Chapter 408: You Owe Me a Little Golden Man

Chapter 408: Chapter 408: You Owe Me a Little Golden Man

"It’s finally over!"

Back home, Guan Shan led Jifeng to the back of the house for some fodder. Ji Huan didn’t care about anything else. She dove straight into the east room, flopped onto the kang bed, and didn’t want to move an inch.

Dabao followed her in, lay on the edge of the kang, and looked at her, his head tilted to the side.

She knew it would be crowded and chaotic today, so she hadn’t brought Dabao along. It was a pleasant surprise that the little guy wasn’t upset about it.

Ji Huan reached out and pinched his nose. "Were you a good boy at home today? Did you teach Cousin Mingfang well?"

Dabao nodded, then nodded again.

"What did you have for lunch?"

"Noodles."

After a pause, he added, "Cousin Mingfang made them."

Ji Huan couldn’t help but laugh.

It was obvious Ji Mingfang had made them. Dabao could barely even reach the stove; there was no way he could have cooked.

But then again, she had been busy with the shop lately and often left Dabao at home. With only Ji Mingfang to keep him company, the two of them had been reading and writing together, and their relationship had actually improved quite a bit.

At least Dabao didn’t get impatient when teaching Ji Mingfang anymore.

"Did Cousin Mingfang make you any steamed egg custard?"

"He did."

Seeing Ji Huan talking to him while massaging her own shoulder with one hand, Dabao blinked, took off his shoes, and climbed onto the kang. He knelt beside Ji Huan and started massaging her shoulders for her, his movements surprisingly skilled.

Needless to say, Ji Huan had been the one to teach him.

But she would never admit she did it just for her own enjoyment.

’It was to cultivate Dabao,’ she thought. ’A boy needs to be well-rounded in virtue, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor.’

But sometimes, when she saw Dabao with his lowered eyelids, diligently massaging her shoulders with such a serious and obedient expression, he looked like an exploited little child laborer. At those times, she couldn’t help but despise herself—’So shameless of me.’

However, despising herself was one thing, but the exploitation had to continue.

Because it felt really good, even if his little hands were a bit weak...

Ji Huan was already tired, and the massage made her even drowsier. She gradually closed her eyes and started to doze off.

She didn’t know how much time had passed, but when she opened her eyes again, she noticed the pressure on her shoulders was a bit heavy.

"Dabao," Ji Huan mumbled drowsily. "A little gentler."

The pressure immediately lightened quite a bit.

"Not bad, not bad." Ji Huan patted the hand on her left shoulder. "Raise a brother for a thousand days to use him for one moment. Your big sis is quite gratified..."

Her voice suddenly trailed off.

’Wait a minute...’ She felt the hand again.

It was so big, like a cattail fan. This wasn’t Dabao’s hand.

Ji Huan’s drowsiness vanished in an instant. She shot up, startled, crossing her arms in front of her in an ’X’ shape.

Seeing it was Guan Shan, she let out a breath.

Then her eyes widened. "Did you knock? Did you get my permission? Is a girl’s boudoir a place you can just waltz into? Are a girl’s shoulders something you can just touch?"

Guan Shan looked at her, his expression placid. "Last night..."

At the mention of last night, Ji Huan immediately felt a pang of guilt.

She didn’t even know how she had fallen asleep, but she’d woken up tucked into her bed. It was obvious what had happened.

’He’s already carried me in his arms, so what’s touching my shoulder?’

"Ahem, well, it’s getting dark, isn’t it? Where’s Dabao?"

She was clearly trying to change the subject.

Guan Shan didn’t call her out on it.

"Backyard. Practicing his forms."

Ji Huan got off the kang, put on her shoes, and ran to the backyard to take a look.

Dabao could now perform a simple set of martial arts forms, but according to Guan Shan, it had form but no intent. That’s why every morning at the crack of dawn, Guan Shan would haul Dabao out of bed and make him run up the back mountain. What they actually did up there, she had no idea.

All Ji Huan could do was lie in her warm bed and feel sorry for him, and after feeling sorry, she would happily go back to sleep.

