Chapter 93: When Adults Are Bad, There’s No Limit

An entire afternoon of steaming mantou and buns left Jing Xi with an aching back.

This job was really not easy—no wonder Tian Jun looked so much older than her age.

But despite the hard work, Jing Xi performed exceptionally well. Every batch of buns and mantou she made turned out perfectly, astonishing Zhao Shunli and Tian Jun.

They both agreed that she hardly needed any training at all.

As the afternoon shift began, Jing Xi set aside the buns that Zhou Jiwen had ordered and then joined Tian Jun and Zhao Shunli in selling the rest.

Unlike in the morning, the afternoon shift didn’t require setting up tables and stalls for breakfast customers. She only needed to help hand out buns through the window, which made the work significantly lighter.

But of course, “lighter” was only relative.

One person handled the money, another handed out the buns, and the third served as backup support. Without any prior planning, the three of them naturally found a rhythm and worked seamlessly together.

Jing Xi’s role for the day was backup support, which surprised Tian Jun.

As the last few buns were being sold, Zhou Jiwen finally arrived to pick up his order.

Forty buns and a large portion of spicy pickled vegetables—Jing Xi had even prepared the pickles herself.

When Zhou Jiwen saw Jing Xi standing in the window, wearing an apron, mask, and gloves, he couldn’t help but admire her. She looked so small, yet she carried herself with such capability.

In his heart, he thought to himself, Li Tao really has good taste.

Aside from being a little young, Jing Xi seemed to have no flaws.

She was hardworking, had a good head on her shoulders, wasn’t afraid of tough work, and—most importantly—she was ridiculously good-looking!

Wait a minute.

Was being young even a flaw?

As he watched Jing Xi hand out the buns, he found himself thinking: If Li Tao were just a bit older… He’s 24. That’s not too old, right?

Wait, wait!

What was he even thinking?!

Zhou Jiwen! Get a grip on yourself!

Jing Xi, noticing Zhou Jiwen spacing out with a scrunched-up expression, frowned. She handed him the buns, but he didn’t take them.

“Officer Zhou! Officer Zhou!”

She had to call him several times before he snapped out of it.

“Ah, sorry, sorry! I got lost in thought for a moment.”

Jing Xi nodded in understanding. “No worries, I get it. You guys must always have casework running through your heads. Here, your buns—want to double-check the count?”

Casework? Yeah, right!

His face turned red.

Zhou Jiwen quickly grabbed the buns and awkwardly shook his head. “No need! It’s always more, never less.”

“Alright then! Take care, Officer Zhou!”

Zhou Jiwen quickly said goodbye, hopped onto his bicycle, and rode off at full speed.

Jing Xi muttered to herself, “Cops sure have it rough. Can’t even buy buns without thinking about cases.”

Tian Jun sighed, “That’s just how it is—every job is exhausting in its own way.”

“Right? There’s no such thing as easy money.”

Tian Jun blinked. “Huh? What’s ‘money’?”

Jing Xi chuckled. “I mean, there’s no such thing as easy money to earn.”

For an entire week, Jing Xi followed the same routine—checking in at the village office in the mornings and then taking the bus to the bun shop in town.

Finally, on the eighth day, the young accountant that Xie Aiguo had mentioned arrived.

Though she was called a “young girl,” she was actually two years older than Jing Xi—already twenty.

She had a stylish short haircut and a round face.

She wasn’t very tall, about the same height as Jing Xi, and her skin was strikingly fair.

Jing Xi couldn’t help but wonder—was a round face a standard feature? Why did so many girls in this era have round faces? They looked so cute!

Her name was Cao Xinyi.

In an era when names like Xin Yi and Zi Han hadn’t yet taken over, and when Jun, Guo, Xiu, Tao, Li, Juan, and Qiang were still the norm, her name sounded particularly fresh and charming.

“Hello, I’m Cao Xinyi. You can call me Miss Cao Xinyi!”

She extended a fair, chubby hand—but despite her plump hands, Cao Xinyi herself was quite slender.

Just one look at her hands, and Jing Xi thought, These are the hands of someone with good fortune!

“Nice to meet you, Miss Cao Xinyi. I’m Jing Xi, and you may call me Miss Jing Xi!”

Cao Xinyi’s face lit up with a bright smile. “I didn’t expect to meet a kindred spirit!”

Jing Xi grinned. “’Kindred spirit’—that’s a good phrase! Miss Cao Xinyi, you must be quite well-read.”

