So, You’re the Henpecked One? 70

Chapter 70: IF Extra 4: Can’t Fight, But Can Tattle

The next morning, Lin Zhao had already gotten up and washed herself, then ran to the study and pulled the still-busy Lin Zike into her room, asking her to help choose the clothes she would be wearing today.

“They have to be very, very beautiful!” Lin Zhao said seriously. She was going out to play with her little sister, so of course she had to dress nicely!

Lin Zike was a little silent at her words, then found it a little amusing. She cupped her little face and rubbed it. “You’re already so vain at such a young age.”

However, although she said this, Lin Zike still seriously helped her choose and match her clothes, dressing her up to be fresh and endearing.

Lin Zhao looked down at her appearance and smiled sweetly. She even pulled her mother down so that she was squatting in front of her and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Thank you, mother~”

Lin Zike’s heart softened. She ruffled this little one’s face. How could her own child be so endearing?

“Let Sister Xiaohui go with you today,” Lin Zike said.

Although it was Chu Xihuan and the others who were taking her out to play, she was still young, so it was better to have an older person go with her.

“Mm-hm,” Lin Zhao had no objections. As long as her mother let her go and play with her little sister, it was fine~

When it was almost the Hour of the Snake (approx. 9-11 AM), the Chu family’s horse-drawn carriage appeared at the Lin family’s gate. Chu Xihuan and Chu Ningyi got down from the carriage and greeted Lin Zike.

Lin Zike looked at the two children. They were clearly both steady people, and with Ye Liuxiang’s character, the children she raised would definitely not be bad. Lin Zike was very at ease with Lin Zhao having contact with them, and with more contact, she might even be able to learn something from them.

“Go on, have fun,” Lin Zike said, putting Lin Zhao on the horse-drawn carriage and then handing the snacks she had specially made yesterday, which all the children liked, to Xiaohui to carry, in case they got hungry while they were out playing. And Lin Zhao could also share them.

“Mmm~ Goodbye, mother~” Lin Zhao waved at Lin Zike in a good mood, then turned and pounced into Chu Xihuan’s arms, her round eyes full of joy as she looked at her. “Sister, you’re here~”

A ball of flesh suddenly pounced into her arms, and Chu Xihuan’s body involuntarily moved back a little due to inertia. She quickly reached out to steady Lin Zhao, silently complaining in her heart about her little follower’s clinginess.

Lin Zike, who was still outside the carriage and had not gone far, heard her daughter’s soft and clingy voice and was speechless.

Heh, it’s really amazing.

She actually felt a strange sense of having a wife and forgetting her mother.

Lin Zhao, in the carriage, had no idea what her mother was thinking. She let Chu Xihuan pull her out of her arms and sit on the seat next to her, and at the same time, as if with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, she seemed to be unable to stand the slightly messy clothes from when she had just pounced on her, and helped her tidy them up.

Chu Ningyi, who was on the side, had a strange feeling that her little sister was acting like a mother to the child.

She shook her head to get rid of the thought. No matter what, her little sister’s tolerance for the child was unusually high.

“Sister, I missed you so much last night!” Lin Zhao started to chatter with Chu Xihuan. Chu Xihuan felt that she was a little too talkative and wanted to tell her to talk less, but seeing her happy face, she in the end swallowed her words.

“Why were you thinking of me when you were sleeping,” Chu Xihuan couldn’t help but wonder. Were other people’s little followers as clingy as Lin Zhao?

“I wanted to sleep with sister~” Lin Zhao said matter-of-factly.

Chu Xihuan was speechless.

Chu Ningyi burst out laughing and couldn’t help but pinch Lin Zhao’s little cheek like her little sister had done yesterday. “You’re already so old, and you still want to sleep together. Aren’t you ashamed?”

Didn’t she just meet her little sister? She wanted to sleep with her so soon?

Lin Zhao looked at Chu Ningyi with her round eyes and said in a muffled voice, “Second sister, I’m not ashamed. I’m very happy~”

Chu Ningyi’s smile grew wider, and she couldn’t help but tease, “Then will you sleep with me?”

Lin Zhao blinked and didn’t speak for a moment.

Her hand was suddenly brushed away, and Lin Zhao was pulled back into an embrace. Chu Ningyi looked up and saw her little sister holding the child with a serious expression. “If she’s going to sleep with anyone, it can only be with me.”

This was her little follower, not her second sister’s. It was only right that she slept with her. What was the point of sleeping with her second sister?

Lin Zhao nodded vigorously in agreement!

Chu Ningyi couldn’t help but laugh at their appearance. “Alright, alright, she’ll sleep with you. Second sister won’t fight with you.”

