Chapter 31 How did your clothes and face get so dirty? An Fusheng: This is it...
We're home!
Grandma Lin pushed open the door, and a snow-white Samoyed darted out, wagging its tail wildly around Grandma Lin and Lin Wuyang.
"Little Bai missed you so much." Grandma Lin pushed Lin Wuyang into the house.
After helping Lin Wuyang change into slippers, Grandma Lin asked, "What should be the first thing you do when you get home?"
Lin Wuyang did not answer.
"Of course we should wash our hands," Grandma Lin said to herself, pulling Lin Wuyang to the kitchen to wash his hands.
In most cases, Lin Wuyang is like a little wooden puppet, mechanically doing whatever adults ask him to do, neither giving positive feedback nor refusing. But today, Lin Wuyang refused to put his hand under the faucet.
"What's wrong?" Grandma Lin asked.
Lin Wuyang's silence was, in effect, a refusal to extend his hand.
"Don't want to wash your hands? That's okay, you don't have to. Grandma will wipe them for you, okay? You can eat after they're clean," Grandma Lin said.
Just when Grandma Lin thought he wouldn't react at all, Lin Wuyang actually reached out a hand.
"Good boy." Grandma Lin was overjoyed and used a damp cloth to wipe his outstretched hand.
"He also stretched out his other hand to wipe Grandma's face."
Lin Wuyang pulled his hand, which had been hanging by his side, behind his back.
In that fleeting moment, Grandma Lin noticed that he seemed to be holding something in his hand. "What are you holding?"
Grandma Lin asked, "Can I take a look?"
Lin Wuyang made no move.
"Grandma will just look at it, Grandma doesn't want it," Grandma Lin coaxed patiently.
Lin Wuyang blinked, thought for a long time, and then slowly stretched his hand out from behind, opening his palm. A twisted and deformed milk stick lay in his palm.
"Oh, so these are milk sticks. Are they afternoon tea snacks from kindergarten?" Even up close, Grandma Lin could smell a faint milky aroma. "They look good."
Lin Wuyang still didn't answer, but silently held the milk stick and withdrew her hand.
"Did you get sweat on this milk stick?"
Grandma Lin was happy to have found something her grandson liked, but in this weather, the milk stick had been held tightly in his hand for so long, it was bound to get soaked with sweat.
Grandma Lin said, "You can't eat dirty food, it'll make your stomach upset. Let's not eat this. Grandma will make you something fresh, okay?"
Lin Wuyang gripped the milk stick tightly, took a half step back, and silently expressed his refusal.
Well, being stubborn isn't necessarily a bad thing. Grandma Lin gave up trying to persuade her and let Lin Wuyang and Xiaobai go play in the living room.
The living room was covered with a thick carpet, which was piled with all sorts of plush toys.
Lin Wuyang sat down on the carpet and opened his hand to look at the milk stick.
Grandma Lin appeared to be doing housework, but she was actually secretly watching him.
Lin Wuyang stared at the pumpkin stick in his hand for a while, and then actually started eating it.
Grandma Lin was so moved that tears instantly streamed down her face. How long had it been since she had seen Lin Wuyang eat on his own initiative?
No, she had never seen it.
Grandma Lin's son stayed in the city to start his own business after graduation. He is usually busy with work and only goes back to his hometown for the Chinese New Year. And not even every year. Sometimes he goes back to his wife's parents' home.
When Grandma Lin first met her grandson, he was only six months old and a little pudding waiting to be fed. The second time she saw him, he had become dazed.
When her son told her that her grandson had autism, also known as childhood depression, she grabbed a broom and gave her son a good beating.
Grandma Lin is a teacher, 54 years old this year. She still has a year before her official retirement, but in order to take care of her grandson, she applied for early retirement on the first day of work after the New Year. After completing the procedures, she rushed over.
She didn't know until she arrived that her son and daughter-in-law were either leaving early and returning late or going on business trips for several days at a time, so they simply left Lin Wuyang with two nannies to take care of her 24 hours a day.
