Chapter 26: Chapter 26

The mushrooms and pickled vegetables had all been stir-fried and were very fragrant. Although her buns weren’t meat buns, they were bigger and cheaper than meat buns.

When everyone heard Mu Jingzhe calling for customers and saw that the buns seemed quite delicious, they bought one to try them.

Even Tang Moling had found the buns delicious, so they were naturally pretty good. Unless one particularly disliked the taste of pickled vegetables or mushrooms, they would find these buns delicious.

If one found steamed plain buns tasteless, one could add some fermented beancurd.

They tasted even better with homemade fermented beancurd.

The people who came to sell things were all from different villages. Everyone knew each other, but they couldn’t bear to eat food from other stalls. Still, they came over to buy some buns after hearing that they were delicious.

The sales that day were pretty good. They finished selling all the buns that they had prepared.

Apart from the original bun store’s owners, who rolled their eyes at them, everyone else was pretty nice.

Li Zhaodi hadn’t expected that the buns would sell so well. She was so excited that she couldn’t be bothered to nag Mu Jingzhe about not getting married.

“If the buns sell so well every time we come to the market, we could make quite a lot of money in a year.”

“Yes, we can also sell them nearby on market day.”

They could also go to the town’s market day nearby, but it was further away and they would have to travel an hour longer.

However, this distance was nothing for diligent farmers. Li Zhaodi waved a hand.

“Then let’s go there to sell them!”

The arduous journey of waking up early and working until late at night to sell steamed buns began. They would push their homemade tricycle, leaving the house before dawn and coming back only when the sky had turned dark.

It wasn’t so bad now, as the weather was still warm. If it was winter, they would probably have frozen to death.

In addition, they had to make preparations. Over the course of these two days, they weren’t able to sleep for more than a few hours.

However, Li Zhaodi didn’t complain. She wasn’t afraid of hard work. “There’s nothing that doesn’t require hard work. Planting crops is even harder. Selling steamed buns is much better. While you sell them, you can sit down and earn money. It beats working in the fields.”

Seeing that they were working hard, Mu Teng came to help. Even Mu Han wanted to give them a hand.

After selling buns for a month, Mu Jingzhe calculated and gave half of the earnings to Li Zhaodi. Li Zhaodi didn’t want it initially and was forced by Mu Jingzhe to take the money.

“Mom, you and Dad will have to come whenever I’m busy. Just keep it.”

Now that she had some capital, Mu Jingzhe found the time to go to the city to purchase supplies.

She bought some fabric and prepared to make a new set of clothes for the children. They each had only one set, and there was not much for them to change into.

Also, their shoes were either too small or worn out.

This time, Mu Jingzhe didn’t forget to make a set for Li Zhaodi, Mu Teng, and Mu Han as well.

Previously, Li Zhaodi had praised the children’s clothes in an envious tone. However, Mu Jingzhe had taken it to heart and felt a little guilty for not making a set for them.

This trip to the city used up the money she had earned by selling buns, but it was a fruitful trip.

Mu Jingzhe went to the city and negotiated a business deal by using some new design samples. She handed over the hair ornaments she had made this time and earned back the money she had spent.

While making hair ornaments, she went with Li Zhaodi to sell the buns twice. After that, Mu Jingzhe decided not to sell buns for the time being.

“Mom, from now on, you and Dad will be the only ones selling the buns. You guys should be familiar with how to sell them by now. You made most of the buns anyway. I really don’t have the energy anymore.”

Selling buns was a more suitable business idea for Li Zhaodi and Mu Teng.

“If you’re not free, I’ll help. This business is viable. You have to continue it.” Mu Teng had considered the long-term plan.

“Dad, if business is good, then you and Mom should continue working hard.” She didn’t want them to have to put up with Old Madam Mu picking on them.

“I’ve got a lot to do. Besides, with me away all the time, there’s no one to take care of the children’s meals. I can’t keep leaving them buns to steam.”

Shao Dong and the others didn’t object much. It was good to have buns to eat, for the buns were delicious.

