Lin Yongcheng had a bicycle under his feet.

The cold winter wind sliced at his face like a knife.

Considering that he was carrying his child, he deliberately slowed down.

Xiao Bai Guo was bundled up thickly, looking like a little bear, wrapped in a quilt outside.

She couldn’t feel the cold and even thought it was particularly novel.

Along the way, her eyes kept darting around, constantly looking at everything.

Her little head turned from side to side, her eyes struggling to keep up.

Lin Yongcheng slowed down again.

Their little girl had only two things she loved: taking baths and fish.

Nothing else could really attract her attention.

She was much harder to please than other children, and it was rare to see her looking especially happy.

Most of the time, her face was expressionless, and trying to make her laugh was no easy task.

To put it nicely, she was well-behaved.

To put it bluntly, she was like a monk with little emotion.

This was the first time she showed curiosity like a baby, with her little head spinning around and her eyes looking everywhere.

“Good girl, are you happy?” Lin Yongcheng asked.

“When the weather warms up, Dad will take you out for a few spins,” he continued. “And I’ll take you to the mine to learn the way.”

Lin Yongcheng was genuinely happy. It wasn’t easy for his little lazybones to enjoy the scenery outside. He often rode his bicycle with her just to get some fresh air.

They rode slowly. By the time they returned to the Shanglin village, Li Qiurong and the others had already arrived. They had just unloaded their things and started tidying up the house.

It had been a long time since anyone had lived there, so it was quite a task to clean up.

Xiao Bai Guo had a place to lie down, and Little Zisu was left to watch her sister while the three adults started cleaning and making the fire.

They were busy until noon, and lunch was quickly eaten. In the afternoon, they continued cleaning.

Before they were done, some villagers came.

Since the Bai family moved out, the villagers had been missing Bai Shu. After picking tea leaves and the autumn harvest, he had come back twice, but once he was finished, he went back to the county.

The longer it had been, the more they missed Bai Zhu’s time in Shanglin village.

In the past, if someone had a headache or a fever, a trip to the health clinic to see Bai Zhu would solve it.

Now, they had to travel twenty miles to Liangtian village to see a doctor, and the consultation fees were expensive.

But what could they do? They couldn’t keep him!

Many villagers had secretly gone to the village head and the party secretary to discuss the matter, hoping they would represent Shanglin village and ask Bai Zhu to stay.

Unfortunately, both the village head and the party secretary had refused, and the other village officials hadn’t actively taken responsibility.

In the past, they had spread rumors about his family and hurt his feelings.

Now, did they think they could keep him just because they wanted to?

Though the village officials didn’t want to step in, they had hinted at it behind the scenes.

When Bai Zhu moved, he was angry, but as time passed, his anger faded.

If the villagers had been friendlier, they might have touched his heart, and he might have been willing to stay.

After receiving advice from the village officials, a group of villagers showed up that afternoon.

Wasn’t it just being friendly?

They could handle that!

Helping with cleaning the house could be considered friendly, right?

The Bai family had been gone for almost half a year, and the yard wasn’t planted with vegetables.

Sending over some vegetables was a friendly gesture, right?

They probably didn’t have firewood, so sending over two bundles of firewood should be considered friendly enough, right?

That afternoon, six villagers, both men and women, came.

The women brought baskets of radishes, vegetables, and scallions, ginger, garlic, and celery. The men carried a bundle of firewood. They placed the items in the yard and helped with the cleaning.

With so many people, the work went quickly.

Before long, the house was tidy.

Li Qiurong didn’t just take things for free.

This winter, her family had made a lot of moldy tofu, and she gave them six bowls of it to take home.

Once the visitors left, she finally had time to check on her own child.

Xiao Bai Guo had taken a nap, and when she woke up, the house was already sparkling clean.

Lin Yongcheng washed his hands and then picked her up. “Good girl, are you awake? Daddy’s going to hold you!”

Bai Shu was sorting through the vegetables the villagers had sent.

He placed the leafy vegetables under the water tank to keep them fresh, and the other vegetables were left in a well-ventilated place.

He didn’t bother too much with the scallions, ginger, garlic, and such.

