People have the instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm. Even young children, though still naive, can keenly sense whether their parents are reliable.
Obviously, in Xiao Bao’s eyes, He Erniu and Ms. Hetian are not people he can rely on.
He can only depend on himself.
This doesn’t mean that Xiao Bao has been driven to selfishness and indifference, caring only for himself by his environment and parents.
He simply understands the hardships of his life and has matured extraordinarily early.
Especially after He Erniu went missing, Ms. Hetian was left alone at home with Xiao Bao. With the military turmoil and bandits outside causing constant chaos, she, in fear, took the household’s stored grain and valuable belongings and moved to Tianjiawa.
Xiao Bao followed his mother to stay at his grandmother’s house, starting a life dependent on others.
Xiao Bao was precocious by nature, and living a life relying on others was indeed difficult.
Old Lady Han would insinuate and scold, Mr. Tian would express pity, but he cared more about his own grandson.
Even his own mother, upon witnessing his grievances, would only tell him to endure, repeatedly reminding him to be obedient and sensible!
So, aware of his circumstances, the early-matured Xiao Bao at a young age took the initiative to help out here and there.
Firstly, Xiao Bao was afraid of being despised by others.
Secondly, there was a deep-seated fear within Xiao Bao that if he became useless, he would be abandoned by his family.
After fleeing with the villagers of Tianjiawa, seeing impoverished farmers on the roadside marking their children for sale out of desperation, Xiao Bao’s fear reached its Peak.
He worked even harder to assist.
His younger cousin, though shorter in age, was taller and sturdier, and could be placed on a donkey cart or be carried by his mother from the Wang Family.
The thin and dark Xiao Bao not only had to walk the entire way but also had to help push the cart uphill or when the donkey cart got stuck in a mud pit.
After a day’s journey, when they found a suitable place to settle down, while the adults were exhausted and just wanted to rest, Xiao Bao would, without Old Lady Han’s urging, drag his weary little body to dig for wild vegetables and seek food.
Everyone praised Xiao Bao for being sensible.
However, only Xiao Bao knew that it wasn’t sensibility, but fear, a fear of being abandoned!
Today was the same.
Mr. Tian had secured a small cave as their resting spot. After busying himself with Ms. Hetian, Xiao Bao ran to the nearby woods to gather wild vegetables and firewood once Tian Yaozong comfortably pretended to be ill inside the cave.
Ms. Hetian recalled carefully, then looked at the sky outside the cave, estimated the time, and had a guess.
"I’ll go check on Xiao Bao, he should be back!"
Ms. Hetian suddenly stood up, completely ignoring Mr. Tian’s appeasement, and left the cave after saying this.
"...Yeah, yeah, go check on Xiao Bao! Call him back for dinner."
Mr. Tian was indifferent, thinking what’s the point of checking? It’s normal for kids to do some work.
Mr. Tian had long since developed selective blindness. Even though both are children, he only noticed Xiao Bao idling and ignored that his plump grandson had also reached the age where he could work!
However, Mr. Tian was used to pretending, especially since Ms. Hetian had just gotten upset, so he just casually followed suit with her words.
But, as he watched Ms. Hetian’s hurried back, the typical silly smile on Mr. Tian’s face slowly faded, replaced by a profound coldness.
This daughter can’t be kept either!
Ms. Hetian was unaware of Mr. Tian’s thoughts. She exited the cave and began searching around with the cave as the center.
Finally, on a barren slope, Ms. Hetian found Xiao Bao, who was carrying a bundle of firewood but still searching for wild vegetables with his head down.
"Xiao Bao!"
Even though it had only been a short half-day since she last saw him, to Ms. Hetian it felt like half a lifetime had passed.
She shouted excitedly and ran towards Xiao Bao with big strides.
"...Mother?" Xiao Bao was so weighed down by the firewood that he could barely straighten his back.
He lifted his head with difficulty, looked in the direction of the voice, and realized that it wasn’t an illusion; his mother really had come to find him.
However, Xiao Bao didn’t rush to feel happy; instead, he felt a bit worried—
Could it be that there’s some trouble again since his mother came to find him deliberately?
Even though Xiao Bao was only six, he was already very clear-minded: In his mother’s heart, the most important people were her own parents, then his brother, followed by his nephew.
And as for himself, Xiao Bao held no significant weight in his mother’s heart.
His mother would never come looking for him just because she missed him or was worried about him.