67. A family
"Aunt Lin, did your parents say when they're coming back?"
"No, I don't know when your older brother and sister's parent-teacher conference will end. Xiao He, have dinner at Auntie's house later, and Uncle and I will take you home after we finish eating."
"Okay, okay!"
Looking at the graceful young girl in front of her, Lin Jiang's heart softened. She gave her some pork jerky she had just made that afternoon to tide her over, while she put on an apron and went into the kitchen to cook.
Chuhe is now in her third year of junior high school. Today is Friday, and her parents are going to a parent-teacher conference for their older brothers and sisters in the first year of high school. They might not be home until later, so they temporarily entrusted her to Lin Jiang.
Normally, a child this age would be fine even if left home alone, but Zhong Wan was worried, so she specifically called Lin Jiang to ask her to pick up her youngest daughter from school.
The little girl who used to wipe her tears with flower petals has grown up, but her lively nature hasn't changed. Sometimes she's a bit clumsy, but no matter what she becomes, she's still everyone's most beloved little lotus flower. In everyone's eyes, she's a little girl who will never grow up.
She ate dinner at the noodle shop, but she still couldn't stop thinking about her parents.
On the other hand, the couple who were attending a parent-teacher meeting for their child were not so happy.
Last year, Mumu and Caicai were admitted to the same high school. Logically, this should have been a double celebration. However, Caicai was not as promising as her sister. Once she entered high school, she thought everything would be fine and showed no signs of wanting to study. In the first semester, she lived at school and became completely unruly without her parents' supervision. She not only slept in class but was also often late for morning and evening reading sessions. So this semester, Zhong Wan made her a day student.
The teenager with chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) spends his days fighting wits with his parents, and even someone as calm as Chu Qinghuai is almost driven to the brink of high blood pressure by it.
Sometimes, when the couple closes the door and whispers to each other, they wonder where the adorable Cai Cai who used to ask "Do Mom and Dad love me?" every day has gone. Now he's not adorable at all.
...
The parents' meeting was notified to all classes a week ago. It's not that the two of them are biased, but who wouldn't want to attend the parents' meeting for their well-behaved daughter who is academically excellent and doesn't need anyone to worry about them? But there was only one spot available, and Zhong Wan and Qing Huai decided it by playing rock-paper-scissors. Zhong Wan lost all three rounds and could only angrily go to the meeting for Cai Cai. It just ended.
More than a decade has passed, and the two children have grown taller and more slender, exuding a vibrant energy that makes them taller than their parents.
Zhong Wan walked in front, Mu Mu followed closely behind, Cai Cai kept her distance from them guiltily, and Chu Qinghuai was not present as he was driving.
Zhong Wan was furious, clutching the bottom-ranked report card in her hand, wishing she could make some kid eat it.
She doesn't consider herself a strict or demanding parent. If her child's grades aren't good, so be it; as long as he's healthy and doesn't cause trouble, that's fine. But what about Cai Cai? She clearly had the potential to do well in school, but she ruined it herself by not putting any effort into her studies. How could she possibly be happy about that?
"Infatuation".
Oh no, Cai Cai is doomed as soon as her parents call her by her full name. She's still a little afraid of her mother.
"Hey." He responded quickly, trotting over with a beaming smile. "Mom, what did you want to see me about?"
"What do you think?" Zhong Wan gritted her teeth. "The teacher told me you sang during morning reading class. What's your opinion on that?"
"I was so sleepy that I had to sing to wake myself up." He shrugged, looking quite aggrieved.
"Then what about the chalk you stole last week? The teacher said you took all the chalk that was recently issued. What do you need this for?"
Cai Cai shouted, "She's talking nonsense! I only took less than ten in total!"
He crushed it, added water, and used it to plaster the broken wall, but he didn't dare tell Zhong Wan this.
"What does this score mean? Why did you only get 70 in Chinese? Are you even Chinese?"
He could find a reason to refute anything, so he lowered his head and said, "I haven't finished my essay..."
Zhong Wan, having gone to high school, knew how serious it was to not finish a Chinese composition. She said with exasperation, "Weren't you very smart before?"
"Maybe Zhong Limu stole my intelligence."
He put his arm around the girl who was half a head shorter than him and ruffled her hair.
Mu Mu wasn't angry; she just kept a straight face and said with an expression exactly like Chu Qinghuai's, "Call me sister."
Zhong Wan also spoke up for her daughter: "Quickly call her 'sister,' don't be so disrespectful."
Cai Cai muttered, "Chu He even calls me Green Vegetable."
He and Xiaohe fought the most since they were little, and he had never heard his sister call him brother.
"Xiaohe got first place in the monthly exam again, and you don't listen to her. You're not acting like a big brother. You expect her to call you brother?"
"eccentric."
As soon as those two words were uttered, without Zhong Wan even lifting a finger, Mu Mu gave him a flick on the forehead and whispered behind his ear, "That's enough, Mommy will be sad."
With three children in the family, it's inevitable that someone will be neglected occasionally. Zhong Wan and Chu Qinghuai are most afraid of this happening and try their best to maintain a balance.
I remember one time when Cai Cai was in elementary school, he was sick and couldn't go on the autumn outing. He could only watch his older and younger sisters go. His parents coaxed him by saying they would take him to the amusement park when he got better. But that weekend happened to be Xiao He's birthday. The whole family went to the amusement park not to make up for him, but to celebrate Xiao He's birthday. This made him very sad. He didn't talk to anyone for almost three days and said he didn't like his parents anymore. Zhong Wan cried with guilt. Although she took him there again later, it did not alleviate his grievances.
