Chapter 93: Chapter 90: The Clever Kid Crossed a Mountain

Yang Liying gratefully grabbed Lin Lan’s hand. “Lin Lan, thank you!”

Seeing her grateful expression, Lin Lan smiled. “Liying, you’re being too polite.”

Yang Liying laughed too. “Alright, enough of that. Let’s get to work.”

“Ah!” Lin Lan slapped her forehead. “I was so busy talking, I forgot to have Zhixue take some zongzi home.”

Yang Liying teased with a smile, “I smelled the fragrant zongzi long ago! I just figured you were being stingy, so I didn’t say anything!”

Lin Lan put on a pained expression. “Of course I’m stingy, they’re two jiao each!” After a pause, she added, “The Dragon Boat Festival is over. I’m going to pay back the money I owe Eldest Sister, you, and Grandaunt first.”

“Fine, if you insist on paying it back, then go ahead!” Yang Liying had already made up her mind. As soon as Lin Lan paid her back, she would buy some fabric and make two new sets of clothes for her and Little Douzi: padded winter jackets, plus unlined and lined outfits.

Lin Lan looked at her and said seriously, “Liying, there’s an old saying: repay what you borrow, and you’ll be able to borrow again. Even blood brothers should keep clear accounts. When money matters are clear, relationships between family and sisters can last.”

Yang Liying felt she had a good point. She looked at Lin Lan with a grin and said, “Your father must have taught you quite a bit when you went home this time. Dehai says your father is a very wise man and treats people well.”

“That’s right. My dad even studied at an old-fashioned private school. He only listened in from outside the window, though.”

Smiling, Lin Lan used bamboo tongs to pull out a few zongzi for Yang Liying and her husband to taste. She also picked out three of each variety for Lin Yuezhen to deliver to the old madam, then returned to pressing bean paste for the Yundou Cake.

Yang Liying marveled at the taste as she ate the sweet, sticky red bean zongzi. “Lin Lan, sometimes I wonder if you’ve met an immortal. Your cooking used to be so awful, but now you’re a master at making all sorts of food.”

Lin Lan also felt like a divine power was at play; otherwise, how could she have arrived in this strange, unreal world? “I feel the same way. It’s like I woke up one day and my mind was suddenly filled with all sorts of new things. Things I could never wrap my head around before now make perfect sense.”

Yang Liying looked at her in amazement. “How come nothing that good ever happens to me?”

As they were speaking, Lin Yuezhen returned, carrying a pair of cloth shoes and leading a barefoot Little Douzi who was covered head to toe in mud.

Yang Liying pointed at him and laughed. “Aiyo! Look what we have here, a little mud monkey.”

The little guy was holding a broken bowl, which he presented to Lin Lan like a treasure. “Mama, Little Ming said if the chicks eat loaches, they’ll lay lots of eggs.”

Lin Lan glanced at the few loaches in the bowl, then at the wet mud covering him from head to toe, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “Son, don’t go there again. You’re too small. What if you fall into the mud and can’t get out?”

“I could have gotten out! It only came up to here,” Little Douzi said, pointing to his instep.

Lin Lan glanced at his foot, then looked up at him. “Do you remember the places Mama told you not to go?”

Little Douzi nodded. “I remember. I’m not supposed to go on the road, near the ditch, the fishpond, the canal, or any place with water. If I fall in, I won’t see Mama anymore. That place didn’t have water, so I wouldn’t fall in.”

“Okay, go with your aunt to take a bath and change your clothes,” Lin Lan said.

Yang Liying thought Lin Lan was being too gentle. She put on a stern face and looked at Little Douzi. “You need to listen. If you don’t, your Third Auntie will get a switch and spank you.”

Little Douzi looked at her and lowered his head. “I’ll remember.”

Lin Yuezhen took him to wash up, then gave him a chestnut zongzi and had him sit on the steps under the eaves to eat it slowly.

After he finished grinding the beans, Zhao Dehai took a wooden board from his back basket. It was about half a foot wide and three feet long, with an iron nail driven through it.

