Shao Xi glared fiercely at Shao Dong and Shao Nan. He had always known that his third brother was cunning, but he hadn’t expected that his older brother had also changed. To think that he’d sneakily started calling her ‘Mommy’ and hadn’t even asked him to do the same.

  He snorted, feeling annoyed.

  Mu Jingzhe took this as a sign of unwillingness and quickly said, “It doesn’t matter if you call me that or not. You can call me whatever you want. If you don’t want to call me ‘Auntie’, you can also call me ‘Sister’.”

  She liked to be called ‘Sister’, for it made her appear young.

  Shao Xi panicked when he heard that. “Who said I don’t want to? I… I’m not going to call you ‘Sister’. That would mess up the seniority.”

  He groaned and called her ‘Mommy’ in a muffled voice. He called her ‘Mommy’ quickly and anxiously, as if the word ‘Mommy’ was scalding his mouth. As a result, no one could properly hear what he was saying.

  Xiao Wu said earnestly, “Second Brother, I can’t hear you clearly. Do you not want to call Mommy ‘Mommy’?”

  “No!” Shao Xi was furious. “Since all of you have started calling her that, I have to do the same.”

  He looked at Mu Jingzhe and muttered, “If I’m the only one who doesn’t call you that, people might think that I don’t welcome you. That’s so not the case.”

  Upon saying that, he raised his neck and shouted with a red face, “Mommy!”

  His voice was especially loud, startling the sparrows on the roof and making the few foraging chickens look up in surprise.

  “Can you hear me now? You can, right?”

  Shao Dong: “…”

  Those who didn’t know better would think that he was shouting at an enemy.

  Mu Jingzhe, who also had the same feeling, held back a snort. “Aye, I heard that.”

  She stroked Shao Xi’s head and saw that he was blushing. She then smoothed his hair. “I’m glad you called me ‘Mommy’.”

  Only then was Shao Xi satisfied. He was so happy after being praised that he felt a little smug and couldn’t help but brag.

  “Of course. There are so many people who want me to call them that, but I haven’t.”

  Then, Xiao Wu looked up and asked, feeling genuinely confused, “Really? Who are they, Second Brother?”

  He was really curious, as there didn’t seem to be such a person in the village.

  Shao Xi: “…”

  He ruthlessly stroked Xiao Wu’s head and messed up his hair before snapping, “Someone you don’t know!”

  Mu Jingzhe sighed in her heart as she watched them clowning around.

  Alright, from that day onward, she would officially become the mother of five children.

  Just the thought of it made her want to cover her face.

  When she had first arrived, she had had a headache after facing the five children.

  \r \r \r

  She’d vowed to leave after being a nanny for a while. Now… there was no point in mentioning it.

  If her modern friends knew about this, they would probably say that she was crazy. She also felt that she was crazy.

  It was probably a side effect of playing house and pretending to be a mother too much when she was young.

  However, now that she had agreed to let them call her ‘Mommy’, she had to be more responsible, as she could not regret it easily.

  Mu Jingzhe made up her mind and secretly clenched her fist.

  The children looked at each other with mutual understanding in their eyes. They, too, made up their minds and silently clenched their fists.

  They couldn’t treat what Shao Xi had said as something random. They really had to keep their word.

  Their biological father, Shao Qihai, no longer wanted them and had abandoned them. Their biological grandmother and aunt didn’t give a damn about whether they lived or died. Each of them was worse than the other.

  Mu Jingzhe wasn’t related to them by blood, yet she had taken care of them like this and even returned after what had happened.

  They’d remember Mu Jingzhe’s return today.

  In this lifetime, they would never let their mother down.

  Their biological father, Shao Qihai, had abandoned them and Mommy and no longer wanted them.

  In that case, they would be filial to their mother in the future and find someone better and more handsome than Shao Qihai for her. She could have whoever caught her fancy. They would let her pick whoever she wished next.

  Since Shao Qihai could find another woman, they would also let their mother find a more impressive man. They’d see who won then.

  They didn’t believe that the five of them couldn’t beat their biological father alone.

  A raging fire burned in their hearts.

  Elsewhere, Shao Qihai dreamed of a fire.

  The scalding fire seemed to be burning him.

