Chapter 5

“Playing eagle catching chicks,” Er Bao replied, but his gaze was fixed on the sack in Ning Shu’s hands. He knew that every time Mom went to the city, she would bring back delicious things, but Mom always ate them herself.

“Yeah,” Yi Bao coolly responded, his gaze also fixed on the sack in Ning Shu’s hands. His little mind was very active. What was in that sack? Meat? Candy? He was young and had eaten very few things.

The only things he could think of were candy and meat. But the sack was so big, and there were so many things inside. If there was so much meat and candy, would she give them a few more small pieces of meat? Thinking of this, Yi Bao’s mouth watered.

Ning Shu had been living under others’ care since childhood. She was good at reading people’s expressions and particularly sensitive to people’s eyes.

Seeing the two children staring at her sack, she knew what they meant. She didn’t think much about it and took out two… and then thought again and took out another pear.

“Each of you brothers gets one. This pear has a core, which you can’t eat.” Even if it was a strange child drooling at it, she would give it to them, let alone her sons.

Besides, these pears were not expensive at 29.9 yuan for ten kilograms. However, the pears were relatively small, so it wouldn’t be considered excessive for the 11-month-old baby to eat a whole one.

Yi Bao and Er Bao looked at each other, their eyes conveying doubt. Why was their mom so generous today? In the past, even if she bought fruits, she would hide them and eat them herself.

They could only smell the fragrance and drool. Whenever they looked at them more, their mom would say that she had grown up like this and they could eat them when they grew up.

They weren’t stupid. Why couldn’t they eat when they were young and had to wait until they grew up? They asked Grandma, and Grandma said they would ask Dad to buy them when he came back. So, they were looking forward to Dad’s return.

Immediately, the brothers thought of a possibility. The reason why their mom was so generous was that she had many fruits like this. Although they had many thoughts in their minds, the brothers didn’t hesitate to accept the pears.

Yi Bao originally wanted to give the one intended for San Bao to him so he could gnaw on it slowly. San Bao had already grown several teeth and could even gnaw on steamed buns.

But when he heard Mom say that there was a core inside that couldn’t be eaten, he didn’t give it to San Bao. Instead, he took a big bite himself, then widened his eyes.

This fruit was so sweet and delicious, even better than meat soup. He sucked on the juice forcefully, then handed the bitten piece to San Bao. “San Bao, try it. It’s very sweet.” The fruit flesh didn’t have a core, so San Bao could gnaw on it himself.

Top of Form

Sanbao glanced at his mother, then at his big brother, and extended his dirty, muddy little hand towards the piece of pear.

Ning Shu watched this scene, her eyebrows furrowing into a narrow gap. She couldn’t take it anymore. The hygiene situation was intolerable.

So… since she couldn’t accommodate their situation, they had to accommodate hers. “All three of you, come with me.” Back home, she would clean things up properly. She just couldn’t stand it anymore.

On the train back, Ning Shu had thought about how to interact with them, keeping the way her grandmother had interacted with her in the real world. Her grandmother took the food allowance her father gave her and provided three meals a day, but nothing else.

Since she received 30 yuan from Lin Guodong every month, she could provide three meals a day for the three little ones. But imagining was one thing, reality was another.

She felt the cruelty of reality when she saw these three children. Even if she maintained the relationship of providing three meals a day, she couldn’t do it. Eating three meals a day with these dirty children made her feel like she didn’t own her own mammary glands anymore.

So, the hygiene of these three children had to be taken care of.

“Ah,” Yibao and Erbao said simultaneously. Seeing the big sack their mother brought, they were curious about what was inside. Even if they didn’t get any, they wanted to see what was there.

Ning Shu nodded, as if she had figured something out. Instead of leaving immediately, she watched Yibao and Erbao’s actions. This had appeared in the original owner’s memory, and now seeing it firsthand, she pursed her lips, finding these three children somewhat adorable.

Yibao overturned the small basket. “Sanbao, crawl in here.”

Sanbao, with the pear in his mouth, heard his brother’s words, then crawled into the small basket.

“Sanbao, hold on tight. Big brother is going to stand the basket up,” Yibao reminded him.

Sanbao, only 11 months old, naturally didn’t understand his brother’s words, but they had done this many times before. There was an unspoken understanding between 11-month-old Sanbao and his brothers.

He held onto the small basket with both hands, his mouth still full of pear, and drool flowed like a faucet because he hadn’t closed his mouth.

Seeing Sanbao holding on tight, Yibao and Erbao together slowly lifted the overturned small basket, being careful not to knock into their younger brother. Once the basket was upright, the two of them lifted it together. Although five-year-old children didn’t have much strength, they could manage to lift an 11-month-old baby.

