NOVPUBLin Lan took the lead in praising him, “Haonan is amazing!”
Xiaowang also played the harmonica for him to encourage him whereas the little puppies were also watching and whining.
After a while, he was so tired from practising that he started to cry. In the end, he also threw the chopsticks towards Dawang’s direction in a fit of rage before using his little hand to grab the cicadas and putting them into his mouth.
He was sobbing while stuffing his cheeks with the snack, and at the same time, he was mumbling and kicking his legs, “Ugh, no more, no more…chopsticks are hard, it’s so hard…”
Xiaowang, “…”
He was a little at a loss. He really didn’t know how to comfort this older brother who was crying more than he did.
Lin Lan glanced at him and ignored him, letting the child cry for a while. After all, since his grandmother was not around, there was no one who would coddle him anyways.
Haonan stuffed his mouth with cicadas and couldn’t chew them at all. The key point was that no one scolded him or coaxed him after his tantrum. Only Xiaowang stared at him with a pair of large eyes that merely looked at him curiously.
Haonan, “…”
Xiaowang, “Why aren’t you crying anymore?”
Haonan, “…Boohoo…”
Xiaowang, “I think your voice got softer.”
Haonan, “…”
It was pretty pointless to cry, so Haonan started wiping his tears and eventually stopped.
When Lin Lan saw that he had stopped crying, she smiled and said, “If you do this, your Fourth Aunt won’t let you eat cicadas anymore. Eldest Brother Dawang was the one who caught them for everyone so he gets to decide who eats them, you know,” There was the slightest hint of an underlying threat in her final 2 words.
Haonan saw Lin Lan’s serious expression and he was a little scared when he heard that Dawang had the final say, especially when Xiaowang nodded to him to indicate that his mother was telling the truth. He had no choice but to put down all the cicadas. The clump of cicadas that were stuffed into his mouth was taken out into his bowl before he started to earnestly figure out how to grab them with the chopsticks.
In the middle of it, Lin Lan asked him and Xiaowang to play with the puppies for a while. Then, they could take a nap, eat some snacks before continuing in the afternoon.
When it was almost time for dinner, Haonan suddenly managed to use the chopsticks and was able to pick up a cicada larvae. With that, he excitedly shouted, “Xiaomang, Xiaomang, Fourth Aun! Hurry and look!”
When he put it in his mouth, it suddenly fell off, but he was able to immediately pick it up again and showed it to Lin Lan and Xiaowang.
Lin Lan immediately clapped her hands, “Wow, Haonan is so awesome!”
Xiaowang also clapped his hands, “Brother Haonan is so awesome, so awesome! He can use chopsticks!”
Haonan was very happy to be encouraged. It seemed like once he learnt how to do something, he could make rapid progress afterwards. He then started picking up other things. Lin Lan grabbed a handful of peanuts and put them in a bowl for him and Xiaowang to share.
Haonan, “Hahaha! Fourth Aun, I can do it!”
