Wen Chun was the first to fall ill. She took off her clothes before physical education class and returned home in the evening wearing only thin clothes.

Before Wen Jiajia could react, Zhong Huisheng looked at her and said, “It’s over. She might catch a cold.” As a mother who had raised several children, she knew the symptoms that indicated a child was getting sick.

She immediately made her a bowl of ginger and egg soup, but the illness had already set in, and the ginger couldn’t suppress it. She had a fever that night, felt very uncomfortable, and could hardly open her eyes.

Wen Xuan, however, was sleeping soundly and didn’t notice anything unusual about her sister.

Wen Jiajia, still concerned, changed Xiaomei’s diaper in the middle of the night and then went to check on Wen Chun. Finding that she had a fever, she woke Wei Dai, and they rushed to the hospital.

It was a chaotic night, and by the time they got home, the morning star had already disappeared, and their enthusiasm gradually waned.

Wen Chun didn’t go to school the next day and stayed home to rest. Wei Dai bought lean meat, cooked vegetables, and made lean meat porridge for her. After resting for two days, her condition improved, and she was able to return to school. But then Wen Xuan fell ill soon after!

Fortunately, Wen Xuan’s health was better than her sister’s. Even though she was sick, it was just a runny nose. With a visit to the hospital and some medication for two days, she recovered quickly without needing extended rest.

After this busy period, it was finally May.

The weather was getting hotter, so Wen Jiajia and Zhong Huisheng changed all the thick quilts for the family. They chose a sunny day to wash the sheets and quilt covers, then dried the thick quilts thoroughly in the sun. In the evening, after the heat had dissipated, they folded them up and stored them in the cupboard.

They then took out slightly thinner spring and autumn quilts and covered them with quilt covers to avoid being too hot at night.

Wei Dai came home early today. He had been busy recently, going out early and returning late, but he was finally able to relax a little.

After dinner, he held his daughter and played with her for a long time, making her giggle.

When Wen Jiajia came back from her bath, she told him, “Stop teasing me. I’m too excited to fall asleep at night.” As he got older, he needed more coaxing to sleep, so Wen Jiajia didn’t have time to read every night.

Wei Dai kissed their daughter’s hand, wiped it carefully with a warm towel, and said, “It’s okay, I’ll rest tomorrow morning.”

Wen Jiajia turned around in surprise and said, “That’s rare.”

She then asked, “Will you have much time to rest next time? If so, I’ll go back to work.” Her health had almost fully restored over the past few months, and today marked the beginning of summer.

Lixia, the term for the start of summer, meant she had been at home for two seasons!

Wei Dai shook his head, “How can I know that?”

Wen Jiajia squinted at him, threw the exercise book in her hand, and walked to the bed, “Do you really not know, or don’t you want me to go back to work?” After all, if she returned to work, the child would have to rely on a mix of breast milk and formula.

Wei Dai set the child aside and held her in his arms, “When do you want to go back to work?”

Wen Jiajia thought for a moment and said, “Well, let’s go in the middle of this month.”

That left only ten days.

Wei Dai considered it and said, “Okay, I asked Dr. Peng. He said that it’s fine for a child of our Xiaomei’s age to drink goat’s milk or cow’s milk.”

Wen Jiajia understood and wondered why he had suddenly become so agreeable. It turned out he had arranged food for their daughter.

“Are the cows and sheep on the farm about to give birth?” she asked curiously. For the past two months, no cows had been pregnant, so the family had stopped delivering milk.

Wei Dai nodded.

Wen Jiajia smiled and asked, “Are you sure our daughter will adapt to the taste of cow’s milk and goat’s milk?”

Wei Dai replied, “There’s a ten-day adaptation period. She’ll get used to it.”

Wen Jiajia was quite surprised. A man who loved his daughter so much could actually say such things. It seemed he really wanted her to go back to work.

The couple reached an agreement that night, and Wen Jiajia set a date to return to the workplace.

Xiaomei, meanwhile, was blowing bubbles and sucking her fingers, unaware that she would soon be drinking cow and goat milk.

Because of this, the couple was particularly passionate that night and didn’t stop until after 11 o’clock.

The next day was sunny again.

Since Wen Jiajia had decided to return to work in ten days, there were many things she needed to do.

One of these tasks was spring cleaning with the aunt. The house hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned since winter, and this time, the general cleaning stirred up a lot of dust. Even the beams had to be swept with a small broom made of reed grass, not to mention other areas.

It took three days to clean the house and furniture. Even Wen Xuan, who was usually carefree, remarked, “The house is much brighter now.”

Indeed, the windows had been wiped carefully twice!

Additionally, they went up the mountain to pick wild vegetables.

Xiaomei was left in the care of the aunt. Recently, Wen Jiajia has been spending less time taking care of the child.

