The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 38 I'm exhausted!

After reprimanding his son and daughter-in-law.

Tong Huaqiong was in a great mood.

That's the good thing about having a large family; you can scold anyone you want, and the person being scolded has no choice but to obediently listen.

Feeling refreshed, Tong Huaqiong continued to work on her pastries in the kitchen.

"Mom, what kind of snacks did you make? I could smell the aroma from the village entrance. Everyone in the village is talking about whose house it's coming from, even the dogs are sticking their noses out to sniff it."

Gu Dashu peered into the kitchen through the door.

It smells so good, it's so incredibly good, it made his mouth water.

I really want to get a piece and try it.

"Go away, go away, go away! You can't eat any of the snacks I make now. These are my secret weapons for making money."

Tong Huaqiong stirred the butter in the bowl while shooing people away.

Next, she's going to bake big butter cookies.

Butter, something that didn't exist in this era, would surely have astonished Master Huang when the cookies he baked were made.

Upon hearing Tong Huaqiong mention money, Gu Dashu immediately felt a little less confident.

After all, her mother had spent fifty taels of silver to prevent Gu Yaozu from being sent away.

To earn those fifty taels of silver, he worked tirelessly making pastries.

If Master Huang is not satisfied and takes the deposit back, wouldn't he have gone too far?

“Alright, Mother, you’ve worked hard. Yue’e, you stay here and take good care of Mother, hand her a handkerchief to wipe her sweat and such,” Gu Dashu said.

"My mother and I will set up our stall together tomorrow."

Upon hearing this, Tong Huaqiong knew that Gu Dashu was about to relax his guard.

He wasn't actually planning to set up a stall; it was obvious he wanted to go to town.

So she scolded, "You just said you wanted to set a good example for Yaozu, and now you've shown your true colors again. Are you some kind of demon? The wheat is already growing tall, and everyone in the village is tending to their crops in the fields. I saw our wheat field yesterday, and the weeds were as tall as a person. Your sister-in-law, my wife, and I are making pastries at home. Do you expect us to take care of the crops?"

"You're no good at making money, and you're no good at tending crops either? Go and tend to the wheat right now. First, weed the fields. It hasn't rained for half a month. Go and see if those two plots of land at the foot of West Mountain need watering. If they do, you and Gu Jingzhe will thoroughly water them."

"If you ruin this year's harvest, I won't let you off the hook."

Amidst Tong Huaqiong's cursing, Gu Dashu carried a hoe out of the woodshed.

“I’m going with my second brother,” Gu Jingzhe said.

Gu Jingzhe had initially doubted Tong Huaqiong's ability to make money selling pastries, but when he entered the house and smelled the aroma, and saw the various shapes of pastries through the kitchen, his eyes lit up.

This pastry smells better than Su Shi Yuan's, and it looks better than Su Shi Yuan's.

My mother is indeed quite capable.

Gu Jingzhe's mind raced. No wonder his father was so stupid, yet the family produced such a prodigy like him. It turned out he was just like his mother.

Laziness must have masked my mother's abilities before.

Therefore, he had no doubt about the origin of the fifty taels of silver.

The two sons carried hoes and went to the fields.

Tong Huaqiong fell into deep thought.

These past few days, she's been traveling to and from town, passing by her own wheat field, and the wheat there isn't growing as well as the wheat in the neighboring field.

The wheat fields next door were lush and green, with each ear of wheat plump and full, showing a scene of abundant harvest.

My wheat field is a bit sparse, and the heading isn't very good. There are even a few rows of wheat with yellow leaves, which looks like the result of lazy tending.

All of this is the result of Tong Dajiao leading everyone to live their lives.

Gu Dahan usually works as a laborer at the dock, leaving all the farm work to Chen Sufeng. Chen Sufeng also has to take care of housework, so she simply can't manage it all.

Of course, Gu Dashu and Liu Yue'e also did fieldwork, but the couple were not diligent and often slacked off.

Due to a variety of factors, the crops in the Gu family's fields did not grow well, and the grain yield was significantly lower than the average level of the whole village.

Tong Huaqiong thought to herself, in this era, making money is very important, but land cannot be ignored, after all, land resources are the foundation of human survival.

Having land to grow food means that even if war prevents people from going out to do business, they can still survive by relying on the land and food.

