Chapter 7: Almost Burned the House Down

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While her brother, Aiwen, was rubbing his eyes, Tang Ailian quietly left the medicine well space and appeared under the bed. She kicked and moved her legs, pretending to accidentally touch her brother's hand.

Aiwen was scared because his little sister had disappeared, and suddenly something touched him. He opened his eyes and saw that it was his sister kicking him. He kicked and called out in a playful manner.

Aiwen was initially relieved and stopped crying. Then he got angry and shouted, "Sister, I told you not to roll around, but how did you end up under the bed? You scared me. If you're not obedient, big brother will spank your little butt." As he said this, he actually used his little hand to spank Tang Ailian's bottom.

Tang Ailian was speechless; her brother actually spanked her!

However, Aiwen's spanking was very gentle. Afterward, he held out the grasshoppers he had in his hand in front of his sister and said, "Sister, look, big brother caught grasshoppers for you. Do you want big brother to roast them for you?"

Tang Ailian could only make cooing sounds; she couldn't say anything. After thinking for a moment, she tried to mimic the actions of an ordinary baby and put her hand in her mouth as if she were eating.

Seeing this, Aiwen quickly stopped her, saying, "Sister, you can't eat your hand. Mom said it's not clean. Big brother will roast the grasshoppers for you."

With that, Aiwen ran to the stove, lit a match, and used it to ignite some straw to roast the grasshoppers for his sister.

However, Aiwen, being not yet three years old and having never done this before, didn't know how to control the fire properly. After struggling to start a fire, he accidentally let the flames reach the edge of the stove, setting the straw on fire. Ignoring this, he continued to roast the grasshoppers over the open flame.

Unbeknownst to him, when he reached for the straw from the straw pile, a few pieces fell, and these pieces happened to bridge the gap between the burning straw and the straw pile.

Tang Ailian saw this and was shocked. The fire was about to spread from the stove to the straw pile, and if that happened, it might ignite the whole house.

If the house caught fire, Tang Ailian could hide in the medicine well space, but could her brother escape?

Tang Ailian could use her mental powers to draw the spiritual water and extinguish the fire, but she couldn't do it in front of Aiwen. She had to divert her brother away from the stove.

The next moment, Tang Ailian pretended to cry loudly. Aiwen, upon hearing his sister's cries, immediately left the grasshoppers that were not yet fully cooked and rushed to his sister's side. "Sister, I'm here, I'm here to give you the grasshoppers," he said.

Before Aiwen reached the bed, Tang Ailian took the opportunity to use her mental powers to control a ball of water and poured it onto the few pieces of straw connecting the burning straw and the straw pile.

As the straw at the stove's mouth burned out, the connection between the burning straw and the straw pile was extinguished, averting the disaster of the straw pile catching fire, and potentially the whole house.

Aishì, carrying a basket of vegetables, came in and, upon hearing her sister crying, scolded angrily, "Aiwen, why didn't you comfort your sister? She's crying her heart out."

Normally, Aiwen would have argued with his sister, but today he felt guilty for letting his sister crawl under the bed. He stayed silent.

Aishì walked to the stove and saw the wet spot on the ground. She scolded again, "Aiwen, what have you done? Why is the area around the stove all wet?"

After placing the basket of vegetables down, Aishì carried her one-month-old sister and found her brother holding half-cooked grasshoppers and trying to feed them to his sister.

Although Aishì was not yet six years old, she had the strength of a rural child and could carry Tang Ailian, who was only a month old.

Tang Dalong, upon hearing the commotion outside, asked from the doorway, "Aiwen, how are you taking care of your sister?"

Aiwen instinctively replied, "Not afraid of dad!" But as soon as he saw the person in front of him, he realized it was not right. He looked up and met a pair of sharp and piercing eyes.

The owner of those eyes tilted his head and said, "Oh, so it turns out that Aiwen is not afraid of dad. Tell me, why aren't you afraid of dad? Did you get into trouble again?"

Aiwen opened his mouth wide but couldn't speak. The voice he had heard just now didn't sound right, and when he raised his head, he saw that the person was his father, Tang Dalong.

Aiwen's eyes darted around, and he rushed forward to hug his father's leg and coquettishly said, "Daddy is back! Aiwen missed you so much!" In reality, he was quite afraid of his father because his father was the only one in the family who dared to discipline him.

"You little rascal, you must have caused trouble again, right?"

To be continued....