Chapter 351
On the table nearby, there were two cakes.
When they celebrated their birthdays, their parents would only buy them a tiny piece just to taste.
But Zhou Zehan's family had two whole cakes.
Thinking of the sweet, soft, and glutinous cakes, the children unconsciously licked their lips.
They felt a bit of regret. If they had known earlier, they wouldn't have rejected Zhou Yuehan; maybe they would have been able to eat all that cake.
For a moment, all of them started to feel regretful.
Inside the house, the initially shy children completely changed their expressions the moment they took their first bite of food.
They didn't lack food at home, and some even had to be coaxed into eating.
But right now, each of them turned into a big eater, unable to stop.
It was simply because Second Brother's mother's cooking was too delicious!
It was even better than the food made by the head chefs at the state-run restaurants.
They shoveled rice into their mouths in large bites and fought to grab the dishes.
The large table of food was quickly wiped clean.
Even the last greasy plate was scraped clean by Second Child to mix with his rice.
Si Nian originally thought that these little munchkins wouldn't be able to eat much, so she hadn't made a lot.
Seeing this, she finally understood the origin of the saying that half-grown boys can eat their fathers into poverty.
However, they couldn't eat too much, as it wasn't easy for young children to digest.
After eating, the group of children played a game of eagle catching chicks in the courtyard.
Little Pig and the others, who still hadn't left the doorway, felt even more envious watching this.
They had originally wanted to wait at the door, hoping Zhou Zehan would see them and take the initiative to invite them inside.
Who knew that Zhou Zehan only focused on eating and didn't even glance outside, which made them so angry they almost fell backwards.
Now that they finally saw the people come out, they were actually playing games!
The group's interest was piqued again.
They wanted to play too.
In the past, when they were at the tube-shaped apartment building, Zhou Zehan always stood in the front, making them feel very secure.
They had never been caught.
But now.
They couldn't even enter the gates of the Zhou family's home.
Little Pig wanted to play and also wanted to eat that cake. He swallowed hard and immediately stepped forward, saying, "Zhou Zehan, open the door. We're here to celebrate your birthday."
"Before, we said we wouldn't play with you because you were bragging. As long as you stop bragging and share your cake with us, we'll forgive you and let you play at the apartment building in the future."
"Yeah, we'll still play with you."
The other children echoed in agreement.
Hearing this, the group of children inside looked toward the door.
They saw a group of dirty children.
Even on such a hot day, their noses were running.
A few children frowned in disgust.
They asked Zhou Zehan, "Second Brother, who are they?"
"Yeah, are they your friends too?"
"Why did they say you were bragging?"
They were a bit confused.
Zhou Zehan also hadn't expected Little Pig and the others to come over. He was initially a bit surprised, but he didn't expect them to actually say he was bragging and demand that he share the cake he made with his friends with them.
Instantly, his little face darkened, and he became unhappy. "I don't need you to celebrate my birthday, and I won't share my cake with you either. I'm never playing with you guys again."
"What?"
Little Pig and his group were stunned, looking at him in disbelief.
"You're not playing with us anymore? Is it because we said you were bragging? But you do love to brag, we weren't wrong."
"Yeah, why are you so stingy? Before, when you and Jiang Jiu had no friends and no one would play with you, we were the ones who let you play together with us."
Previously, because they wouldn't play with him, Second Child had been sad for quite a while.
Hearing these words now, however, he wasn't sad at all.
He even found them a bit annoying.
"Before, when Da Zhuang fought with you over territory, I was the one who helped you win it back."
"I wasn't bragging either. Anyway, I'm never playing with you again, just leave."
The few children didn't expect him to actually stop playing with them. Besides being surprised, they also felt they had lost a lot of face.
Their little faces flushed red.
They had come to his door to find him, taking the initiative to forgive him and let bygones be bygones, yet he was actually giving them so little face.
It was simply too much.
The children flew into a rage out of humiliation, and Little Pig took the lead, saying, "Fine, you said it. From now on, you and Jiang Jiu are not allowed to come play at our apartment building!"
"Right, we don't even care to play with you anyway."
"Don't be fooled by him either, Zhou Zehan is just a big braggart."
Little Pig and the others didn't think saying that was enough, so they directed their words at Zhou Zehan's friends.
They wished his friends would be like them and stop playing with Zhou Zehan.
Zhou Zehan's face grew a bit uglier.
He didn't expect Little Pig and the others to burn their bridges and be so excessive.
He was really stupid to have actually felt sad for several days over people like this.
Mom was right; such people simply weren't worth it.
Jiang Jiu was the first to step forward, saying angrily, "Second Brother wasn't bragging. Everything Second Brother said was true. Second Brother's family really does have a lot of pigs."
The few classmates exchanged glances and chimed in, "Yeah, Second Brother is a hero and can even fight human traffickers. Jiang Jiu has even ridden a pig with Second Brother."
"Second Brother, we believe you."
"They are really annoying, we won't play with them."
After saying that, they stuck their tongues out at Little Pig and the others, and the group skipped back into the house.
Little Pig and his group were furious.
They didn't expect these people to actually still play with Zhou Zehan.
Having not gotten to eat the cake and being rejected by Zhou Zehan, whom they were trying to appease, the group left with long faces.
Si Nian didn't want the children to stay at the house for too long, fearing their parents would worry.
So she had the two children make their wishes and eat the cake early.
Although the appearance wasn't great, the taste of the cake was undeniably there.
The group of children ate until their bellies were round.
By noon, afraid their families would worry, they finally said their goodbyes and went home.
After celebrating the two children's birthdays, Zhou Yueshen also continued to go to the factory to busy himself.
In mid-June, there was thunderstorm weather.
For the past few days, there had been thunder and rain every day.
Zhou Yueshen stayed at the breeding farm and had no way to come back.
Because the breeding farm they had built previously was rather simple, it was now leaking.
The breeding farm also became damp, and the piglets fell ill.
Let alone him, the large and small breeding farms in the city were all more or less affected by this rain.
What was worse, there were even rumors of a swine fever outbreak.
As a result, people were now afraid to eat pork, and the price of pork dropped for a time.
With Zhou Yueshen not coming home for several days, Si Nian was also worried.
Since she had a day off and saw the weather was nice, she took a trip to the breeding farm.
As a result, Zhou Yueshen wasn't there, but she ran into a few young people who had gone there to apply for a job.
There were both men and women.
Only then did she find out that Yu Dong had quit.
It wasn't because Yu Dong didn't want to help or had a falling out with Zhou Yueshen.
Rather, it was because his family had issued a strict order for him to return and inherit the family business.
Because his father had fallen ill.
Yu Dong had no choice but to leave first.
Yu Dong himself was like the second-in-command at the breeding farm and also acted as Zhou Yueshen's assistant.
Now that he was gone, Zhou Yueshen's workload naturally increased.
He couldn't get away.
He needed to hire an assistant, and they had to be educated and capable of handling business operations.
Si Nian took a look; there were two men and three women.
They all looked to be quite old.
Because they needed to have knowledge in this area, when Yu Dong had looked for people to recruit, the requirement was that they had to be over 25 years old.
Those who came were all between twenty-five and thirty-five years old.
The two women looked even older than Zhou Yueshen.
Dressed in sharp suits, they looked every bit the part of professional business representatives.
The salary offered must have been quite generous.
They knew of the breeding farm, as it had quite a reputation, but they simply hadn't expected the location to be so remote.
When they saw Si Nian in the office, they looked her up and down, clearly viewing her as a competitor.