Chapter 14: Dad Bai Lie (3)

Chapter 14: Daddy Bai Lie (3)

He, he, he, he, he kissed me!!!

Shuyue’s eyes widened in shock. She scrambled to her feet, her head slamming directly into Bai Lie’s chin.

But before Shuyue could even say anything, Bai Lie seemed to be in more pain than she was. He rubbed her head while coaxing her.

“Oh dear, it doesn’t hurt,

There, there, a little blow and it won’t hurt anymore!

Don’t cry, crying makes you look ugly…”

Shuyue: “…”

“You’re the one crying!”

Shuyue was embarrassed and annoyed. She grabbed a sweet potato strip and stuffed it directly into his mouth. But she didn’t even notice that the corners of her mouth, which she was trying so hard to keep straight, had curled up.

Bai Lie didn’t have the slightest self-awareness that he was being shunned. He chuckled, “Delicious.”

Suddenly thinking of something, he asked casually, “Where did this come from? Are you craving dried sweet potatoes? I’ll find a way to dry some for you tomorrow.”

This sweet potato had too many fibers in it. Bai Lie assumed it was something Shuyue had picked up from the fields herself—leftover sweet potato roots missed during the production team’s harvest—and his heart felt heavy.

Shuyue felt a bit embarrassed and blushed.

“It’s what I had left over from lunch. The porridge at night doesn’t fill me up, and it doesn’t taste very good.” So, she had saved what was left from lunch to fill her stomach.

Hearing her say this, Bai Lie felt both heartbroken and guilty.

He sighed inwardly.

Life in the countryside was hard. A family ate several different kinds of meals: the men doing manual labor ate one thing, the women ate another, and the children ate yet another. In some families that favored boys over girls, even the boys and girls ate differently.

For a girl as young as Er Ya, who only had to dig for wild vegetables and gather firewood, her dinner was truly just a bowl of thin porridge or gruel. Naturally, it wasn’t strange that Shuyue, who didn’t even have to dig for wild vegetables, had the same diet as Er Ya.

On top of that, it was currently the time when the summer grain had been eaten up and the autumn harvest was being reaped but hadn’t been distributed yet, making life even harder.

Therefore, he didn’t say anything, only pinched Shuyue’s little cheek, calculating in his heart how long it would take to put back the weight his daughter had lost. However, he said, “If it doesn’t taste good, then we won’t drink it anymore.”

Shuyue: “…”

Shuyue was just struggling with how to phrase things so she wouldn’t seem too pretentious in an environment where everyone drank thin porridge and ate cornmeal buns every day. When she heard Bai Lie’s words, she forgot all about the surprise kiss on her cheek and looked at him eagerly.

“It’s not that I can’t drink it, it’s just…

Well, I have to get used to it.” The expression on her face was conflicted, her little face all scrunched up.

Bai Lie found it amusing.

“Mm, my daughter is just so sensible.”

He patted Shuyue’s head, his cold, sharp features softening, his tone gentle: “It’s okay, if we don’t like it, we won’t drink it. Your dad doesn’t have much ability, but I can still manage to get you something to eat.”

In fact, when he first brought Shuyue back from the city, he knew she would inevitably be unaccustomed to village life.

He had thought about bringing more food home to improve the overall diet, but the amount that would actually reach Shuyue would be negligible.

He had thought about getting a stove for the room to cook porridge or roast sweet potatoes.

He had even thought about sneaking out with Shuyue every day to cook a private meal.

He had even considered splitting the family…

He had thought of so much, but he hadn’t managed to implement any of it before he had his accident.

This wasn’t something Shuyue needed to worry about. Instead of explaining how he would manage it, he acted as if performing a magic trick, pulling out an oil-paper parcel and unwrapping the yellow paper to reveal the rice cake inside.

This fragrance…

This color…

It even had red beans and red dates on top!