Extra Chapter Sixteen
Stellar Calendar 278, September 16, Clear
Yesterday, when Baldy saw He Ruge and I kissing, he pestered us to give him a good morning kiss and a good night kiss. Early this morning, he was already clamoring for it in bed. Besides just kisses, he even showed He Ruge his soft little belly.
I teased him, “If that’s what you want, you might as well ask for a good afternoon kiss too.”
The little fluffball rolling around He Ruge’s feet froze for a moment, then said, “Yes, Papa, I want an afternoon kiss too!” Greedy Baldy lifted up his paw.
I lightly tapped his little paw. Baldy quickly raised his other three paws too, and after a moment of thought, he even raised his tiny tail.
I suppressed my laughter, neither agreeing nor refusing. Unable to resist Baldy’s cuteness, He Ruge picked him up, holding Baldy’s fluffy tiger face and kissed the “king” mark on his forehead.
Baldy covered his face shyly with both paws, rubbing them together. Clearly, he was the one who wanted the kiss, but when He Ruge actually moved to kiss him, he started feeling embarrassed.
Squirming in He Ruge’s arms, Baldy’s squirms were met with a gentle squeeze of his paws.
He asked softly, “Are you happy like this?”
Removing his paws from his face, Baldy looked at He Ruge brightly and nodded vigorously.
After successfully getting a kiss from He Ruge, he looked at me, and I teased, “I won’t kiss Baldy. Baldy’s face is full of fur. After kissing, I’ll have fur all over my mouth.”
Baldy protested with a howl, kicking the air with his paws, all four paws kicking one after another. He elongated his “howl” with a tilde, “No way, bad Papa!”
Though he called me a bad father, he jumped into my arms, turned into a human form, and pouted his lips for a kiss. I pinched Baldy’s lips with two fingers, like pinching a little duck.
Then, I kissed Baldy on his forehead. “This is a good morning kiss.”
Baldy became shy again, swiftly diving under the covers, only his tail tip sticking out. Seeing his happily wagging tail tip, I couldn’t resist reaching out to touch it, which startled Baldy, causing him to quickly retract his little tail under the covers.
Since Baldy got a good morning kiss, Bobo should have one too. Although Bobo didn’t demand a kiss like Baldy, He Ruge and I each gave Bobo a kiss. I kissed his left cheek, and He Ruge kissed his right.
Bobo blushed, letting us kiss him.
At some point, Baldy squeezed his head out from under the blanket and watched us.
“Baldy, before I forget, why did you suddenly want a kiss?” He Ruge asked.
Upon hearing this, Baldy quickly locked his head back under the blanket. Seeing Baldy like this, I couldn’t help but think of a shy turtle or a mimosa plant.
Bobo smirked beside me, and my intuition told me that Bobo probably knew something. So I leaned over and, under my hint, Bobo also leaned in eagerly and whispered softly, “Because yesterday when Papa and He Ruge kissed, Baldy asked an uncle what Papa was doing, and the uncle said—”
“Papa is kissing someone he likes.”
So Baldy didn’t want just a good morning kiss; he wanted the “like” in that kiss.
Stellar Calendar 278, September 17, Cloudy
Today, while discussing with He Ruge when we should return to Seventeen Star, it’s been nearly a month since we fell from grace, and our initial enthusiasm has waned considerably.
After hearing our conversation, Baldy was scared to death because he hadn’t finished his homework yet.
Speaking of Baldy’s homework, it makes me frown.
This stinky kid Baldy has had procrastination issues since childhood, such as in art homework. The teacher requires a daily diary-like crayon drawing. Drawing one isn’t difficult; it only takes twenty minutes.
If they were still in kindergarten, the art teacher would have taken twenty minutes during class to help the cubs finish their homework, so their homework would have been completed in class without being taken home.
However, because of the fall from grace, Baldy and Bobo can’t go to class. So homework can only be completed independently at home.
Originally, this wasn’t a big deal. Like Bobo, he could diligently complete his homework every day, and his crayon drawings were pleasing to the eye.
Bobo’s works include “Climbing Mountains,” “Swimming,” “Picking Persimmons,” etc. In these landscape-related works, Bobo actively applied the simple sketches taught by the teacher in class. In a few strokes, he could draw trees, mountains, rivers… My drawings may not be as good as his.
Bobo also has works like “Mosquito Bites,” “Baldy Stealing Ice Cream,” “Flying Dad,” “Dessert Making Dad,” etc.
Bobo’s characters are drawn with a big circle for a face and a trunk-like body, which I find very cute.
While I was admiring Bobo’s works, I also took photos of his latest work “Victory Day Kiss” and saved it in the album.
This album has many photos of Baldy and Bobo. He Ruge said that after ten years, when the cubs have grown up, we can have them pose in the same position, in the same place, wearing similar clothes as in the photos.
That will be a lot of fun.
Back to Bobo’s drawings, in the drawings He Ruge and I are two matchstick figures, with bright red circles on our cheeks, our eyes are smiling, and there’s a circle of small hearts around us.
Bobo pointed at those little hearts and said to us, “This means love.”
With Bobo’s pearls in mind, Baldy’s passive loafing seems somewhat unforgivable.
