Chapter 88

Lin Tao attended the two-day meeting and took notes carefully.

After the meeting ended the next afternoon, Lin Tao went back to the guesthouse, packed her luggage, and took a boat back to Shengshan Island.

She felt a little tired and dizzy. Before boarding the boat, she used the dock's phone to call Li Chengxi's office and told them she would arrive in the evening.

When the ship was about to dock, Lin Tao had already walked onto the deck and saw Li Chengxi on the dock and Lin Changhai holding Yueyue.

Seeing her family, Lin Tao's mood improved a lot and she waved to them.

After the boat docked, Lin Tao couldn't wait to get off.

Yueyue hadn't seen her mother for two days. When she saw her again, she danced with joy and wanted to throw herself into Lin Tao's arms. Lin Tao hugged Yueyue and kissed her soft little face twice: "Yueyue, do you miss your mother?"

Lin Changhai said, "Yueyue couldn't find you yesterday and cried for more than an hour. This child is also very stubborn. I used a rattle to coax her for a long time but it didn't get better. Later, Teacher Xu brought her family to visit during Qingming Festival, and Hongxing also came to tease Yueyue, and Yueyue stopped crying."

When Lin Tao heard that Yueyue had been crying for so long, she couldn't help but feel distressed and hugged Yueyue to comfort her for a long time.

But after just a while, the little guy actually started to push his chest. Lin Tao smiled helplessly. The child hadn't had milk for two days and missed it.

But there were so many people here, and even if they got in the car, Dad and Xiaoning were still there, so Lin Tao could only hold Yueyue upright and let her bear it for the time being.

The family got in the car, Xiao Ning started the car, and Lin Tao said, "Xiao Ning, let's go to the school first. I'll take the information to the principal."

The content of this meeting is quite important, and Lin Tao wants to give it to the principal as soon as possible.

Xiao Ning responded and drove towards the school. When they arrived at the school, Lin Tao wanted to give Yueyue to Li Chengxi first while she went to deliver the information.

But the little guy probably hugged her neck tightly with his little hands and was unwilling to let go because his mother had passed away once before.

Lin Tao had no choice but to carry her to deliver the information.

Li Chengxi said he would go with him, and Lin Tao shook her head and said it was okay. When they arrived at the principal's office, the principal was there, and Lin Tao knocked on the door.

The principal turned around and looked outside the door. Seeing that it was Lin Tao, he smiled and quickly let her in.

"Principal, these are the key information of this meeting that I recorded. You can take a look at it first." Lin Tao said.

The main purpose of this meeting was to convey the spirit of the above policies. Another thing was that a group of new college student teachers would come to Shancheng and would be able to start work in the school at the end of August or September this year.

This is really great news. The junior high school department of their school is making good progress. Roughly speaking, it should be able to start school in the second half of this year. By then, there will be a shortage of teachers. Having teachers available now is like timely relief.

The principal took the information and glanced through it briefly, then smiled and said, "Teacher Lin, your notes are clear and you have grasped the key points very well."

Lin Tao smiled.

The principal continued, "Thank you for your hard work this time. Yueyue must miss her mother, too. Okay, take Yueyue back home to have some rest first."

"Okay, Principal, I'll go back first. If you don't understand anything here, you can come and ask me after I come to work tomorrow." Lin Tao said with a smile.

"Yueyue, say goodbye to the principal quickly." Lin Tao teased Yueyue.

Yueyue is now seven months old and can understand some simple words. When she heard her mother's words, she grabbed her little hand towards the principal.

This was her 'goodbye'.

After coming out of the principal's office, Lin Tao went to the teacher's office to say hello to Xu Yuting and Zhong Jing. One of them still had to attend a first-grade class, and the other had to attend an art class, so they hadn't gotten off work yet.

When we walked out of the school gate, Li Chengxi was not in the car, but standing outside the car waiting.

Seeing the mother and daughter coming out, he wanted to take Yueyue from Lin Tao's arms to make Lin Tao feel more relaxed, but this little guy seemed to be attached to Lin Tao today and refused to get down no matter what he said.

Lin Tao smiled and said, "Yueyue is afraid that I will leave again, so she doesn't want you to hold her. She should be fine in two days."

Lin Changhai also said: "Yes, although this child is still young, he is actually very smart."

When they got home, it was almost time for dinner. Li Chengxi asked Lin Tao to go and rest first, while he went to the army canteen to get some food. They would eat there today.

