Chapter 147
In order to find out whether it was the child's fault, Chen found Jiaojiao squatting on the edge of the field watching other children playing with urine and mud early the next morning.
Jiaojiao followed her father out to plant winter melons today. The family has two acres of land. Her father originally planned to plant wheat and millet, but beautiful... oh no, Uncle Huaizhi asked them to plant winter melons, saying that winter melons are very sweet and can be sold for a lot of money.
Uncle Huaizhi also found some winter melon seeds. When my father heard that they were so sweet, he decided to plant them.
He planned to plant wheat on one acre of land to pay taxes, and to plant melons on the remaining acre of land.
Dad is as cute and likes sweets as Jiaojiao!
Thinking of Jiaojiao holding the big bottle and drinking a big sip of sugar water, looking at Li Tiedan who was playing in the mud with his face covered with mud, he lowered his head to look at his clothes that were stained with mud from working in the fields with his father just now, and quietly moved to the side. These were clothes bought by his father, and they could not be stained with mud mixed with Tiedan's urine, which was a bit smelly.
"Jiaojiao, don't you want to play with me?" Tiedan looked at Jiaojiao in confusion, holding a big round mud ball in his hand.
Jiaojiao, holding the bottle, wrinkled her nose and said, "No, it's not good to get the clothes Daddy bought dirty."
Tiedan glanced at his patchless clothes and nodded, "Yeah, if I were to play in the mud wearing the new clothes my mom bought me, she would beat my butt with a broom."
For Tiedan, clothes without patches are the best new ones.
"By the way, Jiaojiao, what is this strange jar of yours?" Tiedan said as he leaned in to take a look.
Jiaojiao's bottle was strangely pale green and transparent, resembling colored glass. Colored glass was extremely precious these days, and only the upper class and wealthy families could afford it. In such a small village, Jiaojiao's bottle was too conspicuous. To avoid attracting prying eyes and negative thoughts, Xie Shuyu and Yin Zheng mentioned it, and Yin Zheng put a cloth cover over the bottle, obscuring the colored glass.
Jiaojiao glanced at the bottle in her arms and said, "It's for drinking water!" Then she took a big sip of water in front of Tiedan and showed him that her cheeks were bulging, proving with her actions that she was indeed drinking water.
"It's so convenient to drink water." Tiedan looked at him enviously: "It won't even stain your clothes. Your dad bought it for you!"
Jiaojiao looked at the bottle in her hand, hesitated, and nodded: "Daddy bought it."
Although he didn't remember when his father bought it, he was sure that his father bought it for Jiaojiao.
In a certain space, Su Cang, who occasionally cast a glance, happened to see this scene: "?"
He was completely baffled. How did it become your dad's purchase?!
This was the scene Chen saw when she came over. She couldn't help but smile and walked over quickly.
"Aunt Chen." Seeing her, Jiaojiao waved her little paws to greet her.
Tiedan, Erniu, and Sanwa also looked up quickly: "Hello, Auntie."
"Hey, you guys are playing in the mud again!" Chen said, looking at Jiaojiao, who was squatting beside them and looked particularly clean. She felt a little more fond of her. "What are you doing? Why don't you play with your brothers?"
Jiaojiao raised her fair and tender face and said seriously, "I'm resting, not playing. After I've rested enough, I have to help Daddy with work."
How can such a young kid do any work? I guess it’s Yin who is trying to coax him into playing!
Chen was so amused by his serious look that wrinkles appeared on the corners of her eyes. There was no child in the whole village more adorable than Jiaojiao. She hoped that the baby in her belly would be half as adorable as him.
Chen thought about it and squatted down and said, "Jiaojiao, auntie needs your help with something?"
"What's the matter?" Jiaojiao looked at her confusedly, not knowing how she could help.
Chen smiled and said, "Auntie saw Jiaojiao was so cute that she wanted to put one of Jiaojiao's old clothes under her pillow, hoping that she would give birth to a little brother as fair, tender and pretty as Jiaojiao."
