CH 8

MiaoMiao knew that 50 is a number that is bigger than twenty and that is even bigger than 30. But she had not learned about the concept of multiplication or factors. So she didn’t know that Xiong Da and Xiong Er’s pocket money is 2.5 times more than what she had. She only knew that Xiong Da and Xiong Er’s pocket money is greater than hers, and it was much much more than hers.

She wanted to make a phone call to ask her mother, can she have a bit more pocket money in advance. So that after winter vacation ends, her pocket money would increase. But after thinking about how her mother said that her family doesn’t have much money, she gave up on this idea.

After her mathematics improves, she’ll ask her mother, if she can have twenty-five dollars per day. That way she can have an additional small bag of chips each day.

When they went to bed that night, MiaoMiao was lying in the middle. She she sleeps she is very well behaved, she would only ocassionally turn over to change her sleeping posture before continuing to sleep.

The next morning, after they had breakfast, Xiong Er ran over to see if MiaoMiao’s swimsuit is dry.

After being washed, the swimsuit was hung in the bathroom, it was not hung up very high and if Xiong Er stood on the little stool, he would be able to touch it. When he felt MiaoMiao’s pink swimsuit, he noticed it was dry. So Xiong Er ran over to find MiaoMiao, “Little Aunt, your swimsuit is dry, I want to wear it… …”

“okay.” The two kids went to bring the swimsuit down. Then MiaoMiao felt that she was more experienced, so she stood by the side and instructed Xiong Er on how to wear it.

Xiong Er was shy and to embarrassed to take off his underwear, so he wore the swimsuit on top.

The two kids were only separated by half a year. MiaoMiao’s swimsuit would of course not be small when she wears it. After changing it, he quickly ran to the mirror and started to pose and show off.

Young children still had a lot of baby fat and it can be hard to differentiate their gender. After Xiong Er wore a girl’s swimsuit, he looked just like a short-haired little girl. Extremely cute.

MiaoMiao squatted down on his other side and said: “Xiong Er, its really pretty when you wear it. Lets take some pictures okay?”

“Okay.” When Xiong Er was praised by his little aunt, his heart was immediately filled with happiness. He wanted to take pictures with MiaoMiao and he would also be able to conveniently show off to his brother. So he smugly called out to Xiong Da, “Big Brother, do you think I look nice wearing this?”

Xiong Da looked at his little brother wearing his little aunt’s swimsuit and his heart immediately felt a bit sorrowful, and a bit jealous. He wanted to take the swimsuit his little brother was wearing and put it on himself. But he still needed to show he was the big brother, and that he was mature and not childish. He definitely could not reveal this, so he pretended that he didn’t mind and said: “Pretty good.”

“Little Aunt also said that I look good when I wear it. She wants to take pictures with me. Big brother, help us take pictures okay?” Xiong Er asked.

Xiong Da nearly died of jealousy. He didn’t even get to wear little aunt’s swimsuit, he even had to help his little brother and little aunt take pictures. QAQ He is too pitiful!

MiaoMiao also came over and looked at him expectantly, “Xiong Da, you should help us take pictures.”

“Little Aunt, I also want pictures… …” Xiong Da sulkily looked at MiaoMiao.

“Then I will take a picture with Xiong Er, then you and I can take a picture, then you and Xiong Er can take on together too. Then we can find big brother and sister in law to help the three of us take one too!” MiaoMiao thought about it, “this way we each can have many good looking photos!”

When Xiong Da heard it, he was worried his little aunt would go back on her words and quickly nodded his head.

So Xiong Er and MiaoMiao discussed what poses they would use for the pictures. Xiong Er intentionally suggested that he and MiaoMiao should use their hands to make two little hearts and to stick them together.

Xiong Da was very unhappy in his heart, so he decided to make his little brother look uglier in the photo. However no matter how they look, young children have chubby cheeks, so no matter how the photo is taken, it is impossible to actually look ugly. In fact it was actually super cute.

Xiong Da only took a single photo before going forward and squeezing Xiong Er out, swapping with him to take pictures.

After the three sets of pictures were taken, the three children went to find Wen FanChu and Jiang FangFang. They were planning to take a short break for an hour after breakfast before going out. Jiang FangFang was preparing what they would need when they go out.

When the three children suddenly came in and seeing the pink swimsuit on Xiong Er’s body, Jiang FangFang was stunned!!!

“Mom, do I look good wearing this?” Xiong Er looked at her filled with expectation.

Jiang FangFang: “… …” Am I still asleep?

Seeing that Jiang FangFang wasn’t speaking, the three children looked at each other. They felt a bit puzzled.

