Chapter 71: Old Feng, Was This Your Doing?

In the backyard, aside from the Shanghai greens that were already ripe, other quick-growing vegetables like baby bok choy, cherry radishes, arugula, and lettuce were also ready for harvest.

Feng Xiao reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled supermarket shopping bag. He shook it open, then crouched down in the backyard and began digging up vegetables.

He had gotten this shopping bag from Aunt Liu.

He’d once seen Aunt Liu hoarding a huge pile of plastic bags and packaging wrappers and found it pretty baffling.

He couldn’t understand why anyone would bother collecting that kind of stuff.

Until today.

Now he got it.

They were useful. All those saved-up plastic bags and wrappers were incredibly useful!

Take the one he was holding now, for example. It was the largest size available at the supermarket.

It could hold a ton.

With Xu Ming’s help, the bag was quickly filled with vegetables.

Feng Xiao stood up and, before leaving, grabbed a handful of scallions.

The scallions in the backyard were fresh and vibrant. Chopped into little pieces and sprinkled over a dish, they looked amazing.

Especially on mapo tofu—it made the dish look mouthwatering.

And the scallion oil extracted from them had an incredible aroma.

The scallion noodles and scallion pancakes Master Zhao had made before were absolutely delicious.

“All right, Old Xu, I’m heading home. Don’t miss me too much~”

“Get lost already.” Xu Ming, hearing the teasing tone in his voice, really wanted to kick him into the air.

Feng Xiao left.

Before going, he shamelessly made another stop in the kitchen to ask Master Zhao for some of the braised meat prepared that day.

Not much, really. Just three braised pig trotters, four braised chicken legs, six braised wings, six braised chicken feet, plus some braised lotus root slices and kelp knots.

After borrowing a car from Lu Qingqiang’s garage, Feng Xiao, who had been wandering outside for nearly ten days, finally went home.

As luck would have it, both his parents were home today.

The moment Feng Xiao, carrying a bag of vegetables and braised meat, saw them, he rushed over excitedly, shouting,

“Dad! Mom! I missed you so much~”

“Xiao’er, have you gained weight?” Madam Feng immediately began scrutinizing him closely.

Though she had appeared calm while Feng Xiao was away, Madam Feng had actually been worried sick.

She had even secretly sent someone to keep an eye on him and report back with real-time updates.

Once she heard that Feng Xiao was doing well at the orphanage—working diligently, eating heartily, and sleeping on schedule—she finally relaxed.

She was even quite grateful to Lu Qingqiang.

Word was, Director Lu had been very kind to their Feng Xiao.

Since the orphanage didn’t have enough space, she had gone out and bought two apartments to use as staff dorms.

And the canteen there? Top-notch.

One look at the now chubbier Feng Xiao, and you could tell.

“What? I’ve gained weight? No way, Mom, you must be seeing things.” Feng Xiao’s emotional high vanished instantly.

He dropped the bag of vegetables and braised meat onto the nearby table and dashed over to the big mirror in the house.

Not fat at all. His face was still as handsome as ever.

Look at that—360 degrees of flawless angles.

Even those CEOs in romance novels might not be as good-looking as him.

“Look at yourself. What kind of state are you in?”

“You’ve been gone for days and haven’t made the slightest progress!” Feng Sheng scolded with a stern face.

“Dad, who says I haven’t made progress?”

“I’ll have you know, I’m amazing at digging holes and planting trees now.”

“I can even climb a mountain in one go without getting winded.”

“My grip strength has improved a lot too.”

“If you don’t believe me, we can spar a little.”

“Spar? Sure.” Feng Sheng nodded.

He usually spent his free time lifting weights in the private gym next to his office.

He didn’t believe that his pampered, idle son could beat him after just ten days of farming.

“Come on, let’s begin.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Feng Xiao’s fist shot toward Feng Sheng.

He had picked up these moves over the past few mornings, standing behind the little kids and following along with Zhang Qiang’s training.

Simple, but powerful.

Feng Sheng quickly raised his arm to block the punch.

But to his surprise…

Even though he blocked it, he was still pushed back two steps by his younger son’s strike.

Feng Sheng: “!!”

Okay, now he was starting to question reality.

Was that really a punch from his lazy, pampered son?

This kid had gotten that strong?

Could it be that digging holes and planting trees was actually better training than lifting weights?

Still unsure, he decided to test it again.

After a few more moves, Feng Sheng was forced back another two steps.

The spot on his right arm that Feng Xiao had accidentally hit earlier was now faintly sore.

“Heh heh, what do you think, Dad? Pretty impressive, right?”

“I’m telling you, once you get older, you can’t keep pretending you’re still young.”

“I—” Feng Xiao was rambling excitedly when his dad cut him off.

“Hmph. You’ve been gone all this time and this is all you’ve learned, and you have the nerve to brag?”

“Your brother’s out there crushing it in the company, bringing in two hundred million in profits, and he doesn’t act like this.”

“You? You’ll never amount to anything.”

“Go, go, get out of here!”

“Come back when you can face Mount Tai without flinching.”

With that, Feng Sheng had someone throw Feng Xiao out of the house—less than ten minutes after he’d walked in.

“Hey! Dad! What are you doing?”

“Mom, say something! I’m your own son!”

“If you’re kicking me out, at least unfreeze my bank card!”

“Mom! Mom, take me off the blocklist!”

“…”

Feng Xiao was mercilessly thrown out.

Back inside, Madam Feng pulled out her phone and muttered in confusion,

“Blocked? No way. Is my phone malfunctioning?”

“No wonder that brat didn’t message me for days. I thought he was heartless.”

“Wait a minute… Old Feng, was this your doing?”

“Ahem, dear, how about some braised meat?”

“I noticed the braised meat Feng Xiao brought back looked pretty good.”

“Why don’t you give it a try?” Feng Sheng chuckled, trying to change the subject.

******

At the orphanage.

Guo Tao was tutoring Gu Cheng on his elementary school curriculum.

A few curious little radish heads were peeking through the door, craning their necks to look inside.

Guo Tao simply waved them in and began teaching them all together.

First-grade material was still fairly easy.

But in the end, only Liu Yu, Wu Gang, Xu Kai, and Song Li stuck around to keep learning with Gu Cheng.

The other little radish heads checked the time and ran off to join the extracurricular games Teacher Yuan had prepared.

Compared to studying, playing games was way more fun.

And if they won, they’d even get a little red flower as a prize.

Besides, they’d learn all this stuff anyway once they got to Orange Brother’s age.

So why not wait until later?

For now, it was playtime!

They loved spending time with Teacher Yuan!