Seeing that the father and daughter were fine, Luo Mingchen returned to cooking.
Huo Yan helplessly continued teaching Huo Xinyue numbers beyond ten. He first told her how many piles there were, then explained how many copper coins those piles added up to.
When Luo Mingchen came to call them for lunch, he was shocked by what he heard.
“How is Yueyue supposed to learn if you teach her like that?”
After hearing that, Huo Yan lightly smacked Huo Xinyue’s little bottom and asked,
“Yueyue, how many copper coins are in ten piles of money?”
Huo Xinyue tilted her little head and thought for a moment before answering in a sweet childish voice,
“One hundred.”
Her pronunciation was a little unclear, but Luo Mingchen was certain she had said one hundred.
After recovering from his surprise, Luo Mingchen leaned closer and asked,
“Then what about two piles of copper coins?”
“Hmm… twenty.”
After asking a few more questions, Luo Mingchen realized that Huo Xinyue could only calculate things grouped in tens. She understood what one hundred was and what one hundred eighty was, but only if everything was arranged in groups of ten.
Thankfully, it wasn’t too outrageous…
Even so, Luo Mingchen still thought she was incredibly smart.
“Yueyue is so clever. How about an extra piece of meat later?”
Delighted by the praise, Huo Xinyue happily replied,
“Okay~”
After lunch and a short rest, Luo Mingchen took out more soybeans to soak. He left Huo Yan to watch the children while he entered his space to harvest crops and plant new ones.
Before going in, he also handed Huo Yan a basket of strawberries and reminded him that Huo Xinyue could have a few, but not too many in case it upset her stomach.
When Huo Yan saw Luo Mingchen suddenly disappear, he glanced at the sleeping Huo Xinyue and simply waited outside.
It was the same familiar space.
The air here was much better than outside.
Even though this world didn’t suffer from industrial pollution, Luo Mingchen still felt that the air inside the space was more comfortable.
Others might not notice it, but as an ability user, he could clearly sense a large amount of gentle energy drifting through the air.
That energy was the reason everything grown here tasted exceptionally good and why their growth cycles could be altered.
Most of the fruits and vegetables planted in the space were things Luo Mingchen liked to eat.
The fruits included cherries, strawberries, bananas, giant watermelons, oranges, honey peaches, and more.
Because the farming space had limited area, he didn’t plant large quantities. However, once the fruit trees matured, it only took an hour or two after harvesting for them to become laden with fruit again, which was more than enough for daily consumption.
After carefully organizing all the stored food, Luo Mingchen finished his work and wandered through the shopping mall that had been absorbed into the space, looking for anything useful.
After browsing for a while, he discovered a gold and silver jewelry counter tucked away in a corner.
Wasn’t this world using gold and silver currency?
“These can’t all be fake, right?”
After all, it had been a large shopping mall.
Unfortunately, Luo Mingchen couldn’t tell genuine jewelry from fake, so looking at it didn’t help much. The next time he visited a jewelry shop in town, he could have them appraised. If they ever needed money, they could sell some.
That said, they weren’t short on money at the moment.
Some of the jewelry was quite pretty. Once Huo Xinyue grew older, she could wear it.
After leaving the space, Luo Mingchen noticed that only a small portion of the basket of strawberries remained.
Huo Xinyue was holding a large strawberry in each hand.
He immediately asked Huo Yan,
“How many did you let her eat?”
Huo Yan replied,
“You should be asking how many she was willing to let me eat.”
“What?”
Luo Mingchen turned toward Huo Xinyue.
The little girl took a bite from the tip of a strawberry and grinned happily.
“Sweet!”
Then she offered the bitten strawberry to him.
“Daddy.”
Luo Mingchen laughed helplessly as he accepted it.
“Yueyue, you can’t do this in the future, okay?”
Huo Xinyue blinked her big eyes.
“Hm?”
So Luo Mingchen picked her up and patiently explained,
“Yueyue, I know you wanted Daddy to eat the sweetest part. But if everyone can taste a fresh strawberry and you take a bite out of every single one first, then all we can eat is your saliva. That’s very impolite.”
