Chapter 58: Bringing Up The Kids
Su Ning didn’t feel much sleepiness after a night without sleep, though her eyes inevitably showed some fatigue.
Leading Xiao Qiu back home, she saw the little one staring at Zhang Qin’s urn on the table, her red eyes full of bloodshot veins, tears hanging on her eyelashes dropping one after another.
She sighed deeply in her heart, took her hand and gently comforted, “Xiao Qiu, do you still remember Mom’s wish?”
“Yes, I remember…”
Her childish little voice was thick with nasal sounds, Xiao Qiu sobbed while answering and nodding, making the tears fall even more, “Mom… she wants to go home.”
“So we have to be good and can’t cry like this anymore. If we get sick, there’ll be no way to take her home, right?”
“Mm, I won’t cry, I can’t get sick, I want… to take Mom home…”
“Xiao Qiu is such a good girl.”
Stroking her head, Su Ning pulled her up and headed to the kitchen, “Let’s eat something first, Sister will help you bathe and change clothes.”
Considering Xiao Qiu often went hungry and full irregularly with a weak stomach, she prepared to cook some stomach-nourishing, easy-to-digest noodles.
Lighting the fire in the earthen stove and letting it rise, she cleaned the pot and boiled hot water.
Xiao Qiu, who had finally stopped crying, didn’t idle around and proactively sat by the stove to help watch the fire and add firewood.
Soon two bowls of plain noodles were ready, sprinkled with some chopped green onions, and each had a fried egg nestled in.
Bringing the noodle soup to the dining table, she took out two pairs of chopsticks from the bamboo tube, “Xiao Qiu, take them and eat the noodles quickly, or they’ll clump up and won’t taste good.”
“Thank you, Sister Ning Ning.”
The white, thin, long noodles and plump fried eggs were things they wouldn’t have dared to dream of before today.
With only Sister Ning Ning at home, grain and oil were monthly fixed rations, and though she was young, Mom and Gu Zi Ge had told her these common sense things.
Now with herself as an extra burden, without grain, oil connections or city household registration, she couldn’t get rations. What if Sister Ning Ning went hungry too?
So her little hand holding the chopsticks hesitated to move, Xiao Qiu looked up timidly and said, “Sister Ning Ning actually… doesn’t need to cook fine grain for me, I can eat anything, really!”
Gu Zi Ge said fine grain was very precious, one jin could be exchanged for many jin of coarse grain, enough for several people to eat for a long time.
Chen Gu, broken rice, buckwheat husks, sweet potatoes and potatoes were all delicious, she wasn’t greedy for refined rice and white flour at all.
Slurp~
Mm, not at all.
“Hehe, eat with peace of mind, how big is your little belly, can it bankrupt me? Sister knows what she’s doing, eat the noodles.”
A crying child gets candy, but a sensible child makes one feel heartbroken.
Perhaps because of her firm attitude, or maybe because she was young and couldn’t resist the temptation of the food, in the end Xiao Qiu obediently started devouring it.
She finished the bowl of noodles including the soup with gulps, her little belly stuffed hard like a ripe watermelon.
The two strolled in the yard to aid digestion and conveniently watered the vegetable patch and flowers.
When the water in the pot boiled, Su Ning scrubbed her thoroughly from head to toe until no more dirt came off, then lifted her out of the wooden tub and put on her smallest short-sleeved shirt.
“Pfft~”
“Hehe~”
It was a short-sleeved shirt on her, but a dress on the little one, showing just how skinny and small she was.
Messing up Xiao Qiu’s hair who was giggling foolishly, Su Ning restrained the smile in her eyes, a pang of heartache surging like ant bites.
Thinking of the skinny body just skin and bones she’d seen earlier, ribs protruding obviously from her chest, bruises and injuries everywhere.
She was just a little over five years old, the one who laid hands on her was simply a beast!
“Sister Ning Ning? What’s wrong, does Qiu Qiu look bad in it?”
“No, I’m thinking when the other big sister comes later, we’ll take Xiao Qiu to buy two pretty little skirts.”
Hearing “pretty” and “little skirts,” Xiao Qiu couldn’t help showing a joyful expression, but her highly raised corners of the mouth drooped again in a moment.
If Mom knew Qiu Qiu not only ate noodles and eggs, but also wore new clothes without patches, she would surely be especially especially happy.
Would she feel more at ease watching from heaven?
“Xiao Qiu…”
“Ning Bao Gai, I’m here~ Little Round Circle, don’t bite my skirt, or I’ll beat you!”
Luo Shuangshuang’s loud voice just rang in the yard when her red-and-white polka-dot ankle-length skirt was bitten by Little Round Circle and wouldn’t let go, making her wave her little fist threateningly, “Hah, kid, if you don’t let go, I’ll really beat you!”
“Ning Bao Gai, your little circle has quite a temper, too bullying!”
Wasn’t it just muttering yesterday that it was kinda ugly, but she quickly changed to kinda cute, right?
“Little Round Circle, let go, no biting a woman’s skirt!”
“Hahaha, exactly, a hooligan dog is unacceptable, got it?”
Seeing it let go, Luo Shuangshuang glanced at the wet skirt hem full of saliva, completely amused and angered by this guy. Before she could say more, she noticed the little girl hiding behind her friend.
Hey, does Ning Bao Gai have a preference for dark, skinny, small ones?
“What’s that expression on your face?”
“Hehehe, nothing nothing, is this the neighbor girl? How’s she here?”
Patting Xiao Qiu’s hand tightly gripping hers, Su Ning introduced them, “Xi You, this is Xiao Qiu. Xiao Qiu, this is Sister Shuang Shuang I just mentioned to you.”
“Hello, Sister Shuang Shuang~”
“Hey, Xiao Qiu Qiu, you too. Sister will treat you to candy!”
Looking at the candy she handed over, Xiao Qiu didn’t take it but looked up at Sister Ning Ning beside her. Seeing her nod, she took it and softly said thank you.
“Xiao Qiu, you play in the yard with Little Round Circle for a bit first?”
“Okay.”
Giving Luo Shuangshuang a look, pressing down the cowlick on Xiao Qiu’s head, she smilingly let the two little ones play while she took the person with the weird expression into the main hall.
She quietly told her about Zhang Qin’s matter and the arrangements for Xiao Qiu afterward.
Looking at the small box on the table with full sympathy and lingering fear, having experienced nearly being trafficked last time, Luo Shuangshuang hated human traffickers even more.
If not for Ning Bao Gai, her own outcome probably wouldn’t have been much better.
If really sold to some remote deep mountain with no people, without Zhang Qin’s clever endurance to escape, she couldn’t have gotten out!
“Ning Bao Gai, we’re lucky to have met you.”
Whether her, Zhang Qin, or Xiao Qiu.
Luo Shuangshuang held her hand, and as she spoke, her eyes couldn’t help getting moist.
“What are you saying, don’t cry, I won’t be able to coax if you do.”
“Pfft~ Who’s crying!”
“Okay okay, you’re not, alright?”
Proudly raising her chin, Luo Shuangshuang nodded satisfied with the smile in her eyes.
After chatting and laughing a bit, Su Ning got up and took her bag, “Let’s go, take the little one to buy two pieces of clothes. Wearing mine like that isn’t proper.”
“Sure, count me in. You pay money, I provide coupons, how’s that?”
“Someone willing to save me cloth coupons, I should be happy.”
……
Gu City department store.
In the children’s section, Su Ning bought Xiao Qiu a pink puff-sleeve dress with a butterfly pattern, a white short-sleeve paired with dark blue overalls, and a pair of plastic sandals.
All that, not counting cloth coupons, would cost nearly thirty bucks.
Xiao Qiu, now in new clothes and shoes, overheard the price and nervously bit her nails anxiously.
“Sister Ning Ning, maybe we shouldn’t buy them?”
“How? Don’t you like them?”
“Too expensive, Sister Ning Ning’s clothes are good and still new…”
“Not even that big yet and already so worrisome, careful or you won’t grow tall!”
Luo Shuangshuang, who had paid the money and coupons and taken the receipt, heard it all and tapped her forehead, half-joking half-serious.
“This is a gift from us sisters because we like Xiao Qiu Qiu. If a certain little one doesn’t like it, we’ll be heartbroken~”
“No no, I like them very much!”
“Then that’s good. Little kids should happily wear new clothes and new shoes.”
“Mm mm, thank you Sister Ning Ning, thank you Sister Shuang Shuang!”
Xiao Qiu pursed her lips and gave her a sweet smile: Qiu Qiu is happy, not just because of the new clothes and shoes, but because without Mom she gained two very very good sisters.
The little one’s thoughts were naturally unknown to Su Ning and Luo Shuangshuang. Each holding one of her hands, they continued browsing before slowly walking out of the building.
“Ning Bao Gai, when you get back, I should be reporting here and starting work.”
“All settled?”
“Mm, last night when I went back, Dad told me, starting the day after tomorrow, working the day after that.”
Luo Shuangshuang pursed her lips. As expected, Dad and Mom didn’t agree to her going purchasing with Ning Bao Gai, saying she couldn’t handle the hardship, no adaptability.
Fine, thinking about it, if really sending her alone to an unfamiliar place for business trips, she… probably really couldn’t manage.
