Chapter 38

When Chen Shi said this, combined with Zheng Shi’s previous actions of slamming and scolding, Shen Cui roughly understood her intentions.

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It’s actually a bit difficult to handle this situation.

First of all, Shen Cui was a lonely person in her past life and had no experience dealing with relatives.

Both of Shen’s brothers had contributed a lot when Mu Er Pang was finding a teacher.

But when it came to personal favors, she couldn’t let her nephew join in just to repay favors—Zheng Shi observed it, and she observed it too. Both boys from the Shen family were born after Mu Er Pang. The older one, Shuanzi, was eight years old and born to Chen Shi. The other, Zhuzi, was younger and six years old, born to Li Shi. They were two little monkeys who could play with mud all day.

Moreover, the system initially arranged for her to cultivate candidates based on the original owner’s family relationships. Even Mu Er Pang, who had not yet become enlightened, could become a candidate, but these two children couldn’t, indicating that they were completely unteachable when it came to studying.

To say this directly would hurt their feelings, especially with the whole Shen family present. Shen Cui was hesitating about how to word it and naturally didn’t notice that her eldest nephew’s hand had already reached for the lid of the sand pot.

Just as Lao Buyu said, “Don’t,” it was already too late. The moment Shuanzi lifted the lid of the sand pot, a complex and unpleasant smell surged out.

Shen Cui and Mu Er Pang had both experienced the smell of freshly cooked stinky tofu, so their faces remained unchanged.

Wei Xi had already been forewarned, so he wasn’t affected much.

On the other hand, the rest of the Shen family had all changed their expressions, covering their noses or fanning the air.

Zheng Shi, who usually doted on Shen Cui the most, even felt nauseous and quickly looked away.

Especially for children, their sense of smell was the most sensitive. As soon as Shuanzi lifted the lid of the pot, he immediately slammed it back down and shouted, “It’s so stinky, so stinky!”

So Chen Shi’s words were choked back in her throat. She glared at Shuanzi with a look of disgust. “We’re talking here, what are you interrupting for?!”

Shuanzi shrank back at being scolded, murmuring in defense, “I, I didn’t do anything wrong, besides, this was brought by Aunt Du. Why are you scolding me?!”

Since they were about to serve Lao Buyu and the two children, Shen Cui didn’t bother pretending anymore and lifted the lid of the sand pot again.

Immediately, the sickly green vomit-like substance was revealed to everyone.

The adults were somewhat better, but Shuanzi and Zhuzi immediately screamed when they saw it and jumped off their chairs, running away.

Chen Shi forced a smile and said, “Didn’t I tell you to take a break? Why did you specially make this pot…”

“It’s dumpling soup,” Shen Cui interrupted, stirring it with a large spoon. “Today is a happy day, so we’re having dumplings to celebrate. It’s quite fitting.”

Despite Chen Shi’s intention to flatter Shen Cui, when she saw the sticky mess in the pot, she was at a loss for words.

“Come, everyone have a bowl. Once you’re done, I’ll put it away.”

Even though Lao Buyu had said he wanted to eat it after finishing his meal, now that the lid had been lifted, affecting everyone’s appetite, they decided to just drink it and be done with it.

After all, with system outputs, as long as you ate it, the taste would disappear.

Mu Er Pang and Wei Xi immediately obediently handed over their bowls.

Lao Buyu had long accepted his fate of not being able to escape and sighed. He also picked up the small bowl in front of him and handed it to Shen Cui.

Shen Cui filled a small bowl for each person and handed them back.

Seeing this, the Shen family members by the dining table couldn’t bear it and all looked at Zheng Shi.

After all, Zheng Shi was the head of the family, as long as she spoke, Shen Cui naturally wouldn’t serve such things to others.

However, Zheng Shi pretended not to notice, swallowed her saliva, and suppressed her nausea. “What are you looking at? Do you want to drink too?”

The Shen family members then looked away, no longer staring.

Wei Xi still thought it was his fault for not watching the fire properly, causing the cute and chubby dumplings to turn into the horrifying soup in front of him.

So, even though the dumpling soup smelled bad and looked terrifying, he closed his eyes, raised the small bowl, and without even chewing, quickly drank it all, waiting quietly for the taste to come back up. At the same time, he told himself that even if it was terrible, he couldn’t vomit in front of others, lest it hurt Mrs. Mu’s feelings.

In this respect, Wei Xi was quite confident, as he had been accustomed to various medicinal soups since childhood, so he believed he could endure more than the average person.

However, what surprised him was that after drinking the dumpling soup, there was no disgusting taste that came back up. It just tasted like ordinary vegetable soup—salty, oily, not delicious, but compared to bitter medicinal soups, it was much more palatable.

Seeing that they had all drunk it, Lao Buyu and Mu Er Pang naturally didn’t hesitate anymore and quickly finished their small bowls.

Mu Er Pang was the most tolerant of Shen Cui’s cooking skills. After finishing, his eyes brightened, and he sincerely praised, “Mom, this time it’s not bad at all!”

Both students were so able to endure hardships. Lao Buyu, as their teacher, naturally didn’t want to fall behind and reluctantly agreed, “It’s indeed not bad.”

At least he managed not to vomit!

[System Prompt: Emotional Intelligence +1 for Candidate 1, Physical Fitness +1 for Candidate 2.]

Shen Cui smiled and covered the sand pot, not feeling embarrassed or apologetic at all. She said cheerfully, “See, I said my cooking skills would improve. I’ll often cook for everyone in the future.”

Lao Buyu glanced at the others at the dining table and felt embarrassed to embarrass Shen Cui in front of everyone, so he chuckled awkwardly and agreed.

Afterward, Shen Cui carried the sand pot into the kitchen to prevent this unappetizing dish from continuing to affect everyone’s appetite.

She went in first, and Zheng Shi followed.

Now that only the mother and daughter were left, Zheng Shi no longer pretended to be angry. She smiled and said, “No wonder people say that studying makes you smarter. You’ve been influenced for a few days, and you’ve indeed become much smarter. Thanks to you making this dish, otherwise, your sister-in-law’s words at the dining table would have left you in a difficult situation. Let me tell you, this time, when your sister-in-law talks about letting Shuanzi and Zhuzi study, you must not agree.”

Shen Cui naturally nodded.

Zheng Shi immediately went out again. She was afraid that Chen Shi was not yet satisfied and would skip Shen Cui to talk directly to Lao Buyu, so she had to keep an eye on things outside.

Shen Cui, on the other hand, didn’t leave. She wasn’t worried about not being able to handle her sister-in-law; rather, she was curious about the system’s response—

[System: “Master Lao and the two children have each finished a bowl, right? Why hasn’t the task been completed yet? Did they not eat enough?”]

The system laughed, a genuine human-like laugh. It laughed several times before struggling to stop, and then replied, still stifling a chuckle, [“Please carefully read the task details, ‘Please cook a meal for the whole academy.'”]

[“Just this sentence, and I still have to read it carefully?” Shen Cui grumbled with the system, but then quickly stalled. “Don’t tell me, ‘the whole academy’ includes me as the head.”]

The system was still smiling. [“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. With the entire academy united as one, sharing joys and sorrows, as the head, the host should take responsibility, right? Wasting food is shameful. Please, finish all the remaining dumplings… soup.”]

Shen Cui had nothing else to say. She could only reluctantly open the sand pot again.

…

As Zheng Shi had said, Chen Shi was indeed not satisfied.

After Lao Buyu was invited to start eating, the meal officially began.

Chen Shi, pretending to feed her son, took some dishes and went to find Shuanzi.

Children are forgetful, and since they had avoided it later and didn’t see Lao Buyu and Mu Er Pang drink the dumpling soup, Shuanzi and Zhuzi had already forgotten the disgusting scene they had seen earlier while playing in the yard.

Seeing his mother bringing over a lot of food, Shuanzi immediately hurried over, opening his mouth wide, saying he was hungry.

As Chen Shi fed him, she whispered in his ear, “What did Mom teach you at home? Let you get closer to your aunt. How come you only know how to play and forget everything?!”

Shuanzi, eating meat voraciously, mumbled, “I haven’t forgotten! But Mom… Aunt’s food smells so bad and disgusting, I don’t want to eat it! I’m scared!”

Chen Shi glared at him angrily and said, “What are you afraid of!”

After scolding him, she continued to persuade him, “Your aunt has always been lazy since she was a child and hardly cooks throughout the year.”

“But Aunt said she would cook often in the future…”

“Your aunt cooks for your father and your brother, not for you. If she doesn’t eat the food herself, what are you afraid of? As long as she doesn’t eat it, you don’t have to eat it either!”

Chen Shi knew she was being watched by Zheng Shi. Although she had managed to insert a word earlier, after the interruption with the dumpling soup, Zheng Shi’s eyes had never left her.

Until now, she hadn’t been able to say a word to Lao Buyu.

She was afraid that if she did anything more, Zheng Shi might come back to deal with her.

But the child was different. Zheng Shi doted on the younger generation. As long as it was Shuan Zi who took the initiative, Zheng Shi would not blame him. Moreover, Shen Cui was treating her like an aunt, so it was even harder to refuse.

Therefore, Mrs. Chen was especially patient and continued coaxing, “Look, your older cousins are studying. We have so many delicious dishes at home today. And in the future, there will be even better food, too much to count. Don’t you want to live like that?”

Like mother, like son, Shuan Zi was also a little glutton.

In his heart, he didn’t really want to study, but the thought of being able to eat delicious food regularly if he studied made him nod and say, “Then I’ll go find Aunt!”

Mrs. Chen smiled and said, “That’s my good boy. If you behave well today, Mommy will buy you two sticks of candied haws when I go back today, with the thickest sugar coating and the biggest hawthorns!”

As she said this, Mrs. Chen noticed that Mrs. Zheng was already glaring at her. She quickly put down the bowl and chopsticks, pushed Shuan Zi in the direction of the kitchen, and then hurried back to the dining table.

Shuan Zi once again remembered the words Mrs. Chen had taught him, and then happily bounced into the kitchen.

At this time, in the kitchen, Shen Cui thought that since she had to finish the remaining half pot by herself, she didn’t need to get another bowl. She simply scooped out a lump of brown-green, sticky stuff from the pot with a big spoon and ate it.

Because she ate quickly, the brown-green soup even soaked her lips, leaving a strange stain running down her mouth.

When Shuan Zi came in and saw this scene, he almost forgot his own mother’s name, let alone the words she had taught him. He stood there dumbfounded, trembling lips asking, “Aunt, what are you… what are you doing?”

Shen Cui, who was in the kitchen, heard a few words from Mrs. Chen outside, and smiled at Shuan Zi, “Eating dumpling soup, everyone in the ‘Academy’ has to eat it. Shuan Zi, do you want to…” Before she could finish, Shuan Zi turned around and vomited!