It was a rare, rare thing. Little sister actually had something she was unwilling to share with her.

Before long, their horse-drawn carriage arrived at the city gate. After meeting up with the Cao family’s carriage, they headed out of the city together, arriving at a place with an open view and beautiful scenery. It was the perfect place for a spring outing and flying kites.

Since they were just a few half-grown children out to play, how could their families not be worried? Many people had been arranged to watch over and protect them. Those people first checked the surrounding environment, then spread out the picnic mats and laid out all sorts of food. Coupled with the beautiful scenery, it looked quite pleasant.

Lin Zhao lay on the mat, her eyes fixed on the food, including the little snacks her own mother had made. She was already swallowing her saliva like crazy.

There was even fragrant and spicy little beef jerky! In the past, her mother had said that eating too much spicy food was not good and would always control how much she ate!

“Don’t look. It’s still early.” A hand suddenly covered Lin Zhao’s eyes, and Chu Xihuan’s light, childish voice came from above. “Flying kites is a physical activity. If you eat your fill and then run around, your stomach will inevitably hurt.”

Lin Zhao couldn’t help but pout, but she was still very obedient and no longer thought about eating those things. After the hand covering her eyes was removed, Lin Zhao sat up and asked obediently, “Then are we going to start flying kites now?”

“Mm, the wind is quite suitable right now,” Chu Xihuan replied.

“Then I want to fly with sister!” Lin Zhao pounced and wrapped her arm around Chu Xihuan’s, her voice very clingy.

Chu Xihuan’s lips unconsciously curved up at having her arm held.

This is the awareness a little follower should have.

Not far away, Cao Jing bit her lip as she watched their interaction. She also wanted to fly with Chu Xihuan, but she didn’t have the face to say it. Now that Chu Xihuan had agreed to the other person, there was no place for her.

She couldn’t understand, couldn’t understand why Chu Xihuan was so special to that child, letting her get so close to her without any restraint.

Even she had never held hands with Chu Xihuan, let alone hugged her. But that person, who had only appeared for two days, had already done everything she hadn’t.

Her feet moved, and she came up to Chu Xihuan, her mouth open as if she wanted to say something, but she couldn’t.

She didn’t understand why that child could say her needs so freely, without any worry that Chu Xihuan would refuse.

“Cao Jing, what’s wrong?” Seeing her come over and not speak, Chu Xihuan was a little strange.

“N-nothing,” Cao Jing finally chose to remain silent. She glanced at the child and saw her looking at her with a pair of dark, curious eyes, her body pressed tightly against Chu Xihuan, as if they were the ones on the same side.

“…”

“Oh, the kites are over there. Go and pick one you like,” Chu Xihuan said with a smile, standing up and at the same time pulling Lin Zhao up from the mat, and the two of them went to choose a kite together.

Cao Jing’s hands, hanging at her sides, tightened. In the past, it had always been her and Chu Xihuan who flew kites together.

Why? Why did everything change after that child appeared?

As long as she’s not here, can Chu Xihuan go back to being by my side like before?

“Lin Zhao!”

“See if there’s a kite you like,” Chu Xihuan said, pointing to the kites they had brought.

Lin Zhao, however, looked back with a bit of confusion. “Sister, did someone else just call me?”

She thought she had just heard two voices calling her name.

“Did they? I didn’t notice,” Chu Xihuan said. Just now, most of her attention had been on these kites.

Since her little sister had said so, Lin Zhao didn’t care anymore and started to choose excitedly. Meanwhile, Chu Ningyi had already chosen one and was working with another maid who had come with them to try and get the kite into the air.

“This one!” Lin Zhao chose a kite in the shape of a small swallow and presented it to Chu Xihuan like a treasure.

“Then let’s go with this one,” Chu Xihuan did not object.

Lin Zhao grinned at her foolishly and handed the kite string to Chu Xihuan. “Sister, you hold it. I’ll let it go~”

Chu Xihuan had no objection to this. The wind was not very strong at the moment, so the possibility of launching it from a standstill was small. It was just right for Lin Zhao to give it a running start.

Lin Zhao held the kite and ran into the distance. Chu Xihuan also cooperated with her movements, feeling the wind and reeling in and letting out the string, having a great time.

Cao Jing watched, but she had no desire to play anymore.

After the kite was in the air, Lin Zhao was already sweating. Seeing this, Chu Xihuan beckoned for her to come over, first handing the kite to her to hold, then taking out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from her, so that she wouldn’t catch a cold from the wind later.

Xiaohui, who had originally come over to wipe the sweat for Lin Zhao, paused at this sight. That Miss Chu was such a meticulous person. No wonder Madam Lin was at ease letting them come out to play together.

