Huo Lin sincerely gave advice to the little child, but the child was unwilling to listen.
“Ningning won’t perform poorly in exams.”
The child confidently asserted, “Ningning can score several perfect 100s!”
Having already kowtowed to Grandpa Confucius, he believed Grandpa Confucius would surely bless him.
Huo Lin looked at the confident little child, momentarily unsure how to advise him.
This child was not interested in studying. Instead, he was embracing the superstitions of ancient Earth. He seemed to have thoroughly learned about them.
In the ancient Earth era, it was said that many students, before exams, not only paid respects to Confucius but also crazily shared pictures of Koi fish.
They shared numerous posts and attempted to use these superstitious practices to help them, as struggling students, turn their academic fortunes around.
Huo Lin, who read this information, couldn’t quite grasp their mindset.
Yet, the little child, apart from kowtowing to Confucius, had not engaged in any superstitious activities like sharing posts.
“Big brother, Ningning is going to winter camp.”
After boasting to his brother, the little child brought up his winter camp plans.
Huo Lin had attended such winter camps before, so he didn’t oppose the child’s decision this time. “Hmm, I understand.”
The organizer of the winter camp was an old and reputable educational institution that had been organizing such activities on White Mist Star for many years. This institution collaborated with other planets, so the participants included not only kids from White Mist Star but also from other planets.
Participating in such a winter camp not only broadened one’s horizons but also provided an opportunity to interact with children from other places, helping to reinforce foreign language skills.
However, Huo Lin hesitated for a few seconds. “Ningning, how is your foreign language learning going? If you have to communicate with other kids at the winter camp, can you do it?”
The little child hesitated, not a fan of learning foreign languages. His face turned red, and he managed to utter a few words, “I can let other kids use the Imperial language!”
That way, he wouldn’t have to speak in a foreign language.
Huo Lin fell silent.
Before the little child set off, Huo Lin decided to give him a last-minute crash course in several foreign languages. Despite being young, Huo Lin was already proficient in four languages, which he had learned without the help of a teacher.
The little child was dizzy and disoriented after being taught.
Having barely finished his meal, the little child who didn’t want to continue with supplementary classes, even avoided his older brother.
Dragging the travel bag Aunt Ai Wei prepared for him, he struggled to pull it out, saying, “Brother, you don’t need to accompany me; I can walk by myself!”
Afraid of being late and forced to learn a foreign language, he exerted all his energy.
He struggled to drag the bag, placed it behind the tricycle, and urged Dad to start driving.
The day for winter camp arrived. On the day after the little child left the palace, he had to follow the group.
One of the main goals of the winter camp was to cultivate the children’s independence. Therefore, parents were not allowed to accompany them.
On the day of departure, among the children participating in the winter camp, Ningning was the youngest.
The friends who Ningning originally invited ended up traveling with their parents, and the other participants were mostly older than Ningning.
Winter camp was expensive, and those who could afford to participate were well-off children.
Although the little child was not wealthy, Zhan Xi had always been generous in his education, willingly covering the cost of the winter camp.
As for the issue of independence...
Zhan Xi thought it’s a good thing for his child to have a little exercise.
“Ningning, when you see Wagner, stay with him.”
Wagner from the Federation was also participating in the winter camp, and Zhan Xi felt more at ease with a familiar friend accompanying the child.
“I’ve brought a lot of extra snacks for you; remember to share some with Wagner.”
“Got it!”
Listening to his father’s instructions, the little child obediently nodded.
Before leaving, he even kissed the faces of all the adults, including his stern-faced uncle. He even gave his aunt a kiss.
“Aunt, in the future, if you still have gold, you can give it to me.”
The child, who showed off his little gold lock everywhere these days, whispered to his aunt, instructing him softly.
Raphael pinched his chubby face without mercy and said, “Even if I give you more gold, you have nowhere to spend it.”
“Yes, I do!”
The chubby kid extended his leg, showing his chubby foot to his uncle, saying, “Put some gold on the ankle for Ningning!”
Raphael raised an eyebrow, puzzled. “Gold on the ankle? Even as a king, I wouldn’t dare to be so extravagant.”
