With a nanny, Shu Yan was immediately freed from tedious housework and no longer had to get up early to make breakfast. After being in this world for so long, she could finally sleep in.
Shu Yan stretched and got up to open the curtains. Sunlight streamed into the room, and a slight smile appeared on her lips. Waking up naturally was truly blissful.
"Mom." Shu Yan came out of the bathroom after washing up and saw Tianbao standing on her bed. He rushed towards her as soon as he saw her.
"Be careful, don't fall. Have you had breakfast yet?"
"No, my sister and I just got up."
Tianbao was all dressed and his face was washed. I found out that his aunt had helped him with all of this.
"Then let's go out and eat together." Since the children rarely had a holiday, Shu Yan didn't let them go to tutoring classes or get up early.
The eldest aunt was mopping the floor when she saw Shuyan come out. She immediately put the mop aside, washed her hands, and brought out breakfast.
"Have you eaten?" Shu Yan took the porridge and placed it in front of the children first.
"I've eaten. I got up early this morning. I made porridge, steamed a pot of buns, stir-fried some greens and an eggplant. Is there anything else you need? I'll make it now." The porridge and buns that my aunt brought out were still steaming hot.
"No need, this is enough." Shu Yan took a sip of the porridge, which was thick and glistening with a bluish hue. It smelled especially good. The steamed buns were also delicious. Each one was only the size of Tianbao's fist, with a thin skin and plenty of filling. Moreover, her aunt had made several kinds of fillings, including meat, mushroom and vegetable, and a few with beef and mutton fillings.
The beef and mutton were leftovers from yesterday. My aunt chopped them up and made them into steamed buns, and they tasted surprisingly good.
"Would you like some more?" Shu Yan asked her aunt.
"No need, I'm full." The aunt went to mop the floor again.
After finishing her delicious breakfast, Shu Yan was about to start eating when her aunt snatched it away.
"I'll do it, I'll do it." The eldest aunt quickly finished washing the dishes and immediately went to the balcony to wash clothes.
Shu Yan followed, saying, "I have a washing machine here. Winter clothes are hard to wash, so you can just use the washing machine."
"I'll brush the collar and cuffs first." Shu Yan's clothes weren't dirty, but the two children's, especially Tianbao's, clothes were really dirty. The little boy was crawling all over the place, and there were always times when Shu Yan couldn't see him.
“Then turn on the hot water. You know how to use this faucet, right? Look, there are two dots below. The red one is for hot water, and the blue one is for cold water. Turn on some hot water, and after you're done, just throw it in the washing machine. Hey!” Shu Yan grabbed her aunt, blushing, and said, “You can leave your underwear here; I'll hand wash it myself.”
"I just washed them on the spot." My aunt knows that city people are particular about their clothes and underwear and socks are soaked separately.
It was too embarrassing to have someone else wash her underwear, so Shuyan took the basin and scrubbed it herself.
After washing the clothes, my aunt prepared to knead dough, saying she would make dumplings for dinner. Once the dough was ready, she started preparing the dishes for lunch.
"Auntie." Shu Yan pulled her to sit down and said, "Now that it's summer vacation, the children don't have to go to school, so there's no need to pick them up or drop them off. You don't have to get up too early in the morning. We usually get up around 8 o'clock. Lunch is ready around 11:00 to 11:30. Dinner is at 5 o'clock. We only need to do a thorough cleaning of the house once a week. When you have free time, you can rest in your room or watch TV in the living room."
"I know, it's not tiring at all. I just can't sit still." This little bit of work is nothing compared to her working in the fields at home, chopping firewood on the mountain, and then washing clothes, cooking, feeding pigs, and raising chickens when she gets home. It's really like playing around.
Shu Yan couldn't stop her and could only let her be. Things might get better when they get to know each other better.
After observing for a few days, Shu Yan felt that her aunt was indeed a diligent and clean person who cooked well. Both children liked her, so she decided to promote her to a permanent position ahead of schedule.
“This…it hasn’t even been a month…” Auntie said, clutching her apron.
"We initially set a one-month period because we were worried we wouldn't get to know you well enough. Now that the kids all like you and I think you're great, there's no need for an internship. This month, we'll pay you 350 yuan a month, paid on the 15th. There aren't any other requirements, but if you want to leave, you have to give us two months' notice. After all, finding a satisfactory nanny isn't easy," Shu Yan said with a smile.
On the 25th, it was Lin Hui's moving day. Shu Yan went there early in the morning, and Wu Xiuyue was already there. It was the first time she had met Lin Hui's husband. He was wearing glasses and looked very refined.
After saying hello to him, Shu Yan and the others went to the market to buy groceries.
"I bought some when I went to the market yesterday. I'll just buy some meat and seafood later."
Of course, Lin Hui couldn't afford to have a large lobster on every table. Many kinds of seafood are unavailable now, and even if she could, she wouldn't be willing to spend the money. Chicken, duck, fish, and meat were naturally indispensable, and she also bought beef and mutton.
Lin Hui had eaten dumplings at Shu Yan's house last time and was immediately impressed by her aunt's cooking skills, so today the chef is her aunt.
"Auntie, thank you for your help today." Lin Hui and Shu Yan helped out.
"Don't mention it." The aunt was especially pleased that her cooking skills had been recognized.
Lin Hui's family has a lot of people, so they set up four tables, which were packed full. To prevent the children from making noise, they left the younger children at Shu Yan's house and prepared an extra dish for them. There wasn't enough room, so Shu Yan and Wu Xiuyue didn't sit at the table.
After everyone left, it was already past 3 p.m.
"Come on, come on, have some soup to warm your stomachs. I'm really sorry to everyone today, I didn't expect so many people to come." If it were a hotel, they could add tables, and the suite could fit four tables, so the family members would have to sit down later. Shu Yan and the others were friends who came to help cook, so they were considered family today.
"It's okay, they didn't say it was bad, did they?" Wu Xiuyue asked with a smile.
"Everyone says it's delicious. They thought I hired a chef from a hotel." Lin Hui served the dishes she had saved, and the group ate together.
"Thank you all for your hard work today, please eat more." Lin Hui's mother-in-law kept putting food on everyone's plates.
"We can serve ourselves, Auntie, please don't be shy," Shu Yan said with a smile, holding her bowl and stepping aside.
"I've already eaten a little, you all should eat quickly. We really owe you all a lot today, otherwise we would have been too busy." Grandma Lin Hui was very hospitable, and she even packed a lot of untouched dishes for them when they left.
Shu Yan went home and took a shower. She couldn't help but look at herself in the mirror. She had lost a lot of weight in the past month or so. She now weighed 112 pounds. Her face was thinner, and she looked much more energetic.
Most importantly, all the spots on her face are gone, and the scabs have slowly healed, leaving only a faint mark that can be easily concealed with a little powder.
"Mommy," Tianbao said, hugging his mother's arm as he asked, "When can we go horseback riding again?"
Last time Hu Ruixue took them to the manor, they played in the small amusement park in the morning, had lunch on the lawn, and went horseback riding in the afternoon. Since then, the child has been longing to go again.
"It's so cold outside now, let's wait until spring to go."
"But we'll have to go back to school after the New Year," Tianbao pouted.
“Don’t you have weekends at school? You guys went out to play last weekend too.” Shu Yan pinched his nose. “Go and read with your sister. You’ve had so many days of vacation, have you written a single word? Have you memorized a single vocabulary word?”
"Mommy," Tianbao said sweetly.
"Being cute won't work, go read your book." Shu Yan sent Tianbao away and was about to put on a face mask and lie down for a while when she heard the doorbell ring.
Who is it?
"Is this where you applied for telephone installation?"
"Yes, it's my home. I applied more than a month ago, and it's finally my turn." Last time when the store applied, it took about ten days to install the equipment. Shu Yan thought the speed was slow enough, but she didn't expect it to be even slower at the end of the year. She waited for almost a month and a half.
"You're still fast; if you're unlucky, you could have to wait up to six months."
As soon as the phone was installed, Shu Yan immediately called Shu Jianyang, "This is the phone number of my new home. I'm just letting you know, so please write it down and call me later."
"What? 10,000 yuan? Are you trying to scam me?" Shu Jianyang replied, seemingly ignoring the question.
"Third Brother, what are you saying? I..."
"Huh? Nine thousand? Boss Wang, I've taken so much goods from you, and you suddenly raised the price. That's not fair! Don't give me any more nonsense. Just stick to the original price of five thousand. I won't pay a penny more."
With a click, Shu Yan's phone was hung up.
...
"Who called you? Was it that brat Shu Yan?" The original owner's mother, Lin Zixiang, wanted to bring over her mobile phone to take a look.
Shu Jianyang raised his hand to avoid her outstretched hand. "Second Aunt, this mobile phone of mine costs more than 20,000 yuan. If you break it, will you pay for it?"
Faced with the unruly Shu Jianyang, Lin Zixiang could only suppress her temper and say ingratiatingly, "I'm just in a hurry."
"He's my only customer. Didn't you hear that? I've been getting my goods from him, but he saw that my business is doing well and wanted me to raise the price. He didn't even bother to find out who I, Shu Jianyang, am. How dare he try to cheat me? I'll bring a bunch of my brothers and break one of his arms and legs. Let's see if he dares to do that again," Shu Jianyang said viciously.
Lin Zixiang and Shu Jianbin swallowed hard. Lin Zixiang immediately smiled and said, "I didn't doubt you. I'm just too worried. She's a woman with two children and so much money on her. What if she gets scammed? And that child is so heartless. He didn't tell us, his parents, about the divorce. He left without even saying goodbye. We don't even know where he is now. How can I, as his mother, not worry? I worry during the day and cry at night. If something happens to him, it'll feel like my flesh is being ripped off."
No matter how much Lin Zixiang cried and pleaded, Shu Jianyang insisted that he did not have Shu Yan's contact information.
There was nothing they could do; neither Lin Zixiang nor Shu Jianbin dared to cause trouble for Shu Jianyang, and even the original owner's father didn't dare.
Shu Yan waited here for a long time before finally receiving a call from Shu Jianyang.
“Your mother and brother were here just now,” Shu Jianyang explained.
"I guessed it. What do they want from you? Are they trying to find out about me again?" Shu Yan couldn't help but sneer. If she didn't have that much money, she probably wouldn't even give them a second glance, even if she starved to death outside.
Shu Jianyang sighed, "No matter what, she's still your mother. Is she really not coming back for the New Year?"
"I'm not coming back. I was thinking of sending some money back to them, but now I think I'll pass. I can take care of them when they get older." She was determined not to go back.
"Alright, take good care of yourself out there, and call me if anything happens." Shu Jianyang thought of his second uncle and aunt's behavior and stopped trying to persuade them.
"Don't worry, I'll take good care of myself. You take good care of yourself too."
On the way back, Shu Jianbin asked Lin Zixiang unwillingly, "Shu Jianyang really doesn't have Shu Yan's phone number?"
"Of course he knows. Ye Zhiqiang said that if it weren't for Shu Jianyang, they wouldn't have gotten divorced. So much money, most of it must have been taken by Shu Jianyang. Otherwise, how would he have bought a house and a car? And now he's running such a big business, it must all be your sister's money. That good-for-nothing, she doesn't know how to ask her own brother for this kind of thing, she asks her distant cousin. I'll beat her to death when she gets back." Lin Zixiang felt anxious and restless just thinking about that money.
“But what’s the use if he doesn’t say anything? We definitely can’t do anything about Shu Jianyang’s money. Where did Shu Yan go with so much money? China is so big. If she doesn’t come back on her own, we won’t be able to find her.” Shu Jianbin was just as upset. So many houses! If the three brothers each had one, and with all that money, they could each get hundreds of thousands and never have to work again.
"I don't believe she won't come back, hmph..." Lin Zixiang said confidently.
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