After returning home with two snakeskin bags full of letters, the first thing the couple did was to open the bags and read the letters.

As the protagonist of "Sanhuo's Working Diary", He Yan is very concerned about readers' reactions.

The biggest motivation for him to do his homework now is reading readers' letters, because Su Ting said that it is okay to read letters but it should not interfere with homework. In order to have more time to read letters, He Yan has been doing his homework as soon as he came back during this period.

Also, it is impossible for any story to be liked by all readers. There will be good reviews and bad reviews. In order to prevent He Yan from being sad after seeing the bad reviews, she and He Dongchuan will screen the readers' letters and pick out the bad reviews before giving them to him.

Although it is very costly to give bad reviews at this time, as you have to buy envelopes, stamps and stationery, the proportion of bad reviews is not high. Maybe only one out of fifty or sixty letters is a curse. And the curses are not all directed at the protagonist, some also criticize Su Ting.

But the couple dared not slack off, and reading readers' letters has become their daily routine in the past month.

Su Ting watches it during the day, at night, on weekdays, and even on weekends. He Dongchuan watches it a little less, but he also watches it at night and on Sundays.

Because of reading readers' letters, the couple's daily intimate time was greatly reduced.

Therefore, He Dongchuan’s biggest wish now is that “Three Fires Working Diary” can be completed as soon as possible.

However, when Su Ting drew "Sanhuo's Working Diary", she did not follow the facts completely. She added a lot of coincidences to make the story look fuller and more dramatic, so the length was greatly lengthened and had to be serialized for at least four months.

In just two months, they have received five snakeskin bags of readers' letters, and so far they have only screened two snakeskin bags of readers' letters.

More importantly, these letters had to go through a forwarding process from the time they were sent by readers to the time they were received by Su Ting. The publisher would not forward the letters immediately after receiving them, but would generally wait for ten days or half a month until there were enough letters before sending them out.

Moreover, serialized works usually have a fermentation period. As long as the popularity does not start high and end low, the number of readers will surely increase.

Therefore, although they have only received five sacks of letters so far, by the end of the comic, the total number of letters received will definitely not be a simple five sacks multiplied by two.

He Dongchuan suspected that he would have to spend the remaining six months surrounded by flattery from his readers.

I learned the term "rainbow fart" from Su Ting. According to Su Ting, it is a variation of "flattering", which roughly means that readers flatter the protagonist in various ways. In their eyes, the protagonist is a treasure and has only advantages. [1]

And because He Yan is the prototype of the protagonist Sanhuo, in his mind, readers praising the protagonist in various ways = praising himself in various ways, which has caused him to be very narcissistic recently.

In the past, when He Yan got up, he only had to brush his teeth and wash his face. Now, he has to do one more thing: comb his hair.

At this time, there were not many popular hairstyles for both men and women. Women basically wore pigtails before marriage, and after marriage they basically had short hair that reached their necks or even their ears.

Men usually have a buzz cut, similar to He Dongchuan's hair. Their hair usually doesn't go past the ears, and they don't style their hair much. The sloppier men don't even comb their hair, and their heads look like bird's nests.

Of course there are also those who are vain, getting up early every morning to apply hair oil and style their hair in various styles, but such people are generally not liked by others, and some people even think they are street urchins when they see them.

The parents in the compound were very strict and basically didn't allow their children to have long hair. From the age of three or four to seventeen or eighteen, all of them had short hair. The older children basically went out to pursue their careers, going to school, working in the countryside, or serving in the army. No matter which one it was, it was not easy for them to come back.

Let's get back to the point. From the first day Su Ting met He Yan, he had a buzz cut. Every month and a half, He Dongchuan would take him to the barber shop.

So even though He Yan's hair is thick, there is really nothing to do with combing it. He never combed it before, and he would just use his hands to brush it back from his forehead.

But now, a casual touch is no longer enough for him.

Not only does he use a comb, he also dips the comb in water before combing the hair. In the end, the hair is combed out in clumps, each clump is jet black and shiny.

Because water has no setting effect, his hair will become messy once it dries, and it doesn’t look that black anymore, so he has to comb his hair at least three times a day, once in the morning, noon and evening.

At first He Dongchuan didn't know that He Yan was showing off, he just thought he had washed his hair.

