"I roasted it, but it’s not tasty!"
Ji Baby tilted his head and tore off the last bit of at from the chicken wing, tossing the bone aside. Just as he was about to lick his fingers, Ji Rui quickly grabbed his hand and washed it clean in a basin.
"Daddy, please bring Grandma back ho to cook for ! The food uncles make is all terrible!"
Ji Baby wrapped his chubby little hands around Ji Rui’s waist, burying his face in Ji Rui’s warm belly, whining in a sweet, coquettish voice. He had now beco a loyal fan of "Grandma."
"No!"
Ji Rui gently stroked his soft hair, but his tone was firm. Secretly, he was glad that he had originally referred to Le Tong as a grandma. If the little demon knew that the person cooking for him was a beautiful young woman, who knows what kind of scene he would be making now.
"Daddy... I’m begging you, please?"
Ji Baby shook Ji Rui with both hands, looking up with a pitiful face.
"No!"
Ji Rui remained resolute, regretting having listened to Housekeeper Li about the little master’s poor appetite and inviting Le Tong to cook just to please this little demon.
After being sternly refused twice, Ji Baby clamped his mouth shut, biting his lip and staring at Ji Rui. Gradually, a layer of mist covered his once bright eyes.
Seeing this, Ji Rui thought, "This is not good," and without warning, Ji Baby’s lips trembled, and he burst into tears.
"Wah wah... Daddy is a big anie... Wah wah... Daddy is a big anie!"
Crying loudly, he swung his fists at Ji Rui’s belly repeatedly.
Ji Rui felt helpless, feeling the pulsating throb in his temples. This little troublemaker, he feared, was born to vex him!
"Stop crying!"
Ji Rui scolded with a frown, feeling both irritated and stifled by Ji Baby’s loud cries, as if sothing was squeezing his heart, making him feel uncomfortable.
"Big anie... Daddy is a big anie!"
Ji Baby seed unafraid, continuing to make a fuss relentlessly. While sobbing, he pounded harder on Ji Rui’s belly, tears streaming down his face in a wretched and pitiful manner.
Ji Rui felt annoyed, raising his hand in anger. But seeing his son’s pitiful face, he sighed silently, letting his hand fall quietly on Ji Baby’s back, patting gently.
Perhaps he had been too selfish. At first, he only thought about having a child to appease the old man. He never considered that the child would grow up and desire things that Ji Rui couldn’t possibly provide...
......
After leaving Ji Rui’s house, Le Tong didn’t rush ho. Instead, she bought a bag of bread and a bottle of water and went to a library not far from ho.
After her mother passed away, Le Tong suddenly had plenty of spare ti. Most of her ti outside of work was spent soaking in this library.
"Tongtong, it’s been a while since I saw you. I thought you had emigrated!"
The librarian was a middle-aged man in his fifties, surnad Zhong. Since Le Tong often visited, they gradually beca familiar with each other.
"Uncle Zhong, I haven’t emigrated. I got a new job, and there’s a lot of overti, so I haven’t had ti to co read."
Le Tong handed Uncle Zhong a pack of sunflower seeds she had bought along with the bread. Uncle Zhong would always save books she wanted to read, and whenever she saw him idly sitting, she knew he liked munching on sunflower seeds to pass the ti. Each visit, she would bring him a pack.
Uncle Zhong took the seeds with a smile, "You girl, after all this ti, you still rember I love these."
They exchanged a few words, but behind her, people lined up to borrow books, so Le Tong didn’t want to stand in their way. She took her bread and water, found a couple of books she wanted to read, and settled in the last row to read slowly.
Who knows how long she read, when suddenly a steaming cup of tea appeared on the table.
"Have a cup of hot tea. In this cold weather, eating bread and drinking cold water isn’t good for you." Uncle Zhong sat down beside her with a kind smile.
"Thank you, Uncle Zhong!"
Le Tong thanked him with a smile, picking up the cup and sipping the tea. The rich aroma and warmth spread from her mouth straight to her heart.
In the years after Mrs. Le’s surgery, Le Tong was busy with classes, caring for her mother, and took on several tutoring jobs to help with household expenses.
After her mother passed away, Le Tong’s life lost its balance. She couldn’t bear to stay in that small apartnt, as it was filled with too many mories of her and her mother together.
She always thought she was strong, and even when her mother decided to give up treatnt, she didn’t cry.
But in the month following her mother’s passing, she cried herself to sleep every night under the covers.
It was then she realized she wasn’t as strong as she had believed.
When her mother decided to stop treatnt, Le Tong didn’t cry because if she did, her mother would completely lose hope of surviving. So she didn’t dare cry; she couldn’t cry.
After her mother died, her life’s pillar crumbled, and she felt on the verge of breakdown. So she filled most of her spare ti at the library, using books to numb herself, using books to fill the ti that should have been spent caring for her mother.
Initially, she wasn’t familiar with Uncle Zhong. But one ti, while sitting at the back, she read a story similar to hers and couldn’t help but wipe her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Girl, the weather is cold, have a hot tea to warm your stomach."
That ti, Uncle Zhong not only gave her a cup of tea but also brought so small biscuits on a plate, saying his daughter had baked them for him to snack on when bored.
For her at that ti, what Uncle Zhong gave her that day was more than just a cup of tea and so biscuits...
In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.
"You seem to have lost a lot of weight, is work too hard?" Uncle Zhong asked with concern.
Le Tong shook her head, "No, I’m just dieting."
Le Tong knew Uncle Zhong was concerned, but she wasn’t used to treating others as emotional outlets, nor did she want to worry him.
Uncle Zhong looked her over, then scolded, "You look so thin already, why diet? Any thinner and you’ll be skin and bones."
Le Tong smiled obediently and lowered her gaze to sip her tea.
"Actually, I thought you got married and didn’t have ti to read anymore," Uncle Zhong suddenly said.
"Eh?"
Le Tong didn’t quite understand why Uncle Zhong ntioned marriage. She never rembered ntioning anything about it to him before.
"What’s with the ’eh’? You’re so pretty and young, there must be many boys chasing you, right? At one point, I even thought of introducing you to my nephew. But before I could, you disappeared."
Uncle Zhong said with so regret, and this was the first ti Le Tong had heard about it.
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