The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 21 - Shen Baolan’s Gossiping Annoys Pei Wenping
Chapter 21: Chapter 21 Shen Baolan’s Gossiping Annoys Pei Wenping
Chapter 21 -21 Shen Baolan’s Gossiping Annoys Pei Wenping
After leaving Shen Mingzhu’s place, Pei Wenping went back to her job to continue working.
As the end of the workday approached, Pei Wenping felt a bit hungry, so she took out the egg cake given to her by Shen Mingzhu from her shoulder bag and shared a piece with each of her office colleagues.
“Hey, what’s this delicious thing you’re eating?
Give me a piece too.”
While they were eating, Office Director Wang Defa came over to report expenses and, smelling the fragrance, shamelessly asked for a piece.
“Director Wang, you’ll have to ask Sister Wenping for that—this egg cake is what she brought in.”
Pei Wenping initially didn’t want to give him any, but eventually caved in to Wang Defa’s persistence and handed him a piece.
It wasn’t that she was stingy, but there were only so many pieces of the egg cake, and there wouldn’t be enough to take home if she gave away any more.
“Accountant Pei, where did you buy this egg cake?
It’s quite delicious.”
“Yeah, I’ve never tasted such a flavorful egg cake before.
Sister Wenping, give us an address, I’ll go and weigh out some after work.”
“Forget about it, you can’t find this egg cake outside.”
“What, is it a special supply item?”
Pei Wenping said proudly, “That’s right.
My sister-in-law baked it herself for family, it’s indeed a special treat.”
Shen Mingzhu, apron still tied on, was getting ready to cook dinner when Pei Wenping brought her colleague from the cotton factory to her home.
“Sister-in-law, this is our cotton factory’s Director Wang.
He specially asked me to bring him over to ask you for a favor.”
Shen Mingzhu invited the two inside, poured water, and was ready to prepare a fruit plate.
Pei Wenping stopped her.
“Don’t fuss, sister-in-law, serve some of your baked egg cakes for Director Wang.”
“Oh, alright.”
Hearing that Pei Wenping specifically asked for the egg cakes, Shen Mingzhu had a hunch.
She went to the kitchen, picked out some of the egg cakes she had baked that afternoon, plated them and brought them out.
Only Director Wang was sitting on the sofa in the living room, Pei Wenping was not there, and from a room came the faint sound of conversation between aunt and nephew.
“Director Wang, these are pastries I made myself, please try them.”
Seeing two different colored egg cakes of various shapes on the plate, Wang Defa’s eyes lit up.
“Sister-in-law Pei, what skillful hands you have, and so clever too.”
Shen Mingzhu just smiled and said nothing, picking up the teapot to add some water to his cup.
Wang Defa first tasted a plum blossom-shaped plain cake, and then picked up a banana-shaped banana-flavored cake.
As he was eating, Pei Wenping emerged from the room, leading Pei Ziheng behind her.
Seeing Wang Defa eating with gusto, she smiled and asked, “Director Wang, how is it?”
Wang Defa nodded repeatedly, “Good, really good.
Accountant Pei, you should try some too.”
When Pei Wenping approached the coffee table and saw the egg cakes on the plate, she was pleasantly surprised.
“My, sister-in-law, you’ve baked some new varieties?”
Shen Mingzhu explained with a smile, “I just used different cake molds.
The plum blossom-shaped one has the same flavor as the one you had this morning, and this long one is banana flavored.”
Hearing Shen Mingzhu say this, Pei Wenping immediately grabbed a banana-flavored egg cake, broke it in half, and handed the other half to her nephew Pei Ziheng.
Pei Wenping couldn’t stop praising the banana-flavored egg cake, “It’s even more fragrant and delicious than the plain one.
I’ve only had orange-flavored egg cake before.
I never expected banana-flavored ones could be made.
Sister-in-law, where did you learn all this?”
“Just picked it up from books when I had nothing to do at home.”
Hearing this, Pei Ziheng, who was sitting silently next to Pei Wenping and enjoying his egg cake, glanced at Shen Mingzhu.
