Picky Eating and Being Stupid
That night, Qin Shi burned the midnight oil, working on the design until the middle of the night.
The next morning, Lu Zetian got up early, bought breakfast from the canteen, placed it in the pot, glanced at Qin Shi’s tightly closed door, and then went out.
Qin Shi, who hadn’t stayed up late in a long time, woke up with her head feeling swollen. Only after washing her face did she fully wake up.
Gu Qinghai had already gone to school. Qin Shi yawned and went to the kitchen to make something to eat. When she saw several large buns still covered in the pot, a smile appeared on her face.
Not bad.
She had thought Lu Zetian would only prepare breakfast for Gu Qinghai and ignore the rest.
Unexpectedly, he had remembered her and the twins too.
Now she didn’t need to cook breakfast. Qin Shi reheated the buns and warmed up the leftover porridge from last night, then called the twins to get up and eat together.
After washing the dishes quickly, Qin Shi let the two children play at home while she continued refining the design.
An’an played with her beloved little rubber ball, while Pingping quietly came to Qin Shi’s side and sat obediently beside her, watching her work.
Seeing that he was interested, Qin Shi smiled and let him watch. After all, in the original book, he became a fashion designer, so it was normal for him to be interested in this.
Watch as much as you want. In this life, whether he wanted to become a painter or a designer, she would definitely nurture him properly.
Pingping was well-behaved and sensible. He sat beside Qin Shi without moving around and even helped her pass pens and paper, making him very lovable.
After a while, An’an put down her ball and ran over. After watching the two of them for a while, she found it boring. She wanted to play, but not alone, so she washed her hands, found some scrap paper, sat down too, and began folding it.
When Lu Zetian came back at noon, this was the scene he saw.
Qin Shi was working seriously, Pingping was looking down at Qin Shi’s drawings, and An’an was happily folding paper by herself. The three of them sat at one table, looking harmonious and warm.
Lu Zetian’s expression softened unconsciously, and there was a smile in his eyes as he looked at them.
“Stop working. Rest for a bit and eat.”
After sitting all morning, Qin Shi looked up and smiled faintly. “You’re back?”
Lu Zetian smiled back. “Mm. Wash your hands and eat.”
Qin Shi put down her pen, tidied the table a little, and stood up to stretch. The twins couldn’t wait to climb down from their chairs and ran over to see what Lu Zetian had bought.
“Daddy, Daddy! What did you buy? Is there meat?” An’an leaned over the boxes and sniffed hard. Pingping also held his belly and looked at Lu Zetian.
“You greedy little cat. Didn’t you just eat meat a couple of days ago?” Lu Zetian carried the food to the kitchen and shooed away the two little tails. “Go wash your hands with your mom.”
An’an shouted at Lu Zetian’s back, “Even eating meat every day wouldn’t be enough!”
Then she looked at Pingping. “Right, Pingping?”
Pingping nodded along.
Lu Zetian ignored them. Qin Shi smiled and took both of their hands, leading them to the water trough in the courtyard to wash.
In this era, very few families could eat meat every day. The Lu family having meat every few days was already quite good.
Recently, however, there had been more people setting up stalls in the county. No one was selling pork, but there were people selling fish and river shrimp. Although they were a little expensive, they didn’t require coupons and there was no purchase limit.
A couple of days ago, Qin Shi had bought a fish and braised it. The twins immediately fell in love with it. Fish now held the same status in their hearts as candied sweet potatoes.
Soon, Gu Qinghai also came home. He glanced at the dishes on the table and immediately realised they weren’t made by Qin Shi. His expression instantly became uninterested.
Lu Zetian happened to see this, and his face turned stern. “Have your days been too good recently? Have you forgotten what things used to be like?”
Gu Qinghai immediately corrected his attitude and quickly shook his head. “No.”
After saying that, he quickly sat down, picked up a steamed bun, grabbed some vegetables, and stuffed them into his mouth in big bites.
Only then did Lu Zetian’s expression soften a little. “Being picky isn’t a good habit. Look outside—whose family eats as well as ours? It’s only because your mom is good at cooking and worries you won’t get enough nutrition that she spoils you and makes different dishes every day.”
