The paused meeting resumed after a long delay.
At the end of the meeting, Ludwig glanced down at the sleeping child and, to save face for the child, added a few words, “Let’s not bring up what happened here.”
The screen slowly dimmed, and Ludwig’s arm had gone a bit numb from acting as the child’s pillow. He stood up and let the child lie in his arms, continuing to sleep.
The deeply asleep child couldn’t be disturbed, no matter how much movement there was.
Ludwig carried the child out, and Ai Wei had already prepared the child’s examination instruments.
Seeing the child asleep, Ai Wei thought for a moment and said, “Let’s check on him tomorrow. Let him sleep well today.”
While the child was sleeping, Ludwig, Ai Wei, and Huo Lin had dinner.
They knew the dinner time at Zhan Xi’s house, so they all assumed that the child had already eaten.
The neglected child lay on the soft bed, sleeping peacefully.
Time passed slowly.
Huo Lin wanted to sleep with the child, so before going to bed himself, he went to his parent’s bedroom and carried the child to his own room.
The child had already changed into pajamas and been cleaned up, smelling fresh all over.
He carried the child away and lay down with him.
Before falling asleep, Huo Lin habitually touched the child’s belly. He couldn’t tell if it was an illusion, but he felt that the child’s stomach seemed a little empty today.
In the middle of the night, Huo Lin was awakened by the child, who was sitting on the bed, tears in his eyes, saying, “Why didn’t you call me for dinner?”
The child, who had missed a meal, felt like he was starving.
Huo Lin was surprised, “Didn’t you have dinner at home?”
The child was even sadder. “I didn’t have dinner!”
In the middle of the night, Huo Lin got up to find food for the child.
He didn’t want to wake up the chef at this hour, and he didn’t want to give the child snacks in the middle of the night, which would be bad for his stomach. After thinking it over, Huo Lin decided to cook noodles for the child.
“Ningning, would you like me to make noodles for you?” he asked.
“Okay.”
Huo Lin prepared noodles, meat soup, and vegetables. He searched for tutorials on the StarNet and followed the instructions meticulously.
After working busily for a while, a large, brimming soup bowl was placed on the table. “Ningning, come over.”
“It’s too late today. Eating too much isn’t good. Once you finish this, we’ll go to sleep.”
Even Ai Wei wouldn’t be able to finish such a large soup bowl.
But the little child looked at the bowl and obediently said, “Hmm! Ningning will eat a bit less today!”
Although it was Huo Lin’s first time cooking noodles, they turned out unexpectedly delicious.
The little child slurped down the noodles and had drunk about half of the soup.
“Delicious!”
The little child’s eyes sparkled as he praised his brother.
Seeing him enjoy the meal so much, Huo Lin wiped his face and spoke in a gentler tone than during the day. “Next time, what would you like to eat? I’ll learn to make it for you.”
“Hmm!”
Having eaten halfway, the little child contentedly stretched out his arms, allowing his brother to carry him away.
Back in the room, under his brother’s supervision, the little child brushed his teeth and settled back into his blanket.
“Brother, does it snow in winter on the White Mist Star?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Huo Lin embraced him and lightly patted his back, soothing him to sleep. “In the winter on the White Mist Star, it gets a little colder, but it doesn’t snow. I heard that on the ancient Earth, winters used to bring long, deep snowfalls, and the snow was so heavy it could cover the whole world in a vast white expanse.”
Normally, whether at school or at home, Huo Lin didn’t talk much. But when it came to the little child, he was always willing to speak.
“Such big snow.”
The little child had seen snowflakes in pictures of ancient Earth, but in the interstellar era, even in cold weather, it was rare to see snow.
Artificially created snowflakes existed, but compared to real snowflakes, the latter were more desirable.
“Brother, Ningning wants to see snow.”
“Then close your eyes, and you can see it in your dreams.”
“Hmm!”
Obediently, the little child closed his eyes and began to imagine snowflakes in his mind. As he continued to think about it, he fell asleep, and in his dream, he truly saw snowflakes.
On the streets covered in heavy snow, two people were standing in the snow.
One was tall, and the other was short. Their faces were unclear to the child, but he could hear their voices.
“Jian Ning, can we consider ourselves a happy couple like this?”
The little child heard the name Jian Ning, and with his short legs, ran over. He was a bit excited and wanted to say to the two people, “I’m also called Jian Ning!”
He had never met someone with the same name as him before!
