Chapter 342
"Mom, I know I was wrong."
Si Nian said, "Xiao Han, you don't need to tell me you were wrong. The person you should be apologizing to isn't me."
Zhou Zehan immediately lowered his head in shame.
Si Nian rubbed his head. "Mom wants you to make friends, but I hope you make friends like Shitou and Xiao Jiu. This time you've seen Little Pig and the others for who they really are, so you won't suffer this kind of loss again."
Zhou Zehan nodded heavily and said, "Mom, I'm going to find Xiao Jiang to apologize and tell him I'm sorry. I'll never play with Little Pig and his group again."
Si Nian patted his shoulder and watched him run out before returning to her room to work on her test papers.
No matter how much authority she had in front of the children, she still had to bow her head to the test papers.
Jiang Jiu was locking himself in his room, secretly grieving.
Ever since Little Pig and the others stopped playing with his second brother, his second brother hadn't taken him out to play for days.
Actually, Jiang Jiu had never really liked the people in the tube-shaped apartment building, because they had always ostracized him and wouldn't let him go over there.
It was only because his second brother took him there that he played with Little Pig and the others.
Whenever they bought food, they would share it with Little Pig and the rest.
Who knew that Little Pig and the others would turn on them so quickly.
He didn't like Little Pig and the others, so he wasn't sad about them at all.
He felt that as long as his second brother played with him, everything was fine.
Who would have thought his second brother would be so upset over Little Pig and the others.
And that he would stop playing with him, too.
Jiang Jiu felt very helpless and didn't know what to do.
He could only secretly wipe his tears at home.
"Xiao Jiang, Xiao Jiang, are you home?" Zhou Zehan's loud voice rang out from downstairs.
Jiang Jiu thought he was hallucinating. He quickly got up, ran to the window, and pushed it open on his tiptoes.
He blinked and saw his second brother standing at his door, talking to his grandmother.
Forgetting his sadness, he immediately shouted back, "Second Brother, Second Brother, I'm home!"
With that, he wiped his tears and snot, and ran downstairs in his slippers, his footsteps thumping.
"Second Brother, you're looking for me." He squeezed in front of his grandmother and asked Zhou Zehan with bright eyes.
Zhou Zehan nodded. He dug around in his pants pocket, pulled out a few dimes, and said, "Xiao Jiang, let's go buy some pancakes. Let's get egg pancakes."
Jiang Jiu's eyes lit up. He hurriedly turned around to run back and change his shoes, not forgetting to tell Zhou Zehan, "Second Brother, wait for me right there. I'll change my shoes right away."
After saying that, he ran out before his shoes were even put on properly, telling Grandma Jiang that they were going to buy egg pancakes.
Seeing her grandson suddenly so happy, Grandma Jiang was pleased too. She told them to walk slowly and watch out for cars.
The two walked out of the Jiang family's gate, and Zhou Zehan suddenly stopped.
Under Jiang Jiu's confused gaze, he crouched down to tie his shoelaces for him.
"There. Xiao Jiang, next time you have to remember to tie your shoelaces, or you'll trip and fall."
Zhou Zehan clapped his hands and said with a smile.
Jiang Jiu looked at him with a worried face. "Second Brother, are you not sad anymore?"
Zhou Zehan paused, then shook his head and said, "I'm not sad anymore. Mom said that Little Pig and the others didn't trust me, so they aren't friends worth keeping. I'll never play with them again."
After saying that, he added guiltily, "Xiao Jiang, please don't be mad at me. I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have stopped playing with you just because of Little Pig and the others."
"I'll buy you two pan-fried pancakes as an apology, okay?"
Jiang Jiu immediately agreed happily, "Okay, okay!"
"Then let's go buy pancakes."
Children's anger comes fast and goes fast. In a moment, they were holding hands and skipping away to buy pancakes.
However, they were too late; the pancake stall had already closed for the day.
The two of them didn't get to eat any.
Zhou Zehan felt a little sad, blaming himself.
Seeing Jiang Jiu's face full of disappointment, he made up his mind to go home tonight and learn how to make pancakes from his older brother.
Tomorrow, he would make pancakes himself to apologize to Xiao Jiang.
Acting on his words, as soon as he got home, Zhou Zehan pestered his brother, saying he wanted to learn how to make pancakes.
Zhou Zedong didn't want to bother with him at first, feeling that his younger brother was too clumsy for such delicate work.
He figured it was just a passing whim.
But annoyed by his constant pestering, he wrote down a recipe for him to learn by himself.
His thought was that if his brother couldn't make it even with the recipe, he simply had no talent for it.
He would probably give up after trying twice.
Who knew that his younger brother would stay in the kitchen for over an hour without coming out.
He couldn't help but worry, so he hurried in to check.
Only to see his brother holding a pitch-black pancake and eating it.
Seeing him come in, he even handed the burnt, black pancake over and said, "Brother, try this. I feel like it's a bit different from yours. It doesn't smell as good..."
Zhou Zedong: "..."
Where on earth did his brother get the confidence to compare this charred, black mess with his own beautiful egg pancakes?
When Si Nian went downstairs, she saw her daughter sitting in the living room watching TV.
There was a faint smell of egg pancakes coming from the kitchen.
She walked over and saw the two brothers making pancakes.
It was a scene of one calmly teaching while the other was in a frantic rush.
She smiled and didn't disturb them.
After countless attempts throughout the evening, Second Child finally succeeded.
However, he couldn't eat anymore that night. Because he couldn't bear to waste food, all the failed attempts had gone into his stomach.
When Zhou Yueshen returned home that night, he was a little surprised to see that the most gluttonous Second Child wasn't at the dinner table.
"Where is Xiao Han?"
Si Nian told him about what happened in the afternoon.
Zhou Yueshen was silent for a moment.
Zhou Zedong also couldn't understand why his brother was so upset for so long just because someone wouldn't play with him.
He didn't care at all about what outsiders thought of him.
Nor did he like them.
So he couldn't understand it.
When it was time for bed that night, Si Nian talked to Zhou Yueshen about the two boys' upcoming birthdays.
She asked if he would have time.
Zhou Yueshen hadn't really thought about celebrating birthdays, as he had never celebrated his own growing up, but hearing it was for the two boys, he became a bit more serious.
"I probably won't have time during the day, but I'll try my best to come back early in the evening."
Si Nian didn't make things difficult for him. Although the children were important, without Zhou Yueshen's day-and-night hard work, how could they live such a stable and comfortable life?
Showing a rare moment of tender affection, she massaged Zhou Yueshen's shoulders and said, "You've been working so hard expanding the breeding farm lately. Let me give you a massage as a reward."
After she previously discovered that the area where Zhou Yueshen's farm was located would be demolished, she had found an opportunity to suggest that he expand it.
But she had only mentioned it casually. At the time, she said that while delivering food, she had heard someone was going to build a factory there. If the land next to them was bought for a factory, it would definitely be too noisy being so close, which would affect their pig farming.
She hadn't expected Zhou Yueshen to take it to heart.
Ever since returning from the Northwest, he had started expanding, finding people to buy up the nearby land for the expansion.
Previously, when Zhou Yueshen was in the village, his business covered the surrounding villages and neighboring counties. He had some partnerships in the city, but because it was too far and transportation was troublesome, there weren't many partners.
But after coming to the city, thanks to Yu Dong's wide network of connections, they were now partnering with many markets, restaurants, and cafeterias.