Lin Xiaoshan hesitated a bit. Before, the things he had to eat were all hidden in the mountains, but he didn’t want to hide the 12 catties of rice in the mountains, afraid of being stolen. After thinking about it, he asked, “Auntie, can I leave these 12 catties of rice here with you for now? I’ll come back to get them when I need them.” He trusted Ning Shu a lot after getting 10 pieces of sugar and the remaining 3 catties of rice today.

Ning Shu: “Of course you can.”

“Thank you, Auntie,” Lin Xiaoshan breathed a sigh of relief, “Then, Auntie, I’ll leave first.”

“Okay, be safe walking alone,” Ning Shu escorted him to the door.

After seeing Lin Xiaoshan off, Ning Shu was tired from the day and went to bed directly.

The next day…

Last night, she slept early and naturally woke up early today. After getting up, she went to the empty room first to put the 210 catties of chestnuts on the shelf.

Editing: Wild chestnuts, divided into (105) portions, each portion (8) yuan | (2) catties.

Then she checked the balance on the app. The original 85 yuan plus the 60 yuan from selling vegetables yesterday totaled 145 yuan. Then, she looked at the five items available on the app today:

1. Local pig leg meat: 25 yuan per portion, one portion per catty, one portion remaining.
2. Local pig ribs: 32 yuan per portion, one portion per catty, two portions remaining.
3. Hand-grabbed pancakes: 6 yuan per bag, two pancakes per bag, 30 bags remaining.
4. Partially shelled walnut meat: 55 yuan per pack, 500 grams per pack, two packs remaining.
5. Local pig trotters: 56 yuan per portion, two catties per portion, two portions remaining.

Looking at these five items, Ning Shu felt a pang of pain. Except for the walnuts, she wanted to buy everything, but her wallet couldn’t handle it. It seemed like the app had stumbled upon a stash of local pig products today, with three out of five items being related to local pigs. But seeing the walnuts, Ning Shu had an idea; she could collect walnuts, as it was the walnut picking season.

Without much thought, Ning Shu immediately bought the items on the app. She bought one catty of local pig leg meat for 25 yuan, one catty of local pig ribs for 32 yuan, two catties of local pig trotters for 56 yuan, and 5 bags of hand-grabbed pancakes for 30 yuan, leaving her with 2 yuan.

After putting away the leg meat for the old house, she stewed the ribs for lunch, and she would make the pancakes later. Although she didn’t have a flat pan, making pancakes wasn’t difficult. Because the iron pan was large, she could also use the side of the iron pan.

Wow… it’s been a long time since I had hand-grabbed pancakes. Ning Shu’s mood today was particularly good.

After washing up, Ning Shu boiled a pot of water first, then prepared the ingredients for the pancakes. She added yuba, soybean sprouts, and lin hai cai, planning to make four pancakes. Then she prepared four eggs and chopped green onions… Unfortunately, she didn’t have ham, lettuce, or pickled vegetables. It was okay without pickled vegetables; she could use salted vegetables instead.

So, Ning Shu called out, “Yibao .. Yibao…”

Yibao, who hadn’t fully woken up yet, was awakened by his mother’s call. He opened his eyes, rubbed them with his small hands, and then asked towards the outside, “Mom?”

“Yibao, can you help me with something?” Ning Shu didn’t force the little child but asked him.

“Yes, I can.” Hearing his mother asking for help, he immediately put on his clothes and got up, then went to open the door. “Mom?” The temperature in September mornings had dropped a bit, and Ning Shu saw him dressed lightly.

His pants were old, so she couldn’t help but say, “You’ll feel cold dressed like that. You might get sick. Go and put on the newly made clothes and pants.”

Yibao blinked. He had a set of new clothes and pants, so he didn’t want to wear them. But he didn’t want to contradict his mother either, so he remained silent.

Ning Shu said, “There are plenty of new clothes and pants left. I made some for you yesterday. After wearing them, we won’t wear old clothes anymore. We’ll all wear the clothes I made.” As an experienced person, how could she not understand Yuba’s thoughts? When she was young, she also hesitated to wear new clothes.

“Really? Mom made new clothes and pants for us again?” Yibao’s eyes lit up at the thought.

“Yes, go and change. I’ll bring them to you.” She had only made two pairs of corduroy pants and had forgotten to give them to them.

When she brought the corduroy pants over, she saw that Yibao had already changed into the new clothes and pants. A grey long-sleeved t-shirt matched with blue denim pants, making him look handsome.

Seeing his mother staring at him, Yibao felt a bit shy and shrunk his body. “Mom, do I look good?” He asked in a soft voice, afraid his mother would say he didn’t look good.

“You look good,” Ning Shu praised generously. “Yibao is the most handsome baby in the whole village.”

Yibao pursed his lips and couldn’t contain himself; he grinned.

Ning Shu also smiled and handed him the corduroy pants. “These are for you and Yibao. When I make two more pieces later, you can wear them together. Now go to your grandmother’s house and bring back some salted vegetables. I’m going to make pancakes… Oh, and I’ll give you four pieces of gray tofu to exchange.”

Yesterday, out of the twelve gray tofu, they had eaten five, leaving seven. She took out four of them, wrapped them in oil paper, and kept the remaining three for breakfast.

“Okay.” Yibao, wearing new clothes and new pants and holding the gray tofu, went to the old house.