This chubby kid was indeed becoming more and more inflated.
Under the urging of his aunt, the inflated chubby kid boarded the spaceship for the winter camp.
As the shadow of the spaceship grew smaller, the parents remained in place. An Nuo looked at the departing spaceship, a hint of melancholy in his eyes.
“Raphael, I kind of miss Ningning.”
Raphael wasn’t pleased. “We just separated, and you already miss him?”
An Nuo fell into a strange silence at Raphael’s words.
Seeing this, Raphael squinted his eyes and began to inquire, “You start missing the chubby kid before he’s even far away. What about me?”
“When was the last time you missed me?”
Raphael bombarded An Nuo with questions, distracting him from thoughts of the chubby kid. An Nuo turned and walked away, heading to meet Ling Qi for lunch.
The adults who remained in place scattered one by one. Zhan Xi watched the sky for a while, then withdrew his gaze.
With the chubby kid not at home, Raphael decided to take An Nuo back to the Sixth Planet.
“This time, we can stroll around on the Sixth Planet.”
Raphael, being the king of the Sixth Planet, couldn’t stay away for too long.
An Nuo sat on the edge of the bed, letting Raphael pack for him. “Don’t take everything with you, or I’ll have to bring back a lot when I return. Moving back and forth like this is quite a hassle.”
Raphael: “...”
When Raphael heard that he had to come here again, he immediately frowned and started acting up. “I knew it. Sooner or later, that chubby kid will surpass me in your heart.”
An Nuo, unable to tolerate his grumbling, lightly kicked him.
“No talking about Ningning with you.”
Having lived with Raphael for so many years, An Nuo knew exactly what Raphael was thinking sometimes.
At the moment, Raphael was obviously trying to deliberately use Ningning’s pretext to achieve some other purpose.
After tidying up the room for a while, they left.
Once they were gone, Zhan Xi looked at the momentarily empty room and then at Ling Qi in the yard. After some thought, he called, “Ling Qi, come with me and help me with something.”
Ling Qi glanced at him. “What do you need my help with?”
Zhan Xi smiled, found a random excuse, and took him out.
Without the little child clinging to him, Zhan Xi was initially a bit uncomfortable, always thinking about the child.
“Ling Qi, this is the first time Ningning is going to be away for so long. He has never been away from people before. Do you think he might cry on the spaceship?”
His child was prone to tears. If he started crying on the spaceship, there might be no adult to comfort him.
The more Zhan Xi thought about it, the more uneasy he became, almost injuring his hand while working.
Seeing him like this, Ling Qi frowned. “If you’re not in the mood to work, go home and sleep.”
Zhan Xi didn’t say anything, but also didn’t want to go back.
He continued working, but his mind was filled with thoughts of his precious child.
He remembered how the little child used to cling to him, especially before he could walk. He loved clinging to him the most.
By night, the little child would recognize people. No other adults on the barren planet could hold him; the crying baby would only stop when held by his father.
In the blink of an eye, the crying baby grew up.
Zhan Xi, with the heart of an old father, felt sore and aching as his precious child left.
Meanwhile, on the spaceship.
The little child, experiencing his first outing, showed no signs of sentimentality. He sat on the chair, listening to the winter camp teacher talking about their destination.
“This is a dinosaur, a large creature that appeared in the ancient Earth era.”
The teacher displayed a picture, and the little children stared at the big dinosaur in the picture.
The teachers leading the winter camp were experienced, and with their presence, the young ones were relatively well-behaved.
After a while, children from other planets who had enrolled were also brought over.
The little child successfully met Wagner.
The two little children, reunited after a long time, looked at each other, and finally hugged.
“Wagner, I missed you so much!”
“Ningning, I missed you too!”
The scene of the two little children hugging each other looked quite touching.
However, the touching moment lasted only a few seconds. Wagner pushed the little child away and said, “Ningning, can you not delete my number just because I said your aunt is stingy?”
They talked every day, and sometimes they would just suddenly break their friendship.
Due to Wagner revealing the truth about the little child’s aunt being stingy, he had his space number angrily deleted by the little child just the day before.
