Liu Xing looked at his mother's enthusiastic expression, feeling a bit sour inside, and couldn't help letting out a soft hum. He had just arrived and was already close to usurping the position of her biological son—who knew what things would be like in the future.
"Time to eat, time to eat. I'm so hungry my chest is sticking to my back," Xia Donghai said, putting down his briefcase and quickly heading over to wash his hands.
"Let's go, time to eat," Hu Fan patted his slightly sulking younger brother, then soothingly stroked his head. "You're an older brother now, we need to be magnanimous. Besides, Mom definitely still loves you the most."
"All right," Liu Xing was easily persuaded by his older brother. After all, his temper always came and went quickly. Looking at the little guy sitting by the dining table, he decided to just think of it as protecting the young and frail.
"Eat, eat, I'm almost starved to death."
The whole family was very hungry, and once they sat at the table, they focused entirely on eating. Only Liu Mei, the newly appointed good mother, kept looking after Xiaoyu, terrified that he wouldn't eat well.
After dinner, the grown men all lay on the sofa to digest their food. Liu Mei cleared away the dishes and chopsticks, then took Xiaoyu and his luggage to the room where he would be staying from now on.
"Look, do you like it? Mom specially tidied this up for you. This bunk bed is yours, and the slightly larger single bed next to it belongs to Liu Xing, the slightly smaller older brother outside."
"Yeah," Xia Yu nodded obediently. He really liked this wooden bed that he could climb up onto, and there were so many little dolls, all of them things he liked.
"As long as you like it. If you need anything during the night, just find your big brother Liu Xing next door, okay?"
"Yeah."
After settling the child in, Liu Mei breathed a sigh of relief. Not bad, no chaos broke out, and he was a well-behaved child.
"All right, go out and watch TV with your two brothers for a bit. When it's time for bed, Mom will come and take you for a bath," Liu Mei patted the little fellow's chubby bottom, then opened the door and let him out.
She needed to start organizing the suitcase Xiaoyu had brought, to check if his clothes and shoes were enough. If anything was missing, she could take the child to the shopping mall outside in a few days when she had a day off, and get everything fully prepared so she wouldn't be flustered and rushed when she needed things later on.
Out in the living room, things quickly became lively. Friendship between boys formed exceptionally fast, and within a moment, the two heads were huddled together, chatting warmly about Journey to the West playing on the television.
Hu Fan also leaned against the sofa, watching with total fascination. That silly Zhu Bajie was truly quite funny, not to mention his own monkey king with such formidable martial arts skills. Honestly, entertainment options were still scarce back then, and watching TV dramas was already considered the best choice.
As the ending theme song of Journey to the West began to play, it signaled that it was time to take a bath and go to sleep.
"All right, time's up. One by one, line up for a bath, then go back to your rooms to sleep," Liu Mei walked out of Liu Xing's room after finishing tidying up, glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall, and went over to turn off the TV just as Journey to the West finished broadcasting.
"Aww," although Liu Xing wanted to protest, he had no teammates, so he could only accept defeat helplessly.
"Let's go, Xiaoyu, Brother will take you to wash up."
Liu Xing pulled Xiaoyu over, and the two of them tumbled toward the bathroom like a rolling ball.
Watching them, Liu Mei clicked her tongue in amazement. "How long has it even been, and the brothers' relationship is already this good?"
Although she was very glad that the children were getting along well, she didn't trust Liu Xing to give Xiaoyu a bath at all, and hurriedly rushed toward the bathroom.Sure enough, before the two boys had even taken off their clothes, they started using the showerheads as water guns, ending up soaked to the skin like drowned chickens.
"Stop playing right now! Put those down immediately, take off your clothes, and get in the shower!" Liu Mei lunged forward, snatched the weapon away, and glared fiercely at Liu Xing.
The maternal authority remained formidable, and the boys consciously began stripping down for their bath, though they promptly shoved Liu Mei out of the bathroom—after all, they were boys.
The next day.
"Morning, Mom," Hu Fan said, using a towel to dry his hair, which had gotten wet while he washed his face.
"You're up? Perfect, breakfast is ready. This morning I made a special trip to the market to buy fresh pork, and I've steamed pork-and-scallion and mixed three-delicacy stuffed buns—your favorites."
Liu Mei lifted the lid of the steamer, waved away the surging wave of steam with her hand, and glanced at the buns; the dough wrappers were thoroughly cooked.She turned off the stove, put on the insulated oven mitts nearby, and took out the steamer filled with buns, using chopsticks to transfer the plump, white buns one by one onto a plate.
"Go to the room and wake Liu Xing and the others. They're probably still sleeping in; if nobody goes to call them, goodness knows how long they'll sleep," Liu Mei said once she was nearly done, telling her son to go get everyone for breakfast.
"Okay."
Hu Fan put his hair-drying towel away in the bathroom and then headed over to Liu Xing and the others' bedroom.
Sure enough, they were each sleeping as soundly as little pigs, with not the slightest intention of waking up. Their air-conditioning blankets covered their heads so tightly it was a wonder they didn't suffocate in their sleep.
He walked over, yanked Liu Xing's blanket off, and patted him on the backside. "Get up, hurry up and get up, it's time for breakfast."
After waking that one, Hu Fan stepped up the small ladder, pulled Xia Yu's blanket down as well, and then raised his voice right next to his ear. "Get up, it's time for breakfast."Finally, the sleeping duo showed some signs of life, slowly writhing in bed as they booted up their bodies one twitch at a time.
"Bro," Liu Xing said, struggling to sit up. He reached up to rub his hair, which was already a total bird's nest from sleeping all night and now looked even more unkempt.
Seeing that Xiaoyu was already sitting up with his eyes closed, in a daze as he started putting on his clothes, Hu Fan left them to it. Today's wakeup call was complete.
"Move it snappy. Mom made those big steamed buns with thin wrappers and tons of filling today," Hu Fan dropped this tempting bait and turned to walk out.
Sure enough, upon hearing the words "good food," the two figures sitting on the bed instantly woke up a lot more. Their operating speed picked up significantly as they quickly threw on the clothes beside them.
"Dad," Hu Fan greeted Xia Donghai the moment he stepped out and saw him sitting by the dining table eating a steamed bun. He then took a seat right next to him and dug into the meal.
"Well? Are they up?" Liu Mei asked as she picked up a freshly made pitcher of soy milk, pouring a cup for each of them.
Hu Fan took a bite of a fragrant steamed bun, replying without even lifting his head, "They're up. Reckon they'll be out in a second."
No sooner had his voice trailed off than the two fellows from the room rushed out, hurrying off to the bathroom to brush their teeth and wash their faces.
"Slow down, don't trip and fall," Liu Mei couldn't help saying when she saw them tearing about in such a fiery rush.
Having swiftly finished washing up, Liu Xing brought along his newly minted little sidekick and began devouring his food like a starving wolf. Their uninhibited eating style gave off the distinct impression of someone just released from prison—a sight so agonizingly uncouth that Liu Mei, as a biological mother, could hardly bear to watch.