Today, Jiang Si and Mother Huo were supposed to go to the farm to attend the long-table banquet, and both Third Uncle and Uncle Zhong were aware of this.
Early in the morning, the two of them rushed over from the fishing village.
But just as they arrived at the courtyard gate, a heart-wrenching cry came from inside.
They hurried over without hesitation.
As soon as they stepped inside, they saw Huo Tingzhou holding one of the children in his arms, gently coaxing the little one.
Unfortunately, the two babies showed no mercy.
Huo Tingzhou had no idea what other families’ twins were like.
But his two little darlings?
If they smiled, it wasn’t guaranteed they would smile at the same time.
But if they cried, they definitely cried together.
Usually, they were incredibly well-behaved, but today, perhaps because they didn’t smell their mother’s familiar milk scent or see Grandma’s smiling face, the two little ones pouted their lips and launched into a duet of wailing.
At this age, these “toothless” babies couldn’t be scolded or reasoned with.
Within moments, sweat beaded on Huo Tingzhou’s forehead.
Seeing the children’s faces flushed red from crying, Third Uncle’s heart clenched painfully.
“What’s wrong with Suisui and Zhaozhao? Why are they crying so terribly?”
Huo Tingzhou pressed his lips together. “Maybe they’re hungry.”
“If they’re hungry, feed them right away.”
As soon as he said this, Third Uncle noticed two bottles of prepared formula milk sitting on the table.
Without thinking twice, he picked one up and dripped a few drops onto the back of his hand to test the temperature. Satisfied, he brought the bottle to the child’s mouth.
But as soon as he tried to feed them, he realized something was wrong.
Usually, the babies would come immediately at the scent of the bottle.
Today, for some unknown reason, both little ones ignored the bottles completely. Instead, they clutched at Huo Tingzhou’s shirt and nuzzled their mouths against his chest.
Third Uncle wasn’t convinced and tried feeding them again.
That only made things worse—the two babies cried even louder.
Finally, Uncle Zhong spotted the problem at a glance. “The babies are used to nursing during the day. They woke up this morning and didn’t see their familiar faces, so they’re throwing a tantrum.”
Third Uncle’s worry deepened. “But Jiang Si and the others won’t be back until tonight.”
He thought for a moment and added, “Maybe we should send the babies to the farm now.”
Huo Tingzhou wanted to agree, but all the cars from the headquarters had already been dispatched and were at the farm.
Third Uncle grew even more anxious.
Nothing seemed to work.
They couldn’t just let the two babies go hungry.
“How about the son-in-law give it a try?”
At this point, Huo Tingzhou still hadn’t grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Until Uncle Zhong went to the storeroom, found some hemp rope, and tied the two bottles at an angle, then hung them around his neck.
“Um, son-in-law, you should lie down on the bed…”
Uncle Zhong didn’t have to say more; Huo Tingzhou understood.
There was no other choice—no matter how big the world was, nothing mattered more than feeding the babies.
So, Huo Tingzhou lay on his side on the bed.
He adjusted his position until he was sure the babies could open their mouths and latch on easily.
Third Uncle and Uncle Zhong placed the two little ones side by side, one with their head up, the other with their head down.
By now, the babies were already crying themselves into a daze.
Instinctively, they sensed this was how nursing usually felt.
And the familiar scent of milk was drawing them in.
After sobbing a couple of times, the little mouth instinctively latched on.
But after sucking a few times, it seemed something was off.
Sure enough, the little mouth puckered up again.
“You can’t do it like that. Hurry up and hum a song to soothe them,”
Third Uncle suggested from the side, “Maybe pat their little bottoms too, or else they won’t feel safe.”
Huo Tingzhou pressed his cheek against his hand.
He didn’t know any lullabies, so in the end, he just mustered the courage to hum a familiar revolutionary song.
Fortunately, the two little darlings were already starving.
After a few whimpers, they finally started gulping down the milk.
Huo Tingzhou let out a sigh of relief.
But who would’ve thought, the two little ones stopped moving again.
As if on purpose, every time his hand touched the bottle, they’d start sucking again.
This went back and forth several times.
Before the milk was finished, Huo Tingzhou’s back was already soaked through.
He thought to himself, in his past life, he must have owed these two little rascals something.
There’s a saying, right?
Good brothers share blessings and suffer hardships together.