Lin Tao held Yueyue in her arms, leaned on the bed, smiled at Li Chengxi, and asked, "Did you and Dad eat in the cafeteria during the two days I was away?"

Li Chengxi said, "I only know how to make seafood rice noodles. I'll just make the one that tastes better. I can't let my dad eat the same one every day."

That's right, Li Chengxi is not very good at other things, but his seafood rice noodles are OK. And the food in the army cafeteria is pretty good, so in comparison, it is better to eat in the cafeteria.

"Okay, then you go get some food. Get something light. I just got off the boat and I'm still a little dizzy." Lin Tao said.

"Okay." Li Chengxi responded and closed the door when he walked out.

In the yard, Lin Changhai was feeding vegetable leaves to several rabbits. He noticed that one of the rabbits was obviously much fatter than before. He touched its belly and found it was bulging. It seemed that it was pregnant again.

Li Chengxi said, "Dad, I'm going to the cafeteria to get food. Ah Tao is resting in the room."

"Well, go ahead." Lin Changhai nodded.

After Li Chengxi left, he went to pull out the newly grown grass in the vegetable garden, and trimmed the gardenias at home. As for the peach tree planted last year, the saplings Li Chengxi brought back were not too small, and they should have been able to grow better. However, Lin Tao and Li Chengxi were not good at growing fruit trees, and they usually just watered them at most.

After Lin Changhai came, he trimmed the branches of the peach tree so that it could grow faster and better.

After finishing his work, Lin Changhai asked Lin Tao outside the door: "A Tao, are you asleep? Yueyue is not thinking clearly, how about I take her away and you can have a good rest?"

Lin Tao held Yueyue in her arms and leaned against the bed, taking a nap for a while. She couldn't fall asleep because the little guy held her like an octopus and refused to let go.

Lin Tao knew that her father was afraid that she would be too tired, but Yueyue must still want to stay with her more at this moment, so she said, "It's okay, Dad. I can't sleep now either. Didn't Chengxi go to get food? He will be back soon, and we will have dinner soon. Yueyue is very well behaved and not making any noise, so let her follow me."

Hearing this, Lin Changhai didn't say anything.

Yueyue really missed her mother these two days. It was okay when Xiao Qingming and Zheng Hongxing were with her during the day, but she started looking for her mother at night.

He thought back to when Lin Tao was a child. Tao Rong had passed away at that time, and he had to take care of Lin Tao alone as both a father and a mother. As Lin Tao was a child and it was also his first time being a father, he did not do many things well enough, causing Lin Tao to suffer a lot.

But the child didn't feel the hardship at all. She always felt that having a father like him was a great thing.

In the room, Yueyue was really quiet. She just leaned on her mother obediently, rubbing her little face against her mother's neck, and her little hands even touched her mother's earlobes.

Lin Tao's earlobes are round and soft. The boy must feel that they are very comfortable to touch and can't let go.

Lin Tao let her touch her, feeling somewhat helpless.

I don't know when this little guy started to like touching her ears.

When she is feeding, I have to reach out and touch her ears. The same is true when she is sleeping. Sometimes I have to hold her face while sleeping. It is so disgusting.

But Lin Tao also felt that this kind of glutinousness was quite sweet.

The milky scent of Yueyue's body filled her nose. Lin Tao squinted her eyes and pretended to sleep. Yueyue touched her face and nose again and giggled.

Lin Tao also laughed, and she hugged Yueyue and kissed her on the cheek.

Not long after, Li Chengxi came back from the army canteen. He placed his lunch box on the table, opened it, and ordered two dishes and a soup.

The soup was seaweed and shrimp soup, and the other two dishes were braised hairtail and stir-fried vegetables. There weren't many dishes, but the portions were good enough for three people, even for Lin Changhai and Li Chengxi, who both had big appetites.

In addition, there is some spicy cabbage pickled by Lin Tao at home. I take some out and put some on the plate and put it on the plate, and it becomes another dish.

Li Chengxi put the dishes away, washed his hands, and went into the room to pick up Yueyue.

Yueyue was quite resistant at first, but Lin Tao finally coaxed her and said, "Mom is at home and won't go anywhere. Mom is going to eat now. She has to wash her hands first. Dad will hold Yueyue for a while. Yueyue will sit next to Mom to eat later."

