The little spaceship must have damaged some parts or short-circuited or something; in any case, it wouldn’t turn on anymore and needed to be sent for repairs.

Koukou was heartbroken.

Even though it was an old favorite, just like ancient emperors would not tolerate their disfavored concubines being touched by others, Koukou was deeply upset by the spaceship being damaged.

He cried uncontrollably, gasping for breath.

Gu Yanqing had been a bit annoyed earlier when Xinxin snatched Koukou’s toy, but since she was a relative of Qiao Wanqing’s family, even if she was being a bit of a troublemaker, he had to consider Qiao Wanqing’s feelings and could only comfort Koukou.

Now that the toy was broken, Gu Yanqing was extremely displeased.

Just like his feelings towards other women remained unchanged, he felt no tolerance for other people’s children.

He thought that even if they were young, it was not acceptable to break other people’s things due to improper play.

Seeing Koukou crying uncontrollably, Gu Yanqing became even more upset.

Xinxin, scared by Koukou’s loud crying, looked at Gu Yanqing’s stern face and ended up sitting on the floor crying too.

Gu Yanqing: “……”

He hadn’t even said anything yet.

Hearing the commotion, the adults outside came in.

Xinxin’s mother picked her up and comforted her.

Gu Yanqing had initially thought that Koukou was the one who would be at fault, but it turned out that Xinxin was even more adept at shifting blame.

She tearfully claimed that Koukou didn’t let her play with the toy and that the toy was broken because of him, which scared her and made her cry as well.

Gu Yanqing comforted Koukou, saying he would buy him a bigger and brighter toy, and that he shouldn’t cry because of it.

After hearing Xinxin’s accusations, he stood up with Koukou in his arms and asked her, “Was it the younger brother who broke the toy?”

Xinxin, scared of Gu Yanqing, nodded tearfully while hiding in her mother’s arms, saying, “Yes, it was the brother.”

“Is it really your younger brother?”

“……” Xin Xin cried even harder but still didn’t have the courage to admit she broke it.

Xin Xin’s mother, seeing Gu Yanqing’s expression, realized it was her daughter’s fault and she was too afraid to admit it.

Just as she was about to speak, Madam Gu walked in.

“What’s going on? Oh dear, why is Xin Xin crying so hard?”

“Grandma,” Kou Kou called out to Madam Gu with a grievance.

Seeing her grandson’s red eyes, Madam Gu immediately focused on comforting him, ignoring the other child.

She took him in her arms, and Gu Yanqing handed the child to Madam Gu before heading to the living room.

He was afraid he might lose his temper and scold the little girl.

If a child makes a mistake but can’t admit it and blames it on someone else, and if they’re left alone with no adults around, the innocent child would be wrongly accused.

He used to think it was just cute when Kou Kou tattled, even though he sometimes wanted to spank him.

He found Kou Kou’s little tricks endearing.

But now he realized it was important to correct this behavior slowly, or Kou Kou might end up like Xin Xin, shifting blame onto others.

Seeing her grandson so upset, Madam Gu asked with concern, “What happened? Who bullied you?”

“The spaceship, the spaceship isn’t flying,” Kou Kou said sadly.

“Oh, so the spaceship is broken,” Madam Gu thought it was something serious. “Don’t worry, Grandma will take you to buy a bigger and fancier one another day. We won’t use this one anymore, okay?”

“Okay,” Kou Kou was happy to hear he would get a new one, and excitedly spread his little hands and said, “I want it to be this——big.”

Koukou stretched out his arms to show that he wanted a very, very big toy.

Madam Gu said, “Alright, Koukou wants it big, so Grandma will get him the biggest one.”

Hearing this, Xinxin, cuddling in her mother’s arms, pouted and said, “Mommy, I want one too.”

Her mother replied, “Okay, I’ll ask your dad to buy you one later.”

“No sharing with the brother!”

“Xinxin, don’t say that,” her mother said a bit embarrassedly, giving her a scolding before turning to Madam Gu and apologizing, “I’m sorry, my daughter has been spoiled since she was little and has a strong sense of possession.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Madam Gu said generously. “I’ll have Koukou’s dad order a special one from abroad that he can sit in and fly, just like a little airplane. It won’t be the same as Xinxin’s, so Xinxin doesn’t need to worry.”

“……” Suddenly feeling outshone.

Upon hearing this, Xinxin turned to her mother to beg for a similar toy.

Madam Gu, no longer wanting to listen, took Koukou and left.

Hmph, my grandson wouldn’t even care about your toy, Madam Gu thought to herself.