Dabao had a serious expression on his face as he executed a side kick, stabilized his stance, and threw a punch. Each move was quite well-formed.

It’s just that his little face was scrunched up in a foul mood.

He had been happily massaging his big sister’s shoulders when that Guan fellow pushed the door open without a word and, without any explanation, hauled him off the kang.

He had wanted to struggle, but Guan pointed at the kang. Not wanting to wake his sister, he had no choice but to give in.

He was kicked out, but that Guan fellow...

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. The punches he threw were no longer soft and listless; they now carried a strange, fierce energy.

Dahuang was lying at the entrance of its "villa," its tail wagging back and forth as its two little beady eyes followed Dabao’s every move.

A, B, C, and D didn’t know what Dabao was doing, but they hopped and jumped around in blind excitement anyway.

Ji Huan watched from a corner of the wall for a while, then returned to the front yard with the smile of a proud mother.

There was a fire lit in the kitchen. Ji Huan went in and found Guan Shan starting a fire to cook dinner.

Having rested for a while, Ji Huan’s fatigue had subsided, and she moved to take over.

Guan Shan didn’t let her, telling her only to sit by the stove opening and feed the fire.

"Let’s just have something simple tonight."

’He probably thinks I’m tired today...’ Ji Huan thought.

The room fell quiet, with only the continuous CRACKLE and POP of the fire in the stove.

Ji Huan rested her cheek on one hand while feeding firewood into the stove with the other. Thinking back on the day’s events, she couldn’t help but smile again.

"You didn’t get to see it live today. I think if I were to ever change careers, I’d be pretty well-suited for acting."

During the cooking competition, Guan Shan had probably stayed in the inner courtyard, afraid he might scare the customers.

With such a big and messy crowd, Ji Huan had also been worried he might attract some trouble, so she hadn’t insisted.

In fact, Guan Shan had gone to watch. He had put on a bamboo hat and stood in a far corner, so Ji Huan simply hadn’t noticed him.

Onstage, Ji Huan was undoubtedly the center of attention. Her every move, her every smile and frown, seemed to naturally glow.

However, Guan Shan didn’t quite understand why she would want to be an actress.

"That wastrel, did you arrange for him?" Before they returned to the village, he had seen Ji Huan paying the wastrel.

Ji Huan didn’t realize there was anything strange about his question and assumed Zhou had told him.

Zhou practically worshipped Guan Shan. Especially when Guan Shan was teaching Dabao martial arts, the yearning in Zhou’s eyes was impossible to hide.

"There are good wastrels and bad ones. That guy helped Zhou before, and I happened to need a plant... Public opinion, you know, needs a bit of proper guidance."

If that wastrel hadn’t been the one to stick his neck out, how would the buck-toothed woman have taken the bait? Even if she had her doubts, she probably wouldn’t have stepped forward.

If no one had stepped up to voice their doubts, the competition would have ended smoothly, and while it might have still achieved its goal, the effect certainly wouldn’t have been as good as it was now.

After all, she and the master chef were too distant from the crowd. Their victory or defeat was just a spectacle for people to watch. It wouldn’t have moved them deeply or left a lasting impression.

But the buck-toothed woman and the round-faced woman were different. They came from the crowd, so the audience could empathize with them more easily.

Especially the round-faced woman. She represented countless housewives with average cooking skills. Her "success" was a live testimonial and the best possible endorsement for the sauces and seasonings.

"So, what do you think? Pretty smart, right?"

Guan Shan was silent for a moment, then defined her with two words: "Drama queen."

Ji Huan called Dahuang a drama queen every day, but she never expected those two words would be used on her.

For a moment, she was choked speechless.

"Don’t just learn a new word and throw it around randomly." ’How could I be the same as Dahuang?’

But on second thought, it was also a roundabout way of complimenting her acting skills.

At that, her face broke into a grin, and she started talking to herself again. "An Oscar... no, wait. It’s you people. You all owe me a little golden statue!"

The vegetable knife in Guan Shan’s hand paused. After a long moment, he grunted in agreement. "I’ll get you one in the future."