The system responded, “Yes, typically, other hosts would follow the advice and dispose of the failed dishes.”

You see, this side quest is a blatant trap, just to trick her out of her shopping points!

After complaining to the system for a while, Shen Cui remembered to ask Mu Er Pang why he had come back today.

“Grandma asked me to come back. I also brought back a lot of good stuff!” Saying this, Mu Er Pang pulled Shen Cui to look at the packages in the hall. The larger one was naturally for Mu Er Pang, and Shen Cui…

She unpacked the smaller package and smiled casually, “You little rascal, did you want to empty your grandma’s house when you went there? One big package wasn’t enough, so you had to bring a small one too?”

Mu Er Pang said it wasn’t like that and added, “This isn’t mine. Grandma gave it to me when she sent me to the village entrance.”

As he spoke, Shen Cui unfolded the small package. Inside were surprisingly all food items—there were five salted duck eggs, and two oil-paper-wrapped items, one being a piece of salted pork and the other a salted chicken.

Both Shen Cui and Mu Er Pang were surprised. Mu Er Pang said, “Why are there so many delicious things? Grandma said to bring them back to feed the dogs, but I told her we don’t have a dog. She said as long as I pass on her message to you, you’ll know. Mother, are we getting a puppy?”

Shen Cui: …

…

It was New Year’s Eve, and Shen Cui had already cleaned the house in preparation for the coming days. The bedding had been taken apart, washed, and dried.

When Mu Er Pang returned, he naturally headed straight for his favorite kang (a heated brick bed).

He laid the warm quilt over himself and sighed comfortably.

After Shen Cui lit the kang for him, he got so warm that he stuck his chubby feet out from under the covers, shaking them in contentment.

Shen Cui chuckled and patted him, and then the mother and son sat together, chatting affectionately.

Before long, the system issued a new main task.

[System task: As part of literacy education, the study partner is ready to start learning to write. Please accompany him in practicing writing.]

[Task deadline: Ten days.]

After issuing these tasks, the system displayed on the screen the kind of handwriting practice that would meet the requirements.

The task did not require Mu Er Pang to become a master in ten days; as long as he didn’t intentionally scribble or write messily, even if the writing was crooked and uneven, it would pass.

Shen Cui had thought the system was taking too long to issue tasks earlier, but now that the task was issued, she felt a bit reluctant looking at Mu Er Pang lying comfortably on the kang.

This was a child who was willing to eat even the stinky tofu for her. Today was New Year’s Eve. How could she bear to lower his mood value?

Anyway, there was still plenty of time. It would be the same to start after the New Year.

With this in mind, Shen Cui simply took out the handwriting practice sheets and ink and told Mu Er Pang that these were prepared for him while he was away.

They could start practicing after the New Year.

Mu Er Pang curiously flipped through the practice sheets and soon said, “Then why wait until after the New Year? We don’t have anything special to do today. Can’t we start practicing today?”

While a child’s eagerness to learn was a good thing, Shen Cui hesitated, thinking about Mu Er Pang’s low mood value a few days ago. “Don’t you want to play for a few more days?”

Mu Er Pang shook his head. “No, I’ve been playing for several days already.”

So, Shen Cui started practicing handwriting with him.

The practice sheets provided by the system corresponded to the introductory reading materials from before, consisting of three copybooks.

Each copybook selected the simplest characters from among the three hundred characters, totaling thirty pages, with each character needing to be practiced nine times per page.

In total, Mu Er Pang needed to write two hundred and seventy characters.

It was no wonder the system had given such a generous amount of time for the task. On average, Mu Er Pang needed to write about twenty-seven characters a day.

But he had to write three pages, which meant twenty-seven characters.

Mu Er Pang was most familiar with the Three-Character Classic, and he had a rough idea of many characters in it, so he said he would start with that.

Although Shen Cui didn’t know calligraphy, she still had basic knowledge. She didn’t let Mu Er Pang start writing directly; instead, she first taught him how to hold the brush and then let him dip it in water and practice on the table.

For a child who was just beginning to recognize characters, it was more like learning to draw than writing.

With one patiently teaching and the other slowly learning, by noon, Mu Er Pang could at least manage to write somewhat horizontally and vertically.

After that, Shen Cui let him write directly, but Mu Er Pang hesitated.

He knew that the practice sheets were precious. He vaguely remembered that his older brother had one before, which cost their family a lot of money and even caused a big argument between their parents.

He searched around the house and finally found a piece of scrap paper under the table leg.

It was what his older brother Mu Yunchuan had used to practice writing. The paper wasn’t good, but Mu Er Pang started writing in the empty corners and corners.

Unlike writing on paper, writing on ink and paper was easier to smear and harder to control.

Especially compared to the characters left by his older brother, Mu Er Pang’s writing looked like scribbles.

He kept writing on that scrap paper until there was no space left. Mu Er Pang stopped, feeling discouraged, saying he couldn’t write well.

Shen Cui felt sorry for him, and told him that just like how you can’t become fat in one mouthful, you have to practice day by day. The practice sheets are meant for practice. If you don’t practice on paper, how can you write well?

“Really?”

Since Mu Yunchuan wasn’t around, Shen Cui made up a story, “Your older brother’s handwriting was similar to yours when he started learning to read. But look at how well he writes now after practicing for so long.”

Mu Er Pang naturally believed her and stopped worrying. He focused and started copying the characters.

There’s an old saying that goes, “Don’t talk about people during the day, and don’t talk about ghosts at night.”

Just as Shen Cui mentioned Mu Yunchuan, her eldest daughter-in-law Zhou came to visit at noon, whom she hadn’t seen for many days.