Chapter 32

Meng Yao whipped up a simple regime for Zhao Xiaohua.

Simply put, Zhao Xiaohua was only to drink water in the morning, eat meat in the afternoon, and consume vitamins at night. In addition, Meng Yao would watch Zhao Xiaohua as she ate to ensure she ate slowly and did not overeat.

Zhao Xiaohua also had to stand at the wall after her three meals and exercise in the backyard every morning to improve her heart and lungs.

It was unknown what Zhao Xiaohua said to her twin brother, but Zhao Xiaoshu would walk with his twin sister until he started sweating profusely.

Combined with the military boxing that Meng Yao taught them, the effects were apparent.

Zhao Xiaohua started losing a lot of weight and even started looking taller. She no longer looked like a cute little girl but a young woman. As for Zhao Xiaoshu, he did not look so thin and weak anymore.

The results were gratifying.

On top of that, Meng Yao realized that Zhao Xiaoshu had the potential to pursue martial arts. Of course, she didn’t know of any secret martial arts techniques. Nevertheless, Zhao Xiaoshu was excellent at close combat. He could even exchange a few blows with Meng Yao.

Zhao Xiaoshu had mastered carpentry within a year while his studies hadn’t suffered. He spent less than 30,000 yuan a month and had already memorized his books. He might not be as good as Zhao Xiaohua, but he was still outstanding.

In conclusion, Zhao Xiaoshu was akin to a hidden big shot.

From the looks of it, Zhao Ting’s genes were proving to be beneficial. Otherwise, how could the children be so outstanding?

Of course, not all of them were outstanding—take Zhao Dajiang, for example.

Meng Yao had already given up on trying to change Zhao Dajiang. In any case, he was a perfect robot. He would not make a single mistake if Meng Yao gave correct orders. Zhao Dajiang had, after all, taken good care of Song Xiu’er over the past month.

The thin and frail Song Xiu’er that Meng Yao had met at the beginning had finally put on weight and gained some colors on her cheeks. However, the only thing Meng Yao felt she failed at was that Song Xiu’er had become precisely like Zhao Dajiang. The two only did whatever Meng Yao told them.

Zhao Dajiang and Song Xiu’er were indeed a match made in Heaven.

During that month, Meng Yao took her time to study and understand her pocket dimension. In essence, it resembled a warehouse she could upgrade.

Meng Yao could use her pocket dimension to store things because it was stable. She could remove whatever she stored inside at a later time. Just its preservation functions alone were terrific.

Of course, Meng Yao could only store inanimate objects in her pocket, not live animals. However, Meng Yao didn’t know that at first, so she tried to put a chicken in there. She almost fainted at what happened next, scaring her children half to death.

The upgrades referred to the expansion of Meng Yao’s pocket dimension. It only spanned one cubic decimeters when Meng Yao discovered it.

When Meng Yao thought her pocket dimension was too small and needed a bigger one, her 350 taels dropped to 50 teals. In exchange for 200 taels, her pocket dimension expanded to one square meter in size.

There was nothing wrong with the expansion, except Meng Yao had to spend money to do it. However, Meng Yao didn’t know how much silver it would cost to expand her pocket dimension to twenty square feet. She was sure it wouldn’t just cost 300 taels.

Soon after, it was Zhao Dahe’s day off from school, so Meng Yao prepared several dishes.

Li Zheng’s cow had just given birth two days prior, so there was a lot of milk to go around for the last few days. Meng Yao instructed the twins to buy milk every day.

Li Zheng only charged the Zhaos two yuan for a giant milk bottle. Meng Yao gave a bowl of milk to each person and made delicious food with the rest.

Meng Yao still made a few delicious dishes even though she didn’t have many ingredients—for example, a steamed cake.

Although it was difficult to separate the egg whites from the yolks, with Zhao Dajiang, who never grew tired by Meng Yao’s side, everything went smoothly.

Another example was milk tea.

Meng Yao had to grit her teeth before buying the tea leaves because a bag of tea the size of an adult’s fist cost three taels of silver.

Meng Yao also made flan. Its softness, smoothness, and sweetness were the twins’ favorite.

Meng Yao prepared to cook all three dishes to entertain Zhao Dahe’s chubby friend, Qin Zheng.

Meng Yao got up early and started busying herself in the kitchen, putting a large pot of cake onto the stove to steam. After that, she made the flan with Zhao Xiaohua’s help.

After preparing the flan, Meng Yao began to brew the milk tea. Then Zhao Dahe returned with Qin Zheng just as Meng Yao finished cooking.

The chubby boy was carrying bags of various sizes as he shouted for Meng Yao even before entering.

“Why have you brought so many things with you? Dahe, don’t you know how to stop him?” Meng Yao said exasperatedly.

Zhao Dahe felt a little guilty. He told Qin Zheng not to come empty-handed, but he did not expect Qin Zheng’s family to give them so many things.

Qin Zheng had asked his errand boy to send a message to his family. The Qin family carriage pulled up on the day of Qin Zheng’s visit to the Zhao’s. The things Qin Zheng brought were already in the carriage.

“Madam, this is the first time I’m visiting your home. My parents said I should be polite. Moreover, my parents know that Dahe ranked first in this month’s exam and even praised me for making friends with him. They still think we’ve prepared too little,” Qin Feng said quipped.

Meng Yao quickly took the things off the chubby boy’s hands and ushered them into the house.

“X-Xiaohua?!” Zhao Dahe called out to Zhao Xiaohua, who helped Meng Yao arrange the dishes.

“What?” Zhao Xiaohua replied.

“Dahe, how could you lie to me? You kept telling me your sister is comparable to me in size. Do you call this fat? I’m twice her size. You must’ve misunderstood the word fat, right?” Qin Feng said.

Zhao Dahe was bewildered. He had not been home for a month, so who could tell him what had happened?

Zhao Xiaohua glared at Zhao Dahe. ‘What a b*stard Dahe is. He even endeavored to smear my name while roaming around outside.’

“Xiaohua is starting to mature, so naturally, she’d become skinny,” Meng Yao said.

Qin Zheng looked sad. “That’s not true. I’ve grown taller, but I’m still so fat!”

“You’re not a woman,” Zhao Xiaohua replied.

‘So, only girls would lose weight when they grew up? Why am I not a girl?’

When Meng Yao placed the steamed cake, flan, and milk tea in front of Qin Zheng, only one thought floated through his mind, ‘What are these? How are they so fragrant?’

Zhao Xiaohua proudly introduced the names of each item to Zhao Dahe and Qin Zheng.

The steamed cake was sweet, soft, and melted in their mouth.

The soft and smooth flan slid down their throat as they ate it.

After taking the first sip of milk tea, they instantly wanted more.

They quickly polished off the steamed cake and flan from their plates. Only a large bowl of milk tea remained, but Zhao Dahe and Zin Zheng were still hungry for more.

“Mother, is there any more?” Zhao Dahe asked.

“Yes, but you can’t have anymore. If you overeat, you won’t have an appetite later.” Meng Yao didn’t intend to tell them to eat to their hearts’ content.

“Madam, this is enough. You don’t have to trouble yourself with preparing more,” Qin Zheng said as his eyes glazed over.

Qin Zheng had never eaten such delicious snacks before, and that big bowl of milk tea was delicious. He would never get tired of drinking it.

“You don’t want spicy fried chicken? How about a pork belly bun or pork bone soup?” Meng Yao asked.

Zhao Dahe and Qin Zheng looked at each other and said in unison, “Yes, we do!”