CHAPTER 351: CHAPTER 341 ADVICE TO LI JING (1)

Li Yuzhu squatted down in front of Li Jing, looked into his eyes, and said seriously, "Jingjing, when you run outside to play and your parents are not by your side, someone might say, ’Come, I’ll take you to your parents.’ At that time, how would you answer?"

At Li Jing’s age, he would already be in the kindergarten class in the modern world. It was time to educate him on anti-deception knowledge.

Li Jing looked at her, blinked his big eyes, clapped his hands, and laughed, "Of course, I would follow him to find my parents."

Li Yuzhu shook her head, her face serious, "But, someone might pretend to take you to find your parents, when in reality, they will take you far away and sell you to a wicked granny or grandpa, who specialize in eating children. But, they won’t eat you whole; rather, today it might be a piece of meat, tomorrow an ear, and the day after, maybe an arm. Jingjing, are you afraid of having a piece of your meat cut off?"

"Afraid!" Li Jing shouted loudly without hesitation.

His little face turned pale, and his lips began to tremble.

If they talked about eating an arm or a leg, he might not be scared because he hadn’t seen anyone missing an arm or leg and couldn’t comprehend the feeling of injury or loss.

But missing a piece of meat, that was an agony he had personally experienced.

Just over ten days ago, Nanny Jiang brought over a dozen sweet melons from the Chai Family’s old house. She intended to wash her hands before cutting the melon, but the eager Li Jing, who had tasted such melons before, couldn’t wait for Nanny Jiang and started cutting them with a small knife himself.

The melon was round and larger than two adult fists; Li Yuzhu and the others wouldn’t dare to cut it frivolously, afraid that it might roll away or they might cut themselves inadvertently.

How could a three-year-old like Li Jing know how to cut it?

He acted recklessly, and without stabilizing the melon, it rolled away while the knife continued down, slicing a small piece of skin from the back of his left hand.

Blood immediately gushed out.

He was both pained and scared, and cried out in terror.

Nanny Jiang, shocked, didn’t bother washing the soapy mud off her hands and carried him to find Li Yuzhu.

There was cleaning, medication application, and bandaging – a flurry of activities.

Chai Eying saw him afterward and was heartbroken, hugging him and crying.

Li Xingmao, however, didn’t feel any sadness; he took a broom and gave him a harsh spanking.

The other family members stood aside, clapping hands, cheering that it was a good beating.

Li Jing felt extremely wronged at that moment.

The cut, though only as long as one of Li Jing’s little fingers, bled a lot and took several days to heal, thoroughly frightening the little boy.

The pain of the cut and the horror of bleeding stayed with him; even ten days after the wound had fully healed, he dared not touch a knife, staying far from it.

Seeing adults cutting vegetables and melons with knives, he would incessantly remind them, like a monk chanting.

Now, Li Yuzhu mentioned cutting meat off the body again, and Li Jing thought of his recently healed hand, his little face turned even paler.

Cutting a small piece of meat was so painful; wouldn’t it hurt even more to have a big piece of meat cut off?

Li Jing was scared and held onto Li Yuzhu’s hand, "That bad person, really... really eats pieces of meat?"

"Yes, Uncle Lixing’s father is the County Magistrate, and he has caught several bad people who eat children. If you don’t believe me, you can ask him," Li Yuzhu saw Li Jing’s pale little face and felt a bit bad. But if she didn’t frighten him seriously, he wouldn’t be afraid at all.

Even in the familiar village, he would often sneak out of the house and go to the village road in front of the house to watch passing people.

Luckily, the Li Family’s place is in a secluded mountain village, with hardly any outsiders coming.

The villagers passing by the road in front of the Li Family’s house were mostly villagers from Qingshui River Village and Taohua River Village.

The people from these two villages all knew the Li Family since Li Xingmao got married, but what if some outsider comes?

Li Jing, in a familiar place, is not afraid of being kidnapped, but in the county or when he goes elsewhere in the future, no one would accommodate the Li Family.

It’s better to be safe than sorry.

"I... I’ll go ask Uncle Lixing." With that, Li Jing actually went off to find someone.

Chai Eying was putting socks on Guoguo.

She took a glance at the quickly departing Li Jing and sighed, "Third Sister, this child is bold; he does need a good scare."

Guoguo mimicked, "Scare him."

Chai Eying laughed, "Look, Guoguo agrees too."

Li Yuzhu said, "I’ll go check on Jingjing." She followed and chased after him.

