Chapter 153: Change

The atmosphere in the bedroom carried a hint of intimacy.

Lu Kun wiped the sweat from his temples, gave his hands a flick, and chuckled. "Well, is this proof convincing enough?"

"You bad egg, I'm not talking to you anymore," Liu Liping pouted playfully.

"Ahem!"

Lu Kun cleared his throat and assumed a deadpan expression. "My dear Queen Wife, would you prefer your husband to be a good egg or a bad egg?"

"......" Liu Liping.

"You have no shame," Liu Liping muttered, turning her back on him completely, refusing to pay any more attention to this insatiable fellow.

Lu Kun’s eyes lit up instead, and he inched a little closer...

...

"Hey, get up for dinner!" Liu Liping tugged at Lu Kun's arm, shaking him awake.

"What time is it? I'm so, so sleepy!"

Lu Kun opened his mouth in a wide yawn and glanced out the window, only to find that the sky outside had turned completely dark.

"See for yourself." Liu Liping tossed Lu Kun's watch directly at him from where it lay beside the desk lamp.

"Whoa. Is it already this late?"

Lu Kun flipped over and sat up, instantly feeling a cool draft beneath him. That was when he remembered that after getting carried away with Liu Liping earlier that afternoon, he had fallen straight asleep without putting his undershorts back on.

"Anyway, I'm going out to set the table. Make it snappy and don't go falling back asleep, the kids are hungry," Liu Liping said, her cheeks faintly flushed as she muttered a soft curse under her breath and walked toward the door.

"Heh, what's a veteran couple got to be shy about?" Lu Kun muttered to himself as he hurriedly got dressed and shook off his lingering fatigue.

...

The family gathered around the dining table.

Yiming lay in his cradle off to the side, blinking his curious eyes as he took in everything around him.

...

"Er-ya, stop messing around and eat properly!" Liu Liping glared at Er-ya, who was acting up beside her, and scolded.

"I'm not doing anything, I just wanted to give baby brother some meat to eat," Er-ya said, opening her big eyes wide with an expression of utter innocence.

The moment Lu Kun heard those words, he knew Liu Liping was about to blow her top, so he quickly stepped in to stop her.

"Er-ya, little brother is still too small! Look at him, he doesn't even have a single tooth yet. How is he supposed to eat meat?" Lu Kun explained to Er-ya.

"Little brother is so pitiful, he can't eat meat," Er-ya thought for a moment, pouting her lips. "Though... I could chew it up first and then feed it to him."

"You..." Furious, Liu Liping started to stand up and grab her chopsticks to jab at her, but fortunately, Lu Kun was quick-witted enough to snatch the chopsticks away from her.

"Little brother Yiming is still too young. If you chew the meat up for him, he won't be able to digest it either, and it'll give him a stomachache."

Lu Kun directly shifted his seat between Liu Liping and Er-ya, putting a physical barrier between the two of them.

Er-ya lowered her head and fell silent for a moment. When she raised it again, her eye sockets were brimming with tears. Pouting her lips, she said, "I just wanted to make sure little brother Yiming got to eat meat. Little brother Haohao got sick because he didn't get to eat meat, and then he..."

The whole family froze for a moment.

"Alright, alright. Be a good girl, Er-ya. Little brother Yiming has mommy's milk to drink, he won't go hungry. When he grows a bit older, I'll let you feed him meat, alright?"

Lu Kun's body swayed slightly for a fraction of a second before he quickly steadied himself. He gently patted the top of Er-ya's small head and said softly.

"Okay." Er-ya thought about it and bit her lower lip.

"Both of you sisters, not only are you forbidden from secretly feeding little brother Yiming anything, but if you see anyone else trying to feed him, you must stop them. They'll ruin the baby's stomach," Liu Liping looked at Da-ya and Er-ya, instructing them carefully.

"Right, right, right. Aside from Dad, Mom, and Aunt Jiang, absolutely no one else is allowed to feed little brother Yiming. Remember that." Lu Kun hurried to add.

"Mm-hm!" Da-ya and Er-ya nodded almost in unison.

...

Children from the neighborhood frequently came over to play, and for some reason, Lu Kun felt a sudden surge of uneasiness.

Those half-grown kids might have good intentions, but they were all too prone to turning a kind gesture into a disaster.

"Let's eat, let's eat," Lu Kun called out, temporarily steering the conversation away from the topic.

...

Lu Kun carried Yiming to the bed and carefully settled him down.

"This really is a little lazybones," Lu Kun said with a smile to Liu Liping.

"Who's to say otherwise? He eats, sleeps, and wakes up crying. Living a life like this, I'm afraid even a little pig would look down on him," Liu Liping said speechlessly as she sat in front of the vanity table and glanced over in their direction.

"......" Lu Kun.

*I somehow feel like that remark was a covert jab at me,* Lu Kun thought to himself.

Lu Kun walked over, intending to pull Liu Liping over for a chat.

"What are you doing? We already went at it for ages this afternoon, and you're still at it?!" Liu Liping swatted Lu Kun's hand away and said crossly.

Dark lines cross-hatched across Lu Kun's forehead. What did she take him for? He wasn't some kind of breeding animal.

"Alright, alright. Stop looking in the mirror, you're pretty enough already. Staring into a mirror in the middle of the night is bad luck, come over here and keep me company," Lu Kun's mouth twitched as he said, somewhat at a loss for words.

...

The husband and wife sat cross-legged on the bed, facing each other in conversation.

"Spit it out, what do you want to talk about?" Liu Liping tossed her hair back and spoke in a flat tone.

"......" Lu Kun.

"How about we just get down to business first, and talk afterwards?" Lu Kun felt his throat grow a bit dry, so he cleared his throat and suggested.

"No way!" Liu Liping flatly refused.

"Liping, do you feel like lately we've been putting less and less thought into Da-ya and Er-ya?" Lu Kun carefully weighed his words before speaking.

Liu Liping was slightly taken aback. She glanced at their son sleeping soundly on the bed, let out a slow breath, and said, "Lately, all my focus has been tied up with this little boy, I simply haven't had the energy to manage two daughters."

"Do you feel like Er-ya has been acting a bit strange lately?" Lu Kun asked with a smile.

"I don't think so, haven't noticed anything. Anyway, she drives me half-crazy with rage every single day!" Liu Liping shook her head.

Lu Kun: "......"

During this period, Lu Kun had distinctly sensed that Er-ya's temperament had shifted quite a bit.

"If anything, I think she's become even more annoying than before," Liu Liping added after a moment of thought.

"No way, I think she's been way more obedient than before," Lu Kun's mouth twitched as he spoke the honest truth.

"Nonsense. Take this morning, for instance. I wanted to eat some smashed cucumber and gave her money to buy some rock sugar, and she was fiercely reluctant—her lower lip was poked out almost high enough to reach the heavens..." Liu Liping grumbled.

"Did she say she had to stay and guard her little brother?" Lu Kun pressed a hand to his forehead.

"How did you know?" Liu Liping asked in confusion.

Lu Kun: "......"

It was simply that Liu Liping was a bit dense; otherwise, she would certainly have noticed the changes in Er-ya lately.

Lu Kun didn't know how Liu Liping and Er-ya had gotten along as mother and daughter in his past life, but in this lifetime, the two of them clearly resembled a pair of冤家 (destined nemeses/bickering foes).

Lu Kun felt like the child was acting somewhat paranoid these days.

Whenever someone unfamiliar came to visit, Er-ya would glare at them as if they were thieves, and whoever dared try to hold her little brother was guaranteed to be the first person she blocked.