Bonnie rushed to finish her business before lunch, chatted with her colleagues for a while, and then it was time to eat.
It's time.
The cafeteria served braised cabbage and tofu and stir-fried shredded potatoes for lunch. The taste was alright. Bonnie had been running around all morning and was hungry, so she ate quite a bit.
"Bonnie, with your appetite, how come you're not fat? Where's the justice?"
Lan Hua's family has always been well-off, and she never went hungry. She was plump since childhood, and after getting married and having children, her weight continued to increase uncontrollably.
"I eat a lot and exercise a lot. You just eat and don't move, so isn't it normal for you to gain weight?"
Bonnie glanced at Orchid's belly and felt that she had gained weight again in the few days she hadn't seen her.
Lan Hua was furious, but there was nothing she could do. She couldn't win an argument, nor could she beat her in a fight. She had heard about the incident last time, in which her daughter fought five people single-handedly, supposedly inheriting her mother's immense strength.
Unaware of Lan Hua's inner thoughts, Bonnie quickly finished her meal, then bought two more servings of food and delivered them to Liu Jiu and Gu Xuanyi, checking on how their morning had gone.
When Bonnie arrived, the students hadn't finished class yet. The teacher was speaking passionately on the podium, but the students below seemed to be in a different state.
The students who listened quietly to the teacher's lecture and occasionally answered questions were preparing for the entrance exams. The students who shouted and yelled, drowning out the teacher's voice, were preparing to go home after receiving their diplomas.
As soon as the bell rang, the students rushed out of the classroom to go to the cafeteria for lunch.
Bonnie waited until most of the students in the classroom had left before carrying her lunchbox inside.
"Xuanyi, Yun Chu, dinner's ready."
Bonnie is so used to calling him Liu Jiu that when she suddenly calls him by his full name, it feels a bit like she's calling someone else.
"Mom, what are we having for lunch?"
Liu Jiu was also hungry. She digests very quickly now. I wonder if it's because she's growing taller and gets hungry very easily.
"The cabbage stew with tofu and the stir-fried shredded potatoes taste good. I've packed a lot of food, so you two should eat it while it's hot."
Bonnie took out the lunchbox and told the two children to eat quickly, otherwise it would get cold.
"Xuanyi, how was your morning? Did you go to the restroom?"
"Second Aunt, I'm fine. It's easy for me to walk with my cane. My classmate helped me. Yun Chu offered to carry me, but I was too embarrassed."
Gu Xuanyi was too embarrassed to let his sister carry him; it would be too shameful.
"Yeah, he's now the famous 'Crippled Li' in our class, with several people protecting him."
Liu Jiu is now famous in her class and even the whole school. Especially after the other two male classmates who were present that day spread the word, all the students suddenly became respectful.
It also kept students from other classes who didn't like studying and often got into fights away from it, and consequently, several students in the class who were always bullied also benefited.
You dare mess with Gu Yun Chu's classmates? She's a formidable character who can take on five people at once and defeat a whole bunch of thugs.
These past few days, the female classmates in the class have been swarming around Gu Yun Chu and even asking her to go to the bathroom together.
Seeing that both children were doing well, she didn't stay any longer; she had to go back to work.
In the afternoon, Bonnie went home after get off work, cut the old hen into pieces, blanched it in a pot to remove the fishy smell, and then boiled it in a separate pot with water.
There are many kinds of dried mushrooms at home. Pick a few that are suitable for making soup and soak them in warm water.
The dough that was prepared in the morning is ready, and Bonnie started steaming buns—authentic Shandong-style steamed buns, which the children all love.
Soak the green bean strips in water, then stew them with the meat later; it will taste great.
Bonnie was busy in the kitchen, and before long, Sanqi came back.
"Mom, did you make soup?"
"I put it in water and boiled it with scallions and ginger slices. See if you can add anything else. I've also soaked the mushrooms."
After changing her clothes, Sanqi carefully hung them up to make sure they wouldn't get wrinkled.
He washes his hands and dries them, not rubbing them on his clothes; he insists on wiping them clean with a towel.
Opening the soup pot, all you see is water and chicken, with a few slices of ginger floating on top.
Sanqi started looking for the spice box, while Baoni had already started cutting the meat.
"Son, Mom bought another courtyard house today."
While cutting meat, Bonnie chatted with Sanqi about family matters, not hiding anything from the two children.
"Where is it located? How big is it? Are you planning to rent it out?"
Sanqi knew that her mother had already bought a small courtyard house and rented it out, and the monthly rent was quite substantial.
"It's near the Forbidden City, about 700 or 800 square meters. We'll renovate it next spring and have Uncle Liu help us rent it out."
"It's so big, can anyone afford to rent it?"
Sanqi knew that the two small courtyards in her house were divided into small rooms for rent, costing a few yuan a month.
"It should be rented to those who run private restaurants, like the ones we went to before. Someone should be willing to rent them."
"That's alright. The country is encouraging individual businesses now, and there will always be someone willing to be the first to try something new."
"Mom, does this mean you're going to become a landlady, living off rent from now on?"
Sanqi learned English from Teacher Zhai and could basically understand the original texts of books. He read many foreign classics and learned about some of the Western capitalist economic situation.
“I’m not exactly a landlady, you have so many houses. A landlady should at least have a huge bunch of keys.”
"That's true, our few houses aren't much. Mom, how about I make a lot of money in business in the future and buy more houses, then you can be a real landlady."
Sanqi still wants to be a diplomat, but to earn money to buy a house for his mother, he has to do business, and diplomats don't seem to earn much money.
"Forget it, what would your mother do with so many houses? There's enough to worry about every day. Your father and I will have pensions when we get old, and we'll be traveling all over the country in the future. We won't have time to collect rent."
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