The little one usually slept with Huo Lin quite often; Huo Lin would frequently go to his home to sleep with him. So, after coming to the palace, the little one, who understood the principle of sharing his favors, would go to sleep with Auntie Ai Wei.
Auntie Ai Wei and Uncle Lulu would let the little one sleep in the middle, and Uncle Lulu would play a foot-kicking game with him.
The little one loved sleeping with them.
That night.
The bedroom was filled with the lively sounds of the little one's childish babbling and the giggles of a young child laughing so hard he was almost out of breath.
The little one and Ai Wei slept at one end, while Ludwig slept at the other.
They were playing the foot-kicking game.
Ludwig's feet were enormous. The combined size of the child's two chubby little feet wasn't even as big as one of his.
The little child pushed against Ludwig's left foot with both of his own fat feet, while Ivy pushed against Ludwig's right foot.
They both pushed with all their might, trying to make Ludwig budge.
But Ludwig lay steadily on the bed, completely unmoving.
No one knew how long they'd been playing this game. The little child sat up, as if tired from playing, and let out a sigh in a mature-sounding, milky voice.
"Sigh, Ningning is exhausted."
Ai Wei brought him a glass of water, letting him drink it before going back to sleep.
The little guy had sweated from all the activity and needed to replenish his fluids.
He had already bathed before bed, so Ivy didn't give him a second one. She just took a wet towel and carefully wiped the little child down.
Once everything was tidied up, the two adults, with the child nestled between them, closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep.
The kindergarten graduation exam would no longer be live-streamed. After this news was announced, many netizens who had been waiting for the stream expressed their disappointment in the comments.
"I was planning to wait for the live stream again this year, why isn't it airing?"
"I re-read the notice, it's not that they're stopping completely, just that they won't stream the kindergarten's senior class exam."
"I only want to watch the senior class stream. I want to see if my virtually raised chubby child will shine brightly at graduation!"
It's often the beginning of something that people miss the most.
For example, during the kindergarten's very first live stream, the kids from the Green Grass class burst onto the viewers' screens. They knelt down and kowtowed bang bang bang, leaving netizens dizzy but also making their kindergarten incredibly popular.
Later on, the kindergarten's official channel would occasionally stream some teachers or events, but during regular little tests, the children generally seemed much calmer.
It was only during the major exams that the kids would each show their unique, hilarious sides, absolutely slaying the netizens.
The chubby child from the Green Grass class, in particular, stood out among all the young children, allowing many young women to experience being a mom without the pain, and to virtually raise a child.
Seeing that the chubby child would no longer appear, netizens complained for a while before having to accept reality.
The date of the graduation exam was getting closer and closer.
The little child was also becoming increasingly frantic in his scavenging for junk. He himself wasn't collecting enough, so he often brought a few other kids along to scavenge with him.
The other children were used to playing with him. Being called to go scavenging for junk, they found it especially fun.
The money from selling recyclables was kept in a little piggy bank. The bank was bought by his aunt.
His aunt said that saving money is a good habit.
However, the little child didn't really have the habit of saving money. He was a live-for-today type; in the past, he would spend all his daily allowance completely.
If it weren't for saving up to buy a gift this time, the little child wouldn't have dared to spend any money until now.
He had been really craving the spicy sticks from the small shop at the entrance.
"153 star coins, still not enough."
The little child counted the money in the piggy bank, scratching his head worriedly: "Buying a gift for my brother is going to cost a lot of money."
He wanted to buy a cosmic hero from the shop window for his brother. That cosmic hero was super, super cool; there wasn't a single kid he'd met who didn't like it.
The little child didn't know any older kids like his brother's age, so he didn't know if he would like it.
But the little child thought his brother should like it.
A cool cosmic hero like that, no one would dislike it!
Besides the cool cosmic hero, the little child had also saved up a bunch of odds and ends he wanted to buy. He wanted to give his brother lots and lots of gifts.
Other people were worrying about exams, only the little child was worrying about his brother's birthday.
One week before the exam.
The little child's recyclables-collecting activity was forcibly stopped by his father: "Ningning, focus your energy on reviewing this week. As for the recyclables business, let's pause it for now."
The little child, carrying his fertilizer bag, was about to head out, but stopped when he heard his father's words.
"Dad, Ningning isn't neglecting his studies."
He was balancing both studying and his undertaking now – he had to study well AND collect recyclables properly!
Zhan Xi ignored his nonsense and directly kept him home.
"You be good. After the exams, your uncle and aunt said they'd take you travelling, to broaden your horizons."
For children from wealthy families, travelling is the most common activity.
During travel, children unconsciously broaden their horizons and increase their knowledge.
The little child hadn't travelled many times so far, and judging by the outcomes of those few trips, his horizons hadn't expanded much, but he sure remembered a lot about the food.
If you tell him about some scenic spot, he'll probably just tilt his chubby little face in confusion and say he doesn't remember it clearly.
But if you mention what snack shops are near that spot, he can give you the answer in a second.
"Ningning wants to travel with big brother."
"Your brother? When would he have the time?" Zhan Xi casually said, tucking the little child under his arm and carrying him inside.
Xiao Lin was the Crown Prince of the Empire; he was born bearing the future of the entire empire on his shoulders.
Ludwig and Ai Wei currently didn't seem to be planning a second child. With no second child, there was no one to share Xiao Lin's burden.
