Chapter 137: Mengmeng Causes Trouble Again

As they reached the halfway point up the mountain, Cao Shujie and his family were packing up to leave when Cao Jianguo suddenly remembered something. “Shujie, we forgot Mengmeng’s stroller!”

“Oh no, how could I forget that?” Cao Shujie slapped his thigh and told his parents and wife, “You all go wait in the car. I’ll go back and get the stroller.”

He handed the car keys to his father.

“Daddy, you’re so forgetful,” Mengmeng remarked.

Cao Shujie didn’t bother arguing with her. Glancing at the wristband he was wearing, he hurried back up the trail.

Cao Jianguo offered to go instead.

“Dad, you should go down with the others. It’s not far, I can manage on my own,” Cao Shujie insisted.

The distance was short, so there was no need for his father to accompany him.

Twenty minutes later, Cao Shujie returned with the stroller from the temporary storage area.

It was just past noon. After a morning of hiking, everyone was quite hungry. The adults felt the pangs of hunger, not to mention little Mengmeng, who hadn’t had a proper breakfast.

Mengmeng clutched her stomach and frowned, “Daddy, I’m so hungry.”

No wonder she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten breakfast, and though she snacked a bit along the way, she had walked most of the trail herself. For a child her age, it was quite exhausting.

Once in the car, Cao Shujie asked what they wanted for lunch.

Unfamiliar with the area, they couldn’t decide. Finally, Cheng Xiaolin suggested, “Shujie, just drive ahead. Let’s find a busy spot in the village to eat.”

A common rule of thumb when unsure about which restaurant to choose is to pick the one with the most customers. At least it won’t be too bad.

That was exactly what Cao Shujie and his family were planning to do.

Driving down from the parking lot halfway up the mountain, they headed to a nearby village. As they drove along the road by the river, Cao Shujie spotted at least five small restaurants with various names, each with a few tables occupied. It was hard to tell if they were actually good.

They were still discussing which one to choose when they noticed a restaurant named ‘Quanjun Shangdang Yihui’.

The name was intriguing, and it stuck with Cao Shujie.

He turned to his parents and wife, “Let’s eat here for lunch.”

“Alright, let’s not search any further. Mengmeng looks pale from hunger,” Wang Yuelan said, concerned for her granddaughter.

Cheng Xiaolin peered inside and hesitated, “Are you sure? It doesn’t seem very busy in there.”

As they spoke, another car drove past them and parked in front of ‘Quanjun Shangdang Yihui’. Four people got out and went inside, while another person parked the car elsewhere.

“Let’s eat here,” Cao Shujie decided after seeing this.

With no better suggestion, Cheng Xiaolin agreed to her husband’s plan.

As for Wang Yuelan and Cao Jianguo, they simply followed their son and daughter-in-law.

From the outside, the restaurant looked like an ordinary rural eatery, but inside, it was surprisingly spacious.

They hadn’t checked other restaurants, so they didn’t know if they were similarly large. But this one seemed to be over 400 square meters, with square tables and stools filling the courtyard. That wasn’t all.

On the east side of the courtyard, there was a small children’s playground. Six or seven kids were climbing and playing inside the fenced area.

On the west side, hidden by a wall, many people sat around small tables. There were also small pavilions with simple bamboo curtains, likely serving as private rooms.

“No wonder we didn’t see anyone. They were all hidden behind the wall,” Cao Shujie commented.

Who would have thought that such an unassuming rural restaurant would have so much inside?

“Mom, I want to play,” Mengmeng said, her face lighting up at the sight of the playground and the children.

“Let’s eat first,” Cheng Xiaolin replied.

Hearing this, Mengmeng squatted down and clung to her mother’s leg, looking ready to throw a tantrum. “Mom, I’m not hungry.”

Cheng Xiaolin frowned, resisting the urge to give her a kick.

This little troublemaker had been complaining about hunger ever since they came down the mountain, demanding bread, sausages, cookies, and bananas, all of which she insisted on holding herself.

