Work Text:
Su Mucheng drove her car to the Glory daycare parking lot and parked in her designated spot.
“Gosh, I hope I’m not too late.” Su Mucheng said as she hurried out of the car and quickly ran inside. Before unlocking the door to her group Tiny Herb, she prayed quickly. “May this day go well.”
The groups rooms were still dark and quiet, as no one was still there. Su Mucheng was the first member in team to arrive at work. Which meant that any kids that arrived before her, would be with the adjacent group, Hundred Blossoms.
“Good morning!” Su Mucheng walked into the group and greeted Yu Feng, who was working the early morning shift.
“Good morning.” Yu Feng replied. He was sitting around a table, where couple of kids were playing with magnet shapes and animals.
Su Mucheng spotted little Qiao Yifan sitting on Yu Feng’s lap, staring seriously at the animal magnets the older kids were playing.
“Good morning, Yifan.” She greeted the kid. The moment the little boy heard her voice, he looked up at her. Soon, he was reaching his arms towards her, crying out loud.
Su Mucheng laughed. “All right, big fella, come here!” She picked him up and Qiao Yifan wrapped his arms around her. Su Mucheng smiled.
Then a piercing smell reached her nose.
“Did you poop?”
“Unun.” The boy shook his head.
“Are you sure? Cuz, I smell poop?”
“Un.” The boy kept shaking his head.
Su Mucheng laughed. “You keep denying it, but I’m pretty sure you pooped. Let’s go check it.” She said and carried Qiao Yifan to the toilets that group Tiny Herb used.
As expected, there was poop.
Great, the morning has just started and here I am, already changing poop diapers. This day couldn’t have a better start.
While Su Mucheng was in the middle of the diaper change, some of the families started arriving. Tang Rou was a quiet toddler who started in the group that fall. She was also the granddaughter of the director. Sun Xiang was feisty to others but would cry when someone bothered him. Huang Shaotian and Yu Wenzhou were family friends and close outside the daycare too.
Su Mucheng had just started prepping the breakfast when heard the door go again.
“Good morning.” She heard Chen Guo’s voice say.
“Morning.” Su Mucheng greeted her teammate.
Around the same time Su Mucheng spotted two kids arriving with their father. Gao Yingjie was one of the youngest children of Tiny Herbs, whereas his older brother Wang Jiexi belonged to the Hundred Blossoms.
They were coming from the Hundred Blossoms side and as soon as Gao Yingjie spotted Su Mucheng he laughed and ran straight into her arms.
“Good morning, Yingjie.” Su Mucheng laughed.
“Come say goodbye to dad first.” Lin Jie, the father of Gao Yingjie and Wang Jiexi said, laughing at the enthusiasm of his son.
Gao Yingjie wobbled off to hug his father and then Lin Jie took Wang Jiexi back to Hundred Blossoms. Su Mucheng picked the youngest kid up and carried him to his spot to eat breakfast.
For a moment there was peace and quiet. Su Mucheng used that moment to eat breakfast, while Chen Guo boiled them some coffee.
Then they heard door going again and that’s when the chaos erupted. Ear piercing crying came through and Su Mucheng and Chen Guo looked at each other with understanding looks.
“It’s the twins.” Su Mucheng laughed.
It was the twins.
The screams went on without a stop, with the young boys calling for their mum. They both wanted for the mother to carry them, but Madam Ye could carry her children only one at a time. So, she picked up Ye Qiu into her arms while taking hold of Ye Xiu’s hand.
“Where do you sit? Can you show mum?” She asked and sobbingly Ye Qiu pointed to his seat. Madam Ye sat him down and then picked the other sobbing twin.
“Where does Xiu sit?” She asked, but the boy shook his head.
“Into Chen Guo’s arms.”
“Do you want me to hold you?” Chen Guo asked, and the boy nodded his head, eyes teary.
With a soft smile on hear face, she opened her arms. “Come here.”
Ye Xiu ran into her arms and laughed happily. Chen Guo hugged him, and he sat there happily in her lap.
“Next to Chen Guo.” Ye Xiu said elated.
“Next to Chen Guo.” Ye Qiu cried, and Chen Guo couldn’t help a sigh escape. She placed Ye Xiu on his own chair and sat so that she was next to both boys, who finally started eating their breakfast.
After they were finished with the breakfast and the kids were playing with toys, Su Mucheng glanced at the clock. It was about time for them to head out. “I should start changing the diapers. Where is Wei Chen?”
Chen Guo, who was sitting on the floor with Ye Xiu and Ye Qiu in her lap, looked up. “I don’t know. Wasn’t he supposed to start 5 minutes ago?”
Su Mucheng looked concerned. “Maybe he’s sick.” She then looked at the kids. “We need to anyway start changing your diapers. I smell some poops here, but I hope not many of you actually have them. Shaotian, Wenzhou come. Let’s go change diapers and then go play outside.”
Yu Wenzhou happily followed Su Mucheng, but Huang Shaotian absolutely refused to move. Su Mucheng called him a couple times more, but then just resorted to carrying him into the toilets. Her wish of not many poop diapers was crushed from the start, when Huang Shaotian started taking off his diaper and the mushy poop smacked on floor.
In the end, Su Mucheng had to change 3 poop diapers.
