14: The cub learns to read
Even on weekends, the Haitang Compound residential area was exceptionally quiet.
Only occasionally did the cheerful laughter of children drift over from the community gardens.
Ye Susu had cheerfully completed her task, although she was still utterly puzzled about exactly how she’d managed it.
But with the recipe book in hand, she began researching which menu item to unlock next.
Meanwhile, Ye Xun stared at the Lego toy that had been thrust into his arms, quickly falling into a daze.
Happiness… had arrived so suddenly.
So, this was what Lego was like.
And actually, it wasn’t as amazing as Xiao Pang had made it sound.
The little mouth he’d been trying so hard to keep straight couldn’t help but tilt up slightly.
Settling back down in front of the coffee table, he even reached up to touch his own head.
Mommy seemed to really enjoy patting his head lately.
The curve of his little mouth grew a bit wider.
[Ah, the little one is patting his own head! So cute!]
[Can’t see the little one’s face, so sad!]
[He must be happy, right? Hehe, go play with your Legos, little cutie.]
It was as if Ye Xun could hear everyone’s encouragement. He carefully put the storybook and pencil back in their places before meticulously arranging the Lego pieces on the table.
Like a little wolfdog herding sheep, he treated each block with utmost seriousness, terrified of dropping a single one.
As he played, he kept glancing at the floor to check if any had fallen.
Even though he assembled slowly and made many mistakes, everyone in the livestream could see, from his pale, tender little hands, the focused and meticulous care he took.
Anyone could tell he was deeply engrossed and cherished this new toy immensely.
The coffee table had a glass top. Anyone with experience knew things would clatter sharply if dropped on it.
Yet, he worked in near silence, incredibly quiet.
[Why does this make my heart ache more the longer I watch? My little cousin throws blocks around, making loud bangs, but this child handles them so gently.]
[Is he thinking he’ll sell them for money after playing? Please don’t, I’m about to cry.]
[Why are all the well-behaved kids someone else’s? My son is such a handful!]
[Sigh, this is heartbreaking. Starting tomorrow, I’ll donate my daily snack money to this child. I need to diet anyway!]
[Great idea from the comment above!]
[Speaking of which, when is this mom going to buy the kid a new pencil? This is getting stressful to watch.]
[Hey, commenter above, his mom doesn’t even know he’s livestreaming. She can’t see our comments.]
[!!! But does the little guy even know how to withdraw the money we donate?]
The livestream comments flew wildly until someone finally raised a practical question.
Right. They’d donated. The little guy had money.
But would he know how to withdraw it?
Ye Xun played with the toy for a while, his gaze gradually becoming distant.
He was pondering the same question.
How to make money from the livestream? And how to get the money out for Mommy?
This was completely beyond him.
But soon, the problem resolved itself.
Ye Susu quickly decided to learn a new recipe to use up her Child-Raising Points. She asked Xia Ningmeng to watch the child and went downstairs to the kitchen.
She even reassured little Ye Xun, telling him to think of Auntie Ningmeng as his kindergarten teacher. Only after seeing him nod did she leave with peace of mind.
Xia Ningmeng wasn’t a bad person. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have kept sending red envelopes to help a friend who had grown distant.
Ye Xun immersed himself in the toy again.
So, Ye Susu had no worries.
However, not long after she left, Ye Xun thought of a simple, albeit clumsy, solution.
He checked the livestream interface.
After testing various buttons again, he managed to open the settings and withdrawal panel.
Where there were numbers, he guessed it probably had something to do with money.
Seeing Xia Ningmeng engrossed in her own phone, he used his pencil to copy down the characters he suspected were relevant.
After copying them, he put the phone back carefully.
Then, he took a small slip of paper, jumbled the order of the characters, and copied them again.
[What’s the little guy doing?]
[It can’t be what I’m thinking, right?]
[…He’s going to ask that auntie what these characters mean, then learn how to withdraw the money himself?]
[Kid, even if you can read, it’s no use. Do you have a bank card?]
[Commenter above speaks the truth. I’m sweating for the kid! If he finds out, he’ll be so disappointed, won’t he?]
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Ye Xun picked up the slip of paper and moved.
Actually, the livestream room couldn’t see anything; once he took the paper away, the camera only showed the building blocks on the desk.
But this didn’t stop everyone from hearing the sounds in the room.
Soon, Xia Ningmeng’s voice rang out.
“Huh? Xunbao, are you asking me what this character is?”
She had been stealing energy in Ant Forest and was in the middle of it when a slip of paper silently appeared beside her.
Turning her head, she met little Ye Xun’s expectant yet slightly shy dark eyes.
She glanced at the paper and saw the child’s wobbly, large handwriting. Each stroke was clearly drawn with great care, consistent in thickness.
Ye Xun felt both shy and nervous.
He nodded.
Crack. Xia Ningmeng felt something in her heart shatter.
Too. Darn. Cute.
This child’s lethal cuteness was too strong!
Having enjoyed a satisfying lunch and having zero resistance to adorable children, she immediately embraced her role as a teacher.
“Ah, this is the character ‘tí’ (提).”
“‘Tí,’ you know? It means ‘to take’ or ‘to carry.’ Like carrying a bag, or your mom going to the bank to withdraw money.”
As soon as she said this, little Ye Xun’s eyes lit up.
He nodded more vigorously, looking very interested.
Xia Ningmeng thought to herself: Maybe I’d make a good kindergarten teacher?
Eager to teach more, and considering the child might not know pinyin yet, she started from the character’s shape.
“Look at the character ‘tí.’ This radical on the left is the ‘hand’ radical, meaning you need to use your hand to take something… You can remember it like that, okay?”
Little Ye Xun looked and saw it was indeed true, immediately committing it to memory seriously.
His little finger quickly pointed to the next character.
