Chapter 20
Lin Yunmi truly could not bear to let go of her soft, sweet-smelling son, so she could only settle for second best. “Then how about Xixi sleeps with Mommy tomorrow night?”
Lin Huaixi shook his little head and refused very politely. “No, I can’t. I already promised Qi Wang that I’d sleep with him tomorrow too.”
“Then the day after tomorrow?”
“Still Qi Wang.”
“Then the day after that?”
“Still Qi Wang.”
Lin Yunmi: “…”
Who would have thought her son would be this popular—she could not even book him three days in advance!
Still unwilling to give up, Lin Yunmi tried temptation. “Mommy just changed the sheets and quilt cover. They’re covered in roses. If Xixi sleeps on them, it’ll be like being in a flower field. Even then, Xixi still doesn’t want to sleep with Mommy?”
Lin Huaixi puffed his lips slightly, and his cheeks bulged out too, looking very troubled.
Mommy was being so childish.
He cupped Lin Yunmi’s face with his little hands and coaxed her in a soft childish voice. “Mommy, you taught me that if you promise something, you have to do it. I promised Qi Wang, so I can’t leave him behind. How about next week? Then I’ll sleep with Mommy.”
Lin Yunmi’s urge to act flared up again. She sniffled and pretended to be pitiful. “Then answer Mommy one question first. If Qi Wang and I both fell into the water, who would you save?”
It was a very difficult question, but Lin Yunmi had asked it too many times already, and Lin Huaixi had long since built up immunity. His black-jade eyes were full of sincerity. “I’d save Mommy together with Qi Wang!”
Lin Yunmi: “…” She really should not have asked.
She suddenly realized that her son’s outlook was far broader than hers, and that she really did not look much like a proper mother. So she stopped pestering him about it. Reluctantly, she set her precious son back on the ground and lightly patted his head. “It’s getting late. Hurry and go find Grandpa so he can bathe you.”
Lin Huaixi tilted his head up and studied her seriously for a moment, then stretched out his chubby little arms and hugged her leg, rubbing his soft cheek against it. “Mommy, don’t be sad, okay? Xixi loves Mommy the most. In the future, I’ll sleep with Mommy in summer too.”
When Lin Yunmi heard the first half, her heart melted into a warm spring pool, and motherly love overflowed. But when she heard the second half, the smile froze at the corner of her mouth.
Lin Huaixi ran warm. In winter, he was like a little heater, and hugging him felt wonderful. But in summer…
Mother and son were very close, and since they did not get to see each other often in summer, they would cling to each other affectionately whenever they had the chance. But it was simply too hot—so hot that even deep mother-son affection could not overcome it.
Afraid that directly refusing him would leave a psychological scar on Lin Huaixi, Lin Yunmi tried to trick him into changing the subject himself.
For the sake of their summer sleep quality, Lin Yunmi coughed twice and shifted the topic. “Isn’t that Grandpa? Grandpa looks like he’s holding your little ducky!”
The moment Lin Huaixi heard the words little ducky, he instantly turned his head and chased after it without thinking.
He found Grandpa by the bathroom door and tugged at his clothes. “Grandpa, where’s my little ducky?”
Only then did Grandpa come back to himself. He rubbed Lin Huaixi’s fluffy little head. “Don’t worry. Your little ducky has already been brought over.”
Only then did Lin Huaixi feel happy again, and he jumped up to answer eagerly, “I know what to bring before a bath! A towel, and my own clothes too!”
Grandpa smiled and lightly hooked a finger against Lin Huaixi’s nose. “Xixi is so smart. Hurry along, then.”
Lin Huaixi immediately dashed back to his room, as if playing some kind of game, tidying everything up as fast as he could.
Grandpa, meanwhile, stood by the door, looking worriedly through the frosted glass panel.
Another minute passed before the door finally opened, and Qi Wang’s small figure appeared in the doorway.
Not only was he neatly dressed, but there was not a drop of water in his hair, and the toiletries he had used had all been neatly placed back where they belonged.
Only then did Grandpa finally relax.
When Qi Wang had said he wanted to bathe by himself, Grandpa’s first reaction had been to refuse. He had worried that something might happen if Qi Wang stayed inside alone. If he bumped his head on the bathtub and then slipped under the water without awareness, it would be very dangerous.
Grandpa had treated Qi Wang like a little child and crouched down to coax him softly. But when he looked into Qi Wang’s still, black eyes, the words he had been about to say slowly died in his mouth. After holding out for a full half minute, he finally nodded.