Wen FanChu was originally outside on the balcony smoking. When he came in and saw his son wearing his little sister’s swimsuit, his entire person was frozen.

Could it be that his family had given birth to a pair of Dragon and Phoenix twins [1]? But Dragon and Phoenix twins are fraternal twins, so how could they look identical?

“I… I don’t look good wearing it?” Xiong Er nervously asked. Little Aunt and Big brother both said it looked good. Why is it that when Mom and Dad saw him, they both aren’t saying anything?

When Xiong Er looked in the mirror earlier, he felt very satisfied with what he was wearing. But now that he saw his parents reactions, doubts started to arise in his heart. Could it be that it didn’t look very good, so his little aunt and big brother was afraid he would be hurt, so they lied?

Jiang FangFang thought it looked good. The Wen family had good genes and Wen Fanchu was young and handsome. When she was in university, she was also one of the faculty’s prettiest girls. So as long as there were not some weird mutations in the genes, a child she would give birth to would definitely be beautiful.

But the problem is, you are a boy, why are you wearing a girl’s swimsuit?

Jiang FangFang squatted down and seriously said: “Do you know that you are a boy? Your little aunt is a girl? She should not wear her dresses.”

Xiong Er was confused, “Boys cannot wear dresses?”

Jiang FangFang thought for a moment and said: “There is no rule that says that boys cannot wear dresses. But its just that when boys wear dresses, they would be talked about by other people. ChaoPei be good. Take off the clothes, you can only wear your brother’s clothingg.”

“The clothes big brother has, I also have.” Xiong Er sulkily twiddled his fingers. “I think that little aunt’s swimsuit is very cute. Mom, my and big brother’s swim trunks don’t look very good.”

Jiang FangFang didn’t know what to say. Girl’s clothing had many different patterns and styles, and had a lot more variety compared to boy’s clothing.

Although Xiong Da didn’t like his younger brother trying to compete for his little aunt’s attention in front of himself, but he also felt that his little aunt’s clothes looked much better than his, so he immediately said: “Mom, I also want to wear Little Aunt’s clothes.”

Wen FanChu, Jiang FangFang: “… …”

[1] Dragon and Phoenix twins: Twins that are 1 boy and 1 girl. They are considered very good luck. It also appears that Xiong Da and Xiong Er are identical twins, which is why Wen FanChu was saying that they shouldn’t look “identical”.

Joey’s Corner: Hahahahah. OMG, I love how Xiong Da and Xiong Er both want to wear MiaoMiao’s clothes. I do hope that their parents would end up putting them both in dresses and wigs just for fun. At least it’ll make for some hilarious pictures when they see it after they grow up.

I also like that although Jiang FangFang said that boys shouldn’t wear dresses, she didn’t say that they absolutely cannot. She only said that they would be talked about by other people and implied that some people would be unhappy with this. I feel like this is a reasonable stance as the boys are still young.

MiaoMiao didn’t understand why boys couldn’t wear dresses. She thought that it was because her sister in law wasn’t happy that Xiong Er was wearing her clothes. So she stood up and considerately said: “Sister-In-Law, MiaoMiao has lots of clothes. Lots of cute dresses. MiaoMiao can give some of these clothes to Xiong Da and Xiong Er. Mommy said that good things need to be shared with everyone.”

Jiang FangFang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “MiaoMiao, if boys wear dresses they will be laughed at by other people.”

“Why?” MiaoMiao didn’t understand.

Jiang FangFang did not know how to explain this.

Wen FanChu bent down and said: “MiaoMiao, have you seen Dad or big brother wear dresses?”

MiaoMiao carefully thought about it and shook her head, “I don’t think so.”

“What about you guys?” Wen FanCHu looked towards Xiong Da and Xiong Er, the two children also shook their heads.

“In normal circumstances boys will wear pants when they go out. So if MiaoMiao wants to give clothes for ChaoYu and ChaoPei to wear, then you have to give them pants.”

MiaoMiao was a bit distressed, “but MiaoMiao likes little dresses, Mommy only buys little dresses for MiaoMiao.”

Her “pants” are actually what she wears underneath her dress as stockings when the weather is cold. But these stockings come in a variety of colors and thicknesses. She didn’t know if Xiong Da and Xiong Er would like them.

“So MiaoMiao doesn’t need to share her clothes with them. Big Brother will help them buy clothes.”

MiaoMiao understandably nodded her head and then said: “Big Brother, we want to take a picture together. Xiong Er can wear MiaoMiao’s swimsuit for now for a photo, okay? Xiong Er really likes it.”