He continued seriously,
“Impolite children aren’t good children. Good children who behave badly get their bottoms spanked. And if you do that outside, people will say you have no manners and that you’re a bad child.”
Huo Xinyue understood the words “bad child” and “spanked.”
She immediately shook her head.
“N-no bad.”
Unfortunately, her limited vocabulary prevented her from explaining herself. After those two words, she pursed her lips, tears welling up in her eyes.
Luo Mingchen had no choice but to patiently explain everything several more times.
Only after Huo Xinyue promised not to take a bite out of every strawberry did he kiss her forehead as a reward.
“Good girl.”
Raising children was truly difficult.
Thinking about it, Huo Yan’s cousin had managed to raise Huo Yuhui and Huo Xiang without leading them astray. That was no easy feat. It was genuinely admirable, especially considering how absent their father had been.
Now that the three children were with them, they absolutely couldn’t allow them to grow up crooked either.
When Luo Mingchen noticed Huo Yan looking at him, he assumed the man wanted to ask about the space.
Instead, Huo Yan handed him the remaining strawberries.
“I can’t eat any more. You should enjoy your daughter’s filial piety too.”
The remaining strawberries had all lost their tips.
Leaving them for the two boys wouldn’t be appropriate.
It wasn’t that they would mind, but parents couldn’t play favorites. In a family with multiple children, they couldn’t constantly rely on the older kids being understanding and always giving way.
So Luo Mingchen ended up eating all the remaining strawberries himself.
After washing the long beans harvested from the space, he spread them out to dry in the courtyard.
The freshly harvested soybeans also needed drying.
Aside from the soybeans currently soaking, the remaining supply was only enough to make about three large batches of tofu.
That afternoon, when they went to pick up the children from school, Luo Mingchen bought a large number of jars in various sizes.
The shopping mall inside his space also contained jars, but they were too small and made of glass.
If he took those out, people would immediately notice they weren’t local products.
He couldn’t exactly claim they were made of crystal, could he?
People would think their family was incredibly wealthy.
At the usual meeting spot, the two brothers spotted them and happily ran over.
On the way home, Huo Yuhui cautiously asked,
“Little Daddy, did all the tofu sell out?”
“It sold out long ago. I soaked a lot more soybeans today.”
Luo Mingchen planned to finish making tofu early that evening and simply store it inside the space.
If the soybeans hadn’t soaked long enough, he could accelerate time in a separate section of the space. In just a few minutes, they’d be ready to use.
Since he possessed this space, Luo Mingchen had no intention of hiding it too thoroughly.
When it could be useful, it should be used.
Huo Xiang pouted.
“Little Daddy, not even one piece was left?”
Luo Mingchen caught the implication and deliberately asked,
“You want some?”
Huo Xiang honestly nodded.
“Yeah. It looked really soft.”
“Then let’s get home early and grind some soy milk. We’ll try to have some tonight, okay?”
Huo Xiang eagerly agreed.
“Okay!”
At this hour, the soybeans definitely weren’t fully soaked yet.
Fortunately, he could speed things up inside the space.
For the first time, the three siblings watched Luo Mingchen make tofu from beginning to end.
All three were dumbfounded.
Whether it was grinding the soy milk or separating the bean curd residue, the entire process looked more like a magic performance than cooking.
Peach Blossom Town wasn’t very large.
After Luo Mingchen and Huo Yan spent several days selling tofu on the streets with Huo Xinyue, news quickly spread back to the village.
Some villagers bought a few pieces to try and found them delicious, so they began placing orders in advance.
As for the townspeople, after tasting the soft and silky tofu, most felt that everyone else’s tofu was too hard.
People started asking what time they arrived each day.
As a result, their entire stock usually sold out within half an hour of arriving in town.
Even restaurant and tavern owners came by hoping to place advance orders.
To be honest, Luo Mingchen was already considering opening a tofu shop in town.