While Huo Tingzhou was locked in a battle of wits with the two little tyrants, next door at the Xiao family, things were a whole different kind of chaotic.
This all started back in July during that typhoon. Ever since Little Second Son had accidentally gotten a fierce compliment from his own mother,
he’d been studying with great enthusiasm for the past six months!
After seeing his older brother preview the fourth-grade textbooks, he started following along and learning too.
The idea was good enough.
Hu Meili and her husband were fully supportive.
But the foundation was weak. If he didn’t review for a few days, he’d accumulate a pile of math problems he couldn’t solve.
So, before leaving the house one morning, Hu Meili specifically assigned Xiao Zhengjun a task:
to teach Little Second Son all the problems he didn’t understand.
Xiao Zhengjun was pretty confident at the time, thinking, “How hard can fourth-grade math problems be?”
But once he stepped into Little Second Son’s room, he didn’t come out all morning.
No wonder Old Hu often said: “Tutoring homework can be so sweet — mother and son hugging and cuddling!”
But tutoring homework was more like chaos — chickens flying, dogs barking, and loud cries everywhere!
Seeing Little Second Son counting on his fingers for almost half an hour,
Xiao Zhengjun took a deep breath and said, “Stop, stop, stop. Don’t just count on your fingers. Look, here’s the problem.”
“The question is: There are chickens and rabbits in a cage. Together they have 35 heads and 94 legs. How many chickens and rabbits are there?”
“This is called the ‘chickens and rabbits in the same cage’ problem. Next time you see this kind of question, don’t just count on your fingers. You have to learn to think.”
Little Second Son protested, “I am thinking!”
Xiao Zhengjun hummed in agreement, but that wasn’t the point. The important thing was,
“Dad’s going to teach you a super simple method today. You’ll get it right away.”
“Really?” Little Second Son didn’t believe it.
“Of course it’s true.”
Xiao Zhengjun said, “Let’s use an example. Suppose, I’m just saying suppose, all the rabbits here are standing…”
Before he could finish, Little Second Son interrupted, “Dad, rabbits don’t stand. Little Hong has one, and it’s always lying on the ground nibbling on carrots.”
“Don’t worry about whether they can actually stand—I’m just using an example! Look, now they’re all standing up. Does that mean the rabbits are only standing on two feet?”
Little Second Son imagined the scene.
Seeing him silent for a while, Xiao Zhengjun encouraged him with a glance, “Have you thought of something?”
Little Second Son pursed his lips, a face full of question marks. “Dad, don’t they get tired standing like that? Won’t they fall?”
Xiao Zhengjun: “…”
He didn’t know if rabbits would fall, but he was definitely about to lose his patience.
Gritting his teeth, he said, “They don’t get tired… How could they? Remember, this is just an example!”
“And from now on, all of them will keep standing. Don’t ask why they can’t put their feet down—because Dad won’t let them, got it?”
“Oh.” Little Second Son nodded in understanding.
“Alright, now all the animals are standing on two feet. Earlier, we said there are 35 heads in total, right? Each head has two feet underneath. How many feet is that altogether?”
“Seventy!”
“Right, seventy feet in total. Before, there were 94 feet. So how many fewer feet are there now?”
“Twenty-four fewer.”
Xiao Zhengjun felt victory was within reach. “Now think again—whose 24 feet are missing?”
Little Second Son said, “Dad, I got it!”
But as he wrote, he kept mumbling to himself: With so many feet in the cage, wouldn’t they be stepping on each other?
And the chickens would peck them too!
Who came up with this question? They don’t have any common sense at all.
After rambling on for a while, he turned to his older brother and asked, “Hey, do you think I’m right?”
Eldest Boy covered one ear with his hand, signaling he couldn’t hear anything. “I can’t hear a thing.”
Not long after, Little Second Son said, “Dad, I’m done with my essay!”
“Good job.”
Xiao Zhengjun glanced at the time. “I’m going to change your sister’s diaper. Hurry up and finish your essay. Keep an eye on the time and don’t dawdle.”
“Okay, got it.”
After Xiao Zhengjun left, Little Second Son quietly pulled down his pants to take a look.
Eldest Boy, curious, asked, “What are you doing?”
“Not crooked.”
Little Second Son confirmed it, then went to pull down his brother’s pants. “Hey, is yours crooked?”
Eldest Boy’s face darkened. “…”
Can someone please come take him away? This little brother is unbearable!
