The second day after military training ended, Friday, the weather remained scorching hot. According to the forecast, there was no chance of rain in the Jing City for the next seven days.
The freshmen, who had been confined to campus for half a month of military training and hadn't stepped outside the school gates for fifteen days, grouped up in threes and fives to go shopping. They dubbed it: familiarizing themselves with the living environment around the school.
Mo Jingchun didn't live in the dormitory, nor did he have roommates, so naturally, no one invited him to go out and play. Coupled with the heat and a small little burden, Mo Jingchun had no interest in going out at all.
Was the air conditioning in the bedroom not cool, or was the sun outside no longer scorching?
In his apartment, Mo Jingchun, who hadn't stepped outside his door, was writing code on his laptop. It wouldn't be long before the first custom library code was nearly complete, and then, he could use some algorithms of the smart housekeeper.
On the bed, the little one sleeping with closed eyes occasionally fluttered her eyelashes. The little one had been sleeping since noon, and it had been over two hours. Noticing his sister's sleep duration, Mo Jingchun planned to wait another hour, around three o'clock.
If by then his sister hadn't woken up naturally, Mo Jingchun planned to use the Summoning Technique to forcibly wake the little one up.
It's not that Mo Jingchun was unwilling to let his sister Candy sleep. The problem is that if she sleeps too much during the day, the little one will be lively at night and won't sleep until late at night.
His sister Candy must develop a biological clock. Otherwise, neither of them would get a good sleep in the future. Then, they wouldn't be energetic in class, and by the time of final exams, wouldn't they fail? Although even if he were to self-study, he wouldn't fail, but just in case, wouldn't it be embarrassing?
In the quiet and comfortable bedroom, the rhythmic tapping on the laptop keyboard was like music, aiding sleep.
In such an environment, Candy, with a little tuft of hair sticking up, slept extra soundly.
An hour later, Mo Jingchun stood up, stretched his body, twisted his sore neck, and walked over to the window to gaze into the distance.
Within less than a minute, Mo Jingchun felt that his originally sore and somewhat swollen eyes had improved a lot.
Turning around, looking at Candy on the bed who showed no signs of waking up, Mo Jingchun shrugged helplessly.
"Hopefully, she won't cry."
Walking to the bedside, Mo Jingchun gently patted Candy's shoulder a few times with his hand.
"Candy? Candy? Wake up."
"Get up!"
"Hey, hey, get up, little lazybones."
To Mo Jingchun's amusement and exasperation, after calling her for a long time, the little one just pouted and showed no intention of waking up and opening her eyes.
"Get up, get up, get up."
"Candy, get up."
"Hey, hey, hey, stop pretending, hurry up and get up."
Under Mo Jingchun's repeated use of the Summoning Technique, the little one finally rebooted.
Awakened by Mo Jingchun, Candy opened and closed her eyes, her face full of confusion.
Mo Jingchun picked up his bewildered sister Candy from the bed and carried her to the bathroom. After a while, he carried his now fully awake sister back to the bedroom, then Mo Jingchun started playing with little toys with her.
"Ding, ding, ding, the little train is about to depart."
"Mm~" The little one reached out her chubby baby hands and took the little train from Mo Jingchun's hand. After playing for a short while, Candy tossed the train aside and started playing with a squeezable yellow duck that would make a sound when pressed. As for the little train she had just held, Candy had already put it out of her mind.
"Brother~" Mo Jingchun shook the rattle, trying to attract his sister Candy's attention.
"Mm."
"Brother."
"Mm."
"Brother."
"Blah blah."
Mo Jingchun tirelessly taught his sister Candy to say brother, but each time the little one would only respond with "Hmm."
It's not clear whether Candy could say "Hmm", or if "Hmm" was just a sound, as for what "Hmm" meant, the little one didn't know.
"Candy, why can't you talk yet?"
"Doesn't it say online that kids start to utter reduplicated sounds at six months old?"
Candy, with her eyes only on various toys, simply ignored Mo Jingchun later on and just played on her own.
Playing and playing, she would sometimes inexplicably laugh for a while, leaving one completely bewildered.
By dinnertime, with a bowl of Xiaomi porridge in hand, Mo Jingchun looked at his sister in the stroller with eager eyes and had a sudden idea.
"Candy, if you call me brother, I'll feed you, how about it?" Mo Jingchun looked at his sister Candy full of anticipation.
"Since you didn't refuse, I'll take that as a yes."
"Come, learn with me, g~e, ge, brother."
In the stroller, Candy furrowed her brows, opened her mouth, unable to understand why there was nothing to eat.
"g~e, ge, brother."
After a long while, the anxious Candy finally managed to make one sound, "Pot."
Mo Jingchun's eyebrows arched in surprise, feeling a bit thrilled. It actually worked, although the pronunciation was incorrect, but compared to just babbling before, it was already quite an obvious improvement.
"Yes, yes, keep learning with me. g~e, ge, brother."
The anxious Candy restless, looking around. Amid Mo Jingchun's anticipation, she finally uttered a reduplicated sound.
"Bug Bug."
Overjoyed, Mo Jingchun nodded quickly, saying:
"Ah, yes, yes."
At the same time, he did not forget to feed his sister Candy Xiaomi porridge.
This time, the little one seemed to understand, clapping her little hands and calling out "Bug Bug" with a smile.
Having gotten another taste of Xiaomi porridge, Candy's eyes became even more determined, starting to repeatedly call out "Bug Bug."
At night, Mo Jingchun experienced a mix of joy and frustration.
As soon as something happened, the little one would surely open her mouth to call "Bug Bug", and no matter how Mo Jingchun corrected it, the little one would still call "Bug Bug", instead of the correct pronunciation "brother."
It went on till past nine at night before his sister Candy finally quieted down, lying peacefully on a piece of pillow towel. Mo Jingchun gently patted Candy's chest, softly humming a song.
"In the world, only a mother is good, a child with a mother is like a treasure."
"Nestled in the mother's embrace, happiness is endless."
"Without a mother, the most worrisome, a child without a mother is like a grass."
"Away from the mother's embrace, where to find happiness."
"Where to find happiness..."
As he hummed, the room fell silent, with the light in the room casting a shimmering reflection in the corners of Mo Jingchun's eyes.
With the sound of the switch being turned off, the room went completely dark, with only slits of dim light sneaking in through the curtains.
Lying on the bed with his eyes closed, Mo Jingchun didn't fall asleep, nor did he feel sleepy. He just lay there quietly, letting his thoughts run wild.