Chapter 34 - 12: Little Yezi’s Birthmark

Chapter 34: Chapter 12: Little Yezi’s Birthmark

"Zhaozhao, what on earth are you doing? Why did you mix so much dough—and with white flour, too! Are you trying to squander everything we have?"

Getting closer, she saw the dough in the floral enamel bowl was beyond saving, and she winced in pain at the sight.

"Of course we’re not," Lin Zhao replied with a smile.

Mrs. Lin snapped, "Whose family lives like you do? This much white flour could have fed Da Zai and the others noodles for a whole month."

"There’s still more flour, Mom, don’t worry. Your grandsons won’t go hungry." Lin Zhao’s tone was calm. "You and Second Brother came all this way to see me. What would it look like if I didn’t even make you a proper meal?"

But Mrs. Lin was not to be placated and remained angry. "You were never this formal with us before."

Lin Zhao was still smiling. "Well, I’m not the same person I used to be."

Mrs. Lin had never gone to school and didn’t understand such fancy phrases. She said with heartfelt gravity, "Zhaozhao, it’s not easy for your husband to earn money. You need to be more frugal."

"You still have Da Zai and the others to raise. When they get a little older, they’ll need to go to school, right? And they’ll need to get married, won’t they?"

"If you don’t plan and budget now, you’ll be crying about it later."

"Da Zai and the others have their father, don’t they?" Lin Zhao said dismissively. She had an easygoing nature and never dwelled on things. To her, living well in the present was all that mattered.

Mrs. Lin felt like slapping her. "Your husband may be a good earner, but that’s useless when he’s married to a shameless spendthrift of a wife!"

"And who raised me?" Lin Zhao retorted, unafraid. In her entire life, her mother had barely ever said a harsh word to her.

Mrs. Lin was at a loss for words. Too angry to deal with her, she went out to the backyard.

Lin Shisheng, who had just gathered the bamboo strips, saw his mother’s furious back as she left. He poked his head into the kitchen and asked in a low voice, "Zhaozhao, what did you do to make Mom angry again?"

Lin Zhao covered the finished dough and started preparing the filling. A smallish enamel bowl was packed with meat. "Mom thinks money just slips through my fingers."

Lin Shisheng’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he saw all that meat, his mouth starting to water.

He agreed with his mother. "Well, you do let money slip through your fingers. How could you cook all this meat at once? It would have been so much better to save it and have a little every few days."

Lin Zhao looked up at him. "Cut the nonsense. Do you want some or not?"

"What a silly question. Who doesn’t want meat?" Food was scarce for the Lin Family; they hadn’t made dumplings at home in two years.

"Once Second Brother is done with his work, you can eat dumplings until you’re stuffed." Lin Zhao took two steps forward and said to Lin Shisheng, "Hold out your hand."

Lin Shisheng stretched out his arm and opened his hand.

Lin Zhao placed two pieces of rock candy in it, smiling. "A little something to sweeten your mouth, Second Brother."

"Rock candy?" Lin Shisheng’s eyes filled with astonishment. He had seen rock candy before, but never any so white it was almost transparent, as if completely free of impurities.

"Is this really rock candy? It doesn’t look like the kind I’ve seen before."

Without waiting for Lin Zhao to answer, he tossed the candy into his mouth. A sweet taste filled it, and a deep smile flashed in his eyes.

"It’s rock candy." Lin Zhao’s hands got busy again. "Second Brother, is an hour enough to fence the vegetable garden? I’ll time boiling the dumplings for when you’re done."

"More than enough, more than enough." Lin Shisheng looked both casual and confident. That little bit of work was nothing for someone used to hard labor.

"Got it."

Lin Shisheng went to the backyard to work. Just as he’d expected, he had to listen to Mrs. Lin’s nagging for a while, all of it about how Lin Zhao was a spendthrift who didn’t know how to manage a household.

He said, "Zhaozhao hurt her head, so it’s good for her to eat something nourishing."

"Didn’t you bring Zhaozhao eggs and fish for the same reason, Mom? So she could have something nourishing..."

While tidying the vegetable garden, Mrs. Lin said, "Do you think she’s making all this for herself? No, she’s making it for us. Your sister is good to you. You need to remember that and protect her."

Lin Shisheng had expected the conversation to end up here. "Of course. She’s my only sister. I’ll always protect her."

"See that you remember that."

Yesterday, the delicious smells wafting from the Gu Family’s home had made it impossible for the next-door neighbors to stomach their own food. Today, as mealtime arrived, the scent of meat drifted out once again.

The children of the Wang Family were crying from the tantalizing smell. Seeing her grandchildren’s pitiful tears, Wang Chunhua reluctantly boiled two eggs for them to share, which finally placated them.

The neighbor’s child on the other side, however, could not be soothed for the longest time. The little boy’s cries were loud enough to shake the roof.

Meanwhile, the Lin family members were each enjoying a bowl of dumplings.

Hearing the caterwauling from next door, Mrs. Lin frowned and looked at Lin Zhao. "Is it always like that over there?"

"Not before. It only started in the last two days. They’ll have plenty more opportunities to cry in the future." Lin Zhao paid it no mind.

She wasn’t about to stop cooking good food just for her neighbors’ sake.

"They just haven’t been spanked enough," Mrs. Lin said. "Your brothers would never have dared to carry on like that when they were little."

Lin Shisheng, who was heartily devouring one dumpling after another, froze at her words. "With your sandbag-sized fists, Mom, how would we ever dare get out of line?"

It was no exaggeration to say that the three Lin brothers had been raised under their mother’s iron-fisted rule.

Lin Zhao had three older brothers. No, to be precise, she was supposed to have four.

Her third and fourth brothers were twins, but the younger twin was stolen shortly after birth.

The Lin Family only knew that the child had a birthmark on his ear shaped like a small leaf. Beyond that, they knew nothing.