Chapter 31

After Jiang Chen realized that the watermelon juice on Nian Nian was spilled by him, he felt even guiltier.

So later, when picking tomatoes, Jiang Chen worked even harder, hoping to finish quickly and comfort his upset daughter.

Ever since Nian Nian said she was really mad, she hadn’t spoken to her dad. Even when he talked to her, she ignored him. When he tried to wipe the sweat from her face, she pushed his hand away.

It seemed she was really upset.

Nian Nian was indeed angry. She sat in the pavilion, daydreaming and sighing.

“Sister Nian Nian, what’s wrong?” asked Zhou Ziai, who was placed in the pavilion by his dad to cool down. Seeing her sigh so much, he came over to ask.

Sister  Nian Nian’s bun had fallen apart. Though the hair tied with the rubber band on top of her head was still in place, it had become messy. Except for the small section of hair tied up, the rest of her hair was scattered everywhere. Zhou Ziai tried to help sister fix the loose hair, but it had a mind of its own—every time she put it up, it fell back down. Eventually, Zhou Ziai gave up.

 Nian Nian looked at Sister Ziai’s neat and beautiful braids and sighed.

“I miss my mom,”  Nian Nian said, looking down at her dirty clothes. She missed her mom so much.

“I miss my mom too,” Ziai said after hearing sister. Picking tomatoes was not fun at all—it was hot and tiring, and she didn’t like it one bit.

It had been fine at first because their dad was coaxing her, but now, after hearing  Nian Nian say she missed her mom, Zi Ai started to think about her own mom. She missed her too.

sob… Zi Ai got sadder as she thought about it, pursing her lips and starting to cry. “I miss my mom,I want my mom, sob…”

 Nian Nian, who was feeling sad herself, was startled when she heard sister cry.

“Don’t cry.”  Nian Nian wiped sister’s tears. “Mom will be back soon. Let’s wait for her together, okay?”

“I want my mom right now,” Zi Ai sobbed, holding sister’s hand. “Sister  Nian Nian, let’s go find mom, okay?”

“But we don’t know where she is. If we go look for her by ourselves, we might get lost. If we run into bad people, we might never see mom again.”

“Zi Ai doesn’t want to run into bad people.”

“Then let’s be good and wait for mom to come back home, okay?”

“Okay,” Zi Ai sniffled, tears still falling. “But Sister Nian Nian, I still miss mom so much… sob…”

Zi Ai’s crying wasn’t loud; she tried her best to hold back, but her tears fell like pearls on a string, making her look very pitiful.

Children’s emotions are easy to catch.  Nian Nian already missed her mom, and seeing sister cry so sadly, she also felt like crying.

When Zhou Jingxing brought Zi Yu over for a drink of water, he saw his daughter crying her eyes out.

Zi Ai, who had been holding back her tears, found comfort when she saw her dad. She hugged him around the neck and finally burst into tears, “Dad, I want mom. Call mom and ask her to come back, sob, please ask mom to come back!”

Zhou Jingxing patted his daughter on the back, trying to calm her down: “Mom will be back soon. It’s the same even if Dad is here.”

“It’s different. I want mom. I want her!”

Zhou Ziyu, standing next to his sister, saw her crying and his eyes turned red too. His face was sunburned. While their dad was picking tomatoes, Zi Yu had wanted to rest with his sister, but his dad had told him he was a little man and couldn’t be lazy, so he had to keep working.

“I want mom too, sob…” Zi Yu, who had been holding back all day, finally couldn’t take it and started crying too.

Once the twins started crying, Zhou Jingxing instantly got a headache.

At first, he thought the program crew just wanted to film them working in the fields, and they would be done soon. But to his surprise, the crew made them do actual hard labor. The vegetable fields were huge, and the areas assigned to the dads were large. They could finish the work if they wanted to, but they weren’t used to fieldwork, and the hot weather made their mood worse.