But after two or three days in a row, He Yan had wet hair every day, and he began to find it strange.

Although because of their short hair, the father and son wash their hair very casually, washing it every two or three days in winter and almost every day in summer, but it’s not summer yet, right?

That night, after lying on the bed and reading the letter, He Dongchuan asked in wonder: "Why has Xiaoyan suddenly become so fond of cleanliness recently?"

"What?" Su Ting didn't understand what he meant at first.

"He washes his hair every day recently."

"Is there? No?"

"How come? Every day after he takes a shower, his hair is wet."

Su Ting suddenly realized what was going on and couldn't help laughing: "Not only does his hair come out of the bathroom wet at night, it's also wet in the morning and at noon."

He Dongchuan was even more confused and asked, "What do you mean?"

"He," Su Ting said, trying not to laugh, "is not a clean person, but a vain one, styling his hair."

He Dongchuan was silent for a moment and said, "With his hair like that, what kind of hairstyle can he get?"

Su Ting thought for a moment and asked, "Hedgehog head?"

Not to mention, using the word "hedgehog" to describe He Yan's wet hair is quite appropriate. The thick, black and shiny clumps of hair look like the quills on a hedgehog, don't they?

After knowing that He Yan was conceited, He Dongchuan began to observe him.

After this observation, he found that He Yan was not only proud of his hairstyle, but also his clothes.

In the past, He Yan never paid much attention to his clothes. He would wear whatever clothes he and Su Ting found. But recently, he had his own ideas about clothes and started to find clothes by himself.

Sometimes he would delay taking a shower in order to read letters from readers, and even if they found clothes for him, he would still be reluctant to wear them.

Well, that's not quite right. To be more precise, it was the clothes that He Dongchuan found. He Yan was not very willing to wear them. He still trusted his mother's taste in choosing clothes.

After discovering this, He Dongchuan felt that he was being wronged for sacrificing time with his daughter-in-law and working hard to screen readers' letters every day in order to protect his son's young mind.

Holding up the readers' letters, He Dongchuan turned his head and asked, "Do we really have to read all the letters sent by readers?"

Unlike He Dongchuan, who was thinking about all sorts of things, Su Ting read the letter very seriously. It took her half a minute to realize that he was talking to her. She looked up and asked, "What did you say just now?"

He Dongchuan asked repeatedly: "Do we have to read all the letters sent by readers?"

Su Ting didn't answer, but just asked: "What's wrong?"

"You received so many letters from readers halfway through the series. By the end of the series, the number of letters will definitely double or even multiply. These letters will be enough to keep us up until the middle of the year. If we want to read all of them, it may take us until the end of the year." He Dongchuan said after the analysis, "Recently, we have been staying up very late every day to read the letters. This has affected our lives."

During the first two serializations, Su Ting received no fewer letters from readers than this time, but at that time He Yan did not urge her to read the letters, so she was very calm and only read when she had time, and did not feel time was tight.

But in the past month, she had to take care of the children and do housework. Although there was not much housework, she usually just swept and washed the dishes. She tried to do the big cleaning when He Dongchuan was at home. However, there was only one and a half years left before the resumption of the college entrance examination. In order to get good grades next year, she had to spend more time studying, and she also had to take time every day to conceive new stories.

Therefore, Su Ting had very little free time every day and could only read the letters intermittently. In addition, she felt that since she had opened the letter, she might as well read carefully what the reader had said, so she read the letter very slowly.

Although He Yan doesn't read fast either, he has plenty of time. He spends at least two and a half hours reading letters every day, and can read for more than ten hours on Sundays.

In addition, some of the letters they read were written specifically to Su Ting and did not mention He Yan, so after screening, about 80% of the letters they opened were shown to He Yan.

Therefore, Su Ting and He Dongchuan had to screen together to barely keep up with He Yan's speed in reading the letters.

By this calculation, reading letters did take up a lot of their time in the past month, which had some impact on their lives. However, going to bed late... Su Ting glanced at He Dongchuan.

It's as if they can go to bed as early as possible without reading the letter.

But Su Ting didn't argue with him about this matter. She just hesitated and said, "If we don't read the letters, what will Xiao Yan do? What he looks forward to most every day now is reading readers' letters."

