Chapter 29: CH 29

At home, Mo Yan took out the salted eggs and steamed them with the porridge for lunch. There were eighteen of them in total.

Mo Ling and Mo Feng had both come back, but Mrs. Liang hadn’t yet, so she still didn’t know what had happened at the Lu family’s.

Mo Feng immediately entered the kitchen. When he popped open the lid of the pot containing the porridge and saw the salted eggs, she was overjoyed. Mo Yan was forced to restrain him before he could eat any.

“These are to be sold. You can only eat the ones that are cracked.”

Fortunately for him, two of the salted eggs cracked when steaming, and he took those to eat. Mo Yan put the others in a straw basket to deliver to the Cao family in the afternoon. Speaking of the Cao family, they hadn’t repaid the medicine fees to them yet!

“Sis, we forgot about the medicine money we still haven’t repaid the Cao family yet! How can we ask for money for these salted eggs?”

Mrs. Liang just returned then, and said, “Then we’re just unfortunate. We only have your weak body to blame. We’ll just use these salted eggs to pay for the medicine fees; I’ll send them over to the Cao family in the afternoon.”

When it came to the Cao family, Mrs. Liang was unusually enthusiastic. She set off immediately after having lunch.

Mr. Cao hadn’t come back yet, but Cao Zhang had just finished lunch and was still at home. Mr. Tian was there as well.

Mr. Tian wasn’t from the village, so the Cao family was responsible for his food. He had just finished his lunch as well.

He asked about Mo Feng, and Mrs. Liang replied, “My son’s a poor student, and there’s no way he’s passing the imperial examination. He won’t be going to school anymore because his dad will take him to the city to earn money next year. I was just planning on telling you that!”

“That’s good! If he can help out with your family’s financial situation, Miss Mo Ling won’t have to work as much anymore.”

Why did he randomly start talking about Mo Ling? However, Mrs. Liang quickly dismissed that train of thought.

Ms. Li came out from the kitchen, “Mrs. Liang, you’re here. Are you here to deliver the salted eggs?”

“Yes, these are the ones that have already been salted and steamed.”

Mrs. Cao came out from her room. Not a single strand of her hair was out of place, and none of her clothing even had a single crease.

“Mrs. Liang, I’m sorry I had to make you run all this way in this heat. How much does this cost?”

Mrs. Liang smiled widely, “It’s just a few eggs, don’t worry about it. After all, we haven’t paid Mr. Cao back for the medicinal fees yet!”

Mrs. Cao let a faint smile appear on her face, “We’re all from the same village. It’s fine.”

She still hadn’t let Mrs. Liang in after all this time. Ms. Li took the straw basket and took it to the kitchen, returning the empty basket.

“I’ll go back first. If you want more salted eggs, just send someone over to tell me.”

When she turned around, she saw Cao Zhang and complimented him, “Young Mr. Cao, you’re a good student and you’re handsome. You’re truly excellent.”

Mrs. Cao covered her mouth with a handkerchief and lightly rolled her eyes at her, “He’s just exceptional in Chenzhong Village. He wouldn’t have a chance to showcase his talents in the capital at all!”

That implied she was confident Cao Zhang would pass the imperial examination and become an official in the capital. She hadn’t put Chenzhong Village in her eyes at all.

There were rumours that her family was well-off and she had relatives who were officials in the capital already. She had probably gotten many connections already.

Tomorrow was a market day, and Mrs. Liang was wondering if they should do business in the market as she got back home when she saw Mo Yan sitting under the tree in the courtyard.

“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you taking a nap?”

“How’s the business from the Lu family?”

When she raised this topic, Mrs. Liang couldn’t help but sigh, “Who knows! Lu Junming doesn’t want to go, but his father is insistent.”

When Mo Yan went back to her room, she saw Mo Ling was sewing, and was halfway done with making a girdle. However, it was grey and it didn’t seem like it was made for a girl.

“Sis, who are you making this girdle for?”

‘Myself.”

“Then you should use yellow, I saw it in your sewing basket! Why are you using grey? It looks so old-fashioned!”

“What do you know!” Mo Ling said angrily, but a faint blush appeared on her face. If Mo Yan was a ten-year-old girl, she really wouldn’t know anything, but she had been a woman in her twenties in her past life. It was clear to her that her sister liked someone.

The sky was alight with fiery clouds, and half of it was dyed red. Mo Yan looked at the sky excitedly, “Sis! Look!”

Mo Feng had left his room, and even his face had been dyed by the fiery clouds, “It’s not that rare. Don’t be so dramatic!”

Mo Ling looked at the sky and smiled, “Mum, let’s go to the market tomorrow!”

She replied from the kitchen, “Ok, then chop up the onions and pickled vegetables. Instead of surviving on the goodwill of others, we should earn money ourselves.”

By that, she meant the Lu family. As long as they went back home from the market on time tomorrow, they would be able to make lunch.

Mo Feng realised something and said, “Judging from the sky, tomorrow will be a sunny day.” [1]

Mrs. Liang said, “Still, bring an oil tarp and some umbrellas. We can block out the sun even if we can’t block out the rain.”

Mo Ling went to find some wooden sticks to tie to their wheelbarrow, so they could hang their oil tarp above it. Mo Yan went to wash and chop the onions while her sister worked on the pickled vegetables.

The Mo family was thinking about the future around the kitchen table.

Mo Ling said, “Mum, don’t make too much flatbread; it doesn’t taste good cold. Bring some dough instead, and we can cook them on site if needed.”

Mo Yan interjected excitedly, “We could make it thin and make fried pancakes. They taste even better!”

“What are pancakes? Why do you say all these strange words?”

“Sorry, I’ll show you how to make them tomorrow.” [2]

“Alright. Tomorrow, Ling’er is responsible for buying the meat. Don’t buy pre-cut meat, we can cut it thinner ourselves to make it seem like there’s more meat in each portion.”

Mo Ling responded in the affirmative.

The next day, Mrs. Liang and Mo Ling had already finished cooking the flatbread when Mo Yan woke up. Unexpectedly, Mo Feng had woken up on his own as well.

Mrs. Liang said with heartache in her voice, “Son, why did you wake up so early? You don’t have school and you don’t have to gather medicinal herbs either!”

“I’m going to the market with you. I’m good at arithmetic and I can help you collect money!”

These words made Mrs. Liang as happy as a clam. “Good, you just have to help us collect money and calculate how much we got!”

Although they wouldn’t be getting any money for their work at the market, the two sisters were still happy. At the very least, their mum would be nicer than usual.

After they finished preparing, the four of them went to the market. They went to the same place as last time, and the vendors next to them greeted them.

Mo Ling had immediately went to buy the meat, and returned by the time Mrs. Liang had lit the stove. When she opened the paper bag, there was a piece of smoked meat, but also a lot of different miscellaneous bits.

Mrs. Liang’s face darkened, “We’re making wraps, why are you buying these bits of miscellaneous meat and intestines?”

Mo Yan smiled even wider, “It’s a wrap. It’ll taste even better with these various bits.”

Post-edit notes: I feel like this is going to be good, especially for Mo Feng. This is more character development than everyone else combined had received up until this point!

[1] Mo Feng’s using that knowledge from school. I had no idea he actually learnt anything from there judging from how poor of a student he was made out to be.

[2] Please give us more reminders that Mo Yan’s actually a transmigrator, because I always keep on forgetting. The ‘transmigration’ portions of her character are directly opposing the ‘non-transmigration’ portions of her character.