Jiaojiao was very happy to be praised for her beauty, but she wanted clothes... Jiaojiao looked down at her clothes, her brows knitted in confusion: "But...but Jiaojiao's clothes were all bought by Daddy, Jiaojiao can't bear to give them to Auntie."
Hearing him say this, Chen was startled, then she smiled happily and took out a piece of fine cotton children's clothes from the basket: "It's okay, auntie has clothes here, you can take them and wear them out and then give them to auntie."
There was no reason to take other people's children's clothes for free. She had noticed that Jiaojiao had delicate skin, and the clothes that Yin bought for her were all made of fine cotton. Early this morning, she went to the town and reluctantly bought two feet of fine cotton cloth. When she got home, she made a piece of this for Jiaojiao according to her size.
Jiaojiao tilted his head, not knowing why his aunt insisted on making his new clothes worn out, but he still nodded in agreement.
Chen's eyes were full of smiles. The more she looked at Jiaojiao, the more she admired him. She reached out and stroked his furry head. Avoiding Tiedan and the other kids, she stuffed a piece of candy into Jiaojiao's mouth before getting up and leaving.
Jiaojiao's cheeks were bulging with malt candy. He put the bottle on his back, stood up with the clothes in his arms, waved to Tiedan and the others, and walked to the fields with his short legs to find his father.
Under the scorching sun, Yin Zheng was working hard. It was his first time planting winter melons and he was not very skilled, so his speed was much slower. However, Xie Shuyu had explained the points he needed to pay attention to in detail before he went out. After he gradually got the hang of it, it was fine. In another quarter of an hour, he had almost finished the work.
The ground on the ridge of the field was not very flat, and Jiaojiao stumbled a little as she trotted while holding the clothes. When she saw her father, her eyes lit up. She looked around to see if there was anyone around, and then she shouted in her childish voice, "Dad!"
Seeing him, Yin Zheng walked towards him. No one knew what Xie Shuyu said to him. Jiaojiao, who had never called him daddy before, called him daddy in front of outsiders, but in private she still called him dad as before.
Every time Yin Zheng saw his clever look as he looked around to see if there was anyone around, he couldn't help but be speechless.
"Daddy, drink—" Jiaojiao put the bottle down from her back and held it in both hands as she passed it forward. Yin Zheng reached out and took the bottle, holding it in his mouth skillfully. He glanced at the unfamiliar clothes in his arms and asked, "What are these clothes?"
"It's a gift from Aunt Chen. Let Jiaojiao wear it out and give it to her. Put it under your pillow and give birth to a brother as handsome as Jiaojiao." Jiaojiao puffed out her chest and looked at Yin Zheng with bright eyes, emphasizing, "Jiaojiao is handsome!"
Yin Zheng's lips curled up slightly, he bent down and hugged Jiaojiao into his arms, and said in a low voice: "Well, it looks good!"
Knowing that when villagers get pregnant, they often borrow old clothes from relatives' babies and put them under their pillows to get a bit of the son's charm, Yin Zheng didn't pay much attention to it.
Jiaojiao's eyes curved with joy after being praised. She raised her head and rubbed Yin Zheng's chin: "Daddy is handsome too, the most handsome."
Yin Zheng chuckled softly, holding Jiaojiao and walking to the shade of a tree nearby to sit down. The afternoon sun was very leisurely, and the annoying cicadas in the distance were chirping one after another. He rested his chin lightly on Jiaojiao's furry head, his eyelashes lazily closed.
The little kids from the village not far away were catching cicadas on the trees in groups with their homemade simple nets. Cicadas are a delicacy for the farmers, so of course they cannot be let go.
Knowing that her father was tired and wanted to rest, Jiaojiao obediently lowered her head and played with her father's fingers, happily entertaining herself without making any noise.
At three quarters after the afternoon, after finishing the work in the fields, Jiaojiao went home early with her father. She looked at Li Erwa curiously as he ran past with a fishing net in his hand. Then she ran ahead happily, carrying her milk bottle and dragging the small hoe that her father had carved for her.
"Uncle Huaizhi, open the door." Jiaojiao raised her little hand and knocked on the door. After knocking twice, Xie Shuyu opened the door for fear that his hand would turn red.
