Chapter 146: Warm up.
Bai Li was not a person who usually spent time entertaining children, but with Lili, she seemed to be adjusting without difficulty. Maybe because the little girl was so openly affectionate. Maybe because Bai Li had already decided not to resist the charm attack. Either way, the child was clearly winning.
As she spoke, Bai Li casually took out a Wahaha drink, opened a row of four, took one bottle, inserted a straw, and handed it to the little dumpling.
That was the moment Lili looked like she had officially discovered paradise. The bottle came into her hands and she held it like it was the most precious thing in the world. Her eyes crinkled with joy, and when she took the first sip, her whole little body bounced with happiness. She looked up at Bai Li with absolute adoration and thanked her with a sweetness that almost sounded practiced. She probably had no idea how cute she was being, but everyone else in the room certainly did. Yan Laojin, standing nearby, was already softening a little too. Even her earlier wariness was slowly turning into the kind of cautious relief that comes when you realize the scary looking person in front of you is being very patient with your child.
"Auntie is so nice! Thank you, Auntie." The little dumpling sweetly coaxed, reaching out her chubby little hand to take the Wahaha drink, taking a sip. Her eyes crinkled with happiness, and her little head bobbed back and forth. "It’s so delicious!"
"I’m glad you like it. These are all for you." Yan Cijin said, placing the bag of snacks on the coffee table in the living room.
By this point, the whole room was beginning to feel less like a tense first meeting and more like a family gathering with an unexpected guest. Lili had already started drinking happily, and once she realized the snacks were really hers, she became even more attached to Bai Li. She walked over to Bai Li’s side again and hugged her leg with one hand while still holding the drink with the other. It was very obvious that the little girl was feeling both excited and a little shy at the same time. Snacks were something special in her house, and getting them from someone outside the family made the gift feel even bigger. Yan Cijin, seeing the child’s expression, could guess exactly what she was thinking.
"Hehe." The little dumpling drank happily, even walking over to Bai Li’s side, hugging Bai Li’s leg with one hand while drinking. Auntie is so kind; there are rarely so many snacks at home. Mom doesn’t let me eat so many.
Yan Cijin knew exactly what the little dumpling was thinking and smiled, "Auntie brought you a lot, but you can’t eat too many snacks and candies every day, otherwise it’s bad for your teeth. I’ll keep these for you. From now on, you can only have one or two kinds each day."
That was the responsible mother voice. Yan Cijin had gone from soft and amused to practical in one second, which was just how she was when it came to Lili. The little girl looked up at her mother with a very pitiful expression, as if this was somehow the saddest restriction in the world. Still, she nodded. She understood that there were rules, even if she did not always like them. Her little face scrunched up for a moment, then she sighed like a tiny adult and accepted the limitation with surprising grace.
The little dumpling looked at her mother with a pitiful expression and nodded softly, "Okay then."
After saying that, the little dumpling took two more big sips of Wahaha.
There was no way she was going to waste the chance to enjoy the drink while she could. That was another childlike thing about her. She always looked like she was obeying the rules, but she also took every chance she could to enjoy something before it disappeared. Yan Cijin watched her with affection and a faint sense of amusement, then took the little one’s snacks and carried them to the kitchen cabinet. She put them away carefully, not because she wanted to hide them from Lili, but because she knew if they stayed out in the open, the little girl would keep staring at them until she forgot everything else. Once she came back, she saw the little girl still clinging to Bai Li’s leg like a tiny koala.
Yan Cijin took the little one’s snacks and put them in the kitchen cabinet. When she returned, she saw the little girl still clinging to Bai Li’s leg.
Yan Cijin smiled and said, "Sweetie, I need to change your auntie’s dressing. Let Grandma play with you first."
The little girl was still extremely reluctant to let go, but she was also easily distracted by the promise of cartoons. That was usually how it worked with her. A good enough distraction was often enough to make her switch attention very quickly. So when Yan Cijin said cartoons, Lili’s eyes lit up again and she nodded at once. There was still a bit of hesitation in her body language, but the idea of a cartoon was enough to make the little girl step back. Yan Cijin immediately set it up on the screen, and the living room became much calmer. Lili sat obediently on the sofa next to Bai Li, smiling at Bai Li for a while, then turning to watch the screen. She was still full of curiosity, though, glancing back every now and then as if worried the snacks might suddenly disappear.
"Okay, then I want to watch cartoons," the little girl said sweetly.
"Alright." Yan Cijin found a cartoon for the little girl and projected it onto the screen. The little girl sat obediently on the sofa next to Bai Li, smiling at Bai Li for a while, then looking at the cartoon on TV.
Yan Laojin watched the whole thing and was honestly stunned.
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TO BE CONTINUED,
