25
Mumu slept soundly in Chu Qinghuai's arms.
"Shh, everyone be quiet, don't disturb your sister's sleep."
He spoke to Cai Cai and Xiao He, who had finished their meal.
Cai Cai and Xiao He understood, so they tiptoed away, like little dinosaurs, until they reached the living room before daring to return to normal and climb onto the sofa to play with their toys.
"Why don't you put Mumu on the bed to sleep?" Zhong Wan asked.
"It's okay, it's not heavy to hold."
Zhong Wan smiled as she tidied the table, glancing at the living room. "Those two little ones didn't throw a tantrum? A couple of days ago, I held Mumu a little longer, and they started saying I didn't love them."
Chu Qinghuai chuckled: "Really? No way?"
"Why would I lie to you? They're all clever little devils. They wish I could open my ten arms and pick them all up." The three children wouldn't argue or fight over this, but one of them would hide in a corner and be sad.
This wasn't the first time the two had discussed the issue of favoritism. To parents, all three are angels, and there's no question of who they love more. Besides, the three children arrived in the family at roughly the same time, so the amount of love given by their parents is naturally the same.
However, every child has a different personality, temperament, and style of doing things, so it's perfectly normal for parents to communicate with them in different ways.
Zhong Wan and Chu Qinghuai would never show favoritism to anyone. No one understands the feeling of not being loved and ignored better than them. There's a saying that goes, "Mom and Dad are the parents of three children, but each child only has one pair of parents." How could they bear to show favoritism?
But they were also first-time parents, and there were many things they were not familiar with and did not do well. If they made a mistake, they made a mistake, and they would correct it and make their children forgive them. The only thing they could guarantee was that Zhong Wan and Chu Qinghuai's love for their three children was overflowing, and they hoped that they would always enjoy the taste of happiness.
Zhong Wan's worries were not unfounded. Just as Qinghuai was sitting on the sofa with Mumu in his arms, Cai Cai quietly came over, his hands behind his back, his legs crossed, and he didn't say anything, but you could tell that he had something to say.
"What's wrong?" Chu Qinghuai asked.
Cai Cai shook her head and happily ran off to play somewhere else.
Unlike him, Xiao He kept everything bottled up inside. She lay on the sofa cushions, tilted her head, and asked, "Daddy, I want you to hug me, okay?"
She imagined her father picking her and her sister up.
Chu Qinghuai agreed: "Okay, wait a moment, I'll put my sister back in her room first and then come out to hug you."
Xiaohe jumped up happily, while Caicai, who had hidden by the door, squatted on the ground alone, drawing circles.
After Chu Qinghuai came out of the bedroom, he noticed Cai Cai's small figure standing there out of the corner of his eye, and he called out to Zhong Wan.
"What?" Zhong Wan was sitting at the dining table practicing calligraphy, and was a little annoyed after being disturbed.
Chu Qinghuai didn't say anything, but gestured for her to look at the door, his eyes crinkling with a smile.
Zhong Wan squinted, her lips pressed into a straight line. She had seen this scene too many times, and each time she felt helpless, only to be charmed by his cuteness.
The huddled-up Cai Cai looked like a plump cabbage. Since he couldn't squat any longer, he simply sat down, his pouting lips big enough to hang a small oil lamp.
If we're talking about who's the hardest to raise among the three kids, it's undoubtedly Cai Cai. He's the baby who needs the most emotional support. He won't say what he wants on his own; you have to guess. If you guess right, it's fine, but if you guess wrong, he'll hum and turn away. He's so hard to coax.
Zhong Wan often jokes, "Our second child should never date in the future, because no one can stand it."
Her arrogant temperament is just like Chu Qinghuai's.
...
"Cai Cai?" Zhong Wan called out tentatively. The little cabbage twitched its ears but didn't move its body.
She couldn't understand why he was angry again. Then she saw Chu Qinghuai walk over and deliberately say, "Do you want me to hug you? I can consider hugging your sister first and then you."
Before Cai Cai could answer, Xiao He had already run over to her father and opened her arms wide, "Hug~"
Chu Qinghuai easily picked her up, finding her very light. He lifted her up with one hand and felt he could easily carry another one.
He said to the little green vegetables on the ground, "Do you want them or not? Why are you getting so worked up, you little kid?"
Cai Cai then turned her head slightly and realized that her father was holding her younger sister and waiting for her. Her displeasure vanished.
He stood up straight, stretched out his hand, and softly called out, "Dad."
So Chu Qinghuai picked him up too and told the two little ones, "How can you be jealous of your sister? She's not feeling well today, so Daddy is holding her more. Look, I'm holding you both right now."
"And," he said to Cai Cai, "you can just tell me you want me to hug you, like you do with your little sister, and I won't refuse."
Cai Cai buried her face in his shoulder shyly.
-
Finally, the day when Zhong Wan and Chu Qinghuai were both off work arrived. The family didn't have to get up too early or huff and puff as they took the children to the noodle shop.
At 7:30 in the morning, Chu Qinghuai sat at the dining table making wontons, his hands moving quickly while his eyes glanced at his phone from time to time.
What are we eating today?
Zhong Wan came out yawning and heard a familiar voice coming from her phone. She went over and saw that it was playing the cartoon that the three children always watched.
"Why are you watching this so early in the morning?"
"I'm so bored, I'm just killing time."
The children watch cartoons every day, and Chu Qinghuai can't guarantee that all the content is beneficial to their physical and mental development, so he watches them himself before showing them to them. Fortunately, each episode is short and doesn't take up much of his energy, so he just watches them.