I don't know about other families, but in their family, Zhong Wan showed absolutely no favoritism and loved every child.
"knew."
Cai Cai didn't want her mother to be unhappy, so she promised her that she would do well on the next test.
Once in the car, Chu Qinghuai asked Zhong Wan, "What did Teacher Caicai say? Did she get criticized again?"
"Ask him yourself how little effort he's put in since starting high school."
Cai Cai touched her nose and said, "Two good students are enough for our family."
Chu Qinghuai smiled, not as worried as Zhong Wan. In his opinion, the child was already so old and should learn to be responsible for his own behavior. He said, "If you don't want to study, then drop out and sell fruit with me."
Upon hearing this, Cai Cai shrank back, still frightened. "No, I'll study hard."
He's still the same as when he was a child; he's easily frightened and needs adults to urge him on.
-
Not long after the four of them arrived home, Xiao He was brought back by Lin Jiang.
The schedules in junior high and high school were different. Although they lived in the same house, she and her older brother and sister didn't see each other much on school days. She was very happy to see the two of them back now and clung to Mumu, saying, "Sister, I missed you so much."
Her habit of acting cute hasn't changed at all.
"I miss you too. What did you have for dinner?"
"Aunt Lin made braised pig's trotters, they were super delicious. I brought three back with me, you can have two."
The two sisters sat on one chair, all lovey-dovey, constantly whispering to each other, which made Cai Cai incredibly jealous. He tapped the table: "Chu He, you're getting more and more rude! Why don't you call me 'brother'? Did you miss me?"
"No!"
Xiao He insisted on going against him, saying, "It's so comfortable not to see you!"
"Hmph, you heartless girl."
Cai Cai, no longer wanting to make a fool of herself, went to the balcony to get her clothes and went inside to prepare for a shower.
Chu Qinghuai poked his head out from the kitchen. "Do you want to take a shower? You can do it after you finish eating."
"No, I'm covered in sweat, it's uncomfortable."
When Cai Cai was little, she was the least clean person, but now her obsessive-compulsive tendencies are most similar to Zhong Wan's. She can take two showers a day in the summer. I don't know where this obsessive-compulsive disorder came from.
"The dough doesn't taste good when it's clumped together."
"It's okay, I'll just have some flatbread."
Chu Qinghuai looked at him helplessly, sighed, and thought that she would cook the noodles later.
...
Xiaohe's stomach was full after dinner, so she sat to the side watching them eat, chattering away about all the funny things that happened at school.
For example, "There's a really funny girl in my class. She wrote novels about two other classmates, all about love and romance. The teacher found out and asked her to go out for a talk after school."
She covered her mouth and chuckled. Students' entertainment revolves around this: who likes whom, who confesses to whom.
Zhong Wan listened with great interest, "And then? Who did she write to? Did the other person get angry?"
Xiaohe laughed three times: "She didn't just write it out of thin air, those two people really are together!"
The little girl rested her chin on her hands and whispered, "It's quite sweet."
Zhong Wan jokingly asked, "Do you have a crush on any boy in your class?"
Before his daughter could speak, Chu Qinghuai pretended to cough, his chopsticks pausing in mid-air. "At such a young age, what's the point of talking about likes and dislikes? The most important thing for you at this age is to study."
Oh dear, the moment the topic of her daughter's love life comes up, he brings up her studies. Zhong Wan knew exactly what he was thinking, so she shook her head and chuckled, "Mom doesn't object to dating, as long as you take good care of yourself. Love during your student days is still very beautiful."
As she spoke, Cai Cai winked at Mu Mu and deliberately picked up a piece of food for her. Mu Mu was a little absent-minded and asked, "Why are you giving it to me? Did you already eat it?"
Cai Cai raised an eyebrow: "Mom said we're allowed to date."
He watched his sister's hilarious expressions with his eyes crinkling, finding it quite amusing.
Haha, he caught you! He hasn't forgotten that last week a guy suddenly added him on WeChat and called him "good brother".
Xiao He, with her sharp eyes, noticed the subtle change in her older sister's face and joined in the teasing: "Sister! Why is your face red? Is something wrong?"
"No, don't talk nonsense."
The way Mumu was engrossed in eating didn't seem normal at all. Everyone at the table understood without saying anything more, but afterwards, Zhong Wan pulled Cai Cai and Xiao He up and asked what had happened. Cai Cai raised her hands in a gesture of surrender, saying, "I can't tell her, she'll beat me to death."
Zhong Wan didn't want to ask anymore after hearing that question. What else didn't she understand? She went back to her room and poked Chu Qinghuai, who was sulking alone, "What's wrong with you now?"
Just like when he was young, this man liked to make others guess what he was thinking, and then say sourly, "My daughter is all grown up now."
Zhong Wan chuckled, "Didn't you tell Cai Cai today? Life is your own, why should we care so much?"
"Then I take back what I said. Let's stay together for the rest of our lives."
Zhong Wan's smile gradually faded. She hugged his shoulders and nuzzled her head against Chu Qinghuai's neck. "Isn't having me by your side for a lifetime enough?"
"Okay, then you must promise to love me the most in this life."
"nonsense."
—The End—
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