Her blood pressure spiked instantly. That night, she coaxed Lin Wuyang to sleep and waited for him in the living room. When her son and daughter-in-law came home in the middle of the night, Grandma Lin grabbed her slipper and beat them until they ran all over the house.
"Who are you going to give your money to?!" The house was well soundproofed, and Grandma Lin was sure she wouldn't disturb the neighbors or Lin Wuyang who was sleeping on the second floor. She hit and scolded him at the same time: "If you don't have time to take care of the child, then why did you give birth to him?"
This is the second time in Grandma Lin's life that she has hit a child. To be honest, having been a teacher her whole life, she is strongly opposed to violent education, but sometimes she really can't help it.
Mr. Lin shielded Mrs. Lin as they fled in panic, not forgetting to explain, "The nannies I hired are all professionals."
"Professionals, professionals taking such good care of children?" Grandma Lin questioned.
"The doctor said his condition could also be congenital."
"What do you mean congenital? You're the one who's congenitally sick! How did I raise you when you were a child? Is this how you're raising your son now?"
"Mom, we're really busy, but we make time to take him to see a psychologist every week... Oh, please don't be so rude!"
"Take him to see a psychologist? I think you two are the ones who should see a psychologist!"
Grandma Lin got tired of hitting them, glared at the two of them, and went upstairs to keep her grandson company.
After Grandma Lin stayed to take care of Lin Wuyang, she fired the nanny.
Although Lin Wuyang is mostly in a dazed state, he will still show some subtle reactions when he sees something he truly likes.
Once, Grandma Lin took Lin Wuyang to the mall. They saw two girls playing with a claw machine, and Lin Wuyang kept glancing at the machine.
The claw in the claw machine finally managed to grab a plush toy, and he even showed some nervousness. After the plush toy was successfully retrieved, Lin Wuyang visibly relaxed.
These 'obvious' reactions were actually quite subtle, but Grandma Lin didn't miss a single one.
So from that day on, Grandma Lin took Lin Wuyang to the mall to play the claw machine every day. They ended up with dolls everywhere in their house. Not only the living room, but every room was filled with dolls. Even Lin's parents' room had more than a dozen. Lin Wuyang knew exactly where each one was, and his parents didn't dare to say a word.
On another occasion, Grandma Lin took Lin Wuyang for a walk in the neighborhood. Some people were walking their dogs, and Lin Wuyang glanced at a Samoyed a few times. The next day, Grandma Lin ordered Lin's father to buy one.
Lin Wuyang has been carefully cared for by his grandmother for more than half a year, and his condition has improved a lot. At first, he was deeply immersed in his own world and could not hear the outside world at all. He would eat whatever others put in his mouth and he would only eat what others put in his mouth. He was hungry or full, and others had to guess what he was doing. Now, at least when others call him to do something, he will occasionally be willing to respond.
Grandma Lin mustered up a lot of courage to send Lin Wuyang to school. She was afraid that something might happen to Lin Wuyang at school, but she was even more afraid that Lin Wuyang would live outside the public eye for the rest of her life.
Fortunately, his teachers and classmates at the kindergarten are all very nice. Several weeks into the new semester, he has been safe and sound without any incidents.
Today, Lin Wuyang actually brought something back and even ate it on his own initiative. This was an unprecedented improvement, and Grandma Lin was already sobbing uncontrollably in the kitchen.
With trembling hands, Grandma Lin sent a message to Shen Xinan, asking if she could ask the kindergarten cook for a copy of today's milk stick recipe, and she would pay for it.
Shen Xinan was completely bewildered when she received the message: "Didn't we get milk sticks at kindergarten today?"
So where did Lin Wuyang get his milk sticks?
Without a doubt, some kid must have secretly given it to him.
Lin Wuyang was not talkative. At first, some children would ask him to play, but after a while, he ignored them, and the children stopped asking him to play, except for Wen Xingmou, that little chatterbox.
In Shen Xinan's words, Wen Xingmou could talk for half a day about even a rock.
Shen Xinan shared his guess with Grandma Lin, who immediately found Wen Xingmou's parents in the class group and sent them a friend request.
However, the other party was probably busy and did not approve immediately.
