Dark Rhymes
“What else has he taught you?” Evan crossed his arms and asked Zayden. He was curious to hear
what other weird knowledge Davin had passed on to his child.
Zayden thought about it as he stared at Evan seriously. “He told me the rhyme ‘Rock-a-bye baby’ is
about a baby falling to its death. What else… Oh. He also said ‘Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary’ is about
some queen that tortured people.”
Evan was speechless.
Nicole looked toward Zayden in surprise. For a moment, she even thought that she had misheard.
What kind of parent taught their child things like these?
Evan furrowed his brows. “From now on, don’t listen to what your daddy says. Understand?”
“But Daddy is smart. I heard Luke say the same thing a couple of days ago. Daddy knew the meaning
behind the rhymes even before Luke said it. He also taught me that we have to work smart, not work
hard. That’s how you can learn faster.”
Luke said the same thing?
Nicole and Evan both turned their heads to stare at Luke.
Luke looked up innocently before he sighed. “The meanings that Mr. Davin told Zayden are all just
conspiracies. They’re not necessarily true.”
Hearing this, Zayden replied naively, “Daddy knows what he’s saying. He told me that they’re all true.”
“He can’t know that. It’s impossible to prove.”
“Yes, he can.”
“No, he can’t.”
“But Daddy told me so.”
Zayden stared indignantly at Luke. In response, Luke sighed. “When you’re older and learn to read
more, you’ll understand what I’m trying to say.”
With his eyes wide open, Zayden was clearly still on the fence about what Luke was saying. He was
sure in his heart that his father would not lie to him.
Evan and Nicole exchanged glances with each other. Davin was the one who told his son all this.
Therefore, he was the only one who could convince Zayden otherwise.
“Why are you all just standing there? Come on in.” Sheila’s voice called over.
Zayden walked over to her defeatedly. “Mommy, Luke says Daddy is wrong even though I know he’s
not.”
“What do you mean?”
“Daddy taught me about the meaning of nursery rhymes, but Luke says it’s not true.”
“What did he teach you?”
Zayden repeated what he said earlier to Sheila. After hearing what he said, she looked over furiously to
the living room. Davin, that maniac. How could he say all those things to a child?
After telling her everything Davin told him, Zayden suddenly remembered one more thing. “Oh, Daddy
also told me that he’s an expert poet.”
“Please! Your dad is no poet. That man hasn’t got a single ounce of creativity in him.”
Zayden frowned. He looked toward Sheila with a puzzled expression.
“Zayden, I’ll buy you some nursery rhyme books tomorrow. Just read that and stop listening to your
father, okay? You stay here and play for a while. I need to go handle something.”
He nodded obediently.
Sheila invited Nicole and Evan to take a seat in the living room. Then, she hurriedly went upstairs.
Within seconds, Davin’s painful cries could be heard.
“What are you doing? Are you insane, Sheep? You’re going to be the death of me!”
“Death of you? I really hope so! I’m dying to skin you alive and boil you right now. What sort of
nonsense have you been teaching to our son?”
“Sheep, I was just trying to adapt to his learning method. Among the three children, he’s the slowest
learner. I was just trying to tell him the meaning of the rhymes so he would be more likely to remember
them. Is it wrong for me to do so? If he keeps lagging behind everyone, he’ll become used to it. I don’t
want him to lose the will to learn. I’m just trying a different method to encourage his learning. What
have I done wrong?”
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