After spending the entire morning at Pingci School learning about the history and knowledge of Pingci Village’s mung bean cultivation, they finally escaped tomato and stir-fried eggs at noon and could eat the school cafeteria’s lunch.
Yan Chi sat next to Chu Zhuo, carefully peeling away the shrimp shells for him and placing the tender shrimp meat into a small bowl.
Chu Zhuo ate with great relish, his little face brimming with a satisfied smile as he even forgot to lift his empty bowl and plate in front of Yan Chi to show off his battle spoils.
“Awesome!” Yan Chi pinched Chu Zhuo’s soft little cheek in praise.
So well-behaved, Chu Kai could only praise inwardly.
In the afternoon, the adults and children split into two paths: the adults went to harvest mung beans, while the children split into two groups to search for ingredients.
Chu Zhuo was grouped with Jing Sichen and Zhou Hewen, making him the youngest little brother in the group.
“Wuwah, no, don’t.”
After the midday break, unable to bear the parting, Jing Sichen buried herself in Jing Yuanwei’s arms and began to cry.
“Ruby, do you remember what you promised Mommy?” While carrying Jing Sichen and rushing toward the gathering spot, Jing Yuanwei gently stroked her back to comfort her. “Our Chenchen is going to be a brave little girl. Right?”
Jing Sichen covered her eyes and replied with a sniffle, “Right, Mommy told me to be brave.”
Seeing his own daughter crying as she replied, Jing Yuanwei felt a sharp pang of pain in his chest.
“Sister, this is for you.” Unknowing where he had acquired another pear, Chu Zhuo saw Jing Sichen crying and trotted over to gift the pear to her.
Zhou Lesheng and Zhou Hewen also crowded around.
Zhou Lesheng asked in confusion, “Brother Jing, why is Chenchen throwing such a big tantrum? Didn’t you use pheromones to soothe her at noon?”
Speaking of pheromones, Jing Yuanwei looked somewhat sheepish.
Using his palm to wipe away the tear drops on Jing Sichen’s face, Jing Yuanwei replied, “Her growth-stage pheromone soothing wasn’t done properly; she’s extremely clingy, and we sleep with her every single day.”
Zhou Lesheng nodded understandingly. “True, the degree of pheromone soothing is rather difficult to gauge. If you don’t grasp it well, some experience deficiency while others get an excess.”
Listening from the sidelines, Chu Kai felt a complex mix of emotions in his heart.
He was a Beta, incapable of perceiving pheromone needs, and whenever he felt distressed, he would just smell pears.
He didn’t know whether that counted as a deficiency or an excess.
Judging by how much Chu Zhuo loved pears, it should probably count as a deficiency.
His Chu Zhuo was also a crying child at home.
Following a round of persuasion from Jing Yuanwei, Jing Sichen finally agreed to go complete the mission.
Holding Chu Zhuo’s hand with her left and Zhou Hewen’s hand with her right, she remembered her role as the older sister, crying while refusing to forget to help the two little brothers search for ingredients.
Liao Zhenzhen went to accompany the adult group, while Chu Kai followed the children to protect Jing Sichen’s safety.
For Chu Kai, this was both a blessing and a curse.
He could personally watch Chu Zhuo complete his tasks, watching him transform into a little adventurer to finish the missions, yet he also had to try his utmost to conceal himself to avoid being recognized.
He had never worn makeup before, but this morning he had specially borrowed pressed powder and concealer from Liao Zhenzhen just to cover up the tear mole at the corner of his eye.
“Grandma, do you have any chili peppers at home? The green ones, please!” Chu Zhuo put his heart entirely into the task, having already found two ingredients and carrying his small basket into a village grandma’s courtyard.
“Thank you, Grandma.”
After securing different vegetable dishes in the village, the three children began searching for meat dishes.
The fish was what Chu Zhuo needed to find, but after asking three or four households, there was none.
“What should we do if there’s no fish?” Chu Zhuo suddenly let go of his basket, sat down on a stone pier by the roadside, and pouted aggrievedly.
“I have a big chicken leg,” Zhou Hewen squatted down beside Chu Zhuo and tipped the chicken leg from his own basket into Chu Zhuo’s. “I’ll share it with you!”
