Chapter 44 Grandma, don't speak yet, let me tell you a story.
"Ah!" An Fusheng suddenly jumped up from the bed.
Something rolled past his eyes, and An Fusheng quickly grabbed it before realizing it was Wen Xinglan.
"Oh, it's you. I thought I was having sleep paralysis." An Fusheng's chest heaved violently as he gasped for breath.
Wen Xinglan was startled awake by the rolling and grabbing. He looked at An Fusheng in horror and grabbed his elbows tightly with both hands.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." An Fusheng slowly peeled Wen Xinglan's hand off his elbow. The place where the claws had gripped it was sunken in. "Such a small hand, but it's quite strong."
"Go to sleep." An Fusheng laid Wen Xinglan down and then lay down himself.
An Fusheng remembered that he hadn't turned off the light before going to bed. When he woke up, the light was off, and there was a small mushroom-shaped nightlight on the bedside table. He knew without a doubt that it was Lou's mother who had put it there.
The clear, melodious chirping of insects during the day has ceased; the night is very quiet.
"It must be very late." An Fusheng didn't intend to send Wen Xinglan to Lou Lan's place to bother her any further.
"Go to sleep." An Fusheng gently patted Wen Xinglan's back.
“Brother.” Wen Xinglan stared at An Fusheng.
"What's wrong?" An Fusheng asked.
"grandmother."
An Fusheng thought for a while before he understood what he was saying, “There is no grandma, you only have a grandma when you wake up.”
After saying that, An Fusheng realized that his words were ambiguous. Wasn't he already awake? So he changed his words and said, "Grandma will only be here when it's light."
After being rejected, Wen Xinglan didn't make a fuss, but just stared at An Fusheng quietly with her big eyes.
“You’ve always seen that I don’t have a grandma. Your grandma’s bottle was taken by Aunt Lou.” An Fusheng rubbed his nose. “Besides, eating in the middle of the night is bad for your stomach, you know? You’re still young and don’t know now, but it will be too late to regret it when you grow up.”
Wen Xinglan remained unmoved and continued, "Grandma."
An Fusheng sat up in bed and scooped Wen Xinglan up with him as well. "Look for yourself, where is Grandma?"
Wen Xinglan was spun around by An Fusheng, and he couldn't see his own bottle, but he still wanted to drink. "Baby Grandma."
"Do you want to hear a story?" An Fusheng helped Wen Xinglan sit back on the bed, then sat cross-legged opposite him and looked at him.
Wen Xinglan looked up at An Fusheng, and was about to speak when An Fusheng covered her mouth, "Don't speak yet, let me tell you a story."
An Fusheng, disregarding whether Wen Xinglan wanted to hear a story or not, cleared his throat and began to make up a story on the spot:
"Once upon a time, there was a little boy who wanted to drink milk in the middle of the night. His older brother told him not to, but he wouldn't listen. So his older brother had no choice but to make him some milk. But just as the milk was ready, a big tiger ran into their room and, roaring, carried the milk away. After carrying the milk away, the tiger shared it with a little tiger, a little squirrel, and a little lion..."
The entire animal world was almost completely divided up, but Wen Xinglan was still looking at An Fusheng with bright eyes, showing no sign of fatigue. An Fusheng yawned and slowly said, "In the end, Grandma was drunk up by them."
"Can we wait until the tiger leaves before we drink Grandma? Otherwise, if the tiger takes it away, we won't be able to drink it anymore," An Fusheng said earnestly to the child.
Wen Xinglan fell into thought.
An Fusheng thought Wen Xinglan was intimidated and was overjoyed, thinking to himself, "A little cub like him, not easy to handle."
Before he could finish gloating, he heard Wen Xinglan softly say, "Grandma."
"Ah!" An Fusheng lay down, closed his eyes, and said, "I'm asleep, I can't hear you."
Wen Xinglan leaned over and tugged at An Fusheng's eyes, "Grandma."
An Fusheng pretended to be asleep, and he actually fell asleep.
