Chapter 16: Mengmeng is a Little Flatterer

“Baby, baby!” Mengmeng clamored. She twisted her little head, looking around, but didn’t find any baby.

“Daddy, where’s the baby?” she asked.

Cao Shujie lifted her up and spun her half a circle: “You are Daddy’s treasure.”

“Hehe!” The little one didn’t know if she understood or not, and she wasn’t afraid of heights. She vigorously swung her body in mid-air, kicking her little legs, as if she had found a new way to play.

“Daddy, fun!” she shouted.

But she kicked Daddy in the face. Cao Shujie was caught off guard and couldn’t open his eyes, but fortunately, he had been holding onto his daughter without letting go.

Cheng Xiaolin felt a pang of worry after seeing it, fearing her husband might accidentally throw their daughter off if he wasn’t careful. She also told him: “Honey, are you okay? Quickly put her down.”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine!” Cao Shujie nodded, put his daughter down, and rubbed his eyes a few times before he felt better.

The family of three chatted as they walked, reaching the mountaintop. Here was a flat piece of ground, quite large, but also overgrown with weeds.

“What a waste!” Cao Shujie shook his head, but secretly rejoiced in his heart. This was his opportunity.

Cheng Xiaolin reminded him: “Honey, the distance from the foot of the mountain to here is quite long. It’s inconvenient for anything.”

“This is good!” Cao Shujie pointed to the area and said to his wife: “Wife, what if this area On the Mountain was planted with various fruit trees? When harvest season comes, we could invite guests from afar to come and play, combining mountain climbing with fruit picking as a complete package. How’s this idea?”

“Our place is a bit far, why would people come?” Cheng Xiaolin didn’t understand.

Cao Shujie rolled his eyes at her: “What do you mean ‘far’? Do you remember last time we went to the county town? It only took half an hour, the entire way was a first-class highway, not much worse than an expressway.”

“Besides, it only takes an hour to get to the city by expressway from here, and it’s not far to other surrounding county towns either. Even from a more remote provincial capital to our place, it’s only an hour and a half. With such a short distance, don’t you think it would be fun for those who rest on Saturdays and Sundays and bring their children to come here for fruit picking?”

“Really? Aren’t you growing fruit? Why are you starting fruit picking now?” Cheng Xiaolin said: “Honey, can we stop jumping from one thing to another? We won’t get anything done!”

“Who told you I was going to sell fruit?” Cao Shujie envisioned a beautiful scene in his mind. He waved his hand, gesturing around: “I’m going to be the King of this mountain area!”

“Hehe, Daddy, me too!” Mengmeng shouted.

She had no idea what a ‘mountain king’ was. Seeing how grandly Daddy spoke, she also imitated him.

Cao Shujie nodded with a smile: “Okay, our Mengmeng will be the princess of this area On the Mountain from now on. How about Mengmeng riding her mount to patrol the mountain then?”

Speaking of which, Cao Shujie suddenly remembered a very funny song: “The King told me to patrol the mountain, I’ll take a stroll around the human world, beat my drum, strike my gong, life is full of rhythm.”

“Nice to hear, nice to hear!” Mengmeng was very supportive, and then clapped her hands.

Seeing that Mommy wasn’t very supportive, she shouted: “Mommy, it sounds good!”

“Mm, sounds good!” Cheng Xiaolin was perfunctory.

But Mengmeng was unhappy. She strained to lean out from her father’s arms, grabbed both of her mother’s hands, and gestured for her to clap.

This act amused both Cheng Xiaolin and Cao Shujie. Cheng Xiaolin also told her: “Mengmeng, you’re really a little flatterer!”

“Flatterer!” Mengmeng shouted.

As they were talking, the cry of an eagle was heard again in the air. The eagle that had circled and flown away earlier returned to the sky above this mountaintop, but this time there was also a smaller one.

Cheng Xiaolin frowned: “Why are there so many eagles?”

“Who knows? Let’s not worry about them. Let’s go somewhere else to look around,” Cao Shujie said.

Cheng Xiaolin ‘hmm’ed. They were about to change direction when Cao Shujie’s phone rang.

“Daddy, phone!” Mengmeng said first.

Cao Shujie nodded: “Mengmeng is so smart. Daddy will answer the phone first.”

As he spoke, he put his daughter on the ground, took out his phone, and saw it was his mother: “Mengmeng’s Grandmother.”

The next moment, he answered the call: “Mom, is something up?”