Old House

People from the Lin family were gradually waking up. When they saw Yibao coming, they all froze. Perhaps because they were used to seeing Yibao in torn clothes, seeing him in a new outfit today made everyone forget to speak.

“Yibao, you’re here.” It was Lin Hai Cai who broke the silence. Lin Hai Cai usually got up only around mealtime, but today, because he wanted to go to his third aunt’s house for breakfast, he got up early too. “Are you here to call me for breakfast?”

Yibao: “… No, I came to exchange salted vegetables with Grandma.”

“Oh, I see… Then later, I’ll go to your house with you. Third Aunt asked me to come to your house for breakfast this morning.” Lin Hai Cai’s words were actually a bit of reconfirmation. If Yibao disagreed, he wouldn’t go.

“Yeah, Mom made pancakes for breakfast this morning,” Yibao said.

“Are there any meat in the pancakes?” Lin Hai Cai asked eagerly.

Others also perked up their ears, they didn’t have meat to eat, but listening was also satisfying. Lin Hai Wu widened his eyes, “Wuwuwu…” He also wanted to eat meat-filled pancakes.

“Yibao…” Before Yibao could speak, Lin’s mother arrived. “Are you here for pickled vegetables?”

“Grandma, my mom asked me to exchange gray tofu for pickled vegetables,” Yibao handed the gray tofu to Lin’s mother.

Lin’s mother originally wanted to refuse, but thinking that the gray tofu had already been distributed to the Third Aunt’s house and everyone was watching, she didn’t want to be seen as subsidizing the Third Aunt’s house.

So she accepted it. “Alright.” She opened the oil paper package holding everyone’s attention, and saw four gray tofu inside. Although the gray tofu was small, they were round and well-made. Calculated at the price of steamed buns, four of them would be worth a dime.

As for pickled vegetables… about two or three cents per half a catty.

So Lin’s mother took out about a catty of pickled vegetables. “Yibao, if it’s not enough, you can come back for more.” She wanted to give more, but the problem was, she was worried that the Third Daughter-in-law wouldn’t like pickled vegetables and would throw them away.

“Okay.” Yibao took the pickled vegetables. “Hai Cai, let’s go.”

“Okay.” Lin Hai Cai followed Yibao, curious and envious. “Yibao, you’re wearing new clothes today. You look really good.”

“My mom made them. My mom said she’ll make more for me,” Yibao’s voice carried a hint of pride. In the past, everyone said his mom was bad, lazy, and treated them poorly. Now that his mom was good, treating them well, he wanted everyone in the village to know.

“Wow, Third Aunt is really nice. My mom doesn’t make clothes for me,” said the fading voice of someone, wishing her son could eat meat early in the morning.

However, the people in the old house also had some subtle thoughts.

Everyone couldn’t believe that Ning Shu had actually made new clothes and pants for Yibao.

Lin’s mother was an exception; she had seen both the pants and clothes.

Qian Aifen…

Fen’s eyes flickered, and she suddenly had an idea. “Qingmei, come here…” She called her daughter aside. “When you have free time, gather more firewood for your third aunt. Your third aunt gave you the aluminum lunchbox and shoes, so you should be grateful.” In fact, she had other intentions.

This intention arose from seeing Yibao wearing new clothes. The third daughter-in-law had given Qingmei shoes she couldn’t wear, so she must have many clothes she couldn’t wear either. Her clothes were all good quality. If she could give them to Qingmei… it would be enough for Qingmei to wear for several years.

However, she didn’t tell her daughter about this idea. If she did, and the third daughter-in-law didn’t give them, her daughter, being young, wouldn’t be able to hide her disappointment. So, it was better to keep this idea to herself.

“Hmph.” Zhang Qinfang looked at the courtyard gate and snorted coldly. Five-year-old children grow up so fast, wearing new clothes. Poor her son Haiquan, who was already seven this year and still hadn’t worn decent clothes.

…

When Yibao and Lin Hai Cai arrived home with the pickled vegetables, Ning Shu had already prepared everything and was just waiting for the final touch. As soon as the pickled vegetables arrived, she chopped them up and started making hand-grabbed pancakes. Because she only had pickled vegetables and eggs, the pancakes were made quickly.

While Ning Shu was making pancakes, Yibao went to wake up his younger brothers. When the three boys finished washing up, Ning Shu’s breakfast was ready. “Kids, breakfast is ready.”

“Coming.”

The four children entered the kitchen and saw that breakfast was already on the table.

Two bottles of warm milk were divided into four bowls. Ning Shu’s milk today was just the right temperature. Yesterday, she didn’t have much experience, so it was too hot.

The three boys’ staple food was hand-grabbed pancakes, while Sanbao’s staple food was pumpkin puree.

“Mom, the pancakes you made are different from Grandma’s pancakes.” Erbao stared at the hand-grabbed pancakes. Although they were different from Grandma’s, seeing the egg on the hand-grabbed pancakes, he knew they were tastier than Grandma’s.

“Yeah, Auntie’s are bigger, and there are eggs.” Lin Hai Cai’s concern wasn’t whether it was tasty or not, but the size and the eggs.

“Mom’s food is always delicious.” Yibao also became a little flatterer. Obviously, he had forgotten that his mom used to cook poorly. But children don’t think about these things too much.

After breakfast, Ning Shu reminded the children not to play with water or fire, then she went to the cooperative to buy toothpaste and toothbrushes!

Top of Form