If Mom and Dad hadn’t yelled at him, he would still be excited about earning so much money all at once.
"Sigh, this is what your mother and I owe your elder brother. When your mom and I got married, I promised her that once we were married, we would take Xiao Yi to live with us. But your grandmother was stubbornly unwilling and went back on her word, always berating your mom at home. I initially planned to bring your elder brother home with us, but your mom didn’t allow it. She was afraid Xiao Yi would suffer grievances in our house."
"Hmph, if brother had come with us then, he would definitely have been wronged." Considering how their biological grandmother treated them, it’s hard to imagine how she would treat someone who wasn’t her own blood.
"Yes, but your elder brother was young then and didn’t understand these things. Afterward, he came to your mom several times asking why she didn’t want him, but what could your mom say? Even if she said it was to avoid him being wronged, your elder brother simply wouldn’t understand. Your mom could only avoid him and not see him. Later, she was caught by your grandmother, who gave her a harsh scolding. Both your mom and I weren’t there at the time and didn’t know what happened. Since then, your elder brother never came to our house again." Later, he found out Mom had called the child into a room by himself and slapped him. He didn’t know what she said to him, but it couldn’t have been anything good.
Perhaps this incident left a shadow on Han Yi, as he always had a cold face when seeing them afterward. He never took initiative to speak with them.
"Go apologize to your mom and express your attitude," Hu Bin said rather helplessly.
Obediently, Hu Dong moved to the door of Mom’s room. He hovered there for a long time before saying, "Mom, please don’t be angry. Our life is just getting a little better, and it’s not worth being upset again. I promise, I’ll be more careful in the future. Please forgive me this once, considering I’m still young. My Saozi helping my sister and me is all about wanting us to have a better life. We’re grateful to Saozi, and I keep it in mind. Mom, I will place brother and Saozi first in the future. Brother isn’t home often; I’ll go to Saozi’s place more often, so if there’s anything she needs help with, I can assist. Mom, I’m going to sleep now. Saozi wants me to get up early tomorrow."
I have to say, despite being rough around the edges, he’s pretty good at sweet-talking. A man who can sweet-talk has a promising life ahead.
What Hu Dong said today was genuine too, so later, whenever Han Yi and Lin Wan needed something, he was always the first to arrive.
Of course, that’s another story.
After returning to his room, Hu Bin went in to comfort mom for quite some time before Shen Qing’s mood improved.
Lin Wan was completely unaware of what happened to Hu Dong. She had a good sleep and got up early to help Mom prepare for the morning market.
"Mom, when did you learn to steam buns?" She used to steam them herself, though she didn’t eat much.
"Learned from Aunt Liu. She steams even better than Aunt Gui in our store."
"Mom, you’ve made too many. We can’t finish them. Besides, I don’t eat buns much in the morning." Unless Han Yi is with her, then she can eat half.
"These aren’t for us; several people recently asked if I had buns to sell. They said the weather is hot, and they don’t want to steam them themselves because they’d spoil if not eaten soon, wasting food. If there’s some for sale, they can buy them conveniently. So I thought I’d steam a batch to try. I’ve learned several batches with Aunt Liu over the past days. I specially added sweet wine paste inside. It’s very fragrant."
Lin Wan tore off a small piece and tasted it. It was indeed quite tasty.
"Mom, how much are you planning to sell them for?" These are quite large.
"I mixed some cornmeal with white flour, five cents each for multigrain buns."
Lin Wan looked and felt five cents was reasonable.
After helping Mom stir-fry dishes and loading everything onto the tricycle, she simply had a bun with some dishes.
Seeing it was still early, and the popcorn vendor wouldn’t come out until past ten.
Upon returning home, she washed the clothes that had accumulated over the past few days in their own basin. When she felt the timing was right, she took two stalks of corn and a packet of brown sugar to the entrance of the front street.