Wen Xinglan poked around for a while, and seeing that his brother still didn't open his eyes, he pursed his lips as if he wanted to cry, but after looking around, he saw that apart from the little bit of light at the head of the bed, it was pitch black all around. He didn't dare to cry out, and finally slowly shrank into An Fusheng's arms.
An Fusheng closed his eyes and opened them again, and it was already dawn!
"Thank goodness, Xiao Ba is sleeping soundly."
An Fusheng was still shaken when he fell asleep before his child, who hadn't fallen asleep yet.
As soon as An Fusheng moved, Wen Xinglan also woke up.
"Good morning," An Fusheng greeted Wen Xinglan with a grin.
Wen Xinglan was not feeling well; his lips trembled, and he burst into tears.
An Fusheng was puzzled. "What's wrong?"
Wen Xinglan buried her head in An Fusheng's arms, crying so hard her voice was hoarse.
Lou Lan heard the child crying and rushed over, "What's wrong? What happened to Xiao Ba?"
“I don’t know either.” An Fusheng scratched his head. “He cried as soon as he woke up.”
Lou Lan gently pulled Wen Xinglan out of An Fusheng's arms, coaxing her repeatedly, "What's wrong with Xiao Ba? Come here, let Lou Mama hold you and let Lou Mama see what's wrong. It's okay, it's okay."
Wen Xinglan continued to sob in Lou Lan's arms.
"Are you uncomfortable because you peed?" Lou Lan touched Wen Xinglan's diaper, which was full of them.
Lou Lan coaxed Wen Xinglan out, and An Fusheng scratched the back of his head innocently, "A child's face changes in an instant."
After An Fusheng finished washing up, he went downstairs. Wen Xinglan was sobbing in Lou Lan's arms, holding a baby bottle.
Seeing An Fusheng approach, she tearfully tried to throw herself into his arms.
"You don't mind me at all?" An Fusheng was stunned.
"Come on, big brother will take you to see the bean sprouts." An Fusheng picked up Wen Xinglan.
An Fusheng led Wen Xinglan to the vegetable garden in the backyard. He gently lifted a corner of the shading film, and plump bean sprouts stood upright in the soft, dark brown soil. The faster-growing ones had already sprouted two tender yellow-green leaves, while the slower-growing ones still had the outer skin of the beans on top, which was crooked and looked like the hats on the heads of naughty children.
"Isn't it cute?" An Fusheng said. "Just as cute as you."
Wen Xinglan was drawn to the bean sprouts, and forgot to cry while biting her pacifier, her eyes fixed on the bean sprouts.
An Fusheng plucked a bean sprout for him, and he held the bean sprout and looked at it from all angles.
When the other children heard that their older brother had taken their younger brother to see the bean sprouts, they all ran to the vegetable garden one by one.
"Little brother, you're looking at bean sprouts!" Wen Xingmou screamed as she ran over. "Sister's here too!"
Wen Xinglan was startled by the sudden sound.
When Wen Xingmou saw that her younger brother had bean sprouts, she wanted to pull one out too.
An Fusheng said she could go to the kitchen, get a basin, and pull up the whole basin.
The other children who had just come in, upon hearing that they could pick bean sprouts, rummaged around in the kitchen for a while, then each of them grabbed a basin and ran to the vegetable garden.
A group of people pulled up bean sprouts with great enthusiasm and in no time they had pulled up a large patch of them.
"That's enough," An Fusheng said, seeing that it was enough. "Our family can't eat this much in one meal."
"I can eat it." An Shisi sniffed, his hands still moving.
Bai Mangmang also said, "I can eat a lot of bean sprouts."
Wen Xinglin: "Me too."
Wen Xingmou: "I can stay here too."
...
There were leftover vegetables and chicken soup from last night, so Anfusheng cooked rice noodles for breakfast this morning.
Rice noodles are a specialty snack from An Fusheng's hometown. An Fusheng can make all kinds of rice noodles with his eyes closed and without making any mistakes.
