Chapter 8 — What are you up to now? Salt is expensive!
“How delicious, daddy! If only there were fish every day!”
Holding the small round belly, small bun smacked his lips, with a contented face, Ling Jingxuan rubbed his head and said, “Isn’t it simple? Tomorrow daddy will catch some for you again.”
“Hmm… I’d rather not, I’m afraid daddy will…”
In the middle of nodding, the smile on the face of the little bun suddenly disappeared, and the little pouted mouth was almost ready to hang the kettle of oil, obviously thinking of something unpleasant. The big bun on the other side also darkened his face and said gravely, “We won’t eat fish any more, daddy, don’t try to catch any more fish.”
Just in case. Although their daddy did not know how to live a life, they liked the present him very much and didn’t want to lose him.
“Hehe…all right, all right. How about we use a dustpan to catch fish? Today I saw that there are a lot of big fish at the bottom of the Yuehua Ditch. When your grandpa and grandma come some other day, we can ask them to buy us a small net, perhaps we can catch a lot of fish to sell.”
After the cooking incident last night, Ling Jingxuan finally found out the big bun’s personality. As long as it was something about making money, he would never object.
“Really?!”
Sure enough, on hearing they could make money, the big bun eyes were glazing, face turning red due to the excitement. Ling Jingxuan helplessly sighed, nodding at him under his excited eyes. Humans’ natural appetite unexpectedly failed to resist the temptation of money. Alas, his big bun seems a little too…you know.
“That’s great. We’ll make a lot of money, and maybe we can get someone to fix the roof for us when winter comes, so it won’t leak anymore.”
Big bun wore a red face, excited to plan up for the future, eyes were almost changing into the shape of copper coins. While feeling a bit funny, Ling Jingxuan also got puzzled. Shouldn’t it be a big tile house? How could it already be good enough to get the roof mended?
“But daddy, are you sure there’s no danger?”
Big bun was still worried and asked so. Money is important, but daddy’s life is more important.
“Oh, no, daddy knows how to swim.”
Feeling warm in the heart, Ling Jingxuan smiled and nodded, the thatched cottage it is! As long as his stingy son put his life before money! After earning a lot of money, they can build a manor directly.
“That’s good, tomorrow when grandma comes over, I’ll ask her to help me to weave a big bamboo basket, as for the fishing net, wait for us to earn money to buy it.”
On hearing that, the little guy finally felt relieved. Ling Jingxuan helplessly shook his head, “Well, well, you are the boss, you have the final say, it is getting dark, let’s clean up and go to bed early.”
Whether there was lamp oil or not, given big bun’s stingy temperament, even if they had it, his son would not let him use the oil lamp. So he didn’t even waste the time to ask. Besides, he was a bit tired, so an early sleep was necessary.
“Hmm.”
Two buns helped with the bowls and chopsticks. And Ling Jingxuan repeatedly washed that dilapidated wooden basin under big bun’s staring, and to find a piece of relatively clean cotton cloth in the room, scoop a bowl of water, put it on a small bench, took the salt pot on the stove, a finger dipped a little bit of salt, motioned little bun to open the mouth. As he prepared to send his hand with salt into his mouth, an accident happened again.
“What are you doing, daddy? Salt is very expensive!”
Big bun, who had been watching for a long time, snatched the salt jar and stared at him unpleasantly. Indeed, his daddy started to waste stuff without a short time noticing.
“Um…”
Ling Jingxuan’s face sank, the mouth could not help sniffling. The small bun looked back at them, covering his mouth to smile. Daddy is impressive! It was the first time he saw his elder brother get mad so many times a day.
If Ling Jingxuan knew what the little bun was thinking in his mind, Ling Jingxuan might kill himself by hitting on an egg! What’s so impressive about this? It’s a real life version of entrapping daddy, ok?
“Ahem…I want to use salt to clean your teeth. If you don’t rinse your teeth after eating, you will have bacteria in your mouth and moths on your teeth. You don’t want to have a toothache, do you?”
After the father and son stared at each other for quite a while, Ling Jingxuan cleared his throat, as far as possible to explain in a concise way, he could yield in anything but not this one. He did not want his two buns to have rotten teeth all over their mouths one day.
“But you can’t use salt. It’s so expensive. That’s all we have left.”
Big bun reddened his face, still not willing to compromise, while Ling Jingxuan pulled him over and seriously said, “Is salt more expensive or seeing a doctor? In case your mouth is rotten and your teeth go bad, it will be more expensive to see a doctor. What’s more, daddy is going to sell fish for money. After we make money, we can buy salt. Besides, daddy used to read a lot of books. Besides catching fish, we can also go to the mountains to find some herbal medicine and sell it. Isn’t that a money-making way? Before that, we must have good health. All kinds of diseases enter by the mouth. Do you think oral hygiene can be neglected just because we use a little salt?”
If he could not even handle a five-year-old little bun, Ling Jingxuan really had lived two lives for nothing. See? Big bun decisively hesitated. Although still with a reluctant face, the hand holding the salt jar loosened.
Seeing this, Ling Jingxuan tentatively took the salt shaker, looking at his appearance, Ling Jingxuan only felt all kinds of helplessness, but could only pretend not to see. Let go of the past. But in the future not only oral hygiene, and other health care, he also wanted to let them carry out in the end. A good quality of life was important, but the premise was a healthy body. On this point, he would never make any compromise.
The last of the last, after losing countless times, Ling Jingxuan finally won a small victory, although this victory was not easy to come at all.
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Translator: LazyHermitGal
Author: LazyHermitGal
A Lazy Hermit Gal. A little support goes a long way! If you’d like to help me keep creating, you can do so at https://ko-fi.com/lazyhermitgal