“Some families can’t even bear to buy food from the canteen. There are even people in the countryside who don’t have enough to eat,” Lu Zetian lectured the three children. “Food is important. Having something to eat is already good enough. You can’t be picky, understand?”
“Understood!” the three children answered in unison.
Qin Shi looked at them and reflected for one second, but quickly threw that thought aside.
It wasn’t as if they couldn’t afford it. There was no need to hoard money and refuse to eat properly. She had been here for a month, and this month’s expenses weren’t too high, just a little over thirty yuan.
And that was only because they had ordered milk and bought many household items. The vegetable patch in the courtyard had already grown quite a lot, so next month’s expenses would only be lower.
Actually, Qin Shi hadn’t been extravagantly buying meat and vegetables either. She simply had a golden finger—her cooking skills were ridiculously good. Even ordinary ingredients could be cooked in different ways. Even if she only stir-fried vegetables with a little salt, oil, and vinegar, they would still taste unbelievably delicious.
That was why the children’s tastes had become spoiled.
Lu Zetian naturally knew this too, but it wasn’t an excuse for the children to be picky. When there was good food, they could eat it. When there wasn’t, they still had to eat. He absolutely couldn’t let them develop the bad habit of pickiness.
Qin Shi also knew this was a serious issue, so she said, “Your dad is right.”
The three children nodded. They knew. They hadn’t really meant to be picky. They only missed Qin Shi’s cooking in their hearts, but they hadn’t expected their father to react so strongly.
Qin Shi then told them about the famine in the 1960s, when people had nothing to eat and had to eat bran, tree bark, and kaolin clay. The three children listened with their eyes wide open.
When Qin Shi finally said that millions of people across the country had starved to death, the twins hugged their bowls and burst into tears. Even Gu Qinghai’s face turned a little pale.
Lu Zetian hadn’t expected Qin Shi to tell them this. They were still so young—wouldn’t it scare them too much?
Qin Shi never brushed children off just because they were young. No matter what she said, she was serious. She never deceived or perfunctorily handled them, treating them like adults.
Lu Zetian thought about it and then felt relieved. The twins were four, and Gu Qinghai was already nine. They all had the ability to think. Qin Shi’s method might actually be better for their growth and character.
Qin Shi said, “So wasting food is shameful, and being picky is not good. Do you understand?”
The three children nodded one after another, hugged their bowls, and began eating in big mouthfuls. There was no trace of dislike on their faces anymore.
Seeing Pingping eating while tears still hung on his face, Qin Shi found it funny and heart-aching. He had rich emotions, strong empathy, and was very sentimental. Combined with his quiet and introverted personality, Qin Shi worried he might get hurt in the future.
She could only pay more attention to him later and see if she could guide his personality a little. Qin Shi shifted her gaze to An’an and relaxed slightly.
An’an was the complete opposite of Pingping. Her ability to self-regulate was extremely strong. She had just been crying, but now she had wiped away her tears and turned grief into appetite, stuffing rice into her mouth with a rather fierce expression.
Hopefully, An’an could subtly influence Pingping, so he wouldn’t be too introverted. At the very least, he needed to express and vent his feelings. Otherwise, bottling them up would sooner or later harm him and change his personality drastically.
Qin Shi then looked at Gu Qinghai. Seeing that his expression was fine, she finally relaxed. Fortunately, Gu Qinghai was only a little tsundere; there was nothing else wrong with him.
Qin Shi picked up her bowl and continued eating, thinking that raising children was really difficult. This work was truly not easy—one hundred times more troublesome than dealing with clients in her previous life.
For the one hundred and twenty-third time, Qin Shi silently paid tribute to full-time housewives!
After the meal, the table was completely clean, not even a drop of soup spilled on it. It showed how carefully the children had eaten, truly afraid of wasting anything.
Lu Zetian rolled up his sleeves to wash the dishes. Qin Shi was helping him wipe the table when someone knocked on the gate.
Gu Qinghai saw that it was Mo Ling holding a large bundle. Before he could call the adults, Mo Ling panted and shouted, “Xiao Hai, open the door! I’m exhausted!”
“Oh, oh!” Gu Qinghai quickly opened the gate and stepped forward, wanting to help her carry the things.