“You have to eat, even if you’re not hungry. If you don’t eat, we’ll leave you here while the rest of us go after lunch,” Cheng Xiaolin said sternly.

She believed her daughter needed to learn some discipline. If she was like this now, how would they manage her as she grew older?

Mengmeng, sensing her mother’s displeasure, quickly fell silent and ran over to her father, holding his hand without saying a word.

Cao Shujie, unable to resist his daughter’s pitiful expression, coaxed her with a smile, “Mengmeng, let’s eat first. Afterward, Daddy will take you to play.”

“If you don’t eat, Daddy will never take you out to play again,” he added seriously, setting a firm boundary.

Wang Yuelan wanted to say something, but before she could, Cao Shujie cut in, “Mom, you can’t spoil her. Otherwise, she’ll become uncontrollable. How will we manage her then?”

He was right, and after some hesitation, Wang Yuelan decided not to speak up for her granddaughter.

Realizing no one would side with her, Mengmeng quietly followed her parents to eat.

Cao Shujie and Cheng Xiaolin were puzzled. Why was Mengmeng suddenly so well-behaved after being scolded?

But they soon found out they had underestimated her.

Once all the local specialty dishes were served, Mengmeng ate quickly, trying everything.

Even Cao Shujie and Cheng Xiaolin were surprised, feeling something was off about Mengmeng.

But then they thought, how cunning could a child not yet three years old be?

They were about to discover they had underestimated her again.

In less than ten minutes, after stuffing herself, Mengmeng stood up and declared, “Daddy, I’m full.”

“Look, Mom,” Mengmeng said, patting her slightly bulging belly. “I’m really full. Can I go play now?”

So that’s what she was waiting for!

“…” Cheng Xiaolin and her husband, Cao Shujie, were completely taken aback. They never expected Mengmeng to have such a plan.

The problem was, she had just eaten a huge meal, even more than she usually did at home.

The couple couldn’t find a reason to refuse their daughter’s request to go play.

When Wang Yuelan heard her granddaughter’s request, she quickly took a few bites and said, “Mengmeng, let’s go. Grandmother will play with you.”

Mengmeng was delighted to hear this and exclaimed, “Grandmother, you’re the best. I love you.”

Children are incapable of hiding their emotions.

Cao Shujie and Cheng Xiaolin couldn’t help but laugh.

They really couldn’t understand how Mengmeng, at such a young age, had learned to say such ‘complimentary’ things. Most importantly, she had a keen sense of social awareness and knew how to handle situations adeptly.

Reflecting on his daughter’s early years, Cao Shujie realized that his memories were vague and not particularly deep.

Back then, he was so busy that he barely had time to play with Mengmeng or watch her grow, leaving him with a sparse recollection of her behavior at that age.

“Mengmeng, go play, but don’t get into fights with the other kids,” Cao Shujie reminded her.

Mengmeng nodded cheerfully, “Bye, Daddy.”

She took her grandmother’s hand and ran towards the east.

Cheng Xiaolin knew her mother-in-law hadn’t eaten enough and was only accompanying Mengmeng to let her have a good meal.

Without being overly sentimental, she quickly finished her meal and headed towards the children’s playground in the east. Standing beside her mother-in-law, she watched her daughter climbing up and down and softly said, “Mom, you should go eat. I’ll watch her.”

“No worries, I’m already full,” Wang Yuelan replied.

Mengmeng was having a great time in the playground, completely unaware that her grandmother had only eaten half her fill or that her mother was watching her from outside the fence.

She was happily crawling through a tunnel, not noticing that a little boy was approaching from the other side at a right angle.

As Mengmeng continued to crawl forward, engrossed in her play, neither of them noticed the other until they inevitably bumped into each other.

“Bang!”

The two little ones bumped heads solidly.

Immediately, the little boy began to cry loudly.