“Lin Lan, where are those eels from last night? I’ll help you prepare them.”

Lin Lan pointed to the backyard. “In the backyard, under the washboard.”

Zhao Dehai glanced over, grabbed a large bowl and a knife, and headed to the backyard with the small wooden board.

About ten minutes later, he came back with a bowl of prepared eel meat and set it on the small table. “All done. When you get back from the market, peel a bowl of garlic, add some pickled peppers and bean paste, and braise it. It’ll be delicious!”

“Right,” Lin Lan nodded with a smile and had Lin Yuezhen portion out nearly half of the eel to send to the old madam.

After Yang Liying finished pressing the tofu and setting the tofu pudding, Zhao Dehai left first, carrying the containers of tofu pudding on a shoulder pole.

With all the goods for the stall ready, Lin Lan found two pillow towels, scalded them twice with boiling water, placed the zongzi in a bucket, and then covered the bucket with the hot towels to keep them warm.

“Yuezhen, let’s go together today.”

Lin Yuezhen nodded. She brought over the back basket, placed the bucket inside, and covered it with a wooden basin. Then, she pointed to Little Douzi, who was sitting on the steps reading a picture book, and gestured, ’What about Little Douzi?’

Lin Lan thought for a moment. “Little Douzi will come with us.”

Little Douzi looked at her happily. “Mama, I get to go too?”

Lin Lan smiled and nodded. “Mhm! Mama has a lot of different kinds today, so we’ll all go together.”

Little Douzi happily petted Dahuang. “Be good and watch the house. We’re going to earn money to buy you a big bone.”

Dahuang gave him a pitiful look and lay back down.

Lin Lan got a plate, cut up zongzi of several different flavors into small pieces for samples, and placed the plate under the wooden basin. Then, the group set off for the Eucalyptus Forest.

They had just finished setting up their stall when Wang Zhixue found them. “Aunt Liying, Aunt Lin, you got here early!”

Yang Liying laughed. “You call this early? Come here and watch how I do it.”

“Come try some of my zongzi.”

Lin Lan gave him two, then took Little Douzi’s hand and went to give two each to Zhou Xiaohong, Li Wu, and Li Xiangyang, ordering some leaf lard from them while she was at it.

Little Douzi looked at Li Xiangyang. “You’re the uncle who brings the pork!”

Li Xiangyang nodded and ruffled his hair with a smile. “Did you have fun at your grandma’s house?”

“It was fun!” Little Douzi nodded, beaming. “Uncle, these zongzi are super yummy. I’m helping my mama sell them. Do you like zongzi, Uncle?”

“I do!” Li Xiangyang said to Lin Lan with a smile. “Your son is a real charmer.”

Lin Lan laughed. “He’s a little smarty-pants.”

Back at their stall, customers began to arrive one after another, carrying shopping baskets.

Lin Lan lifted a corner of the towel covering the zongzi and began to call out, “Selling zongzi! Fragrant and sticky chestnut and salt pork zongzi, salt pork and red bean zongzi, and sweet, sticky red bean paste zongzi!”

Hearing this, Little Douzi started calling out too, “Selling zongzi…”

The people with shopping baskets all turned to look at him. A young woman smiled at her companion. “Look at that kid, already learning how to do business at his age. Come on, let’s see how his family’s zongzi are.”

Seeing the two women approach, Little Douzi quickly said, “Mama, quick, let the aunties have a taste.” Then he told the women, “Aunties, my mama’s zongzi are super delicious. I can eat two in one go!”

The two women looked at him and laughed. “This kid is so bright.”

Lin Lan smiled and held up the sample plate. “Comrade, please have a taste. We have red bean paste, chestnut…”

After tasting one, the woman nodded with a smile. “I’ll take two of each,” she said, handing the money to Lin Lan.

The other woman said, “I don’t want the red bean paste ones. I’ll take three each of the chestnut and red bean.”

“You got it!” Lin Lan accepted the money, and Lin Yuezhen deftly picked out the zongzi and packed them into the women’s baskets.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep