055, Sugar Cake and Bean Bun
055, Sugar Cake and Bean Bun
There was a little sunshine in the morning, but at noon the sky suddenly became cloudy and the wind became stronger.
When they returned home, Lu Youtian was pushing a small cart loaded with two large baskets of meat and vegetables, all of which were ingredients for their food stall tomorrow. Also sitting on the cart were two three-year-old children, the very ones who refused to be separated from him for even a moment.
Just now, Tanggao saw his brother and younger brother going home, and cried and wanted to go with them.
Boss Lu and Xu Yueniang, the parents, were helpless with their son and had to pack up and send him away with his adopted son and Liu Sanniang and his wife. They weren't worried, though, as their son had been crying and clamoring to go live with his older brother and younger brother since he was a little over a year old. Occasionally, Doubao would stay with them, mainly because the two little ones played together during the day and refused to go back to their own homes in the afternoon.
The adults often couldn't do anything with the two little ones. They wouldn't listen to reason and would just cry. Especially the little boy, he would cry endlessly, his sobs could be heard all over South Street. Every time the son cried, the neighbors would come the next day to ask if they had beaten him at home the previous day.
Faced with the neighbors' inquiries and suspicious looks, Xu Yueniang and Boss Lu always felt indescribable. The couple both wanted to lock their son up at home and beat him up.
It’s a pity that in the end, neither the couple was willing to take action against their only son.
So many times, they would rather let their children stay at someone else's house for half a day, or let Doubao stay at their house for half a day, so that the two kids can play together and stay together at night.
Even Xu Yueniang herself had noticed that her son was particularly well-behaved when he was with Doubao, but very difficult to deal with when he was alone. Both the husband and wife were baffled by this, and ultimately could only attribute it to the common wisdom that "the closer you are to the red, the redder you are!"
Look at the two sons of the Lu family, no matter whether it is the older or the younger one, they are so well-behaved!
Fortunately, Liu Sanniang has always been very welcoming to their children living with her, so the couple dared to let their son live with someone else, and the child was always very happy every time he came back.
Although Xu Yueniang and Mr. and Mrs. Lu were a little jealous every time they saw their child come back so happy after living with someone else, they just let him do what he wanted because he was happy.
But compared to brother Tanggao who likes to follow his older brother and younger brother, younger brother Doubao is obviously more homesick, so this leads to him always bringing home the friends he plays with during the day.
Blown by the wind, Lu Mingfei shrank his neck and asked his parents, "Dad, Mom, have you noticed that the wind is stronger today?"
"Well, a little bit. It looks like... it's going to snow." Lu Youtian said with a little worry in his heart.
Liu Sanniang looked up at the sky and felt a little worried. "If it snows today, our business will be much worse."
The main thing is that once it snows, people won’t go out.
It was difficult for people outside the city to go out and walk such long distances to do business in the city, because even if they came, business was not as good as usual. There were not many people setting up stalls in the city, so naturally there were not many customers coming out to buy things on the street, because everyone knew that there was not much to sell on the street.
Another important point is that after the last wave of merchants leave the city, it will be late February or early March next year before caravans from other places will arrive in Kyoto Prefecture. Without the caravans coming in and out, their food stall business will be much worse.
Add to that the snow and the influence of various other factors, and the business of their two stalls will plummet.
Liu Sanniang felt anxious at the thought, because if business was bad, she wouldn't make any money. Living in Kyoto, her family of four needed money every day to pay for rent, food, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and her eldest son's education. So every year around the end of the year, she'd start to panic.
Lu Mingfei could obviously understand her mother's feelings. It was useless to comfort her at this time. It would be better to think about ways to make money.
Hey, got it!
"Mom, why don't we make some New Year's goods to sell at the end of the year?" Lu Mingfei said.
"New Year's goods? What kind of New Year's goods?" Liu Sanniang was very interested in making money. When she heard her eldest son say this, she immediately looked at her eldest son.
"We can make some braised meat sauce and try to sell it, and we can also open a pork shop, sausages, bacon and other things. The Chinese New Year is only a month away, and I believe many people have to prepare New Year's goods in advance. We prepare it now and sell it after it is done, which will just catch up with the time when everyone is preparing for the New Year." The more Lu Mingfei talked about it, the more he thought that this was a good idea. Maybe they could make some money before the New Year?
Liu Sanniang thought about it and felt that what her eldest son said could be tried first. "Then I will go to Boss Chen tomorrow to order more pork. We will make a small amount first to test the sales. If it sells well, we will make more."
In the past few years, Liu Sanniang has been doing business at a stall in Kyoto Prefecture. She has become much bolder than before. She is no longer the woman who had to look at her mother-in-law's face even for a sip of meat soup in the old Lu family mansion.
Since they separated that year, the family has never returned to Shihua Village.
However, they did not go back. Instead, they learned a lot of news about the Lu family's old house from the clansmen who came to the city to deliver bean sprouts to them. They knew that the Lu family's old house was even more exciting now than when they left.
