Pei Qiqi had made his little brother unhappy. He stood there, not knowing what to do, and cast a pleading look at Pei Yi and Hua Zhao. Someone, please help him coax the child!! Anyone would do.!! Hua Zhao got the message. She crouched down beside the car and ruffled Pei Qiqi’s hair. “Qiqi, you won’t pass your sickness on to Youyou. Don’t worry.”
With Hua Zhao’s reassurance, Pei Qiqi’s tense back relaxed. He carefully took the little guy’s hand. Youyou’s mother and Brother Xiao Tang hadn’t scolded him either. They even smiled and told them to go play nicely. In Pei Xu’s world, Youyou was the first person outside his family who dared to get close to him and play with him after finding out he was sick.
A child’s world is simple. Pei Qiqi felt there would never be another child as good as Youyou anywhere in the world. In the following days, Pei Yi and Hua Zhao frequently took Pei Qiqi to see the psychologist. What surprised them was that it was Qiqi himself who had initiated it.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, Pei Yi asked bluntly, “Why have you been so obedient lately, Qiqi? You actually want to go chat with the doctor uncle.”
Pei Qiqi sat in his child safety seat, his cheeks a bit redder than usual. He said quietly, “I need to get better quickly.”
He had seen it. Sometimes, Uncle would hide on the balcony and secretly cry. Auntie would have to comfort him, and then Auntie would cry too. Pei Xu had stood behind them, his own eyes feeling sore. Being sick made Uncle and Auntie cry. He didn’t want to be sick. Besides, ever since Youyou found out he was sick, he had been taking care of him, giving him water to drink, helping him wipe his hands, and so on. He was the older brother. He should be the one taking care of the younger brother. All in all, being sick was very bad, super troublesome, and super annoying.
At the hospital.
“Uncle Du, I’ve been looking at Dad’s photos regularly, just like you told me to.”
In the consultation room, the little boy with the black chestnut-shaped head looked a bit somber. Actually, before this, Qiqi hadn’t looked at his father’s photos for a long time. He would only constantly draw his father from memory. A distorted father with a strange expression. It was the last image he had of his father. But now, he could see the clean, handsome photos of his father from before again.
Doctor Du was pleased that he was cooperating well with the treatment. He rewarded him with a chocolate. “So, what does Dad look like in your heart now?”
“Dad was crying. He was calling my name…”
The painful memories came flooding back. Pei Qiqi’s eyes reddened. He hung his head low, not wanting the doctor to see him cry. Actually, in Doctor Du’s opinion, it was very rare for a four-year-old child to have such a strong desire to heal himself. His gaze swept over the crack in the door, where he could see two adults peeking in furtively. Doctor Du felt happy for Pei Qiqi. Even though he had lost his father, he still had family who loved him.
His uncle and aunt weren’t afraid of hard work. They had temporarily put aside all their work, taking care of everything from his three meals a day to his daily life, all by themselves Two days after moving into the Pei household, Hua Zhao noticed that Pei Qiqi didn’t really like the household help. So she gave them an extra month’s salary and let them go. For Pei Xu, his uncle’s home was the safest place for him. He didn’t like having other people around.
From that day on, Pei Qiqi’s three meals were all made by his aunt. Pei Yi, feeling sorry for her, would often bring food back from restaurants outside. Pei Yi and Hua Zhao were still young and had no prior experience raising children. Qiqi actively cooperated with Doctor Du’s psychological treatment. His uncle and aunt didn’t slack off either. Every day after watching him sleep, they would spend two hours taking online courses in child psychology and pedagogy.
Pei Qiqi was an early-to-bed, early-to-rise child. This forced Pei Yi and Hua Zhao, who were used to staying up late and having irregular lifestyles, to change their routines to match his. One day, after Pei Qiqi woke up, washed up, and got dressed, he went downstairs. He instinctively glanced towards the kitchen. The child’s footsteps were light, each step slow and cautious.
“Qiqi, good morning.”
The woman in the kitchen heard the deliberately light footsteps. She turned around with a pair of chopsticks in her hand and smiled when she saw him. Pei Qiqi blinked, his toes wiggling slightly in his slippers. His voice was neither loud nor soft: “Good morning, Auntie.”
“Breakfast will be ready soon. Can Qiqi help Auntie go wake Uncle up?”
Hua Zhao looked at him expectantly, hoping Qiqi would agree to the parent-child interaction she had deliberately created. Pei Qiqi hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded with a cool expression. He and his uncle had actually lived together for a while, but he had never entered his uncle’s room or woken him up before. Hua Zhao watched him carefully hold the railing as he climbed the stairs slowly. After a moment’s thought, she followed him up.
“Qiqi.”
Pei Qiqi stood on the step, turned his head to look at her, his expression questioning. Hua Zhao smiled and said, “Are your shoes uncomfortable? How about we change into another pair?”
Pei Qiqi looked down at the tips of his shoes. These slippers had been brought back from abroad for him by his aunt. They were soft, comfortable, and in his favorite color, black.
“They’re not uncomfortable.” He quite liked these shoes.
Hua Zhao patted his head. “Then can you tell Auntie why you walk like that? Is something bothering you?”
It wasn’t an interrogative tone, but eager concern. Pei Qiqi’s dark eyes shifted. His hands twisted together anxiously.
Hua Zhao waited a long time before she heard him say, “Because the nanny said I walk too loudly. It’s noisy.”
Because Pei Qiqi’s schedule was very early, Pei Yi had set strict conditions for the nanny. The nanny had to arrive at the Pei house by 6 a.m. to prepare and have breakfast ready by 7:30. Pei Qiqi still remembered that day when, like usual, he got up and went downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast. He sat quietly in his high chair and waited, but the nanny didn’t bring him his breakfast.
His uncle had told him that the nanny was a good person, hired to help take care of Qiqi. After waiting a long time without getting his breakfast, Qiqi jumped off his chair and ran to the kitchen door. The moment his little hand pulled the door open, Qiqi met the eyes of the busy nanny inside. The nanny, who usually looked kind and amiable, seemed to have changed into a different person. Her tone was impatient as she said, “Qiqi, why are you coming to the kitchen? If you bump into something and get hurt, your uncle will blame me for not taking good care of you…”
It seemed that from that day on, the nanny started to dislike him a little. Pei Xu was very sensitive to adults’ likes and dislikes. After realizing the nanny didn’t like him, he stopped talking to her and stopped greeting her. When his uncle wasn’t home, Pei Qiqi preferred to stay in his room rather than come out, because if he came out, the nanny would have to play with him.
It was part of the nanny’s job description, but he knew she didn’t like playing with him. Several times, the nanny secretly glared at him and ‘accidentally’ knocked over the blocks he had just carefully stacked.
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