Chapter 81p2
“So I said I wanted to eat beef, mutton, and duck, and you only bought me beef, mutton, and duck? Don’t you know how to be flexible? Why didn’t you also get me some vegetables and soup? How can I eat this dry food? She said she only wanted to eat vegetables, why didn’t you only buy her vegetables?” Wang Qingchuan still felt that Wang Zhizhi was using the banner of fairness to be unfair.
Wang Zhizhi sighed, just as he was about to explain, a familiar voice suddenly came from above.
“Teacher Wang, the accounting is a bit complicated, Parent Zhizhi is still young and might not remember clearly, let me explain it to you.” Li Mu hid the lunchbox he had just received behind his back, pushed up his glasses, and started reciting, “The money Parent Zhizhi earned this morning, after adjusting for the number of people, is 158 yuan. For Beibei’s lunch, half a beggar’s chicken is 18 yuan, a bowl of crispy fried fish is 16 yuan, and one steamed bun is 1 yuan. The loofah and egg soup, stir-fried winter melon with dried shrimp, and stir-fried celery with dried tofu were all made with ingredients bought from the market, they cost 2.5 yuan, 2 yuan, and 4 yuan respectively. They also used 0.5 yuan worth of garlic for the stir-fried dishes, a total of 44 yuan. Your roast duck is 18 yuan, braised beef 25 yuan, boiled mutton 20 yuan, and three steamed buns 3 yuan, a total of 66 yuan. 158 yuan, evenly divided and rounded up, each of the three can spend 53 yuan, yours exceeded by 13 yuan, and this 13 yuan was taken from Parent Zhizhi’s share.”
Wang Qingchuan: “… “ He didn’t remember anything, but he did hear the last part about exceeding… Okay, his dry and bland meal, it actually exceeded the budget?
“Beibei has 9 yuan left, and I gave Dad 13 yuan, I’ll also give Beibei 13 yuan. This is… Mmm… 22 yuan.” Wang Zhizhi, seeing that Li Mu had explained clearly, took out a small roll of money from his pocket and handed it to Wang Qingbei. “Beibei, keep this as your allowance.”
Jiang Heye was also a bit dizzy from the barrage of numbers in Li Mu’s speech, but it didn’t stop her from readily accepting Wang Zhizhi’s arrangement.
“Thank you, Zhizhi.” Jiang Heye took the money and smiled brightly at Wang Zhizhi. “Zhizhi is the best!”
Wang Zhizhi blushed, taking a plastic bag from under the table. “I… I bought you some gifts. A jump rope for Dad, and hair ties and a handkerchief for Beibei. There weren’t any nice clothes at the market, and I ran out of money. Next time, next time…”
His wishes were beautiful, but his promise was heavy. Wang Zhizhi, unsure of what tasks and situations they would encounter next, hesitated.
“The hair ties cost 3 yuan, the handkerchief 5 yuan, a total of 8 yuan for both, and the jump rope is 8 yuan. After deducting all expenses, Parent Zhizhi’s remaining salary for today is 1 yuan.” Li Mu, like an emotionless calculator, reported the prices to Wang Qingchuan.
“Okay, okay, we know you’re the fairest.” Wang Qingchuan, holding the jump rope, after hearing Li Mu’s explanation, couldn’t accuse Wang Zhizhi of being biased anymore.
At most, it was just that the child was still too young, not considerate enough, that’s why his food was so dry and bland.
“Thank you, Zhizhi…” Jiang Heye gently touched the not-so-exquisitely made handkerchief and the large bag of colorful rubber bands. Ah, why was this little baby so good, she was about to cry.
Right…
“Zhizhi, you used your money to buy gifts, so you’re only eating vegetables? Let’s share these two, okay? It’s me treating you after you fairly divided the food, is that okay?” Jiang Heye truly couldn’t bear to eat chicken and fish while watching Wang Zhizhi eat only vegetables, but she wouldn’t oppose his principles because of it.
