C13 Otherwise Your Milk Won't be Happy

Mrs. Zhao initially thought Jiaojiao would keep trying to stop her, but when Jiaojiao suddenly let go, Mrs. Zhao, caught off guard by her own forceful struggle, twisted her waist and landed on the ground with a thud. Her face turned pale, and she was momentarily speechless.

Without even glancing at Mrs. Zhao, Jiaojiao took Zhao Zhibing straight to the kitchen of the Zhao family home. The layout of the rural houses around here was pretty much the same. The main room was for entertaining guests and sleeping, while the side rooms were for the children to sleep in. The south room was used for cooking and storing firewood. Some larger homes even had an animal shed attached to the south room, with the southwest corner serving as a makeshift bathroom. Above that was a drying platform for grains and bedding.

Due to the hilly terrain and limited flat land, the plots allocated to each family weren't large enough for big yards or separate outbuildings for bathrooms or animal sheds. Although Jiaojiao had memories of these homes, she had only actually seen the Yuh family house and Zhao Pengcheng's house, which were identical in layout. The only difference was that Pengcheng's home was more rundown; the animal shed in the south room had collapsed, and the side rooms were locked since no one slept there anymore, likely used for storage.

Seeing another house with the exact same layout, Jiaojiao headed straight for the kitchen without hesitation. Mrs. Zhao, in a panic, ignored the pain in her tailbone and desperately tried to call out her eldest daughter-in-law, but all that came out were incoherent sounds.

The Zhao family's kitchen was bare, aside from some pots and pans. It seemed like they kept their food locked up inside the house. Jiaojiao felt a bit disappointed; she had hoped to grab some food since, these days, food was more valuable than anything else.

But no food was no problem. Jiaojiao noticed two cast iron pots on the Zhao family's stove and immediately felt envious. Iron pots were a luxury; you needed a special ticket to buy them, and even then, they were hard to come by. The Yuh family only had one iron pot, yet the Zhao family had two. She remembered how Pengcheng's family used clay pots for cooking and thought the Zhao family was poor. Now it seemed like only Zhao Pengcheng was struggling.

Without hesitation, she decided to take one of the iron pots. With an iron pot in hand, Jiaojiao didn't plan on taking anything else, but Mrs. Zhao nearly lost it when she saw Jiaojiao with her pot. "Ahhh..."

Jiaojiao looked at her, surprised. "What? Mom, you're making me feel guilty. I said one pot was enough, and now you're insisting on the chicken too? You worked hard to raise those chickens. Alright, alright, I won't argue. I'll go get the chicken."

Jiaojiao shot a glance at Zhibing, whose eyes were about to pop out. "What are you standing there for? Didn't your grandma tell you to get the chicken? Make sure to grab two laying hens, or else your grandma won't be happy."

Zhao Zhibing gave her a look that was hard to decipher, then without a word, he dove into the chicken coop and grabbed two hens. Even after getting pecked a couple of times, he didn't mind and seemed quite pleased.

Who knows what he was thinking, but after catching the chickens, he made a point to tell his grandma, "Grandma, don't worry. I'll take good care of the chickens you gave us."

Mrs. Zhao stood there, pointing at Zhao Zhibing’s hands, trembling and her face turning bright red, yet for some reason, she couldn’t find her voice.

And so, Jiaojiao carried the iron pot while Zhao Zhibing held onto the two hens. Both of them waved goodbye to Mrs. Zhao with big smiles on their faces.