CHAPTER 61: CHAPTER 60: KIDS GROW UP FAST

This pastry also has an independently packaged wheat-flavored pastry, which is usually sold for one yuan each in supermarkets, and there are only twenty-five of these pastries left.

Since Yu Xiaolian plans to set up a stall on the street, it’s naturally best to have as much stock as possible. Moreover, she doesn’t plan to sell too many types in the first few days. Pastry is a relatively common snack in ancient times, and she intends to sell it for a few days to test the waters.

If the pastries sell well, she plans to gradually start selling other items like snow crisps, egg yolk pies, and sachima.

The supermarket space is updated daily to replenish empty shelves, so she has to clear the racks to allow more goods to be stored.

Yu Xiaolian, like a busy bee, spends her days taking Yu Changhe to the clinic for acupuncture, preparing medicine for him, and working on things in the supermarket.

A few days later, Sun had finished making clothes for the three of them.

Yu Xiaolian wore the water-pink outfit made by Sun, feeling beautiful.

Originally, she disliked the color choice by Sun, thinking it was too striking and unstylish, but the design by Sun was innovative. Wearing this outfit not only didn’t seem unstylish but made her appear lovely and adorable.

She wondered about other surprises her mother might have that she wasn’t aware of.

A simple piece of fabric, once handled by Sun, suddenly became exquisite and appropriate.

Her mother is indeed a treasure, possessing the ability to transform the old into the new!

The lower half of Yu Xiaolian’s attire made by Sun was a ru skirt, while Sun herself wore loose pants, which prompted Yu Changhe to insist that Sun also make a skirt for herself to wear.

Sun couldn’t resist Yu Changhe’s pestering and made herself a purple silk skirt. Sun’s craftsmanship in making clothes was truly outstanding and meticulous; the garments she made were even more exquisite and beautiful than ready-to-wear ones.

There was one small issue though: Yu Xiaolian looked at the sleeves she had rolled up and felt a bit speechless.

At first, she thought Sun had remembered her measurements incorrectly, but after trying on every piece of clothing, she found that the sleeves were always longer. She then realized that Sun intentionally made them slightly bigger.

According to Sun, children grow fast, and if such good material only lasts a year, it would be a waste.

Seeing Yu Xiaolian pouting, Sun advised, "What do you know, the elders say wearing long sleeves is auspicious."

Yu Xiaolian smirked, thinking that when she grows old, she can say whatever she likes too.

What else could she do? To wear new clothes, she could only wear them with rolled sleeves; thankfully, the skirt was slightly longer but not dragging on the ground, so it was acceptable.

After finishing the clothes, Sun immediately started making quilts without taking a break.

If Yu Xiaolian had procrastination tendencies, then Sun had compulsive tendencies. She was the type who had to finish whatever work she started urgently and wouldn’t rest even if told to.

In a blink, more than ten days had passed. Today happens to be the last day for Yu Changhe’s acupuncture therapy.

During this period, Yu Xiaolian consistently added her own blood to Yu Changhe’s medicinal soup, and Yu Changhe felt his leg gradually improving. Even the white-bearded doctor marveled at Yu Changhe’s astounding recovery ability.

After returning from acupuncture with Yu Changhe, Yu Xiaolian just put away the fresh herbal medicine when she heard someone knocking at the door.

She ran over, peeking through the gap in the door, and saw the furniture she ordered days ago had arrived.

The furniture really took quite a while to make.

Yu Xiaolian glanced over; Liu the carpenter used only the best solid wood for her.

Solid wood furniture is heavy, so she and Sun spent a whole day, using every ounce of their energy, to properly arrange it.

With the furniture in place, this home finally looked like a real home.

Sun and Yu Xiaolian meticulously wiped down all the furniture before putting the new clothes in.

However, even after the new clothes were stored, the wardrobe still seemed somewhat empty.

In conclusion, there are too few clothes.

