opened the door for him.
Entering the spacious room that smelled of books, Hee-jae sat at his desk as usual.
But unlike other days, he didn’t immediately open a book.
Instead, he took something out of his pocket.
“….”
Reflected in the child’s jet-black eyes was a small star clumsily folded from cheap construction paper.
The child’s eyes were heavy as he stared blankly at it.
The child opened a drawer to store it.
The hand holding the small paper star was filled with the same tenderness one would use when handling a baby bird.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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