“Eating candy won’t fill your tummy when you’re hungry. How about some pastry instead? Wait for yours.” Li Fei said, then went to the counter to get a piece of pastry and stuffed it into his little hand.

Ning Shu didn’t stop her. This pastry was soft, even if the child ate the whole thing, it wouldn’t choke him because it would soften in the mouth. “Sanbao, thank you, aunty.”

Sanbao took a small bite of the pastry with his millet teeth: “T-thank you Auntie.” Then he gave another smile.

“No need to thank me.” Li Fei had a son and a daughter, but they were already at the age where even the dog found them troublesome, so they weren’t as cute as Sanbao.

After teasing Sanbao for a while, she softly asked Ning Shu, “Are there any more tangerines this time? Or any other fruits will do.”

“Wait until mid-month, it won’t be so soon.” She had pears in her app, and only pears had been available for the past half month, but apples and tangerines hadn’t come out again.

To keep the pear fresh, she hadn’t taken it out, so the three Brothers hadn’t had any fruit for about ten days since they finished the apples last time.

But they did have a piece of cow biscuit sandwich every day.

“I’ll wait for it in half a month then.” Li Fei had tasted the tangerines last time and they were delicious, so she was still looking forward to Ning Shu’s fruit quality.

“I’ll definitely save some for Sister Li. Oh, Sister Li, do you have children’s shoes here? For a five-year-old and Sanbao.” Ning Shu asked. She couldn’t make shoes, and the shoes for the three brothers had already worn out.

She had noticed, but she didn’t know how to make them. So she just thought about buying them again when she had the chance.

“Such small children grow their feet quickly. If you know someone, you can ask them to make shoes from unused clothes, which fit better and also save on fabric coupons. When my child was young, it was my mother and mother-in-law who made his shoes.”

Ning Shu thought about it; there were a lot of leftover scraps from clothes that didn’t fit at home, and indeed, she could ask someone to make shoes out of them, saving on fabric coupons.

She could use the fabric coupons later to buy winter clothes for the three Brothers.

 “Thank you for reminding me, Sister Li. I’ll ask someone to make them later.”

“What’s there to thank me for, being so polite.” Li Fei didn’t think much of it.

Ning Shu didn’t chat with her much either; it was already past four o’clock, she had to go home.

…

“Sanbao, don’t move.” Ning Shu was riding the bike properly, but suddenly Sanbao behind her moved, and when he moved, her body would sway along with it.

Sanbao heard his mother’s words but still moved, “Mom… mom…”

Ning Shu had no choice but to stop and then took the basket down, “What’s wrong?”

Sanbao pointed behind, “Mom…”

Ning Shu followed his pointing and was somewhat surprised. Wasn’t that Lin Xiaojing?

Lin Xiaojing was walking on the road and naturally saw a bicycle passing by her side.

She saw the other person riding a brand-new bicycle and took a few more glances. However, when the other person passed by her side, she didn’t see clearly who it was.

Now that the other person turned around, she realized it was this bad woman Ning Shu.

Ning Shu felt a bit embarrassed towards Lin Xiaojing. After all, the original owner had done such things. If you said the original owner was excessive, she wasn’t, either.

She had given Lin Xiaojing hairpins, hair ties, and candy and then told her to pour this medicine into Lin Guodong’s drink, so she could become her sister-in-law. When she became her sister-in-law, she would still give her hairpins, candy, and hair ties.

Then Lin Xiaojing went to do it. But one was 16 and the other was 13.

The original owner wasn’t deceiving, but it was true that Lin Xiaojing was only 13 at the time, and she had been raised as the only girl in the family, so she was relatively innocent.

Therefore, Ning Shu felt embarrassed towards her, but she didn’t feel guilty. What did the original owner’s actions have to do with her? But since they met, it was the original owner who took advantage of her young age first, so she politely greeted her, “Xiaojing, I’m going back to the brigade. Do you want to ride with me? I’ll give you a lift.”

“No need for your fake kindness.” Lin Xiaojing refused without hesitation.

She walked past Ning Shu, took a few steps, then stopped again, looked at the bicycle, “Is this your bike?” Although she was angry at Ning Shu, she was still attracted by the bicycle.

Ning Shu didn’t hide it, “Walking to the town and county is too tiring, so I bought a bike.”

“Wasteful!” Lin Xiaojing cursed, “You’ve squandered all my brother’s money.”

“That’s my man’s money, why are you concerned about it?” Ning Shu asked with a laugh, “Your brother doesn’t care.”

From that letter, it was clear that even if she asked for another 250 yuan, Lin Guodong would definitely give it to her.

“I’m not concerned!” Lin Xiaojing retorted loudly. She was just feeling sorry for her brother.

“Oh, then you stay here, I’ll leave first.” Ning Shu rode her bike. She still had to go back to cook dinner.

“You…” Lin Xiaojing watched as Ning Shu really rode away on her bike, feeling furious.

She watched as Ning Shu got further and further away, and as Sanbao peeked out from the basket and looked at her, she became even angrier.