He Dongchuan was waiting for her to say this, and immediately said in a high-sounding manner: "As parents, we protect our children too well, which may not be a good thing for them. Xiaoyan is already eight years old, and it is time for him to experience the ups and downs and grow up. I think this is a good opportunity."

"Um?"

"Look, when we screen readers' letters, only one out of ten is critical of him. The content of the letters either says he is stupid or foolish, or that he is spoiled and doesn't know the hardships of life. Overall, it's not too much."

"It's easy for people to become arrogant and complacent when they are surrounded by praise, so I think we can slowly let him see these negative voices. This will not only temper his heart and improve his ability to withstand setbacks, but also slightly curb his inflated self-confidence and make him less arrogant."

He Dongchuan felt that his son had been too arrogant recently. If he wasn't allowed to realize that not everyone liked him, he would become arrogant.

It's time to give him a big stick.

Su Ting had to admit that what He Dongchuan said made sense. He Yan had been a little swollen recently, but... She turned her head and asked, "You said to slowly let him see the negative voices. What do you mean by slowly?"

"Here's what I think. We can pick out a negative review that's not too bad and put it in the reader's letter to him today. He might be sad after reading the letter, but we can talk him through it and let him know that no one can be liked by everyone. Once he gets used to it, we can slowly increase the number of negative reviews we put in."

The method proposed by He Dongchuan is actually boiling a frog in warm water. He Yan may be sad when he sees negative reviews for the first time, but he will get used to it after seeing more negative reviews. Then, if negative reviews appear out of the blue, he will not notice anything wrong so quickly.

This may sound a bit cruel, but it is actually the gentlest way.

Although He Yan might feel sad when he first sees the negative reviews, they are written by strangers after all, so the impact is not that big. With the comfort of his parents, it is easy to get over it.

In the process, he can also become stronger.

Children who grow up in a greenhouse usually have not experienced setbacks, so their ability to withstand blows is usually not strong, and a little difficulty in life may make them unable to recover.

He Yan is young now, and his parents will support him when he falls. But when he grows up and encounters setbacks, they may not be able to help him even if they want to.

Thinking of this, Su Ting nodded and said, "Okay, let's do as you say."

After getting a satisfactory reply, He Dongchuan was finally able to concentrate on reading the letters. When he saw the letters with criticism, he put them aside as before. After screening the pile of letters taken out of the snakeskin bag, he got together with his wife to discuss which letter to give to his son.

After choosing and selecting, the two of them, or Su Ting, finally selected the letter with the softest wording and gave it to He Yan together with the other letters.

At this time, He Yan was also reading the letter, but in his own room.

In fact, he would rather go to the master bedroom and read the letters with his parents because it would be more lively there and when he sees a letter praising himself, he can share it with his parents.

That was how they did it at the beginning, but one time his father said that he was too noisy when reading letters and it disturbed them, so he didn't let him read letters with them anymore.

Oh yes, noisy means he is very loud and annoying.

This is a new word that He Yan has learned. After understanding its meaning, he felt very upset. He thought his father found him annoying, and it must be because he was jealous of the fact that so many people liked him.

Well, considering that no one likes his father, he had to reluctantly forgive him.

…

He Yan had just been being narcissistic in the morning when he received a heavy blow in the afternoon. Some readers actually said that he was stupid!

What is wrong with him? ! !

He Yan immediately stood up from the stool, walked into the bathroom and stared at Jing for a long time, stroking his head and thinking, he is obviously very handsome, how could he be stupid?

He Yan snorted lightly, returned to the room and picked up the reader's letter he had read before.

He decided to read a few more letters praising him to heal his wounded heart. However, during dinner, He Yan couldn't help but ask his parents: "Mom and Dad, am I stupid?"

He Dongchuan and Su Ting pretended to be confused: "What's wrong?"

"I read the letter today, and some readers said they thought I was stupid." In order to save face, He Yan omitted the word "good" in front.

Su Ting immediately put down her chopsticks and poured He Yan some soul chicken soup: "Each of us is different in the eyes of different people. One person may think we are very good and like us very much, while another person may think we are bad in every way and hate us."

He Yan seemed to understand and asked, "So?"

"So, it's normal for some readers to think you're stupid." He Dongchuan's words hit home.

What is even more heartwarming is that, now that she is one year old, not only is her speech clearer, her vocabulary has doubled, and her comprehension ability has become stronger. She is no longer just a parrot, but has her own ideas.

