Yibao and Erbao returned to the team and shared the good news that Ning Shu had agreed to the barbecue with their friends.

Upon hearing the good news, Yu Chengci and the other six friends were very happy, while Ling Jiawen and Yu Chengyuan were quite curious.

“Then, Wen Ge and the others can go buy the groceries, and you, brother, can take the others to clean the fish first,” Erbao suggested.

“Clean the fish?” Ling Jiawen asked, puzzled.

Erbao explained, “My mom said that since we’re hosting new friends, we’re the hosts, and we should take care of the arrangements. Since everyone is joining the barbecue and there’s a lot of food, we definitely need to clean the fish together.”

“Yes, we should clean the fish together,” Yu Chengci agreed.

He remembered that yesterday at the Lin family’s meal, the three brothers had mentioned cleaning the fish, so Erbao’s suggestion today seemed normal to him.

Even the others, like Zhang Mingcheng and the rest, thought it was perfectly fine.

Ling Jiawen nodded, “Then we’ll go buy the groceries, and they can clean the fish.”

“Yeah,” Erbao nodded. “Once we get back with the vegetables, we’ll take over the washing.”

Ling Jiawen thought to himself, “…I thought going to buy groceries would let me avoid cleaning fish, but now it looks like we’ll just be cleaning vegetables instead.” However, this activity was new to him; even though he didn’t like doing chores, he wasn’t against it.

So, Erbao took the middle schoolers who had money to the market, while Yibao led the elementary schoolers who didn’t have money back home to clean the fish.

When they arrived at the Lin’s house, the children greeted Ning Shu with sweet words.

“Auntie, we’re here for the barbecue.”

“Auntie, sorry to bother you.”

“You’re all welcome here. Treat this place like your own home and don’t be shy. I’ve set up the barbecue stand in the backyard. You can organize things yourselves,” Ning Shu said with a smile.

She actually enjoyed this lively atmosphere, as long as the kids were well-mannered and polite.

“Auntie, don’t worry, we’ll take care of it ourselves.”

“Yes, we still need to clean the fish.”

Yibao said, “Let’s all clean the fish together. I’ll do the gutting, and you all clean the insides thoroughly.”

“I’ll help with the gutting.”

“I don’t know how to gut a fish, so I’ll just clean them.”

Yibao said, “I’ll handle it. You guys just focus on cleaning. If you’ve never gutted a fish before, you could hurt yourselves.”

There were a total of 32 fish.

Yibao took out two to give to the butcher uncle the next day, leaving 30 fish.

With Yu Chengci and the others—six of them plus Yibao and Sanbao—cleaning them, it wouldn’t take long.

Yibao divided the 30 fish among seven people, giving four fish to each person and keeping two for himself.

The seven of them squatted on the ground in seven groups.

Yibao gutted one fish in each group, and by the time he returned to the first group, Yu Chengci was still cleaning the second fish.

It was everyone’s first time cleaning fish, so they were slow and wanted to do a thorough job.

As a result, Yibao finished gutting all four fish in front of each person before they even finished cleaning the first one.

Afterward, Yibao finished gutting his two fish and started cleaning as well.

So many children were gathered in the Lin’s yard, cleaning fish.

Even though it was work hours and there weren’t many people around, some still noticed.

They couldn’t help but glance at the Lin’s yard several times, thinking, “This new family is impressive. They’ve just moved in and already have so many kids doing chores for them.”

This isn’t right; I need to talk to the children’s parents about this.

Ning Shu had no idea that someone was planning to cause trouble for her.

She was inside the house, making juice for the kids.

Honestly, what’s a barbecue without drinks?

So she planned to make juice for them.

She had bought a lot of cheap fruit in bulk, specifically for making juice and popsicles.

Some of these fruits might not taste great, but their nutritional value is just as good as the delicious ones.

However, the less tasty fruits are actually excellent for juicing.

In this era, juicers weren’t available, so Ning Shu used a homemade juicer.

If she was juicing apples or pears, she would crush them and filter the juice.

For oranges, she used a handmade wooden tool shaped like an umbrella.

She would cut the orange in half, press it against the top of the “umbrella,” and the juice would flow out.

This kind of tool is common in modern times, usually made of plastic and bought online, but Ning Shu had to make hers with wood.

Humming a tune, she was in a good mood.

At the Market

Erbao led Ling Jiawen and Yu Chengyuan to the eggplant stall first. “I’m telling you, grilled eggplant is super tasty. If you pair it with noodles and minced garlic, it’s the best thing in the world.”

Actually, eggplant is best paired with vermicelli, but since they didn’t have any at home and Ning Shu didn’t know how to make it, she used noodles instead.

It was still delicious.

Ling Jiawen was practically drooling. “Is it really as good as you say?”

Why had he never heard of this way of eating before? He felt like he’d wasted his fifteen years of life.

“Of course! We’ve had it several times. We can’t have it often, though, because people talk.” Erbao still couldn’t understand why people would gossip about something like that.

“No one will talk anymore,” Ling Jiawen reassured him.

In fact, people in the compound had always been tactful and wouldn’t comment on what others ate; everyone knew the unspoken rules.

And now, with the college entrance exams resuming and policy changes, people were even less likely to gossip.

“Yeah,” Erbao nodded as he led the two of them to the stall where they had bought eggplants in the morning. “I want eggplants—let’s see…” He calculated for a moment; there were eleven of them, so one jin (around 500 grams) per person. “We’ll take eleven jin.”

The vendor hesitated. “Are you sure you want eleven jin, little comrade? Didn’t you just buy some this morning?” She remembered Erbao because it’s hard to forget a group of three kids, especially with two of them being twins.

“Yes, but this is for dinner. There are eleven of us,” Erbao said confidently.

Eggplant was so tasty that having one jin per person was perfectly reasonable. If they weren’t eating other dishes, even one jin wouldn’t be enough for him.

The vendor looked at Ling Jiawen and Yu Chengyuan, who were a bit older. “Are you sure you need eleven jin?”

Although Ling Jiawen and Yu Chengyuan knew where the market was, it was their first time buying vegetables.

Without hesitation, they chose to trust Erbao. “We’ll go with what he says.”

Since buying vegetables didn’t require coupons and wasn’t rationed, the vendor sold them the eleven jin.

Normally, people wouldn’t buy such a large amount at once.

This wasn’t during the three-year famine, and there was no shortage of vegetables. Plus, buying too many at once could lead to spoilage if not eaten in time.

Eleven jin of eggplant was more than anyone expected, but Erbao had come prepared—he had brought a sack from home.

For eleven people, a sack was necessary.

Once the vendor weighed the eggplants, Erbao pulled out the sack. “Auntie, put them in here.”

The vendor poured the eggplants into the sack, and Erbao hoisted it onto his shoulder.

“Let me carry it,” Ling Jiawen said, feeling embarrassed to let an elementary school student carry something so heavy.

After paying for the eggplants, he took the sack off Erbao’s back.

Erbao didn’t argue; he wasn’t the type to fuss over manners.

After buying eggplants, Erbao said, “Let’s get some potatoes too. Grilled potato slices are really delicious. I like them with bean paste on top; it’s incredibly tasty.” The family had bean paste, bought in bulk by Ning Shu, which didn’t spoil easily and was often used for breakfast or steamed with minced meat or other ingredients. The whole family loved it.

“I’ve had bean paste before. Our housekeeper brought some from her hometown. It’s really good, but it was gone in a couple of days. The housekeeper said that beans aren’t abundant in the countryside, and most people wouldn’t use beans to make bean paste because it requires oil,” Yu Chengyuan mentioned.

“I don’t know about that. Our bean paste wasn’t homemade; it was bought by my mom,” Erbao blinked. “And fermented tofu is also really tasty.”

Although he hadn’t had fermented tofu in a long time because it was hard to find.

At the potato stand, Erbao ordered 11 pounds of potatoes.

Compared to the 11 pounds of eggplants, no one said anything about the potatoes.

Potatoes keep well, and some families mix them with rice as a staple food, so buying them in bulk is common.

Next, Erbao bought 11 pounds each of green vegetables, mushrooms, radishes, and cabbage.

With six 11-pound bags totaling 66 pounds, Ling Jiawen and Yu Chengyuan began carrying them.

It turns out that 66 pounds wasn’t heavy for two 15-year-olds, even though they hadn’t done much heavy work before.

They could manage it, but the bulkiness of the 15-pound vegetable bags made them awkward to carry.

Seeing them struggling, Erbao was a bit disdainful and said, “I’ll do it.”

He took the bags from them and slung them over his shoulder.

Ling Jiawen and Yu Chengyuan gaped in surprise. “You… not only are you fast, but you’re also strong,” Ling Jiawen was astonished.

He could carry 66 pounds too, but not as effortlessly as Erbao. “You’re fast and strong. You could really be an athlete.”

Erbao responded, “The kids in our residential compound are all strong.” He mentioned several friends like He Jiaxing who were also strong from doing farm work since they were young.

Hearing Erbao talk about the residential compound again, Ling Jiawen sighed, “Your compound really is a remarkable place.”

Nevertheless, Ling Jiawen and Yu Chengyuan couldn’t just watch a young elementary school student carry 66 pounds of vegetables alone.

They joined in carrying the bags as well.

By the time they arrived at the Lin’s house, Yibao and the others had already cleaned the fish.

Yibao looked at the vegetables they bought and widened his mouth in surprise. “Did you buy too much?”

Erbao said, “Not too much. We got eggplants, potatoes, green vegetables, cabbage, mushrooms, and radishes—one pound of each for each person.”

Yibao: “…”

Sanbao: “…”

Ning Shu, who had come out to check on the noise, silently went back inside.

Just washing these vegetables would take a lot of time.

Originally, Yibao was supposed to handle the fish while Erbao, Ling Jiawen, and Yu Chengyuan washed the vegetables, but with the amount of vegetables bought, it was clear that three people wouldn’t be enough.

So, the 11 people neatly lined up in the yard to wash the vegetables.

This scene, of course, was noticed by others.

They wondered if all the kids from the large courtyard were involved in washing things for this household.

Indeed, the observer recognized Ling Jiawen!