Chapter 11 — The Child You Never Knew

On the final day, the hall was brightly lit. Four families were in position. Khuong Niem and Tieu Chau are in 3rd place, Luu and her mother are in 1st place, the remaining two groups are the athlete father and the hotgirl twin mother who reached the final halfway. Wen Tam Duyet sat on the judge's chair as a "special guest". She wore a light pink evening gown, her hair tied up, and sophisticated makeup but still maintained a consistent "pure" style. Live broadcast images across the network have begun to be transmitted. The density of comments is extremely high, most of them are to see Tieu Chau. *"The genius baby is here!"* *"Tieu Chau is so handsome in a small vest today."* *"Khuong Niem doesn't deserve to be here, in the comment section there is a summary of her dark history."* *"Wen Tam Duyet is so reasonable as a judge, she interacts with the children so gently."* The first round of tasks is called "Family Kitchen". Children will command their parents to make a dish. Tieu Chau chose stir-fried tomatoes with eggs. Not because it's simple, but because of limited budget, tomatoes and eggs are the lowest cost combination of available ingredients. The boy stood in front of the kitchen table, instructing Khuong Niem to operate step by step, his voice was steady, the amount used and the order of each step were clearly remembered.

"Mom, turn on the heat first. Don't use too much oil, just enough oil to coat the surface of the pan. When you beat the eggs, add a little water, stir-fry will make it softer."

The comments exploded again: *"Didn't this child grow up watching culinary shows?"* At the end of the first round, Tieu Chau's group won the highest score in the whole field. The second round is the “Intellectual Maze”. Children must independently complete a maze challenge made up of blocks and puzzles. Parents are not allowed to help this round, they can only watch from the outside. Four children entered their maze at the same time. Tieu Chau passed the first three stages very smoothly. The puzzle in the fourth level is a geometry problem that requires logical reasoning, and the difficulty level is far beyond the normal level of a five-year-old child. The other three children were trapped, Doa Doa cried impatiently. Tieu Chau squatted in front of the question board, pointed at the pictures with her finger, counted ten seconds, then raised her head and pasted the answer. He was the only child in the whole field who passed the fourth round. Applause rang out in the hall. The number of online viewers has skyrocketed to 48 million. On Tam Duyet sat on the judge's chair, smiled and clapped his hands, turned to say something to the judge next to him. The microphone did not record sound, but the mouth shape was read by netizens in the comment section: *"That is the way of thinking that I taught him before."* Khuong Niem stood outside, seeing the image of Wen Tam Duyet speaking on the big screen, with no expression on his face. Third round. Ultimate mission. The design of this ring is very special. Four children sat on the podium, taking turns answering questions given by the judges. It's not a knowledge contest, but an open-ended question about "The ability to improvise in life". As one of the judges, Wen Tam Duyet has the right to ask questions to the contestants. The previous three children all took turns answering two questions. When it was Tieu Chau's turn, On Tam Duyet raised his hand to signal that he wanted to ask a question. The director nodded in agreement. On Tam Duyet smiled at the microphone, his tone was gentle gently: "Chau Chau, I want to ask you a question. If one day you find out that mom lied to you about something very important, what will you do?" The hall was quiet for a moment. Khuong Niem's hand tightened on the armrest of the chair. Tieu Chau sat on a high stool on the stage, her feet did not touch the ground, her toes gently swayed twice. The boy looked at On Tam Duyet and did not answer immediately. Five seconds of silence. In the comment section, someone said *"This question is so strange"*, someone said *"On Tam Duyet has real depth"*. Then Tieu Chau opened his mouth.

“What does the word ‘lie’ mean?” he asked.

On Tam Duyet laughed: "Just hiding some things from you, not telling the truth." Tieu Chau nodded and thought for two seconds. “Then we have to see why mom lied to me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because sometimes adults don't tell the truth, to protect children.” Tieu Chau's voice was not loud, but the sound system in the hall carried every word to every corner, "Just like when it rained, mom covered the entire umbrella over my head, and she herself was soaked, but she told me she wasn't wet. That's not called lying, that's called love."

There was no sound in the hall. Comment running speed slows down. Someone in the middle of typing suddenly stopped. Wen Tam Duyet's smile remained, but his fingers under the table curled up.

"So," Tieu Chau continued, her voice clear, "If I find out my mother lied to me, I won't be angry. I will think about why she lied to me first, whether someone is bullying her, making her unable to help but lie to me."