“No.” Wang Zhizhi shook his head firmly.
“Give me some vegetables, I’ll give you some meat, let’s trade.” Wang Qingchuan, after carefully examining the food in front of Wang Zhizhi, realized that he had only glanced at it casually earlier, the vegetables in front of Wang Zhizhi were the same as the ones in front of that whoever, but he didn’t have any chicken or fish.
It made sense, he had to subsidize his own portion, give that whoever the same amount of money fairly, and buy gifts, he could only afford to eat vegetables…
Wang Qingchuan felt his suggestion was very good, this way, his food wouldn’t be so dry and bland, and Wang Zhizhi could also eat some meat. But Wang Zhizhi, rubbing his aching head, refused again.
His reason for refusing was very valid, yet a bit speechless.
“How do we trade meat and vegetables, how much do we trade, I can’t calculate it. You really want to eat vegetables, I’ll share some with you.” Wang Zhizhi said, standing up and started putting vegetables on Wang Qingchuan’s… oh no, to be precise, both Wang Qingchuan and Wang Qingbei’s plates.
Two slices of winter melon here, two slices there, three pieces of celery here, three pieces there…
Here…
“No, no, no… Stop it, eat it yourself!” Wang Qingchuan was both angry and speechless, he even had to endure the shocked and accusing gaze from that whoever next to him. Even if Wang Zhizhi gave him more, he couldn’t eat anymore.
“Okay.” Wang Zhizhi obediently stopped, pointed at the plate at the edge of the table, and said, “The grandpa at the market gave us candied tomatoes, I brought back two skewers for you, you can each have one after finishing your meal.”
Wang Qingchuan: “… “ Was there any hope for this child’s suddenly malfunctioning brain to recover?
Jiang Heye: “… “ Why was this baby so adorable!!!
Li Mu, having finished reporting the accounts, retreated and squatted with the other staff members who were enjoying their lunch.
Wu Qiao nudged Li Mu with his elbow. “Why did you butt in? This kind of unnecessary screen time will deduct from your salary.”
“Let them deduct it.” Li Mu opened his lunchbox and gave the chicken leg to Wu Qiao. “You worked hard catching that guy today, eat more.”
“Hehe.” Wu Qiao picked up the chicken leg and took a big bite, he hadn’t done much, just had his face pushed against the car window a few times.
“Do you have a pen and paper?” Li Mu asked after taking a bite of his food, patting his pockets.
“Yes.” Wu Qiao swiftly took out a pen and a small notebook from his bag. “What for? You’re going to write something while eating?”
“Mmm… Zhizhi wants to learn simple math, I’m thinking about how to teach him in an easy way.” Li Mu said, scribbling on the paper while eating.
“… “ Wu Qiao was shocked. “We’re here to take care of the children, we don’t have to go this far, right? It’s just a few days of filming, do we also have to be their tutors?”
It wasn’t absolutely necessary, but… Li Mu thought about the child at the market, diligently trying to divide the money, his face flushed red from anxiety because he couldn’t calculate. Perhaps, when Zhizhi went back, he would also need it. Before he learned it in school, what would Zhizhi do if he needed it…
Thinking of this, Li Mu wrote even faster.
And as the saying goes, one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Like Wang Qingchuan and Jiang Heye, who were unrelated, Wen Qiming and Wen Jiangyue, who were related… were also experiencing different emotions.
Wen Qiming, before sitting down at his table, had walked around with the other dads, checking out their food. When he returned to his own table, he felt… a slight sense of disappointment?
The other families had plates and bowls, a variety of meat and vegetable dishes, how come theirs was… Mmm…
Wen Qiming looked at the pickled mustard green and egg soup, stir-fried potato with green pepper, braised eggplant, cold bean sprouts, and two skewers of stringy candied cucumbers on the table. There were many dishes, but only a plate of five-spice pig liver could be considered meat?