Little Zisu sat on a small stool, her face full of confusion as she pointed at one of the bunches of vegetables. “Grandpa, can you eat these celery stalks before they’ve fully grown?”

“The small ones aren’t celery; those are coriander,” Lin Yongcheng explained.

“But they look the same! The leaves are the same,” Little Zisu was even more confused. How could they look the same but be different?

Lin Yongcheng sighed, unsure how to explain. The leaves really did look the same.

Xiao Bai Guo perked up. “Coriander? It must smell really good!”

She smacked her little lips, eager to try some coriander.

Bai Shu said, “The taste is different.”

Little Zisu still didn’t understand. “Why would the taste be different?”

And then the endless questions began.

Lin Yongcheng, eager to escape, handed the question-heavy little girl over to his father-in-law.

He took the chance to take his daughter out for a walk.

Lin Yongcheng pulled out a stalk of coriander, washed it with one hand in the basin, and then started eating it raw.

Xiaobai Guo stared at him.

Her daddy was enjoying it so much, it must taste really good.

She wanted to try too!

Her little eyes followed Lin Yongcheng’s hand, watching carefully.

The moment she had been waiting for came. Lin Yongcheng took a big bite of coriander, and as his hand lowered, Xiao Bai Guo opened her mouth wide to grab a leaf of the coriander.

She immediately bit into it.

Her little milk teeth clamped down, and a strong, unpleasant flavor hit her mouth.

In that instant, Xiao Bai Guo’s eyes widened in shock. “It’s disgusting!!”

Bad daddy had tricked her again!

He said it was coriander, but it was clearly stinky!

Xiao Bai Guo was so disgusted, she spit it out!

“Yue——”

Xiao Baiguo really threw up, crying loudly as she did.

“Why is my little sister crying? Did Dad hit you?” Xiao Zisu, the quickest to react, rushed over, pulling Lin Yongcheng’s pants leg, asking him to squat down so she could see her little sister.

“Just because your sister is crying, you think I hit her?” Lin Yongcheng was confused as to where this thought came from. “Your sister doesn’t like the smell of cilantro.”

Cilantro is something that people either find fragrant or just unbearable.

Those who don’t like it feel nauseous from its scent.

Unfortunately, the father and daughter were on opposite sides.

One liked it, and the other hated it.

Lin Yongcheng instructed his eldest daughter, “Go ask Grandma for some water, so your little sister can drink some. Once the taste of cilantro is gone from her mouth, she’ll stop crying.”

Xiao Zisu quickly ran to find Grandma.

Xiao Baiguo was still crying, feeling extremely wronged.

That bad dad is a liar! It smelled awful, so why did he call it cilantro?

Yuyu was tricked, poor Yuyu!

That bad dad is just as bad, eating that stinky vegetable and calling it cilantro.

His sense of taste is different from normal people’s, so he’s very strange!

He has a problem!!

After drinking the water, the cilantro taste in her mouth dissipated, and Xiao Bai Guo’s crying quieted down.

She sobbed softly with her tearful eyes, looking pitiful.

Lin Yongcheng both felt sorry and found it funny.

“I told you not to eat random things! After suffering once, maybe you’ll remember. Don’t envy other people’s food, just because it smells good, doesn’t mean it’s good.”

Xiao Baiguo huffed in anger.

You’re laughing at Yuyu, how mean!

She raised her little fist and aimed it at his face, saying, “Don’t laugh, I’ll hit you if you do!”

…

In the afternoon, Lin Zhijun and Lin Qingni came back from school.

Before they even reached the village entrance, they overheard villagers under the banyan tree saying that Dr. Bai’s family had returned.

The siblings went back to their home and headed straight for the Bai family.

It had been a long time since Bai Shu had seen them.

The two kids were wearing old cotton clothes much too big for them, but they looked lively and had grown a little taller.

He asked, “The exams are coming up soon, right?”

Lin Zhijun nodded. “In a few days.”

“How are your grades?”

“I… I’m average,” Lin Zhijun scratched his head and said quietly, “Maybe I’m not cut out for studying. The things the teacher taught, I forget by the next day. Qingni can listen once and remember it. So I talked to the teacher about having Chunni study instead.”