When Ning Shu returned to the brigade, it was still early, only ten minutes to five, not yet time to finish work.

However, the people working in the fields by the roadside saw her riding back on her bike, so the gossip started again.

“The person who just rode the bike over must be Guodong’s wife, right?”

“Yes, Guodong’s wife. This bike is different from the one I’ve seen before, the ones I’ve seen have a crossbar in the front.”

“The ones with the crossbar are men’s bikes, women’s bikes don’t have a crossbar.”

“Do you think Guodong’s wife’s bike was bought or given by someone else?”

“It’s brand new, it should have been bought, right? Guodong sent a letter in the morning, probably sent the money in the morning, and went to buy it in the afternoon.”

“The ones with crossbars can seat an extra person, so they’re definitely better than those without crossbars…”

Ning Shu rode her bike directly home. When she got home, she dropped the basket on the ground and collapsed.

Although she wasn’t tired from the journey, her shoulders were exhausted.

“Mom… mom…” Sanbao had been in the basket all afternoon, “Mom… want… want…”

Ning Shu didn’t react when she heard him say “want.” Then she saw a stream of water flowing out from the bottom of the basket, followed by a strong smell of urine.

Ning Shu widened her eyes, “Sanbao?” She reached out to take a look, only to see Sanbao opening his legs in the basket and urinating.

After Sanbao finished urinating, he shook his butt and then opened his hands, “Mom, carry…”

Ning Shu wanted to refuse. If she had been a moment later, this little brat would have ended up wetting himself. “Are you finished peeing? Is your pants wet?”

Sanbao shook his head. “Finished, all done.”

Ning Shu reached out, lifted him out of the basket, and placed him on the ground. She then examined his black cloth pants. Due to the limited space in the basket, his legs couldn’t spread apart, so both his pants and shoes were damp.

Even his underwear was soaked with urine.

Helpless, Ning Shu had to remove his pants and shoes.

Sanbao’s underwear was made by Ning Shu herself.

Although children his age usually wore split pants, Ning Shu was worried about the abundance of mosquitoes and bugs in the countryside. If he got bitten while wearing split pants, it could jeopardize his future happiness.

So, even if his underwear got wet and needed to be washed multiple times, Ning Shu would still make sure Sanbao wore it.

However, Sanbao was very smart. He knew how to indicate when he needed to pee or poop. This time, he probably held it in for too long because he couldn’t make it in time.

Thinking about it, Ning Shu rubbed Sanbao’s head.

“Our little Sanbao had to endure so much at such a young age.”

Sanbao lifted his head, not understanding why his mother was patting his head, so he followed suit and patted his own head.

Ning Shu carried the naked Sanbao to the kitchen, placed him on a mat on the floor, then took a wooden basin and filled it with hot water from the thermos, diluted with some cold water.

Using a cloth made from old cloth, she wiped Sanbao’s bottom, then carried him back to the room shared by the three babies and dressed him in fresh underwear and cloth pants.

Ning Shu had made many pairs of these cloth pants. They were convenient for children to play in when buttoned tightly at the bottom. She had made several pairs not only for Sanbao but also for the other two babies. She had no old clothes left in their wardrobes; she had either altered them all or turned them into mops for cleaning. Some were set aside for future use.

After dressing Sanbao in his new pants, Ning Shu resumed cooking dinner.

She placed the rice on the stove, then waited for the charcoal underneath to heat up before adding Sanbao’s bamboo tube porridge.

The porridge contained meat, specifically the ribs left over from the stir-fried rice cakes she had made for lunch. She had intentionally saved a piece to cook porridge in the bamboo tube for dinner.

Then, Ning Shu inspected the snails she had collected in the morning. After soaking them in well water for the entire afternoon, they had expelled a lot of dirt. She scrubbed them several times and changed the water several times until they were clean.

Next, she took scissors and trimmed off the tails of the snails, making them easier to eat. While some people preferred using toothpicks to eat snails, which was more civilized, using the mouth to suck them was more flavorful.

Ning Shu placed the cleaned snails in the kitchen. She then took out two packets of pre-marinated Orleans chicken wings from the app, each containing 20 wings. These wings needed to be consumed within two days; otherwise, they would go bad.

Deciding to cook ten today and ten tomorrow, Ning Shu planned to prepare fried snails and grilled wings for dinner. Since there was no cola, she would settle for some Arctic Ocean soda.

Outside in the yard, the two brother returned with their little baskets. However, when they reached the doorstep, they froze.

“Brother…” The Er Bao called out to the first, “look…”

The bicycles in the yard were so conspicuous that even without looking at it directly, Er Bao could see them. He dropped his little basket and ran towards the bicycles, his previously exhausted arms and legs suddenly gaining strength.

“Hmm…” The Yi Bao, with a similar speed to his younger brother, also ran to the bicycles.

“Brother, is this the bicycle?” Er Bao asked with excitement, forgetting about his basket. He wanted to reach out and touch it, but Yi Bao stopped him.

“Wash your hands before touching,” Yi Bao reminded.