Chapter 12: Invite to dinner

Han Aiguo paused, nodded, and said, “It’s good.”

Old Lady Han smiled even more happily.

After dinner, Old Lady Han sat on a stool in the main room, asking Han Aimin to talk. Everyone knew that the old lady wanted to ask about the selling of mooncakes, and they wanted to hear it too, so they didn’t leave.

Old Lady Han knew that this matter could not be hidden from everyone, so she did not chase them away and allowed them to listen here.

Han Aimin told everyone what happened today. After that, he took out the tickets and money that Su Yue shared with him and handed them to Old Lady Han. “Mom, this is what Sister Su Yue shared with me. You keep it.”

Han’s third daughter-in-law was startled. “That’s so much. Oh my, this is so profitable.”

At this time, rural people could only earn a few cents a day at work. As a result, Han Aimin earned so much in one day; how could it not be surprising?

Old Lady Han was also surprised. “Fourth child, why is there so much? You didn’t cheat your sister Su Yue’s money, did you?”

“Mom, what are you talking about? How can I be such a person?” Han Aimin shouted in dissatisfaction and then explained, “I’m not greedy for a penny. All the money from the sale was given to Sister Su Yue. Originally, Sister Su Yue gave me more, but I gave it back a little because making mooncakes requires oil, flour, sugar, and so on.”

“She didn’t remove the money required for the raw material and directly gave me my share, so I gave some money back as a share of the raw material. I can’t be greedy.”

Before Old Lady Han could speak, Old Lady Han’s third daughter-in-law shouted, “Fourth brother, are you stupid? She gave it to you on her own, and you gave it back to her!”

She looked pained, as if what she was giving back was her money.

Old Lady Han was so angry that she spat at her, “Go away, you short-sighted thing. If it’s not your own hard work, then you can only take what you deserve. The fourth child did the right thing. You have to be honest. You can’t be dissatisfied; otherwise, no one would dare to associate with you!”

Han’s third daughter-in-law shrank her neck after being scolded and did not dare to say a word.

Old Lady Han snorted loudly, looked at Han Aimin, and said, “Fourth child, you did the right thing, and you should do the same in the future. Be a responsible person and don’t be greedy for small gains that don’t belong to you. God loves loyal people. You won’t suffer a loss. Your sister Su Yue is also a loyal and good child, so she won’t let you suffer a loss.”

Han Aimin said hurriedly, “Mom, I know, don’t worry.” After saying that, he will always keep it in mind.

The basket that was not touched by anyone around him was handed to Old Lady Han. “Mom, these are the new mooncakes that my sister Su Yue made today. I will sell them tomorrow. You keep them.”

The reason why Old Lady Han was allowed to keep them was not Han Aimin was afraid that he would eat it secretly, but he was also afraid that his nephews would eat it secretly.

He currently sleeps in the same room with his two nephews. This mooncake is so fragrant. If he puts it in his room, they will definitely get up in the middle of the night to eat it.

This mooncake is so expensive; he would be heartbroken if it were eaten secretly.

Old Lady Han also knew that the children at home might not be able to help but eat secretly, so she took the basket and said, “Don’t worry, I will put it in my room, and there won’t be any missing.”

When the old lady spoke, the children at home were all disappointed. They were so enchanted that they wanted to get directly into the basket of mooncakes.

Not to mention children, even second and third daughters-in-law.

Every adult had desire in their eyes.

Who wouldn’t want to eat such delicious mooncakes?

Old Lady Han patted the table majestically and warned everyone, “I’m telling you, none of you are allowed to have any ideas about these mooncakes. They have to be sold for money. If I catch anyone secretly trying to do something, I’ll ask them to pay.”

The children were immediately frightened and did not dare to look at the basket. Han’s third daughter-in-law laughed and said, “Mom, how can we have any ideas? You can rest assured.”

Old Lady Han snorted, “It’s best if you don’t have any idea. Fourth child, you have to get up early and go to town tomorrow morning. Take a shower and go to bed early tonight. Don’t be late tomorrow morning.”

“Okay, Mother, I’m going to bed now.” Han Aimin, who was excited to sell mooncakes, was positive and didn’t dare to delay tomorrow’s affairs. He took a quick shower and went to bed.

Everyone saw that Old Lady Han put the mooncakes in her room to prevent them from seeing, so they all went back to their rooms to sleep.

Old Lady Han did not sleep. She lit a kerosene lamp and carefully looked at the mooncakes in the basket under the lamp. The more she looked at it, the happier she became. She murmured in a low voice, “What if this girl becomes my son’s wife? I will wake up laughing even in my dreams.”

“Oh, but now that his leg is broken, and he won’t be able to do heavy work in the future, such a girl would look down on Eldest. But maybe this thing is about fate? What can you say? The eldest is calm, capable, responsible, and loves his family. If he has a wife in the future, he will definitely love her very much. If one is looking for a husband, they will find one like him only, so maybe that girl will like him.”

Old Lady Han’s eyes lit up as she spoke, and she murmured to herself hopefully, “As long as we have more contact and she knows how good our family is, I’m sure he will catch her eye. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if I try. Let’s do this. On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, I will ask Xiao Su to come over to our house for a meal. She is a girl living so far away from home, and she doesn’t have any relatives to accompany her. She just has to come to our house for a meal. Besides, she gave our family a chance to make money, so we should thank her with a meal.”

