Xu Ziyan had no time to spare for her? If it hadn’t been for following the plot before, Xu Ziyan wouldn’t have had any dealings with these people at all. Her experience from her past life told her to stay away from the male and female leads to keep her life peaceful. The male and female leads were truly people with the most bizarre train of thought, who knew what they might do.
Xu Ziyan specifically told everyone to go to bed early. The next morning, before dawn, she got up and started preparing breakfast.
Xu Father and Xu Mother were both very diligent and good cooks. Xu Ziyan had them steam some flower rolls, adding a bit of oil and salt, and also pan-fry some flatbreads, also with a little oil and salt. This way, when customers bought them, they could eat them on their own without needing other food to go with them. The flavor from the oil and salt would be quite good, making people want to eat more.
Most crucially, this era had very few varieties of food, and there were no oil-and-salt seasoned wheat products being sold on the market yet. Xu Ziyan had them spread an egg on a portion of the flatbreads and add some green vegetable leaves. With a leaf of vegetable tucked in, it would be a bit like the egg pancakes of later times. These also weren’t sold here yet.
Xu Mother worriedly said, “Xiao Yan, these flatbreads are already fried with oil and have salt added. The cost isn’t low. Adding an egg and vegetables will make them even more expensive. Will anyone buy them?”
Xu Ziyan smiled. “Of course they will. You have to know how to talk it up. Just say they’re made with the freshest farm eggs, from chickens we raised with care ourselves, especially nutritious. The vegetables add nutrition and a refreshing crunch. They go together perfectly.”
Xu Mother was taken aback. “W-we have to say all that?” She looked at Xu Father. “We can’t really shout things like that.”
Xu Ziyan said indifferently, “If you can’t shout it now, practice slowly. If they really don’t sell, just bring them back and we’ll eat them for dinner. Anyway, when selling, you have to adapt. For example, if a customer hesitates, you can praise the flower rolls, say they’re steamed with the best flour from home, they’re big, cost-effective, and don’t require ration coupons.
Praise the customer, say they look very energetic, that they need to eat their fill. Eating well gives them more energy to work and earn money. Just say something nice casually. You can also offer a deal like ‘buy five, get one free’. When people hear ‘free’, they feel like they’re getting a bargain and can’t help but want to buy more. Or price them at eight cents for one flower roll, fifteen cents for two, something like that.”
Xu Ziyan rattled off a whole bunch of promotional tactics, all of them overused and most common in later times. But none of them existed here yet. Xu Father and Xu Mother listened dumbfounded, feeling like they had learned a lot. There was this much to know about going out to sell things? They felt a bit like backing out, but the breakfast was already made. At the very least, they had to sell it today.
After giving each other some encouragement, they packed all the food, put it in baskets, hung them on their bicycle, and pushed the bike into the city.
Xu Ziyan also went into the city with them, but she didn’t accompany them to sell. That was their own business. From the start, they should experience and go through it themselves. That was the only way they could learn from their mistakes and accumulate enough experience.
She went to the scrap station and the bookstore, buying a complete set of textbooks and review materials. The announcement about the resumption of the college entrance exams hadn’t been made yet, so she could still scavenge for these things. She’d heard that after the exams resumed, every time the bookstore opened, all exam-related books would be sold out instantly. The scrap stations would be turned upside down again and again.
Xu Ziyan coming to buy early gave her an advantage. She realized that the reason the world didn’t collapse in her past life was because Ding Jie, as the male lead, failed repeatedly and never achieved the accomplishments he should have. It was equivalent to the protagonist’s halo gradually dimming, and him stepping down from the protagonist’s position. Naturally, he couldn’t influence a major event like the collapse of the world.
So her method was correct: follow the plot on the surface, but after the plot point is completed, twist the situation back. That way, she could preserve the small world.
In the original plot, Xu Xiuyun studied hard, passed the college entrance exam, got into university, and became the only university student in the village, a glory. The original host had been quite good at studying when she was young, but later decided studying was useless and stopped applying herself. When she heard the exams had resumed, she was unmoved, thinking that since she had married an officer, she could just sit back and enjoy life. So she never took the exam.
