After being reborn, I raised my childhood sweetheart.

Chapter 26 Young Master Can't Live Without Me (Please read on, please vote!)
Around 1 p.m., Xia Ke's familiar voice appeared right on time outside Xu Yuan's door:
"Young master, young master, come out and play!"

"Come in first, the iron gate isn't locked."

"that is true."

Xia Ke changed to a different double ponytail hairstyle today. This hairstyle, which often makes people feel like they are committing a crime, does make Xia Ke look more lively and cute.

She skipped and hopped after Xu Yuan into the living room, looked around for a while, and found that someone was missing from the house.

"Huh, Yueyao didn't come this afternoon?"

"She went to my extracurricular class for me."

Xu Yuan said, "My dad signed me up for a piano class, but I didn't want to learn piano, so I asked her to go instead."

"Young Master, you're amazing! You actually manage to order my best friend around like that! I've never even done that to her!"

Xu Yuan really couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "Are you blaming me for bullying your good friend?"

Xia Ke smiled and shook her head, "How could that be! I really think you're amazing."

"Because Yueyao has always wanted to help you. She said that although you are her friends, you are always the one helping her, and she feels very embarrassed."

"Besides, she loves music, so she would probably enjoy helping you with your extracurricular classes."

Xia Ke said, "She and I would sing together whenever we heard a familiar song, but she sings better than me, so I would let her sing later."

"It seems you do have some self-awareness..."

"Sigh, it's a pity I don't have the same troubles as Yueyao."

Xia Ke sighed, a helpless expression on her face. "After all, the young master can hardly live without me now."

Xu Yuan frowned. "Which eye of yours saw that I can't live without you?"

"This one, this one, and yours, and that one—"

Discussing this kind of topic with Xia Ke would never end, so Xu Yuan took her hand:
"Come with me to the room."

Xia Ke skipped and hopped around, "Want to play with toys together?"

"No, let me give you a full physical examination first."

"Why do we have to do this?!"

"Hmm... This is our holiday homework for the audio-visual education class, an extracurricular practice activity."

Xu Yuan didn't really think Xia Ke needed any special training, mainly because he already knew what she would look like in the future.

I changed her life; she will only grow more beautiful and radiant, and will definitely not go astray.

But just to be on the safe side, Xu Yuan repeated the same procedure he had used on Lin Yueyao on Xia Ke.

First, we checked the oral cavity.

"My teeth are very healthy, with almost no cavities."

"Normal vision, no adenoid facies."

"No hunchback or stooped posture."

"There's definitely no problem with my weight."

"No bowlegs."

"Let me check if you have flat feet. Leave a footprint so I can see it, and then—"

"Hehe...hee hee...haha!"

Xia Ke sat in Xu Yuan's chair, watching Xu Yuan pinch the soles of her feet, and stammered out a series of chuckles.

"Young master, your massage is making my toes so itchy."

"Bear with it, but tell me if it hurts."

"Okay...it won't hurt, it's just a little itchy."

Xia Ke was a girl who couldn't stop talking. After seeing Xu Yuan finish the examination, help her put on white lace socks, and then help her put on her shoes, she couldn't help but laugh again:

"It's a bit like the scene where the prince puts the glass slipper on Cinderella. Have you heard that fairy tale, young master?"

"It seems these shoes don't fit your feet very well."

Xu Yuan mischievously took off Xia Ke's shoes and tickled her while breathing on them.

"Hahahaha! Oh no! I... I can't take it anymore... I'm going to die! Young Master, I was wrong... Young Master, Young Master, please forgive me!"

Xia Ke was tickled so much by Xu Yuan that she was practically dying. Xu Yuan didn't expect her to react so strongly, so he couldn't help but play with her a few more times.

"They've discovered my secret of being ticklish! Now it'll be so easy for you to deal with me, young master!"

"No... you don't necessarily have to say it out loud."

Xia Ke's current serious problem is that she is impulsive and tends to act on her own whims.

This courage is, in some cases, part of one's personal charisma.

But for young children, this puts them in danger. For example, you can easily imagine a child going swimming in a river in the summer and drowning.

Come to think of it, didn't she "drown" in her past life?