Even though Grandpa had agreed aloud, he still had not been at ease in his heart, so he had waited outside the whole time.
Grandpa was used to crouching down when talking to children. “If your hair stays wet, you’ll catch a cold easily. Let me help you… do you know how to use a hair dryer?”
Qi Wang nodded. His gaze passed over Grandpa’s shoulder and landed somewhere behind him. A faint ripple appeared in his eyes, as if the barrier he used to shut out the outside world had suddenly vanished and his soft heart had been revealed beneath.
Something stirred in Grandpa’s heart. Before he could say anything, Lin Huaixi came rushing over like a gust of wind. “Grandpa, Xixi is ready already!”
Grandpa’s attention was diverted, and he smiled. “Then Xixi wait here for a little while first. Grandpa will go run the bath for you.”
Lin Huaixi was full of anticipation, because every time he bathed, he got to play a water fight with Grandpa. Standing by the door, he went up on tiptoe and craned his neck to peek, nearly stepping straight into the water in his fluffy little bunny slippers.
Qi Wang caught hold of him. “Before, you said Auntie just bought you a fairy-tale book. After we finish bathing, do you want to read it together?”
“Yes!” Without even realizing it, Lin Huaixi had been led by Qi Wang onto the clean hallway.
Only after Grandpa had finished running the bath did Qi Wang hand Lin Huaixi over to him. Then, after drying his hair, he returned to Lin Huaixi’s little bedroom.
The moment he walked in, he saw several pajamas tossed messily across the bed.
Qi Wang frowned, as if those few pieces of clothing carried some strange magnetic field that pinned him firmly in place.
He instantly forgot about everything else. Carefully and seriously, he folded the clothes neatly one by one, even smoothing down the wrinkles with his little hands. Only after that did the uncomfortable feeling disappear. Qi Wang opened the wardrobe door, intending to put the clothes away and thoroughly solve this troubling sight.
But the moment the wardrobe door opened, a bunch of clothes balled into lumps tumbled out impatiently.
“…”
Because of work, Lin Yunmi had been spending more time at home these past few months and had taken the initiative to look after Lin Huaixi’s daily needs.
For her, the only way for a wardrobe to look neat was to hang everything up. As for clothes better suited to folding, she usually just balled them up and tossed them into the wardrobe. At best, she might randomly fold them once or twice. For her, that was already her absolute limit.
Qi Wang, however, was the exact opposite.
For the next twenty minutes, his frown never relaxed once. Like a tiny little maid, he huffed and worked away folding clothes without resting even a second.
By the time Lin Huaixi came back from his bath, Qi Wang had only just closed the wardrobe door. Very naturally, he picked up Lin Huaixi’s little towel and helped him dry the hair that had already been mostly blow-dried, leaving only the faintest trace of dampness.
Lin Huaixi sat obediently by the bed, swinging his little feet, peeking at Qi Wang through the strands of his hair.
After finishing with the towel, Qi Wang had just put it down when he met Lin Huaixi’s bright sparkling gaze. He immediately knew what Lin Huaixi was thinking. “All right, we’ll read the fairy-tale book together.”
Lin Huaixi instantly cheered and flopped backward onto the bed in a free fall, bouncing once and laughing nonstop.
Qi Wang helped set his slippers neatly in place, then sat down on the bed and picked up the newly bought fairy-tale book.
The two little ones lay shoulder to shoulder on the bed, pressing their fluffy little heads together in front of the book as they entered a dreamy world side by side.
Lin Huaixi could not recognize many characters, but he liked pictures and had a rich imagination. He could invent a whole story by himself, sometimes even more wonderful than the original.
Qi Wang, meanwhile, looked more at the words. He had gone through too much harshness and instinctively could not believe in the beautiful world described in fairy tales. His face showed little expression, and once he had finished reading all the words, the book was over for him.
Lin Huaixi, however, was completely engrossed. His brows and eyes curved into smiles as he looked at the giraffe wearing a bow, as if he had just made a new friend.
Qi Wang did not urge him. He only watched quietly.
Lin Huaixi had just finished bathing, and his face looked even softer and cleaner now, like the fluffy cream on top of a little bunny cake. His cheeks still held the rosy flush steamed out by the bath, and even the tips of his ears were a little red.