“This is ‘hù’ (户), like a bank account. One household, one ‘hù,’ you know? See, here, these four characters together actually mean ‘bank account.'”
Xia Ningmeng looked and, even with the characters jumbled, instantly recognized the phrase.
Little Ye Xun understood immediately.
To withdraw money, you need a bank account.
In that instant, his expression fell.
He didn’t have an account like that.
The livestream account was registered using Mommy’s old phone number.
He was still small, had no ID card, and certainly no bank account.
What should he do?
“Auntie… Ningmeng.”
Ye Xun finally spoke up, his voice soft, his face flushed pink.
He tried to hide his urgency.
“Is ‘yuan’ this character?”
His small finger tapped the paper, thinking of the price tags he saw at the supermarket.
“Yes, that’s the character.”
Hearing Xia Ningmeng’s confirmation, he clenched the hem of his shirt in excitement.
He remembered seeing a number before this ‘yuan’ character earlier.
Did he already have money?
Had the uncles and aunties donated?
His dark eyes sparkled; even his usually shy face seemed to brighten.
“Thank you, Auntie Ningmeng~”
As long as he hadn’t mistaken the ‘yuan’ character, he could roughly figure out how many bags of rice he’d earned.
Even if he couldn’t withdraw the money right away, it was fine. He’d save up more first, then tell Mommy as a surprise.
Thinking this, Ye Xun’s earlier anxiety faded. A faint smile appeared on his chubby, baby-faced cheeks.
Xia Ningmeng, who believed she had successfully taught the child something, felt satisfied too.
“If there’s anything else you don’t understand, you can ask me anytime.”
Ye Xun immediately nodded respectfully.
Pattering back to the coffee table on his short legs, he picked up the livestream phone and checked the backend.
Thump. His little bottom landed firmly on the floor.
123.7 yuan!
Even his little ears turned bright red. His small mouth hung slightly open, his grape-like eyes filled with stunned disbelief.
In such a short time, he’d earned… enough for two or three bags of rice?
It seemed Aunt Ye Wan was right: if you livestreamed long enough, you could really make a fortune!
He quickly spread out the toy pieces, suppressing the urge to smile, and immediately straightened his posture.
He would continue playing for the aunties and uncles to watch!
Meanwhile, after leaving the room, Ye Susu first checked the new task that had just appeared.
[Tomorrow’s Daily Mission]
[1. To improve the child’s quality of life, earn 500 yuan.]
[2. Accompany the child in completing a kindergarten assignment.]
The tasks changed daily, but now, out of the blue, it required her to earn money.
The unemployed Ye Susu felt a wave of panic.
“Ah!”
Annoying, what should she do?
Almost everything in the house that could be sold had already been sold for money.
She scratched her head anxiously, feeling the onset of the ‘hair loss’ her former caretaker had mentioned.
But the next moment, the corner of her watery eyes accidentally swept over the Lego cardboard box in the trash bin by the door.
“Hmm…”
Her fingers twitched.
Wasn’t this the greatest invention for releasing stress, expending energy, and venting frustration—a substitute for a cat scratching board—a toy cardboard box?
“Ahem, I… don’t need this…”
She was a grown cat now, having cultivated for 99 lifetimes. How could she be like those undisciplined ordinary cats, relying on such a lowly cardboard box to relieve stress?
She absolutely wouldn’t!
She turned her head away and walked past with a calm expression, phone in hand.
But after two steps, she paused, blinked.
Her fingers intertwined, she rubbed the hem of her clothes, took two steps back, and crouched beside the trash bin again.
“Although it’s lowly, as the ancestors said, everything that exists has value. For example… if the cub feels down in the future, well, he could play with this.”
Human children who hadn’t played with such things were more prone to turning dark.
“Then… I’ll reluctantly… test it out for the cub first.”
Ye Susu cleared her throat.
She carefully glanced left and right.
No one!
A flicker of excitement immediately shone in her eyes, her face slightly flushing.
It wasn’t that she, a great cat, lacked restraint.
It was to help the cub vent his emotions in the future. Yes.
Thinking this, she put on a serious, straight face, suppressing any eager or expectant expression.
She stretched her waist, arched her back, swiveled left three times, right three times, and shook out her slender, now-human hands.
Bending at the waist, she pulled out the Lego box, upturned the trash bin, placed the box on it, and then—
“Witness the graceful Meow-Meow Fist!”
There were several small holes in the cardboard lid—‘accidentally’ made by her when she opened the box earlier.
Now, aiming at these holes, she threw one punch after another, one swipe after another, with pinpoint accuracy!
Tap tap tap tap tap—
Her speed was incredibly fast, almost a blur.
Her originally stern, serious face didn’t last long before the corners of her mouth lifted higher and higher. Her sparkling, watery eyes grew more and more excited, more and more exhilarated…
This was the feeling.
So, satisfying.
So, satisfying she couldn’t stop!
Punch it to pieces!
Shred it!
Ye Susu went on a wild scratching spree until her current body’s stamina gave out, and she stopped, panting.
She felt deeply content, her face glowing.
Perfect, perfect. All her worries were forgotten!
That task about 500 yuan? No pressure at all!
Tomorrow, she’d play with the little one!
Excited, she wanted to roll around, but the next second, her nose suddenly twitched, as if she’d realized something.
Her body stiffened. She turned her head.
There, in the empty corridor, stood the man in the fluffy, azure-blue sweater—aloof, handsome, tall, and lean.
At this moment, his stern and handsome face wore an expression of stunned disbelief… and utter bewilderment.
Outside the corridor window, tree branches rustled and swayed in the wind.
Ye Susu looked down at her own jade-white, slender fingers.
“…”
Wait, she could explain!
**
Young Master Yun: The way my wife caught my attention back then was… a bit unique.