NOVPUB
Chapter 301: Chapter 291: What’s Going On?
Before her tears could fall, she saw her son, cradled in her husband’s arms, grinning at her with his little gums showing and waving his tiny hands as if greeting his dear mom.
Shen Yunfang blinked her eyes and finally managed to clear the mist from her vision, which allowed her to see clearly.
Pangpang had something in his mouth. His little mouth was too small; whatever he contained shifted from one side to the other, refusing to spit it out, and with his mouth wide open, it was especially clear.
Shen Yunfang felt a surge of relief. Thankfully, Pangpang knew better than to swallow the quail egg.
Li Hongjun also noticed something in his son’s mouth. He brought his large hand near Pangpang’s mouth and coaxed him with a tempting voice, "Pangpang, be a good boy. This doesn’t taste good, you can’t eat it. Spit it out quickly, and daddy will get you some formula milk, okay?"
Little Pangpang wouldn’t listen at all. No one could fool him. That thing had a taste to it, much better than formula milk. Even if he couldn’t bite into it, sucking on it was fine, he thought.
Seeing Li Hongjun still ineffectually negotiating with the child, Shen Yunfang hurriedly stepped in, no longer caring if her hands were clean or not. She stuck her finger into her son’s mouth and quickly removed the quail egg he was clutching. Only then did her heart completely settle down.
Pangpang smacked his lips; the flavor was gone. He pouted with a look that was on the verge of crying but not quite.
Li Hongjun saw how roughly his wife’s actions had upset their son, and he hurried to console him, "Son, no crying, okay? That really doesn’t taste good. Look, the shell isn’t even peeled. When you grow up, daddy will let you eat your fill, alright?"
His attempt at comforting only made things worse. Pangpang felt even more wronged and started crying loudly. It was too much; they’d pushed his satisfaction years into the future. How could the baby grow up happily like this?
Shen Yunfang gave him a glare. He was utterly hopeless. Reaching out, she rescued Pangpang from his father’s embrace, and then looked around. With so many people present, she was too embarrassed to lift her shirt and nurse him right there, not to mention that the room was full of men. It wouldn’t be good if they accidentally saw.
"Hurry and prepare some formula for the child, he’s hungry," Shen Yunfang instructed her husband.
Li Hongjun, as if he were on a mission, quickly went over to the dining table, picked up his son’s bottle, and started to prepare the formula.
Erni, whose collar was grasped by Qiu Fengmei, caught the sweet smell of the milk powder and started to squirm again.
However, both of Shen Yunfang and Li Hongjun now had an aversion to this child from Qiu Fengmei’s family. Not to mention the kid’s lack of honesty and manners; just thinking about what Tingting said, that her own child’s mouthful of quail egg was fed by this child, made them dislike her even more.
If it had been an adult, Li Hongjun would have kicked them out the door a long time ago.
Shen Yunfang, holding her child, settled down on the kang and did not go elsewhere. She smiled at Tingting, who was in the arms of Sister Wu, and asked, "Tingting, can you tell auntie what happened just now? Who fed Pangpang the quail egg? Did you tell her Pangpang can’t eat these things?"
Tingting poked her little head out from her mom’s embrace and pointed at Erni accusingly, shouting, "Auntie, it was her. I told her that auntie said Pangpang can’t eat quail eggs, but she wouldn’t listen. The more I told her not to feed him, the more she insisted on doing it. I couldn’t stop her, and she just stuffed a quail egg into Pangpang’s mouth. Then I quickly called for you all."
Shen Yunfang heard this and didn’t make a sound. She looked down at her son, at his carefree little face, and laughed.
Lifting her head, Yunfang asked Erni, "Erni, Auntie wants to know, why do you insist on feeding Pangpang, little brother, with food? Didn’t Tingting say that little brother Pangpang is too young and apart from milk, he shouldn’t eat these things?"
Erni’s small eyes shifted around chaotically, clearly showing she was a child with a lot of cunning and precociousness.
"Who knows if she’s telling the truth? Don’t I have to try it myself? Besides, I just fed the kid one egg. If he didn’t want to eat it, he could have just spat it out," Erni said with a voice young and tender yet her words carried an air of presumption that seemed beyond her years.
This was the first time Shen Yunfang had heard Erni speak. Whenever Erni had visited before, Yunfang knew she was mischievous, but had not realized the child had such a temperament.
"You wanted to try? Didn’t you think about the consequences? He’s so little, a quail egg could cause him to choke..."
"I already said, if he doesn’t want to eat it, he’ll spit it out. Is he stupid or what?" Erni said, growing impatient with the questioning. She squirmed restlessly in Qiu Fengmei’s arms, wanting to get down and run away. "Just a boy, what’s the big deal? If he can’t even eat an egg, he’s nothing but a useless thing anyway."
"Oh you little brat," Fengmei scolded, "talking about others, you’re the useless thing. Don’t run! I’ll catch you and beat you to death, giving me trouble every day and never giving your poor mother a break." Qiu Fengmei wasn’t a fool, either; seeing her daughter speak so recklessly regardless of the situation, she hastily let go of Erni, allowing her to dash off like a puff of smoke while she herself pretended to shout and curse behind her.
Li Hongjun had prepared the baby formula, tested its temperature, and then handed it to his wife.
Shen Yunfang took the bottle and gently inserted it into her son’s mouth, watching as he suckled intermittently, her heart melting away completely.
However, important matters could not be forgotten. Now that the child was fine, it would be inappropriate for Hongjun to remain in the room any longer, so she looked up at Li Hongjun and said, "There’s nothing wrong now, you should hurry back to the other room. With so many people around, it doesn’t look good for you to have come out in the middle of everything."
Li Hongjun glanced at his wife and then at his son, and said, "You don’t have to do anything else, just take good care of our son, that’s all." 𝚗o𝚟pub.𝚌𝚘𝚖
Shen Yunfang nodded. This one incident had shaken her to her core; nothing mattered more than her son, a fact she now fully understood.
Only then did Li Hongjun leave.
"Oh my, I’d never noticed that your husband, Li Hongjun, could be such a hot-blooded man. Having a son really makes a difference, huh? Does he usually dote on the son like he is the apple of his eye?" Qiu Fengmei seemed carefree, using the incident to tease others.
At first, she had been terrified, having witnessed a child suffocate to death in her hometown with a face turning purple and bulging eyes – even thinking about it now sent shivers down her spine.
She had initially thought her daughter had caused a serious disaster this time. If her daughter had really killed someone’s child, Fengmei didn’t know what she would do.
Fortunately, her daughter had a strong fate and Li Hongjun’s son hadn’t swallowed the quail egg, spitting it out instead; there was no harm done. Fengmei’s heart settled down, and after hearing the questions Yunfang’s daughter-in-law asked the child, seeming to seek accountability, she quickly looked for an excuse to let her own daughter escape. After all, since nothing had really happened, it should have been left in the past, she thought. Why hold onto it?
But Shen Yunfang didn’t see it that way. In a cool tone, she responded, "Every child is the apple of their parents’ eyes. Our family is decent and upright, not one of those that raises children like animals. Pangpang is Hongjun’s own son; if Hongjun doesn’t care for him, then who will?"