Tong Huaqiong planned to wait until she had some free time to think carefully about things in the fields, such as increasing yields, what crops to plant to make money, and also buying fertile land to expand her land ownership. "Mother, do you think this consistency of flour is okay?"

Chen Sufeng handed the sifted flour to Tong Huaqiong, who weighed it in her hand and nodded in satisfaction.

It must be said that Chen Sufeng has some talent; she sifted the flour to a uniform coarseness, which was exactly what Tong Huaqiong wanted.

She might be able to pass on her excellent skills to Chen Su-fen in the future, but she is only focused on finding ways to expand the scale of her business.

Liu Yue'e sat in front of the stove tending the fire, feeling quite uneasy. In the past few days, Chen Sufeng had learned so many of her mother-in-law's excellent cooking skills.

This skill can be exchanged for silver.

Not only that, her mother-in-law also bought Chen Sufen a new set of clothes.

"Keep your fire burning, and you'll be well rewarded when you make a fortune." Tong Huaqiong glanced at Liu Yue'e and knew she was up to something again. She felt exhausted; Liu Yue'e was so petty. If she wasn't disciplined, she'd be climbing on the roof and tearing off the tiles.

Upon hearing that there was silver, Liu Yue'e's eyes lit up.

"Grandma, I'm going to cut pig feed."

Seeing that the adults were all busy, Man'er felt a little anxious because she couldn't help. So she obediently picked up the basket and went to cut pig feed.

"Go ahead, but don't go too far," Tong Huaqiong instructed.

Man'er nodded.

"Sister Man'er, I'll go with you to cut pig feed."

Gu Yaozu wanted to please his grandmother, so he moved closer to Man'er.

Man'er hesitated for a moment, then said, "If you don't cause trouble, I'll take you there."

Gu Yaozu quickly nodded and agreed, "I won't cause trouble, I'll cut the grass."

As he spoke, he took the basket from Man'er's hands.

Tong Huaqiong watched with a smile. Children are much smarter than adults think. Take Yaozu for example. In the past, he dared to bully Man'er because he knew he could bully her without any consequences. But after today's jujube cake incident, he realized that Man'er's position in Tong Huaqiong's heart was unshakeable, so he quickly started to curry favor with her.

This is exactly the effect Tong Huaqiong wanted.

Tong Huaqiong whipped the butter until her hands were about to break from exhaustion.

It would be great if I could whip butter in the space, since using tools would save both time and effort.

Making butter cookies is not difficult. Just mix flour, butter, and powdered sugar together to form a dough, shape it, and bake it.

After mixing all the ingredients, Tong Huaqiong secretly sprinkled some milk powder on top, and then started rolling up her sleeves to knead the dough.

“Mother, let me knead the dough,” Chen Sufeng said.

"Let the peach blossoms come, for the peach blossoms are strong."

Gu Taohua thought that with her two sisters-in-law helping her, there was nothing left for her to do. She dressed up and planned to go to the village to show off her new dress to the other girls. However, she was caught by Tong Huaqiong as soon as she passed the kitchen door.

Gu Taohua has plenty of strength; if she doesn't use it now, when will she?

Tong Huaqiong gave the order, and Gu Taohua dared not disobey. So she washed her hands and took the mixing basin from Tong Huaqiong.

After Gu Taohua kneaded the dough, Tong Huaqiong taught Chen Sufeng how to make cookie dough.

Tong Huaqiong taught very carefully, and Chen Sufeng learned very diligently. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law worked together and quickly made a table full of cookie dough.

After drying for the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, one after another, Chen Sufeng and Tong Huaqiong continued to work together to put the biscuits into the large iron pan.

"Finally finished." Tong Huaqiong rubbed her lower back.

I've been bending over all afternoon, I'm so tired!

Although I am only forty years old now, my physical condition is still incomparable to that of my twenty-year-old self in my previous life.

In my past life, I could stay in the lab all day and still have plenty of energy.

"Mother, I'll keep an eye on the heat. You should rest first," Chen Sufeng said considerately.

Chen Su-fen is meticulous in her work and has an exceptional talent for baking. In addition, the cookies only have one last step left: baking.

With Chen Su-fen looking after her, Tong Hua-qiong felt relatively at ease.

"Okay, I trust you to keep an eye on me."

Tong Huaqiong nodded, then walked out of the kitchen and sat by the door to enjoy the breeze.

This is exhausting!
(End of this chapter)