Chapter 44: Nian Nian Ye
Nian Nian's adorably silly childish words drifted into his ears. Shi Jianfeng was even more certain that the vibrant growth of these flowers must be a fluke, a lucky coincidence. Otherwise, Nian Nian was just a little over a year old, a white ball who didn't even know what "a piece of cake" meant. Could he grow flowers?
Arabian Nights.
On the other end of the line, Jiang Shengjun was speechless at Shi Jianfeng's boastful boasts about his grandson. He couldn't say anything more. Shi Jianfeng, seemingly busy playing with his grandson, said nothing and hung up without a pause.
He lowered his head, speechless, to look at the phone in his palm, which had automatically turned off. The old man couldn't jump high or run fast, but he hung up the phone with unparalleled speed. As Nian Nian's future godfather, he hadn't even spoken to her yet!
"Really?" Jiang Shengjun muttered unhappily, throwing his temporarily unused cell phone on the sofa. When he turned around, he almost bumped into Jiang Duan who was standing silently behind him.
Jiang Shengjun's heart skipped a beat, and after taking a breath to calm himself down, he asked him kindly, "Is class over? Was the content difficult today?"
Jiang Duan's expression was calm as he shook his head and said, "It's not difficult." After replying, he cast his gaze towards the mobile phone on the sofa in a way he thought was covert, but quickly retracted his gaze and looked at Jiang Shengjun.
An outsider would be unable to discern even a single meaningful glimpse from Jiang Duan's expressionless face and indifferent eyes. Autistic people are like this; they can't understand others' feelings, and naturally, they can't generate rich emotions themselves.
Fortunately, Jiang Duan has mild autism. He not only has the opportunity to develop his social skills, but also has a family who accompany him, understand him, and help him get opportunities.
Jiang Shengjun could tell Jiang Duan had something to say, so he took the initiative to start the conversation: "Why did Duan come downstairs?"
As expected, Jiang Duan answered the question irrelevantly and made it clear why he came: "I saw my grandfather making a phone call." That's why he stood over without saying a word.
"Yeah. I was just on the phone." Jiang Shengjun deliberately didn't finish his words, forcing Jiang Duan to reveal his true feelings with malicious intentions.
"Grandpa," Jiang Duan's hands curled up at the seam of his pants. Nervousness, a rare emotion for him, took root and sprouted uncontrollably in his heart. "I heard you say Nian Nian's name when you called."
He blurted out the confession in one breath: "Did you talk to Nian Nian?"
"Oh, so you miss her." Jiang Shengjun said jokingly.
"I, I don't miss him." Jiang Duan's ears turned red and his hands clenched tighter. "I'm just asking."
"Is that so," Jiang Shengjun kept him in suspense, "Then I don't need to tell you what I said to Nian Nian. You don't care much anyway." After saying that, he turned around and was about to leave the living room.
"Grandpa!" Jiang Duan was anxious. He took two steps after him, speaking faster and faster. "I want to know, will Nian Nian come to our house to play again?"
Jiang Shengjun paused in his steps, his hands behind his back. He smiled to himself with his back to Jiang Duan, then turned around and adopted the calm demeanor of an elder. "Do you want him to come and play?"
"...The kitten is in the back garden again." Jiang Duan was referring to the golden kitten that he thought looked very similar to Nian Nian.
The kitten always comes, why doesn’t Nian Nian come?
Jiang Shengjun couldn't help but complain in his mind that his grandson had a weird personality, just like his father. Of course, he would never admit that his wife had complained about his weird personality when he was young.
"Forget about the cat. Are you looking forward to Nian Nian coming to our house to play?" Jiang Shengjun, far from indulging him, escalated the situation, replacing the word "want" in the question with "expect." This shift in meaning instantly deepened Jiang Duan's emotional connection with Nian Nian.
"..." Jiang Duan bit his lower lip, hesitating for a long time before finally nodding. He refused to say anything more. He tilted his head slightly and looked at Jiang Shengjun, the way a child would ask for help from an adult. "Can you please call him and ask him to come over?"
Jiang Shengjun let him off the hook, another idea coming to mind. He sank back onto the sofa and motioned for Jiang Duan to sit down as well. Once the little guy was settled, he began to bluff.
"Duan, making friends requires courage and patience. If you want to play with Nian Nian, you can't just sit at home and wait for her to come to you."
Jiang Duan's clear eyes showed confusion. He hadn't called the kitten, nor had he taken the initiative to look for it, but the kitten would still wag its tail, crawl through the fence, and come to the back garden.
Maybe Nian Nian and the kitten are different, they just look alike when they play.
Does it take courage and patience? He can learn to possess these two things. The teacher said that with his intelligence, as long as he is willing to learn, he can learn anything.
Jiang Duan once again established a reasonable logical framework in his mind. He sorted out his thoughts and humbly asked Jiang Shengjun: "What should I do?"
Jiang Shengjun glanced at Jiang Duan with an incredulous look. His grandson's comprehension was simply too much. Although he'd long known from the doctor that Jiang Duan's IQ was above average, he still couldn't help but be surprised by his grandson's ability to react and handle trivial matters in daily life.
