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<h1 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Chapter 18: Eating White-Flour Buns for the First Time</h1>\n\n
“Fifth, eat this.” Grandmother Ciying’s trembling hands picked up a steamed white-flour bun, broke it in half, gave Bailian a half, and gave the remaining half to Madam Zhao.\n
“Mother, I…won’t eat, you guys should have it instead!” Madam Zhao hurriedly waved her hand and pushed the bun away.\n
“Grandma should eat” Bailian pushed back Madam Zhao’s half of the bun back into Grandmother Ciying’s weathered hands, and then handed her own half over to Madam Zhao, “Mother, eat this, it’ll be very good for my little sibling and help replenish some of your energy.”\n
The steamed buns weren’t actually that nutritional or beneficial, but the Li Family didn’t have that much money to afford truly good ingredients. After so many years had passed, the dowry brought by Grandmother Ciying had been basically all used up.\n
Patriarch Li and the Eldest Master both demanded good brushes, high-quality ink, inkstones, and papers for studying, and the Second Master had also invested a lot of money into his business.\n
After pampering these greedy people for so many years, the dowry had long been dried up.\n
“Mother doesn’t want it, Mother will be fine with just the cornmeal bun, Fifth should eat it instead!” Madam Zhao distressed examined Bailian’s forehead injury. Currently, the wound didn’t look as bad as before, but it was just starting to scab and still looked quite startling.\n
“Here!” Bailian forcefully stuffed the white-flour bun half into Madam Zhao’s hand, frightening Madam Zhao with her sudden outburst, “If you don’t eat it, it’ll be snatched away!”\n
“Mother doesn’t need to eat so well.” Madam Zhao still resolutely shook her head, “Fifth should eat quickly! You’ve never had the chance to taste white-flour buns before! Try it!”\n
“Five can eat mine, you should just eat yours!” Grandmother Ciying pushed back the bun into Madam Zhao’s frail hand.\n
Bailian was dumbfounded at the interaction, she still hadn’t eaten anything from this world since getting here!\n
“Let’s just all eat it then!” Bailian compromised, breaking a bit from each of the halves in their hands, “This should be fine right?”\n
“Okay, let’s eat then!” Grandmother Ciying beamed and lovingly gazed at Bailian.\n
Madam Zhao also tenderly looked at Bailian, proud of her daughter’s cleverness and quick thinking. Bailian felt a little embarrassed by their gazes, so she quickly ducked her head and ate the white flour buns.\n
It wasn’t delicious at all!\n
Panicking from the initial taste, Bailian began coughing violently.\n
“Older Sister, we’re back!”\n
At this time, Yuhang, pulling Yuyang along, entered the small room. On their tan cheeks were small red scratches. They had been most likely scratched by the brambles and prickly vegetation out in the mountains.\n
“Quickly, sit down and eat steamed buns.” Grandmother Ciying’s eyes lit up after seeing Yuhang and Yuyang. Tottering over to them, she broke the bun in her hand into two halves and stuffed them into the boys’ dirty palms.\n
“Concubine Grandmother, this…” Yuhang swallowed nervously and stared longingly at the steamed bun in his hand.\n
The same went for Yuyang, who was intensely staring at the steamed bun in his band, almost as if he was afraid it would disappear into thin air.\n
“This is what Fifth took from the main branch, eat it quickly.” Grandmother Ciying kindly reminded her two grandchildren.\n
“Mother, you should eat too.” Madam Zhao once again put the white-flour bun into Grandmother Ciying’s wrinkled hands.\n
Bailian observed the scene, feeling very sad. It was only a steamed bun, but it made these people so excited, pushing the buns back and forth to each other.\n
“Stop it Mother.” Bailian exasperatedly shook her head, grabbed the last white-flour bun from the basket and swiftly broke it into two halves, “Mother is going to give birth to a younger sister or younger brother, so she should have half and just give the other half fo father. Grandma can eat what mother just handed over. You two, just eat what you have! If there isn’t enough to go around, you can just eat the cornmeal buns. When this little lady becomes rich, you’ll get to eat whatever you want!” Bailian huffed and puffed, slapping her small little chest with pride.\n
‘Sister, can I really eat it?”\n
Yuhang gawked at the bun in his hand.\n
“Of course!” Bailian encouragingly nodded at her brother.\n
“Sister should take the first bite.” Yuhang unfurled his palms and raised it to Bailian’s mouth. Yuyang wordlessly copied his older brother’s action, similarly lifting the bun to Bailian’s mouth. \n
“If you want to eat, you can just eat it ah! I just ate some!” Bailian prodded both her brothers’ heads with her finger, “I gave it to you, but if you don’t eat it, I’ll just take it back and there won’t be anymore!”\n
“En.” Yuhang obediently nodded and then voraciously bit into the soft, warm bun, eating it with great relish, as if it was something extremely delicious.\n
“But…”\n
Not wanting to hear her Mother’s next words, Bailian nimbly stuffed the still-steaming bun directly into Madam Zhao’s mouth.\n
