Lu Suzhen, who was just about to dish out some rabbit meat for Xiao Shan, and Xiao Lu and Xiao He, who were already seated around the table waiting for dinner, all froze at the same time.
They had assumed that with the long-awaited rabbit meat sitting there so fragrantly before her, little glutton Luoluo would immediately pounce on it and start eating happily.
After all, while Lu Suzhen had been cooking the rabbit earlier, Luoluo’s big eyes had practically been glued to the pot the entire time, and she had kept swallowing her saliva nonstop.
Who could have expected that she would actually endure the temptation and bring the meat to Xiao Shan first?
Watching the tiny figure struggling to step over the doorframe with her little bowl, Lu Suzhen suddenly felt warmth surge through her chest, her eyes instantly turning sore.
Taking a deep breath, she sighed emotionally, “Ah, Xiao Lu… after living twenty years, you finally did one truly great thing—bringing our Luobao home.”
She pointed toward the doorway.
“Just look at her… look at that child… she’s so thoughtful and caring. How could anyone not love her?”
With that, she hurried after Luoluo carrying Xiao Shan’s meal, leaving the two brothers, Xiao Lu and Xiao He, sitting there silently with complicated emotions swirling inside them.
Xiao He was the first to break the silence.
Remembering how Luoluo had said earlier that “Daddy is fierce,” he nudged Xiao Lu with his elbow.
“Second Brother, did you hear what Mom said? Stop being so fierce with Luoluo in the future.”
His voice lowered, unusually serious.
“Even though you’re her dad now, the people she cares about most are still Big Brother and Mom. Whenever something happens, they’re the first ones she thinks of. You’re always last. Luoluo’s so adorable—how can you bear to scare her?”
Xiao Lu’s face grew uncomfortable after hearing that.
He wanted to argue back, but his throat felt strangely blocked.
Irritated, he clicked his tongue.
“Alright, alright, I got it. Why are you nagging more than Mom and Big Brother at your age?”
After speaking, he turned his face away and stopped looking at Xiao He, staring blankly at the large bowl of braised rabbit meat instead.
Xiao He looked at his second brother’s tense side profile and tightly pressed lips.
The emotions in Xiao Lu’s eyes were completely unreadable to him.
Meanwhile, Lu Suzhen hurried into Xiao Shan’s room carrying the food, only for the sight before her to make her heart soften all over again.
Luoluo was standing on tiptoe beside the bed, tightly gripping a little spoon that held a piece of rabbit meat.
She was stretching her tiny arm upward with all her strength, wobbling as she tried to feed the meat into Xiao Shan’s mouth while urging softly,
“Eldest Uncle, eat meat-meat, get better fast.”
“Oh, my precious Luobao…”
Lu Suzhen quickly walked over, her heart melting completely.
First she set Xiao Shan’s food down on the stool beside the bed, then bent down gently to hold Luoluo’s little hand and guide the piece of rabbit meat—one she had been holding up for quite a while—into Luoluo’s own mouth instead.
Softly coaxing her, Lu Suzhen said,
“Grandma already brought meat-meat for Eldest Uncle. This piece is for Luobao. Hurry and eat. After Luobao finishes, Grandma will give you even more, alright?”
The moment the fragrant rabbit meat finally entered her mouth, Luoluo’s eyes widened round as saucers.
“Mmm… yummy! Meat-meat is sooo yummy!”
Only then did Xiao Shan realize that the rabbit meat in the bowl had originally been meant for Luoluo herself.
Yet she had not taken a single bite before bringing it to him first.
The pure sincerity of the little girl’s affection filled Xiao Shan’s heart with overwhelming warmth, making his eyes sting with emotion.
After spending some time accompanying Xiao Shan in the room, Lu Suzhen and Luoluo finally returned to the kitchen to eat dinner.
Xiao He ate with grease all over his mouth, still unable to resist boasting,
“This rabbit meat is seriously amazing. Thanks to our Luobao—”
Before he could finish, Xiao Lu viciously kicked him under the table.
