Chapter 327
Zhou Yueshen's eyes and brows softened as he looked at his daughter. "Yaoyao can speak English?"
Yaoyao wrapped her small arms around her father's neck and nodded, saying, "Yes, Mommy taught me."
Zhou Yueshen didn't overthink it. After all, Si Nian did frequently teach the children English. Although Yaoyao was still young, he had heard that early childhood was the period when learning ability was at its strongest.
In such an environment, it wasn't strange that Yaoyao could speak a little.
He patted his daughter's head with his large hand and praised her gently, "Yaoyao is so smart."
Yaoyao blushed at her father's praise.
Suddenly, so many people were praising her. Was she really that smart?
But back when she was in Xingfu Village, others used to call her a little mute and a little fool.
Yaoyao couldn't speak back then, but she could still feel their malice.
She also knew that idiot was a bad word.
But things were different now. Everyone praised her for being awesome!
Daddy also said she was smart.
She wasn't an idiot at all.
Zhou Yueshen held his daughter in one arm, took the Second Child by the hand, and went inside the house.
He asked, "Where is Mommy?"
He had come back relatively early today.
Usually, he didn't return until it was dark, and if it was too late, he would just rest at the pig farm.
He had recently negotiated a piece of land, and expanding the site also required a lot of time.
Zhou Yueshen was quite busy.
It was almost like going back to his schedule in Xingfu Village.
The Second Child said, "Mommy has an exam to prepare for, so she told us to go out and play."
Only then did Zhou Yueshen remember that Si Nian was taking the college entrance examination.
In the blink of an eye, it had already been over four months since they moved here.
The college entrance examination was on July 7th.
It was already April, so there wasn't much time left.
Si Nian not only had to busy herself with preparing lessons but also had to study.
She had to take care of the three children at home and cook every day.
Truth be told, she was the one working the hardest in the family.
Zhou Yueshen frowned slightly, his thick eyebrows knitting together, and stopped Xiao Han, who was just about to run upstairs to call his mother.
He made a shushing sound and said, "Don't go disturb Mommy."
Zhou Zehan immediately stopped in his tracks.
He had originally wanted to go tell Mommy that Daddy was back.
But since Daddy told him not to disturb her, he didn't dare to go.
After saying that, Zhou Yueshen placed his daughter on the sofa to watch TV by herself, rolled up his sleeves, and went into the kitchen.
The kitchen was spotlessly clean, the countertops were neat, and there were many boxes of seasonings arranged perfectly.
There was a window in the kitchen that used to have an old wire mesh screen.
Si Nian had mentioned that it wasn't well-ventilated, so Zhou Yueshen had replaced it with a casement window.
It was open right now. Because they were on the first floor and the kitchen tended to be damp, the window was left open every day, except when it rained.
From this angle, one could see the front gate, making it easy to notice if anyone came by.
With the breeze blowing in from outside, the kitchen was perfectly dry and completely free of any strange odors.
Si Nian lived a refined lifestyle; she had even hung a white lace sheer curtain on the kitchen window.
Even the apron was custom-made, adorned with little pink flowers.
Zhou Yueshen put on the apron, which was clearly several sizes too small for him, washed the rice, and set it to cook. Then, he dug out some fresh vegetables from the refrigerator.
He didn't know how to cook many dishes, just some ordinary ones.
He couldn't compare to Si Nian.
But it was still edible.
It was just that the meat he sliced was as thick as a person's pinky finger.
He cut it with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, uniform in size and with clear textures.
The meat was bacon that had been smoked previously.
Si Nian loved eating it too.
Zhou Yueshen washed some green chilies, along with garlic and ginger.
He sauteed them until fragrant before adding the pork.
In no time, the bacon was stir-fried until it was crystal clear.
Back when he was in the Northwest, he and his brothers loved eating it this way.
He also stir-fried a plate of shredded potatoes, made scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and prepared a bowl of sour soup.