I don’t know if Yueyue understood or not, but maybe she understood some of it. Anyway, Li Chengxi took her away and put her on his little chair.

Lin Changhai was about to make rice porridge for Yueyue. Li Chengxi took the bowl and spoon and said, "Dad, let me do this. You go eat first."

Then, Li Chengxi went to make rice porridge for Yueyue. The thickness of the porridge was just right, and he took the initiative to feed Yueyue the rice porridge. Yueyue had been eating rice porridge for two or three months, but for her who had been drinking milk for seven months, rice porridge was still a new thing and it tasted very delicious.

She is always very happy when eating rice porridge, and now she is clapping her hands.

After taking a bite, Lin Tao discovered that this time Li Chengxi did not feed the rice porridge onto Yueyue's face.

I remember the last time he fed Yueyue rice porridge, he turned her into a little cat. This time she was out for only a day or two, and I didn't expect that both father and daughter have grown up so fast.

Lin Tao didn't need to worry about the meal.

Lin Tao had a quick meal at noon. She didn't feel very hungry when she just got off the boat, but she didn't expect that when she saw the food, she really felt hungry.

There was no rice in the cafeteria, so Li Chengxi ordered steamed buns.

However, Lin Tao has long been accustomed to eating steamed buns. It is no longer like when she first arrived on the island, when she had to drink a sip of water or soup after taking a bite of steamed bun before she could swallow it.

The hairtail fish cooked by the chef in the army canteen tasted pretty good and was very tasty. Lin Tao ate a lot of it.

Yueyue, who was standing by, took a bite of rice porridge, also looked at them with greedy eyes, and spoke to Lin Tao in a babbling voice.

Lin Tao shook her head at her and rejected her request: "Yueyue can't eat this yet."

After dinner, Li Chengxi went to wash the dishes as usual. The bath water at home had already been heated, so everyone went to take a bath.

After taking a shower, Lin Changhai went to Chen Shuifen's house. Recently, he would go over to play chess with Zheng Youde after dinner. Lin Tao had never thought that the two of them could play together.

Actually, Lin Changhai is about ten years older than Zheng Youde.

Lin Tao jokingly asked Li Chengxi: "Why does Dad always go to play chess with Captain Zheng? Don't we already have a son-in-law like you at home? Why doesn't he go to you?"

After hearing this, Li Chengxi felt like laughing.

There was a reason for this, of course. His father-in-law had asked him to play chess at the beginning, but... his chess skills were really good, and he won three games in a row against Lin Changhai at the beginning.

Later, Li Chengxi felt that he couldn't do this, as it would make his father-in-law lose face, so he deliberately lost to him. In fact, playing chess with Father-in-law is also very tiring. You can't always lose, and even if you lose, you can't lose too obviously. You can't always win, and you can't win too perfectly, and you have to deliberately give up a few chess pieces.

Maybe Lin Changhai also realized that Li Chengxi was giving in to him, so he simply stopped playing chess with Li Chengxi and went directly to play chess with Zheng Youde.

I didn't expect that these two people could actually play chess together and become regular chess friends.

"Maybe Dad thinks playing chess with me is boring." Li Chengxi said.

Always losing, even if they win it is because they are given a handicap, what is the point? It is better to play chess with Zheng Youde, their skills are equal, sometimes they are so happy playing that they can hear the conversation next door at home.

Lin Changhai: "You!"

Zheng Youde: "Hey, hey, hey, what's going on? How did you get me? I was careless, I was careless. Come on, come on, next time I will kill you without leaving a single piece of armor!"

Lin Changhai: "Come on, I can beat you next time."

Zheng Youde: "Hey, I made a mistake in this chess move. I'll go to another place later."

Chen Shuifen: "You are a lousy chess player. You always regret your moves. No wonder Headmaster Tong doesn't want to play chess with you."

Zheng Youde: "Go away, go away, what do you know, woman? Men play chess like this. Old Lin didn't say anything, why do you have to say it here?"

Chen Shuifen gritted her teeth and said, "Who are you talking about?"

Zheng Youde immediately fell silent and turned to talk to Lin Changhai: "Old Lin, it's your turn."

Tsk, the two of them get along well with each other. Now Zheng Youde even changed the way he addressed Lin Changhai from "Uncle Lin" to "Old Lin".

Lin Tao and Li Chengxi, who were inexplicably a generation younger than Zheng Youde, looked at each other helplessly.

