Li Zhiyuan resignedly picked up the little dumpling and said, "I owe you something. It's always me who does this."
Then, unable to resist scolding Song Lili, "Lili, you're the same. You never care about him. He's your son, and you don't care about him either."
"This is the first time I've seen a mother like you." Li Zhiyuan didn't quite agree with Song Lili's methods, but seeing how lively and cute the little dumpling was, he felt it was okay.
The little boy nodded in Li Zhiyuan's arms, "Bad Mommy."
"Oh, so you know how to call me 'Mommy' now? Not bad, not bad. You'll get some meat as a reward today." Song Lili pinched the little dumpling's cheek, took him, and put him on the stool.
The little dumpling clapped its hands and said, "Meat, meat."
He doesn't actually like eating meat, but his mouth waters whenever he sees it. That's not liking it, is it? He's unhappy about it.
Unlike before, I'm no longer so happy when I hear about eating egg pancakes.
"Hurry up and eat, Lin Mu has worked hard today." Qian Xianming, the oldest among them, picked up his chopsticks first and said.
"Thank you, Grandpa Lin," Song Lili said with a smile.
Actually, it's a bit of a stretch for her to call Lin Mu "Grandpa" given her age; he's only fifty-two this year, and she's twenty-four.
However, calling him "uncle" felt a bit inappropriate, so in the end I just started calling him like everyone else. After a while, I got used to it.
The others smiled and said thank you for your hard work before they started eating.
"Mmm, so delicious! Grandpa Lin, you're amazing!" Song Lili gave a thumbs up, genuinely praising the dish, and then placed a piece of scrambled eggs with tomatoes on Xiao Baozi's plate.
"I want it, I want it to be red!" Little Baozi shouted, pointing at the spicy chicken cubes. Lin Mu used red chili peppers.
"You really want to eat this?" Song Lili raised an eyebrow. Chili peppers, they must be pretty spicy, right?
"Yes, eat," the little bun nodded firmly, his chubby face full of seriousness.
Song Lili picked up a piece of red chili pepper with her chopsticks, but before she could put it into Xiao Baozi's bowl, Zhao Qian swiftly took the bowl away.
"Children shouldn't eat this. Why did you give it to him? It's too spicy and will upset his stomach."
Song Lili: "..." She didn't really intend to give it to him either?
"Ah, eat, eat..." The little bun cried out anxiously, his mouth agape, like a hungry little bird, when he realized he couldn't get his hands on the delicious red treat.
Song Lili slowly put the chili peppers into her bowl, then reached for the little bun with her chopsticks, saying, "Try it."
The little bun instinctively bit down, and then felt a spicy sensation explode in its mouth, spreading rapidly.
Immediately afterwards, he felt a burning sensation in his mouth, so he immediately opened his mouth, inhaled sharply, and stuck out his tongue like a little dog.
"Wow, it's so spicy, so spicy..."
Song Lili silently held the water to his lips, and the little boy eagerly grabbed it and gulped down more than half of it.
Then she asked, "Do you want more?"
The little boy quickly shook his head, "No, no." It tasted too bad; he didn't want to eat it. Grandpa Lin's cooking was no good.
Her little face scrunched up as she looked at the table full of food, pouting unhappily. "It doesn't taste good. I'm not happy."
"Remember, that's called a chili pepper. There are red ones and green ones, and they're all spicy." Song Lili pointed them out to the little boy while eating.
The little boy looked at it carefully for a while, as if he recognized it, and nodded seriously, "I don't want it, it's spicy."
Song Lili smiled and put a piece of garlic eggplant into his bowl. "This isn't spicy, you can eat it."
The little dumpling then lowered his head to eat, smacking his lips, looking very cute, and ate with great relish.
"Why didn't you just tell him it was spicy? Why did you make him eat it first and then tell him? Isn't that making the child suffer?" Zhao Qian looked at Song Lili helplessly.
Song Lili smiled and said, "If I don't let him eat it, he will definitely insist on eating it. So it's better to let him eat it. Once he tastes it and knows how spicy it is, he will remember it next time even if I don't say anything."
First-hand experiences are always more memorable, aren't they?
"Sometimes I really don't understand you, but now I think you're pretty good this way," Guqin said weakly.
She can barely walk now, and if it weren't for these people taking care of her all the time, she probably would have died long ago.
“You do things differently from the rest of us, but you’ve achieved better results. You should be doing even better.”
"You can tell just by looking at Xiao Chen. He is very lively and cute. Although he is also mischievous like a child, he is also sensible."
"You really don't seem like a girl who grew up in this mountain village." Even many children who grew up in the city can't compare to you.
Even among the children around them, few could compare to her.
Song Lili just smiled. What could she say? Could she say that her thinking was from decades in the future, and therefore different from theirs?
"Maybe I'm just a bit of a dreamer," she said casually, offering no further explanation.
"That's good." Guqin stopped talking and lowered her head to eat.
The others just listened and listened, and thought that what Guqin said made sense, as if that was the case.
Then look at the little bun holding chopsticks, eating very seriously, picking up the egg that fell on the table and eating it again, and it seems more like the real deal.
Although they couldn't understand what Lili did, the results were always good.
Just like back then, when they didn't believe anyone would help them, she stepped forward.
She was always so different from everyone else.
"Mommy, I'm done eating. I want tofu." The little dumpling looked up in his childish voice and pointed to the bowl, where he had already finished the garlic eggplant.
She recognized the tofu, as her family had made it before.
"That one has just a tiny bit of chili. I'll give you some so you can try it first and see if it's spicy. If it's not spicy, then you can eat it."
"Spicy?" The little boy turned to look at Song Lili. Is tofu spicy? It wasn't spicy before.
Thinking back to the burning sensation I felt earlier, I didn't really want to eat it anymore, but I couldn't bear to give it up.
"You try it first, and if it's spicy, I'll eat it, okay?"
"Okay," the little bun thought for a long time before nodding.
He tried it, and it seemed a little spicy, but not as spicy as before. He could accept it. "I want to eat it, I want to eat tofu."
Song Lili then put several pieces of tofu in his bowl and let him eat them by himself.
"That's good too. Look how well Xiao Chen is growing up," Zhao Qian said vaguely, stroking the little boy's head with great affection.
"Grandma, bite," the little dumpling said cutely, looking at Zhao Qian with food in his mouth, his words slightly muffled.
"Okay, eat, Grandma eats, Xiao Chen eats too, eat your fill so you can grow tall."
"Mmm," the little boy nodded and continued eating. Growing tall was not yet on his mind.
"He's very sensible." Zhao Qian wiped her eyes, smiled, and lowered her head to eat. With this child, her regrets seemed to have lessened a lot, and she felt completely fulfilled. Her heart was no longer so empty.
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