Of course, she had no intention of actually having Gu Yanqing get a toy that Koukou could sit in and fly.

Even if such a thing existed, it would be far too unsafe.

This was just a matter of pride.

Qiao Wanqing’s eldest uncle and Gu Jingzhi hadn’t been in touch for a long time.

Their relationship wasn’t particularly deep back then—one family bought fish, the other sold it, and the bond was more about catching a thief than friendship.

But now, suddenly becoming relatives, they warmed up to each other, and the whole family enjoyed their first meal together happily.

Qiao Wanqing, having heard from Gu Yanqing about the situation between Xinxin and Koukou, kept an eye on Koukou, ensuring that Xinxin wouldn’t come over to steal his toys or bully him.

Perhaps distracted by Xinxin, Qiao Wanqing paid more attention to her eldest cousin’s wife’s treatment of Xinxin and noticed that her approach to parenting was quite different from her own.

Xin Xin is the typical spoiled child—self-centered, unwilling to share, and quick to grab things she wants.

She has a strong possessiveness over her belongings.

Even when she displays these behaviors, her parents simply indulge her without setting any limits or properly educating her.

They rarely discipline her, and when they do, Xin Xin doesn’t listen.

Qiao Wanqing had placed a bouquet of dried flowers in a vase on the shelf next to the TV in the living room for decoration.

Xin Xin insisted on playing with it.

Her mother tried to persuade her but failed, so she awkwardly looked at Qiao Wanqing.

Qiao Wanqing reluctantly allowed Xin Xin to take the flowers.

When she returned after a while, she found that the bouquet had been torn apart by Xin Xin.

Her mother scolded her a bit, but Xin Xin didn’t take any notice.

Although a single bouquet isn’t a big deal, it still upset Qiao Wanqing to see it ruined by a spoiled child.

Since they were relatives and the eldest uncle’s family seemed nice overall, with polite and humble cousins, it seemed to be an issue of parenting.

Qiao Wanqing quietly observed everything and thought about how she might handle raising a daughter to avoid similar issues.

After lunch, the plan was to take Gu Jingzhi and the others to the hotel for a rest, and then in the afternoon visit Qiao Wanqing’s vegetarian restaurant and the Yue Lao Temple for some sightseeing.

However, seeing that Gu Jingzhi and the eldest uncle were very engaged in tea and conversation, the eldest uncle’s wife, the second uncle’s wife, and the cousin and his wife took Xin Xin to explore the village.

Qiao Wanqing then prepared the guest room for Gu Yanqing to rest, and arranged for Madam Gu to have a place to rest as well. If anyone else needed to rest, they would have to go to the hotel.

After lunch, Kou Kou went to sleep.

Qiao Wanqing took off his jacket and placed it on the bed, only to find that the child had stuffed a bag of candy in his pocket!

The living room had fruit and candy dishes for guests to snack on while drinking tea.

The bag of candies Koukou had obviously came from there.

It wasn’t clear whether he had snatched them when no one was looking or if Mrs. Gu had given them to him.

Qiao Wanqing took a look and found a mix of chocolates, gummies, and milk candies crammed into two bags.

She took them out and set a small pile on the table.

Just then, Gu Yanqing walked in and saw her taking candies out of Koukou’s pockets.

He chuckled and said, “Didn’t I take these away once? How come he’s managed to get so many more?”

So he’s a repeat offender!

“Did he put these in himself?”

“Yeah, while the adults were talking, he secretly stuffed candies into his pockets. I caught him and took them away once, but it seems he went back for more.”

“This little glutton,” Qiao Wanqing said, both amused and helpless. “It doesn’t seem like we’ve treated him poorly. Why does he act as if we’ve been mistreating him?”

“Children,” Gu Yanqing said, “tend to hide things they like. Just make sure he doesn’t end up like Xinxin.”

It wasn’t that Gu Yanqing intended to speak ill of Xinxin, but if she weren’t Qiao Wanqing’s cousin’s daughter, his attitude might have been different.

Qiao Wanqing agreed, saying, “I think Xinxin is just overly spoiled by her family. Seeing her makes me worry that we might spoil Koukou too.”

“So we need to carefully consider Koukou’s upbringing. Sometimes we can’t just use our own standards to measure him,” Gu Yanqing added.

Qiao Wanqing suggested, “How about we buy a couple of parenting books tomorrow?”

“… Is that really necessary?” Gu Yanqing felt that paying more attention usually sufficed.

“I think it is. Tomorrow, I’ll check online and buy some books for us to read together. There might be a lot of things we haven’t noticed.”