Besides Yu Xiaolian’s three sets of clothes, Sun and Yu Changhe only made two sets each.

Yet, there’s still plenty of fabric left; Sun mentioned saving it to make winter coats when the weather turns cold.

Doing everything themselves is indeed tiring and time-consuming, but Sun doesn’t find it exhausting; she enjoys it.

Sun crafted adequately thick quilts and sufficiently soft mattresses for each of the three of them.

Yu Xiaolian had already laid the mattresses but was still using summer quilts.

The pillows were made from cassia seeds found in her space. She’d given two pillows to Sun and Yu Changhe the first day, and after the supermarket updated, she took out one for herself the next day.

Yu Xiaolian fed the horse and was chopping wood in the backyard shade. Sun kept herself very busy every day, and Yu Xiaolian always had to compete with Sun to handle the wood chopping, otherwise Sun might sneakily finish it herself.

Fortunately, most of these branches weren’t thick, making it relatively easy to chop.

However, since Da An and Xiao An left that day, they haven’t come by again, leaving Yu Xiaolian unsure of what might have happened.

Could the medicine she gave them be ineffective?

Could something have happened to their mother?

Yu Xiaolian felt somewhat worried.

In truth, she only casually met them with no real bond, yet she felt an unresolved sympathy for the twin brothers.

After chopping the wood, Yu Xiaolian informed Sun and then headed out with her pre-drawn design.

She planned to visit the carpenter shop that made furniture last time, to ask the carpenter to make a lightweight wooden cart and some wooden boxes to hold pastries.

Upon reaching the carpenter’s shop, she noticed the apprentice woodworkers were busier than last time, all diligently working; the furniture designs she drew were also being mass-produced.

Clearly, Liu the carpenter had some business acumen; knowing her designs were valuable, he didn’t charge her for the furniture. He was indeed a smart man.

Seeing Yu Xiaolian arrive with designs again, Liu the carpenter was delighted.

Yu Xiaolian took out the handcart blueprint, showed it to the carpenter, and carefully explained some details, asking him not to make the cart too heavy; otherwise, it would be too tiring to push.

After discussing the cart, she talked about the pastry boxes, these boxes measured seventy by seventy centimeters, with a height of six centimeters.

The pastry box Yu Xiaolian wanted was somewhat similar to food boxes; they could be stacked layer by layer, only larger than food boxes. Since Liu the carpenter had made food boxes before, he immediately said he could make them and that they were very simple.

"Inside this should have partitions; it’s a box divided into four equally sized compartments."

This way, she can place a variety of pastries inside.

"No problem, this is easy. How many do you want to make?" Liu the carpenter asked.

"I will start with four boxes." Once she’s saved enough to buy a shop, she’ll surely make more.

While saving money, she could also look for a suitable shop, as location is quite important when opening one.

After paying Liu the carpenter a deposit, Yu Xiaolian left the designs and headed to the blacksmith shop.

A few days ago, she customized a grill rack and a copper pot at the blacksmith’s place.

Reflecting on her time in ancient days, what she craved the most were barbeque and hotpot.

Grilled pork belly, chicken wings, squid—these are all her favorites.

The sizzling, oily grilled pork belly dipped in the barbecue sauce, wrapped in a lettuce leaf, made her mouth water just thinking about it.

No way, she had to quickly bring the grill back to set it up; tonight’s barbeque must happen.

Holding the grill in one hand and the copper pot in the other, when she arrived at her home’s front door, she saw Da An and Xiao An squatting in front of her house.

Upon seeing her return, the two looked a bit panicked and were about to run away.

"Stop right there!"

Throughout the half month, she had been concerned about them; they had some nerve running away upon seeing her.

Yu Xiaolian called them back, and looking at their guilty and uneasy demeanor, she asked, "Why do you both want to run when you see me? You haven’t delivered the coal you owe me, what’s happened?"

With heads bowed, Da An and Xiao An nervously clutched at their shirt corners.