8mi Chapter 1296: Song Xiaohua’s Enlightenment Record [4]
Chapter 1296: Song Xiaohua’s Enlightenment Record [4]
Tang Li had thought that with the little girl sleeping alone, she’d probably wake up in the middle of the night crying.The kid’s dad had clearly thought the same thing.
When Tang Li got up at night and reached out beside her, the space was empty. She didn’t need to guess to know where Song Baiyan had gone. By the time she came out of the bathroom, the kid’s dad was back too.
Hearing that the child was sprawled on her pillow sleeping soundly, Tang Li was finally able to relax as well.
Song Xiaohua herself, however, did not consider this a pleasant experience.
Early the next morning, with her pigtails tilted and her bare little feet on the floor, Song Xiaohua stood by the bed, staring at that wet patch on the sheet, unable to believe it for a moment.
Then she lifted her nightgown and looked down at her strawberry-print little panties.
...They did seem a tiny bit damp.
A few days ago her dad had just praised her, saying, "Our Xiaohua doesn’t wet the bed."
And now she had.
At the crack of dawn, Song Jingtian was woken by a knocking at his door.
Yawning as he opened it, he saw Song Xiaohua dragging a bed sheet behind her.
Kids wetting the bed was the most normal thing in the world.
Of course, Song Jingtian was going to help cover for her.
They went back to the nursery, where he rolled up the mattress pad on the bed, grabbed the sheet as well, and uncle and niece headed to the laundry room.
It wasn’t even six in the morning yet.
The household staff were just starting work.
Clutching the hem of her little uncle’s shirt, Song Xiaohua followed him into the laundry room and then heard him telling the staff that Tiger Whip had peed on her bed and asking them to help wash the mattress pad and sheet.
When the staff turned to look over, she hurriedly nodded along. "Tiger Whip peed, not me."
Housekeeper: "..."
In the end, though, the matter of Song Xiaohua wetting the bed still didn’t stay secret from the family.
That night when the nanny was giving Song Xiaohua a bath, she noticed the little girl wasn’t wearing panties.
She asked, and Song Xiaohua said they’d been stolen by Tiger Whip.
The nanny took note. While Song Xiaohua was soaking in the tub, she went to the nursery and searched around, finally fishing out a reeking pair of strawberry-print panties from under the bed.
What a stubborn, proud child this was!
The nanny knew this kid she’d spent years with very well. She didn’t dare confront the little one directly, for fear of hurting her pride, and instead waited until Song Xiaohua was asleep to tell the kid’s mom about it.
When Tang Li found out that Song Xiaohua might have wet the bed, she was a little surprised but not really. After all, counting exactly, Song Xiaohua was only three years old. She ran wild all day, slept like a rock at night, and there was no adult beside her—of course she was going to need a midnight pee in bed.
Which also indirectly proved—
Having Song Xiaohua sleep alone was still a bit too early.
So, when Song Baiyan came up after finishing his work, Tang Li suggested letting Song Xiaohua continue to sleep in the master bedroom.
Slipping his cufflinks off and putting them in the wardrobe drawer, Song Baiyan turned his head toward Tang Li by the cloakroom door and chuckled softly. "Is that a heartfelt opinion?"
"..." What kind of question was that.
Tang Li pressed her lips together in secret.
How was she not heartfelt when it came to Song Xiaohua?
Although, yes, last night without Xiaohua around had been pretty nice.
Very conducive to marital communication.
But it’s not like she was the type to get a husband and toss her daughter aside.
"If you don’t want Xiaohua to come back, that’s fine too." Tossing out that line, Tang Li turned to leave.
The next second, her wrist was grabbed.
Song Baiyan turned her back around and pulled her into a light hug. "Then let Xiaohua sleep with us for another two years. When she’s in the senior class of kindergarten, it won’t be too late for her to start sleeping on her own."
Tang Li didn’t argue.
It’s just that with Song Xiaohua in the bed, their sex life was definitely going to take a hit.
Before she could bring it up in a roundabout way, Song Baiyan spoke again. "From now on, every Tuesday and Saturday, Xiaohua can sleep with Grandma. The old lady’s getting on in years and wants to be closer to the kids at home."
With him putting it that way, how could she say no?