Besides, today's rice noodles contain chicken soup, pork trotters, egg dumplings, and fresh bean sprouts that the children grew, picked, and washed themselves.
"Ah! So delicious!" Bai Mangmang exclaimed as she ate. "Our bean sprouts are so much better than the ones you buy at the market!"
"I know why, because we grew them ourselves!" An Shisi shouted. "The teacher said that doing it yourself is the best!"
“I…I’m the best baby!” Wen Xingmou said, slurping her rice cereal.
“Our babies are all the best!” Wen Min said enthusiastically.
“Yes!” An Shisi said, “We’ll plant bean sprouts again next time.”
"There's plenty of land behind here, you can plant whatever you want," Lou Lan said with a smile.
An Shisi slurped up a long rice noodle and said, "Yes, we also planted a lot of vegetables. When they grow up, we can eat lots of vegetables."
Lou Lan: "Then you'd better eat plenty of vegetables then."
“No problem, I can eat more, because we need to keep planting.” An Shisi said to An Fusheng, “Brother, shall we go buy more seeds?”
“Actually, if we grow too many vegetables, it will be a waste if we can’t eat them all.” An Fusheng’s hands ached slightly when he heard that they should continue to grow vegetables, but he could take it slowly. “We’ll keep the land and plant soybeans, mung beans, corn, sweet potatoes, and watermelons next spring.”
An Fusheng thought to himself: If only we had a tractor, he would never let the land sit idle all year round. But he knew the orphanage didn't have any money, so he could only do it manually.
"Wow, a watermelon!" Bai Mangmang exclaimed. "Can watermelons be grown?"
"Otherwise, where do the watermelons we usually eat come from?" Lou Lan laughed. "Our backyard used to be much bigger, but we sold them all, so this is all that's left."
"Even bigger?" An Fusheng asked in surprise.
Lou Lan: "See those houses outside the wall behind us? The land beneath those houses that look the same used to belong to us."
"That's huge!" An Fusheng exclaimed, as he couldn't see the end of the rows of similar-looking houses behind him.
...
Two days ago, Wen Min said he would lend An Fusheng money to buy a mobile phone, but he hasn't had time to withdraw cash. In addition, An Fusheng is too naive now. It's okay to ask him to buy some groceries, but if you ask him to buy a mobile phone, Wen Min thinks he will most likely be tricked.
So after breakfast, Wen Min announced that at 10 o'clock the whole family would go shopping together to buy a cell phone for his older brother.
As for why not now but at 10 o'clock?
Firstly, it was too early and the mall hadn't opened yet; secondly, some children were not self-disciplined and forgot to do their homework once they started playing. Therefore, Wenmin required that they must complete part of their homework before they could go out to play.
Those who have homework to do have already gone to do it, while those who don't have homework are busy getting ready.
Lou Lan was pulled along to help them with their new clothes. A little while later, Wen Xingmou came skipping downstairs in a pink dress and very naturally handed An Fusheng a small comb, saying, "Big brother, help me comb my princess hairstyle."
"What princess hairstyle?" An Fusheng asked.
"It's a pretty little braid! Add my bow hair clip and it's a princess hairstyle."
In Fushan Village, women cherish their hair, so most keep it very long. Combing their hair is a major undertaking; they often spend the entire morning combing it in their courtyards, braiding it. Early in the morning, you're likely to see women in the courtyard of any house braiding their own hair or their daughters' hair.
An Fusheng had seen countless people braiding their hair since he was a child. He recalled the steps of braiding hair and felt that it was not difficult. So he confidently decided to give Wen Xingmou a super beautiful princess hairstyle.
Wen Xingmou's hair was very soft, and although it was An Fusheng's first time combing long hair, he didn't pull on Wen Xingmou's hair.
only……
"Your hair is too slippery, it just won't hold together."
"Oh dear, how do I set this up?"
"Huh? Why did they disperse again?"
"Sigh! Never mind..."
"mom!!!!"
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Author's note: It's a bit late today, I'll try to be earlier tomorrow. Sweet dreams everyone!
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