No one had a habit of having three meals a day in the village. Everyone was busy with work and didn’t have the means to do so. It was even more impossible for many children to have breakfast. Every day, they would probably go to school without even washing their faces or removing their eye boogers. Only Mu Jingzhe was used to eating breakfast. Also, in order to guarantee the kids’ nutrition, she put in the effort to prepare breakfast for them every day.
There were miscellaneous grains, vegetables, and fruits in it. The menu varied from day to day, but it was always delicious.
As the kids ate their breakfast, they became increasingly determined to leave with Mu Jingzhe.
Shao Qihai had not eaten breakfast since he was young. He’d only gotten used to it after leaving the village. However, since it was troublesome for him to make it himself, he no longer ate breakfast upon returning.
After eating the warm bowl of porridge, he looked at the children, who were eating happily, and sighed with emotion.
No wonder the children looked taller and sturdier. It was all because of Mu Jingzhe.
“I’m full. Let’s go after eating our bananas.”
Shao Nan nodded and looked at Mu Jingzhe. “Alright, Mommy, you’ve worked hard.”
After saying that, he looked at Mu Jingzhe’s hand and sighed. “A girl’s hands are tender. Mommy’s hands are ruined from cooking and washing the dishes every day. We have to go to school and can’t be of help. Sigh…”
Mu Jingzhe glanced at her hands in confusion. Had her hands become coarser? Didn’t she take good care of them? She remembered that her hands had been rougher when she had first transmigrated. She had put in a lot of effort to take care of her hands, and the skin texture had already improved greatly.
Just as Mu Jingzhe was about to ask, Shao Qihai said, “I’ll wash the dishes. Let me do it. I’ll do the dishes from now on.”
He couldn’t let Mu Jingzhe continue to have such a hard time, nor could he let the children wash the dishes anymore.
When Mu Jingzhe saw that Shao Qihai had agreed to wash the dishes, she raised her eyebrows at Shao Nan and stopped speaking.
Shao Nan didn’t look at Mu Jingzhe but he sighed again. “Mommy, you mustn’t wash our blankets and clothes. You’re usually very busy. Don’t busy yourself with chores in the small bit of rest time you have. We’ll go wash them ourselves when we get back.”
“I’ll wash them. Coincidentally, I’m free too. Let me wash them,” Shao Qihai immediately added tactfully.
“Thank you.” Shao Nan smiled at Shao Qihai.
“It’s not hard. It’s what I should do.”
Mu Jingzhe looked at Shao Nan, that little fox, and then at Shao Qihai’s expression before turning around with a muffled laugh.
The children were angry, so she would let them vent their anger. Besides, they were right. Shao Qihai had to take action. As their father, this was what he ought to do.
Even if the children hadn’t said anything, she would have. Now, she didn’t have to.
Mu Jingzhe took the children to school. When Shao Qihai saw that it was finally quiet and only the two of them were there, he was about to speed up washing the dishes and say a few words. However, before the dishes were done, the young ladies working for Mu Jingzhe came.
As soon as they arrived, they peeped in and took a closer look at Shao Qihai. They even specifically looked at Shao Qihai’s shadow to confirm that he was really human.
Shao Qihai, who had been dead for a year, had returned and become big news in Great Eastern Village. Last night, almost every household had been gossiping about him and the way Zhao Lan and Eldest Brother Shao had made a fool of themselves.
Under the gaze of these young ladies, Shao Qihai, who was carrying a basket of blankets, bedsheets, and clothes, fled after saying that he was going to wash the clothes.
The five children’s clothes, along with the bedsheets and blanket, filled a large basket. Instantly, everyone had a new topic of discussion.
“Jingzhe, I didn’t expect him to know how to wash clothes. He’s not bad, huh. My husband has never washed clothes before. He even says that washing clothes and cooking isn’t something a man should do.”
Some people were curious about Mu Jingzhe’s future plans. “Jingzhe, do you have any ideas?”
Everyone had seen Ji Buwang before. That Prince Charming Ji Buwang had attracted the hearts of all the women in the village, from the elderly ones to the children. They felt that it would be a waste for Mu Jingzhe not to marry Ji Buwang.
Although Shao Qihai’s appearance wasn’t inferior to Ji Buwang’s, the two of them weren’t the same type of man. In addition, Shao Qihai was from the village, and the villagers had seen him grow up. Besides, he was the father of five children. They felt that Ji Buwang was better.
They were all concerned for Mu Jingzhe.
Mu Jingzhe shook her head. “I’ll wait and see.”
A young lady who was quick with her words panicked when she heard that. “What’s there to see? Since Shao Qihai is back, there’s someone to take care of the kids now. If it were me, I’d just pack them up and marry Uncle Ji.”
Because he was Tang Moling’s uncle, everyone in the village called Ji Buwang ‘Uncle Ji’.
Mu Jingzhe laughed. The others also criticized her. “I think you wish to get married, right?”
As they were joking around, Mu Jingzhe looked at the door and scratched her face. Ji Buwang… That’s right, Ji Buwang. Should she tell him about Shao Qihai’s return?
Everyone looked at Mu Jingzhe’s expression and stopped joking. “Let Jingzhe consider it carefully. Now that Shao Qihai is back, Jingzhe is no longer a widow.”
“That’s right. We can’t say those words again. If the kids hear us, they won’t be happy.”
At the mention of the kids, everyone finally calmed down and started working.
The aforementioned kids had already started a new day of school. Before arriving at school, they’d met villagers and classmates along the way, and all of them were concerned about them.
When they arrived at school, both their teachers and classmates looked at them with concern and complicated expressions.
While everyone felt concerned, Shao Dong and his siblings quietly began to implement the plan that they had discussed last night. The first step was pretending that they weren’t paying attention in class.
Yes, they would pretend, even though they would still prick up their ears to listen to whatever the teacher said in class and wouldn’t give up on learning and absorbing knowledge. After all, this was necessary. However, they would appear to be different kids on the surface. They would no longer actively answer the teacher’s questions or look at the teacher, nor would they sit upright in class like they usually did.
No matter how one looked at it, they didn’t look like they were listening attentively. Seeing that they weren’t in a good state, the teacher called on them to answer a question. They deliberately said that they didn’t know the answer.
They just wanted to act like bad students, and their teachers and classmates were all shocked.
There was a question they couldn’t answer? Was the sun rising from the west now?
The teacher couldn’t help but glance out of the window. After confirming that the sun was rising from the east, she asked them if they were feeling unwell or were in a bad mood.
After two periods, the teachers who taught the five children realized that something was wrong. In the end, during the inter-school exercises, even the principal came down to ask about their situation and said that he wanted to ask Mu Jingzhe about it.
The five children were speechless.
Why was it so difficult to become an ordinary child? They told their teacher not to look for Mu Jingzhe and asked them to look for Shao Qihai if there were any issues in the future.
Of course, they had to look for Shao Qihai when it came to such a troublesome matter. How could they let their mother worry?
Half a day had passed, and by the time they returned for lunch, they hadn’t managed to become bad students yet. They’d only been treated with a lot of concern.
When they returned home and saw a yard of drying clothes, they knew that Shao Qihai had washed them. The five children finally cheered up a little.
During the meal, Little Bei, who usually ate in the most cultured and clean manner, looked at Shao Qihai. Her eyes darted around, and for some reason, while she drank her soup, she let out a yelp and poured the entire bowl on her clothes.
