Chapter 10: Doing One’s Best
Su Mulan glanced at Bai Shuilin, who was focused on tending the fire.
Originally slender with a small frame, Bai Shuilin was often underfed and lacked flesh on her bones, exacerbated by regular farm work, making her appear even thinner and more skeletal under the flickering firelight.
Recalling how thin and frail Bai Lixia and the other two looked in the afternoon, their arms and legs as slender as bamboo poles, Su Mulan suddenly felt uneasy.
Although this was the fate left by the original owner, now that she had taken over this identity and gained a chance to live anew, she had also taken on the role of a mother and had to fulfill the responsibilities that came with it.
Even if not with all her heart, she must still do her best.
Su Mulan finished placing the last flatbread on the pot and then poked her head out from the stove room. She happened to see Bai Midou and called out to him, “Midou, go check the chicken coop for eggs. If there are any, bring back two.”
Bai Midou, upon hearing about fetching eggs, quickly hid behind Bai Lixia in fear. His fingers had just stopped hurting, and he dared not go fetch eggs again.
“Mother, I’ll go get the eggs,” Bai Lixia hurriedly volunteered, rolling up her pants legs and preparing to go into the chicken coop.
Seeing this, Su Mulan recalled the ruthless deeds of the original host, biting her lip. She looked at Bai Midou for a while, lips trembling, but she didn’t say anything.
Too much talking is useless!
The more you talk, the more you look fake. It’s better to act on facts.
Bai Lixia searched through the chicken coop one by one, carefully holding the eggs she found in her hands as she approached Su Mulan. She said cautiously, “Mother, I gathered three eggs.”
“Just three?” Su Mulan furrowed her brow.
“Yeah, just three.” Bai Lixia shivered slightly, her voice trembling. Her head shook like a rattle drum, “Mom, I didn’t lie or hide any.”
“I’m not saying you hid them, but…”
Three eggs weren’t much, barely enough for one child to have boiled eggs.
“Never mind, three will do.” Su Mulan didn’t want to explain further. She took the eggs from Bai Lixia and turned towards the stove room, finding a clean bowl and promptly cracking the eggs into it, preparing to make scrambled eggs later.
The remaining eggshells were handed to Bai Lixia again. “Crush them and mix with the rotten vegetable leaves and grass, feed them to the chickens.”
Eggshells contain a certain amount of calcium. After the chickens eat them, it supplements their nutrition and prevents soft-shelled eggs. Especially for their chickens, which usually only eat grass and vegetable leaves, they are prone to malnutrition. Eating some eggshells helps with egg production.
Bai Lixia took them confusedly, preparing to do as Su Mulan instructed. But when she saw the eggshells, there was still some egg white sticking to the shell walls. She pulled Bai Zhuye and Bai Midou aside and handed them the eggshells. “Quick, you can still lick a bit.”
Although raw, for Bai Zhuye and Bai Midou who had never even smelled an eggshell for years, the fishy taste of the egg was an unparalleled delicacy. They hurriedly stuck out their tongues to lick it.
However, she didn’t forget to hand the other half of the eggshell back to Bai Lixia. “There are exactly four, one for each of us. Second sister, you should also taste a bit, and the remaining one is for the eldest sister…”
Even though they were young, they couldn’t devour food alone, even if it was just this tiny bit of egg white.
Bai Lixia felt relieved and patted Bai Zhuye and Bai Midou on their heads.
Su Mulan, who was in the kitchen beating the eggs with chopsticks, saw the movements of the three children in the courtyard and quickly asked, “What are you three doing?”