Chapter 40

“Hey, how many oranges should we eat?” Hearing his older brother say he’ll go get them, Erbao became excited. “Brother, can we eat three? One for you, one for me, and one for Sanbao.”

Though Yibao decided to go get them, he didn’t dare to take too many. “Let’s have one first, and when we finish it, we’ll get more.”

“Okay,” Erbao had no objections.

Yibao took the keys from around his neck. The lock in the house was originally installed in a place accessible to adults. It was a brand new old iron lock with the words ‘serving the people’ engraved on it. It came with two keys.

However, the position was unreachable for children, so Ning Shu lowered the lock to a height reachable by the kids.

Yibao unlocked the door and went into the kitchen.

There were no locks on the cabinets. The three-tiered cabinet had bowls on the first tier, with no wooden boards, just crossbars, so the water would flow out if any spilled, directly onto the floor. A few drops of water wouldn’t make a mess, and the bowls wouldn’t collect any water, staying clean.

The second and third tiers were for food. Yibao was too short to reach the food placed on the second tier.

However, the oranges he wanted were not in the cabinet but in a sack on the ground. Yibao opened the sack and pulled out the largest orange. Actually, the oranges bought in bulk were small, so small that you couldn’t even tell their sizes with the naked eye.

But Yibao believed he had picked the biggest one.

Yibao took the orange out, and his two brothers immediately looked at him expectantly. Yibao smiled, “Wait a moment, I’ll peel it first.”

Though the oranges were small, their peels were thin. Yibao peeled one, and the scent of oranges wafted out. After peeling it, he gave a slice to Erbao first, then broke another one, peeled off the skin, revealing the orange segments, and gave it to Sanbao. “Sanbao, here you go.”

“Okay,” Sanbao responded loudly. Holding the orange with both hands, he began sucking on it, taking small sips. Sanbao liked to suck on oranges. When he sucked all the juice out, he would finish eating.

Yibao watched his two younger brothers enjoy their oranges happily and then had a slice himself.

The three brothers sat under the eaves, each enjoying their orange slice.

When Ning Shu arrived, this was the scene he saw. “Yibao, Erbao, Sanbao…”

The bicycle came to a stop at the gate of the yard, and upon hearing their mother’s voice, the eyes of the three brothers widened suddenly.

“Mom…” Erbao dashed out like a bullet. “Mom, I’m starving! Why did you take so long?”

Sanbao, not as quick as Erbao, finished sucking the orange juice in his hand first before slowly getting up. “Mom…” he called out, his voice was soft, and his steps unsteady.

“Mom, you’re back?” Yibao’s eyes also lit up, but he didn’t step forward. Instead, he helped Sanbao up.

“It’s my fault. Are you hungry? Have a bowl of porridge to fill your stomach first.” Ning Shu parked her bicycle, took off the basket, and then took out a bottle of red bean and bird’s nest porridge from it.

She had bought it on an app before, 6 bottles for 70 yuan, bought 5 sets, a total of 30 bottles. She hadn’t taken them out before, but today, knowing she was late, she knew they must be hungry, so she had to take it out.

It was in a glass bottle, 252 grams per bottle, similar to the bird’s nest red bean porridge she had eaten in her past life during her twelfth summer.

“Mom, what’s this?” Erbao held the bottle of red bean and bird’s nest porridge, a drop of liquid flowing from the corner of his mouth, immediately licked back by his tongue.

“…This is red bean porridge. You can eat it with your brothers. Go on, eat.” Ning Shu carried the basket inside.

“Mom…” Yibao led Sanbao to Ning Shu’s side, feeling somewhat nervous.

“Yibao, you’ve taken care of your brother well. Are you hungry? Go have some porridge with Erbao to fill your stomach. I’ll cook something later.” Ning Shu said gently.

Yibao shook his head. “Mom, I’m not hungry. I… I… I was hungry just now, so I took an orange to eat.”

Ning Shu was about to speak when she heard Sanbao say, “Hungry, want to eat. Guoguo (referring to himself) wants to eat.”

Sanbao was still reminiscing about the taste of the orange. “Sweet, delicious.”

“Delicious, I ate some too,” Erbao added.

Ning Shu smiled. “Okay, if you want to eat, take it yourself. You are the masters of the house, and you can take whatever you want to eat. But whatever it is, you must not eat too much; it’s not good for your stomach.”

Seeing that Mom wasn’t angry, Yibao breathed a sigh of relief, and then he smiled too. “Got it, Mom.”

Mom wasn’t angry and even said they were the masters of the house, and they could take whatever they wanted to eat.

It was really great.

Taking this step beyond the line had changed Yi Bao’s mood as well. He watched as his mother carried the basket into the kitchen, the light in his eyes shining brighter.

“Brother, come and eat this,” Er Bao had already twisted open the lid of the red bean and swallow’s nest congee. “Brother, come on, come on.”

“Coming…” Yi Bao led San Bao over.

“Eat, eat, eat, eat congee.” San Bao clapped his hands, happily taking small steps.

Although Ning Shu was cooking inside, her stomach was also empty, so she ate the red bean and swallow’s nest congee while cooking.

It was already late, and she didn’t make anything else, just planning to make an egg fried rice.