Initially, Xiaomei made a fuss. According to the aunt, “She cried and looked around for you. When she saw you, she became even more distressed, crying loudly and trying to break free from me!”

Although Wen Jiajia felt heartbroken, she knew she had to focus on her work.

Fortunately, Xiaomei was a good-natured baby. The aunt had been with her since birth, so after three or four days, Xiaomei stopped crying. When Wen Jiajia wasn’t around, she would happily play with the aunt. But as soon as Wen Jiajia appeared, she would pout, scream, and reach out for a hug.

This made Wen Jiajia both relieved and heartbroken.

However, picking wild vegetables was essential, as these vegetables would be used for drying and storing for winter.

Last winter, whether it was for stews or stir-fries, adding dried wild vegetables was a family favorite.

Since the aunt would soon have to look after the baby, she wouldn’t have time to pick wild vegetables. Even if she went out every day, she could only gather enough for one day.

Wei Dai had some free time and went up the mountain with Wen Jiajia to pick wild vegetables.

Together, they gathered a lot of bamboo shoots and wild vegetables. They took advantage of the hot weather to pick and dry them in batches. By the time Wen Jiajia was ready to return to work, they had dried two large sacks of wild vegetables, half a sack of dried bamboo shoots, and two jars of pickled bamboo shoots.

During this period, they also cleaned up the vegetable garden.

A while ago, Wei Dai had planted melon seedlings in the garden and used the remaining land to grow vegetables.

Fortunately, these vegetables didn’t require much care. Wei Dai only needed to tend to them once a week, so Wen Jiajia’s aunt didn’t have to juggle taking care of the children and the vegetable garden.

After a few days of adjustment, Xiaomei successfully adapted to cow’s milk and goat’s milk.

She was actually quite easy to feed. Though she wasn’t used to it for the first two days, after a few days, she would drink from the bottle eagerly.

Wen Jiajia was surprised to find that Xiaomei even drank goat’s milk, which had a strong taste. So Wei Dai ordered extra goat’s milk to mix with cow’s milk for better nutrition.

Two days before returning to work, Wen Jiajia started introducing complementary foods to Xiaomei.

Wei Dai didn’t know what complementary food was until Wen Jiajia asked him to grind soaked white rice into rice paste and then cook it into thick porridge. He suddenly realized, “So this is complementary food! It’s a bit like rice soup.”

When he was weaned, his mother gave him rice soup to satisfy his hunger.

Wen Jiajia explained that this was different, as rice noodles needed additional nutrients, but they had to make do with what they had.

That morning, Xiaomei ate her first complementary food, a new taste besides milk.

Wen Jiajia dressed her in a bright red dress for the occasion and tied two high braids.

Wei Dai was stunned. Wen Chun and Wen Xuan laughed heartily, while Xiaomei giggled and drooled.

The sky was bright, and a breeze flowed into the house through the open door, carrying the fragrance of roses and refreshing the space.

Wen Jiajia held Xiaomei in her arms, and Wei Dai prepared to give her the first bite of complementary food.

Wen Xuan urged, “Uncle, hurry and feed her. I want to taste what my sister doesn’t finish.”

She was now determined to try all the delicacies in the world and was curious about the rice paste. Though it had no added ingredients, it smelled strongly of rice.

Wei Dai said, “Don’t wait for your sister to eat. There’s more in the kitchen. If you want some, just go get it. But it might not taste great.”

“It’s okay. I’ll try it.”

Wen Xuan quickly stood up and ran to the kitchen. Halfway through, she poked her head out and asked Wen Chun, “Sister, do you want to eat?”

“You eat it. I don’t want any,” Wen Chun said, wrinkling her nose. She didn’t like mushy foods and was less interested in them as she grew older.

Wei Dai scooped a small amount of rice paste with a spoon and put it into Xiaomei’s mouth.

At first, Xiaomei was a bit confused, but once she tasted the rice paste, her eyes lit up.

She had never tasted anything like it before!

New food was added to her life’s menu, and she was no longer just a baby who drank milk.

Xiaomei excitedly waved her arms, screamed, and stared at the bowl in her father’s hand with wide-open eyes.

Wei Dai was thrilled, “My Xiaomei loves it, right? The rice paste Dad made is delicious! Come, have another bite!”

Wen Jiajia: “…”

Who says men can’t sing? When it comes to singing, boys voices are often better than girls’.

Whether it was the dad coaxing the child or the child coaxing the dad, both were very happy.

As Wen Xuan finished eating, she polished off all the leftovers in the pot. She also added some sugar and red dates without any instructions, creating a sweet red date rice paste.

While eating, Wei Dai said, “How can I grind the red dates into powder? I could also add peanuts, walnuts, and sesame seeds to make it taste even better!”

Wen Jiajia thought to herself: If possible, I would love to build a blender for Wen Xuan to see what she could come up with.