A simple dinner was ready.
In a jar to the side, there were pickled radishes made by Si Nian.
Sour, spicy, crisp, and fragrant, pairing them with the sour soup was the whole family's favorite.
It was just a bit spicy, so the children couldn't eat much of it.
As a result, a single batch made by Si Nian would last a long time.
After finishing cooking, Zhou Yueshen broke out in a hot sweat.
He took off his tank top to wipe the sweat from his forehead and stopped his son, who was eager to eat and about to run upstairs to call Mommy.
In a deep voice, he said, "Go sit down. Daddy will go."
The Second Child really wanted to go, but he couldn't beat his dad to it.
He had no choice but to go to the kitchen to serve himself some rice.
Zhou Yueshen went upstairs and washed his face before heading toward the study.
The study was on the third floor.
Before Si Nian had even finished going through her practice questions, she smelled the aroma of meat and thought it was the neighbors cooking.
Seeing that it was getting late, she figured it was about time to cook, so she closed her book and stretched lazily.
She gazed out the window for a moment, pondering what to have for dinner tonight.
Just then, a large hand rested on her shoulder.
Si Nian paused slightly and turned her head to look.
With his large palm pressing gently on her shoulder, Zhou Yueshen looked down at her. "Are you done? Let's eat."
Si Nian kept her head turned, meeting his dark eyes.
She was somewhat surprised. "You're back so early today?"
And you even cooked?
Zhou Yueshen didn't cook often. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but rather that the children didn't like his cooking.
They said his food wasn't as delicious as Mommy's.
After feeling rebuffed a few times, Zhou Yueshen switched to helping her instead.
When he was at home, he always acted as her assistant.
He hummed in affirmation.
"I finished work early today, so I came back earlier."
Si Nian noticed he was bare-chested, the heat radiating off his body toward her.
Fortunately, the older man showered every day, so there was no foul smell of sweat.
It was just that the scars on his chest seemed more prominent, new ones and old ones, the most conspicuous being a ferocious gunshot wound right in the middle of his chest.
When he moved, his firm chest muscles would always bulge.
They felt rock-hard to the touch, just like stone.
He would never take his shirt off outside.
After all, the scars looked terrifying.
But at home, there was no need to worry; everyone was used to it.
The Second Child admired his dad very much.
He even said that the scars on his dad's chest were a warrior's medals, and that he wanted to have some of his own in the future.
It left Si Nian not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Si Nian withdrew her gaze and put her books away.
Since the wind tended to pick up at night, she conveniently closed the study window as well.
Otherwise, leaving it open for two days would result in a layer of dust.
Zhou Yueshen took her hand; it was a bit cold.
From holding a pen for too long, her muscles were a bit stiff.
He pressed down gently, and the sudden soreness made Si Nian cry out, "Ah! That hurts!"
Zhou Yueshen was amused by her startled reaction and chuckled, "Your muscles have been tense for too long. If I don't massage them, they'll hurt tomorrow."
Si Nian did feel that her hand had been quite sore these past few days.
She held chalk to write all through her classes, and after class, she still had to prepare lessons.
When she got home, she had to do practice questions.
However, she didn't think much of it. After all, back in the day, in order to get into a prestigious university, she had stayed up late every night reading and studying. There were times when she wrote until her tenosynovitis flared up, and read until she was dizzy and her vision blurred.
She wasn't a character in a novel; she didn't possess such astonishing talent.
Like the vast majority of ordinary people, she had to give it her all just to get into a top university.
In this era, a degree from a prestigious university carried even more weight than in the future. As long as she managed to get into one, doing whatever she wanted in the future would be easy.
Even though Zhou Yueshen made a lot of money, and Si Nian really wanted to just slack off.
But no one could say for sure what the future held.
Therefore, if she was going to take the exam, she was going to aim for the best.
But every era had its brilliant minds.
Even though she had already gone to college once before, too much time had passed, and she had forgotten a lot of things.