「The next day.」

Lin Feng woke up early and started making breakfast. A chilly fog still lingered from the early morning, but having undergone Purification and Marrow Cleansing, he didn't feel the cold.

He lit the grill, planning to use it to fry eggs for the adults, which they would have with bread and milk. The babies' breakfast was goat milk formula with homemade miniature steamed buns and bread rolls. Once everything was ready, he wrapped the buns and rolls in foil and set them by the grill to keep warm. Finally, he called everyone to get up. Waking up to a prepared breakfast was pure bliss.

The sun was slowly ascending into the sky. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful, sunny day.

After the babies finished breakfast, they went to check on the fish in their little pond. The fish were still alive. They all discussed it and decided to head back in the afternoon instead. Lin Feng had no objections; his original plan was simply to spend more time outdoors with the children.

After breakfast, Lin Feng, Zhang Yuxi, and An Lan took the babies for a walk. A few hundred meters ahead, they came across a shallow sandbank with pebbles and several large rocks. Someone had set up a tripod, and there were traces of a campfire, suggesting they had cooked a meal here.

"Babies, there are stones everywhere here. Walk slowly and be careful not to fall!"

He had barely finished speaking when the fourth baby's speedy little legs got the better of him. As he plopped down onto his bottom, looking completely bewildered, Zhang Yuxi gasped. Lin Feng, who was always in charge of the three most mischievous children on their family outings, whipped his head around at the sound. He swiftly reached out, grabbed the fourth baby by the back of his collar, and lifted him to his feet.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Lin Feng asked.

The fourth baby shook his head. "No!" It didn't hurt at all.

"Walk slower!" Lin Feng admonished his son.

Zhang Yuxi curiously walked over and found a perfectly round pebble. Like a child showing off her treasure, she asked, "Honey, look! Isn't this pretty?"

Lin Feng looked at it. "It's pretty. Especially round!"

Zhang Yuxi happily joined the children in their treasure hunt. The pebbles near the water were slippery, so Lin Feng didn't let the babies go over there. Each baby picked out a pebble they thought was the most beautiful. Lin Feng washed them all by the river, dried them off, and returned them to the babies, who happily carried their new treasures as they continued their walk.

There were other people camping up ahead, but nothing else caught their interest.

Suddenly, Zhang Yuxi pointed excitedly at a spot. "Look, a frog!"

The babies looked where she was pointing and saw a frog perched comfortably on a small rock, croaking occasionally. Both curious and excited, they squatted down, their eyes wide.

"There's another one, there's another one!" the second baby suddenly called out.

The fourth baby and the eldest quickly shushed her, signaling for her not to scare the frogs away. Perhaps because people camped here often, the frogs weren't afraid of humans. In the water, another frog's head was peeking out, difficult to spot.

The babies watched the frogs with rapt attention. They were probably reminded of the story "Little Tadpole Looks for Its Mother."

The third baby quietly asked Lin Feng, "Dad, are they waiting for their babies?"

Lin Feng always encouraged his children's imaginative ideas, so instead of dismissing them, he played along. "Maybe so!"

"They might also be sunbathing," the eldest said.

"The one in the water must be thirsty and drinking!" the second baby added.

Lin Feng smiled. "Those are all possible!"

They watched intently for about five minutes and only left reluctantly after the two frogs hopped away. Lin Feng glanced into the distance. "Alright, let's head back!"

"How about we go tell Grandpa, Grandma, and Godmother all about the little frogs we saw? And we can show them the pretty stones we found, too, okay?"

"Okay!" the children shouted in unison.

Watching the fourth baby playfully chasing the eldest up ahead, Lin Feng called out with concern, "Babies, slow down! Be careful not to fall."

Lin Feng carried the second baby and Zhang Yuxi carried the third. The two of them chatted and laughed, their faces alight with happy smiles.

"We should come out more often and let the babies get closer to nature!" Zhang Yuxi said.

Lin Feng thought for a moment. "Alright. We'll come out again in the spring."

「After they returned.」

The babies scrambled over each other to describe the frogs they had seen.

The second baby added, "One was lying on a rock, and another was in the water!" She said proudly, "None of them saw it, only I saw it in the water!"

"One was the daddy frog and one was the mommy frog," the eldest said. "They were waiting for their baby to find them!"

The second baby offered a different opinion. "Maybe… maybe they were just out playing?"

The fourth baby chimed in, "Maybe they were thirsty, too."

The third baby, as usual, didn't try to talk over them. He always waited for the others to finish before sharing his thoughts. Sitting in Zhang Fuyong's arms, he waited until the others had mostly finished before politely speaking.

"They were all green and a bit ugly!" he declared. "Dad said they're good because they eat mosquitoes, so the mosquitoes won't bite us."

After a pause, he still seemed to struggle with the idea. "But they are still so ugly. I won't dislike them, though!"

It couldn't be helped; the third baby loved all things delicate and pretty.

The second baby, standing to the side, added, "The frogs' eyes were so big, and Dad said their tongues are really long…"

The adults, of course, showered them with praise and compliments.

Once they finished talking about the little frogs, the babies remembered their stones. Each of them held up their pebble, presenting it like a precious treasure.

The fourth baby had found a monster-like stone. "This is the monster's mouth, these are its feet, and this is its tail!" he explained.

Hmm, it didn't look quite right at first, but after he pointed it out, the oddly shaped stone did resemble a monster.

The eldest baby found one that resembled an apple. It wasn't as abstract as the monster, and you could genuinely make out the apple-like shape. The eldest baby's stone was very thin, so he declared, "It's… an apple slice!"

It really did look like one! But the eldest baby wasn't satisfied with just one find and went back to searching. Soon, he returned, panting under the weight of a long, strangely shaped, and heavy stone.

"This one is a Transformer!"

Everyone was dumbfounded. Good grief, this one was even more abstract. They couldn't see how it resembled a Transformer at all. But then the eldest baby started gesturing. "This is the Transformer's head, its stomach, these are its arms, and these are its legs…"

The adults were speechless. Alright, with a little imagination, it did bear a slight resemblance.

The second baby found a little rabbit. This one was a much closer match and was instantly recognizable.

And the third baby? He found a "dad."

This drew shocked silence from everyone. It was just another oddly shaped stone that didn't look like Lin Feng in the slightest.

The third baby explained, "Because it's shiny and handsome, just like Dad."

The adults were once again at a loss for words. That explanation was simply unbeatable.

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