Forget it... this joke is a bit too much, I'm being too inhumane.

In addition, Xia Ke's personality is now very much like a boy's, and she is rarely as delicate, soft, and easy to bully as Lin Yueyao.

He was worried that if things continued like this, Xia Ke and he might end up just being buddies, without developing the kind of ambiguous relationship that children of the opposite sex might have.

That would be a huge disaster for Xu Yuan.

The latter issue can be observed when Xia Ke grows up a bit more.

As for the former—

"Thank you for helping me finish my homework for the audio-visual education class. This is a reward."

Xu Yuan took a small piece of strawberry cake from the refrigerator and placed it in front of Xia Ke.

"It's a strawberry cake from Thumb Bakery!"

Xia Ke was overjoyed to see the strawberry cake and hugged Xu Yuan affectionately.
"Young Master is so good to me! He's my absolute favorite person!"

As Xia Ke was speaking, she reached for the strawberry cake spoon, but Xu Yuan stopped her.

"Wait, don't eat yet."

Xu Yuan smiled slightly: "Let's have a match first, and see if you're interested."

"The competition... is interesting."

Xia Ke wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and asked curiously, "What are we competing in? Let's have a showdown!"

"Look at the clock, it's 1:30 now."

"If you can finish this cake by 2 o'clock, I can give you another one."

"One is enough for me, the other one is for Yueyao." Xia Ke didn't forget her good friend.

Xu Yuan whispered a devilish voice in Xia Ke's ear, "That's the most expensive Black Forest cake at Thumb Cake Shop, you know?"

"Black Forest cake! That looks so delicious, so incredibly delicious, that—that cake!"

Xia Ke swallowed hard, her mind already conjuring up images of the cake that hadn't yet appeared, and her saliva involuntarily started flowing again.

"I accept the challenge!"

The challenge Xu Yuan is putting on Xia Ke is a test of her ability called "delayed gratification".

The so-called "delayed gratification" refers to the willingness to give up immediate gratification for a more valuable long-term outcome, and the self-control demonstrated during the waiting period.

Without relying on Baidu Baike, in plain language, it would be: to cultivate Xia Ke's self-control.

Delayed gratification is not about suppressing the other person's desires, but about being able to restrain those desires when they could already satisfy them, in order to achieve a more beneficial goal.

Generally speaking, children with stronger self-control are more likely to achieve greater success in the future than other children.

Clearly, Xu Yuan's test was a cruel and severe ordeal for Xia Ke.

She usually loves eating desserts, but she has to endure the sight of a strawberry cake in front of her, even though she can't see a Black Forest cake.

For a passionate person like Xia Ke, it was still a very difficult time.

So Xia Ke circled the strawberry cake several times, trying to reach out and touch the cream on it, when Xu Yuan coughed:
Are you going to give up and admit defeat?

"I only licked it with my fingertip! That doesn't count!"

"Even just licking it counts as a loss."

"call!"

Xia Ke, looking utterly disappointed, pounced on Xu Yuan's bed, rolling around and tossing and turning on it.

"Ah ah ah ah ah--"

This was truly agonizing for her.

Xia Ke should have been able to handle things calmly and with ease, but now she could only scramble and stumble in a hurry.

She hugged Xu Yuan's leg, knelt in front of him, and gave him a humble, pleading, expectant, and aggrieved look.

"Master——"

Even her voice has become sweet and delicate!
You can still be a cute little girl!
If the parents were not strong-willed, they would definitely have let the poor and lovely child go at this moment and given her all the cake.

But I'm determined to be Xia Ke's strictest father. If her dad can't bring himself to educate and train her, I won't be soft-hearted.

Xu Yuan smiled faintly and said, "You don't need to beg me. It's okay if you eat that cake now."

"That's right, there won't be any more Black Forest cakes to eat next, will there?"

Upon hearing this, Xia Ke immediately pouted. She climbed off Xu Yuan, clenched her fists together, and leaned towards him, biting her lip with a resolute expression.
"Why don't you tie me up, young master, and keep me tied up until 2 o'clock! I'm sure I can hold out until then!"

(End of this chapter)