After lifting the small basket, Yibao and Erbao looked at Ning Shu, while Sanbao sat inside, continuing to nibble on the pear.

Ning Shu said, “Let’s go,” suppressing a smile. These three children were really quite amusing.

Ning Shu walked a few steps, then stopped and waited for them. When they were about to catch up, she strode forward again.

After a few stops and starts, they finally arrived home. Ning Shu didn’t pay attention to them anymore. She carried the things into the kitchen and went to the yard to draw water.

She needed to heat some water first. Yes, there was still a well in the yard of this house. The original owner had paid someone from the village to dig it because she, as a woman without a man in the house, couldn’t carry water and found it inconvenient.

She had even written a letter specifically to Lin Guodong to ask for the money. However, Ning Shu thought the well was well worth it. Now, wasn’t it convenient for her?

Ning Shu efficiently drew up… half a bucket of water. The water bucket was heavy, and she couldn’t lift a full one. Meanwhile, the three children sat in a row under the eaves, licking the pear in small bites. The two older ones were licking, and the younger one was nibbling.

As Ning Shu went in and out several times, the two iron pots on the stove were finally filled with water, and she started to heat them up. Ning Shu was very accustomed to using this old-fashioned stove.

When she lived with her grandmother, they used a stove like this, and she often helped her grandmother with the fire. In fact, her grandmother’s house also had a gas stove, but older people were frugal and accustomed to using a stove.

The hot water was starting to heat up, requiring some time. Ning Shu walked out of the kitchen and saw that the three children had almost finished eating the pears. She asked, “Do you want to eat wontons today?”

The actions of the two older boys licking the pears paused, their bright black eyes looking at Ning Shu, both boys looking equally puzzled. Ignoring the fact that their clothes were a bit too short and if they were cleaned up they should be quite adorable.

Yibao asked, “What are wontons?”

Children who hadn’t eaten wontons? How could she describe this? Ning Shu had a sudden inspiration. “Wontons are like dumplings, but instead of wrapping the minced meat in dough, it’s wrapped in a thin flour skin, but smaller than dumplings.”

The two boys seemed to understand vaguely. Their takeaway was that wontons and dumplings both had meat.

“We want to eat,” they both replied without hesitation. Anyone who didn’t want to eat meat was a fool. Even though it was only a small piece, they still wanted to eat.

“When the water is hot later, you three clean yourselves up, and then I’ll give you wontons to eat,” Ning Shu proposed.

Hearing about bathing, Yibao and Erbao furrowed their smooth brows, even their little faces showing a miserable expression.

Ning Shu could tell right away that these two didn’t like taking baths. Actually, when she was a child, she didn’t like bathing either. There wasn’t any particular reason, she just found it bothersome.

“Can we have two pieces of meat if we take a bath?” Yibao gritted his teeth. Compared to eating meat, even if he hated taking baths, it wasn’t a big deal.

Ning Shu: “…”

Children even bargained? But looking closely, she could see he was nervous, grabbing onto his clothes so tightly they were almost torn to shreds. In her memory, they had never bargained like this.

Of course, when they were younger, when the original owner only gave them a small piece of meat, they had also argued and demanded more to eat. However, the original owner, who had never received parental love from her parents, didn’t have a motherly heart towards her children, so she didn’t care if they complained or not.

The original owner’s mentality was, why should she give others what she didn’t receive? Even if this ‘other’ was her own child.

“If you don’t give us two pieces of meat, when Dad comes back, we’ll tell him,” Erbao threatened when Ning Shu didn’t respond, sensing his brother’s nervousness and also wanting to protect him.

Ning Shu was curious. In her memory, she had never seen them threaten the original owner before. How come they were threatening her as soon as she arrived? Ning Shu asked with a smile, “How are you going to tell your dad?”

“We’ll tell Dad that you secretly ate meat and didn’t give us any,” Erbao said with a fierce tone, but the fierceness from a five-year-old child’s efforts was as weak as tofu pudding, unable to ignite any sparks in an adult’s heart.

Yibao tugged at his younger brother, wanting to stop him. Such words shouldn’t be said in front of their mother; they should wait until Dad came back and then say it secretly.

But Erbao obviously didn’t have the same level of caution as Yibao. He continued, “Not only will we tell Dad that you don’t give us meat to eat, but we’ll also ask Dad to get us a new mom.”

Yibao felt like his heart had turned to ashes. This was something he and his brother discussed privately, and he didn’t expect his brother to blurt it out like this. He looked at Ning Shu cautiously, afraid she would get angry and hit them.

Seeing Ning Shu’s silence, Erbao thought she was afraid. “Grandma said that Dad likes us the most, he likes us the most, so if you don’t give us two pieces of meat to eat, I’ll tell Dad and not let you be our mom anymore.”