Many people in the village said that of the two Xu sisters, the older one was shrewd and capable, and would surely do well in the future. The younger sister was pleasure-seeking, wasting her clever mind. That kind of person would suffer sooner or later.
A control group meant everything had to be compared. Even if you didn’t compare yourself, outsiders would. Who made them sisters?
What Xu Ziyan needed to do now was break this comparison. If the female lead wanted to step on her at every turn to highlight herself, then she would make sure the female lead couldn’t step down. First, she had to score better than the female lead on the exam and become the most notable university student in the village. Of course, her mission still had to be completed. She had to let the female lead be happy first.
Xu Ziyan packed all the books into a bundle. From the outside, you couldn’t tell what it was. She then went to the photo studio to pick up the developed photos, bought a piece of pork and two bottles of soda before heading home.
【This is too heavy. I should have waited for the cheap parents to finish selling breakfast and used the bike to buy this. Wouldn’t have had to carry these books so far on my back.】
Fang Father and Fang Mother heard Xu Ziyan’s voice from inside the house and knew she was back. They hurried out to meet her. “Give that to me. Why such a big bundle? Oh, it’s quite heavy.”
Xu Ziyan shot them a look. “Shh, put it in my room.” Then she spoke in a normal voice, “Mom, I bought some pork. I want braised pork for dinner, with some potatoes, to eat with rice.” She raised her voice to call the two children out. “You two are in charge of washing the rice. Remember to pick out the little stones, pick them out cleanly.”
She handed the two bottles of soda she was holding to them and said with a smile, “A reward.”
Fang Father carried the bundle to Xu Ziyan’s room. When she opened it and he saw it was all study books, he was very surprised. “Xiao Yan, what’s this for?”
Xu Ziyan whispered, “When I move to the army camp later, I heard you can become a teacher there. I was thinking of studying in advance. But I don’t know if it’ll work out. Don’t tell anyone, or it’ll be too embarrassing.”
Fang Father nodded, somewhat understanding, and went out. Then he heard Xu Ziyan’s inner thoughts: 【The college entrance exams will resume at the end of the year. I really need to focus on reviewing. Luckily, my foundation was very solid when I studied before, and the current textbooks are much simpler. A few months of review should be enough.】
Fang Father and Fang Mother saw the shock in each other’s eyes. The exams resuming? If that was true, it would surely shock the whole country. Was what the Great Immortal Child said true? Could she even predict this? And the Great Immortal Child was actually quite studious, wanting to take the exam? She was becoming more and more like a person.
【Not sure if that excuse just now was any good. Hope the news doesn’t leak, otherwise I won’t be able to follow the plot.】
Fang Father and Fang Mother exchanged another look, found the two children, and told them not to speak about it to outsiders. The two children had been through a lot and were actually quite mature and sensible for their age. They vaguely understood that the things Xu Ziyan said in her heart were secrets, things that couldn’t be told to others. So they nodded vigorously, promising to keep the secret.
In their hearts, Xu Ziyan was their fairy mother. She thought of them when she went out and treated them especially well. Of course they wouldn’t tell their fairy mother’s secrets.
While this family was thinking about keeping secrets, their neighbor Xu Xiuyun, who had taken a tumble a few days ago, was ultimately unwilling to let it go. She guided her stepdaughter Song Jiao to discover that Fang Nan and Fang Bei were doing chores again, commenting with slight surprise, “So they pick through the rice so carefully.”
Song Jiao was six, a bit spoiled and not very sensible. She loved to play, make noise, gossip, and cared about her reputation. These past couple of days, villagers kept saying Xu Xiuyun was scheming. The children naturally overheard this, and when they played with her, they kept asking if her stepmother was good to her, if she was nice on the surface but mean in private, and so on. She felt so embarrassed.
So this time, when she went out to play with the neighbor kids, she said exaggeratedly, “You guys didn’t see it. Fang Nan and Fang Bei were picking through the rice grain by grain. So much work. I’ve never seen anyone wash rice so carefully. Don’t we all just spit out the little stones if we eat them? Just be careful, is it worth all that trouble?”
When the kids heard this, it sounded exhausting. Weren’t they saying their stepmother wasn’t tormenting them? Was she tormenting them again after just a few days?
