Chapter 134 - 134 The Four Little Ones' Transformation
134 The Four Little Ones’ Transformation
Lu Jiao thought none of this was what it appeared to be. She instinctively wanted to go talk to Xie Yunjin about it. But since Classmate Han was here, she stopped herself.
Since Classmate Han was staying for dinner, Lu Jiao decided to make a few of her signature dishes. Now that she had two woks, she could achieve it easily.
Lu Jiao boiled some water and killed a chicken to make chicken soup.
She then killed a fish and marinated it for later.
Then, she took out a piece of pork to roast it with radish later.
After that, she harvested some greens and chives from her own little yard.
While there, she saw that her sponge gourd, tomatoes, and long beans needed tower cages so she efficiently made those.
By the time she was done, it was late. The four little ones had finished their lesson and came to find her.
They excitedly said to Lu Jiao, “Mommy, this morning you told me you would take us mountain climbing.”
This morning, Lu Jiao told them the schedule she made for them. The four little ones remembered it well, especially the part about going into the mountains.
Lu Jiao noticed how much they wanted to climb the mountain and decided that she could squeeze in the time to take them before making dinner.
“Okay, then let’s go together. We’ll bring back some grass to feed the sheep. Tomorrow, we’ll get some milk from the sheep and I’ll boil it for you to drink.”
“Okay, okay.”
The five of them went to the kitchen to take the basket before they headed up the mountain.
It was the first time for most of them to be on the mountain and they were very overly excited. At first, they were full of energy and skipped their way up. Before long, however, they started to huff and puff. They began to walk lopsidedly and stumble. The good thing was that they endured and didn’t ask Lu Jiao to carry them.
Lu Jiao suggested a break.
“Why don’t we sit down for a bit and eat a peach? Then we can get some grass for the sheep.”
The First Born thought taking a rest already would make them useless. He turned to Lu Jiao and said with a determined gaze, “Mom, we can walk.”
The Second Born nodded in agreement.
The Third and Fourth Born were silent. The Fourth Born especially was red in the face and could barely get off the ground. He acted in a spoiled manner, “Mommy, I can’t walk anymore. My legs are jello. They aren’t listening to me.”
Lu Jiao giggled and pinched his face. She then looked over to the First and Second Born.
“Getting strong takes time and consistency. You are all weak and cannot walk that far right away. You might get hurt. Let’s strengthen you up slowly. Then, it’ll be easy for you to go up and down the mountains.”
The First and Second Born thought she was right and agreed.
“Okay, I will listen to mommy.”
Lu Jiao took five peaches out of her basket. These were pre-washed and placed there.
“Here, everyone has one peach each. Then we’ll get some grass for the sheep.”
The four little beans started to happily munch on their peaches while sitting on the grass.
Lu Jiao also bit into one as she chatted with the kids, “Do you all know what kind of grass sheeps like?”
The four little ones shook their heads. They didn’t even know what a sheep was before. But now they know.
Lu Jiao explained, “Sheeps like legumes, such as yellow medick. They like grass that isn’t spiky. They also like fresh and newly grown grass.”
Lu Jiao searched around and found some yellow medick.
“Look, this is yellow medick. When you see something similar, you can pick them up. Sheeps like to eat the upper half. The bottom half can get chewy and they don’t like it.”
Out of the quadruplets, the First and Second Born started to search first. The brothers found some very quickly and uprooted them.
The Third and Fourth Born were motivated by the other two brothers and stood up to actively participate. Before long, the five of them gathered a pile of yellow medick.
“Okay, it’s late. I’m going to head back and prepare dinner. We have a guest tonight after all. We can come again tomorrow.”
The four little ones cheered. They’ve forgotten all about their exhaustion. The Second Born was the most proactive and went to grab Lu Jiao’s hand, “Mommy, don’t forget – we will come again tomorrow. Ah, I want to use my slingshot to hit stuff.”
Lu Jiao giggled, “Okay, we’ll come again tomorrow.”
The five of them returned home with a basket full of yellow medick. Once they arrived, the four little ones took the basket and went to feed the sheep right away. They wanted to see whether or not the sheep would actually like this plant, and it did.
Forgotten all about how tired they were, the four little ones discussed and chatted.
At their age, they were getting curious about everything. Lu Jiao had brought them on many adventures that seemed to have opened the door to a brand-new world. These days, they have become outgoing, cheerful, and confident.
After some time studying the sheep, the children ran to the east bedroom to tell Xie Yunjin about all the big things they did today.
Inside the bedroom, Classmate Han studied the hopping and cute four little ones in awe.
These four children were the pitiful babies from before? They seemed to have transformed.
The four little ones had no idea what Classmate Han was thinking and were eagerly telling Xie Yunjin about their day.
“Mommy taught us what the sheep likes to eat. She said sheeps like to eat… um… umm…”
The Second Born forgot the word and the First Born jumped in, “Yellow medick.”
The Second Born nodded, “That. Mommy said sheeps don’t like hard and spiky grass. They like fresh and newly grown ones.”
The Third and Fourth Born weren’t focused on that. They told Xie Yunjin, “Mommy said starting tomorrow, we can drink sheep milk.”
Classmate Han watched them and said to Xie Yunjin, “The four little ones are so upbeat now.”
Xie Yunjin nodded with a smile.
“Lu Jiao is great with the kids.”
Seeing how affectionate Xie Yunjin appeared when he mentioned Lu Jiao, Classmate Han once again decided that Yunjin and Lu Jiao had repaired their relationship. This was great.
At night, Lu Jiao made a table full of dishes. Other than the chicken soup, there was roasted pork with radish, braised fish chunks, and a giant plate of mixed seafood.
The seafood was brought by Xie Xiaobao. There were palm-sized carp, eels, and shrimps. Though none of them were large in size, there were many of each.
Lu Jiao cooked everything together and made braised seafood.
For vegetables, she made chives with eggs, mushrooms with greens, and pickled cucumbers.
Though Classmate Han came from the County and often ate out, he was still dazzled by the table full of delicacies.
“Yunjin’s wife, you’re a great cook. Everything looks, smells, and tastes great.”
Lu Jiao accepted his compliment.
Since there was only one guest, Lu Jiao put the table inside the bedroom so they could eat with Xie Yunjin.
It was rowdier this way.
As for that Dr. Shi, he had taken Classmate Han’s horse carriage to visit Dr. Qi.
By the time Lu Jiao found out about that, he had left. It was too late for her to stop him then.
She was certain that Qi Lei would deal with it well.
“Here, eat more fish. Fish makes you smart.”