A “routine meeting” ended in a dry howl.

　　Shen Songguo almost cried his way to death, and he even had some doubts about his life when he left.

　　The first round ended with Shen Chu’s victory!

　　First Blood!

　　Then at noon, after lunch, Shen Songguo had apparently recovered, his expression was more relaxed this time, and the first thing he asked was when Xie Shiming would change his surname.

　　”Change two characters to Shen Ming. If you don’t have time for this, ask Lao Zhou to do it—”

　　”I won’t change it.”

　　Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted.

　　And the person who interrupted was Xie Shiming.

　　Shen Songguo didn’t care much. He just thought the child was ignorant. After all, he wasn’t raised in the Shen family since he was a child. It had only been a short time since he was adopted. His temper and other things still needed to be corrected. So he said, “Your surname is Shen, not Xie.”

　　But Xie Shiming still shook his head and looked directly at Shen Songguo: “I won’t change.”

　　The tone was firm and without hesitation.

　　Shen Songguo frowned, then looked at Xie Shiming carefully: “Do you know what you are saying? Your surname should have been Shen. Your three brothers all have two-character names, so you should change it back—”

　　”I want the last name Xie.”

　　Xie Shiming interrupted Shen Songguo again. At such a young age, he seemed unaware of Shen Songguo’s authority. His repeated refusals and rebuttals could be considered “disobedience” in Shen Songguo’s eyes.

　　“Nonsense!”

　　Shen Songguo’s face darkened: “You are a child of our Shen family. It is only natural for you to change your surname back! Do you understand?”

　　Xie Shiming pursed his lips and wanted to say more, but Su Luoyue spoke first.

　　”Dad, if the child doesn’t want to change, then don’t change. The grace of raising is greater than the grace of giving birth. If it weren’t for Mr. Xie taking Mingming in, raising Mingming to this age, and personally bringing Mingming here to find us, we wouldn’t have found the child so early.”

　　”Yes, Dad, Mr. Xie has done a favor for our Shen family.”

　　Shen Mingzhou also spoke up: “Luo Yue and I both think that it doesn’t matter whether the surname is changed or not. Anyway, no matter what Mingming is called, he is still a child of our Shen family, the flesh and blood of Luo Yue and me, and this won’t affect anything.”

　　Xie Shiming was stunned when he heard this, and his fingers couldn’t help but curl up.

　　Shen Chu nodded secretly.

　　Su Luoyue and Shen Mingzhou have always had this attitude, but they had been in a stalemate with Shen Songguo for a long time. It was not until Xie Shiming went to elementary school that Shen Songguo gradually stopped caring about the matter. But because of this, Shen Songguo has never been very satisfied with Xie Shiming.

　　So after hearing what Su Luoyue and Shen Mingzhou said, it would not be easy to convince Shen Songguo.

　　Of course, it was impossible for Shen Songguo to agree to this.

　　Moreover, he was refuted by Su Luoyue and Shen Mingzhou one after another, and his expression became even uglier.

　　”Mr. Xie did a favor to our Shen family, but this is not the way to repay! It doesn’t matter if he changes or not. If you let him grow up and go out with the last name Xie, what will others say about him? And what will they say about our Shen family?”

　　“Have you ever thought about these questions?”

　　Shen Songguo went to see Xie Shiming again: “You are our Shen family’s child. If you don’t change your surname and keep your surname Xie, do you know how many people will ask you this question when you get out there? How will you respond then?”

　　”Can you really face that situation?”

　　Malicious speculation, rumors… these are all possible.

　　Su Luoyue and Shen Mingzhou looked at each other and naturally understood what Shen Songguo meant. They had certainly thought about this issue, but Xie Shiming was very firm in his attitude and was unwilling to change.

　　Besides, Xie Wenshan sent Xie Shiming here, dragging his sick body, and almost exhausted the rest of his life to help the child find his relatives. The two have a deep relationship. How could Su Luoyue and Shen Mingzhou have the heart to persuade the child to change his surname?

　　What’s more, Xie Shiming is very opinionated and has his own ideas, so it’s even harder to speak up for him, and we can’t use tough measures.

　　So in the end, the two decided to respect the child’s opinion.

　　Since Xie Shiming doesn’t want to, and wants to keep this thought, then let’s not change it. After all, the child has been found. Unfortunately, Shen Songguo’s ideas are different from theirs, and they can’t argue with him now –

　　”Should I change my last name too?”

　　At this moment, a small voice suddenly interrupted.

　　Everyone looked over and saw that the person speaking was Shen Chu.

　　Shen Mingzhou quickly said: “Baby, what are you talking about? You don’t need it.”

　　”But I… am not a biological child.”

　　Shen Chu looked at Shen Songguo cautiously: “Didn’t Grandpa mean that biological children should change their biological surnames… Then should I change my surname? But what is my father’s name? Or… should I take my mother’s surname Xiang?”

　　As he spoke, Shen Chu’s eyes turned red and his voice was choked with sobs.

　　Shen Mingzhou and Su Luoyue were so distressed that they quickly hugged Shen Chu and coaxed him, saying, “No, just take your father’s surname Shen. We are also your parents, so it’s okay for you to have the surname Shen.”

　　Shen Chu rubbed his eyes and looked at Shen Songguo again: “But grandpa said…”

　　”Dad!”

　　Shen Mingzhou shouted in a rare high-pitched voice.

　　Su Luoyue also looked over, and before she could speak, she heard Shen Shuo also call out “Grandpa”, and then asked: “Chuchu has been raised in our family since he was a child. Now that we know he is not our biological child, do we need to change his surname?”

　　Shen Yi and Shen Sui also stared at Shen Songguo.

　　Shen Songguo subconsciously said: “Of course he doesn’t need to change his surname. He has been raised in the Shen family for so long, why should he change it!”

　　”My brother has been raised in the Xie family for five years, why does he have to change his surname?”

　　Shen Chu muttered quietly, “Is it because my brother was recognized? Then when my relatives come to find me in the future, my parents have raised me for so long, and my relatives want me to change my last name, should I change it too? Changing it back and forth is so troublesome.”

　　”Mom, after changing my last name, will I become a different person?”

　　Su Luoyue shook her head and stroked Shen Chu’s little face: “No, you are still you.”

　　”Then why do you have to change your last name?”

　　As he spoke, Shen Chu glanced at Shen Songguo, and this glance was full of “meaning”…

　　Shen Songguo: “…”

　　I don’t know why, but I felt offended.

　　As a result of being interrupted by Shen Chu, Shen Songguo could no longer speak and walked away angrily with his crutches. He walked so fast, vividly demonstrating that a crutch in one’s hand is just a decoration.

　　The second round ended with Shen Chu’s victory again.

　　Double Kill!

　　At night, Shen Songguo called everyone to the study.

　　Behind the large rosewood table, Shen Songguo was sitting on a carved rosewood chair. Next to him stood a round-faced old man, who was the housekeeper who had always been with Shen Songguo. His surname was Zhou, and he was about the same age as Shen Songguo, but looked much gentler than Shen Songguo.

　　”These two little ones are old enough to learn more.”

　　As he spoke, Shen Songguo gestured to Zhou Bo next to him.

　　Butler Zhou walked over with a stack of papers, smiling, and handed them to Shen Mingzhou and Su Luoyue.

　　”To develop morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically, Shen Shuo and his two brothers chose what they wanted to learn when they were young. In addition to practicing calligraphy and Chinese painting, they can also choose a musical instrument to cultivate their sentiments and improve their character.”

　　Shen Chu seriously suspected that Shen Songguo looked at him when he said the latter part!

　　”You two children, take a look and make a choice. Tomorrow I will ask Uncle Zhou to arrange for someone to come over. There is still plenty of time to arrange this. If there are other things you want to learn, tell them as well. It will be good for the children to lay a good foundation in advance, so that they don’t just watch cartoons all day, wasting time and losing their ambition!”

　　OK, I’m^[1]he is pointing at him.

　　Shen Chu snorted softly in his heart. Sure enough, after Shen Songguo called on him, he started talking about Shen Shuo again, as if Shen Shuo had committed a huge sin by watching cartoons for half an hour.

　　He is the villain who dragged Shen Shuo into committing a crime.

　　What’s wrong with watching a cartoon? It’s not like you’re not learning well!

　　”I want to learn something.”

　　There were voices coming from the side. It was Shen Mingzhou and Su Luoyue who were asking Xie Shiming for his opinion. However, they were not asking what Xie Shiming wanted to learn, but whether Xie Shiming wanted to learn it. As a result, Xie Shiming actually said that there was a musical instrument he wanted to learn.

　　Shen Chu knew that what Xie Shiming wanted to learn was——

　　“I want to learn the Xun.”

　　”Xun?”

　　Shen Mingzhou’s eyes were full of question marks: “What is that?”

　　Su Luoyue knew about it, but she didn’t expect that Xie Shiming, at such a young age, actually knew about this musical instrument.

　　The instrument Xun is not only a national instrument, but also a relatively primitive one. It is not common to learn it in daily life. However, people like Shen Shuo, Shen Yi and Shen Sui all chose Western instruments. Shen Yi has now learned several other instruments, but he chose the violin at the beginning. Shen Shuo chose the piano and Shen Sui chose the cello.

　　Like Shen Chu, he just followed the crowd and chose a common instrument like piano.

　　But it is conceivable that compared with Shen Shuo, he didn’t play very well. He had no talent and no skills. I really don’t know why he insisted on choosing the piano at that time. He kept comparing himself with others and fell behind from the beginning.

　　This time, he wants to choose something different.

　　Anyway, Shen Songguo would definitely not agree with them not choosing anything, so it would be better for them to think about what to choose themselves.

　　Here, Xie Shiming said that he wanted to learn to play the Xun. After hearing this, Shen Songguo felt quite satisfied. He always advocated national heritage. It was okay to say that it was conservative. Anyway, it looked better than those foreign things.

　　But Shen Songguo is a reasonable person. He won’t say anything if you learn piano, violin, cello or the like.

　　But at this moment, his expression rarely relaxed and he even briefly praised Xie Shiming.

　　”I’ve also decided what musical instrument I want to learn!” Shen Chu raised his hand.

　　Shen Songguo looked over and asked: “What do you want to learn?”

　　Shen Chu spoke clearly: “Suona!^[2]key instrument in funeral and wedding processions”

　　Shen Songguo: “What’s that?”

　　”Suona.”

　　”What?”

　　”Suona! Suona!”

　　Shen Songguo: “…”

　　Shen Chu was still gesturing with her hands in front of her mouth: “It’s the kind that makes a beeping sound, a suona!”

　　Shen Songguo opened his mouth and wanted to say something.

　　Shen Chu tilted his head and blinked his round eyes at him innocently: “Grandpa, is this not okay? But didn’t you just say that it’s a good idea to choose a national musical instrument? Isn’t the suona a national musical instrument? Grandpa, do you discriminate against the suona?”

　　”Grandpa, you praised my brother for his good choice, why don’t you praise me?”