Back to the 1980s: Transmigrated as the Bigshot's Pampered Wife-Chapter 37: Ill at Ease

Second Brother Gu cupped the money on the table with both hands, piling it into a paper box. "Heh heh, I’m so happy I’m not even hungry."

"Go wash up and eat, Second Brother. Tomorrow morning, we can set up a stall by the school gate and sell meat buns."

"Oh! Good idea. Actually, I’m getting a little hungry now. I’ll go wash my hands."

The Gu family had already washed their hands and were just waiting for the others who had been running the stall to return for dinner.

Dinner consisted of another large basin of chicken soup and a large basin of braised pig’s trotters, which Gu Jiaojiao had left to simmer in the pot before she went out.

Mr. Su had killed the chicken earlier. His daughter-in-law had mentioned that her family was severely malnourished, and since the Su family had one chicken left, he had slaughtered it for them.

Su Qinchun cooked the rice, while Mrs. Gu stir-fried some green beans and loofah.

It was four dishes for ten people, but the portions were generous. The rice was cooked to such a perfect texture that one could easily eat two bowls of it plain.

"Jiaojiao, can we really go sell buns tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah. After dinner, we’ll mix the dough and let it rise. We bought a lot of high-grade flour last time. We can make pickled cabbage buns, lean pork buns, and vegetable buns."

"Are we still going to sell liangpi, then?" Second Brother Gu asked. He thought selling liangpi was good money.

"We’ll sell liangpi in the afternoon and at lunchtime, and buns in the morning. We can each carry an insulated box, like the ones for popsicles, fill them with buns, and sell them in different locations."

"You guys have those insulated boxes for popsicles?"

"We do. We have three of them, in fact."

Gu Jiaojiao said as she sipped her chicken soup. ’I have plenty of Styrofoam boxes in my space.’

’In her past life, her family’s warehouse used them to pack fruit and other perishable foods. She and Su Shuochi had already finished the contents of two of the insulated boxes.’

’They were now sitting empty in her space. The last time she’d wanted to try the local popsicles, Houzi had helped her buy a whole case.’

’So now she had three Styrofoam boxes with a plausible origin, just enough to give one each to Mr. Su, Su’s mother, and Second Brother Gu.’

"Ah! We don’t have a refrigerator, and Jiaojiao wanted to try some popsicles, so Chi just bought the entire insulated box of them for her,"

Mr. Su explained with a simple-hearted smile. He was just that kind of honest, ordinary man.

It made Gu Jiaojiao think that for an ordinary man, Mr. Su was a master of the humblebrag. She couldn’t help but smile.

The Gu family, of course, had no idea what a "humblebrag" was, so all they felt was pure envy.

"Tomorrow, Jiaojiao and I will go to the black market to buy more high-grade flour. After you finish selling the buns in the morning, you can go set up the liangpi stall yourselves at lunchtime."

As the man of the house, Su Shuochi naturally took charge of arranging the next day’s schedule. He couldn’t let his wife handle everything.

If an eighteen-year-old girl like her said too much, she could easily slip up—especially since she was formerly a pampered young lady from a wealthy family who had never had to lift a finger.

"Shuo Ci, Jiaojiao, how about I go out with the stall tomorrow, too?" Mr. Gu asked, mustering his courage.

In the past, he would have been too proud to do such a thing, but what kind of work hadn’t he done during his years on the farm?

"Of course. Grandpa and Eldest Brother will need to rest for at least another month before they’re well enough to go out."

"But you can help shell peanuts at home. And Mom, you can help with the cooking and laundry."

Gu Jiaojiao agreed without hesitation, assigning tasks to the others as well.

She knew that with five members of the Gu family eating at the Su household, they would feel uncomfortable if they weren’t allowed to contribute.

Although Eldest Brother Gu was well enough to join them at the table, he would still need to rest for some time before he could do any work.

His constitution had been too severely weakened, but shelling peanuts at home was something he could manage.

"Jiaojiao, what do you need the peanuts for?" Grandpa Gu asked, his voice already sounding more robust now that he had a task.