“Let’s not waste food!” Bailian mischievously wiggled her eyebrows at her mother.\n
In the end, the people in the small room were each delicately chewing on the white-flour buns, slowly savoring the taste of real flour with a face of happiness. This was the first time that they had ever gotten to eat steamed white-flour buns in the Li Residence. \n
Bailian looked a little downcast and her heart panged in pity. With this, she made up her mind to make their lives better in the future.\n
After all, she was currently in the body of the original owner, so this was expected of her.\n
“Let’s walk to the field together!” Balian peeked at the faces of those who had just finished the buns. Picking up the cornmeal buns left on the table from dinner yesterday, she also packed them into the food basket.\n
‘Alright.” Grandmother Ciying head bobbed in agreement, “The chores are pretty much finished, so it’s time to help your father.”\n
“Let’s go!” Bailian energetically leaped off the stool, picked up the basket, and skipped outside.\n
Bailian didn’t want the Third Branch to stay in the Li residence for too long. After all, she had just irritated the main branch and it would be bad if they were to make a move while she was away.\n
It would be better just to all head to the farming fields together and give them a buffer period to calm down. Presumably, Patriarch Li and Eldest Master should have something to keep them busy during this time.\n
Besides, the Eldest Master’s future and reputation of the Li Young Misses were at stake here!\n
“You are all not allowed to beat, punish, or scold the Third Branch in the future. If any of that travels to my ears, you’ll no longer need to stay here, I’ll kick you out!” Patriarch Li’s grave expression and serious tone filled the main hall.\n
At this time, the Fourth Master had finally returned home. After all, it was dinnertime. He had to think of a good plan to swindle Bailian out of the residence. Along the way, he would search for Matriarch Wang’s hidden stash of silver.\n
“Father~” Li Jinyu whined, feeling dissatisfied at this turn of events, “That stinky girl even beat up Mother!”\n
“Shut it!” Patriarch Li slapped down hard on the table, “Are you trying to ruin your elder brother’s future?”\n
“I..” Li Jinyu ducked her head and shrank her obese chin closer to her head.\n
Of course, she didn’t want to, she had to rely and count on her older brother on passing the nationwide Imperial examination. If he did, she would be able to procure a good marriage.\n
“Grandpa, is it really that serious?” Li Xuehua tilted her head to the side, looking puzzled, unconvinced by her Grandfather’s words. \n
“As if you wouldn’t know! It’s all because of you!” Patriarch Li angrily pointed at Li Xuehua, feeling his rage rise up again.\n
However, in the end, Patriarch Li did not end up accusing Li Xuehua of pushing Bailian that day.\n
Shaken by her Grandfather’s outburst, Li Xuehua quietly held onto Li Xueyu’s sleeves, not daring to make so much as a single peep.\n
“Father, we were too careless and didn’t even think about that secondary equal wife, nor could we predict that Fifth would dare to….” Eldest Master helplessly reasoned with his father.\n
“Bah, she’s just trash!” Matriarch Wang gnashed her teeth at the thought of Bailian.\n
“Fifth has grown up….she now knows a lot” Liu Meijun subtly added in, her words full of implicit meanings.\n
Patriarch Li’s eyes flashed, but no one could tell what he was thinking.\n
“We won’t provoke the Third Branch, for the time being, Yonghe’s future is the most important” Liu Medium tamely stated with an extremely gentle expression.\n
“This little wench, if I had known this was going to happen, I would have long sold her off..” Matriarch Wang muttered under her breath.\n
In the quiet main hall, everyone had heard her utter these words, but no one spoke.\n
The Fourth Master scanned each person’s face with a confused expression. He didn’t know what had occurred in the time he was gone, and he had just returned home.\n
“Father, just what’s the matter with Fifth?” The Fourth Master mumbled unclearly, his mouth full of food, making for an unsightly scene.\n
Patriarch Li angrily snorted at his fourth’s son’s poor manners and didn’t say a thing. Eventually, it was only after the Fourth Master did he say: “Don’t provoke her, otherwise your elder brother’s future may be destroyed!”\n
“If she dares to ruin my son’s future, I’ll kill her!” Matriarch Wang’s face contorted into a vicious expression, her lips curled back into a snarl.\n
“Eat!” Patriarch Li commanded solemnly.\n
“Son, what’s happened to your face?” Matriarch Wang had only just discovered that the Fourth Master’s face was bruised black and purple in some places.\n
“Nothing, I just accidentally fell out of the bed while sleeping.” The Fourth Master nervously chucked out an excuse, his eyes flashing.\n
“It’s all because of that wench Bailian that even the family’s chickens and dogs are going crazy!” Matriarch Wang cattily reasoned. \n
“Hehe~” The Fourth Master smiled mysteriously, ducking his head to immerse himself into his food, not speaking for the rest of the meal.\n
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