Chapter 51: It’s Mom Who Should Thank You

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: It’s Mom Who Should Thank You

Dusk was approaching, so Nan Zhi and Nan Yi hitched a ride home in Fu Chao and Qing Xi’s car.

The trip there had taken nearly forty minutes, but the ride back was just over ten.

As they neared the shantytown, the car passed a night market. A mixture of clamor and the aroma of food slipped in through a crack in the window.

In the back seat.

Nan Yi, who had been playing all day and was drowsy with sleep, suddenly jolted as if someone had hit his ’on’ switch, shooting up from his seat.

"Fried rice! The stall!"

His eyes were wide and round, still holding a trace of sleepiness.

Qing Xi, who was sitting next to him and had already fallen asleep, was startled awake and looked around in confusion.

"What’s wrong? What’s going on?"

Nan Zhi soothed the two little ones.

"It’s nothing, go back to sleep. We’re not setting up the stall today."

"What!"

Nan Yi’s face fell. His eyelashes fluttered rapidly as he started muttering to himself.

A curious Nan Zhi leaned in closer and heard him muttering his calculations.

"One serving of egg fried rice is twenty, two is forty... a hundred servings is two thousand!"

His face was wrinkled with worry, as if he’d just missed out on a mountain of gold!

Amused, Nan Zhi patted the back of Nan Yi’s head, wondering what was going on in that little mind of his.

"It’s just one day without the stall, it’s okay."

Nan Yi’s expression was solemn.

"But we spent so much money today!"

"Well... how about we sell a little more tomorrow?"

Nan Zhi’s stamina was limited, so every night she prepared just enough ingredients for exactly one hundred servings.

Now, to ease Nan Yi’s anxiety, it seemed she would just have to grit her teeth and sell more fried rice tomorrow.

Fortunately, she had been eating medicinal meals these past few days, and her health had improved slightly.

If this had been the first few days after she transmigrated back, Nan Zhi definitely wouldn’t have dared to agree.

She would have been afraid of working herself to death.

Fu Chao, who was driving, watched the mother and son’s interaction with great interest in the rearview mirror.

When he saw his own little nephew biting his fingers with a cluelessly innocent expression, he shook his head in exasperation.

When they arrived at the edge of the shantytown, Fu Chao stopped the car.

"The alley is too narrow for the car to get through. You’ll have to walk from here."

"That’s fine."

Nan Zhi thanked him and, taking Nan Yi’s hand, prepared to get out of the car.

Fu Chao hurriedly called out.

"Boss! Are we still partnering up tomorrow?"

Nan Zhi glanced over, a smile in her eyes.

"You don’t want to continue?"

For some reason, Fu Chao instinctively flinched, feeling an intimidating pressure that made him afraid to overstep.

"N-No!"

Nan Zhi raised an eyebrow and continued getting out of the car with Nan Yi.

"See you tomorrow."

Just before the door closed, her voice could be heard faintly.

"Come for lunch!"

Fu Chao was about to politely say no.

But then he remembered Nan Zhi’s cooking...

SLURP.

’It’s a crime against heaven to waste good food!’

"...Okay! When the show’s over, I’ll treat you to a meal!"

Nan Zhi didn’t refuse and agreed.

By the time the mother and son walked through the door of their small house in the shantytown, the sky had gone completely dark.

Nan Zhi greeted the production team, then, bone-weary, she went to wash up.

"Yiyi, go get wash... huh?"

Nan Zhi looked with a gentle smile at Nan Yi on the sofa—

The same Nan Yi who this afternoon had said he didn’t want it and didn’t like it, was now affectionately hugging his fluffy dog, stroking its head and whispering something softly to it.

Nan Zhi faintly heard phrases like "be a good boy" and "I’ll take care of you," all filled with immense joy.

Hm?

’What happened to being a big boy who doesn’t need stuffed toys?’

Sensing his mother’s gaze on him, Nan Yi huffed uncomfortably.

