Chapter 90: Old Zhou family
Bai Yi Yang and Bai Yi Chen take their time to leave the school, the bus will leave latest at 4.30 pm but when everyone is there, they may leave early too. Zhang Ming Ming also doesn't join the evening session, she is taking care of her siblings at home after school.
When they arrived at the village bus stop, Bai Yi Chen told her they can go straight to Old Zhou house since the primary school usually returned earlier, Bai Yi Ling must have been waiting there.
Zhang Ming Ming house is not far, it is also situated in the village centre, she said goodbye to them and return home.
When they arrived at Old Zhou house on their bike, a young lady is at the door, Bai Yi Yang suspect that this is Zhou Zhu Yao. She is feeding the puppies with Bai Yi Ling in school uniform sitting next to her.
"Yi Chen, Yi Yang you are back?" Zhao Zhu Yao noticed the twins and called out.
"Yes." They answer at the same time. Zhao Zhu Yao eyes stays longer at Bai Yi Yang, her expression is a bit complex.
"Why, is there something on my face jie?" Bai Yi Yang release a laugh. Zhao Zhu Yao sigh and her smile become clearer.
"Nothing. You look a bit different. It's fine as long as you are well." She said.
Bai Yi Yang nod and walk up the stairs to sit next to Zhou Zhu Yao and Bai Yi Ling while Bai Yi Chen went to find Grandpa Zhou. Bai Yi Yang chat with Zhao Zhu Yao and understand what kind of person she is, she is straightforward but has a kind heart, especially towards them siblings.
"Jie, if the two is too naughty, you can punish them like always." Bai Yi Yang said when Zhao Zhu Yao was complaining about the two small one secretly followed Grandpa Zhou to the paddy field and return with mud all over them.
"How to punish, they ran faster than anyone when they heard about punishment."Zhou Zhu Yao said. Bai Yi Yang laugh and told her her experience too.
At 5.05 pm, the siblings left Old Zhou house to return home. Zhao Zhu Yao watch them leave and went to talk to her old mother.
"Yi Yang seems quite different. Was it because she was sick before?" She said with concern.
"Your older brother also told me the same thing. He said that she talks much more, and more responsible too. It's good that she changed a bit now. You can see that Yi Chen is also more cheerful because he doesn't have to bear all the weight on his shoulder alone." Grandma Zhou said.
To be honest, if not because of Bai Yi Yang suddenly become lucky and gain more money, they also think that the siblings would ends up entering the orphanage. They can help feed one or two children, but there are 5 of them, they really can't afford.
"It is good, her attitude also changed a lot. You can see from they way she talks to me. More matured and sensible. She reminds me of my cousin sister." Zhao Zhu Yao said, she mean the Bai siblings mother. The mother and daughter was chatting when Grandpa Zhou come in with a sigh.
"Why? What did Yi Chen told you?" Grandma Zhou said, there must be something going on if her old man is sighing like this.
"I never seen elders like the children's grandparents in the capital in my life. They were already cruel to the children at the first place, now, they even agree to remove them from the family register because they don't want to spend a cent. Ptui! Ptui! Too much..really too much!" Grandpa Zhou said.
"What do you mean remove from the family register?! That is killing the children future." Grandma Zhou said.
"You tell me properly from the beginning.." The old lady add.
"Yi Chen came to me just now to tell something. Yi Yang that yatou met her female cousin from that side, that cousin was saying something nonsense that the 5 siblings was kicked out because of their bad behaviour, she even justified that the time the small one was abused was because they were all bad kids. Yi Yang yatou argue with her about this, that female cousin even made up ridiculous stories about Yi Yang yatou doing immoral things such as seeing rich man for money." Grandpa Zhou start telling the story.
"What?! I will slaps that bi**h face until she is unrecognisable. Who is she accusing?!" Zhou Zhu Yao said angrily. She is already upset about the Bai family in City Bei, listening to this nonsense, she explode in anger.
"Yao Yao.." Grandma Zhou is angry but she is not as aggressive as her daughter.
"Yi Chen and Yi Yang called their grandparents for explanation, who knows that their grandmother also said more bad things about Yi Yang and her siblings. She even…she even insult their mother and making accusations since she gave birth the twins earlier.." Grandpa Zhou sigh. He really never meet a shameless family like that.
"That bi**h! Dad, we can't let this go, we must settle score with them. This is too unfair.." Zhao Zhu Yao was very angry she curse but she also ends up crying. Her cousin was like an older sister, she is very close to her, she basically grow up in her care when her parents was busy working. Just like what she is doing to the Bai siblings now, their mother also practically raised her when she was a children. How can she let people insult her like this?
"Yao Yao..you calm down first.." Grandma Zhou said.
"Yi Chen has a small affection towards them, but after that he also gives up. He proposed that they are removed from the first branch family register, the head of the first brach family disagree at first, but when Yi Chen mentioned about asking for support money, he didn't even hesitate and agree to transfer them to the second branch. The second branch head is dead, no male heirs, only two daughters. Yi Chen said that the eldest daughter has contacted them, they will arrange the transfer this weekend." Grandpa Zhou finish telling them the story.