Just like now, I slowly and quickly figured out the meaning of what my father said, and clapped my hands heartlessly and shouted, "Silly brother! Silly brother!"

He Yan, who originally thought it was nothing, felt extremely upset after hearing what his sister said.

Seeing Su Ting's doubtful look on her face, Su Ting comforted her by saying, "Some readers think you are stupid, and there are definitely readers who think you are smart. Have you ever seen a letter praising your intelligence?"

He Yan's spirits immediately perked up: "Yes, and there are a lot of them!"

"That's it," Su Ting nodded and asked, "So many people think you are smart, do you still think it's a big deal that this person says you are stupid?"

"I don't think so!" He Yan said loudly, and then turned to his sister who was sitting in the baby chair next to him and said seriously, "Did you hear that? There are many people who say I'm smart, far more than those who say I'm stupid, so you can't call me stupid brother anymore in the future."

Blinking slowly, he tilted his head and asked, "What did you say?"

"Well," He Yan pondered for a moment and said boldly, "If you want to say that my brother is the smartest, I am the smartest brother!"

Slowly, I suddenly realized: "Brother Smart."

He Yan nodded with satisfaction, looked at her and slowly praised her: "You are also a smart sister."

After watching the brother and sister praising each other, the couple looked at each other and felt that they thought He Yan was too fragile. With his mentality, it didn't matter if he read a few more negative reviews.

So the next day, the number of negative reviews increased to two, and the content was still saying that he was stupid.

He Yan was furious after reading it. He went back and read the letters that praised him again. When he read the letters later, he deliberately picked out the letters that praised his intelligence and read them over and over again.

But He Yan soon discovered that just praising him for being smart was not enough, he also wanted to pick out all the letters that praised him for being handsome, sensible, and cute...

So when Su Ting entered the second bedroom that day, she saw several piles of letters on the desk. She asked in confusion, "Why don't you put the letters you've finished reading in the cabinet?"

Years ago, she asked He Dongchuan to have someone make some furniture for her, including a large bookcase with two open bookshelves in the middle for picture magazines and upper and lower cabinets for readers' letters.

During this period, He Yan would unconsciously put the letters into the closet after reading them. He even discussed this with his mother, saying that the cabinet on the far left should only be used to store letters written to him by readers, so that it would be convenient for him to take them out when he wanted to review them in the future.

As she asked, Su Ting reached out to pick up the letters and put them in the cabinet.

But as soon as she touched the letter, He Yan shouted, "Don't touch it!"

"Um?"

He Yan explained, "I have sorted out these letters. I need to read them and cannot put them in the cabinet!"

"Haven't you seen it already? What else do you want to see?"

He Yan wrinkled his nose and said unhappily, "Recently, people have been scolding me, saying I'm stupid, annoying, and ignorant. So I picked out all the letters that complimented me. When I saw letters saying I was stupid, I looked at the ones that complimented me on being smart. When I saw letters saying I was annoying, I looked at the ones that complimented me on being cute. When I saw letters saying I was ignorant, I looked at the ones that complimented me on being sensible."

He Yan put his hands on his waist, snorted and said, "I don't believe what they say. There are many more people praising me than them!"

Looking at the smug expression on his face, Su Ting smiled and nodded: "Not bad, you are quite good at adjusting."

In the past, Su Ting always felt that He Yan and the original Long Aotian had different personalities, but now that she thinks about it, they do have a lot in common, for example, they both have strong minds and become more courageous as they face more setbacks.

It's just that He Yan is young and has little experience, so it's hard to see. But when he encounters something, his character will be revealed.

At this point, Su Ting finally felt relieved.

When He Dongchuan came back that night, he heard good news from Su Ting: "We don't have to screen letters anymore."

He Dongchuan stopped cooking and turned his head in surprise: "Are you sure?"

"I am sure."

Su Ting told He Dongchuan about He Yan's classification of the letters, and admitted her mistake: "In fact, Xiao Yan is more powerful than I thought. I underestimated him before."

"He is my son after all."

He Dongchuan and You Rongyan said: "After all, he is my son."

Su Ting glanced at him and thought that Wang Po, who was bragging about herself while selling melons, was talking about him!

