Rebirth of the Millennial: Getting Rich After Parents Get Laid Off

Chapter 183 Nobody Asked Why

"What do you want to eat?" Wu Fangyi asked in return. "Tell me, and I'll see what I can make and what I can't."

Shen Qingqing immediately put away the playing cards and quickly replaced them with a pen and a blank notebook: "Come on, Yangyang, Xiaohong, tell me the names of the dishes you want to eat!"

While the children were enthusiastically reciting the names of the dishes, Shen Rongzhou and Li Xunli had almost finished preparing dinner.

Li Xunli served the soup and dishes one after another, while Shen Rongzhou was preparing the last dish, stir-fried greens.

"Qingqing! Take your classmates and younger siblings to wash their hands and come eat!" Li Xunli called out to the living room.

Shen Qingqing was writing furiously when she was suddenly startled by the shout, and the last horizontal stroke of the character "面" (mian, meaning face) in the poem "螃蟹盖面" (pángxiè gàimiàn, meaning crab covering face) was pulled out.

Looking at the seven or eight lines of dish names, which added up to twenty or thirty dishes, Shen Qingqing's eyes were filled with fervor as she looked at Wu Fangyi.

As she stood up and led Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong to wash their hands, she asked Wu Fangyi, "Fangyi, will you still be living at school next semester?"

Wu Fangyi nodded: "Yes, you can stay here. The accommodation fee paid last semester was for a year, but the tuition fee is paid semester by semester."

"Why? Why isn't the calculation method the same?" Shen Qingqing asked while washing her hands.

Shen Qingqing had never lived in a dormitory during her junior or senior high school years. When she went to university, tuition and dormitory fees were paid together for the whole year, so she didn't know how junior and senior high school tuition and dormitory fees were paid.

"Because the tuition and fees for junior high school are not necessarily the same every semester. If you change to a different workbook, the price will change, or if you add some other workbooks, the price will also change. But the accommodation fee is always fixed, so we can collect it for a whole year." Wu Fangyi had asked the teachers in the logistics department why, so she knew that was the case.

Wu Fangyi made it very clear. Shen Qingqing nodded and picked up Shen Hong's hand, who was playing in the water, and dried it. "You play in cold water in the summer and hot water in the winter, right? If you keep playing like that, I'll tell Mom."

Shen Hong pouted and obediently let Shen Qingqing wipe his hands.

After they were seated, Li Xunli smiled and said to Wu Fangyi, "Fangyi, your aunt and uncle didn't know what you liked to eat, so we made these rather ordinary dishes. Please make do with them. Tomorrow, when you want something to eat, your aunt will go and buy it."

Shen Qingqing chimed in, "Sister Fangyi said she wants to cook lunch for us tomorrow. She's already made a menu and wants you to help her buy the ingredients!"

"Huh?" Li Xunli was taken aback when she heard this. "Fangyi, you can cook? That's amazing!"

Li Xunli first praised her, then looked at Shen Qingqing and said, "You ask guests to cook as soon as they arrive. Who taught you that, Shen Qingqing?"

Shen Qingqing was eating when she suddenly heard her mother pointing the finger at her, and her eyes widened.

Before she could speak, Wu Fangyi immediately explained for her: "No, Auntie, I feel a little embarrassed to bother you during the Chinese New Year, so I wanted to cook you a meal to express my gratitude. Qingqing didn't ask me to cook. She just told me that when Auntie and Uncle are at home, the children don't get to go into the kitchen."

Shen Qingqing ate a piece of crispy fish and nodded vigorously.

Upon hearing this, Li Xunli turned her head and exchanged a glance with Shen Rongzhou before turning back and smiling, "That's fine too. If you want to do it, then you can. Qingqing will help you out; she can cook too!"

Shen Qingqing: “?”

"It wasn't me. I already told Sister Fangyi that Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong gave it to her, and many of the dishes they ordered were their favorites." Upon hearing this, Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong simultaneously looked up from their bowls. "?"

Who asked them to name the dishes they wanted to eat just before we started eating?

Shen Qingqing received unfriendly looks from her younger siblings, but she refused to glance at them or make eye contact.

Li Xunli could tell at a glance that there was something fishy going on between them, but since the children had already made their agreement, they, as parents, didn't want to interfere. So she simply nodded and said, "Okay, after dinner, write down what Fangyi needs to buy for me, and I'll buy it when I go grocery shopping tomorrow."

Shen Qingqing was busy eating, so she held up her hand and gave an "OK" sign.

Wu Fangyi smiled, looked at the five dishes and one soup on the table, and couldn't quite describe the feeling in her heart.

Even though she moved her household registration back last year and returned to her biological parents' home, she was not treated to a meal of five dishes and a soup. In fact, because she was working outside and came back late, they only left her a bowl of vegetables and a bowl of soup.

She looked at the chicken wing that Shen Qingqing had put in her bowl and suddenly felt a lump in her throat.

When she was hospitalized with a fever and woke up to find only her teacher by her side, she didn't cry; when a drunk customer suddenly went berserk and attacked people indiscriminately while she was working outside, and almost hit her, she didn't cry; when she was tutoring the Yao family but was constantly harassed by Yao Zihang, and when she told his parents, she was met with the response, "He's still young, I'll talk to him," she didn't cry either.

But now, just when Shen Qingqing's mother agreed to let her cook a meal for their family, and Shen Qingqing managed to snatch a chicken wing for her from her younger siblings' mouths, she couldn't help but feel a lump in her throat and her eyes well up with tears.

This is so strange, why is that?

"Mom, should we keep those two cases of drinks for the ceremonies?" Shen Qingqing suddenly asked halfway through her meal, mentioning the two cases of drinks that Wu Fangyi had bought.

Li Xunli paused for a moment, then remembered what kind of drink it was, and shook her head: "No need, you can just drink it. The offerings have already been bought."

"Alright!" Shen Qingqing pushed back her chair and stood up, patting Wu Fangyi on the shoulder: "Sister Fangyi, come on! Go open the drinks!"

Wu Fangyi almost slapped away the tears welling up in her eyes, quickly responded, and hurriedly stood up to follow Shen Qingqing to unpack the two cases of drinks in the living room.

Shen Qingqing walked ahead, while Wu Fangyi went around to the coffee table to get a tissue to wipe her tears before squatting down next to the drinks.

"I want to drink this yogurt, what do you want to drink?" Shen Qingqing glanced at her, but didn't ask why her eyes were red, only asked what she wanted to drink.

"Same as you." Wu Fangyi took two cans out of the box of yogurt that Shen Qingqing had opened.

"We need to get another can. Shen Hong drinks yogurt, but Shen Yangyang wants to drink the milk," Shen Qingqing added, as she opened the carton of milk and pulled out a can.

When they returned to the restaurant, everyone noticed Wu Fangyi's slightly red eyes, but no one tacitly asked what was wrong.

Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong are exceptions; they didn't dare to speak up because everyone else was silent.

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