Lin Tao took a shower and washed her hair. She had not been able to dress herself properly in the guesthouse for the past two days. Now that she was back home, she had to dress herself properly and have a good sleep at night.

I just washed my hair and wiped it with a dry towel, but my hair is still half wet and there are water droplets dripping down from the ends of my hair.

Yueyue was sitting on their bed playing, holding a rattle in one hand and a puppet in the other, making ding-dong sounds and having a lot of fun.

When Li Chengxi saw her come in, he asked her to sit on the bed. He took the towel from Lin Tao, asked her to lie down, and used the towel to wipe her hair.

Be sure to dry your hair after washing it at night, otherwise you will easily have a headache the next day.

"Are you tired from this meeting?" Li Chengxi asked without stopping his movements. He had noticed that Lin Tao looked a little tired when she got off the boat.

Lin Tao shook her head and nodded. After thinking about it, she still did not tell Li Chengxi about the matter of Fan Jianshu and Jin Pingping.

In the final analysis, Jin Pingping had to stand up for herself in this matter. If she didn't want to, she wouldn't appreciate it if someone helped her, but would think that others were harming her.

Finally, he said, "I'm a little tired, but it's okay. By the way, I got to know the director of the Education Bureau during this meeting."

She told Li Chengxi about Wei Yingzi's story, and as she spoke, her face showed an expression of longing and admiration. She said with emotion: "I think Director Wei is really amazing. In my heart, she is the same as Director Yang. They are like the female generals in the Yang Family Generals. I wonder when I can be as amazing as them."

"Chengxi, do you think I can be as good as them?" Lin Tao turned her head and asked Li Chengxi.

Li Chengxi has already rubbed Lin Tao's hair. The long, smooth black hair is now drier than before and no water is dripping down anymore. All that is left is to wait for the hair to dry naturally.

He hung the towel up, sat on the bed, and said, "You are already very powerful now."

"Ah? How could I have that?" Lin Tao asked in confusion.

Li Chengxi continued, "Think about it. When you first arrived, people on the island referred to you as Captain Li's family member. Now I have become Teacher Lin's lover. This shows one thing: your influence on the island is greater than mine."

Lin Tao blinked her eyes, and after thinking about it carefully, it seemed to be true.

But she also understood that this was only because she was easy to talk to and had good relationships with others. Li Chengxi was well-known and many people were still afraid of him.

But Lin Tao was still very happy to hear this answer, and jokingly replied, "That's right."

The couple played with Yueyue for a while, and Yueyue began to yawn and rub her eyes. She must be sleepy.

Yes, Yueyue usually takes a nap in the afternoon. Today, when Lin Tao came back, she saw that her mother was too excited, so she was forcing herself not to sleep. It was normal for her to feel sleepy now.

Lin Tao held Yueyue in her arms, pulled her clothes up a little, and fed her milk.

Yueyue fell asleep soon, but after falling asleep, she still held Lin Tao tightly. This child looks brave, but in fact she still lacks a sense of security.

Lin Tao held Yueyue for a long time, and only put her into the crib after she fell asleep. But when she put her down, Lin Tao found that the little girl's hands were still tightly holding her clothes.

In the end, Li Chengxi came over and gently pried Yueyue's hands apart, and only then was Lin Tao able to completely put her down.

The daughter fell asleep, and the rest was just the time for the couple. But Li Chengxi was not the kind of person who didn't know the importance of things. Lin Tao had been off the island for two consecutive days of meetings and looked a little tired. Even if he wanted to think about it, he didn't rush.

Li Chengxi held Lin Tao tightly in his arms and said, "Go to sleep."

With Li Chengxi's company, Lin Tao fell asleep quickly. This time she slept soundly, without any dreams and without waking up in the middle of the night.

Even when Yueyue wet the bed at night, Lin Tao didn't hear it because she was sleeping too soundly. Li Chengxi got out of bed quietly, changed Yueyue's diaper, and continued to sleep.

The next morning, Lin Changhai went to the army canteen early to get breakfast.

Although he has been retired for many years, he has never forgotten training. It is inevitable for him to wake up early every morning and go outside for a run. Now he is in his forties, but he is still in good health.

After breakfast, Li Chengxi and Yueyue both had to go to work. Yueyue was accompanied by Lin Changhai and could also play with Zheng Hongxing, so it was okay.