"We’re planning to add a few peanuts to each serving of liangpi. If we sell over two hundred bowls in an afternoon, couldn’t we sell over five hundred in a full day?"

Su Shuochi explained, using the serving chopsticks to place a large piece of braised pig’s trotter in everyone’s bowl.

Now that everyone in the Gu family had a job to do and no longer felt like they were freeloading, they all tucked into the braised pig’s trotters with gusto.

The Su family members running the stall always got back a little late, so they tended to eat dinner later than most households.

Just as the two families were happily enjoying their meal, they heard a knock at the door.

Su Qinchun immediately went to open the door and saw Sheng Shiwu standing at the entrance, a cloth bag in his hand.

"You... What are you doing here?"

"Is Jiaojiao awake?" 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Su Qinchun looked at Sheng Shiwu as if he were an idiot. "We’re still eating. We haven’t gone to bed yet."

Sheng Shiwu was speechless.

’He just wanted to ask if Gu Jiaojiao was unconscious or something, after spending all day in the water saving people.’

"Chun Ni, who is it? Hurry and invite them in," Su’s mother called out from inside the room.

"I... I won’t come in. This is for you." Sheng Shiwu tried to press the six-jin bag of rice he was holding into Su Qinchun’s hands.

He was about to turn and leave, but Su Qinchun refused to take it. With a THUD, the bag fell to the ground.

Sheng Shiwu immediately crouched down to pick it up. He’d used everything he had to buy these six jin of rice.

He had heard that the stepmother of the Dong family had driven Jiaojiao’s entire family over to the Su’s place, and he was worried the Su family wouldn’t have enough rice to feed everyone.

So, he had taken everything he owned, bought six jin of rice, and secretly brought it over.

"Third Sheng is here! Hurry, come in and sit down. Have you eaten?" Su’s mother said warmly, pulling Sheng Shiwu inside.

The moment Sheng Shiwu stepped inside, he was hit by the rich aroma of meat. ’It smells so good,’ he thought. He had only just put his own dinner bowl down before coming over.

’How am I hungry again?!’

"Third Brother, you’re here. Come and eat with us," Gu Jiaojiao said, seeing the anxious-looking young man standing before her.

He was staring at the braised pig’s trotters on the table, looking ready to drool, especially while still clutching that bag with a few jin of rice.

Since the original owner of her body had already sent her a dream to say she’d forgiven the Sheng family, Gu Jiaojiao’s heart instantly softened, and she had blurted out "Third Brother."

After saying it, she felt a pang of regret, unsure if she had done the right thing.

Su Shuochi had already wheeled himself forward and taken her hand. "Shi Wu, come and eat."

’He couldn’t be happier for his wife to have more ties to the mortal world. That way, she wouldn’t think about ascending to the heavens, would she?’

"Okay."

Sheng Shiwu couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

As he glanced over, he saw Su Shuochi sitting in his wheelchair, poised and elegant.

A rare smile graced his features, his posture seeming to suggest a timeless, inexpressible joy.

Sheng Shiwu had seen Su Shuochi before his injury and after, but he had never looked this handsome.

Before his injury, Su Shuochi’s narrow, deep-set eyes had always regarded them with the dark, cold stare of a wolf.

After the injury, even with his eyes closed, you could feel the hostility radiating from him—a gloomy, suffocating aura.

Nineteen-year-old Sheng Shiwu was undoubtedly terrified of Su Shuochi, sitting ramrod straight at the table like a schoolboy.

But after one bite of the braised pig’s trotter, fear? What fear? It was all forgotten.

"Jiaojiao, you have to try this pig’s trotter, it’s amazing," Sheng Shiwu said, the words flowing as naturally as if he’d said them a thousand times before.

Gu Jiaojiao searched her memory. Before Sheng Xinglian’s return to the Sheng family, her three brothers had doted on her original self in just this way.

Even though Sheng Shiwu was only a year older than her, whenever there was something good to eat at home, he always let her original self have it first.

It was precisely because of this doting that her original self had become so panic-stricken and insecure after the Sheng family’s true daughter returned home.