It was simply that the second elders were too partial to the eldest wife and the eldest grandson, and the other two families were dissatisfied. As for the second and fourth families, each had many children, and the adults had no skills to make a living in the city. Even if they were dissatisfied with the second elders and the first wife, they did not dare to easily propose a division, so the people in the several families had no choice but to live together.
With several families living together, everyone has their own agenda. Her second sister-in-law is not one to be taken advantage of. On the other hand, the eldest sister-in-law is always cocky and thinks she's the mistress of the household. She's a fool. Chen from the fourth family appears to be submissive, but she's actually the most scheming and calculating.
The year they left, Chen became pregnant and later gave birth to a daughter.
The reason why the eldest wife's position is so stable is simply because she has more sons, while the other two wives only have one son each.
With several families living together, each one of them was a tough bunch, so there were always fights every day. These things had already happened every day when they lived in the old Lu family mansion. Even if Liu Sanniang didn't listen to what the clan members said about what was going on over there, she knew what was going on in the old Lu family mansion right now.
Liu Sanniang's only regret was that her family of three had successfully escaped that man-eating den. She knew her parents-in-law too well, and knew the true nature of the people in the Lu family mansion. In the end, they and their children would only become the nourishment for the eldest wife, working themselves to death, and in the end, only others would benefit.
It was after leaving that place that she had the opportunity to recuperate and become pregnant with her second child. If she had stayed at the Lu family's old house, Liu Sanniang knew that with her current health, she would not be able to get pregnant again. Even if she did, whether she could keep the baby was another question.
Therefore, it was the right decision for them to get out of the quagmire of the Lu family's old house.
Lu Mingfei noticed that his mother was distracted and not listening to him, so he waved his hand in front of her face and asked, "Mother, what are you thinking about? Why are you so lost in thought?"
"...I was thinking about how to make the meat sauce you mentioned." Liu Sanniang didn't say that she was thinking about the Lu family's old house just now. She was worried that her husband would hear about what was happening over there and want to go back to take a look.
After all, for her, she had no blood relationship with those people in the Lu family mansion, and she could cut off all ties. But for her husband, there were his biological parents, brothers, sisters, and nephews there, so it was different.
Lu Mingfei saw at once that his mother was lying, but since his mother was unwilling to speak out, he did not ask about it. He just said, "I saw a recipe in a book last time. Can we go back and try it?"
"Is there anything about this in the book?" Liu Sanniang asked in surprise.
"Yes, mother, haven't you heard that books contain golden houses, beautiful women, and all kinds of fried, boiled and deep-fried delicacies?" Lu Mingfei asked with a smile.
"I've heard the first two sentences, but this is the first time I've heard the last sentence." And Liu Sanniang knew very well that the last sentence was created by her own child.
When Tanggao, who was sitting in the car, heard that there was something delicious, he turned around and asked, "Brother, where are the delicious things?"
"You are stupid. Brother told me it is in the book!" Doubao patted the little brother and looked at him as if asking: Why is this little brother so stupid?
"Brother didn't say!"
"Brother said so!"
“No!”
"I said it!"
“…”
All the way back, we could hear the two boys quarreling.
"..." Lu Mingfei, listening to the two brats arguing so loudly, really wanted to pinch their mouths.
In the end, Tanggao lost the argument and turned his back angrily, ignoring everyone.
Fortunately, they returned to their house on Chunxi Road at this time. Lu Mingfei hurried to unlock the door outside the yard, pushed open the door, and asked his father to push the car in.
"Okay, you two come down and play." After the car stopped, Lu Youtian came over and carried the two boys sitting in the car down to the ground. He patted the two boys on the head and said with a smile in his eyes.
When he landed on the ground and stood up, Tanggao still turned his little back to his little brother Doubao.
Doubao also knew that he had said the wrong thing. He glanced at his elder brother. After receiving the look from his elder brother, he had no choice but to go over and comfort this stupid and angry little brother. "Little brother, I was wrong. I shouldn't have called you stupid. Can you please stop being angry with me?"
"I'm sorry."
"I forgive you."
Tanggao turned around and saw his brother apologizing to him sincerely, so he immediately forgave him.
The two boys are of similar age, with round heads and very cute looks.
Tanggao resembles his father, Lu Qingfeng, with thick eyebrows, a high nose bridge, dark skin, and a stockier build. Doubao resembles his brother and mother, with fair skin, a round face, almond-shaped eyes, and a bit of baby fat. He was bright from a young age and could speak at ten months old.
Liu Sanniang opened the door of the inner room and called the three children outside to go in first.
"Mom, let Dad and I put the things away first, you take them in." Lu Mingfei was packing things with his father outside, so he looked up and replied to his mother.
"You leave it there, I'll do it." Lu Youtian took the things from his son's hand and moved them to the kitchen to put them away.
Liu Sanniang looked outside, then glanced at the two boys who ran into the house, and had no choice but to follow them into the house.
Second update of this book at 8pm
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