Shen Yichong’s dark face finally eased slightly. “Shen Rui, you still can’t read properly, you didn’t even see the title of the video. This is your mother’s acting performance for today; she is pretending to be a hungry person, understand?” he calmly explained.
The little steamed bun placed his hands around his chest and pursed his mouth. “Dad, I can’t read the characters, but I understand the truth! You and uncle Ni always say that mommy’s acting skills are poor, and people on the internet also say that mommy doesn’t have acting skills. I know that.”
He looked at his father’s deceptive face with distrust.
“And now you say that mommy is only acting.” The little steamed bun shook his head decisively. “Mommy’s performance looks so real that it must be true.”
Shen Yichong’s mouth twitched. “You’ve been at home and have seen your mother a lot of times. Isn’t it clear already that she only eats a little?”The little steamed bun immediately widened his eyes and squeezed the snake plushie in his hands.
He gritted his teeth and declared, “Dad, you finally admitted it!”
Shen Yichong felt an oncoming migraine. “What did I admit?”
“Dad, if I were mommy I wouldn’t want to eat too! I didn’t want to eat when I had a stomachache, a cold, a fever or a cough before.” The small steamed bun placed his hands on his waist and looked at his father meaningfully.
“At that time, did you remember what you told me and what you did?”
Shen Yichong raised his eyebrows, somehow an ominous feeling was welling up inside his heart. And indeed, as expected—in the next moment, he saw his son copying a father’s stern expression. Truly a stupid look on his little face, if he might add.
“You should feed Mommy!” he demanded.Shen Yichong was almost laughing with anger, “Shen Rui.”
“Dad!”
The steamed bun pouted and went off again. “Mommy is a girl. The teacher said that boys should take care of girls, not bully them. They should also protect them…mommy will be hungry if she doesn’t eat and her stomach will feel bad. She will be so hungry she can’t sleep at night, and then she will cry…”
“You should reason with mommy like you did with me when I was still a baby. Tell her that if she doesn’t eat, then she will get sick, then coax her to eat and give her a small reward, such as a lucky kiss! And if she still doesn’t want to eat, or if she is not feeling well, then you should feed her!”
Shen Yichong: ….
“Dad, I don’t like when you won’t admit your mistake.” The little steamed bun angrily looked down at the white snake plushie in his arms, his eyes a little dark.
“Even if mom did something wrong or lost her temper for a while, she is still a girl. Dad, as a boy, you should protect her from being sad.” As he said this, he irritably took back the small tablet.
But the steamed bun wasn’t over with scolding his dad. “How can you not let mommy go out of the room to eat at night when she can’t sleep from hunger? Dad, why are you so cruel to my mommy?”
Shen Yichong took a deep breath and only said, “When your mother comes back home, you should ask her the truth of the matter.”
But this only made Shen Rui stomp his feet in annoyance.
Dad, this is so childish! He gets jealous of a baby like him. Furthermore, he also doesn’t know how to take care of a girl. To this point, he still even refuses to admit his mistake.
Looking at Shen Yichong’s retreating back as he tried to escape, Shen Rui shook his head helplessly, thinking: Dad, when will you understand? Man Up!
“Dad!” The steamed bun suddenly thought of an idea; he decided to take things into his own hands and teach his dad what’s right. After all, his dad is too proud to admit his mistake.
Therefore, after thinking for a while, he finally came up with an ingenious solution.
“If mommy wins the first place in this competition, from now on you will not let her starve and always let her eat until she is full, deal?”
Even if Shen Rui is still a kid, he already had high IQ. He remembered how his father would often exchange terms with him to make him do something.
“Dad, you told me before that people will always be rewarded for their hard and honest work.”
Shen Yichong forehead creased to a frown, not liking the where the conversation was headed to. “I didn’t starve her,” he clarified.
But the steamed bun was relentless. He refused his dad to find a leeway out of this situation. “Dad promise me,” he stubbornly said, plopping down the floor to run behind him and grab his trousers. His eyes shone full of a protective sunny for his mother.
Shen Yichong bowed his head to look at him and was surprised to see his son’s eyes with firmness for the first time.
“I can…promise you. But there was no time that I deliberately made her hungry…”
The steamed bun’s eyes immediately lit up. “Okay dad, that’s a deal! If mommy wins the first place, you must always feed her!”
Shen Rui looked up solemnly towards his father and stretched out his pinky finger.
“Swear by a pinky promise so I know you won’t lie.”
The corners of Shen Yichong’s mouth pulled down but he nevertheless squatted down to touch his son’s messy bed hair.
Although his face was that of helpless, he still reached and hooked his pinky finger with the steamed bun. “Okay…but dad still wants to say that he has never abused your mother.”
The steamed bun nodded and firmly said, “I will decide in the future based on dad’s performance.”
Shen Yichong: …