Lying without a draft.
In her past life, that woman never even read a book, let alone bought half a page of a newspaper.
Moreover, in her past life, this woman couldn’t even cook noodles properly; they were awfully bad.
This life, suddenly her culinary skills were superb—she could cook meals and bake cakes like a completely different person.
Shen Mingzhu did not realize her stepson’s inner snide and skepticism; she was attentively listening to Wang Defa.
Wang Defa had come to her to ask her to help bake a twenty jin of egg cake.
In two days, it would be the seventieth birthday of Wang Defa’s mother, who loved eating egg cake all her life.
Thus, Wang Defa wanted to use the egg cake as dessert for the birthday feast.
Business knocking at her door—Shen Mingzhu naturally wouldn’t refuse.
She bought this oven not only for satisfying her own cravings but also for earning some pocket money.
Currently, the egg cake outside cost two Food Coupons and two yuan per jin if paid with coupons, or two yuan and fifty cents per jin if paid with cash.
Shen Mingzhu quoted a price of three yuan per jin to Wang Defa, no coupons needed, and explained why.
“My ingredients are more generous than others outside.
I use two more eggs per jin of flour, and the sugar is 100% white granulated, without any melamine.”
Wang Defa agreed without hesitation.
Whether the product was good or not, one could tell just by tasting it; otherwise, he would not have gone out of his way to seek her service.
After Pei Wenping and Wang Defa left, Shen Mingzhu didn’t hurry to make dinner.
Instead, she took out a notebook to do some accounting. freёweɓnovel.com
Subtracting the costs, twenty jin of egg cakes could earn her roughly ten yuan.
One day to prepare the ingredients, another to bake; for two days’ work, a net profit of ten yuan satisfied Shen Mingzhu.
The next day, after sending her stepson to kindergarten, Shen Mingzhu went to the Food Supply Station to buy refined flour, sugar, oil, and eggs.
She verbally agreed with the Food Supply Station’s owner that she would buy in bulk in the future and obtained a ten percent discount and delivery service as a concession.
That very day, the residential compound was abuzz again; everyone criticized Shen Mingzhu’s “wasteful behavior” endlessly.
Shen Baolan, in particular, found it utterly unbelievable.
How could Shen Mingzhu dare to?
Just yesterday, she had been found and scolded by Pei Wenping twice, yet she showed no sign of restraint, and today she was making extravagant purchases again.
She even bought twenty jin of eggs in one go; what was she thinking, eating eggs as her staple food?
No, she had to go and talk to Pei Wenping again to see if Pei Wenping could verbally thrash this wasteful woman to death.
At noon, while Shen Mingzhu was washing the newly purchased cake molds, Pei Wenping dropped by.
“Eldest sister, have you had lunch yet?
I made dumplings and froze them in the icehouse.
Do you want me to cook you some?”
Pei Wenping wasn’t feeling very hungry, but when she heard there were dumplings, she suddenly felt a little peckish again.
“You go ahead with your work; I’ll cook them myself.”
While waiting for the water to boil, Pei Wenping chatted with Shen Mingzhu.
“That fellow villager of yours, she ran her mouth off at me again this morning.
I didn’t even want to listen, but she just kept babbling on and on.
Why is she so annoying?
Was she like this back in the village too?
Lucky for us she didn’t marry into the Pei Family.
She’s driving me nuts.”
Shen Mingzhu laughed, “What did she say to you this time?”
“What else could it be about?
She talked about your spending, said that you bought dozens of jins of flour and eggs in one go and told me to keep a better eye on you.”
“Eldest sister, she’s just like that, always wanting to stir up trouble.
You just ignore her from now on.”
“I snapped at her, told her to mind her own business.
I said you’re spending my brother’s money, not hers, so why is she so keyed up?
If she comes to me with gossip again, I’ll go straight to her mother-in-law.”
At this point, Pei Wenping couldn’t help but laugh, “You should have seen her face then, looked as if she swallowed a fly.
I bet she won’t dare to come find me again.”
“`