This meal, based on the prices in the village, excluding the pig liver, should have cost around six or seven yuan? This plate of pig liver, at most, would be a dozen yuan? So around twenty yuan in total.
Looking at the other families’ tables, theirs definitely cost more than twenty yuan.
The program team hadn’t told the dads about the babies’ sales this morning, but based on Wen Qiming’s observation, Wen Jiangyue probably didn’t do very well.
“Yueyue, did you… not sell much of your vegetables this morning?” Wen Qiming asked tactfully.
“I did quite well, I was tied for third place with Maomao, Wen Dongyu, and Shen Zilin!” Wen Jiangyue replied confidently.
Wen Qiming recalled the food on the Wei, Wen, and Shen families’ tables… There seemed to be chicken legs or duck legs, fish, chopped chicken, lotus root cakes, fried meatballs… Although he couldn’t remember clearly, the difference was quite significant.
“You were tied for third, that’s very impressive. But…” Wen Qiming pointed at the table. “For this meal, you didn’t spend all the money you earned from selling vegetables on food, right?”
“Dad, you’re so smart!” Wen Jiangyue smiled. “I was going to show you after we finish eating. I also bought you flowers, you like flowers, right?”
As she spoke, Wen Jiangyue bent down and took out from under the table…
A bouquet of wrapped flowers.
“Ha… Ha… Thank you, Yueyue.” Wen Qiming, both amused and touched, took the flowers, then couldn’t help but add, “But the flowers Dad likes are the kind planted in pots. Don’t you remember, the flowers in our courtyard are all planted?”
“I remember, but you also like it when other uncles, aunties, brothers, and sisters bring this kind of flower to our house.” Wen Jiangyue bit her lip gently. “There weren’t any flowers in pots at the market, Dad, don’t you like these flowers?”
“Dad likes them, how could Dad dislike flowers given by Yueyue?” Wen Qiming affirmed his daughter first, then chuckled. “But, you probably didn’t earn much money this morning, right? There’s a saying, ‘Spend money wisely.’ This kind of wrapped flowers, they’re expensive, and we can’t even keep them alive, it’s not something we need to spend money on urgently, right? Next time, shouldn’t we prioritize the necessities? For example, the money you earned from selling vegetables, wasn’t it meant for buying lunch? You used it to buy flowers, isn’t that…”
Wen Qiming’s pre-meal lecture, neither too loud nor too soft, was clearly audible to Wei Chengli, who was sitting at the table next to them.
Each family was eating their own food, but the tables were close together, it was normal to hear some sounds.
But the problem was!
Wei Chengli, alarmed, reached out and pressed down on the little chubby dumpling’s chubby paw, whispering, “Baby, calm down.”
Wei Maomao looked up at Wei Chengli. “I am calm.”
Wei Chengli looked at the long chicken bone sticking out of the little chubby dumpling’s mouth, which she hadn’t even spat out while talking, heh… Calm… Was she kidding?
“Okay, okay, you’re calm. Come on, finish eating this, spit out the bone, and we’ll have another chicken leg, eat, eat, eat… Chicken legs are delicious, they’ll make you grow taller.” Wei Chengli, with a stiff smile, pulled out the clean-gnawed chicken bone from the little chubby dumpling’s mouth and gave her another big chicken leg.
Actually, Wei Chengli wanted to stuff the chicken leg directly into the little chubby dumpling’s mouth, but he didn’t dare.
The little chubby dumpling’s teeth-grinding sound as she gnawed on the chicken bone hadn’t stopped since Wen Qiming started his lecture.
Honestly… Wen Qiming was truly discouraging, shouldn’t he just accept the gift his daughter gave him… But each family had their own parenting style, Wei Chengli couldn’t say much.
The problem now was…
He was scared!
His chubby baby was so angry that she was grinding her teeth, wouldn’t she pounce on someone and bite them…
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