Cao Xinyi felt a little embarrassed and tugged at her white clothing. “Ahem, does reading picture books count as being well-read?”

Jing Xi nodded. “Of course, it does! It’s just a different kind of knowledge, but it’s still knowledge!”

Ms. Cao Xinyi laughed. “I like the way you talk—I like you! Seems like this job won’t be so bad after all. If I had known there was someone as interesting as you here, instead of dealing with a bunch of old men all day, I wouldn’t have dragged my feet for so long before coming!”

Jing Xi smiled. “Is there a story behind that?”

“If you want to hear it, I can tell you!”

Jing Xi had no resistance to gossip. “Go ahead!”

Cao Xinyi nodded. “Actually, after graduating from vocational school, I could have worked as a teacher—a primary school teacher. So I went for it.”

“But after two months, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Those kids were too much! Having accidents in their pants during class was the least of my worries. They tattled all day—every single day! Sometimes the same kid would snitch four or five times in a single day!”

“My head was constantly filled with noise—chattering, whining. Even in my dreams, I’d hear, ‘Teacher, I had an accident,’ or ‘Teacher, so-and-so pulled my hair,’ or ‘Teacher, someone stole my peanuts,’ or even ‘Teacher, someone went to the bathroom on the floor.’”

“And most of the parents? They didn’t care! Some kids would have accidents in their pants, go home, and their parents wouldn’t even change them! The next day, they’d come back wearing the same soiled clothes. The whole classroom reeked! In the dead of winter, when it was already freezing, we had to light a stove to keep warm. But because of the smell, we had to open the windows for ventilation!”

It was clear that Ms. Cao Xinyi had endured a long battle with elementary school students. Once she started talking, she couldn’t stop.

Jing Xi listened, utterly fascinated, with an endless stream of new phrases popping up in her mind.

By midday, she had been laughing so much that her stomach hurt.

“Sorry, I’m not trying to laugh at you! It’s just so funny—I never imagined kids could be so much trouble! So, did you end up quitting?”

Cao Xinyi’s expression turned bitter as she held her face in her hands. “I quit because I had a fight with a student’s parent… Kids can be annoying, but at least there’s a limit. Adults, on the other hand, can be downright awful.”

“That parent was a complete idiot. He didn’t pack lunch for his kid, so I gave the child my own meal. But later, the kid got an upset stomach, and the parent came to school demanding I compensate him!”

“That family was poor, and the kid was often hungry. So I’d share my lunch with her from time to time. But then her dad stopped bringing her lunch altogether! He figured she could just eat mine and save food at home. Once or twice, fine—but how could he just keep taking advantage of me like that?”

“Besides, how much can a little kid even eat? A six or seven-year-old only eats about a bowl of rice! And yet, her dad wouldn’t even pack that for her. Later, I found out that their family wasn’t just poor—they valued boys over girls. Even with such strict birth control policies, they still had three kids! And all three were daughters!”

“Can you believe it? He wouldn’t bring his daughter food, and I couldn’t just let her watch other kids eat, so I kept sharing mine. Eventually, my mom started packing me extra food every day. The day the kid got sick was because my mom had packed me a few pieces of braised pork. I didn’t want to eat them myself, so I gave them all to her. But since she hadn’t had much rich food before, her stomach couldn’t handle it, and she ended up with an upset stomach…”

Jing Xi’s eyes widened in shock. “There are really parents like that?”

Cao Xinyi sighed. “You only realize it after becoming a teacher—some kids live really tough lives. And some are just plain annoying! I just couldn’t handle it, so I quit. My parents scolded me so badly for it. They said it was such a good job—respected, well-paid, and a stable government position—and I just threw it away. They kept asking me what I wanted to do instead—go back to the countryside and farm?”

“But they couldn’t force me. Later, they heard that this village was hiring an accountant and wanted me to take the job. I kept stalling, but in the end, I couldn’t handle my mom’s constant nagging at home. So, here I am today!”

It was clear that Ms. Cao Xinyi was a straightforward person—her rapid-fire storytelling made that obvious.

Jing Xi patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. This job is as easy as can be. There’s hardly anything to do. The salary might not be as high as teaching, and there are no summer or winter breaks, but in terms of relaxation? It’s way better! Plus, it’s just you and the village chief in the office. If you don’t want to see him, you can work in another room—no one will stop you!”

Cao Xinyi looked skeptical. “Is it really that easy?”

“It really is!”