When Wen FanChu heard the first half, he felt that this would become his son’s black history. But after hearing the rest, he didn’t care about it being his black history. All he could think about was, if my son likes to wear women’s clothing, what should he do?

When you hear that boys like to wear women’s clothing, there’s only two options. You only never hear it or you constantly hear about it.

Jiang FangFang wanted to quickly get Xiong Er to take off the swimsuit, so she quickly took the photo and then repeated herself and got Xiong Er to change out of it.

Xiong Er was a bit unwilling to take off the clothes so he quietly said to MiaoMiao: “If we knew earlier that I would have to take it off, we shouldn’t have asked Mom and Dad to take pictures.”

MiaoMiao knitted her brows and nodded her head in agreement, “Yaa, you look really good when you wear it.”

When Xiong Er heard this, he became even more regretful.

That night, Weibo’s trending page was dominated by a piece of news.

The flight that Wen FanChu and them were supposed to take to go abroad was confirmed to be in an accident. It had crashed and it appears that there are no survivors.

This matter blew up into a big mess. When Jiang FangFang looked at the trending news that night, she still felt a lingering fear. She looked at Wen FanChu, who was next to her, and said: “Husband, have you seen the trending news yet? The plane has been confirmed to have crashed. We almost boarded that plane.”

Wen FanChu nodded his head, his expression was not good. He thought about how his Uncle, had under his little sister’s urging, had discovered his early stage lung cancer and turned his head to look at Jiang FangFang, “Do you think MiaoMiao… that these are all coincidences?”

“I don’t know.” Jiang FangFang pursed her lips, “If we say its a coincidence, then its really two much of a coincidence. These two events are only separated by less that half a month. If we say its not a coincidence… … then how can MiaoMiao know. She is just a child.”

“True, but no matter what it is, we need to let Uncle and Aunt know.”

… …

After the few days of vacation ended, they boarded a plane and headed home. After safely arriving at home, having not seen her mother for a few days, MiaoMiao took off her shoes and ran towards her mother. She didn’t even bother to put on her slippers.

She ran to Fu Rou’s side, hugged her leg and said, “Mommy! MiaoMiao is back.”

“Good BaoBei, did you have fun?” Fu Rou picked her up and asked.

“Fun! MiaoMiao ate a lot of good food!” MiaoMiao nodded her little head and then said with disdain: “But the room we stayed in was not as good as MiaoMiao’s room. Going pee pee was very inconvenient. MiaoMiao had to stand on a little stool before I could pee. It was the same for the bed, I also needed to use a stool.”

MiaoMiao felt that going out to play is fun. But the conditions of the hotel rooms were not very good. It wasn’t at all like the room that her mom and dad had prepared for her, which was all customized to her height. She can sit on her own toilet to pee and can also get onto her bed by herself. She didn’t need the help of a stool at all.

Fu Rou rubbed her head, “Outside will never be as comfortable as being home. Daddy has already returned home. Work was too tiring, so he is resting in his room. Can MiaoMiao accompany Daddy for an afternoon nap? That way when Daddy wakes up, he’ll be able to to see MiaoMiao immediately.”

Once MiaoMiao heard this, her eyes immediately brightened and she quickly nodded her head and replied: “Okay.”

As Wen FuChen was diagnosed with lung cancer early on, all he had to do was a minimally invasive operation. After the operation he had to stay in the hospital under observation for 3 to 5 days before he could be discharged. Fu Rou couldn’t help but worry, so she made him stay in the hospital for a few extra days for observation. But because she knew that MiaoMiao was going to come home today, she let him be discharged from the hospital.

So at this moment, he was lying in bed taking an afternoon nap. His condition appeared to be very good.

MiaoMiao asked in her heart: “Sister System, how is Daddy’s body?”

“It is almost good already, but you still have to pay attention. MiaoMiao and your mother need to supervise your dad and not let him smoke.” System said.

“MiaoMiao knows.”

Wen FanChu was lying on one side of the bed. Fu Rou helped MiaoMiao take off her jacket and outer layers, before letting lie in the middle. She, herself laid down on MiaoMiao’s other side.

After MiaoMiao started sleeping on her own, half a year ago, this was the first time the family of three slept together.

MiaoMiao felt her parents calm breathing next to her, she closed her eyes, and quickly fell asleep.

Joey’s Corner:

I forgot that MiaoMiao’s parents like to call MiaoMiao: “BaoBei”. This is a common term of endearment for children and usually means: baby, darling, and treasure. Would you guys prefer if I leave it as “BaoBei”? I feel like using the term baby isn’t quite enough for this term as its also meant to show how much of a treasure they are. What do you guys think?