Receiving his wife's contemptuous look, He Dongchuan coughed, picked up the iron pot with one hand, put the dishes on the plate and said, "Actually, Xiaoyan has never experienced this before, so it's normal for you to worry. Moreover, if we hadn't boiled him like a frog in warm water, Xiaoyan would have cried for several days if he suddenly saw several bad reviews in one day. We all deserve credit for his good attitude now."

"Too."

Su Ting nodded and scooped a bucket of water into the pot.

He Dongchuan picked up the brush hanging on the wall and rinsed it vigorously in the pot several times. After the dirt was almost washed away, he rinsed it with clean water and continued to stir-fry the remaining vegetables.

As the ingredients were put into the pot, He Dongchuan asked tentatively: "Since we don't have to screen the letters, can we go to bed early tonight?"

Su Ting quickly understood what he meant and asked with a smile: "Are you going to sleep before twelve o'clock?"

"I'm talking about the time to turn off the lights. You can close your eyes and go to bed a little later." He Dongchuan remained calm. If you didn't know his true nature, you would think he was being serious.

Su Ting snorted: "But I've been reading letters for more than a month. What should I do if I want to go to bed early today?"

While cooking, He Dongchuan made a "difficult" decision in his heart: "I can go to bed before midnight."

"Oh?" Su Ting raised her eyebrows and looked at He Dongchuan in disbelief, wondering if he had changed?

He Dongchuan said nothing in response to her inquiring gaze, and just silently increased the speed of stir-frying the ingredients.

After dinner, the whole family took a bath.

The first one to enter the bathroom was Manman. After the weather got warmer, Su Ting would give Manman a bath every day. Even with the mother's filter, she couldn't stand her child being dirty.

The second person to take a shower was He Yan. Before he entered the bathroom, He Dongchuan said, "Come out when you're done. Don't keep standing in front of the mirror and fiddling with your hair."

He Yan was very dissatisfied and held his head and said, "I don't have just a few hairs, I have a lot of hair!"

"You're so annoying. If you want to style your hair, I'll buy you a bottle of hair oil. I guarantee your hair will be black and shiny."

Although He Yan didn't know what hair oil was, He Dongchuan explained it very clearly, and his eyes lit up instantly: "Dad, when will you buy me some hair oil?"

"Wait until your hair grows longer." He Dongchuan said this, but in his heart he was thinking, "Wait until your hair grows longer, then I'll take you to the barber shop to cut it."

What? Oily hair?

What kind of hair oil do teenagers use? Moreover, they are from a military family, why do they use these fancy things? It's not simple at all.

He Yan, who had no idea that his father was a big liar, touched his short hair and went into the bathroom happily after hearing this.

Because of He Dongchuan's words, He Yan did not use water to wet the comb to comb his hair today. He came out of the shower feeling refreshed and went back to the room to continue reading the letter.

He Dongchuan went into the house and cleaned the bathroom briefly, then prepared water for Su Ting to take a bath. After she finished, he also quickly took a combat shower and rubbed his clothes.

After finishing his work and returning to the master bedroom, it was just nine o'clock. He Dongchuan did not rush to bed, but went to the second bedroom, took out the letter from He Yan's hand and said, "Read less letters at night, it hurts your eyes."

He Yan pouted and said, "I'm almost done reading it."

"You can't watch that either. From now on, you must go to bed before nine o'clock at night." He Dongchuan walked to the door of the room and pulled the light cord, urging, "Hurry up and lie down and close your eyes."

Seeing his father's serious expression, He Yan didn't dare to object anymore. He said "oh" and lay down in the middle of the bed, pulling up the thin blanket and closing his eyes: "I'm asleep!"

“Pah.”

He Dongchuan turned off the light, went out and closed the door. He returned to the master bedroom and saw Su Ting also reading a letter. He walked over and took out a letter and asked, "Didn't you say that you won't screen readers' letters in the future?"

Su Ting rubbed her face and said, "I'm used to it. Besides, I have nothing to do, so I just read the letters to kill time."

He Dongchuan was waiting for her to say this. Hearing this, he put his arm around her shoulders, bent down to kiss her face and said, "Then let's do something else to kill time. Don't worry, Xiaoyan has already fallen asleep and is sleeping soundly. They won't disturb us."

As he spoke, he recalled what she had said that evening and promised, "Also, I will make sure you go to bed before midnight tonight."