Nowadays, Xiao Lin's training intensity was getting heavier and heavier. He couldn't afford to slack off. The Zerg had been restless in recent years, and there was even a special Royal Zerg among them.
That special Royal Zerg posed a significant security risk.
However, despite the combined efforts of the Empire, the Federation, and the Sixth Planet, they had been unable to track down this particular zerg.
Not to mention the Royal Zerg, a population disappearance case had just occurred recently on White Mist Planet.
Zhan Xi had only vaguely heard some rumors. He hadn't gotten the full story, and those vague rumors weren't enough for him to take seriously.
He had a lot to keep him busy every day. Besides the junkyard on White Mist Planet, he had also opened others in different places.
But he hadn't gone to manage those other junkyards himself; instead, he had handed them over to other people from the barren planet.
"Alright, you sit back down and continue reviewing. Once your graduation exams are over, you can play as much as you want."
Zhan Xi pressed the little child down onto the chair. After thinking for a moment: "Ningning, I'm not trying to scare you, but your biological dad will definitely be watching your graduation this time."
"Never mind getting into military elementary school later. If you can't graduate successfully, your dad will definitely lock you up for a month once he wakes up."
Little child: "..."
Every time the little child went back home, he played the role of a little servant.
He worked hard to finish his homework, and after finishing, he had to work hard again to take care of his biological dad.
Thinking about having to be his dad's little servant for a whole month, the little child's eyes went wide.
"Ningning isn't going back! Ningning hasn't found Mama yet!"
His biological dad felt that him managing to find his dad was partly due to luck and skill. So now, the hope of finding Mama had been placed on him by his dad.
To give him confidence in finding Mama, his dad had even found some ancient Earth textbooks from who-knows-where and told him the story of Little Tadpole Searching for its Mother.
The child listening to 'Little Tadpole Searching for its Mother': "..."
Didn't want to talk, the child was going to withdraw into himself.
"If you don't want to go back, then study hard. Otherwise, Dad will send you over."
Zhan Xi wasn't educated, so the responsibility of teaching the child fell to Ling Qi.
After a week of intensive cramming, Zhan Xi laid his cards on the table with Ling Qi in private. He asked, "So? Can the child graduate? Be honest with me. I can handle it."
Ling Qi thought for a few seconds: "It's possible he'll graduate, but I can't say for sure."
Their little child was very mysterious; his academic performance was erratic. He had gotten first place before, but he had also crashed and burned to the very bottom.
With a little one whose performance fluctuated like this, the two parents didn't have any great solutions. After exhausting all the scientific methods, they could only secretly resort to slightly unscientific ones.
For example, stuffing books under the child's pillow, hoping that while the child slept, knowledge would continuously seep into his mind.
Exam day.
Zhan Xi's shabby factory wasn't open. He had posted a notice on the door, and his entire focus was on monitoring the little one's exam.
"Ningning, did you wear your little red underpants?"
"Wore them."
The little one started to show his dad as he spoke. Seeing this, Zhan Xi quickly stopped his chubby little hand: "Hold on, don't take them off. Dad just needs to know you're wearing your little red underpants."
It wasn't just the little one wearing them today; Zhan Xi and Ling Qi were wearing them too.
If An Nuo had been there, he probably would have been persuaded to wear red underpants as well.
The graduation exams lasted a full three days.
During those three days, the adults didn't change the little one's meals. What he ate and drank was the same as before. Apart from classes being replaced by exams, there wasn't much difference.
The afternoon of the third day.
The little one finished all his exams. When he came out, the entrance was crowded with adults.
The adults looked at the chubby little one running out. The ones at the very front even stopped him: "Ningning, you've finished your exams. How do you think you did?"
The little child who was stopped braked hard, tilting his chubby face up, his small voice very polite: "I don't think it's difficult."
"Then which primary school do you plan to take the entrance exam for next? What's the first thing you want to do after the exam?"
The little child felt this person was asking way too many questions.
He was in a hurry right now: "Next, I'm going to take the exam for military primary school. After the exam, the thing I most want to do is collect junk."
"Uncle, you're blocking the child's way to go collect junk."
The man, who was not a parent but a children's channel host: "..."
Collect junk?
What kind of nonsense is that?
The little child collected junk for another day. Without really talking much to his family about the exam, he first frantically started preparing his gift.
The little child, who hadn't managed to sell much for money yet, after buying a bunch of small things, still felt they were too cheap.
Not wanting to be too shabby, the little child discussed it for a long time with Wagner and Sevi, and finally came up with a uniquely thoughtful gift.
He found a big box – boxes were the one thing their family never lacked.
Then, the little child packed himself, along with the gifts he had bought for his brother, all into the box.
After that, the little child even tied a butterfly bow on himself, then curled up inside the box, waiting for his brother to open it.
The little child waited and waited, until he fell asleep waiting.
His brother still hadn't come to open his box.
Not knowing how long he had been in the box, the gift child, realizing no one was opening it, rubbed his eyes and wanted to crawl out and see.
He pushed upwards, but couldn't get out.
It seemed like someone had sealed the box shut.
Ningning: "!"
The little child was stunned for a moment, then his chubby little fists started pounding on the box: "Brother, brother, save Ningning!"
"Ningning is still inside the box!"
He didn't want to surprise his brother by sitting in the box anymore.
He just wanted his brother to hug him right now.