The more Old Lady Han muttered, the more she felt her idea was a good idea. She couldn’t help but smile and narrowed her eyes. She put away the mooncakes happily, then blew out the lamp and went to sleep with the corners of her mouth curling up in her dream.

—

The next day, Han Aimin went to the textile factory’s family compound again. Not only did he sell the mooncakes he brought, but he also received many mooncake reservations.

Han Aimin had been in primary school for a few years and could write basic numbers. He wrote down the number of each mooncake and handed it to Su Yue. Su Yue hurriedly made a lot more mooncakes according to the number he gave. Then asked him to send it again.

They have been busy like this for five or six days and finally ended the business one day before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Su Yue did the math and found that she had sold more than 30 mooncakes in the past few days and made thirty-two yuan and seventy cents.

After excluding the cost and the money shared with Li Xiaoqing and Han Aimin, she made a net profit of more than fifteen yuan, plus a lot of oil stamps, rice stamps, food stamps, etc.; it was a great business.

Su Yue was happy; she finally made money, and she was finally not so poor.

What makes her most happy is that she took the time to make some other delicious and improved meals during this period and earned more than ten system points.

While Su Yue was counting the money happily, the Han family was also happily counting the money.

This time, Han Aimin received a total of just over five yuan and several tickets. This was a lot of money, enough for the family to use for a long time.

Han’s second daughter-in-law said, “Now that we don’t have enough food at home, we can add money to buy it. When the autumn comes, we can buy more food so that everyone does not have to go hungry.”

The Han family has a large population; there are also many children who cannot earn work points. Originally, what the family earned from working was not enough to feed the family, so they relied on Han Aiguo’s salary to support their lives. Now that he is injured and cannot work in the army, his monthly allowance is gone, and life at home suddenly became tense.

Fortunately, Han Aimin now has another income from selling food, which made everyone very happy.

Han Lao-er said, “Thanks to Su Yue for giving our family the opportunity to make money this time. Without her, how could our family make so much money?”

Han Lao-san also echoed, “Yes, we should thank Su Yue.”

Old Lady Han said with a smile, “Of course we have to thank Xiao Su. Our family has received a favor from her. There are so many people who can do this job, but she gave it to our fourth child. This is because she wants to help our family. But, we can’t just say thank you verbally; we have to express our gratitude substantively to be sincere.”

Han Lao-er nodded in agreement, “Yes! Mom, why don’t we bring some eggs to Su Yue as a thank-you gift?”

Old Lady Han waved her hands with a smile, “Su Yue will definitely not accept our eggs. Let’s do this. Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival. I want to ask Xiao Su to come to our house for a meal. She is an educated youth so far away from home and she can’t return to her family too, so why not invite her to our house to have a good time?”

This was unanimously agreed upon by everyone, and they all said that Old Lady Han’s idea was a good one.

Han’s third daughter-in-law immediately volunteered and said, “Mom, let me go ask Su Yue to come to our house for dinner.”

She had long wanted to have a good relationship with Su Yue. If there were any opportunities to make money in the future, then she would ask her to do it. She also wants to make some money.

But Old Lady Han said, “Where are you going? Don’t you have to go to work or do housework? Eldest, I’ll leave this matter to you. Go and invite Su Yue over for dinner, while also take a breather and exercise your legs.”

Han Lao-san thought that his mother wanted his eldest brother to go out and relax more, instead of holding back at home, so he immediately said to his wife, “Don’t get involved; let eldest brother go.”

Seeing that no one would let her go, Han’s third daughter-in-law lowered her head in displeasure, feeling depressed that the old lady was really partial and only wanted favoured the eldest brother for all good things.

Han Aiguo saw that his mother had said this. Although he was a little hesitant, he finally agreed with the old lady.

This night it was Su Yue’s turn to cook. Everyone had eaten, and Su Yue was now washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen.

While she was working, suddenly a child’s figure stretched out from the kitchen door. Half of the child’s body was hiding outside and did not dare to come in. It looked like he was seven or eight years old. His clothes were dirty, he had no shoes on, and there were two sticks hanging under his nose like a snot bubble.

When Su Yue turned around, she almost screamed out in fright when she saw him. After taking a closer look, she realized that the child looked familiar. After thinking about it carefully, she remembered that she had seen this child before. He was the youngest son of Mrs. Wang’s family next door, Zhuangzi. This child fell on his head when he was a child; hence, it impacted his brain after that. The children and some adults in the village always liked to call him a little fool.

Su Yue waved to him and asked with a smile, “Zhuangzi, why are you here? What’s the matter?”

Zhuangzi didn’t dare to get too close. He sniffed his nose, pointed to the door with his finger, and then said quickly, “Someone’s looking for you in the woods.”

After saying that, he ran away in a hurry. Su Yue wanted to stop him and ask who it was but couldn’t as he ran away fast.

Su Yue was very puzzled. Who was looking for her this late at night, and why didn’t he just come in and ask her to go out?

Could it be that he was plotting against her?

You really can’t blame her for being careful. With her current appearance, many people are interested in her, including, of course, some unscrupulous second-rate people in the village.

This forced her to take precautions.

Su Yue thought about it and decided that she still has to go out, in case someone really wanted to see her and it was really inconvenient to come in. After all, there were five single girls living here.

But she couldn’t just go out unprepared, so Su Yue took out the scissors in the kitchen, wrapped the tips in cloth, then secretly hid them in her trouser pocket, and went to get her homemade self-defence pepper water and put it in another pocket.

This should be enough to be safe.