No matter how fast he ran with his short legs, he couldn’t catch up.
While the snow continued to fall, the figures of those two people gradually faded.
When the little child saw this scene, for some reason, his heart ached a bit.
When he woke up from this long dream, the child’s eyes were still a bit red.
On the first day of winter vacation, Huo Lin, who could sleep in, had been accompanying the child. The child was sleeping, while Huo Lin had a book in hand.
Hearing the child struggling and whimpering in his sleep, about to cry, Huo Lin put down the book and patted his back.
“Ningning, wake up, Ningning.”
Huo Lin thought he was having a nightmare, so he patted his back and woke him up.
Upon waking up, the child, looking at his older brother, extended his chubby hand.
“Brother, your hair isn’t white.”
Huo Lin didn’t understand what he was saying and just went along, “Hmm, it’s not white yet. Do you want to see big brother’s white hair?”
The child nodded, but then shook his head.
“No, I don’t want to see.”
The teacher said that children should study well, not dye their hair, and not draw patterns on their bodies.
The child occasionally talked nonsense when half-asleep, and Huo Lin was used to it.
He patiently comforted the child, waited for him to fully wake up, played with him for a while, and then asked the child again. The child couldn’t remember what he had said when he first woke up.
This wasn’t the first time this had happened, so Huo Lin didn’t pay much attention to it.
He opened the closet and started to pick out clothes for the child. “Your dad said you’re going to a friend’s birthday party today.” He held up the clothes he had taken out and showed them to the child. “How about wearing this to the party?”
The little child shook his head, saying, “Change it!”
Huo Lin, upon hearing this, switched to the next set of clothes for him. They changed into several sets, and finally, the little child picked out a blue outfit.
When they came out, Ludwig and Ai Wei were already awake.
“Caesar, did you wake up with Ningning last night?”
“Ningning didn’t have his dinner, so I got up to cook noodles for him.”
Although the kitchen was cleaned up, the head chef still noticed something unusual and reported it to Ludwig.
Ludwig didn’t expect Ningning hadn’t eaten. He walked over and touched Ningning’s belly. “Are you still hungry?”
“Yes, hungry.”
The midnight bowl of noodles had already been digested by the little child, and now his tummy had shrunk again.
Ludwig glanced at the large soup bowl in the kitchen, then at the little child in Huo Lin’s arms. He didn’t say much but let Huo Lin carry the little child over for breakfast.
After sitting down next to Ai Wei, Ludwig lowered his voice and said to her, “When you do the check-up today, examine Ningning’s digestive system and stomach function.”
Ai Wei responded with a nod.
Their conversation was overheard by Huo Lin, who looked at the little child with the bib on being fed by the butler, and his eyes flickered.
Since he missed one dinner, Ningning had eaten quite a bit for breakfast.
After breakfast, Ai Wei took him for a check-up and only then did Huo Lin send him back.
“Big brother, Ningning brought you cake.”
“No need to bring it. Just make sure you’re full.” Huo Lin wasn’t particularly interested in desserts. He changed the little child into a clean outfit and sent him back.
Just after finishing the meal, Ningning accidentally knocked over his bowl, and the remaining soup dirtied the clothes he had changed into that morning.
On the way back...
Ningning talked to his big brother while raising his fingers for him to blow on.
Among the tests he underwent, one involved pricking his finger to draw a little blood. Even though the needle used to prick his finger was very thin, Ningning, scared and in pain, ended up crying.
Huo Lin blew on his finger and then applied a cartoon band-aid to make it better.
Even so, Ningning held up his finger as if he was a patient with a serious illness.
The sickly child pretended to be weak in front of his uncle, and after deceiving two relatives, he finally made a phone call to his classmate, who had a birthday today.
The child on the phone also had a visibly low voice.
“Ningning, let’s kick someone out of the Star Network.”
“Ningning knows.”
After a moment of sadness, the two children began talking about the birthday.
The child on the other end had an idea and said to Ningning, “Ningning, I’ve bought a lot of masks. Let’s celebrate our birthday wearing masks!”
Ningning, who liked novelty, readily agreed.
He bragged, “My aunt has a mask made of gold! I’ll bring it over for you to see!”
The child, on the other end, seemed a bit envious and asked, “Gold is expensive. Do you think your aunt will let you wear such an expensive mask?”
The chubby child, who had just let his uncle kiss him on purpose in front of his aunt, was stunned when he heard this question.
Thank you very much!
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