He had just finished wrapping a basket of wontons, wiped his hands, and was about to put them in the pot. "How many do you want?"
Today he made large shepherd's purse wontons, which Zhong Wan loves to eat. She smiled and said, "Fifteen of them."
Chu Qinghuai nodded, counted them, and put all the wontons into the pot. While they were cooking, he also prepared a dipping sauce for them to eat later.
"Do you have enough money on you? Do you want me to transfer some to you?" Zhong Wan asked, sitting down.
At home, she held absolute control over the finances. Every month, the first thing Chu Qinghuai did when his money arrived was to give her the lion's share, keeping only a little for himself. However, the rotten fruit he lost a lot of money a few days ago caused Zhong Wan to worry that he didn't have enough money, so she picked up her phone to transfer the money.
"It's enough. You don't need to give me any more. I'll take the kids to buy some clothes in a few days. The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and they don't have any short sleeves or shorts."
This is another considerable expense.
Zhong Wan said she knew, "We'll have to buy a couple of new outfits then."
The couple is quite frugal and hasn't bought summer clothes for a year or two, even though they had planned to buy some this year. Although there are many expenses at home, they don't intend to deprive themselves; after working hard for so many years, it's only right to buy a few new clothes.
While they were talking, the water in the pot boiled and bubbled. The wontons were almost ready. Chu Qinghuai tasted one and found it delicious. He scooped them all out to cool and said to Zhong Wan, "Go brush your teeth. You can eat them when you come out."
He poured another glass of lemonade and placed it on the table.
"Okay, right away."
Zhong Wan didn't dawdle; she came out five minutes later looking refreshed and ready to go.
...
The three children didn't get up until 9:30. As soon as one of them woke up, the other two would be woken up as well. Since they had all slept enough today, they weren't grumpy when they woke up. They obediently washed up with their mother and then went to eat breakfast, which was wontons that Chu Qinghuai had just made.
He was worried that the children would eat too much for breakfast and then refuse to eat lunch, so he gave each of them three small bowls. They finished eating in no time, but some of the children still refused to eat lunch.
This phenomenon is somewhat rare at home.
Chu Qinghuai, who rarely had a moment of leisure at home, prepared four dishes and a soup, and even squeezed sweet orange juice from the leftover oranges, making it a very sumptuous lunch.
Before dinner, Zhong Wan prepared to wash the children's hands and shouted, "Dinner's ready!"
But only Mumu responded to her.
After washing her hands, Mumu climbed onto the table and couldn't help but drool over the meat she loved.
"Caicai, Xiaohe, come here quickly, it's time to eat."
The two children, engrossed in the cartoon, sat there quietly, seemingly oblivious to what was happening, showing no sign of moving.
Zhong Wan walked over and turned off the TV. "Dinner's ready."
The television screen went black. The two blinked, and Cai Cai picked at her fingers: "That's it."
"Yes, that's all. It's lunchtime now."
Xiao He tugged at her mother's finger and said in a soft voice, "Mom, I don't want to eat."
“I don’t want to either,” Cai Cai echoed.
Zhong Wan tried to persuade them: "Dad made some super delicious food today, are you really not going to eat any?"
"I don't want to eat."
"Are you sure? We have shrimp and meatballs today."
Cai Cai was suddenly tempted and wanted to eat again. She nimbly climbed off the sofa and said, "I want to eat."
Xiaohe: "Then I'll have some too."
Zhong Wan laughed angrily: "You two kids."
After washing their hands and climbing into their high chairs, Zhong Wan and Chu Qinghuai thought the siblings would finally eat properly, but to their surprise, they only ate a tiny bit.
Cai Cai ate the two large shrimp and meatballs in her bowl, while Xiao He only ate a piece of pork rib. It seems that today's meal did not interest them.
Chu Qinghuai put down his chopsticks, picked up the ear thermometer, and found that they didn't have a fever. He then asked Caicai and Xiaohe, "Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"
"No."
Xiao He propped her head up and made a funny face. Before long, she got off the table to play, with Cai Cai following closely behind.
Zhong Wan was a little angry, but she didn't show it. She just said, "You two didn't have any snacks this afternoon."
Mu Mu had already eaten half a bowl of rice. Seeing her younger siblings leave, she wanted to call them back, but Zhong Wan stopped her.
"Don't worry about them, just eat more."
Zhong Wan dotes on her children but doesn't spoil them; she always sets the proper rules.
So in the afternoon, the three children, having finished their nap, were very hungry. Mumu successfully got a cherry-flavored cake and some delicious milk, while Caicai and Xiaohe could only eat the leftovers from lunch.
The leftovers were from their own small bowls, all mushy and not very appealing. The picky kids would pout at the sight of them, clearly not wanting to eat them.
Zhong Wan sat at the dining table and supervised, "This is all we have left. If you don't eat it, you'll go hungry. We can't waste food. This is all you have left from lunch. Eat it now."
Her words were not to be questioned.
Cai Cai was so hungry that he grabbed a spoon and started eating without thinking. Although the food didn't look very appetizing, it tasted good to him. He finished eating in no time, but his stomach was still not full. He looked at Zhong Wan with wet eyes.
"Mother."
"Okay, let's go play after we finish eating."
Zhong Wan pretended not to understand what he meant.
"Xiao He, eat quickly too. This is your leftovers, don't waste it."
She had no choice but to use a spoon to scoop the rice into her mouth, and for a long time afterward, she didn't leave any leftovers, and she ate properly at mealtimes.
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