"Sister, the total cash expenditure of our family during this period is about 100 yuan. We used 30 feet of cloth coupons, 6 shopping coupons, 50 kilograms of grain coupons, and 3 kilograms of sugar coupons..."

With every item Shen Mingzhu reported, Pei Wenping's face grew darker. By the time Shen Mingzhu finished speaking, Pei Wenping's face was already filled with anger.

"Sister-in-law, Pei Yang has saved up some money over the years, but it's not for the way you spend it! You've only been married for half a month, and you've already spent Pei Yang's two months' salary! If you keep going like this, even if the family has mountains of gold and silver, they won't be able to withstand your spending!"

After venting her anger, Pei Wenping was still not satisfied. She let out a breath and said, "Take out your passbook and ticket book. I'll take care of them for you for the time being. From now on, you can come to me for the monthly expenses."

This is to take away her financial power.

Shen Mingzhu was not in a hurry. "Sister, calm down. I'm going to show you something. If you still think I'm a spendthrift after you've seen it, I'll do whatever you say."

"Okay, you said it yourself."

Hearing that she was willing to hand over the passbook, Pei Wenping's tone improved a little.

Shen Mingzhu took out the account book.

"Sister, since I married into the Pei family, I have kept detailed records of every expense every day, and the receipts are all posted here, take a look."

Pei Wenping was a little surprised to hear that Shen Mingzhu had done the accounts.

Keeping accounts is not uncommon, because she does it herself, but this habit is usually only among city dwellers, while rural people are not so particular about it.

Anyway, she had never heard of or seen a rural woman keeping accounts.

Thinking of this, Pei Wenping opened the notebook with curiosity, wanting to see what Shen Mingzhu had recorded.

You don’t know until you see it. Pei Wenping was really shocked when she saw it.

This rural younger sister with only a junior high school education could prepare accounts that were just as good as hers as a professional accountant.

The daily income is recorded clearly and the accounts are clear and beautiful.

After reading the account book, Pei Wenping's anger disappeared.

Of the total expenses, Shen Mingzhu herself only accounted for a small part. The rest went to her nephew Pei Ziheng, one third. Daily necessities and meals for the household accounted for one third, and the rest was a large oven.

Pei Wenping was about to ask her what she bought the oven for, but suddenly she shrugged her nose and asked, "What's that smell?"

Shen Mingzhu suddenly remembered the egg cake she was baking, and quickly got up and ran to the balcony.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

Pei Wenping also hurriedly followed to the balcony and saw Shen Mingzhu using tongs to remove the unburned charcoal from the oven stove. She was shocked and worried for a moment.

"Why are you burning charcoal on the balcony? Be careful not to burn down the house."

"Don't worry, sis. I have insulated the bottom of the oven, and I will watch the fire so it won't burn."

After hearing her words, Pei Wenping moved closer and sniffed, confirming that the fragrance came from the oven, and immediately asked her curiously what she was baking.

"I'm baking an egg cake. This is my first time using a charcoal stove, and I don't know if it will work."

Pei Wenping looked at her with more surprise, "Sister-in-law, you can also bake egg cakes?"

“I learned it by tinkering with it myself.”

After the temperature in the oven dropped, Shen Mingzhu put on gloves and opened the oven door. Instantly, a rich aroma of eggs and sweet fragrance filled the air.

Through the A4 paper-sized window, you can see a square iron box inside the oven, and inside the iron box is an egg cake with an attractive golden crust.

Pei Wenping stretched her waist to look at the egg cake in the oven, feeling both surprised and excited, "Sister-in-law, is this egg cake baked?"

Shen Mingzhu observed the color and fluffiness of the egg cake in the iron box and said, "It should be almost done."

Shen Mingzhu used a spatula to take the egg cake and the iron box out of the oven, removed it from the mold and poured it into a round enamel plate. Then she patted the surface of the egg cake that was still stuck with the wax paper with her hands. The golden and soft egg cake immediately trembled like a baby's tender butt.

“What is this doing?”

"The freshly baked egg cake needs to be deflated so that it won't collapse or deform."

Pei Wenping was amazed, "There are so many things to pay attention to when baking egg cakes?"

Shen Mingzhu smiled but said nothing, thinking that there were so many things to pay attention to.

After deflation of the egg cake, Shen Mingzhu used a knife to cut the square egg cake into small cubes three fingers wide.

Before she finished cutting, Pei Wenping couldn't wait to take a piece to taste.

This work is organized and uploaded by Liujiu Book Bar~~

The egg cake had a golden crust on the outside and tender yellow on the inside. It tasted soft, sweet, and delicate. Pei Wenping narrowed her eyes in satisfaction.

"Delicious! Sister-in-law, this egg cake you baked is so fragrant and delicate, not greasy at all. It tastes better than those made by old-fashioned cake chefs!"

Her cake-baking skills and techniques were brought over from forty years ago, and have been studied and modified by countless dessert masters. Even modern people with discerning tastes praise them, so it is easy to conquer the people of this older generation.

After enjoying the delicious meal, Pei Wenping no longer had any temper towards Shen Mingzhu. She held Shen Mingzhu's hand affectionately and helped Shen Mingzhu make plans with a smiling face.

"Although you are not well educated, I think you have a talent for accounting. Do you want to sign up for a class? I will teach you for a while after you finish the class. After the Chinese New Year, I will try to find a job for you. Pei Yang is not at home all year round, and Xiao Heng is in school again. You must be lonely at home every day. It would be easier to get by if you have a job, and you won't have to worry about falling behind the times. What do you think?"

To be honest, Pei Wenping was able to make such detailed and thorough plans for her because she really treated her as her own family.

Unfortunately, Shen Mingzhu could only refuse because she had her own plans.

"Sister, I don't want to work yet. I want to get a diploma while I'm still young."

"A diploma is also good, so do you want to go to a technical school or night school?"

I don't want to, "Sister, I want to take the self-study exam."

Pei Wenping was very surprised and quickly persuaded: "Sister-in-law, it's not that easy to take the self-taught exam. Many high school students and technical secondary school students can't pass it. You only have a junior high school education. How long will it take you to pass it?"

The original owner did have only a junior high school education, but she was not the original owner. In her previous life, she was a 211 graduate student after all, so it was not a big deal for her to pass the self-study undergraduate exam.

"Sister, I want to give it a try. After all, I'm still young and I'm not afraid of failure."

Seeing how ambitious she was, Pei Wenping stopped trying to persuade her and instead encouraged her with kind words.

Shen Mingzhu packed up all the baked egg cakes and asked Pei Wenping to take them away.

Pei Wenping refused at first, but when she heard Shen Mingzhu say that she would bake another batch in the afternoon, she happily accepted it.

But before leaving, Pei Wenping specifically mentioned Shen Baolan, "Your fellow countryman is really kind-hearted, otherwise I wouldn't have heard so many things."

Now Shen Mingzhu had nothing to understand. It turned out that Shen Baolan had gone to Pei Wenping and gossiped about her.

(End of this chapter)