Uncle

In 1980, Lin Shu was 27 and worked in the pretrial interrogation division of the city public security bureau.

On New Year's Eve that year, Lin Shu received news that his older sister had died unexpectedly.

He went to another province and brought back a three-year-old girl, whose eyes were exactly like his sister's.

The little girl was very polite.

Unlike other children Lin Shu had met, she wasn't rambunctious and spoke softly.

When she was hungry, she would hold her round little tummy with both hands and politely ask, "Uncle, hello. May I have a bowl of rice?"

Lin Shu told her she could have rice, braised pork, and vegetables.

The little girl bowed solemnly. "Thank you, Uncle."

Then she ate every last bite by herself.

Wearing pink striped pajamas, she stood quietly outside Lin Shu's bedroom. When he finally looked up from the case files, she quickly flashed him a grin, showing off her little sawtooth baby teeth.

"Uncle, I'm going to bed now. Good night, Uncle. I hope you have sweet dreams."

She hugged her little panda, sang herself a lullaby, and drifted off to sleep.

Lin Shu had a cool, aloof look that made him seem hard to approach, but in truth he was an honest man.

The older women in the city bureau's residential compound gossiped: "Lin Shu is so young, handsome, from a good family, and good at his job. It's a shame that little girl is holding him back. What young woman would want to marry him and become a stepmother?"

"He says she's his sister's child and calls him Uncle, but who knows what's really going on..."

Lin Shu picked the girl up, covered her ears, and hurried away.

The normally quiet, well-mannered child suddenly pulled his hand away and shouted at the women, "You have no manners!"

The women gaped at her.

Hands on her hips, the little girl glared at them and scolded, "Didn't your mothers teach you? Talking about people behind their backs is rude. You have no manners. You're all bad children. When you start kindergarten, your teachers won't give you any gold stars."

The women, whose ages added up to three or four hundred years, gaped at her again.

Lin Shu hurried away with the girl in his arms, afraid that if he walked any slower, he wouldn't be able to keep the smile off his face.

The city bureau's political commissar had his son late, in his forties. The boy attended the same kindergarten class as Lin Shu's niece.

Because of this connection, the girl often went to the commissar's home for meals.

Lin Shu felt bad about it, so he learned to make her favorite braised chicken drumsticks.

After one bite, the girl said tactfully, "Uncle, it's pretty good, but don't make it again next time. There's lots of tasty food outside. You don't need to tire yourself out."

Lin Shu smiled. "Does Uncle's cooking taste bad?"

The girl answered with complete sincerity, "Uncle, you look really handsome in your white shirt today."

Lin Shu wore a white shirt every day. It was his work uniform.

In first grade, the girl wrote an essay saying, "My uncle is my idol. When I grow up, I want to be just like him."

She got into Lin Shu's alma mater and studied the same major as him.

On the first night of her freshman year, her roommate returned from getting hot water and told her, "Your dad's downstairs by our dorm, carrying two huge chicken drumsticks. His eyes are all red. He looked so embarrassed when he saw me. Does he miss you?"

The girl hurried downstairs in her slippers. When she saw Lin Shu, she scolded him. "You're so embarrassing. I'm coming home this weekend anyway."

After scolding him, her own eyes reddened too.

During her freshman summer break, Lin Shu followed her on a date with the commissar's son.

Wearing sunglasses and a mask, he bought popcorn and sat in the row behind them.

In the dark cinema, Lin Shu heard her bring up one topic more than any other: "My uncle."

"My uncle is so great. He's handsome and nice, and all my classmates envy me."

"My uncle never gets mad at me. He's never hit me, not once, my whole life."

"We absolutely can't keep our relationship a secret from my uncle. I never lie to him. Besides, do you know who my uncle is? He's a famous interrogator at the city bureau. If he interrogated me, I'd be better off confessing on my own."

Lin Shu felt pretty pleased listening to all that.

Then, after thinking it over, he began to suspect she'd been playing him all along.

I had an idea, so I'm putting together a blurb first.

Blurb written on August 22, 2026.

Theme: The healing power of family love.