A stunning beauty arrived on the island; she invented everything from childcare to babysitting.

Fortunately, An Ning seemed to have mentioned it casually, and after Song Wenyuan made up an excuse to brush it off, she didn't say anything more.

Song Wenyuan first took his wife and luggage to the seat arranged for her on the ship, and then thoughtfully prepared a book for Anning to read to pass the time before taking his daughter for a walk on the ship.

Just before the ship set sail, all the passengers from the island had boarded the ship one after another, and Song Wenyuan returned with the smiling, rosy-cheeked little girl.

Anning took a towel out of her bag and wiped the sweat off her daughter's head.

Seeing Chen Hai drenched in sweat, she found an unused towel and tossed it to him.

"Where did you two go? Why are you all sweaty?"

Shen Changle gasped for breath, managing to utter only two words after a long pause: "Exciting."

peaceful:?????

She turned to look at Chen Hai, who had a bright smile on his face: "This is our secret."

peaceful:?????

"You two didn't go off to steal, did you?"

Shen Changle was startled by her mother's question and almost jumped off her lap. She stammered, "No...no! We didn't do anything."

"Then why are you reacting so strongly? Even if you didn't steal anything, you must have been doing something sneaky." Anning pinched her cheek.

"Um...Mom, how...did you get here?"

Shen Changle's face was being pinched, making it difficult for her to speak clearly.

"Why did you react so strongly? Your reaction is called 'a guilty conscience,' you know?" Anning tapped her head and then explained the origin of the idiom "a guilty conscience."

After Shen Changle explained, An Ning realized what they had just done.

When Chen Hai was showing him around the ship, he heard that Shen Changle was playing war games with the children in the army, so he asked her if she wanted to play a spy game.

After Shen Changle agreed, he and the child started doing some sneaky little things on the ship. The two of them were covered in sweat because they were exhausted from trying to avoid the crew and passengers.

An Ning: "...You're really something."

The boat was only so big, and with the two of them together, anyone who wasn't blind could see them. Yet they still played around with great enthusiasm for over an hour.

I wonder what Chen Hai's former colleagues thought when they saw this scene.

"Hehe!" Song Wenyuan chuckled foolishly.

After wiping the sweat from the child's head, An Ning also wiped the sweat from her back, then tossed the towel to Chen Hai and casually ordered him, "You're so energetic, go wash the towel."

"okay."

Song Wenyuan went to wash the towels. A woman sitting next to An Ning looked at her with some envy: "Comrade, your husband is so good to you."

Anning didn't like talking to strangers, and there was no need to explain herself to someone she'd only met once, so she nodded casually and went back to chatting with the child.

The woman was good at reading people's expressions. Seeing that An Ning didn't pay much attention to her, she didn't take the initiative to talk to her again.

Not long after, Song Wenyuan returned. He had been on this ship for several years and was more familiar with it than with his home. Washing a towel was a matter of minutes for him. However, he had other tasks to attend to. He found his old colleagues and gave them some instructions before returning to his cabin.

He wrung out both towels thoroughly; although they were still damp, not a single drop of water could be squeezed out.

Anning put it in a bag, so she didn't have to worry about the water getting her other clothes wet.

Song Wenyuan moved his luggage next to his wife and asked, "Are you sleepy? If you are, take a rest. I'll wake you up when we get off the ship."

His daughter, who had just finished playing on the boat, was already asleep in his arms.

"It's okay, I rested well yesterday. Are you tired of holding the baby? If you are, let me hold him for a while."

“Not tired.” Song Wenyuan made a strong movement with his other unrestricted hand. “You forgot, I’m the kind of person who can outrun Xue Man while carrying 50 kilograms of weight.”

"Alright, alright, I know you're amazing, okay? If you're not tired, you can carry me!"

The strait between the island and the mainland peninsula is not particularly wide. In later times, it would only take a little over an hour by boat. In this era, the speed of boats was not as fast as in later times, but it would only take about three hours, and they would arrive quickly.

When they disembarked, Song Wenyuan was holding his daughter in one arm and reaching for his luggage with the other. This time, An Ning didn't indulge him and woke the child up directly from his arms.

Just kidding. Kids this age are full of energy. They played with Xu Pengfei and the others all day without getting tired. How could they get tired after running around on the boat for just over an hour?

You can still walk by yourself.

She looked around. Last time she came here, she was in a hurry and didn't have much time to explore before going straight to the island. Now that she's back, it feels very fresh.

"What are the plans for the next step?"

Song Wenyuan checked the time: "There are no toy factories here. The better toy factories are all in Guangzhou. We'll stay here tonight and take the train to Guangzhou tomorrow. We've contacted three toy factories there. We can just go there with the letters of introduction."

"Isn't there a direct ferry to Guangzhou from here?" An Ning asked curiously.

"It was operating before, but it was suspended due to the tense situation recently. It's still before the fifteenth of the lunar month, so it hasn't resumed operations yet. Currently, apart from some ships, passenger ships are operating between the peninsula and the islands," Song Wenyuan replied.

"So that's it."

"Let's go to the guesthouse to drop off our luggage first, then we'll go out and get something to eat. There's some pretty good food here, Ni'er should like it."

"You seem to come here often."

"No, actually, I used to go to Guangzhou a lot before this. A lot of supplies were brought over directly from there, which saved a lot on transportation costs. The things you asked me to find for you also came from there. But during the special period before, ordinary people couldn't get through."

"Oh."

An Ning asked a few questions and then stopped. But Shen Chang Le, upon hearing that there was something delicious, kept circling around Uncle Chen Hai, determined to find out exactly what it was from him.