Chapter 228 'She will be back sooner or later.' (1)
Shu Yan stretched then got up and opened up the curtains. Sunlight poured into the room and Shu Yan’s lips curved upward. What a wonderful feeling to sleep till one woke up naturally.
“Mommy.” When Shu Yan returned from the bathroom, she saw Tianbao standing on her bed and threw himself at her when he saw her.
“Be careful. Don’t fall. Have you had breakfast yet?”
“No, big sister and I just woke up.”
Tianbao was already dressed and washed up. Shu Yan found out that all those were accomplished with Aunty’s help.
“Then let’s go have breakfast together.” It was a rare day off for the children so Shu Yan did not have them go to after school or to get up early.
Aunty was mopping and, when she saw Shu Yan walking out, she immediately placed the mop to one side, washed her hands, and brought out breakfast.
“Have you eaten yet?” Shu Yan took the porridge from her and placed them in front of the children first.
“Yes, I have. I usually get up quite early. I made some porridge, steamed buns, stirred fried some fresh vegetables and an eggplant. Is there anything else that you would like? I can make them now.” Aunty brought out steaming porridge and steamed buns.
“No, this will be more than enough.” Shu Yan had a big spoonful of porridge. It was thick and gave a green glow. It was particularly aromatic and the buns were really good too. Each of them was the size of Tianbao’s fist. The wrap was thin with lots of filling. Aunty made quite a few different kinds of fillings. There were meat fillings and mushroom and vegetable fillings. A few of them had beef and lamb fillings.
The beef and lamb feelings were leftovers from yesterday. Aunty straight up chopped them up and used them as fillings. They tasted surprisingly good.
“Would you like some more?” Shu Yan asked Aunty.
“No, I had enough.” Aunty went back to her mopping.
After the delicious breakfast, Shu Yan was just about to clean up when Aunty came and took it over.
“Let me. Let me.” Aunty quickly did the dishes with alacrity then went out to the patio to do the laundry.
Shu Yan walked over. “I have washing machine. Winter clothes are difficult to wash by hand. Just use the washing machine.”
“Let me scrub out the collar and sleeves first.” Shu Yan’s clothes were not dirty, but the two children’s, especially Tianbao’s were truly dirty. The little boy would crawl all over the floor. There would be times when Shu Yan wasn’t able to stop him.
“Okay. Use hot water then. You know how to use the tap, right? You can see the label here. Red is hot water and blue is cold. Use some hot water. Once you are done scrubbing, just toss them into the washing machine. Aye!” Shu Yan stopped Aunty and said, blushing, “Leaving my underwear. I’ll do that myself.”
“I’ll just do it together.” Aunty knew that city-dwellers are more particular. They wash their underwear and socks separately.
It was too embarrassing to have others wash her underwear for her so Shu Yan quickly washing it herself in the basin.
After finishing laundry, Aunty said she was going to prepare more dough. She said it was for making dumplings for dinner. After the dough was ready, she started preparing for lunch.
“Aunty.” Shu Yan sat her down and said, “It is summer vacation now and the kids don’t need to get up to go to school so there is no need to drop them off and pick them up. You don’t need to get up too early. We normally get up around 8 AM. We can have lunch around 11 – 11:30 and dinner at 5 o’clock. You only need to clean the house once a week. During the free time you can rest in your room or watch television in the living room.”
“I know. Really, I am not tired. I am not used to not doing something.” The little bit of work was nothing to her. Comparing to back home when she had to work in the field, go into the mountains to collect firewood, then go home to cook, clean, and feed the pigs and chicken, this was like child play.
Shu Yan couldn’t stop her so she didn’t try anymore. Perhaps things would get better after they were more familiar with each other.