Chapter 67: IF Extra 1: Sister~
“Zhaozhao, wake up. Mother is taking you somewhere today.”
Lin Zike gently patted Lin Zhao, who was still sleeping soundly in bed, a faint smile on her lips. “If you don’t get up, the sun will be on your bottom.”
Lin Zhao was lying on her stomach, the quilt already kicked to the foot of the bed. She opened her eyes in a daze and mumbled, “I don’t want to get up~”
Her voice was soft and clingy, making one’s heart soften.
But Lin Zike mercilessly patted her on the bottom. “No, you can’t. Get up quickly. You might have a chance to meet a pretty little sister today.”
Little sister?!
Lin Zhao’s eyes immediately widened. She sat up in bed and gave Lin Zike a bright, obedient smile. “Mother, take me~”
There were very few people her age around her, and most of them were annoying boys. If it weren’t for the fact that she had no one to play with, Lin Zhao would not be willing to play with them.
Seeing Lin Zhao smile so brightly, Lin Zike felt a sense of being choked up.
This child of hers clearly had a cute and endearing face, but her personality was so jumpy that she often gritted her teeth in anger.
And now, although she was smiling brightly, she was made to look silly by her missing canine tooth, like the foolish child of a landlord.
A few days ago, for some reason, she had competed with another child to see who could climb a tree the fastest. In the end, she had won, but she had fallen down and lost a canine tooth. Now, there was a gap there, which made her look very silly.
For a moment, she didn’t even want to take her.
Lin Zike sighed and ruffled her head. “You’re already six. Get dressed yourself.”
At the thought of having a chance to meet a new playmate today, Lin Zhao was exceptionally obedient. She got dressed herself, then came up and pulled on Lin Zike’s sleeve, looking up. “Mother~ We can go now.”
Lin Zike bent down and tidied up the parts she hadn’t done well. “Go and wash up. After you’re done, eat your breakfast first.”
Today was the birthday of the county magistrate’s wife, Ye Liuxiang. She could also take Lin Zhao over to see the world.
“Mm!” Lin Zhao nodded vigorously and immediately ran to wash up. Then, she ate the breakfast her mother had specially left for her, gobbling it down as if she wanted to stuff it all in at once.
“Eat slowly. We’re not leaving that soon,” Lin Zike said with some helplessness. She wasn’t this eager when she played with the other children in the neighborhood. Now, just because she was going to meet a little sister she didn’t even know, she was in such a hurry. She didn’t know why she was in such a hurry.
“Ah~” at her words, Lin Zhao immediately wilted, and her eating speed also slowed down a lot. She ate one mouthful at a time, listless and without any energy.
Lin Zike was speechless.
She’s my own, she’s my own…
Lin Zike kept repeating this in her heart to stop herself from grabbing her ear. She was so infuriating.
“How many characters did the teacher teach you yesterday?” Lin Zike asked about Lin Zhao’s homework while she drank her tea.
“Mmm…” Lin Zhao immediately felt guilty. She stuffed the whole egg she had been eating in small bites into her mouth. Even though there was only half left, it was still a bit too much for her mouth. She ate with difficulty and gave Lin Zike an innocent look.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to answer her mother, but she couldn’t speak now~
Lin Zike was speechless.
She couldn’t even answer how many characters. It was clear that she hadn’t been listening in class at all, let alone being able to remember the characters she had been taught.
She was almost angered to laughter by Lin Zhao. To think that she, Lin Zike, had started from scratch and come this far, only to give birth to such an infuriating scoundrel.
She couldn’t help but poke Lin Zhao’s head. “Tell me, if you don’t know many characters, how can I be at ease handing the family business over to you? You wouldn’t even know if someone wrote a tricky document to trick you!”
She had already decided that she would only have one child in this life, but this one was about to make her hair turn white with worry.
The child was still young, but she was already worried about her being cheated out of the family property and ending up on the streets.
Lin Zhao’s head was poked back, and her eyebrows drooped. She looked at Lin Zike with a wronged expression and finally said, “Mother is so amazing. When I grow up, I’ll just marry a wife as amazing as you.”
Lin Zike was choked by her words.
She looked at the matter-of-fact Lin Zhao, a little curious if she knew what she was saying. She sighed softly in her heart and did not correct her, but instead poked her again with a sense of disappointment.
“Don’t you know that it’s in such a relationship that you’re most likely to be eaten to the bone!”
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many people trying their best to marry those who were the only daughters in their families. Wasn’t it just to get all of the woman’s property in this way?
Lin Zhao pouted and ate her food with her head down.
Seeing her like this, Lin Zike couldn’t say any more. Anyway, the child was still young, and there was still time to teach her more.
After Lin Zhao finished eating, Lin Zike took her to wash her hands, and then the two of them went out to the county magistrate’s house.
On the way, Lin Zike reminded Lin Zhao not to be too mischievous. After all, it was a banquet held at the county magistrate’s house, and the people who could attend were all prominent figures in Yong’an Town. In fact, with Lin Zike’s current family assets, she was still considered to be on the thin side among those people.
Lin Zhao repeatedly agreed to Lin Zike’s words, but from the way her soul seemed to have drifted off, it was clear that she had not really taken her words to heart.
Lin Zike was speechless.
When they arrived at the gate of the Chu residence, Chu Xuanzhuang and the others were at the door to welcome the guests. Lin Zike held Lin Zhao’s hand and went up to greet them, then was led inside. Ye Liuxiang was inside, entertaining the female guests who had come to congratulate her.
Lin Zhao obediently let Lin Zike hold her hand and followed beside her, looking up at everything around her with curiosity. She also saw several other children who had come to the banquet with their parents. She couldn’t help but look for the little sister her mother had mentioned among them.
