Chapter 165: The Little Fool in the Group Favorite Story – 8

Usually, Xie Hui would hand the spoon to him and place the bowl in front of him. It wasn’t so much like caring for a five-year-old child, but more like tending to a three-year-old cub.

Today, Ning Ning stood there for a while before tentatively reaching out into the air, grasping at nothing. Clenching his fist around the empty air, he tilted his head in confusion.

After airing out the quilts, Xie Hui stood in the courtyard, not intending to go inside. Through the window, he quietly watched the little one standing there.

In this era, children who could walk would start helping around the house, so someone like Ning Ning was a rare sight. Xie Hui didn’t want him to help with anything; he just thought that if Ning Ning weren’t a little fool, he should be able to take care of himself.

From the moment Ning Ning started eating by himself, Xie Hui hoped to see what he would be like once he returned to normal.

Ning Ning reached out several times before realizing it was useless. His little eyebrows furrowed tightly, and his stomach growled. Holding his stomach with one hand, he stared at his clenched right fist for a while before awkwardly moving to pick up the spoon from the table and eat.

His actions were not graceful, and in his haste, he appeared a bit rough. Without Xie Hui by his side to adjust the spoon for him, Ning Ning spilled some food while holding the spoon.

He had always been a well-behaved child who disliked waste. Seeing the food spilled on the table, his eyebrows furrowed even tighter, and he gripped the spoon so hard that his hand trembled slightly.

At this moment, Xie Hui walked in. Under Ning Ning’s puzzled gaze, he helped adjust the way he held the spoon.

This incident left Xie Hui feeling somewhat downcast. He had thought that perhaps this child was just psychologically affected by how Xie Kangli treated him when he was younger. But today’s difficulty with the spoon made him uncertain again.

He had raised several children, some with the help of nannies and others he brought up himself. Those children might struggle to hold a spoon, but they would never stubbornly try to scoop egg custard with an upright spoon.

“Daddy…”

The child’s call brought Xie Hui out of his thoughts. Almost instinctively, he pulled a gentle smile and reached out to gently rub Ning Ning’s head.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

After Xie Hui asked, Ning Ning didn’t respond, and Xie Hui took a deep breath and walked to the bedside.

In the spring, everything was vibrant and full of life. The fresh scent of grass helped Xie Hui calm down. He began to reflect on himself. Does a child have to be normal? Does he have to be smart and sensible to be considered his child?

The original purpose of this mission was clearly to give every child who deserves love a warm home. Xie Hui admitted that his emotions had become a bit impatient when he thought Ning Ning might return to normal.

Ning Ning had a handsome appearance, and even though he was thin, there was a pure childlike aura about him after being cleaned up. Xie Hui really didn’t want to believe that he was a little fool. No father could easily accept that his child was a fool.

Every hint Ning Ning showed seemed to tell his father that he might be normal. A child’s potential, in a father’s eyes, becomes certainty.

Realizing his thoughts had been skewed, Xie Hui felt inexplicably calm when he looked at Ning Ning again. He patiently waited for Ning Ning to finish eating, helped him put away the bowl and spoon, and cleaned the table.

“Ning Ning, let’s go.”

Xie Hui took his hand and led him to the fields. While planting rice seedlings, Ning Ning didn’t stay quietly under the big tree like before, seemingly still thinking about yesterday’s loach soup.

Even when Xie Hui placed him by the edge of the field, Ning Ning soon had his hands covered in mud. When Xie Hui looked over, Ning Ning’s wide-eyed, innocent expression made Xie Hui momentarily doubt whether he had wronged him.

Knowing it was too difficult for such a young child to stay quiet, Xie Hui simply let him play in areas without seedlings.

“Ning Ning, don’t wander too far.”

“Oh…”

Xie Hui couldn’t clearly discern if Ning Ning’s response was acknowledging his name being called or if he actually understood and remembered the instruction.

Though the weather wasn’t yet scorching, planting rice under the sun was still exhausting and hot. It was manageable at first, but later his back ached, and sweat dripped into Xie Hui’s eyes, causing discomfort. He set the seedlings aside to wipe his eyes.

Both eyes were stinging from sweat, and it took a while before he could see clearly again. Just as he was about to take a sip of water and continue, he turned his head and saw Xie Kangli standing beside his son, pointing at something.

