The surroundings were bright, but the little child didn’t have his star device with him, so he had no idea what time it was.
He wrote a few more lines before looking up at the uncle and saying, “Ningning is hungry.”
The man sat in a nearby chair and glanced at him. “Rewrite these two pages before eating.”
The little child: “…”
He sniffled and continued writing.
The man watched his crooked handwriting and tapped his slender, elegant finger lightly on the table. “Write neatly.”
The little child erased what he had just written with his eraser. This time, his writing was a little neater.
Under the uncle’s watchful eye, it was impossible for the little child to slack off or cut corners.
It was hard to tell how much time had passed. Seeing that it still wasn’t dark outside, the little child became anxious. “What time is it now? Ningning needs to go back and have dinner with First Uncle.”
He hadn’t played with Wagner, Lele, and Savi yet today, nor had he handed in his homework to First Uncle.
If First Uncle didn’t see his homework, he’d make him run laps for a long, long time again.
“You’re not going anywhere until you finish your homework,” the man said coldly, leaving these words behind before getting up and heading off somewhere.
The little child watched his back and was momentarily stunned.
Before long, the man returned, this time bringing quite a bit of food with him, including some raw meat. “Don’t you know how to make a fire? Cook it yourself.”
When the little child saw the food, he wasn’t as excited as he used to be.
Although he could cook for himself, he wanted to eat with his friends.
After dropping off the food, the man went back to his inner room without saying what he was going to do.
The little child closed his workbook and resigned himself to starting a fire.
Before long, the fire was lit, and the food was roasting. As the aroma wafted through the air, the easily-pleased the little child’s eyes curved into happy crescents.
“It smells so good!”
The little child contentedly held up a piece of roasted meat and glanced back. Very generously, he called out to the man, “Uncle, come eat!”
He decided to give the uncle a few extra pieces of meat so that his uncle wouldn’t force him to do more homework!
The little child called out several times, but the uncle didn’t come to eat. His chubby face scrunched up, and in the end, he stopped calling.
The food on the mountain was fresh and delicious. The little child roasted some for himself and ate it all, and before long, his little belly was round and full.
After eating his fill, he left a few pieces of uneaten meat behind.
Rubbing his eyes, he planned to go straight to sleep.
But he didn’t get to sleep.
The uncle came over to check his homework.
The little child stood in front of the uncle, tilting his chubby face up and watching nervously as the other inspected his work. He stammered in his soft, childlike voice, “I did my homework properly.”
He didn’t scribble nonsense this time!
After rewriting it so many times, the little child wasn’t stupid—he knew that messing around wouldn’t work. So, with the uncle watching him like a hawk, he had taken the task seriously.
After a moment of inspection, although there were still many mistakes in the homework, the little child’s attitude was earnest enough.
The man held the homework book in one hand and grabbed the child with the other, carrying him inside.
The little child flailed his limbs. “Uncle, where are you taking me?”
The man didn’t answer.
Suspended midair, the little child kept flailing his short legs. “Carry me properly! You can’t just dangle me like this!”
This uncle didn’t even know how to carry him properly!
Under the little child’s constant squirming, the man finally adjusted his posture. He used one hand to support the little child’s chubby bottom and carried him deeper inside.
When they reached the innermost part, the little child was surprised to find a hot spring there!
The hot spring wasn’t deep, and the man directly placed the child into the water.
The little child: “…”
Unhappy, the little child splashed the water with his hands. “You didn’t change my clothes!”
He had bathed in a hot spring before, and the last time he had done so, he was completely bare. But his dad had told him that if there were others around, he needed to wear proper bathing clothes.
This uncle hadn’t even changed his dirty clothes before tossing him into the hot spring!
The man listened silently to the little child’s complaints for a few seconds before fetching a piece of cloth for him.
The cloth, casually tossed over and landing on the child’s head, left him bewildered: “?”
The little child pulled the cloth off his head, huffing indignantly, “Do you want me to make my own clothes?”
He was still small! He didn’t know how to make clothes yet.
The man glanced at the picky little child, squatted down beside the hot spring, and without a word, stripped the child of his clothes in just a few swift motions.
Amid the little child’s cries of surprise, the man wrapped the cloth around the child’s chubby waist. “Done.”
A simple makeshift apron was thus created.
The little child still wasn’t entirely satisfied. He wanted this uncle to make him a new pair of underwear. After all, when soaking in a hot spring, one must wear underwear!
But before he could even voice this request, he saw the stern-faced uncle pick up his workbook lying nearby.
The little child froze.
Sensing trouble, he clutched the small apron and tried to slip away.
“Stop right there.”
The man’s voice was cold and calm as he sat down on the ground, opened the workbook, and pointed to the mistakes. “Come here and explain to me how you made these errors.”
The little child, who had been looking forward to enjoying the hot spring, now sat in the water, his face blank, listening numbly to the uncle explaining his mistakes.
After the explanations, he was made to redo the problems. Any mistakes would result in a light slap on the palm.
By the time they emerged from the hot spring, it was already nighttime.
The little child couldn’t tell the time, but the man could.
The man placed the freshly bathed, soft, white little child on the bed. As for the child’s dirty clothes, the little child had scrubbed them clean during the bath, and now they were hanging out to dry. Once dry, they could be worn again.
“Go to sleep.”
The man’s words were few, his tone neither light nor heavy, yet it carried an inexplicable authority.
The little child lay on the bed, glancing at him without speaking, his eyes wide open.
The two stared at each other in silence until the man finally frowned. “Still not asleep?”
The little child, unafraid of the man's cold expression, said, "Stay with me while I sleep."
When the man didn't move, the child leaned closer, grabbing one of his fingers. His sleepy, milky voice carried a hint of clinginess, "Sleep with me."
During the day, the little child had finally worked hard on his studies. Now lying in bed, clutching the adult's finger, he quickly fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.
The man looked at the sleeping child, but he felt no drowsiness.
He had little experience interacting with children and had never taught one before. Forcing this little child to study and do homework was a first for him.
Even now, he couldn’t explain why he was doing it.
He couldn’t figure it out, and he couldn’t articulate it.
All he knew was that whenever he saw this little child being lazy, he had an inexplicable urge to discipline him.
Now, the child had fallen asleep holding his finger. Earlier in the day, when doing homework, the child had been tearful and said he hated him. But now, as he slept, he pressed his chubby face against the man, trying to snuggle his little hands and feet into his arms—a trusting, silly child through and through.
While the man and the child continued to interact, down the mountain, the First Uncle had already gathered several respected members of the tribe back at home.
The tribe leader sat at the head of the group.
They were discussing one thing: Why had the benefactor woken up at this time? Based on their calculations, the benefactor shouldn’t have awakened yet.
The fact that he was awake could not be changed, so they needed to continue deliberating—
What should they do if the benefactor’s mental state was still unstable this time?