However, Mu Jingzhe didn’t think it was a good idea.

During this period of time, Mu Jingzhe had been getting along quite well with them. Little Bei was close to her, Shao Dong’s attitude had changed, and Shao Nan was smiling widely again.

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The only person who hadn’t changed much was Shao Xi. He had been watching coldly, feeling that Mu Jingzhe’s thoughts were sincere and that she was trying to win people’s hearts.

If Mu Jingzhe knew that Shao Xi thought of her this way, she might laugh out loud.

She really wanted to have the ability to win people over.

“Xiao Wu¹, be careful so you don’t fall.”

After Mu Jingzhe finished preparing lunch, she saw Shao Zhong chasing after the little chicks in their house and quickly warned him.

Now that they had gotten more familiar with each other, Shao Zhong finally didn’t push Mu Jingzhe away so much and quickly nodded.

During this period, Shao Zhong had become livelier and bolder, but he still couldn’t speak.

Mu Jingzhe had talked to him quite a bit and tried to get him to speak, but to no avail.

Mu Jingzhe knew that she couldn’t rush things or pressure Shao Zhong too much. All she could do was tease him from time to time.

“Xiao Wu, count the little chicks.”

The yellow, tender little chicks had just hatched not long ago. In the future, when they grew bigger, it would be just nice for the family to eat them. Li Zhaodi had specially made her hen hatch these chicks.

These were Xiao Wu’s favorite playmates, and he would chase after them every day. He would fight to feed the chicks twice a day, in the morning and at night. He knew that Mu Jingzhe didn’t like chicken poop, so he rarely let the chickens into the courtyard or the house. He would clean up when he saw that they’d dirtied the place.

Mu Jingzhe had assigned him the task of keeping an eye on the little chicks, so he started counting seriously.

He knew how to count and quickly ran over to Mu Jingzhe. He stretched out his hands and raised two fingers, indicating that there were twelve chicks and not a single one was missing.

“Xiao Wu, you are amazing… Oh, your siblings are back. Let’s eat first.”

Then, Mu Jingzhe discovered that Shao Xi hadn’t returned with them.

“Where’s Shao Xi? Is he on duty?”

“No. The teacher made him stay behind.”

“Why?” Mu Jingzhe frowned. “Could it be the Chinese language teacher again?”

She remembered that the last time Shao Xi had misspelled a word, he had been punished to copy it 100 times.

“Mm.”

“What was the reason this time?”

“I don’t know. The teacher only made him stay behind.” Shao Dong shook his head.

“Auntie, the teacher has already asked Second Brother to stay behind several times,” Little Bei added.

“How many times has it been? I thought that was the only time.”

Mu Jingzhe could tell from their expressions that it was something that had happened while she’d been away selling buns, but they’d kept it from her.

“Second Brother forbade me to tell you.” Little Bei stole a glance at Shao Dong and spoke quietly.

“I’ll go take a look.”

When she got to the school, all the students were gone, leaving only the teachers who hadn’t left behind.

Mu Jingzhe found Shao Xi’s classroom. As she approached, she heard slapping sounds. It was the sound of the teacher slapping Shao Xi’s palm.

“Are you going to write it? Do you know how to write it?”

Mu Jingzhe knew the teacher. His name was Zhang Fei, and he taught Chinese. He was the only young male teacher in the school and he had a good relationship with the only young female teacher, Mu Xue.

When they’d met previously, she had thought that he was cultured. Why was he so scary in private?

Upon seeing Shao Xi’s flushed face, Mu Jingzhe hurriedly ran over.

“Stop!”

Zhang Fei turned around and frowned. “What?”

Mu Jingzhe stepped forward to check on Shao Xi’s swollen palm. “Why did he hit you so badly?”

The moment Shao Xi saw her, his expression changed. He felt embarrassed and didn’t want her to see it, but how could he escape?

His hands were already trembling from the pain, and he was on the verge of crying out of anxiousness due to his inability to break free.