Chapter 426: – Picnic
After eating, Lin Jin happily took a two hour nap. At around three in the afternoon, she called Xia Tian, and the two of them took a bus to the welfare institute.
As for Zhu Dong, since she had no plans to film at the welfare institute and Zhu Dong himself was also busy with personal matters recently, he didn’t come. Of course, who knew if what he said was true or not.
A couple of days ago, Lin Jin had already told the director about today’s plan. She mentioned that she intended to take a few of the children to the back mountain to play. Although she wasn’t sure what they’d actually do, Lin Jin thought that since they had the chance, she should take these children, who normally didn’t have many fun activities, out for a little trip.
She had already selected the children yesterday. Out of the more than thirty children, about ten had physical or mental disabilities. It would be difficult to bring them out, or they wouldn’t even be able to walk. As a result, Lin Jin only brought about half the children today. An auntie from the welfare institute also came along to help take care of the children.
The two arrived at the welfare institute. Lin Jin had long been known to all the children here and could basically be counted as the leader of the children at this point. With a wave, she summoned the fifteen, sixteen children selected yesterday. Then, she called the chubby auntie and the three set out towards the back mountain with a bunch of children, just like a spring outing.
"Xia Tian, you stay at the back, I'll be in the front, and the auntie will stay in the middle. Don’t let any of the kids wander off." It was the first Lin Jin organized such an activity, so she was very nervous. She was worried that something might go wrong and she was especially scared of what would happen if one or two got lost. Even if they were found later, she’d definitely be too embarrassed to face anyone.
"Don’t worry."
He was playing with two little lolis beside him, while also holding another loli in his arms.
Even though Xia Tian’s face was basically expressionless, he seemed to have some sort of charm that attracted lolis. Anyways, those children really liked clinging to him. Lin Jin felt that Xia Tian could totally become one of those creepy uncles who lured young girls.
The back mountain was about three thousand meters from the welfare institute, not too far. They passed through a small village and walked a bit further before reaching the foot of the mountain.
Since she heard there were dangerous animals like wild boars and snakes on the mountain, Lin Jin didn’t plan to take the children up. Following the chubby auntie’s guidance, the group walked while laughing and chatting along the base of the mountain before finally arriving at a rocky area by a stream.
"Sister, I've been here before." Yufei tugged on Lin Jin’s hand and looked up to say "The last time we came here to play was because the aunties hadn't all left yet. Back then, some of the aunties would take us out to play every week."
"Really?"
Lin Jin glanced around at the children and noticed that they did seem quite familiar with the place. Those who wanted to go fishing in the stream had already stripped down to just their underwear. The chubby auntie was also well versed with this, picking up the discarded clothes while watching the children jumping into the water with a smile.
Some children who were afraid of the water started building a fire under Xia Tian’s guidance, apparently to catch some fish and grill them. The chubby auntie had also prepared plenty of snacks and treats. After tidying up the clothes, she cleared a flat spot on the ground, laid down a waterproof mat, and called over the children who weren’t doing anything to help set up the snacks on it.
Well, it looked like all Lin Jin needed to do was make sure the children were safe and play with them.
Yufei seemed to hold a lot of authority among these children. Whenever any of the children tried to get close to Lin Jin, she’d immediately glare at them, and they’d be instantly scared off and run to Xia Tian instead without hesitation.
Lin Jin felt a bit helpless. Yufei’s possessiveness was too strong. Usually, whenever Yufei was around, Lin Jin basically didn’t interact with the other children at all. It was only when Yufei was practicing dance could Lin Jin get the chance to play with the other children.
Luckily, she had brought Xia Tian along today.
Lin Jin glanced over at Xia Tian, who was now completely surrounded by children, and chuckled to herself. Then she happily continued playing with Yufei.
"Speaking of which, there shouldn't be any snakes or anything around here, right?" Lin Jin looked around with some concern as her eyes fell on the dense grass by the stream.
Yufei thought for a moment and then nodded: "There seems to be some, but usually they;re not poisonous. The poisonous ones were all eaten by the uncles and aunties."
"Eating snakes?"
"Yeah, the uncles and aunties in the village really like eating snakes. So now, the only snakes are up in the mountains. The ones at the bottom have basically all been eaten. There’s a grandpa who even raises snakes, people from the city often come here to eat them."
Lin Jin was stunned. Although she had eaten snake before, it was at a banquet where her mischievous relatives tricked her into thinking it was beef. She enjoyed eating at the time, although she thought the beef was a bit too tough, it was still tasty. All the meat was eaten by Lin Jin. At first, she thought it was because she was young and the adults were being polite, but later, she found out the whole plate was snake meat…
Sigh, Lin Jin almost threw up in disgust later. She just couldn’t with these slimy creatures.
Even thinking about it now made her sick.
The idea that people actually eat snakes...
Lin Jin even felt like she could accept people eating bugs or bee larvae or stuff, but eating snakes was just not okay.
Lin Jin sat on a large rock with Yufei on her lap. She slowly sipped the warm milk she had brought, occasionally feeding Yufei a bit. She watched as Xia Tian struggled to handle the enthusiasm of seven or eight children and felt really happy.
Sure enough, one’s happiness needed to be built on the misfortune of others.
It was really miserable for Xia Tian. The chubby auntie was busy with stuff while Lin Jin was occupied with Qiu Yufei. As a result, Xia Tian was the only adult left. Not only did he have to deal with the bunch of children around him, but he also had to keep an eye out to make sure none of them wandered off too far as well as pay attention to whether the ones playing in the water were drowning and stuff.
About half an hour later, the children got tired and finally gave Xia Tian a moment of relief. He came over to Lin Jin with an exhausted look.
"If I had known, I would’ve not had the breakfast or lunch you made today." Xia Tian bitterly smiled "Look at you, relaxing, while I’m over here running around like crazy."
"I even cut my finger while cooking for you! But I didn’t complain." Lin Jin huffed and showed her thumb that was wrapped in a bandaid "So what if you’re a bit busy now?"
"Eh? Sister cut her finger?" Yufei only now noticed Lin Jin’s thumb was wrapped in a bandaid. She immediately grabbed her hand with a distressed expression, asking worriedly "Does it still hurt?"
"No, it’s just a small cut. It’ll probably be basically healed in a day or two." Lin Jin shook her head with a smile.
"Eh, really?"
"Of course." Lin Jin patted Yufei’s head with a smile.