My College Teacher is My Children's Mom

When Zhou Cuilan spoke to Si Bao, he suddenly perked up, his eyes shining brightly. He leaned in, sniffed near Zhou Cuilan's mouth, and stated with absolute certainty, "Grandma, what did you eat? It smells so good. Can Si Bao have some too, please?"

Zhou Cuilan immediately panicked. Oh no, I forgot to brush my teeth! Now I'm in for it; the little guy has me cornered.

At this, Zhou Cuilan began to put on an act. "Grandma didn't eat anything! Didn't I eat with you all today? I certainly didn't sneak any snacks!"

But no matter how superb her performance was, Si Bao only cared about the facts. He shook his head and declared, "That's the smell of meat, the smell of little fish. I can smell it!"

Zhou Cuilan and the others were stunned. Does he not only have the nose of a bloodhound but investigative and analytical skills to boot?

Er Bao, who never missed a chance to join in on the excitement, quickly chimed in, "Er Bao wants meaty meat, too! Meaty meat!"

Da Bao joined the chorus. "Meaty meat, eat meaty meat!"

Oh, my head is killing me!

Neither Lin Feng nor Zhang Yuxi seemed inclined to come to Zhou Cuilan's rescue. Not about to let them off the hook, she was determined to drag them down with her. "If you don't believe me, ask your dad and mom. Ask them if Grandma lied to you."

Lin Feng put on an innocent face. "Mom, I just got back. I don't know anything." He glanced at Zhang Yuxi. "Right?"

With her husband as her back-up, Zhang Yuxi chimed in, "Yeah, Mom, we just got back. We don't know a thing!"

Zhou Cuilan never imagined that her own son and daughter-in-law would one day throw her under the bus. She was at a loss for words, completely flustered. Si Bao the foodie, Er Bao the hype-man, and Da Bao, who was always happy to go along for the ride, were all howling for meat.

San Bao yawned and added softly, "Grandma, San Bao wants some too!"

Zhou Cuilan had no choice. After getting the babies settled, she found some snacks from the kitchen. They were dried fruits. The babies, mainly Si Bao, ate them without complaint. Zhou Cuilan thought she had managed to get away with it.

But she hadn't fooled anyone in the slightest.

As soon as Si Bao finished, he immediately said, "Grandma, this isn't meaty meat! I want to eat meaty meat!"

What the hell! Zhou Cuilan cursed inwardly.

Seeing her son enjoying the show from the sidelines and her daughter-in-law trying awkwardly to stifle a laugh, Zhou Cuilan resigned herself to her fate and took out the crispy pork and dried fish. There were four pieces of crispy pork and six dried fish left.

"Mom, let me," Lin Feng said, standing up.

He took two pieces of crispy pork and three small dried fish and steamed them for the babies. The dried fish had been fried so thoroughly that even the tiny bones were crispy, making it perfectly safe for the children to eat.

Watching them eat, Zhou Cuilan asked Si Bao, "So, Si Bao, is this the right smell?"

Si Bao nodded. "This is it! Grandma, you lied to me earlier when you said you didn't eat anything."

Zhou Cuilan felt a bit embarrassed. "I was just trying to give you a surprise!"

Sigh, kids these days are getting so much harder to fool.

Si Bao went off to play happily, and Zhou Cuilan gave her son a light slap. "You little rascal, so you know how to gang up on your old mom now, huh!"

"No, of course not! It was just a joke!" Lin Feng said quickly.

Zhou Cuilan huffed. "Was the bride pretty? Was there a big spread at the banquet?"

"The bride definitely wasn't as pretty as your daughter-in-law, but the banquet was quite lavish."

Zhou Cuilan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "You child, when did you get so thick-skinned?"

"Well, Mom? Do you think your daughter-in-law is beautiful or not?"

"...Beautiful, beautiful, she's beautiful!"

Perhaps this was just how it was. No matter how old children got, they would always be children in their parents' eyes. And they, in turn, would always reveal their childish side when they were with their parents.

That night, as Lin Dashan lay in bed getting ready to sleep, Zhou Cuilan suddenly remembered something. "Don't sleep yet, wait for me," she said, hurrying downstairs and back into the room a moment later. She wore a mysterious smile and was holding something in her hands.

Lin Dashan sat up. "What's that?"

Zhou Cuilan chuckled. "Take a guess."

"Just tell me. How could I possibly guess?"

"Here, have a sniff."

Catching the scent, Lin Dashan was incredulous. "Is... is this crispy pork?" After all, there was nothing wrong with his sense of smell.

With a gleeful smile, Zhou Cuilan opened her hands to reveal two pieces of crispy pork and three small dried fish. "Congratulations, you are correct."

Lin Dashan felt like he'd been made a fool of, his expression a picture of disappointment. He shot Zhou Cuilan a massive eye-roll. "What is wrong with you? What's so surprising about this? You're treating it like it's some priceless treasure."

All that anticipation for nothing.

Zhou Cuilan glared at him. "You have no idea! These were snatched from the jaws of a tiger."

Lin Dashan sensed there was more to the story. "What do you mean?"

Ten minutes later, Lin Dashan was roaring with laughter. "Oh my, our Si Bao is incredible!" He popped one of the cold pieces of crispy pork into his mouth, finding it utterly delicious. Snagging food from the quads was no small feat.

Before, when Lin Feng had been home all the time, he had researched new recipes for the babies daily. They ate something different every day and were never hungry. But since his return, even though he still cooked for them, they never seemed to feel full. They were always rummaging through the kitchen for snacks and had even gotten addicted to it.

「The next day.」

Lin Feng bought some tiny fish. He cleaned them one by one, trimming the fins, and decided to fry them before steaming them for the babies. He also fried some crispy pork, which they could eat directly. Each child was allowed only three pieces of each; the rest was for the adults. The babies didn't object. As long as their daddy made them delicious food every day, they were happy.

「Two days later, they returned to Yangcheng.」

The babies were sad to leave, and Lin Dashan's eyes were red with unshed tears.

After returning to Yangcheng, Lin Feng invited Liu Bo and An Lan for a meal. Liu Bo and An Lan had become friends recently while busying themselves at the shop and would get together for a meal now and then.

After they finished eating, An Lan yawned. "I'll just crash at your place tonight." Business had slowed down after the holidays, so she could finally take a breather.

Lin Feng went upstairs to put the children to bed, leaving An Lan to gossip with Zhang Yuxi. Most of their conversation centered on the Lin Family's affairs. Thinking of someone like Lin Xiaolan, An Lan could only scoff.

"By the way, have you seen that Moments post I made about Du Qian?"

"No."

"Girl, you need to pay a little more attention to your bestie, alright?" An Lan then chuckled mischievously. "Here, let your big sis show you something juicy."

Given her wicked smile, it was certainly going to be good. An Lan pulled up the Moments post about Du Qian's wedding. It was a side-by-side comparison of Du Qian's retouched wedding photo and the raw, unedited one, boldly captioned: [Some people really go all out for a Photoshopped pic.]

The difference was staggering. Du Qian used to be quite pretty with a good figure. But during her pregnancy, she had swelled up unrecognizably, and now she looked even more bloated than before.

An Lan was baffled. "Tell me, we both went through childbirth, so why is the difference so huge? Not only did you not gain weight, but your figure bounced back so well. How did you do it?"

Zhang Yuxi didn't know either. When she was pregnant, only her belly had gotten big. After giving birth, she hadn't done anything special to recover. Caring for four children from morning till night, she was run ragged every single day. She guessed that was probably the reason she had slimmed down.