"So... Qijiu, you came to see me this late just to talk about this?"
The white-haired man wearing a sleep cap put down the warm milk and pushed it toward the young man, who was looking down. He stood with his arms crossed, his expression indifferent, completely unfazed by the chilly night wind despite only wearing thin pajamas.
He was surprised that the young man came to see him in the middle of the night, but only mildly so.
"Uncle Kevin, besides my parents, you and Auntie Mei are the only married couple among the uncles and aunts I know. Plus, you resemble my father a lot, so I wanted to talk to you..." The young man clearly explained his reason for coming, glancing hopefully at the white-haired man's face from the corner of his eye. However, the other party's ice-like expression was destined to disappoint him.
"First, the 'resemblance' between your father and me is only superficial. I don't know how you view us, but Lin situation is different from mine." The white-haired man enunciated his meaning clearly, hoping the child would understand. "Secondly, what I have to say remains the same: your father is not the kind of person who would do that."
"..."
"I know you feel resentful and believe your father has wronged you, but this is honestly not what he intended."
"But he admitted it himself..."
"So you think a stranger appearing at home, your father going out all night with a beautiful Auntie, and Sakura admitting she's interested in your father means your father cheated?"
After saying this, the white-haired man paused, scratching his head. "Well... I guess it really does look that way..."
The young man raised his head slightly.
"In any case, it's impossible for your father to do such a thing. Before he married your mother, he was completely uninterested in the opposite sex. How could he have done a complete 180 a decade later?"
"..."
"Lin past is very unique. He never experienced normal parental love, so he must be at a loss on how to interact with you. He simply doesn't know how to act normally with you, so he just follows his own habits. He..."
"What did you say?"
"He doesn't know how to normally..."
"The line before that, the one before."
The white-haired man said, puzzled, "He never experienced normal..."
"Tell me in detail!"
...
"Auntie Vil-V..."
"Alright, Kevin already told me why you came to see me." The magician, wearing a top hat and still working late into the night planning magic tricks, put down her small props. She spun around in her swivel chair, smiling brightly at the young man. "Let me guess... The reason you sought me out is because I seem less closely related to Lin and am not one of the people you suspect of 'cheating'."
"As expected of Auntie Vil-V."
The young man praised her. The magician's logical thinking often made conversations much easier, and her smile wasn't unsettlingly sinister like some people's.
"Oh dear... I didn't expect Lin to make such a mistake. Does having a child really change a person?" The magician sighed a little. The man's past demeanor—rational, cold, and treating everyone equally—was still vivid in her mind. Now, he was thrown into confusion by such a small matter. "So, you must have heard about your father from Kevin. What do you think now?"
"...I misspoke. My father probably really doesn't know how to treat me."
"Being able to honestly admit your mistake is one of the good traits you inherited from your father. His failure to tell you about his past is a lapse on his part, but it might simply be because you never asked, so he never brought it up."
"But that doesn't prove he didn't do those things!"
The magician's face suddenly moved close, startling the young man. Seeing his reaction, she curled her lips: "Oh... adolescence is so sensitive."
"W-what is it."
"Heh heh, nothing." The magician casually filed her nail. "Little Qijiu, let me tell you a secret, but don't go spreading it around."
"A secret?"
"It's about your father."
Upon hearing it was related to the man, the young man nodded without hesitation: "I want to hear it."
The magician gave a mischievous smile and spoke in an elusive tone: "Actually... the type of person your father likes is like your Auntie Mobius."
"..."
This was certainly a surprising secret. For the young man himself, his brain stalled for half a second when he heard this, and he almost subconsciously refuted: "N-no way."
"Hm? Weren't you suspicious of his relationship with Mobius? Why do you find it unbelievable now? Lin said this himself. Even if you ask him, you'll get a definite 'yes.'"
"..." After the magician's reminder, the young man snapped back to reality, though he was still hesitant. "But Father and Auntie Mobius aren't..."
"Married? Well, this brings us to a crucial point. You've always thought your mother was being deceived by us, kept in the dark, haven't you?"
"..." The young man swallowed. For some reason, he felt that the next words might completely overturn his impression of his mother.
"Do you know how your father, who might as well have a 'sexually repressed' sign taped to his forehead, actually married your mother?" The magician gave the young man a constrained smile, then lowered her voice to reveal a shocking fact—
"She played a trick. While your other aunts were still dragging things out with your father, she went straight to him privately and proposed."
"Proposed?!"
The young man was shocked. His mother had never mentioned this, so he had always assumed his father proposed to her. Was it actually the reverse?
"Should I call it Mobius's misfortune? She is the type Lin likes, but that type struggles to speak their true feelings. Your mother, conversely, understood all of us thoroughly."
"At that time, we had already done what we needed to do, and it was time for a stable life. When your mother suggested marriage, your father considered that it was indeed an appropriate time to get married, and since no one else had proposed it to him, he rarely turns down a request from others, so he just got married."
"..."
His worldview was shattered.
So, his parents' marriage was this... dramatic?
It wasn't the result of a long courtship but a sudden, aggressive proposal?
"So, do you still think your mother is being kept in the dark by us? She's much smarter than we are. Her favorite thing to do used to be teasing Mobius. You're looking utterly confused right now, and she probably knew everything already, just waiting for the truth to be revealed so she could watch your cute reaction."
By all rights, the young man should have questioned the veracity of this account, but after considering his father's consistent personality and his mother's character together, he suddenly realized that what the magician said was very likely true.
Thud. The young man fell back onto the chair.