Chapter 307: You Call Yourself a Mother?
Chapter 307: Chapter 307: You Call Yourself a Mother?
Xin Yu fell silent and lowered his head, working quietly.
Shen Lu told him to go call everyone in the shop over for dinner.
The weather was bad now, so Huo Qian and Wu Jun had swapped guard posts. Wu Jun was in the booth area, and Huo Qian was in the greenhouse in the backyard.
When Xin Yu went to the greenhouse to call for Huo Qian, he happened to see Yang Jing. He didn’t know that the three members of the Liu Family only got to eat lunch if they did their work properly. Thinking they were eating with the rest of them, he called out to Yang Jing as well.
Yang Jing was a little surprised but didn’t question it. She told Liu Qiang and Liu Yaozu and went to have dinner with them.
As soon as Shen Lu saw Yang Jing, she guessed Xin Yu must have made a mistake. But since she was already here, Shen Lu couldn’t bring herself to turn her away, so she just nodded at her, gesturing for her to sit down.
"I won’t be eating with you all today," Shen Lu said as she served the food. "Fu Cheng... ahem, the boss isn’t feeling well, so I need to bring his food to him."
The same went for Cai Su. Xiao Lang was awake, but he had no strength and was confined to his bed.
Seeing that she was about to leave, Yang Jing called out to her in a small voice, "L-Little Deer, can I take some with me after I finish eating?"
She hadn’t actually wanted to ask, but before she came, Liu Yaozu had repeatedly instructed her that she absolutely had to bring some food back.
Shen Lu glanced at her, then said to Huo Qian, "Keep an eye on my mother. She can eat as much as she wants while she’s sitting here, but she’s not to take even a single grain of rice with her."
Huo Qian replied, "Got it, boss."
Yang Jing’s lips trembled, and she didn’t dare say another word.
After going upstairs and entering the room, Shen Lu let out a long, melancholy sigh.
"What’s wrong?" Fu Cheng asked.
Shen Lu skillfully set up the small table. "Can you kick my dad and my brother out and only let my mom stay?"
"You hate them?"
"Shouldn’t I? The old one’s a male chauvinist, and the young one’s a bad seed." Shen Lu’s critique was sharp. "My mom is even more ridiculous. I suspect she has Stockholm syndrome."
She had said last night that there would only be two portions of food for lunch today. Liu Qiang hadn’t done his work well, so there was no reward for him.
But Shen Lu knew that the one who had truly gone without a meal at noon was Yang Jing.
Because Shen Lu had seen her in the greenhouse, scraping the dregs of vegetable soup from the bottom of a plate with an Insect Cake.
And now, when Yang Jing finally got a meal in the evening, she still wanted to bring back a bite for those two men.
Shen Lu was quite angry.
After the anger came a deep sense of helplessness.
Fu Cheng said, "If you kick out your father and brother, your mother won’t stay either."
Shen Lu knew that too. Yang Jing was used to depending on the Liu men, and the need to serve them was etched deep into her very bones.
’Wait, why am I getting angry?’ Shen Lu suddenly pulled herself out of her emotions, asking and answering her own question. ’Why am I wasting so much emotional energy on people who don’t matter?’
Reforming Yang Jing wasn’t a mandatory task. She just wanted to create a little trouble for the Liu men, something that would be a thorn in their side.
If reforming Yang Jing failed, she had a hundred other ways to torment them.
But none of this should affect her ability to run her shop properly.
Running the shop well and solving the current business slump caused by the weather was what mattered most.
She still needed to save up lots of popularity value, get more Lottery Tickets, max out the shop’s defenses as soon as possible, hoard supplies, and live to a ripe old age.
Shen Lu took a huge mouthful of century egg and lean pork congee, mumbling indistinctly, "I wonder if I can borrow that military armored vehicle from Zhao Qian for a while."
"What do you need a military armored vehicle for?" Fu Cheng was already used to Shen Lu’s scattered way of thinking and could follow her train of thought smoothly.
"To make deliveries."
Fu Cheng: "..."
"If Zhao Qian can use a military armored vehicle to deliver vegetables, why can’t I use one for my deliveries?" Shen Lu swallowed the food in her mouth. "I’ll contact Xue Can in a bit and see if he can mediate for me. I’ll just use it during the lunch hour; I won’t monopolize it."
"Don’t bother with Xue Can." The moment Fu Cheng heard Shen Lu say Xue Can’s name, he felt a wave of discomfort. "I’ll ask first."
"Uh, okay."
After dinner, Shen Lu cleared the dishes and went downstairs. Xin Yu was washing the dishes absentmindedly, scrubbing a plate so hard he was about to wear off the glaze.
"Xin Yu." Shen Lu walked over to him. "Why are you so eager to go back?"
"Boss." Xin Yu snapped out of it, rinsed the plate in his hands, and placed it in the drying rack. "I... It’s nothing."
"Got a girlfriend?"
"As if. Who would ever be interested in me?"
"Then what’s the big reason you have to go back? Can’t sleep in a strange bed?"
"No." Xin Yu lowered his gaze. "My home is filled with traces of my family’s life. Every time I go back, even if I shout as loud as I can and no one answers, I still feel happy."
Shen Lu’s expression faltered. A few seconds later, she patted Xin Yu’s shoulder. "Just stay here at the shop for now. If your family were still around, they wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. Besides, if something did happen to you, your house would be repossessed by the government and given to someone else. All the traces of your family’s life would disappear completely."
Xin Yu’s shoulders slumped. "Okay."
’The boss is right. Nothing can happen to me. I have to protect my family’s house.’
Shen Lu went to check on Xiao Lang.
The boy was lying weakly on the bed. When he saw Shen Lu, he called out faintly, "Sister Shen."
"Don’t overuse your superpower again. We need to practice gradually, step-by-step. Got it?"
Xiao Lang nodded. "I was wrong, Sister Shen. I’ll never do it again."
Cai Su had a guilty look on her face. "Boss, how is Fu Cheng? He looked very pale."
"It’s nothing serious. He should recover after a few days of proper rest."
"That’s good." Cai Su sighed in relief.
"Xin Yu will be staying in the dorms for the next few days. Sister Cai, could you please look after him?"
"Okay, I will."
Shen Lu then went to the corrugated iron shack in the backyard to inspect the Liu Family’s work for the day.
Yang Jing, needless to say, had gotten faster after becoming proficient at tilling the soil. Plus, the fertile soil that had been laid down was much easier to dig. She could now till two plots of land a day.
Out of the corner of her eye, Shen Lu noticed the scallions that had been planted less than two days ago. After being sprinkled with "Jinkela," they had clearly shot up.
’Feels like they’ll be ready to eat in another three or four days.’
’No need to wait for the Liu men to recover from their injuries. Tomorrow, I’ll have Yang Jing plant a whole plot with scallions. Then I’ll never have to buy them again. I can just cut them from my own backyard whenever I need them.’
As she reached the door of the iron shack, Liu Yaozu’s voice carried out clearly.
"Do you even act like a mother? How dare you stuff your face and not bring a single bite back for me? I’m this seriously injured, and you can’t even see it?"
"How can there be such a cold-blooded, heartless mother like you in this world?"
"Get out! I don’t want to see you!"
"Yaozu, please let me explain..."
"Get out! Like hell I’ll listen to your explanation! Dad, find me a new mom! I don’t want her as my mom anymore. She’s stupid, clumsy, and completely useless!"
Shen Lu gently pushed the door open, and Liu Yaozu’s roars came to an abrupt halt.