Qi Wang remembered how, at school, after being blown by the cold wind, Lin Huaixi’s ear tips would turn red too.
The more he thought about it, the more some strange impulse came over him, and before he knew it, he reached out and pinched one.
Lin Huaixi instantly froze. His thick curled lashes trembled like the wings of a startled butterfly, and his whole body went still. He could only glance sideways at Qi Wang and ask very softly, “What are you doing?”
A thought popped into Qi Wang’s mind. He suddenly felt that Lin Huaixi looked just like a little rabbit—one whose ears had been pinched, leaving it too scared to move.
All of a sudden, Qi Wang felt a little longing and murmured, “It would be nice if you were really a little rabbit.”
Then he could take proper care of Lin Huaixi, groom his white fur clean and smooth every single day, and feed him little bunny cakes too. And if that happened, then other people would not be allowed to come bother Lin Huaixi without his permission.
Lin Huaixi blinked, puzzled. “Why? Then I wouldn’t be able to eat meat anymore, and I wouldn’t be able to go to school with you either. I could only stay home and wait for you.”
Qi Wang knew it was impossible, but he still could not give up. “Then what about being a bunny doll?”
Lin Huaixi looked at the bunny doll sitting at the head of the bed, then looked back at Qi Wang’s eyes full of earnest longing, and slowly shook his head. “No.”
Qi Wang involuntarily tightened his grip on the soft quilt beneath him, as if doing that could somehow fill the emptiness in his heart. “Why not?”
Lin Huaixi’s eyes widened into full round circles, pure and clear. “Because then I wouldn’t be able to smile at you anymore!”
A bunny doll only had one expression. It had no life, no energy, and no warmth to give off.
But it could be hidden away in a cabinet where no one else could see it. It could belong to him alone.
Qi Wang slowly lowered his eyes, and even his voice became indistinct. “I know.”
Lin Huaixi sensed the change in Qi Wang’s mood. His mouth turned downward, and his big eyes filled with worry. “Qi Wang, why are you unhappy?”
There was no physical pain anywhere in him, yet Qi Wang clenched his teeth tightly, and in his chest it felt as though a whole pot of sour lemon juice were boiling. “Xixi, can you stop playing with Sun Baiyi from now on?”
Lin Huaixi immediately made a connection. His expression turned uneasy at once. “Did he bully you again?”
“No.” Qi Wang did not want Lin Huaixi to feel unhappy, so he softened his tone. “It’s just that I don’t want to play with Sun Baiyi anymore. And Wang Xiaohu, Gu Youyou, and the others too. From now on, can you stop paying attention to them too?”
Lin Huaixi’s mouth fell open into a round little O, and his face looked blank and silly. “Why? They’re our good friends. If I suddenly stop talking to them, they’ll feel sad, and then no one will play games with me anymore.”
His voice grew quieter and quieter. He was trying hard to hold it in, but he could no longer control his expression, and he said with some grievance, “Qi Wang… you’re holding me so tight it hurts.”
Only then did Qi Wang realize that at some point he had seized Lin Huaixi’s hand, and with a lot of force too. On the back of Lin Huaixi’s plump little hand, several red finger marks had already been left behind.
“I’m sorry.” Qi Wang panicked. He felt strange and awful and had no idea what he was supposed to do.
The moment Lin Huaixi saw Qi Wang looking as though he might cry, he instantly forgot the pain in his hand and scooted close like a sweet little dumpling. “It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt at all. I won’t be angry with you.”
Qi Wang stared fixedly into Lin Huaixi’s eyes, and suddenly his heart quieted down. “No matter what I do, you won’t get angry with me?”
“I won’t!” Lin Huaixi nodded very hard to show how firm he was. But halfway through nodding, he suddenly stopped, his face turning troubled.
Qi Wang’s heart tightened at once, terrified that Sun Baiyi’s name would come out of Lin Huaixi’s mouth.
Lin Huaixi licked his rosy lips and twisted his fingers together. After struggling for a long while, he finally said, “If you keep snatching all my little bunny cakes every single time, then I’d be a little angry.”
He held up his fingers to show an amount the size of a grain of rice. “Just a tiny little bit.”
Qi Wang: “…”
The contrast was so great that he forgot all those strange thoughts at once and felt there was nothing much to make a fuss about. Looking at Lin Huaixi, whose little head seemed to contain nothing but bunny cakes, Qi Wang spoke helplessly:
“Don’t worry. I’ll leave them all for you.”