Li Jing ran all the way to Li Lixing’s room.

Li Lixing was about to go home and was excitedly instructing Qin Hu to pack his luggage.

Li Jing ran to the doorway, panting, and called out to him, "Uncle Lixing."

Li Lixing walked over happily, "Little Jingjing, what’s up with Uncle?"

In front of Li Yuzhu and her siblings, Li Lixing could only be the younger brother or the little follower. To find a sense of presence, he would go find Li Jing.

It was Li Jing’s happiest moment when he called him Uncle.

"Did your dad catch some bad guys who trick children?" Li Jing blinked his big, clear eyes and curiously asked.

Li Lixing was taken aback. Did he? He hadn’t noticed.

At that moment, Li Yuzhu came over.

She stood behind Li Jing, signaling to Li Lixing with her eyes and then nodding at Li Jing.

The clever Li Lixing understood immediately.

He nodded seriously, "Ah, yes, yes, caught a lot of them, filled a whole room, those people are really bad, they specialize in taking children your size."

"Will they sell the children to a sinister person who eats kids? The sinister person has a grandma and also a grandpa." Li Jing frowned with worry and asked.

"Yes! The sinister person eats arms and legs, even noses and meat, wow, so frightening!" Li Lixing pretended to be very scared and shivered.

Li Jing was also scared, "Auntie says when going out, you mustn’t wander and should stay with the adults at home, then bad people won’t be able to trick you, and sinister people won’t be able to eat children."

Li Yuzhu smiled warmly.

Li Lixing glanced at her and nodded in agreement, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, that’s exactly what my parents told me too."

Li Jing was completely convinced, and when he turned around and saw Li Yuzhu behind him, he held her hand and said, "Auntie, I won’t wander around."

"That’s right, that’s a good child." Li Yuzhu smiled and patted his head.

The weather was hot, so they had to leave early.

Nanny Jiang had prepared breakfast early, and after Chai Eying, Li Yuzhu, and Li Lixing finished eating, they came to the courtyard gate to get on the carriage.

Li Lixing’s carriage had only him sitting in it, and there was still a lot of space available.

Meanwhile, Chai Eying’s carriage was to carry several people and quite a bit of luggage.

Li Lixing voluntarily suggested loading the five hundred books into his carriage.

The tall Qin Hu and Li Xing’an made several trips back and forth and moved everything.

Today, the driver for Chai Eying was Uncle Gui. After his back injury, he had rested for more than a month and was now fully recovered.

Li Xing’an didn’t need to go to the county town with them.

As he watched Li Yuzhu get on the carriage, he repeatedly warned, "Be careful going to the county town, Third Sister."

Li Yuzhu chuckled, "You should be warning Li Jing instead, that kid loves to run around."

"I won’t run around, Auntie." Li Jing said very seriously from inside the carriage.

Princess Consort Luling and Prince Luling, along with Li Xingmao, stood at the door to see them off.

Chai Eying waved to Li Xingmao, then bid farewell to Prince Luling and his wife, before asking Uncle Gui to drive the mule cart out.

Guoguo and Li Jing were taking this journey for the first time from the village, and the two little ones squeezed their heads by the carriage window, eagerly watching the scenery outside.

Li Jing kept exclaiming about seeing a cow, then a flock of ducks, and then a pond of lotus flowers, shouting with excitement.

Guoguo, however, was very quiet, staring outside without a sound.

Li Yuzhu thought she had fallen asleep, so she touched her little face, and she immediately turned to smile slightly at Li Yuzhu.

"These two kids, one is lively and the other is quiet." Chai Eying laughed.

Li Yuzhu laughed, "All the boys at home are lively, like my big brother, second brother, and third brother, while we girls are all quiet."

Chai Eying was curious, "Oh, your big brother is lively?" She didn’t feel that way.

After two months of marriage, Li Xingmao was always gentle, except when being a bit playful in bed.

Li Yuzhu laughed, "Because he’s the eldest brother, he has to hold himself up as the future head of the family. I remember when he was the age of my third brother, he used to hang out with a group of Green Forest Heroes, often arranging drinking and horse racing."

Chai Eying was surprised, "Oh? Is that so?"

"Yes," Li Yuzhu laughed.

Then Li Yuzhu started talking about her memories of unmarried Li Xingmao.

Chai Eying listened with great interest.

As they chatted, time flew by.

Before they knew it, their vehicle had reached the county town gate.

Usually deserted, the city gates were lined with two long queues today.