From a distance, it seemed she was instructing him on something, and his foolish son was mimicking the stance he used when catching loaches.

Xie Hui instinctively felt that Xie Kangli had ill intentions and didn’t hold any false hope that she was playing with his son. When he ran over, he saw it wasn’t a loach but a yellow eel.

Xie Hui’s expression instantly turned cold, and his hand clenched tightly into a fist at his side. In their area, due to previous famines where people had resorted to eating snakes, anything remotely edible had been tried. Some had died from eating snakes, and even when others didn’t believe it, they ate them in desperation and also perished.

Now, in their village, even if they were starving with no grain left, they wouldn’t catch snakes to eat. The yellow eel, resembling a water snake, was often mistaken for one.

Xie Hui quietly approached. Ning Ning, seeing it was his father, didn’t hide, but Xie Kangli’s expression turned unnatural for a moment. In their village, no one dared to catch yellow eels, and even when people approached, the eel didn’t flee.

Xie Hui decisively squatted down, grabbed the eel, and tossed it onto Xie Kangli. Most of the time, eels don’t bite, but occasionally accidents happen. Like now, the eel, thrown onto Xie Kangli, bit her ankle when she flung it to the ground in fright.

In the thin spring clothing, the bite startled Xie Kangli, making her hair stand on end. She cried out and sat there, weeping. The eel, having bitten someone, quickly burrowed back into its hole.

Carrying the oblivious Ning Ning, Xie Hui walked back. Although Ning Ning didn’t recognize snakes, seeing Xie Kangli’s reaction frightened him a bit. Normally not fond of being held, today Ning Ning clung tightly to his father’s neck.

The Old Madam, having just sat down to rest, rushed over upon hearing her precious granddaughter’s cries. Xie Hui, planting rice in his field, prepared himself for her confrontation.

He instructed Ning Ning not to wander off like before and to stay by his side. Frightened, Ning Ning had lost his playful spirit and obediently squatted on the edge of the field.

“Xie Hui! Lili said you dared to catch a snake to bite her! Is this how you act as an uncle?”

When the Old Madam reached him and said this, Xie Hui straightened up and set aside the seedlings he hadn’t finished planting.

“I’m not her uncle. I can’t accept a niece with such a cruel heart.”

To the Old Madam, Xie Kangli was her precious one, and she wouldn’t allow anyone to speak ill of her. Even knowing Xie Hui spoke the truth, she was still displeased.

“Xie Hui, how could you do such a thing? Aren’t you afraid Heaven will strike you down with lightning?”

Feeling a bit tired, Xie Hui put down his things and walked out of the field. He picked up a willow branch left by the village chief’s youngest son and skillfully wove it into a circle. Sitting casually on the grass, he responded to the Old Madam’s question.

“Mother, if you believe all that talk about Heaven’s favored daughter, you must be delusional. How could Heaven’s favored daughter be bitten by a snake? You should pray for lightning to strike that snake instead.”

“Besides, don’t make baseless accusations. Without evidence, who’s going to believe just your words? Who knows if your precious granddaughter stepped on the snake herself?”

The Old Madam never expected her seemingly honest and simple son to become so sharp-tongued after the family split. Her body trembled with anger.

“Mother, you should wait before fainting. If you faint from anger, who will take your precious granddaughter to the doctor?”

After speaking, Xie Hui placed a large red wildflower in the woven circle and put it on his precious son’s head.

“You, Xie Hui, you…”

“Mother, if you’re going to faint, do it in your own field, not mine. If you collapse in your own field, at least someone can pull you out.”

Standing there, Ning Ning mimicked his father’s words with his childish voice:

“Climb?”

The fields given to Xie Hui had already upset the Old Madam, making her lose her appetite for several days. Even though Xie Hui had bought them with his own money, the Old Madam always felt that anything in her hands was hers. Giving away even a little pained her deeply.

Xie Hui repeatedly pressed on the Old Madam’s sore spots, with Xie Kangli’s continuous crying and the glaring sunlight making the Old Madam’s vision blur. If not for remembering Xie Hui’s earlier words, she might have collapsed in the field.

Seeing the Old Madam leave, Xie Hui returned to planting rice. The little one, noticing his reflection with the flower crown in the water, stood there, peering in.

Just as Xie Hui picked up a handful of seedlings, he heard a voice behind him.

“Ah—”