Rebirth: Slice-of-life Cultivation

"Mom, still awake?" Huang Yuzhu smiled.

With a stiff tone, Yu Zhuma said, "Why are you back so late? I called your head teacher and only found out you took leave today. Where did you get all covered in dirt?"

Huang Yuzhu answered honestly, "Went to the construction site to move bricks, the site in the urban area for Evergreen Liquid!"

With her words falling, Yu Zhuma berated straightforwardly, "Yuzhu, you're supposed to go to school. Your task now is just to study hard; let your dad and mom handle the money-making."

As she continued, Yu Zhuma's voice turned extremely angry, "We scrimp and save for you to attend school with the hope you get into a good university. If you need money, just tell us!"

Huang Yuzhu was startled, not expecting his mom's reaction to be so intense.

He quickly defended himself, "Today's late self-study had no teacher teaching, whether I go or not doesn't really matter."

"If you don't want me to go, I won't go tomorrow, Mom!"

Yu Zhuma shouted, "Don't call me Mom!"

"Mom!" Huang Yuzhu was anxious!

"Don't call me Mom! Didn't you hear me?!"

Huang Yuzhu quickly took out the money he earned and laid it on the table, "Alright, I won't go in the future, but take the money I earned today first."

The hundred-dollar bills he pulled out covered the table.

Yu Zhuma was stunned, "You earned this all by yourself?"

Huang Yuzhu said, "Yeah, worked from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., got 1500 bucks."

Yu Zhuma's complexion changed, she only earned 3000 bucks after a month of hard work, waking up early and staying up late...

The anger on her face vanished instantly, replaced by calmness, "Call me Mom."

"Son, speaking of which, although studying is important, it's also for finding a good job in the future. Just this once, don't repeat it."

After speaking, Yu Zhuma asked tentatively, "By the way, son, where did you find this job, can your dad and mom work too?"

...

Wednesday morning.

As it gradually enters winter, daylight comes later and getting up requires overcoming laziness more.

Xue Yuantong opened the door, seeing a quiet morning, the aroma of pancakes wafting from next door, rich and tempting, Xue Yuantong knew the source of the aroma.

Chuchu is making breakfast.

Unfortunately, Xue Yuantong and Jiang Ning now eat at Fourth Middle School's small dining table every day, leaving Chuchu alone.

After washing up, Xue Yuantong applied some perfume Jiang Ning gave her on her little face, gently patting the smooth face.

After sorting everything out, she ran next door to find Jiang Ning.

But found nothing.

Standing at Jiang Ning's door, she pondered for a while and concluded, "Must have sneaked off to Chuchu's house for food!"

"Yes, must be!"

Xue Yuantong quickly moved her little legs, ran to Chuchu's house, and sure enough, Jiang Ning was sitting behind the stove, helping to stoke the fire!

Upon her entering, Chuchu was still talking about her past.

Xue Yuantong pouted, "You're too much Chuchu, telling Jiang Ning everything!"

Especially a few days ago, Chuchu actually told Jiang Ning about her secretly falsifying accounts, allowing Jiang Ning to tease her with it.

But Xue Yuantong never told Chuchu, that before she faked the accounts, a girl in the village named Hui Li invited her and Chuchu to play at her house.

Xue Yuantong and Chuchu were among the younger batch of kids in the village, during that era, there were many 'troublemaker' kids in the village.

The poverty in rural Hui Province led many young people to work in coastal provinces, resulting in a large number of left-behind children.

Most of those left-behind children lived with their grandparents, and due to generation gaps and cultural knowledge issues, grandparents often spoiled the kids. In such circumstances, if poorly guided, many kids could easily go astray.

The girl named Hui Li was two years older than Chuchu, yet in the village elementary school, she was the 'big sister', very feisty and had some 'influence'.

At that time, Tongtong and Chuchu went to her house to play a game machine called 'Water Pressure Ring Toss'.

This game machine had only two buttons, and its interior was filled with water, but not completely, leaving some air bubbles, with two vertical pins and many plastic rings inside.

By pressing the buttons, water pressure was generated to loop the plastic rings onto the vertical pins.

