263 Not Afraid
Zhai Jing wanted to say that he wasn’t afraid.
When he was young, his family was poor. To save some rent, his mother had brought him to live in the countryside for two years.
There wasn’t much in the countryside except for vegetation, insects, and snakes. Especially in March and April every year, animals that had hibernated for a few months would run out to find food and let out the wind when spring was warm. Therefore, snakes could occasionally be seen in the wild.
At that time, the firefighting wasn’t as good as it was now. The villagers weren’t so afraid of snakes. Some brave children would even join forces to catch snakes and sell them for money.
Zhai Jing’s family was short of money too, so he had followed them to catch the snakes a few times. Later on, he only stopped because his mother was worried that he would be bitten by a snake.
With this experience, Zhai Jing was indeed not afraid of snakes. However, he had just comforted Le Wan and said that he was afraid too. He couldn’t go back on his words now and could only continue to talk nonsense.
“I was pretending.”
Seeing him admit it so bluntly, Second Brother Le shrugged his shoulders and lost interest in teasing him.
Papa Le was even more upset. It wasn’t easy to get a fish to bite, and he was just complaining that he had caught a hairtail, but it wasn’t even a fish, but a sea snake!
This was a huge blow to him.
Papa Le threw down the fishing rod dejectedly.
“It seems that the sea goddess has despised me, an old man with rough skin and thick flesh, after seeing me. So she’s deliberately mocking me.”
Mama Le didn’t expect things to turn out so dramatically. She gave Le Wan a look and asked her to comfort Papa Le.
Le Wan had no choice but to bring Papa Le to the place where she had just cast the fishing line.
“I think that the position over there is wrong. Come over to my side and try. Maybe you can catch it.”
When Papa Le heard her words and looked at the fishing line that was still tied to the nail, he was a little tempted.
“Should I try again?”
“Dad, I don’t think you’re lucky today. Why don’t you let me try?” Second Brother Le took the opportunity to say.
Papa Le was still a little hesitant at first, but after being provoked by him, his desire to win was ignited again.
“Baby said to give the position to me, not to you. What are you so excited about?” After saying that, he put his stool on the ground, took the fishing rod, and sat down.
Second Brother Le didn’t care about him at all. He couldn’t leave empty-handed today anyway, so he also took a small stool and sat down next to him.
Papa Le immediately shooed him away.
“What are you doing here? You’re going to scare my fish away.”
Second Brother Le retorted sarcastically,
“You’ll have to find a fish to bite your hook first.”
Hence, the father and son started to bicker and bet on who could catch the first fish.
Le Wan and Mama Le exchanged helpless glances.
“Forget it, just let the father and son fight,” Mama Le said.
With his son playing with him, Papa Le didn’t have time to worry about his emotions. It also saved her the trouble of paying attention to his mental state and racking her brains to comfort him.
When she saw Le Wan and Zhai Jing standing next to each other, she shifted her gaze away with some jealousy.
“That’s enough. You two don’t have to stand here as if you’re being punished. Go and play whatever you want to play. The sun is too hot. I’ll go back to the cabin to drink some water and rest for a while. I’ll also go to the kitchen to see how you’re going to deal with the salmon and yellow croaker you caught and see if they can be eaten for lunch.”
When Le Wan heard the word “food”, she immediately raised her hand and said,
“I want to eat three yellow croaker sashimi and dry-fried big yellow croaker.”
Mama Le noted down the menu and looked at Zhai Jing.
“Zhai Jing, What would you like to eat?”
Zhai Jing had been with the Le family for almost two days and knew that they were not people who liked to be polite, so he hesitated for a while and said directly,
“I think pan-fried salmon is pretty good too.”
As expected, Mama Le didn’t mind and agreed,
“I also think pan-fried salmon is delicious.”
After Mama Le went back to the cabin, Zhai Jing asked Le Wan,
“Do you still want to continue fishing?”
Le Wan quickly shook her head. She didn’t expect they’ll catch a sea snake while fishing. This was too scary. What if she caught a sea snake later?
She looked at Zhai Jing.
“Actually, you’re not afraid of snakes. You were just trying to coax me, right?”
Zhai Jing was a little surprised.
“How did you find out?”
Le Wan turned away in embarrassment.
“I knew it.”
When she had snuggled into Zhai Jing’s arms, her ear had been pressed against his chest.
If Zhai Jing was afraid of snakes, his heart would have already started beating faster. It wouldn’t have only started beating faster after she snuggled into his arms.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l