Lou Lan is indeed busy.
An Fusheng said he wanted to plant bean sprouts with the children, and right now he's leading them in digging holes in the vegetable garden.
The pit was surrounded by piles of soil, and the children stood behind the piles, craning their necks to look into the pit. If Lou Lan hadn't stopped them, Wen Xingmou and An Shisi would have already been lying on the piles of soil.
Just in case, Lou Lan found some protective aprons for An Shisi and Wen Xingmou. "Come on, put these on, so you don't get your clothes dirty."
Wen Xingmou happily ran to put them on, "Aunt Lou, are these my clothes from when I was little?"
"yes."
"Hehe, my clothes when I was little were adorned with little bunnies."
After Lou Lan finished dressing Wen Xingmou, she walked towards An Shisi. An Shisi struggled and said, "Aunt Lou, can I stop wearing this now that I'm all grown up?"
These clothes are for three-year-olds. He's almost five, and he doesn't want to wear such childish clothes anymore.
"No." Lou Lan refused him with both words and actions.
An Shisi reluctantly put on the kangaroo-shaped protective smock he wore when he was three years old.
An Fusheng silently dug the hole.
It turns out that even if there's dirt on your clothes, it's not allowed at Aunt Lou's place. Luckily, he gave Wen Xingrui a bath and changed his clothes beforehand.
An Fusheng used to grow bean sprouts at home using a bamboo sieve. He would lay paulownia leaves on the sieve, sprinkle the seeds on the leaves, cover them with more leaves, and water them regularly every day. The bean sprouts grown this way were clean and had the fragrance of paulownia leaves.
But there was nothing in the city, so he could only use soil to grow things.
An Fusheng only bought mung beans and peanut seeds today, not soybeans. Soybean sprouts have a fishy smell, which children generally don't like.
After digging the hole, An Fusheng first sprinkled a layer of water on the soil, and then directed his capable assistants to sow the seeds, "Don't scatter different seeds together."
"OK!"
"clear!"
"Know!"
"Several!"
The capable assistants each held half a bowl of seeds and threw handfuls of them into the pit with all their might, but they had no aim whatsoever.
The seeds fall from the sky into the pit and bounce a few times. In the small pit, the two kinds of seeds are already intertwined.
Well, peanut sprouts and mung bean sprouts are different thicknesses, so they're not hard to tell apart.
After the assistants finished tossing a bowl of seeds, they excitedly asked An Fusheng, "Brother, are we done planting? Is there any more?"
"That's all." An Fusheng used a hoe to fill the pit with loose soil.
"Brother, I'll help you." Before he could finish speaking, An Shisi knelt down with a "thud" and began to throw soil into the pit with both hands.
An Fusheng: ...You'd better not cry when you get beaten up.
Everyone was a capable assistant. An Shisi had already mastered the skills, so how could they fall behind? They all joined in as well.
An Fusheng: ...Let's see who runs the fastest in a bit.
After filling the soil and covering it with a light-blocking plastic sheet, the assistants clapped their hands in triumph. The soil was wet and couldn't be patted off, so they casually wiped it on their clothes. Some of them, who had been working hard, even generously wiped the sweat from their foreheads with their hands...
"Sister Mangmang, quickly take a picture of our bean sprouts!" An Shisi shouted while wiping his sweat.
"Okay!" Bai Mangmang raised the phone watch and slapped it repeatedly.
Lou Lan took Wen Xingrui to change his diaper, and when she came back, she saw that the children who were just clean had turned into little kittens covered in diapers. "What happened?"
An Shisi, completely oblivious to the impending danger, boasted, "Aunt Lou, we've all planted the bean sprouts."
"Why are your clothes and face so dirty? Didn't I tell you not to play in the dirt?" Lou Lan stared at An Shisi.
The other children all took two steps back, unanimously hiding their claws, which were filled with black mud under their fingernails, behind their backs.
An Fusheng: It's over!
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Author's Note: There are too many characters, so I'm being lazy and not naming them. Some elders will be replaced with the younger generation's surname plus their title (^_^) (Actually, this has already been done before, hahaha~~)
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