Chapter 229 – “She will be back sooner or later.” (2)
After a few days of observation, Shu Yan felt that Aunty truly was a clean and hardworking person. Her cooking was delicious and the two kids liked her, so Shu Yan decided to move up her plans on making her a permanent employee.
“Um…. It’s not even a month yet….” said Aunty while twisting her apron.
“I only arbitrarily set it at one month because I didn’t know you very well. Now that the kids like you and I think you are a good worker, we don’t need the trial period anymore. I’ll just pay you 350 yuan starting this month. Pay day will be the 15th of every month. I don’t have a lot of asks, but do give me 2-months’ notice when you want to leave. It is, after all, difficult to find a good nanny,” said Shu Yan with a smile.
The 25thwas the day of Lin Hui’s move. Shu Yan went over to her place early in the morning and Wu Xiuyue was already there. This was the first time Shu Yan met Lin Hui’s husband. He was bespectacled and looked scholarly.
After she had greeted him, Shu Yan left with the others to the market.
“I have already bought some groceries yesterday when I went. All we need is to pick up some meats and seafood today.”
Naturally, Lin Hui couldn’t have a lobster on every table, not to mention that many seafood was not available at this era. And, even if they were available, Lin Hui would not want to spend that kind of money. Chicken, ducks, and fish were staples. And they also bought some beef and lamb.
Last time that Lin Hui had dumplings over at Shu Yan, she was immediately conquered by Aunty’s cooking. So Aunty was the chef today.
“We are going to have to trouble you today, Aunty.” Both Lin Hui and Shu Yan could be her assistants.
“Don’t mention it.” Aunty was particularly happy that her cooking was appreciated.
Lin Hui had a big family and they filled four full tables. Worried that the kids were too noisy, they had all the young children over at Shu Yan’s and made them food separately. There weren’t enough seats so neither Shu Yan nor Wu Xiuyue sat down at the tables.
When everybody trickled out, it was already three in the afternoon.
“Here, here, here. Have some soup to warm your stomach. So sorry about today. I didn’t expect so many people to show up.” If it was at a hotel, they could always have an extra table added, but being able to fit 4 tables was quite good already at a private residence. As such, close friends and family would have to wait till the second round. Shu Yan and the others were here to help out with the cooking today so they fell into that category as well.
“It’s fine. They liked the food though, right?” asked Wu Xiuyue with a smile.
“They all said the food was great. They even thought I have hired a chef from a hotel.” Lin Hui brought out the food that she had saved from early and the rest of the sat down to eat.
“Thank you for all of your hard work today. Help yourself.” Lin Hui’s mother-in-law continued to place food in everyone’s bowl.
“We can do that ourselves, Aunty. Thank you,” said Shu Yan with a smile as she moved her bowl out of her way.
“I’ve had some already. You guys eat more. Thank you so much for coming over to help out today. We couldn’t have done it without you.” Lin Hui’s mother-in-law was particularly friendly and even packed up lots of untouched food on their way out.
Shu Yan went home to shower and couldn’t help but looked at her own reflection in front of the mirror. She had lost more weight over the last month or so. She weighed 120 pounds now and her face was a full round smaller, making her look much more energic.
Most importantly, her spots were all gone. The spots where the scars had fell off were recovering slowly and now they were just light shadows that could be easily covered up with some powder.
“Mom.” When Tianbao saw his other, he put his arms around hers and asked, “When are we going to ride the big horses again?”
Ever since the last time they went over to Hu Ruixue’s mansion and played in the mini amusement park in the morning, picnic on the field at noon, and horse-back riding in the afternoon, Tianbao had been wanting to go back there again.
“It’s too cold outside right now. We will go again in spring.”
“But school will be starting again after the new year,” said Tianbao as he pouted.
“There will still be weekends. We went on a weekend last time as well.” Shu Yan pinched his nose and said, “You should go study with your sister. Have you even written a word since the beginning of the vacation? Have you learned one new vocabulary?”
“Mom,” said Tianbao in a whiney way.
“Whining is not going to work. Go study quickly.” After Shu Yan had sent Tianbao away and was about to apply her facemask and lay down, her doorbell rang.
