Chapter 97 - 33: "Cultured Person

Chapter 97: Chapter 33: "Cultured Person

Tie Chui’s jaw dropped. "She’s so little but already so scheming!? How terrifying!"

"Yeah, yeah. You should stay away from her from now on. Be careful, or she’ll trick you out of your candy," Er Zai said with grave seriousness.

Tie Chui nodded furiously. "Got it!"

With a look of deep gratitude, he said, "Er Zai, you’re a true friend."

"You’re my true friend, too," Er Zai replied.

"Did you have any watermelon?"

Tie Chui nodded eagerly, his little face beaming. He licked his lips, his voice bright and clear like a sparrow’s cheerful chirp in spring, filled with pure joy. "I did! Did you? The watermelon was so sweet and delicious! Even better than the wild strawberries on the mountain."

"My mom bought it in the county town," Gu Erzai said without missing a beat.

Lin Zhao brought out some dog food for Dahuang.

Dahuang looked up at her owner. Her head was a mess of missing fur and exposed pink skin, looking as if it had been ravaged by a typhoon. She was so ugly it was hard to look at her.

She nuzzled her head against her owner’s knee before burying her face in the food.

Amber shoved her head straight into the bowl, eating noisily and so eagerly that she nearly tipped the whole thing over.

Dahuang gave a low growl, and when the pup didn’t listen, she smacked her with her right paw. The little one tumbled over and let out a pitiful whimper.

"Huh?" Da Zai’s eyes went wide. "Dahuang hits her own baby?!"

His expression was adorable. Lin Zhao suppressed a laugh. "Of course. When a child is naughty and makes a mistake, its mother has to teach it a lesson."

"Mom has never hit us." Da Zai carefully concealed the little spark of joy welling up inside him, his body swaying unconsciously. "It must be because we’re good, so Mom never spanks us."

Tie Chui chimed in, "I’m good too, but my mom still spanks me."

Da Zai asked, "Why does your mom spank you?"

"Because I wet the bed," Tie Chui said honestly.

Er Zai made a little noise in his throat like a small animal, shocked. "You still wet the bed?! My brother and I stopped doing that ages ago!"

Tie Chui quickly waved his hands, explaining, "Not anymore! It was back in the winter."

Er Zai immediately fell silent. He had wet the bed last winter, too. "It’s okay. Grandma says it’s normal for kids to wet the bed. We’ll stop when we get bigger."

Lin Zhao was dying of laughter. The way the children discussed the topic so seriously, with their innocent words, was absolutely hilarious.

That afternoon, the Gu family’s third household had braised pork ribs. Dahuang and her pup also got to feast on meaty bones. The mother-daughter duo ate so happily their tails wagged into a blur. They wouldn’t trade this life even for an immortal’s paradise.

Dahuang had been a hero today and absolutely had to be rewarded.

After their meal, Dahuang led her pup to their doghouse, which Father Gu had built. Her patchy fur rose and fell with each breath, and she let out an occasional soft rumble. Basking in the evening glow of the setting sun, she looked utterly content.

The two little ones were playing beside them. Just as the toddlers were about to fall, Dahuang shot up and rushed over to steady them.

"Such a good girl, Dahuang," Lin Zhao said, stroking her head.

Dahuang’s tail wagged even faster.

「The next morning.」

Around six o’clock, Lin Zhao woke up. After washing up, she braided her hair and changed into a light green dress. It had a Peter Pan collar with a ruffle that looked like it was cut from two thin sheets of mint paper. On her feet, she wore the white, round-toed leather shoes Gu Chenghuai had bought for her. They had a fashionable square buckle strap across the top and looked very chic.

She had just finished applying her face cream when Mother Gu came over.

Seeing Lin Zhao’s outfit, she was taken aback for a second. But instead of saying anything discouraging, she praised her. "You look so nice dressed like that. You look just like a city girl."

Lin Zhao smiled graciously. "I’ll be troubling you from now on, Mother."

Mother Gu thought to herself that her third daughter-in-law was truly worthy of her high-school education; she really knew how to talk. She quickly smiled and said, "What’s so hard about looking after my own grandsons? You’re the one who’ll have it hard, dear. You just focus on your job and leave Da Zai and his brother to me. There are so many people in the old family house, how could we possibly fail to look after a few kids?"

Not to mention, her third daughter-in-law had provided a generous amount of rations for the boys. The Gu family’s other two daughters-in-law had no objections whatsoever; in fact, they wholeheartedly supported the idea of taking care of Da Zai and his brother.

Lin Zhao cooked two bowls of dried noodles, garnished simply with a few green vegetables and chopped scallions. She added a dollop of meat sauce and fried two eggs to go with it. The aroma was divine.

"Mother, one bowl for you and one for me. Let’s eat quickly before the noodles get soggy."

Mother Gu opened her mouth to say something, but seeing Da Zai’s mother already digging in, she closed it again and started eating her noodles.

’She’d lived for over half a century and had never eaten noodles this white. And the egg... it was fried in oil, wasn’t it? It smelled heavenly.’

"Zhaozhao, you’re such a wonderful cook," Mother Gu said. ’The ingredients are good, of course, but her third daughter-in-law’s cooking is truly top-notch.’

Lin Zhao wasn’t modest at all. "Of course. I never really learned, I just know how to do it. And the food I make tastes good, too."