  It was unknown if it was because of telepathy, but Shao Qihai, who was hiding in the city, had felt terrible after falling asleep in the past few nights.

  He kept feeling an urge to cry and dreaming of the children calling for their mother.

  Recalling that it had been Bai Lu’s death anniversary not long ago, Shao Qihai felt uneasy. Their mother was gone, and he wasn’t by their side either.

  At present, he was very grateful to Mu Jingzhe, who was still taking care of them.

  Shao Qihai wanted to go back as soon as possible, but this wasn’t up to him to decide.

  After dreaming of them calling out for their mother for a few consecutive nights, that night, he dreamed of fire.

  “Why would I dream of fire?” Shao Qihai couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard he thought about it.

  Since he couldn’t fall asleep after waking up, Shao Qihai got up and went outside to smoke a cigarette silently.

  In order to hide his identity, he had grown a beard and long hair and had started pretending to be a smoker.

  However, he was really not good at smoking. After a while, he choked and woke Jiang Feng up.

  “Brother Hai, can’t you fall asleep?”

  Shao Qihai nodded. He was about to apologize for waking him up when he heard Jiang Feng say, “Are you missing Sister-In-Law?”

  Shao Qihai: “…”

  How was he going to answer that?

  “I know it even if you don’t say it. I miss my mother too.” Jiang Feng sighed. “I wonder how she’s doing. I really want to send her a message.”

  “Let’s end this as soon as possible and go back.” Jiang Feng had helped Shao Qihai make a trip, and Shao Qihai had also helped Jiang Feng make a trip before.

  Jiang Feng’s mother wasn’t in a good state. Half of her hair was white, and she had turned visibly older.

  “Mm.” Jiang Feng nodded and asked, “Brother Hai, do you want me to help you take a look?”

  “No need. It’s too risky. Let’s leave it at that for now. We’ll end this as soon as possible and go back.”

  He looked up at the moon in the sky and thought to himself.

  Little Dong, Little Xi, Little Nan, Little Bei, Little Zhong, wait for me. Daddy will be back soon.

  ******

  After Mu Jingzhe returned to the Shao Family, the rain that had been going on for several days finally stopped.

  Now that he was in a good mood and the weather had cleared up after the rain, Shao Dong finally recovered from his illness.

  Also, Mu Jingzhe’s production line, which had been suspended for a few days, resumed.

  Everyone was happy to be back. They had been afraid that they wouldn’t be able to continue earning money, but now, everything was thankfully back to normal.

  As they were in high spirits, they brought some things with them when they came to work, such as pears they had grown at home or preserved vegetables they had made themselves.

  Mu Jingzhe’s return to the Shao Family was big news in the village. Some people didn’t understand, while others said that she was loyal.

  But no matter what, life started getting back on the right track.

  Mu Jingzhe quickly got busy, but she soon discovered that something was amiss.

  The children seemed to be clingier now. No, they weren’t just clingy with her. In fact, they weren’t going anywhere. They kept following her and looking at her, tugging at her, as if they were afraid that she would run away. It was the same when they were doing their homework; from time to time, they would come to see her.

  While she was busy, the five kids took turns hiding behind the door and secretly observing her. Their cute little expressions could be turned into emojis.

  Mu Jingzhe had caught all five children when they took turns to come over.

  Whenever she saw their adorable little faces, Mu Jingzhe regretted not having a camera. She did the next best thing, which was to draw their faces in her notebook.

  When it was lunchtime, Mu Jingzhe went to make lunch, and the children stayed in the kitchen to watch her.

  Firewood was used in all the households in the village, and there wasn’t even any beehive coal. The food made from firewood tasted much better than that made using an electromagnetic stove, but the downside was that it produced a lot of smoke.

  This was what Mu Jingzhe was most unaccustomed to. Her eyes were sensitive, and every time she finished cooking, her eyes would turn red from the smoke.

  The same applied to the children. They would rub their eyes every time she cooked, and she would ask them to go out.

  “Hurry up and go out. There’s a lot of smoke here. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

  In the past, they used to obediently go out as told, but this time, they wouldn’t listen.

  “It’s alright. We don’t find it smoky.” They wanted to watch their mother.

  Nowadays, their favorite thing to do was gaze at their mother; only when they looked at her would they feel at ease.