It only took 20 minutes to cook rice in the iron pot. Ning Shu naturally didn’t get full with just one bowl of red bean and swallow’s nest congee; she could eat three servings of this kind of congee in one meal. Fortunately, the rice cooked quickly. Once the rice was ready, she made the egg fried rice. Although there were no ham sausages, she cut some cured meat. Egg fried rice with cured meat, eggs, and bok choy, and she also made a seaweed soup.

The seaweed was also bought from an app before.

After cooking, Ning Shu shouted outside, “Babies, it’s time to eat.” The three of them couldn’t get full from just one bottle of red bean and swallow’s nest congee.

Ning Shu only gave them one bottle because she didn’t want them to get full; if they were full, they wouldn’t be able to eat lunch.

“Coming, coming…” Yi Bao and Er Bao had been waiting for San Bao for a long time.

Today’s egg fried rice was made in two batches. Ning Shu made egg fried rice for herself and Yi Bao and Er Bao.

The rice was cooked to the normal softness. However, for San Bao, because he was young, Ning Shu added more water when cooking, so the rice was much softer.

“Mom, this rice is really delicious.” It was the first time Er Bao had eaten egg fried rice, and although he cherished it like before, eating it one bite at a time, he was faster now, his mouth full of rice.

“This is called egg fried rice, it’s eggs and rice fried together,” Ning Shu explained.

“Delicious, Mom, delicious.” San Bao handled the wooden spoon very skillfully, holding the small spoon firmly. He took a small bite of egg fried rice, then a small sip of seaweed soup, and his small mouth didn’t stop.

More importantly, the way this child ate was still very polite, not a single grain of rice fell out. It was completely different from when he had just started using a wooden spoon.

“Delicious, I’ll make it again next time,” Ning Shu said.

After dinner, Ning Shu finished cleaning up and started preparing for dyeing fabric. Yes, dyeing fabric.

When she first saw black on the army green fabric, Ning Shu thought of dyeing. She wanted to add yellow and blue to this piece of fabric, army green, black, yellow, and blue.

These four colors mixed together would dye the fabric the color of camouflage uniforms in the future.

Of course, dyeing fabric this way would be different from professional dyeing, but in this era, the requirements for color were not that high.

Ning Shu was a designer’s assistant in her previous life, and designers had high requirements for fabric.

So Ning Shu often went to factories to find various materials. She couldn’t say she knew fabrics very well, but she had a basic understanding, including her own ideas about color saturation.

However, dyeing fabric was a first for her. Even if she knew the color scheme of camouflage uniforms, dyeing for the first time was not simple.

The whole afternoon, Ning Shu dyed five times before getting the color of the camouflage uniform. She recorded the data very clearly each time she mixed the colors. After she was satisfied with the color on the fifth try, she dyed all the fabric in this color.

She didn’t buy much fabric; she had only come to experiment, so she didn’t buy a lot.

After dyeing, the fabric was left to dry. This kind of fabric needed to dry for a month before it could be used.

After dyeing the fabric, Ning Shu walked out of the empty room, feeling extremely sore.

She saw the three children playing in the yard and sat down under the eaves. “San Bao, come here and give me a back rub.”

San Bao happened to be holding a fabric ball. When he heard his mother’s words, he threw the fabric ball and staggered over.

Using both hands and feet, he climbed onto the cement ground where Ning Shu was sitting, then stood behind Ning Shu and began rubbing her back skillfully.

Ning Shu was surprised. “San Bao, you’re amazing. You still remember how to give a back rub.”

She had only taught him yesterday, and she didn’t expect San Bao, so young, to still remember.

“Mom, I’ll give you a back rub too,” Yi Bao followed closely behind San Bao.

Ning Shu didn’t refuse either. “Then you can give me a back rub.” San Bao didn’t have much strength, so it didn’t feel as good. She picked San Bao up. “San Bao, you can rub my legs.”

San Bao looked at his mother, not quite understanding. He had only rubbed her back before.

“Mom, I’ll rub your legs.” Er Bao squatted down beside Ning Shu and started rubbing.

Seeing Er Bao, San Bao seemed to understand what it meant to rub legs, so he squatted down and started rubbing Ning Shu’s other leg.

Someone passed by Ning Shu’s door and saw the scene inside. Unable to help it, they muttered, “She really is a lazy woman, actually making boys rub her back and legs. Even the landlord’s wife wouldn’t act like this.”

Ning Shu saw the person walk past her door and even saw them glare at her. Ning Shu raised an eyebrow, thinking that person must have cataracts.

The Next Day

Ning Shu got up early today because she had to go to the written test workshop. She got up early, ate breakfast with the three children, gave the kitchen key to Yi Bao, and took out three cans of red bean and swallow’s nest congee and three oranges on the table.

“Yi Bao, Er Bao, San Bao, I’m going to the county today, but I don’t know when I’ll be back. If you’re hungry, eat this. If there’s not enough on the table, the congee is next to the oranges, help yourselves. Also, no playing with water or fire, understood?”

“Mom, I understand. I’ll take care of my brothers and wait for you to come back,” Yi Bao obediently replied.

“Mom, then you should come back early. I want to eat with you,” Er Bao said.

San Bao hugged Ning Shu’s leg. “Eat together.”