Mengmeng was also a bit dazed from the collision. She looked at the crying boy in confusion, not quite grasping what had happened. Her forehead hurt a little, but she didn’t think much of it.

Among the onlookers was a middle-aged woman in a light blue dress with a gold necklace. Hearing the boy cry, she immediately knew her son was involved and quickly climbed over the fence to reach him. Standing below the tunnel, she called out, “Bingbing, are you okay?”

“Mom, it hurts!” the little boy cried from inside the playground tunnel.

At this point, Mengmeng realized she might have caused trouble and quickly turned to retrace her steps.

But halfway back, she stopped, reconsidered, and returned to the spot where they had collided. She asked the crying boy, “Hey, don’t cry.”

Her words only made things worse, as Bingbing cried even harder, thinking she had come back to hit him again.

“Don’t cry. Where does it hurt? Mommy says a little blow will make it better,” Mengmeng said earnestly.

The middle-aged woman below heard Mengmeng’s childish attempt to comfort and wasn’t angry. Instead, she found the child amusing.

“Whose child is this? So interesting,” she thought to herself.

Outside the fence, Cheng Xiaolin grew anxious when she heard the crying from inside the playground. She wondered if Mengmeng had gotten into some trouble.

Unable to stay outside any longer, she rushed in and called out near the tunnel, “Mengmeng, are you in there?”

“Mommy, here,” Mengmeng’s voice echoed from the tunnel.

“Are you okay?” Cheng Xiaolin asked.

Mengmeng mumbled something incomprehensible, but Cheng Xiaolin understood. She said, “Mengmeng, bring the little brother out with you. Take your time crawling. Mommy will wait outside, okay?”

“Okay!” Mengmeng replied.

After about three minutes, Mengmeng and the little boy emerged from the tunnel.

The middle-aged woman hurriedly checked her son, “Bingbing, are you alright?”

“Auntie, bumped heads, ouch, cry,” Mengmeng vividly described.

“I bumped too, ouch, but I’m not crying!” Mengmeng pointed to her slightly reddened forehead.

Seeing the faint red mark on her daughter’s forehead, Cheng Xiaolin felt a pang of heartache, but Mengmeng’s behavior also filled her with pride.

“Mengmeng, come here, let me see.”

Relieved that her daughter was fine, Cheng Xiaolin turned to the middle-aged woman, “Sister, is your son alright? If he’s hurt, I can take him to the hospital.”

The woman with the gold necklace waved her hand with a smile, “It’s nothing. Kids play and bump into each other all the time. No need for the hospital.”

She glanced at Mengmeng and asked Cheng Xiaolin, “Sister, how did you teach your daughter? She’s quite amusing.”

Cheng Xiaolin was momentarily speechless.

She thought she had misheard, but the woman with the gold necklace recounted the incident, and Cheng Xiaolin realized something amusing had happened before she arrived.

Looking at Mengmeng, who was now gazing up at her with a bit of confusion, Cheng Xiaolin felt a swell of pride. She gently patted Mengmeng’s little head and said modestly, “Sister, I didn’t really teach her much.”

“We just play various little games at home. She enjoys playing along with me,” Cheng Xiaolin explained.

The middle-aged woman was intrigued and introduced herself, “My surname is Zhu, Zhu Qiaoxia. What’s your name, sister?”

“Cheng Xiaolin,” she replied straightforwardly, sensing that this woman wasn’t unreasonable and was open to sharing experiences.

“Cheng Xiaolin, a nice name,” Zhu Qiaoxia said, showing no hurry to leave. She was more interested in Cheng Xiaolin’s parenting methods and added with a smile, “Sister Cheng, if you’re not in a rush, could you share more with me?”

“I have two kids. The older one is in high school, but this one came late, and I really don’t know the best way to teach him.”

No one could have predicted that due to the unexpected incident involving Mengmeng and the little boy Bingbing, Cheng Xiaolin and Zhu Qiaoxia, two women with quite an age difference, would end up chatting extensively about parenting.

(End of this chapter)