Chapter 88: CH 88

Mo Yan followed her in and started learning how to do her hair.

Ms. Zhao brushed out her hair before splitting it into two halves, “You’re just ten, so I’ll teach you how to make double buns.”

“I assume that’s easy to do, otherwise I won’t be able to do it.”

“Wrap one half of your hair around a hairpin, and that’ll be a conical bun. Try it.”

Mo Yan tried to follow Ms. Zhao’s example, but couldn’t succeed after trying so many times her hands had become sore.

“Am I just being stupid?”

Ms. Zhao sighed, “It’s not something you can learn in one or two days, you need to consistently practise.”

After trying a few more times, she finally got her hair in a bun. Mo Yan sighed deeply, “This is even more tiring than going to the fields!”

Lu Junming went in with lunch, “So would you rather learn how to do your hair or work in the fields?”

“Obviously learning how to do my hair. It’s better than being exposed to the elements.”

After having lunch at Jiaolan Courtyard, Mo Yan went back to Ms. Hua’s, not knowing if Mo Feng had gone back yet or not.

As soon as she entered the courtyard, she heard Ms. Hua talking to Mo Feng, “Even if you don’t help out, you shouldn’t ruin the food we have here!”

He replied, “All of this food is my family’s, I can ruin it however I want. What can you do about it?”

“How can you speak like this, this can all be sold for money.”

“The money is my family’s anyways, it’s none of your business. Scram!”

Mo Yan saw Mo Feng sitting in the courtyard with a bamboo basket in his hand. Scattered around him were a not-insignificant amount of dried fruits, which Ms. Hua was picking up from the ground.

“Why has all of this fallen onto the ground?” She asked.

Ms. Hua stood up straight and said resignedly, “Ask your brother.”

Mo Yan looked at the bamboo basket in his hand, and saw a mixture of various dried fruits and jerkies. He carelessly took a piece of jerky, and put it in his mouth. Then, he picked something else up, and seeing it was dried apricot which he didn’t like, he casually threw it onto the ground. So the dried fruits on the ground were all there because of him. [1]

She gritted her teeth and said, “Mo Feng, scram!”

Mo Feng dropped the bamboo basket onto the ground, spilling even more of the contents onto the ground, “Can’t I eat any of this? You’re eating delicacies all the time, and I’ve never said anything before.”

Mo Ling showed up, and instantly knew what had happened, “I hadn’t asked you to eat lunch yet because I was busy manning the storefront, are you that impatient? If these were just ours, it’d be fine, but Lu Junming also spent a lot of money on this. You were the one who ruined all of this food, so you’ll be the one to tell this to him.”

Mo Feng was wary of the mention of Lu Junming, as he knew he wasn’t his match.

He illogically tried to reason, “The dried fruits I ate are from our half!”

“If it’s our stuff, can we abide the amount of goods you’ve ruined? Even our mother wouldn’t let you off if she saw this. You aren’t eating dinner tonight, scram!”

Mo Feng looked at the food on the ground and left angrily. He felt that he had been unjustly wronged. [2]

Ms. Hua bent down to continue picking up the dried fruits, saying, “What a shame.”

The sisters thought she would think worse of them due to Mo Feng, and embarrassedly left to the storefront.

Mo Yan said, “Sis, this family doesn’t have a future, you should leave it as soon as possible!”

“Can I do whatever I want if I marry someone?”

“As long as you marry the right person, you’ll still have hope for the future.”

“Who can tell if a person’s right or wrong?”

She’s really once bitten, twice shy!

“You can tell from being around them long enough.”

As soon as they finished talking, Zhong Cheng came over in his carriage, “Ling’er, Yan’er, here’s the flour you wanted.”

He put it in the storefront. Mo Ling glanced at the back of the wall, “Zhong Cheng, do you have time?”

“Sure, what do you want me to do?”

“You’re not my family’s worker, why do you automatically assume I’m asking you to do work for me?”

“Then what else would you be asking for my time for?”

“A meal, I could be treating you to a meal!”

Mo Yan was chuckling at the side, and Zhong Cheng shook his head, “Just tell me what you want me to do.”

“Can you make a window in the back wall? Ms. Hua agreed to it.”

“I don’t have any tools for it,” he looked at Mo Ling, “I’ll borrow them from Ms. Hua, move your items away from that wall.”

He removed the carriage from his horse, and went to borrow tools from Ms. Hua. Mo Ling giggled towards Mo Yan, “Don’t you think he’s being stupid?”

“He only becomes stupid when he sees you.”

Every young girl dreamed about the geniuses and beauties the storytellers talked about, and Mo Ling was no different. Unfortunately, Mr. Tian wasn’t a genius, and Mo Ling couldn’t be really considered a beauty.

The walls of the storefront weren’t thick, and Zhong Cheng quickly made a window. For ease of transporting items, it was at roughly chest height, and it had two wooden shutters and could be latched. It was simple yet sturdy.

After he was done, Zhong Cheng brushed off the dust on his hands, then his tummy rumbled. He looked at Mo Ling, “Make something to eat! Shopkeeper.”

While calling him ‘vulgar’ under his breath, she was about to make something for lunch when Mo Yan said, “Just buy something from a restaurant, I’ve earnt quite some money from the market today.” [3]

Zhong Cheng was going back home to have lunch. Now he had been held up for so long, his belly was completely empty.

Mo Ling rolled her eyes at him, “You definitely didn’t have lunch! Why didn’t you say so?”

While she was saying that, her belly rumbled as well. She hadn’t had lunch either!

Mo Yan laughed and said, “I’ve already had lunch, so I’ll go back home first. You two deal with lunch yourselves, I don’t care if you make something or go to a restaurant.”

She knew that another argument would take place as soon as she went back home, and she steeled herself before entering the house. Sure enough, she immediately began being questioned by Mrs. Liang.

“Why didn’t you give your brother lunch after asking him for help? You only let him eat sweets, and he ate so much his throat is now sore.”

Mo Yan shook her head and coldly laughed, “He didn’t eat sweets, he utterly ruined them. Do you know how many goods he ruined on his own? How much that cost? In the future, I’m never letting him touch anything in the business.”

Mrs. Liang turned and asked, “Feng’er, what’s the truth?”

Mo Feng replied while coughing, “I just ate a little, and they told me to scram. They even did it in front of an outside and didn’t leave me any face.”

Mo Yan had already grown used to Mrs. Liang and Mo Feng by now, and didn’t want to pay attention to them. She said perfunctorily, “It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have let him help, I won’t do it again in the future.” After saying that, she went into her room.

Mo Ling only went back from town at night, and Zhong Cheng had taken her back. He dropped her off at the village entrance before leaving.

Post-translation notes: I’ll be honest, this was genuinely painful to translate.

[1] This was worse than anything I expected.

[2] Mo Feng is now truly and utterly irredeemable. Let’s hope he gets killed off soon.

[3] But hasn’t Mo Feng cost you a lot of money too?