"Why didn't they just change from Bai to Jiang, dad, I think we can also put them under our family register." Zhou Zhu Yao said. She is really pissed off with the Bai family, it's even better if the children throw away their surname and take their mother's surname.
"That will be too hard. The first branch easily agree because they will stay as a 'Bai', if not, they may not agree and continue to put pressure on the children. Since they are not under them anymore, then they can't do anything. We never know when they suddenly have thought on the children house and land." Grandpa Zhou said.
"You are right. This is good, this is good. Old man, will they be okay on their own when talking to the second branch eldest daughter, what if she also have bad intentions?" Grandma Zhou said.
"Yi Chen said this second branch doesn't associate with the first branch much, they are different kind of people. Don't worry, Yi Chen and Yi Yang is not blinded by familial affection now, they has been betrayed a few times. They know who is good and who is bad." Grandpa Zhou said.
"En. You are right." Grandma Zhou nod.
Zhou Zhu Yao however doesn't feel assured, tomorrow she need to talk about this to Bai Yi Yang again. If needed, she can follow them to meet the second branch's eldest daughter and see for herself what kind of person she is.
As for the Bai siblings, they came across the 14 men working at their orchard when they were returning home. They said that they can finish the work by tomorrow afternoon, Bai Yu Chen immediately promised to hand over the payment when he returned from school tomorrow. The villagers told him to take his time, he is busy at school so they don't mind if they pay them later.
The Bai siblings immediately feels that there is no better place than home when the main gate is open.
Bai Yi Yang and Bai Yi Chen changed their clothes and head to the field. They are going to dug out the tree stumps, the two small ones wanted to help so Bai Yi Yang told them to remove weeds from the patches. They didn't work for long, only until 6.30 pm when the sky start to darken.
[3 points earned. Total points: 299]
Digging tree stump is very tiring, she deserve 3 points for half an hour work. After that, Bai Yi Yang and her siblings enter the house. Her siblings went to take a bath while she head to the kitchen.
In the kitchen, Bai Yi Yang saw that the rice is already cooking. Today menu is crispy cauliflower. They are a vegan meal, cauliflower will be dipped in fried chicken batter and then deep fried, they are very delicious. Then a simple ginger chicken and lastly is spicy garlic tofu. This three meal is simple, but they are very delicious eaten with rice. Cooking the meal didn't take long.
[3 points earned. Total points: 302]
After finished cooking, Bai Yi Yang went to take a bath. When she enters the kitchen again, her siblings is already waiting eagerly, so does TongTong.
"Jie, the food looks so delicious." Bai Yi Fang and Bai Yi Mo was staring at the three dishes on the table.
"Hungry?" She asked her siblings while preparing a portion for TongTong, she add extra food today since it skips lunch.
"Very hungry." Bai Yi Mo said.
Bai Yi Ling who is bringing bowls of rice to the table then told her siblings to help up if they are hungry. The two immediately stood up and bring their own rice on their own to the table. Their rice bowls are made of wood, they are not hot. After that, they had their dinner. Even Bai Yi Yang feels that today's dinner is more delicious, maybe because she ate the canteen food today.
After the meal, the children was retelling their activities today at the village. Bai Yi Chen went to wash the dishes while Bai Yi Yang is packing snacks for her three siblings. Then as usual fill in their water bottle. She ask Bai Yi Fang who didn't finished her water.
"That's because Fang Fang stays for a long time at her friends house to play." Bai Yi Mo spill the tea.
"That's fine, but next time you can bring your water bottle along." Bai Yi Yang said.
"Okay jie." Bai Yi Fang said.
Bai Yi Yang also removed 6 buns with pork fillings and also a portion of har gao from the freezer to the chiller area. She is going to steam this tomorrow for breakfast.
After that they all returned to the living room. Bai Yi Ling has homework to do, so does the twins. Today, they were given homework from Mathematics, English and Politics. It was only a bit, Bai Yi Yang works fast so she finished in less than 1 hour. She then arranged her school bag, she put in the homework and textbook for tomorrow.
She asked Bai Yi Chen about their Science teachers, maybe she can find something from the internet. The three teachers who taught Biology, Physics and Geography are regular teacher, but their chemistry teacher is somewhat interested. He is called Austin Golding, he has a PhD in chemistry, published a few research journals, mostly about traditional medicinal herbs.
Bai Yi Yang did a similar one when she was in university, of course, hers was more complex since there are thousands of similar research so she need to be a bit more creative. But in this world, this Austin Golding is one of the top researcher in this field. Why did he even become a high school teacher? Bai Yi Yang read his research papers and it was quite impressive, not really her cup of tea to be completely honest, but she still find him admirable.
"Sir Austin is a bit interesting." Bai Yi Yang said to Bai Yi Chen.
"Why?" He look up from doing his homework.
"See. These are the research that he did." Bai Yi Yang show Bai Yi Chen the list of research papers that has Sir Austin name on it.
"Very impressive. I never try searching his name before." Bai Yi Chen said. After that, he returned to his work and Bai Yi Yang continues scrolling around while once in a while interfere when her smaller siblings teaching each other wrong things.