Just as the first children were ready to go outside, Wei Chen walked in from the front door.
“Sorry, I’m late! I remember my starting time incorrectly and got on the wrong bus.” He apologised and immediately started helping shoes on to the children that were otherwise already ready.
“We thought you’d gotten sick when you weren’t arriving. Glad to see you’re alright.” Su Mucheng grinned.
“Alright, Zekai is ready. I’ll take four with me.” Wei Chen then said and went outside with the first children.
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“Do you want to go to the swings?”
“Un.” Zou Yuan shook his head.
“What about the sandbox?”
“Un.” The shaking of the head continued.
“The slide?”
“Un.”
Su Mucheng didn’t know how it had happened, but she found herself sitting together with the little lad, who absolutely refused to go anywhere. This had continued for quite sometime. In the end she picked Zou Yuan up and took him to the sandbox.
The boy stood frozen on the sandbox not sure what to do. He looked around concerned and in that very moment Chen Guo came outside with the last children. The moment he saw her he immediately started bawling big crocodile tears and ran to her.
“Oh, her noticed you.” Su Mucheng laughed, knowing the boy was quite attached.
Chen Guo smiled. “You don’t have to be upset. Come here.” She picked up the toddler and then grinned. “I have a delivery for you too.”
In that very moment Gao Yingjie came running from behind her and the moment he saw Su Mucheng, he set his wobbly steps towards her. Su Mucheng sighed but smiled. “You got me.”
She picked up Gao Yingjie and swung him around a little bit making a little one laugh.
“Su Mucheng.” The woman then heard voice from behind her. Su Mucheng turned around and saw Wang Jiexi.
“Jiexi. How are you?”
“Su Mucheng. Can you come with Yingjie on the swings, so that I can swing next to you?”
Su Mucheng looked at the empty swings that Wang Jiexi was pointing at and smiled.
“Sure. Let’s go.”
They swung for a while and sang songs together. Wang Jiexi at first swung on the swing, but then he started running and playing around Su Mucheng and Gao Yingjie, making his brother laugh.
Su Mucheng looked around to check on the children. Most of them were in the sandbox together with Wei Chen. Tang Rou and Sun Xiang were on the kick bikes. Ye Xiu and Ye Qiu were demanding Chen Guo to take them on the other set of swings. They had dragged Zhou Zekai with them.
Her eyes then noticed a small figure climbing onto a rock.
“Yifan don’t go there!” She yelled, but was too far away to do anything. “Qiao Yifan don’t go there, that’s wet and you don’t have... proper clothing...” Su Mucheng said in defeat as she realised that Qiao Yifan was not knee deep in water, his shoes and pants wet.
Su Mucheng sighed. “This is the second time this week. He did that yesterday too.”
“Mum, can we sing again?”
Su Mucheng looked up, her eyes meeting with Wang Jiexi’s sincere eyes.
Had he just?
“Su Mucheng, can we sing again?”
Su Mucheng smiled. “Sure.”
She could swear he had just called her mum by accident.
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Chen Guo had to take Sun Xiang inside first, because he had pooped his pants. Su Mucheng sighed; how many times did these kids poop exactly. It was ridiculous.
Before lunch time, the group sang some songs and then Wei Chen let them go into the seats in pairs.
“Now, Wenzhou sat well, so you can pick up a friend a go together.”
Yu Wenzhou got up, but so did multiple others, and Wei Chen had hard time containing them.
“No no. I said Wenzhou.
“I didn’t say Shaotian. You sit down.”
“Are you Wenzhou?”
“Yuan sit down.”
“No, Xiu and Qiu, you don’t go yet.”
Eventually, everyone was in their designated spot and started eating. Ye Xiu and Ye Qiu quickly broke off the calm by starting to sing loudly. Sun Xiang quickly joined them and Huang Shaotian was around creating his own chaos.
Su Mucheng didn’t know when it happened, but Huang Shaotian managed to take off his socks and dip them into his drink. He then spilled the drink all over himself, requiring them to get him change of clothes for the afternoon.
“I’m so glad this day is over soon.” Su Mucheng sighed after she was done cleaning the leftovers.
Chen Guo and Wei Chen started putting the kids down for a nap. Su Mucheng stayed behind for a moment as Sun Xiang was picked up right after the lunch.
“You’re the one staying in the nap room, right?” Chen Guo asked Su Mucheng the moment the latter entered the nap room.
“Yeah. Let’s switch in 45 mins.” Su Mucheng replied.
“Tang Rou fell asleep. Let’s hope she sleeps more than 30 mins. I want to keep my break.” Wei Chen then approached the two.
“I’ll try keep her in the room for as long as possible. As long as she doesn’t bother others.” Chen Guo said and the two then left for their coffee break.
Su Mucheng sat down and started scrolling her phone. Everyone was asleep so she got a moment of peace. 45 minutes passed quickly and soon Chen Guo came to let her out.
“I will be heading to home then. Thank you for the day.” Su Mucheng said.
“See you tomorrow.” Chen Guo smiled.
“See you tomorrow.”
Su Mucheng quickly dressed up and headed to the front door of group Tiny Herb.
As she closed the door behind her, she thought to herself.
One more day finished, and it was a chaotic day.
And tomorrow will be a brand-new day with the kids of group Tiny Herb.