Chapter 12: Four or Six

Chen Sike pouted and said, "You heard it right. Those little guys live in the shack. Their father is Fang Yuan. We don't know what they did wrong. The village chief is keeping it a secret."

Qi Yunlan was shocked. "So, Fang Yuan has three children? I saw him yesterday and he looked quite young. How old did he have to be to get married and have children?"

"Qi Zhiqing, you must not make a mistake of principle!" Chen Sike suddenly covered her mouth, looked at the people around her, and said in a very low voice: "Fang Yuan is good-looking, but not to mention that he has three children, even if he lives in a cowshed, you can't even look at him for a second.

There has never been a fight in our village, but no one can predict what will happen in the future. There are so many divorces and broken relationships now, and everyone wants to avoid you, so why do you still want to get involved?

An Zhixia is confused, so we'll just watch her make fun of us."

Qi Yunlan looked at the three children again, nodded, and let Chen Sike pull her to continue shopping.

She was a little confused. She had come here with all her heart, hoping to rely on her experience in her previous life to get close to a potential stock in advance, but she didn't expect that the cold man on TV had three children. Didn't they say that he was so poor that he only had money left in his life, and all his blood relatives were tied to death by this era?

Before she came, she had thought of many ways to get close to him, but she was not mentally prepared to be a stepmother. Her infinite vision for the future was shattered all of a sudden, and Qi Yunlan suddenly didn't know what to choose. On the one hand, she had to accompany the boss of Fang Group to suffer, raise children, and start from scratch together, and on the other hand, she had to maintain her self-esteem and mental cleanliness that she had guarded in her previous life.

Zhixia had no idea of the heroine's conflicted feelings. As soon as she left the stall, young wives and old ladies pulled her aside to sell their own things.

"Hey, Xiao An, I'm from He Qing's family in Hetang Village. You can just call me Sister Qing. Take a look at our eggs. They are big and fresh, and the eggs inside are bright red. There are fifty eggs in this basket. I'll charge you two yuan and deliver them to your doorstep. How about that?"

"Come on, He Qing, you only have one old hen that can lay eggs. You can't even see the sun and the sky. These fifty eggs have passed through countless relatives. There are so many bad guys! They don't want to eat them themselves, but they deliberately cheat the educated youth." An auntie pushed her away and handed over a basket of duck eggs: "Girl, take a look at the duck eggs in my auntie's house. They are all raised by eating grains and insects, and are salted into salted duck eggs. They are guaranteed to be yolky and delicious! How about giving you the whole basket for one dollar?"

"You old thing," Aqing's wife pouted, and with a red face, she also exposed the other party's shortcomings: "You don't even have ducks at home, where did the duck eggs come from..."

Seeing that the two were about to start a fight, An Zhixia lowered her body, squeezed out of the crowd, took a few quick steps and disappeared, leaving a group of wives and old women in the village sighing.

An Zhixia also learned something from their conversation. It turns out that eggs will go bad if they are kept for a long time. She thought they could be kept for three to five months. Now she didn't trust anyone. Taking advantage of the crowd, she directly transferred the eggs, duck eggs, and quail eggs from the supermarket to the basket at the back.

She also bought some dried vegetables, meat, fruits, grains, etc. Fortunately, she had reserved a seat on the village ox cart in advance, otherwise she would not be able to carry so many things back by herself.

When she got home and put her things in place, her three children came to her carrying sacks.

An Zhixia smiled and asked them to wait a moment, then went into the house and poured out a bowl of brown sugar water, "Drink something to warm your body."

The three little guys turned their heads and waved their hands.

Instead, Liu Yiyue's two-year-old child came over with his finger in his mouth, "Auntie, they don't want to drink, so I'll drink."

An Zhixia ignored him and stuffed the bowl into the girl's hands. "You said you saved your sister 10 cents on the bus fare, but this bowl of water doesn't even cost a penny. Take it as my way of thanking you. Um, great service!"

After she said that, the three children looked at each other, and finally the little boy said thank you shyly, and then he and his two sisters shared the drink, taking turns to drink it up.

"Brother, sister, so this is what brown sugar water tastes like, so sweet..." The little girl blinked curiously, looking at An Zhixia with watery eyes filled with pure joy, not to mention how adorable she was.

When Zheng Jiaming saw that there was no share for him, he started howling at the top of his voice. Not only that, he also waved his fist and was about to pounce on An Zhixia: "That's my brown sugar water, you can't let them drink it!"

An Zhixia grabbed his collar, frowning. Seeing that there was no movement in the room, she shouted, "Sister Yiyue, your child is crying, come and comfort him."

Liu Yiyue walked forward with an unpleasant expression, picked up his son, and twisted him hard, "Why are you crying? Do I need you to eat or drink?"

The child was so frightened that he closed his mouth and hiccuped.

"What a fool you are! Brown sugar water is a rare commodity in every household. Children are greedy for it. If you don't want to give it to my child, just stay away from him. What does a two-year-old know?" Liu Yiyue was still angry after she finished speaking. She glared at the three children and said, "You recruited the three of them on the first day you came. Do you want us to live in the cowshed with you? If the people above come down to settle accounts one day, we will have no place to cry because of you.

You are not a child of seven or eight years old, can you have some sense in your heart? Don't rely on your brother to support you and dare to offend anyone without knowing the difference between right and wrong!"

An Zhixia laughed angrily, "You also know that I can't tell the difference between the four and six, so you should take good care of your child from now on and don't annoy me. If I beat him up and make him sick, I won't be able to cure him even if I pay you."

"You," Liu Yiyue's eyes widened. He had never seen such a shameless person.

"Also, what's wrong with them living in a cowshed? Since they haven't been sent to a labor camp, the organization has given them a chance to correct their mistakes under everyone's supervision. The organization hasn't restricted their freedom. Do you have more rights than the organization?"

Liu Yiyue's face was gloomy, and he carried the child back to the house, "You don't know what's good for you!"

"Sister, I'm sorry," the little boy said awkwardly, and was about to run away with his two sisters.

An Zhixia quickly stuffed the remaining 1.5 yuan into the little girl's arms and said, "Remember, don't go fishing by yourself next time. It's too dangerous! You should also keep an eye on your brother."

The two little girls nodded, smiled at her, and ran out.

It was very cold now, and the water in the tank was covered with a thick layer of ice in the morning. An Zhixia locked all the food in the cupboard, and put the fish and meat in the supermarket, ready to deal with them together when her brother came back.

Eating alone was a bit makeshift. I steamed a bowl of rice, topped it with dried eggplant, dried beans, and minced meat, beat an egg, and poured some soy sauce on it after it was cooked. The food tasted good with both meat and vegetables. I paired it with a cup of maltose I got from Nie Yichang. My simple life made the people around me feel jealous.

(End of this chapter)