Chuchu played for a few minutes, and Tongtong hadn't even touched it when the 'big sister' Hui Li chased them away.

That afternoon, Hui Li found Xue Yuantong, claiming that their game machine was broken by them, leaking water, and demanded compensation.

If they didn't compensate, she'd make sure they'd regret it at school!

Xue Yuantong knew that Hui Li's grandmother was very fierce, and when she argued with someone, half the village could hear her yelling.

Even if Xue Yuantong told her mother, the issue might still escalate, and she didn't want her mom being yelled at, nor did she want Chuchu to get a scolding.

So she agreed to Hui Li's threat and promised installment payments, made fake accounts from her and Chuchu's little savings, and repaid Hui Li over several months to settle the compensation for the game machine.

Chuchu knew nothing about all this. Now recalling the experience of being threatened, Xue Yuantong felt embarrassed and never told Chuchu the truth, just letting her think she was making fake accounts, after all, a little embezzlement didn't matter to Chuchu.

But she actually told Jiang Ning!

Xue Chuchu was naturally unaware of what was happening behind the scenes. Facing Tongtong's accusation, she chose not to respond, gave Tongtong a glance, took another egg, cracked it, and spread it over the pancake.

As the egg liquid solidified, she gently picked up a bowl with her delicate hands and scattered the seasoned vegetables onto the pancake.

The ingredients were abundant, including shredded potatoes, tofu, kelp, vermicelli, carrots, some strips of meat, and her own homemade finely chopped sausage.

After laying out the vegetables, she covered them with another layer of pancake, fusing them together, then flipped the pancake, with her hands and wrists moving gracefully like a dance.

Xue Yuantong's attention was captured: "Wow, a way of eating I've never seen before?"

Upon hearing Tongtong's curiosity, Xue Chuchu's calm face seemed to have subtle fluctuations, a kind of restrained confidence reflected there.

Culinary skills? Such formulaic skills, when Xue Chuchu took them seriously, she was equally formidable.

When the pancake was done, she shoveled it onto a plate, opened the rice cooker, and inside was rice soup.

"The meal is ready, let's eat together." Xue Chuchu invited.

Before she could finish speaking, Xue Yuantong and Jiang Ning began digging in, Xue Chuchu didn't find them rude, but instead was a little happy, this was her first time making such pancakes today, their eagerness further confirmed her culinary skill.

"Delicious, wow!" Xue Yuantong praised, mainly because there were plenty of ingredients, including meat and sausage.

Jiang Ning took a sip of the rice soup brought by Chuchu, bit into the pancake, and said, "Quite tasty, just a bit troublesome though, needing to cut several kinds of vegetables."

"Not troublesome at all." Xue Chuchu said, "As long as you guys like it."

Xue Yuantong forgot her mission to eat breakfast in the cafeteria, taking big bites of the pancake.

After finishing one pancake, she looked at the plate with the last two vegetable pancakes on it.

Normally, by Chuchu's thinking, these two pancakes would definitely be reserved for herself and Jiang Ning, but today Chuchu had worked hard to make pancakes and cook, if she took a pancake herself, wouldn't it disappoint Chuchu?

Xue Yuantong thought for a moment, took one vegetable pancake, and handed it to Jiang Ning: "You eat!"

Jiang Ning accepted her kindness, immediately understanding, picked up the other pancake, and handed it to Tongtong: "You eat."

As Xue Chuchu remained silent with an unexpressed thought, her excellent poise meant she showed no signs and remained gentle as ever.

Seeing this coordination, Xue Yuantong grinned, not forgetting to ease the atmosphere: "You shouldn't say 'you eat', you should say 'you also eat'."

Jiang Ning listened, his Divine Sense assessing Chuchu's expression, he paused and said:

"Giving you to eat is because I originally intended for you to have it, and not because you gave it to me first that I then give it to you."

Upon hearing these words, Tongtong's mood suddenly lifted, her eyes curving into crescents, shining with a bright glow, as if holding endless joy.

This joyful hue even seemed to influence the world, with sunlight streaming into the kitchen and birds chirping merrily outside.

Xue Chuchu pursed her lips, her mouth corners slightly turned down, thinking to herself: '...you're really something!'