"I... It’s part of our family now, so I have to take good care of it!"

He said it with such conviction!

Nan Zhi didn’t tease him, but nodded in agreement.

"That’s great. Then I’ll leave the doggy in your care."

Nan Yi hugged the fluffy dog tighter, his eyes sparkling.

At bedtime, he shuffled hesitantly toward Nan Zhi.

"Actually..."

"Hm?"

"Zhuangzhuang has a fluffy dog, too. I really liked it."

He’d liked it so much that he had secretly stolen that fluffy dog.

But at the last moment, Nan Yi put it back.

Nan Zhi listened quietly.

"Mm."

Nan Yi pursed his lips, clutching the fluffy dog that was now his alone.

"Now I have one too... Thank you, Mom."

"No, Yiyi, it’s Mommy who should be thanking you."

’Thank you for choosing to trust me, even after all the pain you’ve been through.’

Nan Yi didn’t understand the deeper meaning in Nan Zhi’s words.

He was more concerned about another question.

"So, Mom, how much did this fluffy dog cost anyway?"

"..."

-

The controversy surrounding Nan Zhi came and went quickly.

A flurry of moves from the production team quickly turned the tide of public opinion, and the voices of doubt gradually faded.

In the blink of an eye, a new hot topic emerged to capture the public’s attention.

Before long, most people would forget this incident ever happened.

Still, Nan Zhi was affected by it.

Before the controversy, her livestream’s popularity had been soaring thanks to a number of factors.

It had even surpassed Xie Yu and Qi Pei’er’s streams, ranking second only to Fu Chao’s!

But after the fiasco, the popularity of Nan Zhi’s livestream plummeted, and she returned to the bottom of the rankings.

Fortunately, Nan Zhi didn’t much care.

She was more focused on reopening her fried rice stall that evening.

As promised to Nan Yi the day before, she prepared extra ingredients and arrived at the night market around 5 p.m.

She hadn’t even reached her usual spot when she suddenly noticed...

"That’s a lot of people."

Fu Chao, currently being filmed, wasn’t wearing a hat as he pushed the metal food cart, looking around curiously.

Nan Zhi stopped in her tracks.

Sure enough, the people loitering at the entrance to the night market turned, saw them, and rushed toward Nan Zhi in the blink of an eye!

"Well, well, Boss! You actually dared to show your face today!"

"I finally get to see you!"

"Boss, where were you yesterday?!"

"..."

Fu Chao let go of the food cart and scrambled to shield Nan Zhi.

At the same time, he didn’t forget to pull the stunned Nan Yi and Qing Xi behind him.

He yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Everyone, calm down! We can talk about this calmly!"

But beads of sweat quietly formed on his forehead as he thought, ’This is bad.’

’This crowd looks aggressive. They can’t be here to cause trouble, can they?’

’Even with years of combat training, he was outnumbered. Two fists are no match for four hands; there was no way he could win!’

’Maybe I should just run for it?’

’Damn it, where is the production team?!’

Nan Zhi glanced at Fu Chao’s rapidly changing expression, suppressed a laugh, and tried to move him aside...

Tsk, he wouldn’t budge.

Fu Chao didn’t forget to turn his head and whisper a warning.

"Just hide behind me! Don’t make a sound!"

’Staying silent probably isn’t an option,’ Nan Zhi thought.

So she ducked under Fu Chao’s outstretched arm and, meeting the crowd’s intense gazes, announced calmly:

"Don’t worry, everyone. I’m open for business as usual today. Everything’s right here."

The customers, their eyes clouded by hunger, suddenly remembered that Nan Zhi had brought her cart with her.

’So... the boss isn’t planning to close up shop?’

The crowd instantly transformed into a flock of meek kittens.

"O-Oh, so that’s what’s going on. You should have just said so, Boss."

"BOO HOO HOO! Boss, do you have any idea? Without your fried rice yesterday, I went hungry all night!"

"Boss, you should start a group chat so you can let us know if anything’s up!"