Twenty minutes is long or short for Baldy. Watching a short cartoon takes only a blink of an eye, and when asked to do art homework, his little butt can’t sit still for three minutes. It’s as if the chair had thorns.
Usually, He Ruge assists Bobo, and I supervise Baldy in doing homework. Even the most patient parent might explode when guiding children in their homework.
And I belong to the category of not-so-patient parents. I get angry when helping Baldy with his homework not because he’s too dumb to do it but because he can’t concentrate.
This stinky kid Baldy looks around after three minutes, with the tree leaves falling outside, Baldy’s tiny ears shaking, and the tiger ears turning towards the direction of the falling leaves.
From the kitchen, the aroma of He Ruge making desserts wafted out, and Baldy’s little nose twitched, saliva slurping incessantly.
Sometimes I think Baldy has ADHD, but when he usually watches cartoons, his little head can sit still, sitting upright and paying attention to the cartoon.
When Baldy finishes bathing in the evening, sitting happily on the bed, enjoying the happy moments of watching cartoons, I can’t help but reach out to pull his tail or pinch his ears.
But at this time, Baldy didn’t even look at me. All his attention was focused on the cartoon.
Thinking of this, I grabbed Baldy’s ear, saying sternly, “If you put half as much effort into studying as you do into watching cartoons, you wouldn’t have trouble finishing even an art assignment.”
Yes, Baldy has almost finished all the other assignments, but the progress on his art assignment is not even half done.
There are still sixteen blank sheets of paper waiting for him to create.
I said to Baldy, “If you spend five or six hours, you can complete the art assignment.”
However, after hearing my words, Baldy slowly opened his mouth wide, eyes widened, “It takes so long! Then how can I write it out—”
For Baldy, five or six hours meant he could have a beautiful afternoon nap, wake up, watch cartoons, and eat desserts, things he usually did during those five or six hours.
Before, Baldy always felt that the afternoon passed too quickly. However, now that all his leisure time had been replaced by makeup work, he wanted to compress those five or six hours into five or six minutes.
“Papa, can we do it again tomorrow?”
Baldy was lying dejectedly on the table, nudging my leg with his little tail.
The reason I’m in charge of Baldy while Ruge is in charge of Boubou is precisely this: Baldy, this rascal, is particularly fond of acting cute. If Ruge were to handle him, she would definitely indulge him beyond measure. But I wouldn’t.
I squatted down, keeping a stern face, and lifted Baldy’s small tail with two fingers, moving it away from me decisively.
“No.”
This guy, Baldy, only listens when you’re firm with him. If you’re gentle, he takes advantage. Once you get tough, he starts acting like a well-behaved child with his tail between his legs. I wonder how he developed such a character… I haven’t scolded or spanked him in ages.
Chastised by me, Baldy reluctantly got up to catch up on his homework.
“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day.”
Ruge had sung this old song to Baldy long ago, but it went in one ear and out the other.
However, the first challenge of catching up on homework was that Baldy didn’t remember what had happened before. The art homework was supposed to be a diary-style record of daily life, and Baldy hadn’t touched it since September 1st.
“What happened on September 1st?”
Baldy counted slowly on his fingers, “Oh, that was sixteen days ago, I don’t remember. Can we just skip it?”
Under my expressionless stare, Baldy swallowed the rest of his protest.
“But I really don’t remember,” Baldy appealed to me with pleading eyes.
“Papa, you must know~”
While I might not know about other things, I did know about this. I pulled out my diary and flipped to the page for September 1st, where it read:
“Baldy transformed into human form…”
“Baldy learned to walk pretty quickly… walked with eyes closed and fell into a pit…”
Looking at the little Baldy in the diary, then at the grown Baldy before me, I truly felt the passage of time—the swift flight of years. In the blink of an eye, Baldy had grown up.
It seemed like just yesterday he was the little Baldy perched on my head, saying he wanted to wait for a leaf to turn yellow.
Thinking about it, I glanced out the window at the tree whose leaves had all turned yellow.
Baldy followed my gaze, looking outside with me. “Papa, when are we going to see the maple leaves? The red maple leaves, I want to see~”
“Finish your homework first. On September 1st, you just learned to walk and ended up in a muddy pit wearing little yellow duck underwear.”
I closed the diary.
Baldy chuckled at himself.
“Oh, I remember now! I was so clumsy on the 1st, falling into a pit while trying to walk.”
After laughing, he looked at the diary in my hand again.
“Papa, what’s that? How do you know everything just by looking?”
I shushed Baldy and made him focus on his homework.
Every time Baldy finished a piece, I would open my diary and tell him what happened on that particular day. I could feel Baldy’s growing interest in my diary. Knowing Baldy’s nature, he would probably organize a treasure hunt soon, refusing to give up until he found my diary.
I had to be cautious around Baldy.
Even though he still couldn’t recognize many characters, it’s always better to be safe.
In my plan, Baldy would finish his art homework in five and a half hours straight. However, plans never go as expected.
Every time Baldy finished a piece, he would confidently make demands—like watching ten minutes of cartoons or having a piece of dessert.
The difference between plans and reality is like that between a high-speed train and a tractor. I had boarded Baldy’s little tractor, listening to his chatter and enduring his bumps.
We spent the whole afternoon dragging our feet without reaching our destination.
To which Baldy cheerfully remarked, “Let’s do it tomorrow!”
