This sort of stubbornness was somewhat pathological to a certain extent.
It’s just that she had deliberately ignored it every time in the past, not taking it too seriously, but now, she had no choice but to pay attention to it.
This little villain...
Ruan Jiaojiao felt very conflicted.
"Don’t be angry..." Seeing that Ruan Jiaojiao just kept looking at him without speaking, her gaze changing several times, Xiu Xi’s face turned pale. He cautiously reached out to pull her hand, fearful that, like before, she would push him away.
Fortunately, Ruan Jiaojiao did not do that.
She only placed Little Wolf under the ewe’s belly in the backyard, watching him latch on skillfully for milk, then turned to Xiu Xi and said, "Are the fruits inside rotten?"
Xiu Xi shook his head. If they had been rotten, he would have thrown them away, or they would have been pecked at by little birds, effectively destroying the evidence.
If they weren’t bad, he continued to hide them until they rotted.
"Then let’s take them out." Ruan Jiaojiao said. It would be such a waste for so many fruits to go bad. She remembered that the fruits given to her by the monkeys were especially good, big and red, and very sweet.
Xiu Xi lowered his eyelids, his expression somewhat reluctant, but fearing that Ruan Jiaojiao would get angry, he still followed and took out all the fruits.
Not realizing it until they took it out, they were in for a shock! There were actually two basins full, mostly peaches and apples, along with some other fruits Ruan Jiaojiao couldn’t name, but they were undoubtedly big and good quality.
Those monkeys were really kind.
Ruan Jiaojiao counted the fruits with a smile, noticing there were about twenty or thirty of them – enough for each member of the family to get one.
Ruan Jiaojiao wasn’t very strong, but Xiu Xi was, so in two trips, he carried all the fruits into the Ruan Family’s kitchen. Ruan Jiaojiao, worried that someone would come in suddenly as it was too conspicuous, covered them with straw hats hanging on the wall, only then feeling relieved enough to go find Ruanlin’s Family at the village entrance.
The apartment at the village mouth was basically completed; these days Ruanlin’s Family went to see if there were any areas needing alterations.
When Ruan Jiaojiao arrived, Ruanlin’s Family was in the kitchen downstairs, instructing Ruan Jianguo to build a small fireplace into the stove so she could stew soups and broths for Ruan Jiaojiao in tile pots in the future.
After all, the Ruan Family wasn’t lacking meat now; chicken soup could be stewed at any time.
Ruan Jianguo noted down her instructions and, upon seeing the two children coming, immediately set aside his notebook, smiling and approaching to pick up Ruan Jiaojiao, who was in the lead.
"My good treasure, have you had breakfast?"
Ruan Jiaojiao wrapped her arms around his neck, as usual, first giving him a kiss before replying, "Yes, I did. Grandma, Jiaojiao wants to go upstairs to see the room."
"Alright, wait for a bit, your grandma will take you there soon," Ruanlin’s Family said. The upstairs was still cluttered with tools, and she didn’t feel reassured letting the two children go up by themselves.
After instructing Ruan Jianguo on a few things and making sure nothing else needed to be said, she took Ruan Jiaojiao from his arms and went upstairs.
Xiu Xi silently followed behind, his mood somewhat downcast.
Ruan Jiaojiao actually wasn’t angry with him. She didn’t have that much anger to spare. She just felt complicated emotions and vaguely sensed, could it be she had redirected the little villain’s obsession with the heroine onto herself?
For the moment, she didn’t know how to face him either, only able to quietly hide in Ruanlin’s embrace, sneakily peeking at him over her shoulder. But the little villain was very astute; as soon as she looked over, he would immediately look back, making her too scared to look anymore.
When she stopped looking, Xiu Xi’s mood got even gloomier.