Chapter 118: Eating Together
Today, with so much pork obtained, and with both sides of the in-laws sending plenty of grain, Granny Yun was so happy that she made a meal of plain white rice.
Fragrant white rice, eaten this way, was quite a luxury in this era.
Granny Yun made seven small rice balls, mixed evenly with soy sauce, and added some pork inside.
The tiny rice balls, wrapped in seaweed leaves, were handed to the grandchildren.
Even Fu Mingyu received one.
“Your name is Fu Mingyu, right? Come and take one to eat. Don’t be picky.”
This child clearly comes from a wealthy family.
Fu Mingyu shook his head, looking at the small rice ball in his hand, and took a bite from it, just like Jiaojiao and the others.
The simple taste gave him an indescribable feeling.
Delicious.
This was the most delicious thing he had ever eaten.
Although his face was expressionless, Fu Mingyu was very serious, eating the rice ball one bite at a time until it was finished.
“Little Wu, go call Grandpa and the others back for dinner.”
Little Wu pushed Little Liu next to him: “You go.”
Little Liu, with his mouth full of rice ball, refused: “I helped Grandma sort vegetables today, and I also swept the floor and wiped the table.”
Little Wu’s eyes shifted to others.
Little Qi: “I shucked corn.”
Little Ba: “I washed clothes.”
“You washed your own, and there were only a few items. You didn’t even wash them clean.”
Little Ba retorted indignantly: “I washed them clean, Brother, you didn’t even look carefully.”
He was the cleanest child at washing clothes in the family, apart from the adults.
Shen Yunlian came out: “Why are you dawdling?”
Jiaojiao finished the rice ball in her hand: “Fifth Brother, I’ll go with you.”
Only then was Little Wu willing to move his precious little feet.
Seeing Jiaojiao stand up, Fu Mingyu also stood up.
“Are you going too?”
Fu Mingyu nodded: “Together.”
Fine, now there were three of them.
The tabby cat followed along too.
Coming to the new house, the two houses were almost finished, with only the last floor remaining.
“Grandpa, Dad, we’re going back for dinner.”
Grandpa Yun and the others were pushing bricks with a wheelbarrow. Upon hearing the shout, they stood up straight and wiped the sweat from their faces with the towels draped around their necks.
“Understood.”
After returning home, the Yun Linhai brothers still had to deliver the food to the workers first.
“Where is Fourth Brother?”
Jiaojiao looked around but couldn’t find Yun Chenbei.
Third Brother Zhang Chennan said: “He went to his master’s place.”
Yun Chenbei was now apprenticed to that carpenter, and Granny Yun often made food for him to take to his master.
When Yun Linhai and the others returned, Yun Chenbei also came back.
Everyone gathered around a table; it was crowded with so many people, but it was lively.
Granny Yun briefly introduced Fu Mingyu to the others.
“Little Fu, where are you from? How did you meet Jiaojiao?”
This was not an interrogation, but the normal way of greeting for people meeting for the first time.
Fu Mingyu: “Yun Jiaojiao is my savior.”
“Hm?”
Instantly, everyone at the table looked up at him and Jiaojiao.
Jiaojiao nodded obediently: “I forgot to tell you all…”
She recounted the story of how she directed the orca to save someone that day.
After listening, Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe were both silent.
“You didn’t tell us when you came back that day?”
Jiaojiao: “I caught a lot of delicious food and forgot.”
She could forget something like this? How big was her heart?
After a verbal scolding of Jiaojiao, the Yun family members looked at Fu Mingyu with pity.
A child who fell into the hands of human traffickers, probably scared.
“Does your grandfather know you are here? He must be worried. And your parents?”
Fu Mingyu: “My mother died when I was born. My father doesn’t care about me.”
Little Jiu: “His face seems broken, and he never shows any expression. He doesn’t even laugh when tickled. His father also calls him a monster.”
Hiss… What a pitiful child this is.
Little Wu even patted him on the shoulder.
“From now on, I’ll be your brother!”
Granny Yun put some food on his plate: “Eat more, child.”
Looking closely, although this child had good looks and fair skin, he was too thin for his age, not looking very healthy.
What kind of father was that?
Although Fu Mingyu didn’t say it, Granny Yun guessed that there was probably a stepmother at home.
Such a pitiable child.
It was the first time Fu Mingyu had eaten with so many people gathered around. It was lively, and even though he had only known the Yun family for less than a day, he felt a sense of belonging.
Unlike at home.
Even though he had lived with his father, stepmother, and half-brother for several years, he was always the extra outsider during meals.
Blood ties didn’t seem so important.
After eating, Jiaojiao, Little Wu, and a few others took Fu Mingyu out for a stroll to aid digestion.
“Brother, come, let’s play marbles. Jiaojiao bought these for us.”
Jiaojiao patted her head.
“I forgot to distribute the money.”
She ran back home to get the money from her mother.
“Grandma will give you money, and Grandpa too.”
Granny Yun and the others looked at Jiaojiao in shock.
“What are you doing? Why are you giving us money?”
Jiaojiao then gave Little Uncle and Little Aunt ten yuan each.
Shen Yunlian smiled and said: “This is the money Jiaojiao got from selling wild boars, a total of 120 yuan. She distributed it to everyone when she was at her maternal grandmother’s home, adults got ten yuan and children got one yuan.”
“Oh my, you silly girl, how much money do you have left after distributing it like this?”
Jiaojiao continued to distribute money to her brothers.
“Don’t worry, Jiaojiao can earn more money. I can catch lots and lots of valuable big fish.”
“That’s not how you should spend money so freely. You’re too extravagant.”
But they didn’t refuse.
She would keep the money for Jiaojiao; it wasn’t safe for a child to carry so much money.
In the end, after distributing money to all the family members, she was left with only nine yuan.
She glanced at Fu Mingyu, this unlucky little pitiable child.
“Here’s one yuan for you too.”
She stared at Fu Mingyu.
Fu Mingyu took it: “I’ll have Grandpa buy you canned food.”
Jiaojiao was satisfied now, hehe, canned food was more expensive, so giving out one yuan wasn’t a loss.
“Then you must remember, if you dare to lie to me, I’ll hit you.”
She pretended to be fierce and lowered her voice to threaten: “The last person who lied to me was a human trafficker, and they went to the police station and were beaten terribly.”
But in reality, her face was too beautiful, and no matter what expression she made, it exuded cuteness, not fierceness at all.
“You encountered human traffickers too?”
Jiaojiao nodded: “Yes, they were likely the same group as the ones who caught you. But I was smart, and with my brothers, we beat the human traffickers until they screamed, and we tricked them out of a lot of chocolate too.”
She proudly raised her chin.
“Be smarter next time, don’t get caught again.”
Jiaojiao squeezed his thin arm.
“You’re too thin, it’s easy to be bullied.”
Fu Mingyu: “I will train myself from now on.”
He was not lying.
In the future, he would likely be with his grandfather. His grandfather was a soldier and lived in a military district, so his discipline would be stricter, and physical training would definitely not be skipped.
Fu Mingyu played marbles with Little Wu and the others. From not knowing how to play at the beginning, he became almost a hundred percent accurate later.
Little Wu was shocked: “How did you do that?!”
