Chapter 46

Xi Siyan frowned.
“Why does he have to leave us?”
Lin Song sighed.
“Mr. Xi, Jing Miao’s intellectual growth stopping has pathological factors.
But the main reason his thinking and behavior remain immature is the living environment you all created for him.
He has adult-level objective judgment about the world, but subjectively he still uses a child’s way of thinking.
That is the result of your family system.”
Xi Siyan felt something indescribably complicated.
In the Xi household, Jing Miao was almost treated with total hand-and-foot service.
He could study and live smoothly in a university full of adults—nobody realized, even by graduation, that he was a patient with cognitive issues—
yet at home he could not become an independent adult.
Xi Siyan held his forehead in frustration.
As for himself, no need to mention it.
Neither increasing age nor Jing Miao’s improving mental state had changed him.
Some habits were etched into his bones.
Not only had they not improved over the years—they had become worse.
Jing Miao had been spoiled into many habits.
For example, if he started watching a movie, he had to finish it in one uninterrupted run.
Same with games.
Same with math problems.
Once his interest switched on, he could not be stopped—meals, sleep, showers, nothing could interrupt him.
It started around three years ago, during the island proposal.
That was probably Xi Siyan’s first wrong step:
when Jing Miao kept gaming and skipped meals, Xi Siyan didn’t correct him—he fed him bite by bite.
Later it became routine.
If Jing Miao cried a little, Xi Siyan never refused him.
He would gladly serve by his side—
and do it happily.
For Su Wan, because of past mistakes, her maternal love for Jing Miao was also bottomless tolerance.
Jing Miao almost never asked for much.
His needs were things like:
what dish he wanted to eat;
walking ten minutes less;
a certain baking ingredient;
one more game card.
All of these were too easy, too small.
In Su Wan’s eyes they were almost equivalent to “nothing.”
So in big things and small things alike, she always stood on Jing Miao’s side.
For a while, Jing Miao liked doing sudoku while bathing.
Combined with his old “can’t stop once started” habit, if Xi Siyan let his guard down once, Jing Miao would soak until the water went cold.
His health was poor and immunity weak, so he kept catching colds.
Xi Siyan was angry and pained at the same time, so he sternly corrected him and banned that behavior.
“Miaomiao, if you do this again, when you come out of the bath, I won’t hold you.”
Jing Miao always listened to Xi Siyan.
He agreed with grievance:
“Gege, I’m sorry. Miaomiao will change.”
When Su Wan found out, she installed a mini hot spring at home without another word, and also installed one at their villa, saying Jing Miao could soak as long as he wanted.
Xi Siyan argued with her:
“Mom! Soaking too long in hot springs is bad too—skin, heart.
You read all those health guides every day and can’t see this?”
Su Wan refused to yield.
“It’s not like he soaks every day. Usually you just watch him and don’t let him stay too long!”
In this family, the only one who was not exactly “doting to excess” with Jing Miao was Xi Yucheng.
He was too busy and rarely got to participate in caring for Jing Miao.
But he feared his wife and had basically no voice.
Lin Song found it unbelievable:
in such an almost pathological overindulgent environment, Jing Miao was still obedient, considerate, kind—
he hadn’t developed a body full of bizarre bad traits.
That was almost miraculous.
It was as if the only downside was that his independent thinking had been constrained.
He was already an adult,
but no one treated him like one,
so he kept happily being a child.
Setting aside macro-level psychology, this was not necessarily bad.
This family was willing—and capable—of building him a lifelong utopia.
But the consequences were tricky.
For example, career choice.
Lin Song’s basic conclusion was:
if Jing Miao wanted to independently choose a career he truly liked and could do,
he had to separate from the Xi family for a period,
until his mind became fully independent and mature,
so he could form preference judgments about things other than Xi Siyan.
Lin Song also knew this was impossible.
So he could only suggest an exhaustive approach:
test one job after another to see what suited him and what he liked.
Xi Siyan’s mood turned complicated—
even more complicated than last time.
It was as if they had spoiled Jing Miao wrong.
And yet perhaps they hadn’t.
And now the arrow was already loosed;
there was no turning back.
He could not harden his heart and force independence.
Jing Miao’s physical condition alone made it impossible for him to loosen his grip.
That was Xi Siyan’s deeply selfish side.
Jing Miao might not know what he liked,
but Xi Siyan did.
He liked this—
to love and spoil him forever.
After returning home, Xi Siyan shared the consultation result with his parents.
Like Xi Siyan, they fell into complicated feelings.
Su Wan rejected it first, loudly:
“No! I refuse! Miaomiao cannot leave home!
Why must he work?
People work to earn money, earn money to live.
He doesn’t need money, he doesn’t need that kind of life!
What is ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’?
Those standards are for others, not for our Miaomiao!
My child is wonderful.
We spoil him this much and he still has zero spoiled-young-master temper, he’s obedient every day!
What ‘life value’?
That is *your* belief system, not Miaomiao’s!
I disagree.
Xi Siyan, if you don’t want to care for him, I will.
I’ll care for him for life!”
See?
It was impossible.
Xi Yucheng tried to think from reason and outsider perspective—habit from decades in politics—but regarding Jing Miao, he too was unusually conflicted:
“Siyan, I understand you want Miaomiao to have a better life instead of staying home every day.
But you have to consider his previous life too.
It seems the only choice he made from true preference was choosing mathematics as a major.
Everything else doesn’t interest him.
The only thing he is truly interested in is you.
But even if we keep him in academia, at most he reaches PhD—and that’s still a loop.”
Xi Siyan had a headache.
He wasn’t insisting on forcing Jing Miao to grow.
If anything, he wished Jing Miao would not grow.
He was thinking too far ahead.
He feared that when Jing Miao was thirty or forty, he would still feel lost about society and the world.
“I never said I would separate from him.
I can’t separate from him.
Don’t get agitated.
I’m just relaying the doctor’s words.
This path is dead for me.
Even if both of you force me to choose, I still won’t choose it.”