Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 379 - 378: Scheming

Chapter 379: Chapter 378: Scheming

Zheng Shan was just reticent, not silly.

After Lin Nianhe’s reminder, the young girl’s tears fell, yet she opened her mouth in a smile.

Zheng Shan had been at Ten Miles Team for a few months, but it was the first time Lin Nianhe had seen her smile.

Before Lin Nianhe had the chance to take a good look at the young girl’s beautiful smiling face, she dropped her pencil and ran to the edge of the kang, gazing eagerly at Zheng Lirong.

Zheng Lirong could no longer hold back. She took off her cold military overcoat and called out "my girl," then embraced Zheng Shan in her arms.

Zheng Shan hugged Zheng Lirong’s neck, calling out "mom" over and over again.

The young girl’s clear and immature sobbing made the hearts of everyone in the room ache, and everyone’s eyes reddened.

Lin Nianhe blinked her eyes, her eyelashes damp with a hint of mist. She silently picked up the pencil whose tip had snapped off, walked past several people to get off the kang, and said to Zheng Lirong, "Sister Lirong, take a seat here for a while, I will go find Xiao Jun."

Zheng Lirong knew by looking at her clean and tidy daughter that Lin Nianhe and the others must have been very good to these two children, and she gratefully nodded at Lin Nianhe’s words, casually asking, "What was Xiao Jun up to? How come he isn’t accompanying his sister more?"

"Err..."

Either he was out catching bugs, feeding the chicks, or digging around in the snow.

Just as Lin Nianhe was pondering how to explain to Zheng Lirong that her son might be slightly unruly, the door was knocked on again.

"Sister Hehe, may we come in?"

It was Niuwa’s voice.

Hearing this, Wang Shumei couldn’t help but glance at Lin Nianhe.

This kid, having been around Lin Nianhe, was almost turning into a cunning little one—how could any other seven-year-old child know to knock at someone’s door and call out for Lin Nianhe?

Lin Nianhe, already used to Niuwa’s antics, responded without much thought: "Come in quickly."

The door was opened, and two little rascals squeezed out from behind the door curtain.

Lin Nianhe saw them and laughed: "Well, that saves me the trouble. No need to look for you now."

Zheng Lirong was stunned when she saw Bai Xiaojun.

Bai Xiaojun wore a black, semi-worn leather jacket, a hemp rope tied around his waist. His Lei Feng cap was crooked, his small face still round, but dark and flushed, with snot hanging from his nose. Who knows what he had eaten; there was a ring of black around his mouth. And his hands, who knows what they had touched, were too dirty to even look at. From head to toe, there was not a single clean spot on him; he looked like he had just rolled eight times in a muddy field and crawled out.

When Bai Xiaojun saw Zheng Lirong, his eyes instantly brightened, and he gave a silly shout of "mom" and was about to pounce into her embrace.

Zheng Lirong looked at her son, who resembled a little beggar, then at her clean and beautiful daughter, feeling very conflicted.

Was this little soot ball really her son?

Seeing the life-questioning expression on Zheng Lirong’s face, Lin Nianhe almost laughed and said, "Sister Lirong, Xiao Jun is still young and can’t learn much on weekdays, so he just plays with the kids in the village. Our village is not as refined as the city, so I didn’t dress him up nicely, to avoid damaging good clothes... But there’s no safety concern, Cao Shijian follows him every day."

Zheng Lirong nodded repeatedly, "I know, I know."

Seeing Zheng Shan’s condition, she knew Lin Nianhe and the rest must have treated the two children well; her son’s ragged look was definitely his own doing.

Lin Nianhe smiled and tousled Bai Xiaojun’s hair: "Come over, I’ll get you some water to wash your hands."

"Okay!" Bai Xiaojun also felt a little dirty and decided to wash up before asking for a hug from his mom.

Lin Nianhe put on the military overcoat, took Niuwa and Bai Xiaojun to the kitchen, and used the hot water from the kettle to mix them some warm water to wash their hands and faces.

After their first wash, the water in the basin had turned black.

Lin Nianhe clicked her tongue, poured it out, and mixed another basin.

After washing three times, Bai Xiaojun was finally tolerable to look at.

While they were washing their hands, Lin Nianhe couldn’t help but laugh and cry as she asked Niuwa, "What on earth did you two get up to?"

Bai Xiaojun was exceptionally dirty today.

Niuwa’s eyes sparkled as he replied, "We went to catch sparrows!"

"And then? Did you catch any?" Lin Nianhe was curious.

"No," said Niuwa, "Tiezhu’s method didn’t work, so when Brother Su happened to pass by and saw us, he made a slingshot to help us snag a few."

Lin Nianhe: "...!"

Su Yuncheng had the skill to shoot sparrows? Why hadn’t she heard him mention this before?

She thought about the shots he had fired, each one precise. If he wanted to hit the knee, he’d hit exactly there, not the shin; if he aimed for the left side, he wouldn’t touch the right.

Thinking this over, shooting a few sparrows seemed like a perfectly reasonable routine operation.

Bai Xiaojun’s eyes twinkled with little stars: "Sister Lin, Brother Su is so awesome, I really like him!"

"Are you thinking of..." learning how to shoot sparrows from him?

Lin Nianhe didn’t finish her sentence when Bai Xiaojun said, "The sparrows he roasted were really delicious!"

Lin Nianhe: "..."

Bai Xiaojun, your grandpa is a revered professor with countless students, your mom is now a big shot in the provincial city, and your dad was once a big brother too, but... how come you only grew up to have an obsession with food?

Suddenly, genetics didn’t seem all that reliable.

Lin Nianhe quietly wiped clean both their hands and faces, then she led the two kids out of the kitchen.

She called out at the door: "Sister Lirong, come talk at my place."

The two rooms in the front yard were quite small, crowded with people that it was hard to turn around.

"Sure, let’s go."

Zheng Lirong came out a while later, holding Zheng Shan and not carrying the suitcase and burlap sack she brought.

Lin Nianhe’s room was warm. She had just gone to the front yard not long ago, and right before she left, she turned off the heater, so the kang was still warm.

Lin Nianhe made a cup of black tea for Zheng Lirong, gave some snacks and mixed malted milk for the three kids, then turned to Zheng Lirong and explained, "Xiao Jun just went to catch and roast sparrows with them."

Zheng Lirong let out a laugh, pinched her son’s cheek, and asked, "You know how to catch sparrows too?"

Bai Xiaojun, sipping sweet malted milk, his eyes shining even brighter: "It wasn’t me, it was Brother Su..."

He described again how delicious the roasted sparrows were.

His animated storytelling, filled with joy, left others shaking their heads in helpless amusement.

Lin Nianhe: "Sister Lirong, would you believe me if I said he actually eats meat at least twice a week?"

Bai Xiaojun has never been deprived of food, especially as of late, with the chickens in the coop beginning to lay eggs. The children in the village school had eggs to eat every day, something the city kids couldn’t match.

Zheng Lirong smiled and nodded: "I know, I know, this kid has been greedy since young..."

Zheng Lirong also felt helpless about it. Over the years, no matter if the family was poor or rich, she never shortchanged her children’s food. Why was it that Bai Xiaojun’s eyes always glimmered at the sight of food?

Bai Xiaojun stood to the side and suddenly, as if remembering something, he took out a half frozen roasted sparrow from his dark pocket and tried to stuff it into Zheng Shan’s mouth, boasting, "Sis, I saved it for you, eat up!"

Zheng Shan: "...!"