Chapter 8

The two little ones were leaning over the edge of the table, holding their bowls and drinking with great relish. It had been a long time since they’d had such delicious porridge — and meat buns, too.

Tian Yufen finished one bowl of porridge and put it down without touching the bun. In fact, she had only heated up three buns total. Lin Xi noticed this and slid her own bun into Tian Yufen’s bowl.

“I don’t feel like eating anything too dry this morning. After this big bowl of porridge, I’m already full. You have it — I can’t eat any more.”

She was telling the truth — she wasn’t used to eating a lot in the mornings. The bowl of porridge was almost as big as her face, and she had noticed hers had the most rice grains in it, so she really was a bit full.

But Tian Yufen thought she was just worried she wouldn’t have enough to eat. Oddly enough, if this had been the old Lin Xi, she would never have had such a thought. But now… the Lin Xi in her heart seemed like the kind of person who would do this — though she couldn’t say exactly why.

Lin Xi put on a stern face:

“If you don’t eat it, I’m going to be mad!”

Only then did Tian Yufen take the bun and eat it.

Little Gu Yang gnawed on his own bun while watching the two women push the food back and forth. By the end, his wide-eyed expression clearly said, So that’s how it’s done, as he watched his grandmother eat the bun.

After breakfast, Tian Yufen sat in the courtyard cutting radish strips. The two little ones squatted beside her, helping lay the radish out on bamboo trays to dry.

Lin Xi, meanwhile, took out the things she’d bought yesterday and began crocheting decorations on hair clips using a crochet hook and yarn.

She had been out in society from an early age, and with the rise of the internet, she had picked up a little bit of everything — not an expert, but enough to get by. Her motto was basically the more skills, the better.

As her fingers flew, two cute red butterfly-shaped hair clips quickly took form.

The once plain metal clips were now wrapped with red and white yarn, crocheted into adorable and pretty bows.

“Xingxing, sweetheart, come here — Auntie has two little gifts for you.”

The little one named shrank back toward her grandmother in fright, shaking her head.

Tian Yufen noticed what Lin Xi was holding and said lovingly to her granddaughter:

“Go on! See what your auntie made for you.”

Hearing Grandma say so, Yangyang stood up and said to his sister:

“Xingxing, don’t be scared. I’ll protect you. Let’s go together.”

“Okay.”

The little milk-soft voice answered her brother. She reached out her tiny hand for him to hold, and together they walked toward Lin Xi — but stopped a few steps away at the doorway, too wary to come closer.

Lin Xi pretended not to notice and lifted the clips high:

“Ta-da~! Look what these are! Aren’t they adorable? And adorable clips should go in the hair of an adorable Xingxing, right?”

When the little girl saw the clips, her eyes lit up and she let out a soft “wow.” Her black grape-like eyes shone brightly as she stared at them.

Lin Xi couldn’t help laughing — kids were so pure, so easy to please, and so cute!

“Come here, I’ll put them on you.”

She beckoned to her. The little girl almost stepped forward without thinking, but Gu Yang quickly grabbed her hand:

“Be good, little sister — we don’t take things from bad women.”

In his heart, though, he was torn: But those clips are so pretty… they’d look amazing on my sister…

Why was this bad woman suddenly acting so nice?

Seeing the guarded look from her nephew, Lin Xi sighed and said:

“Yangyang, I want to give these clips to your sister. Do you agree?”

Gu Yang looked conflicted. He glanced at his sister, entranced by the clips, then at the “bad woman” with a sincere expression. In the end, he nodded — but didn’t let go of his sister’s hand. Instead, he led her straight up to Lin Xi.

Lin Xi removed the two simple hair ties from the little girl’s hair, and without a comb, she gently smoothed it with her hands, tied two small pigtails, and clipped one bow on each side.

“Our Xingxing is so adorable!”

She was nearly melting from the cuteness — even though the little face was a bit tanned from the sun and quite thin, those innocent, watery eyes blinking up at her were irresistible.

She stroked the child’s bony little cheek. The new “skin panel” felt amazing to the touch. Covering her chest, she thought, I can’t handle this. I have to feed these two little ones until they’re plump and fair — then they’ll be even cuter, and cuddling them will feel even better. Just thinking about it makes me happy!

Gu Yang, who had almost dropped his guard after seeing his sister so prettily dressed, became alert again when he saw Lin Xi smiling so brightly.

Why is this bad woman so happy?

Then, suddenly, a memory popped into his head — something Granny Wang had told him:

“Your uncle married your auntie, and she’ll want to have her own kids. Who wants to raise someone else’s? Maybe one day your auntie will sell you and your sister to another family…”

Thinking of that, he looked at his beautifully dressed sister, then back at the smiling Lin Xi. So that’s why she’s being so nice — she wants to sell my sister.

He grabbed his sister’s hand and made to leave — he couldn’t let her stay with this bad woman.

“Yangyang, Auntie wants to talk to you.”

Seeing his expression, Lin Xi had no idea what kind of drama he was imagining. Kids in this era matured early, and from his attitude and eyes, she could tell that coaxing alone wouldn’t work.

So she called out to him, ready to “negotiate.”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Oh? Afraid to even talk to me? I thought you were a real man — guess not!”

“I am! I can protect my sister and grandma. You bad person, don’t think you can bully them.”

“I don’t believe it — unless you talk to me.”

“Fine, I’ll talk. Hmph! I’m a man, I’m not afraid of you!”

“Good, then sit here.”

“I’ll sit. Even if you hit me, I won’t be scared!”

Lin Xi almost laughed at the little guy, cheeks puffed, neck stiff, plopping himself right down in front of her.

His eyes still held fear, but there was more stubbornness than anything.

Lin Xi didn’t tease him further. She lowered her head to meet his gaze and said:

“I know I did a lot of things before that hurt you all. I’m sorry.
From now on, I will never do those bad things again. Please give me a chance to change, okay?”

This threw the little guy off. Grandma had said that if you know you were wrong and can change, that makes you a good child. But this bad woman… she had been really bad — hitting him and his sister, yelling at Grandma, trying to steal Grandma’s money, not letting them eat chicken, not even drink the soup…

Yet Grandma had also said that the meat buns, candy, and biscuits yesterday were all bought by the bad woman. And now she’d made pretty clips for his sister…

Seeing his little face scrunch up in conflict, Lin Xi knew she had a chance. She pressed on:

“I’m not asking you to forgive me right away. I just want you to give me a chance.
You can watch me. If I make another mistake, you don’t have to forgive me. If you think I’ve changed, then you can forgive me. Is that okay?”

The boy didn’t fully understand, but he got the gist:

“So… if you make a mistake again, and I don’t want to forgive you, I don’t have to?”

“Exactly. But I won’t make any more mistakes — I mean what I say. If you don’t believe me, we can make a promise: if I make a mistake, you don’t forgive me.”

As she spoke, Lin Xi held out her pinky finger:

“Let’s pinky swear.”