Originally, Lin Zhijun thought that since Qingni was only six, she could start school two years later.

But with his younger sister staying alone in the village, he couldn’t bear it.

He took her to school every day, letting her audit the classes.

Over time, he realized that he wasn’t good at studying, and his sister was much better at it, so he talked to the teacher about letting Qingni study instead.

The tuition had already been paid; it was just a change of person, with him auditing outside while Qingni attended.

His teacher was very understanding and allowed him to sit in on the classes.

They would both study the same material at school, and after returning home, Qingni would teach him again.

It helped him, and it also reinforced Qingni’s learning.

After hearing the whole story, Bai Zhu didn’t comment.

Who should study was up to the siblings.

It wouldn’t be a problem if both studied in elementary school together, but the difficulty would come in middle school and high school.

If they attended a school in the commune, it would be a little easier.

But if they went to school in the county, it would be inconvenient, requiring them to board and needing food coupons for meals.

By then, if Lin Zhijun worked harder, he might be able to support his sister’s education.

But if both of them wanted to study together, that wouldn’t be possible.

Bai Zhu went inside and took out a thick stack of notebooks, a large bundle of pencils, and a brand-new Xinhua dictionary.

He handed the dictionary to Lin Qingni and the notebooks and pencils to Lin Zhijun.

“You both will need these things. No matter who goes to school, you need to study well and seriously. Don’t waste your tuition and the great opportunity. If you don’t understand something in class, ask the teacher after class. If you don’t understand something every day, over time, you’ll fall behind. Soon, you won’t understand anything at all. Don’t be shy about asking the teacher.”

The hearts of these children were still soft, and though they only had half a pig at home, Bai Zhu was willing to help them more.

He worried that their pride would prevent them from asking the teacher for help.

The siblings each held their things.

Lin Qingni held the Xinhua dictionary as if it were a treasure.

Their teacher had one too, and she had often said that if anyone could, they should buy one to look up unfamiliar words.

She never expected that she’d have her very own Xinhua dictionary.

Her eyes shone with gratitude as she looked at Bai Zhu, nodding vigorously, “I’ll study hard, I’ll work hard!”

Lin Zhijun said, “As long as Qingni wants to study, I’ll do everything I can to support her! Wherever she studies, I’ll support her, I won’t let her drop out of school!”

“Knowledge can change your destiny!” Bai Zhu nodded. “Especially for you, Qingni, you have a good brother who is willing to give you the chance to study. You must cherish it.”

They left the two children at home for dinner, and as the sky darkened…

Xiao Bai Guo had already started dozing off.

Li Qiurong said, “Let’s have our sweet girl sleep with us tonight.”

Xiao Bai Guo immediately refused, saying she wanted to sleep with her dad.

From past experience, if something unhappy happened that day, she would definitely have nightmares that night.

Since her grandparents were older, she couldn’t hit them.

She wanted to sleep with Dad!!

Xiao Bai Guo clung to Lin Yongcheng, refusing to let Li Qiurong carry her.

Li Qiurong tapped her little nose helplessly, saying, “You’re already picky about who you sleep with!”

Xiao Bai Guo turned her head away, refusing to look at her.

She was afraid that if she looked again, her grandmother might forcibly carry her away.

Little girl didn’t want to leave her dad, and Lin Yongcheng was quite pleased, “If she doesn’t want to, it’s fine. I’ll take her to sleep. I can take good care of her.”

As Xiao Bai Guo expected, that night she had a nightmare again.

She dreamed she was surrounded by cilantro, suffocating from the smell and vomiting uncontrollably.

She hated it so much, she wished she could pull all the cilantro out of the world.

This stinky vegetable shouldn’t be grown at all!!

She woke up in the middle of the night, and with her mom not there, it would be easier to hit her dad.

But she never imagined that Lin Yongcheng hadn’t fallen asleep.

He grabbed her little fist, completely stunned.

His little girl was sitting up at night to hit him?!

Hadn’t he been good enough to her?

Xiao Bai Guo was also stunned.

But she quickly realized what happened and quickly shouted, “Ah ba…”

Tactically calling out “Dad,” she really was a clever little fish!