Mengmeng, standing on the ground, saw this and imitated her father, putting her hand to her ear and tilting her little head: “Hello, Mommy!”

Cheng Xiaolin watched her daughter, who was imitating and learning everything. She felt quite happy in her heart. This child was smart, truly worthy of being her child.

“It would be even better if you weren’t so annoying,” Cheng Xiaolin thought to herself.

The mountain was already spacious. Listening to her husband and mother-in-law on the phone, Cheng Xiaolin also heard some snippets of the conversation. It seemed to be about dogs.

After he hung up the phone, Cao Shujie said: “Wife, Mom just called. She said my maternal uncle’s dog had puppies and asked if we wanted one. If we do, she’ll save one for us.”

“Puppy!” As soon as Mengmeng heard that word, her eyes lit up.

She bounced and grabbed her father’s sleeve, shouting: “Daddy, I want, a puppy.”

“Alright, alright. Let’s go, let’s go down the mountain,” Cao Shujie didn’t even need to ask his wife’s opinion.

Cheng Xiaolin asked: “So, it’s our maternal uncle’s husky that had puppies?”

Seeing her husband nod, Cheng Xiaolin was also quite happy. She said: “That’s good, it’s docile. It’s perfect for playing with Mengmeng.”

“Hmm, but I’ll need to get two fierce dogs later,” Cao Shujie said. “With such a large mountain area, if it’s all planted with fruit trees, it’s inevitable that someone might sneak up to pick fruit. We’ll still need something to guard the house and yard.”

After returning home, his mother had already packed her things and was waiting for them.

They didn’t need to worry about feeding the construction team in the evening, so Wang Yuelan simply went along with them.

Cao Shujie and his family of three changed their clothes and drove to his maternal uncle’s house.

In the car, Cheng Xiaolin also said: “Mom, we’re all leaving. How will Dad eat?”

“Don’t worry about him. Let him make himself some noodles and eat some pickles, that’ll be fine,” Wang Yuelan said this.

Cao Shujie, who was driving in front, felt sad for his father, thinking if he would also receive this treatment in the future.

His maternal uncle’s house wasn’t far; it took just over ten minutes to drive there.

He parked the car at the entrance. Before they even went inside, his maternal uncle, Wang Jialiang, heard the commotion and came out.

When he saw Wang Yuelan getting out of the car, he smiled and called out: “Sister, how did you get here so fast?”

“Shujie drives fast!” Wang Yuelan said this.

Cao Shujie also got out of the car: “Second Uncle.”

“Oh dear, you naughty child, you came back and didn’t even come to visit me. I spoiled you for nothing,” Wang Jialiang scolded him.

Cao Shujie chuckled, saying: “Didn’t I come now?”

“Shujie,” Wang Jialiang asked about this again, “I heard your mom say you’re not planning to go out anymore? What are you going to do?”

Cao Shujie briefly explained.

Wang Jialiang heard that he was going to do farming and couldn’t help but say: “That’s hard work.”

“Uncle, it’s fine. I think it’s pretty good,” Cao Shujie felt a surge of emotion, and then happily said: “How great it is to be able to earn money at home! Plus, my parents provide meals, saving on food expenses.”

“If I were in Beijing, even if I saved a lot, just food alone would cost 2000 yuan a month.”

“And then deducting over six thousand for the mortgage, over eight thousand yuan would be gone. Not much would be left.”

Wang Jialiang heard his reasoning and nodded: “It’s good to be back. Spend more time with your parents, and your parents can also help take care of Mengmeng.”

But Mengmeng didn’t need their care at all.

While the adults were talking, Mengmeng’s ears perked up. She heard the ‘woof, woof’ sounds of puppies. Taking advantage of her mother’s inattention, she vigorously broke free from her mother’s hand and quickly ran towards the house.

“Puppy, where’s the puppy?” she shouted.

Cheng Xiaolin saw her daughter run off and quickly chased after her into the house.

Immediately after, her maternal aunt Meng Yanmei’s surprised voice came over: “Oh, Mengmeng is here! Quickly let Grandma give you a hug.”

“Grandma, where’s the puppy?” She had been fixated on this and wouldn’t give up until she saw it.

Cheng Xiaolin, who followed in, called out: “Auntie.”

“Linlin, you’re all back. Why didn’t you come to visit?” Meng Yanmei said.

“Auntie, we’ve been busy building the house since we came back. Otherwise, we would have come over much earlier,” Cheng Xiaolin said.

(End of Chapter)