“We’ll look for little fish together, we will definitely find one, and once we find it we can go find Daddy,” Jing Sichen, who had stopped by the side of the path, also advised.
“B-but,” Chu Zhuo turned his head, lifted his chin slightly, and wiped his eyes, “Yan Daddy gave me a pear, and I promised him I would definitely complete the mission.”
He turned his head back again to look at his own basket. “Only I didn’t find a fish. I’m in last place.”
“Not at all!” Acting like an older sister whose protective instincts had been triggered, Jing Sichen walked back to Chu Zhuo’s side and placed a few of the vegetables she had found into Chu Zhuo’s basket. “We don’t have a ranking here. We’re a team! My mommy said that a team is family, and every single person in a team has the responsibility and obligation to protect the team, so we can’t give up easily.”
Not understanding a single word of what Jing Sichen was saying, Zhou Hewen nodded blankly. “Yeah, I’m not giving up either!”
Chu Zhuo didn’t understand Jing Sichen’s talk of responsibility and obligation either, but he felt that the children here were different from Xiaoxiao in their residential complex.
Therefore, he regained his spirits, picked up his basket, and continued searching for fish.
Sweating profusely from their search, the three of them finally obtained two big fish at an auntie’s house.
Carrying the lively big fish inside a black plastic bag, Chu Zhuo wiped away his sweat and grinned broadly.
As the sun set in the west and the evening glow cast its light across the earth, the three children played along the way, helping each other, and returned to the village chief’s courtyard tired yet very happy.
Unlike Jing Sichen and Zhou Hewen, who threw themselves completely at their respective fathers, Chu Zhuo carried his basket and bag to report his battle spoils of the day to Yan Chi: “I found chili peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and fish too!”
Having worked out physically all afternoon, Yan Chi had just changed into a sleeveless top, making the muscle lines on his arms appear exceptionally distinct in the setting sun.
He bent down, taking the basket and bag from the ground while listening to Chu Zhuo’s impassioned report.
“Little Water Chestnut, you’re pretty amazing!” Yan Chi patted the shoulder of Chu Zhuo, who had finally finished his report, and raised an eyebrow. “We’re having a big feast tonight!”
Chu Zhuo reached out to touch his short bangs soaked with sweat, smiled shyly, and then leaned in to kiss Yan Chi on the cheek, whispering softly, “Yan Daddy, I finished my mission. Can I eat a pear now?”
“The pear belongs to you,” Yan Chi used his index finger to lightly scrape the bridge of Chu Zhuo’s upturned nose. “However, the two of us made a deal; you can only eat it tomorrow.”
That golden pear from last night, Chu Zhuo had taken a few bites of it this morning, brought it to school, and finished hugging and gnawing on it during recess.
At noon in the cafeteria, when choosing fruit, Chu Zhuo picked a pear once again.
Fortunately, several dads timely reminded them that children shouldn’t eat too many pears, which prompted Yan Chi to come up with an idea to temporarily suppress Chu Zhuo’s desire to eat pears.
“Okay,” Chu Zhuo remembered what Yan Chi said at noon: since he wasn’t going to school tomorrow, he wouldn’t have pears to eat, so the pear earned from completing the mission had to be saved for tomorrow.
He placed today’s pear on the table, played with the other children for a while, and then curiously watched the other dads cook.
Among the six dads, Zhou Lesheng was the best at cooking; Wang Zhiling, Jing Yuanwei, and Bei Yan could handle being assistants, while Liang Zhuo and Yan Chi couldn’t even manage being assistants and could only mingle among the children.
Seeing Chu Zhuo look at Zhou Lesheng with eyes filled with adoration, Yan Chi couldn’t help muttering under his breath, “This little ungrateful kid! Hmph! Is knowing how to cook really that appealing?”
The moment those words left his mouth, his expression froze.
People who know how to cook aren’t appealing; they’re deceiving.
Back then, he had been fooled by that Beta who knew how to cook, thinking it was mutual affection, thinking it was real love.
Yan Chi gritted his teeth tightly, once again banishing the Beta’s figure from his mind.
“Little Water Chestnut,” Yan Chi called out toward Chu Zhuo. “Come over here, let’s play Eagle Catches the Chick.”