He coughed twice and continued with the social skills training script he had developed for Jiang Duan: "Precious friendship is like fragile crystal. Everyone desires it, but it needs to be cultivated and maintained. If you want to be friends with Nian Nian forever, you can't just rely on her efforts. Think about it, if you never take the initiative to play with Nian Nian, wouldn't Nian Nian be sad?"
Of course.
Jiang Duan knew it very well.
His memories were drawn back to the last time Nian Nian came to visit. Nian Nian was very clingy and would feel wronged if she didn't hold his hand or hug him. He understood this all too well.
"I understand." Jiang Duan was very good at reasoning and realized that perhaps he should take the initiative to find Nian Nian to play with him. "Grandpa, please teach me how to invite Nian Nian to play with me."
——
Shi family.
After explaining to Nian Nian that a piece of cake wasn't a dish, Shi Jianfeng was dragged to his study by a phone call. Coincidentally, Wang Xiulin returned from a party, her bag slung over her shoulder, and took over the task of taking Nian Nian out for a walk.
Shi Lihan and Chen Yi hadn't finished work yet, and Shi Linzhuo and Shi Guilin were upstairs fiddling with something, neither of them coming down. Suddenly, Nian Nian and Wang Xiulin were the only ones in the living room.
Wang Xiulin found the living room too quiet, so she turned on the TV. She clicked on the TV's playback history and asked, "Have you watched today's episode of 'Forest Paradise'?"
"Yeah. Nian Nian saw it," the little guy said, and he became sad again, "Bad Silver, catch Xiong Xiong."
Someone had taken Nian Nian to see it. Wang Xiulin immediately came to a conclusion. She couldn't bear to see Nian Nian looking so aggrieved. She cupped Nian Nian's face with her well-maintained hands and rubbed it, "It's okay. Xiong Xiong will be rescued tomorrow."
Besides Shi Nanqi, this was the second person to assure Nian Nian about the subsequent events. The little guy was completely relieved.
Wang Xiulin didn't have any particular TV show she wanted to watch. Flipping through the pages, she saw a show in her history that had reached episode three. The poster looked like an idol drama. Wang Xiulin didn't care much and clicked to continue.
The picture zooms in, and the TV series continues from the progress bar you last saw.
The minute hand of the wall clock had barely turned a quarter of a turn when Shi Guilin came down from the second floor in the elevator wearing slippers.
"Papa!" Nian Nian, who has a keen sense of hearing, lay on the back of the sofa, raised her upper body to face the elevator door, her eyes were like spring water with stars in it, or like amber between trees reflecting the scattered sunlight, shining brightly.
"Hey, baby!" Shi Guilin responded with a smile from a distance. He walked closer, bent down, put his hands on the sofa cushions on both sides of Nian Nian, and kissed Nian Nian on the cheek.
Nian Nian, who received the kiss, sat down happily, her eyes smiling, and her little hands happily hugging her feet.
"You wild child without a father! Why do you want to play with Xiaoxuan? Go away!"
On TV, a group of children surrounded a boy in tattered clothes and pointed and talked about him. The boy nervously grabbed the dirty hem of his clothes, as if he could not hear the disgusting insults around his ears. He lowered his head and remained silent, without any fight back.
Wang Xiulin frowned, picked up the remote control and pressed fast forward twice.
"Grandma," Nian Nian's face still showed a confused and frightened expression. It was the first time he saw a child being bullied, and the fear in his heart was self-evident. "Wild, wild child..."
He was a little confused about pronouncing the word "wild child". He just skipped over it and asked in a trembling voice: "Niannian, wild? Niannian is afraid..."
He was clearly misled. He didn't understand what a wild child was, but he got that if a child was a wild child, he would be bullied by a large group of children.
Wang Xiulin was startled by his question and instinctively hit pause, the actors' voices suddenly fading from the screen. Shi Guilin, who hadn't been paying attention to the TV, was stunned. Did his son suspect he was wild?!
This question is like what Shi Linzhuo would ask his younger brother when he was in his rebellious phase and showing off. It's similar to the spirited statement of "Let's see if your brother Shi is wild or not."
Shi Guilin looked at the little kid with tears in his eyes and couldn't say the words "you are wild".
However, Wang Xiulin, who had watched the drama, understood Nian Nian's train of thought. She sighed in her heart that psychotic dramas were very harmful to people, and she quickly comforted Nian Nian and tapped his forehead with her index finger.
"We're not wild! It's wrong for the kids on TV to call others wild kids. That's insulting and very rude. Only bad kids do that."
Finally, Wang Xiulin said, "Even if your father is a wild father, you can't be a wild child."
Shi Guilin: "..."
This is truly a real mother.
Nian Nian immediately held back the tears that were about to fall. He pursed his lips with lingering fear: "Bad money, Nian Nian is afraid."
Then he said very protectively: "Papa, not wild. Grandma, not wild. Brother, aunt, auntie, uncle, grandpa, Youyou, Yuanyuan... not wild."
Even Yuanyuan was taken care of, and Jiang Duan was not left out.
"Our Nian Nian is a good and loyal child." Shi Guilin gave him a thumbs up. "Don't worry, we are not all savages."
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