Hearing the children cry, Zhou Jingxing’s patience started to wear thin. He took Zi Yu’s hand and made him stand by a big pillar in the pavilion to reflect: “Zhou Ziyu, you’re the older brother. You should be comforting your sister when she cries, not crying with her. I’ve told you many times that boys shouldn’t cry so easily. Now, stand here and think about what you’ve done!”

When Zi Yu heard his dad tell him to stand in the corner, he broke free and got even more upset. He stomped his feet and cried, “I don’t want to, sob, I don’t want to stand in the corner!”

Zhou Jingxing scolded, “Stop crying! Stand still!”

He grabbed his son’s arm, made him stand again, and face the wall to reflect.

Zhou Jingxing’s face and voice were very serious as he scolded his son. Even Zi Ai, who was in his arms, was scared and stopped crying.

Nian Nian was also startled and quietly hid behind a pillar, hoping Zi Ai’s father wouldn’t see her.

[Zhou Jingxing seems to be a little too strict with Zi Yu. Among the five kids, Zi Yu is the only one working and resting the least. Even the oldest, Zhao Yiyang, rests more than him. He’s only three and a half years old. Zhou Jingxing doesn’t need to be so strict with him.]

[It’s okay to be strict, but the key is that Zhou Jingxing is strict with his son and too lenient with his daughter. This kind of unequal treatment isn’t good. Zi Ai cried first, but Zhou Jingxing only got angry at Zi Yu. That’s unfair.]

[This isn’t throwing a tantrum; it’s just parenting. Dads are usually stricter and have higher expectations for boys.]

[Zhou Jingxing is doing a good job. The twins are young and cry easily. In the hot summer, Zhou Jingxing has to do farm work and take care of the kids. He’s the hardest-working dad among the five.]

[Zhou Jingxing didn’t hit or yell at Zi Yu; he just wanted him to calm down. Crying won’t solve anything. We can’t let kids develop the habit of crying every time something goes wrong. Zhou Jingxing did nothing wrong.]

After making Zi Yu stand in the corner, Zhou Jingxing carried his daughter to a big tree nearby to comfort her and calm himself down.

Zhou Ziyu sobbed by the pillar for a long time.

When he finally stopped crying, a small hand suddenly appeared from behind the pillar. In the dirty palm lay a candy.

Nian Nian poked her head out from behind the pillar. She cautiously looked at Zi Ai’s dad, and seeing that he wasn’t paying attention, she whispered to Zi Yu, “Here’s some candy.”

This candy was put in her pocket by her father before he left, but Nian Nian always forgot to eat it.

Just now, when she saw Zi Yu crying, Nian Nian remembered the candy and gave it to him.

Zi Yu unwrapped the candy and put it in his mouth. The sweet taste spread on his tongue, and his mood instantly got better.

Zhou Ziyu licked his lips and sat next to Nian Nian. After eating the candy, he felt much happier and even started wiggling his feet.

“I hate my dad,” Zhou Ziyu told the little sister sitting beside him. “Dad only likes my sister, not me.”

Nian Nian didn’t have any brothers or sisters, so she didn’t quite understand how Zi Yu was feeling, but she said, “I hate Dad, too.”

Zi Yu asked, “Does your dad only like your sister? Doesn’t he like you?”

“No.” Nian Nian didn’t have a sister.

“Does your dad also punish you and make you stand in the corner?”

“No.” Nian Nian shook her head. The only time her dad was mean to her was when she was chased by a dog at the resort, and he said, “Don’t cry.” But compared to Zi Yu’s dad, he wasn’t very mean. And he never made her stand in the corner.

“Does your dad make you work all the time and never let you rest?”

“No.” Nian Nian shook her head again. Her dad always worried she’d get sunburned or too tired. He’d never make her work all the time.

Zhou Ziyu didn’t find anything in common with Nian Nian. He pouted and asked, “Then why do you hate your dad?”

Nian Nian was stumped by the question.