Song Jiao said disdainfully, “My stepmother’s younger sister is so fussy. Being so picky about eating rice, she’s like a capitalist’s daughter. Isn’t that called ‘the body of a young lady but the fate of a maid’?”
The kids all chimed in agreement, especially those who wanted to play with the Fang brothers. They had been waiting for them but couldn’t find them, only to discover they were stuck doing chores at home. They immediately felt a bit angry, thinking Xu Ziyan was too harsh on them, and clamored to go see them.
Song Jiao said, “You can go, but don’t you dare say I told you. Otherwise, Xu Ziyan will just say my family did something again. I don’t want to be wrongly accused by her. Just like my stepmom, she was just trying to help, but Xu Ziyan is such a good actress, insisting she treats the kids well, making my stepmom look bad no matter what.”
The kids chattered for a while and finally decided to go take a look at the Fang house.
They leaned against the main gate of the Fang house and saw Fang Nan and Fang Bei were indeed squatting by the well, washing rice, concentrating intently on picking out the little stones.
One child called out softly, “Fang Nan, Fang Bei! Come here! Come quick!”
Fang Nan and Fang Bei looked up, saw them, and ran over with smiles. “Why are you guys here? Come on in.”
The kids shook their heads like rattles. “Your stepmom is so fierce, we don’t dare.”
Fang Bei frowned. “Don’t talk bad about my mom.”
That child said, “You still call her ‘mom’? We all know. She makes you wash the rice grain by grain, picking out stones. She’s something else. So picky about eating a mouthful of rice. I think she just wants to make you work.”
Fang Nan said, “How do you know? My brother and I wash the rice voluntarily. We ate properly cleaned rice last time, it was delicious.” He looked at them suspiciously. “You suddenly coming over, you’re not here to cause trouble, are you?”
One child said angrily, “How can you say that? We’re here to stand up for you, to fight for justice. Your stepmom is so bad, why are you defending her?”
【Congratulations, Host, for completing the plot point: Continuing to torment stepchildren is discovered, reputation damaged. Reward: One skill point.】
Xu Ziyan was studying when she heard this. She paused, walked to the window to look, and said speechlessly, 【No need to say it, it’s definitely Xu Xiuyun who had Song Jiao spread the gossip. She took a loss with me and won’t let it go, but doesn’t dare confront me directly anymore, so she uses Song Jiao. What do kids understand? They just repeat whatever they hear.】
Fang Nan and Fang Bei understood immediately. It was that Xu Xiuyun causing trouble for them again. The two immediately retorted, “Our mom is great! Washing a bit of rice, what kind of work is that? Do you guys do nothing at home? Besides, the rice is for the whole family to eat. The two of us will eat it, Grandpa and Grandma will eat it. Out of five portions, Mom only eats one. That means most of the rice we’re picking is for us to eat. What does it have to do with Mom?
And Mom saw we were getting tired from washing the rice and gave each of us a bottle of soda. Do your parents give you soda when you do chores?”
The two went to the kitchen, got the soda, showed it to them, and even took a sip. The kids were immediately captivated by the soda. Wow, the Fang brothers’ stepmom went to the city and brought them back soda! She just asked them to wash some rice and gave them soda to drink? That’s too good! If it were them, they’d wash rice every day!
Fang Nan suddenly looked at Song Jiao. “The two of us were squatting at home washing rice. No one else knew. Only the neighbors next door could see. Song Jiao, was it you going around saying bad things about my mom? Both our families have stepmoms. You’re jealous we have a good stepmom and you don’t, so you deliberately told people my mom is bad, right?”
Song Jiao was just a little girl, thin-skinned. She started wailing, “I didn’t, I didn’t…”
The other kids pointed at her. “You said it, why won’t you admit it? Didn’t you say they were being bullied by their stepmom? And that their stepmom had ‘the body of a young lady but the fate of a maid’?”
When Fang Nan heard that, he got angry. “What right do you have to say that? My stepmom is great. I’m willing to wash rice for her my whole life, I’m happy to, it’s none of your business. Your stepmom is the bad one. Did she tell you to say this? She’s just using you. Otherwise, why didn’t she say it herself and made you say it?”
When Song Jiao heard this, her crying grew louder. Neighbors from a few nearby houses came out their doors. “What’s going on?”