Xie Shuyu pulled him into his arms and held him. He touched his forehead and back, and when he saw that he was not sweating, he carried him inside. After putting him on the recliner, he poured him a bowl of sugar water.
Huaizhi is Xie Shuyu's courtesy name. Half a month ago, he was suspicious of Yin Zheng, so he hid his own name and borrowed his mother's surname, reporting the name Huaizhi.
Jiaojiao patted her bulging belly and showed him the bottle of milk on her back, which had little water left: "I can't drink it anymore."
Xie Shuyu touched his belly and saw that it was indeed bulging, so he drank the bowl of sugar water himself. Then he squeezed onto the recliner and poked his chubby face from time to time: "Why did you drink so much sugar water that your belly is bulging?"
Worried about Jiaojiao's teeth not growing properly, Xie Shuyu restricted Jiaojiao's candy intake, changing it from allowing him to eat whenever he wanted to only one candy every two days. However, he didn't confiscate all the candy from Jiaojiao's pockets. He planned to see if he could control his cravings and then catch him if he couldn't resist eating too much.
However, Xie Shuyu, who had a rare bad taste, did not succeed. Jiaojiao was more obedient than he expected. He said to eat one candy every two days and he ate one candy every two days. Moreover, he only ate one candy every two days, but he fed Jiaojiao and Yin Zheng one candy every day. This made Xie Shuyu, who was actually trying to cultivate Jiaojiao's self-control, feel very complicated and difficult to understand.
He knew Jiaojiao's story. He had been picked up by Yin Zheng from the Mist Mountain. It was hard to imagine how such a well-behaved and lovely child, someone he couldn't help but treat with special care, could be abandoned? And abandoned deep in the mountains, clearly with the intention of not letting the child survive!
Thinking of this, Xie Shuyu felt an irrepressible anger in his heart.
Jiaojiao, who was already blinking with guilt because she had eaten an extra piece of malt candy from Aunt Chen today, saw that he was angry. She quickly flapped her short legs and tried to get off the recliner to find her father, but was stopped by Xie Shuyu who seemed a little puzzled.
Xie Shuyu was about to ask Jiaojiao what was wrong when he saw Jiaojiao lean over and hug his neck. She rubbed her soft face against his in a flattering manner. There was a hint of nervousness in her childish voice: "Uncle, don't be angry. It's Jiaojiao's fault. I won't eat the candy given by auntie. I won't eat candy anymore. Uncle, don't be angry~"
After Xie Shuyu understood the reason, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but also felt distressed. He glanced at Jiaojiao with a deliberately cold face and said, "No sweets for four days."
Jiaojiao nodded hurriedly: "Okay, I won't eat it."
Seeing this, Yin Zheng, who had put his things down and was walking over, strode forward, snatched Jiaojiao away, and held her in his arms like a calf. Not only did he look at Xie Shuyu with an unfriendly look, but he also looked at Xie Shuyu as if he had bullied Jiaojiao.
“…” Xie Shuyu stroked his forehead and took a deep breath.
In the past, he thought that his mother and grandmother were the most doting elders in the world. But now, after meeting Yin Zheng, he felt that this was nothing compared to that. If Yin Zheng was as doting as he was, his younger brother would have rebelled long ago.
Fortunately, Jiaojiao has a good temper and seems like she can't be spoiled, otherwise...
Xie Shuyu glanced at Yin Zheng without saying anything. He decided to write a letter to his friend tomorrow and ask him to send him some tips on raising children, so that Yin Zheng wouldn't let Jiaojiao become more and more wrong. By the way, Yin Zheng should also read some books with him and learn about the ways of the world. Otherwise, he was really afraid that one day he would be cheated and sold along with Jiaojiao.
Xie Shuyu, who was in a bad mood, stood up slowly and said, "Tomorrow you will learn to read with Jiaojiao!" Then he walked into the house and started to prepare to write a letter.
Yin Zheng's expressionless face showed obvious confusion: "...?!"
"Don't be afraid, Dad. Jiaojiao will teach you." Seeing her father's expression, Jiaojiao patted her chest and comforted him confidently.
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