“Ow!”
Xiao He immediately changed his wording.
“—Thanks to the huge effort my second brother and I spent catching them! Of course it tastes good!”
“Mhm, yummy!”
Luoluo happily nibbled on the meat, her little mouth shining with oil, and even remembered to place a piece into Lu Suzhen’s bowl.
“Grandma eat.”
Lu Suzhen smiled so widely her mouth could barely close.
“Alright, Grandma will eat. Thank you, Luobao. Luobao is such a good girl.”
Xiao Lu silently buried himself in eating, moving quickly.
Yet while picking food, he unconsciously placed a boneless rabbit leg into Luoluo’s small bowl.
His movements were stiff and awkward, and he did not even lift his head to look at her.
Seeing the extra meat appear in her bowl, Luoluo looked up with sparkling eyes and gave him a huge greasy smile.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
That crisp little “Daddy” caused Xiao Lu’s chopsticks to freeze in midair.
He lifted his gaze and crashed directly into Luoluo’s eyes, which were filled with pure joy and complete dependence on him.
For some reason, he felt unbearably awkward.
Roughly grunting an “Mm,” he quickly lowered his head again and continued shoveling rice into his mouth.
After dinner, Lu Suzhen cleaned up the kitchen while Xiao He chopped firewood in the courtyard.
Meanwhile, Xiao Lu sat on a small stool outside Xiao Shan’s room, staring blankly at Luoluo in the yard as she hugged the little turtle and whispered who-knows-what to it.
“Daddy.”
At some point, Luoluo had run over carrying a handful of foxtail grass. She proudly held it out before him like treasure.
“Luoluo wants little doggies, like the ones Little Uncle made.”
Xiao Lu looked at the strands of foxtail grass, then at Luoluo’s expectant expression.
After several silent seconds, he finally reached out and took them.
His fingers moved skillfully and swiftly.
In no time at all, several lively little grass-woven “puppies” had appeared.
“Waaah!”
Luoluo gasped in delight as she received them carefully into her palms.
Tilting her little face up at him, her shining eyes were filled with admiration.
“Daddy’s amazing! Better than Little Uncle! The puppy doggies are prettier!”
Xiao Lu could not help curling his lips upward.
At least the kid had good taste.
Of course he was better than that silly Xiao He.
But Luoluo suddenly stared blankly at his raised lips as though she had discovered a whole new world.
After a long pause, she muttered sincerely,
“When Daddy smiles, he’s even prettier than Eldest Uncle.”
After saying that, she treasured the grass puppies in her hands and bounced away happily to show them off to the little turtle.
Meanwhile, after hearing her words, the upward curve of Xiao Lu’s lips first stiffened—
Then slowly, uncontrollably, grew wider and wider.
Looking at the little girl’s oversized clothes—crudely altered from his old undershirt—Xiao Lu suddenly stood up and returned to his room.
He dug out the only two relatively new shirts he owned and brought them to Lu Suzhen.
“Use these to make her two sets of clothes so she can change between them.”
After speaking, it was as if the clothes had burned him.
He tossed them down and immediately turned around to leave.
Lu Suzhen looked at the shirts, then at his awkward, almost fleeing figure, and could not help bursting into laughter.
“That brat…”
Out in the courtyard, Luoluo excitedly shared all her joy with the little turtle.
“Little Turtle, look! Daddy made puppy doggies for me! Daddy looks sooo handsome when he smiles. He’s not fierce at all anymore. He’s even a tiny bit prettier than Eldest Uncle.”
She raised her pinky finger seriously to demonstrate exactly how tiny that “tiny bit” was.
“Only this much.”
But today, the little turtle seemed unusually listless.
Its tiny green-bean eyes stared at her sadly.
“Luoluo, you caught so many rabbits today without bringing me along… I’m heartbroken. Am I still your best friend or not?”