When Zhou led Chen Kai and the others to the front of the steamed bun shop, Chen Laoda and his group came looking for them.
Zhou said unhappily, "Why did you find us so quickly? Why didn't you stay and look around a little longer?"
Chen Laoda said happily, "Mom, didn't you say you were going to treat us to steamed buns? Hurry up and buy them! We're all starving from shopping."
Zhou asked the steamed bun shop owner, "Boss, how much are your steamed buns?" Zhou didn't usually buy so many steamed buns for them, and she didn't know how much they cost.
The steamed bun shop owner smiled and said, "Vegetarian steamed buns are 2 coins each, and meat steamed buns are 4 coins each. How many do you want to buy?"
Zhou said, "Boss, give us 30 vegetarian buns and 7 meat buns."
"Okay! That'll be 88 coins in total," the steamed bun shop owner said with a smile, then handed the packaged steamed buns to Zhou.
After paying, Zhou took the buns and led a group of people to the side. She handed the meat buns to Chen Kai and said with a smile, "Good son, give one of these meat buns to each of your nephews and nieces. The last one is yours."
Zhou handed the vegetarian buns to Chen Laoda and the others, saying, "Take two vegetarian buns each first. If you need more, ask me." The buns sold at the bun shop were quite large and generous in portion, with thin skins and lots of filling. A child would be full after eating one, and an adult would just eat two to fill their stomach. The remaining buns could be taken home to eat later that evening.
At this moment, Chen Laosi took out several strings of candied hawthorns and said, "Little brothers, look what I bought for you?"
Er Ya exclaimed excitedly, "Wow! It's candied hawthorn! Thank you, Fourth Uncle!"
Old Chen handed the candied hawthorns to the children and said, "Here you go, don't fight over them, share them!"
The children were very happy and each ate one candied hawthorn.
After they finished eating the steamed buns, Zhou took them for a walk for a while and bought some meat. When Zhou saw the grocery store, she remembered that the salt at home was almost gone, so she went in and bought some more salt.
When Zhou bought the meat, Chen Kai and Xiao Tian also bought a few bones, thinking that they could use them to nourish the children in the village who helped them pick flowers when they got home.
When Old Man Chen and his family returned home, the villagers were all surprised, attracting a large crowd of onlookers.
A villager nearby asked in confusion, "Aunt Zhou, didn't your family pay money? But you didn't pay grain, so why did your family buy so much grain?"
Seeing this, Zhou quickly said, "We don't have much food either. Since we're going to buy grain, we might as well buy more so that the price won't go up later. We'll use all the money we've earned to buy grain."
A woman said, "We don't have much food left at home, and now all the men in the family have gone to town to find work."
Another villager asked, "I heard from those children that your family will pay them their wages at the end of the month. Tomorrow is the end of the month. Will you really pay those children their wages?"
When the other villagers heard someone ask this question, they also stared at the Chen family members with curiosity, wanting to know if it was true.
Xiao Tian said with a smile, "Of course it's true. Tomorrow we will not only pay them their wages, but also make bone broth for them. Families with children who pick flowers for us should tell their children when they get home that they should bring a bowl to our house for bone broth tomorrow at noon."
Zhou said with a grim expression, "Get out of the way, don't you all have anything to do? We're going home."
The villagers happily made way for them and went home to tell the children.
The next day, early in the morning, Chen Kai asked Daya to help him cook the bone broth. Sure enough, before noon, a large group of children were waiting at the Chen family's door with bowls to drink the bone broth.
Seeing that most of the children had arrived, Chen Kai had Daya and Erya bring out the bone broth. The surrounding villagers swallowed hard and looked enviously at the children holding the bowls as they saw the bone broth and smelled its aroma.
Xiao Tian shouted loudly, "Quiet down, everyone! Children who have helped us with chores, line up with your bowls. Each of you will have a spoonful of bone broth to drink. You can only drink it here; you can't take it home."
Upon hearing what Xiaotian said, the children immediately lined up, staring longingly at the bone broth in front of them, their mouths practically watering into their bowls.
The children, who had been served bone broth, carefully held their bowls with both hands and sipped the broth slowly, their faces full of satisfaction.
When Chen Kai saw that some people were eyeing the bone broth in their children's bowls, he immediately asked his older brothers and sisters-in-law to come out and keep an eye on it, and then told the children to quickly drink the bone broth in their bowls.
Chen Kai shouted, "If anyone dares to give their bone broth to the adults in their family, there won't be any bone broth to drink next month!"
The children who were drinking bone broth screamed with joy when they heard that they would have such delicious bone broth again next month. The children who had already finished drinking the bone broth were jumping and hopping with excitement.
A little boy finished the last bit of bone broth in his bowl in one go and asked excitedly, "So, will we be able to drink such delicious bone broth every month from now on?"
Xiao Tian said, "Yes, as long as you work for our family every month from now on, you can come to our house for bone broth this month."
Just then, a little girl timidly asked, "Brother Xiaotian, can I give my little brother some of the bone broth?"
Xiao Tian saw a woman in the crowd holding a thin, small child and said helplessly, "You drink half first, then let your younger brother come and drink."
The little girl immediately drank half of the bone broth in her bowl, then looked at Xiaotian expectantly. Xiaotian nodded and asked the little girl to call her younger brother over. He fed him little sips of the broth, and her brother was overjoyed to have the delicious bone broth.
Seeing this, a little girl also held up the bowl of bone broth that was still more than half full and said, "Xiaotian, can I give the rest of the bone broth to my little brother?"
Xiao Tian nodded and said, "Okay!"
The little girl excitedly called out to the crowd, "Sister, quickly bring your little brother over to drink bone broth!"
A thin child emerged from the crowd, holding the hand of another child who was still unsteady on his feet.
Before the little girl could wait for him to come over, she picked him up and quickly made her younger brother drink the bone broth.
Xiao Tian saw the children staring at him as they held up the leftover bone broth and said immediately, "Alright, if you want to share the bone broth with your family, drink half of it first, then let me see it, and then I'll call them over."
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