Mo Ling waved her hand, telling him there was no need. “It’s not heavy.” She had only run over, so she was tired.
“Is your mom home?”
Gu Qinghai nodded instinctively, and Mo Ling carried the bundle inside.
Hearing the sound, Qin Shi quickly finished wiping the table and came out. She lifted the kitchen curtain just in time to see Mo Ling approaching.
Mo Ling beamed and patted the bundle in her arms. “The fabric arrived!”
As she spoke, she caught sight of Lu Zetian washing dishes through the gap in the door and was instantly shocked.
After entering the room with Qin Shi, she leaned close to Qin Shi’s ear and whispered with great admiration, “Impressive. You actually tamed him!”
After confirming that the look in Mo Ling’s eyes was pure admiration and nothing else, Qin Shi liked her even more. She joked, “Nothing special, really.”
The two exchanged a look, burst into laughter, and immediately threw Lu Zetian to the back of their minds as they began discussing business.
Mo Ling opened the bundle and showed Qin Shi the fabric.
Qin Shi looked at it and was surprised to find that the fabric wasn’t pure red. It had tiny sparkling flecks on it, glittering under the light.
Sequin fabric?
Qin Shi picked it up in shock to examine it closely. Did sequin fabric already exist in this era?
But after picking it up, she realised only this one patch had glitter; the rest did not.
“Oh no!” Mo Ling grew anxious and quickly opened the bundle fully, taking out a packet of shiny things.
“How did it leak? Oh no, the fabric is stained!” Mo Ling asked anxiously, “Is this okay?”
Only then did Qin Shi understand. It wasn’t sequin fabric. It was a packet of shiny glitter flakes, and some of the glitter had leaked, making the fabric sparkle.
“It’s fine,” Qin Shi said. “Where did this glitter come from?”
“My friend heard I was making a gown, so she went to a printing factory to find this for me. This stuff is used for New Year paintings,” Mo Ling explained. “My friend said when she went to Shenzhen, she once saw a fashion show on TV. Their dresses had sequins that sparkled under the lights, and it was absolutely beautiful.”
“I don’t know if this can be used.” Mo Ling shrugged. “She went through the trouble, so I brought it.”
Qin Shi was becoming more and more interested in this friend of hers. “It can be used. Using glitter to dye the fabric won’t work, but we can draw patterns on the dress with it. When the stage lights hit, it’ll look very beautiful.”
The glitter was too low-quality to use over a large area. It could only be used as an accent.
Qin Shi explained the situation and added, “It might not look great up close, but from far away, it’ll definitely be stunning.”
Mo Ling waved it off. “Then let’s do it. The stage is far away anyway. It’s fine. I trust you.”
“It might shed glitter,” Qin Shi said, opening the glitter and touching it. “Without special fabric glue, we can only use paste, so it’ll definitely shed.”
“That’s fine. It’s only for decoration. If it sheds, it sheds. Even if it falls off, it’ll still sparkle.” Mo Ling didn’t care about these details at all. “Is the design finished? Let me see!”
Qin Shi loved clients like Mo Ling, whose demands weren’t too high. She smiled, went to get the drawing, and showed it to her. Mo Ling immediately became excited after seeing it.
“It’s so beautiful!”
“Then it’s settled. Thank you for your hard work, Qin Shi. I’ll be waiting for your good news!” Mo Ling hooked her arm around Qin Shi’s and smiled brightly at her.
Lu Zetian, who had finished washing the dishes, pushed open the door and entered—only to see Mo Ling holding Qin Shi’s arm, the two of them leaning close and laughing happily.
Lu Zetian: “…”
Hearing someone enter, the two women turned their heads toward the doorway at the same time.
Under their gazes, Lu Zetian’s body immediately stiffened.
Lu Zetian: “…”
Lu Zetian, who could remain expressionless even through gunfire and bullets, was now stiff all over, his mind blank for a moment. He had no idea what expression to make or what to do.
Why did this scene feel so strange?
Why did it make him feel so restless?
—
**Author’s Note:**
Mini theatre:
Regiment Commander Lu on the surface: motionless.
Inside, screaming: Save me! Save me! Save me! What am I supposed to do?!
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