Being filial to elders is only right and proper.
Tang Li even offered a constructive suggestion. "How about three days a week?"
Unfortunately, it didn’t get adopted.
Tang Li: "(≖︿≖✿)"
Song Xiaohua had never imagined such a wonderful thing existed in this world.
She woke up to her mom asking if she wanted to sleep with Mom and Dad again.
Although being needed by Mom and Dad did put some pressure on her, she still agreed to her mother’s request.
So that night, with a pillow tucked under her left arm and her little yellow duck potty dragging from her right hand, Song Xiaohua was escorted by the nanny all the way back to the master bedroom.
In less than two days, someone else in the family started making waves again.
Song Jingtian officially announced that he’d decided to break into the entertainment industry.
Tang Li: "???"
As one of the only two audience members at the announcement, Tang Li voiced her doubts—what director had such terrible taste?!
Her bucket of cold water earned her a sidelong glance from the little guy.
Tang Li went on, "If you’re going to act, are you planning to skip school?"
"Isn’t summer vacation coming up?"
The little guy answered with total confidence.
And he was only playing the male lead as a child.
Director Chen had said if the shoot went well, they’d wrap in ten days to half a month.
The moment she heard him mention Director Chen, Tang Li knew who it was—the chief director of The Brightest Star. She went straight to the heart of it. "Did Chen Wei offer you a high salary?"
"...It’s actually not that high." The little guy didn’t answer head-on.
Which meant it was pretty high.
"If you go act, did your big brother agree?"
Even though there were presidents’ family members doing cameos abroad, S Country had no such precedent. "Didn’t you say you wanted to skip another grade? If you go film all summer and start 10th grade in the fall, can you keep up?"
None of this shook Song Jingtian’s resolve in the slightest.
He was going to act to save up a wife fund.
Now that minors weren’t allowed to do livestream sales, he had to find some way to earn a little extra on the side.
Dating these days costs money at every turn.
If he didn’t refill his HP bar, how was he supposed to buy bags and shoes for Little Button when he went to Siamese?
Great people had said, the economic base determines the length of love.
Only when his wallet was thick enough could it make up for certain shortcomings.
Such as height.
As for his big brother—
Hugging Song Xiaohua, he told himself that since he was helping raise Xiaohua, if nothing else, he’d put in the hard labor. Besides, he’d already taken half the paycheck. With how much his big brother valued his word, there was no way he’d let him break a contract.
This trick of "act first, report later" did indeed let the little guy get what he wanted.
Tang Li hadn’t expected Song Baiyan to actually agree.
She later learned that it was because Song Jingtian had unleashed the ultimate weapon: Song Xiaohua.
In the eyes of Xiaohua’s own father, the importance of Song Xiaohua was on par with a hydrogen bomb.
Three years old was exactly when a child’s worldview was forming.
Since Jingtian had brought Xiaohua along to talk about the acting gig with his big brother, Song Baiyan naturally wouldn’t want to leave his daughter with the impression that "people can go back on their word whenever they feel like it."
But Song Jingtian paid a price for it—
One phone call from Song Baiyan, and the application for him to skip a grade next semester was withdrawn.
Getting this piece of bad news, Jingtian went to stare big-eyed at Tang Li, but she wasn’t about to plead for him. "What are you looking at me for? Isn’t this the choice you made yourself?"
Song Jingtian: "..."
The men of the Old Song’s family were not so easily defeated.
A week later, the little guy packed himself up and headed off to Lishan Film and Television City.
It was on the day Jingtian left that Tang Li saw Chen Wei’s Moments post and realized the little guy was going to be in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, and he’d even given himself a very trendy stage name: Jerry Song.
In Tan Palace, the one who missed Song Jingtian the most was surely Song Xiaohua.
Every day at five in the afternoon, a children’s song would play on schedule in the residential area—
"What’s Daddy’s daddy called? Daddy’s daddy is called Grandpa. What’s Daddy’s mommy called? Daddy’s mommy is called Grandma..."
Following the sound, Tang Li would find Song Xiaohua sitting in the secondhand rocking car Jingtian had bought her for a hundred yuan, a tiny figure with a big, lonely aura, faintly giving off a depressive vibe.
——
——
Good night!