When she was wiping her neck and other places, Lin Zhao cooperated by lifting her chin to make it easier for Chu Xihuan to wipe, her eyes narrowed in a happy smile. “Sister is so nice~”

Chu Xihuan snorted softly and casually stuffed the handkerchief she had used to wipe her sweat into her robes. “It’s all your sweat. I don’t want it.”

“Then I’ll wash it and keep it for myself~” Lin Zhao said happily. A gift from sister!

Chu Xihuan was speechless.

For some reason, she felt her ears grow a little hot.

*

They played for a while, until their stomachs started to growl. Only then did they reluctantly come to the picnic mat and sit down to eat together, while the kites they had flown were temporarily handed over to the people who had come with them.

Lin Zhao was very hungry. Her cheeks were puffed up with food, and while she was eating, her eyes were still looking at what she would eat next. It made people want to poke her puffed-up cheeks.

Others just thought about it, but Chu Xihuan actually did it. She reached out her index finger and gently poked Lin Zhao’s cheek, her eyes curving up in pleasure.

She felt that her decision to take this little follower was very right.

Lin Zhao looked at her with a confused expression and handed the pastry she was holding to Chu Xihuan, thinking that she wanted to eat it.

“You eat it yourself,” Chu Xihuan silently pushed her hand back. The slightly chubby little hand had almost deformed the pastry, and it looked a little dirty.

Seeing that she wasn’t eating, Lin Zhao gave her a bright smile and ate it herself.

Chu Xihuan couldn’t help but wonder how someone could look so cute even when they were eating.

After they finished eating, Xiaohui came up to take Lin Zhao to wash her hands. Seeing this, Cao Jing took the opportunity to follow.

After the child had washed her hands, Cao Jing came up. “I have something I want to say to her. Can you leave for a moment?” she said to Xiaohui.

Xiaohui hesitated at her words. After all, she had seen clearly earlier that Lin Zhao had basically been playing with Chu Xihuan and rarely with this young lady. If they didn’t play together, what was there to talk about?

Cao Jing then said to Lin Zhao, “It’s about Xixi.”

At her words, Lin Zhao, who had been unwilling to talk to her, looked up at Xiaohui. “Sister Xiaohui, let me talk to her for a few words.”

Since Lin Zhao had said so, Xiaohui had no choice but to walk a few steps away, leaving a not-so-far distance, so that she could keep an eye on the situation here.

After she left, Lin Zhao looked at Cao Jing strangely. “Is there something you want to say?”

Actually, she also didn’t quite understand what needed to be said in private.

Cao Jing looked at the child in front of her and pressed her lips together. “Stay away from Xixi.”

At her words, Lin Zhao’s eyes widened. “Why!”

She didn’t want to stay away from her little sister. She wanted to get even closer!

“No reason. You just have to stay away from her and not appear by her side again!” Cao Jing’s tone was very bad. She hated this child appearing by Chu Xihuan’s side!

“No way!” Lin Zhao immediately refused. Her mother hadn’t even stopped her. On what grounds did this person say these things?

Seeing her so stubborn, Cao Jing also became a little anxious. “Then let’s have a fight. If I win, you’re never allowed to appear by Xixi’s side again!”

At her words, Lin Zhao looked at Cao Jing with a wary expression, her eyes scanning her up and down. “Then I don’t want to! My mother said that people who only talk about what they’ll get if they win and not what they’ll lose if they lose are bad people! She told me not to play with bad people. I don’t want to play with you!” At the end, as if it wasn’t enough, she added, “You stay away from me!”

What my mother says is never wrong!

Cao Jing was almost angered to death by her words. She looked at the child and said angrily, “If I lose, I’ll give Xixi to you!”

At her words, Lin Zhao was confused. “Sister is not yours. On what grounds do you say you’ll give her away?”

“And I don’t want to fight with you. My mother doesn’t let me fight for no reason.”

Her mother had taught her that she could only fight when someone was bullying her. A fight like this with Cao Jing was completely unnecessary. She wouldn’t fight.

“No! You have to fight me today. Whoever wins gets Xixi!” Cao Jing said angrily. “Are you afraid of losing, so you don’t dare?”

Lin Zhao looked at the person who was half a head taller than her and pouted. “Yes, I’m afraid. I probably can’t beat you.”

She didn’t want to ask for trouble!

Cao Jing was choked by her words, not understanding why the other person could say such cowardly words so righteously.

Lin Zhao made a face at Cao Jing.

“I won’t fight with you, but I will tattle!”

“I’ll tell sister that you want to fight with me and make a bet!”

**

Author’s Note:

Zhaozhao: Hmph, hmph!