Before Lin Tao went out in the morning, she fed Yueyue once. If she was hungry two hours later, Lin Changhai could make rice porridge for Yueyue. Then Lin Tao would go home at noon.

When I arrived at school, Xu Yuting was already in the office. Today was not her morning self-study class, so she came early to prepare for class.

When she saw Lin Tao, she couldn't help but ask, "A Tao, I heard from the principal that you brought back some good news from the meeting you attended this time? Will there really be a lot of teachers coming to our school in the second half of the year?"

"That's what they say, but there are so many schools in the mountain city. I'm not sure how much will be allocated to our school," said Lin Tao.

When talking, I saw little Qingming eating dried sweet potatoes, so I smiled and teased him: "Qingming, can you give Auntie Lin a bite of the dried sweet potatoes?"

Xiao Qingming was quite generous. He took out the dried sweet potato that was chewed till it was full of holes and saliva from his mouth and handed it to Lin Tao.

Lin Tao found it funny, patted little Qingming's head and said, "No need, Auntie Lin is just teasing you, Qingming, eat by yourself."

Seeing Xiao Qingming's hair, Lin Tao found it more and more funny, and asked Xu Yuting: "Why did you shave Xiao Qingming's head?"

The most important thing is that the shaving is so ugly, with some spots missing here and some spots extra there.

Xu Yuting got angry when she heard this, and pouted her lips and said, "Don't mention it anymore, it's all Wang Yuanliang's fault. Didn't Qingming's hair grow longer? I said why not find a barber to shave it, but he insisted that he shaved his own hair himself and would definitely be able to shave Qingming's hair well, saying there was no need to find a barber. I believed him because I saw that when he shaved his own hair, he could shave it well..."

"Who knew that Qingming's hair would be shaved like this? It was the day before yesterday when you left the island for a meeting. If it had been a day earlier, I would have asked you to help me bring a hat for Qingming from outside the island. The hat at home is the one he wore during his confinement period, and he can no longer wear it."

The more Xu Yuting looked at Xiao Qingming's hair, the uglier it seemed to her.

Originally, Xiao Qingming looked like her and was quite good-looking, but he was affected by this bald head which was uglier than any other bald head.

Unfortunately, little Qingming was still young and didn't know that his mother had already disliked him because of his current appearance. He just sat there eating dried sweet potatoes obediently.

This child is also a clean person. When eating dried sweet potatoes, he holds a small handkerchief in his hand and wipes his saliva.

Because Lin Tao originally made these dried sweet potatoes for her children to grind their teeth, and thinking about the Qingming Festival, she made some more and sent them to Xu Yuting.

Lin Tao knew that the dried sweet potatoes were very hard, and it was difficult for adults to bite them, let alone children. Usually, when Lin Tao gave the dried sweet potatoes to Yueyue to grind her teeth, she would prepare a small handkerchief to wipe Yueyue's saliva.

"My dad knows how to shave. He shaved my hair when I was little. Next time when my hair grows out, I'll just ask my dad to shave it again." Lin Tao said, "Children's hair grows fast, and wouldn't it be good for their hair to grow if they shave it more often?"

She has very good hair. Aunt Fang always says it's because her father always shaved her head bald when she was a child.

Xu Yuting said, "Okay then, I'll take Qingming to my uncle to get a haircut."

"Oh, by the way, if what I just told you is true, will our school fire the current teachers?" Xu Yuting changed the subject.

This is what she is most worried about. To be honest, Lin Tao may be the most serious teacher in their school.

Although she and Zhong Jing both graduated from college, both of them had some problems with their backgrounds. In fact, she was not so bad. When her parents were sent down to the countryside, they published an announcement in the newspaper to cut off ties with her in order to protect her safety and not to affect Wang Yuanliang's future.

In recent years, whenever she wanted to send something to the northwest, she had to do it secretly. She would first send it to Wang Yuanliang's hometown, and then ask her mother-in-law to ask someone else to send it to the northwest.

But as for Zhong Jing, I don’t know what will happen.

Lin Tao actually thought about this problem, but she felt that it would not happen. She said, "There are so many people attending the meeting this time, and there will definitely not be enough teachers to go around. We are not sure how many teachers our school will have. Besides, our school already has a junior high school department, so there will be a lot of teachers needed, so there shouldn't be a problem."

The two were talking when Zhong Jing walked in.