After looking around, she didn’t find the little sister she wanted to play with and pouted.
She suspected that her mother was lying to her.
“Madam Ye, I wish you a happy birthday and a life free of worries.”
Lin Zike held Lin Zhao’s hand and went up to present the gift with a smile. Seeing this, Lin Zhao also looked up and said very sweetly, “Happy birthday, Madam! From now on, you can eat whatever you want and be happy every day!”
For a little child like her, being able to eat whatever she wanted was the greatest blessing.
After all, her mother was very strict and didn’t let her eat many things.
Hmph!
Ye Liuxiang couldn’t help but laugh at her naive words, especially when she saw the child’s bright smile revealing her gapped teeth, which was even more amusing.
“Haha, alright. With your congratulations, I’ll be happy from now on,” Ye Liuxiang said, bending down and patting Lin Zhao’s head. When she stood up, she saw her little daughter walking toward her and couldn’t help but smile. “Just right. You two are about the same age. You might be able to play together. Xixi, take this little guest for a walk in the garden.”
Chu Xihuan, who had just come to find her mother, frowned instinctively when she saw the little child staring at her in a daze.
She looked so silly and not very smart. She didn’t really want to play with her, but since her mother had already spoken, she couldn’t refuse in front of an outsider, so she could only nod in agreement.
“Let the children go and play. I’ll have someone watch them, so you don’t have to worry,” Ye Liuxiang said with a smile to Lin Zike.
She had a very good impression of Lin Zike, or she wouldn’t have specially sent her an invitation.
“Alright,” Lin Zike naturally would not refuse. She bent down and said gently to Lin Zhao, “This is the little sister I told you about. Go and play, but you can’t take her up a tree, you know.”
Lin Zhao’s attention had already been completely drawn away by the little girl who had just appeared. She only instinctively agreed to her mother’s words. Looking at the little sister, she suddenly felt a little shy.
This little sister was especially beautiful. Lin Zhao didn’t know how to describe her beauty, but she was just very beautiful, so beautiful that she just wanted to play with her.
Chu Xihuan looked at the child. At this moment, she was looking down a little, as if she were shy, and was hiding behind her mother, but her gaze would occasionally steal a glance at her. Chu Xihuan didn’t feel much in her heart, just said, “Let’s go. We’ll go and play in the garden.”
Actually, she didn’t really like to play with children younger than her, because most of them were too fond of crying and making a fuss. She hated that sharp crying sound, which made her head ache.
“Mmm~” Lin Zhao replied softly. In the end, she still came out from behind Lin Zike and followed the little sister’s steps.
Lin Zike looked at her daughter’s back with a slightly dazed expression. Did this little scoundrel actually have such a shy side? She found it a little amusing. It seemed that she really liked that little sister.
Meanwhile, Lin Zhao was trotting beside Chu Xihuan. Looking at the little sister who was walking so fast, she said with a red face and a bit of embarrassment, “Sister~ My name is Lin Zhao. What’s your name?”
She looked down at the little sister’s legs and felt that they were so long. She had to trot to keep up with her fast pace.
When they arrived at a pavilion in the garden, Chu Xihuan suddenly stopped and looked at the person who had been chattering beside her, preparing to answer her first question. But when she saw the child in front of her clearly, she was suddenly choked.
With her sudden stop, Lin Zhao, who had been trotting, ran two more steps forward due to inertia, then belatedly ran back. Seeing that the little sister was looking at her, she gave her a friendly and bright smile.
Looking at the child’s gapped teeth, and with her smile at this moment, the more she looked, the sillier she seemed. But this person was also very beautiful, so this appearance would not make people think she was ugly, but on the contrary, had a bit of a silly puppy’s cuteness.
“Sister?” seeing that she was not speaking, Lin Zhao tilted her head, a little confused.
Chu Xihuan came back to her senses, and when she faced her again, her tone couldn’t help but soften a lot. “My name is Chu Xihuan.”
Lin Zhao blinked, and the smile on her face grew even brighter. “Sister, your name is so nice. Can I come and find you to play often in the future?”
She wanted to play with this sister. With her, she didn’t want to play with any other playmates anymore.
At home, Chu Xihuan was the youngest, and she had always been the one to call others “sister.” This was the first time she had been called “sister.” For a moment, she didn’t know if her heart had been touched. Her gaze fell on the child’s missing canine tooth, and she nodded reservedly. “Alright, but you can’t cry and make a fuss. I hate it when people cry.”
Hearing her agree that she could come and find her to play, Lin Zhao’s eyes lit up. “Mm-hm! I won’t cry, and I don’t like to cry!”
At this moment, Lin Zhao had completely forgotten the day she had lost her tooth, when she had run home with a mouth full of blood, crying and shouting for her mother, crying as if the sky had fallen.
Chu Xihuan felt that this person in front of her was not bad and could be a friend.
“But…” Chu Xihuan looked at Lin Zhao’s gapped teeth and said, “Will your teeth be like this in the future?”
This was still very cute when she was a child, but if she was still like this when she grew up, she was afraid that it would not be so cute.
“Huh?” Lin Zhao raised her hand and touched her mouth, her eyes curving into a foolish smile. “No, no. My mother said that I’m still changing my teeth, and this will grow back later.”
At that time, she had also been so sad that she had cried because she was afraid that it wouldn’t grow back. Her mother had seen her pitiful and had told her that it would grow back. After learning that her tooth would grow back, Lin Zhao had stopped crying and continued to smile without a care in the world.
Hearing that it would grow back, Chu Xihuan quietly sighed in relief.
Good, good. Otherwise, if her little follower smiled so foolishly when she went out, she would have no presence at all.
**
Author’s Note:
Xixi: Little follower
Zhaozhao: [Let Me See][Let Me See][Go for it]
