Elena too was surprised and stunned to see Ethan Cole right in front of her.
She really hadn’t expected a chance encounter to make them meet again but she wasn’t too worried.
Their life trajectories were too different now and meeting and not meeting was the same thing.
She just casually nodded at him, not too concerned about introducing him to her mother.
They were rivals not friends.
So what use were introductions?
Still, Ethan wouldn’t just let it go.
"You! What are you doing here?" He demanded.
"Making a living," Elena replied casually as if it were none of his concern and it truly wasn’t any of his concern.
Ethan was stunned to react.
His lifelong rival was in front of him and he wasn’t pitying her or mocking her, but actually felt concern for her.
It didn’t make any sense to him.
Still, he maintained his rationality and didn’t ask for her college entrance examination result because he knew she hadn’t checked it.
She hadn’t come to the school at all.
He knew because he had asked the teachers about her score but they said they didn’t know as she had never returned.
They too were curious about her as she was a brilliant student on par with Ethan Cole.
And if Ethan scored 608, she wouldn’t be too far behind and having two University students from their school would be something to boast about.
Yet they hadn’t heard from her so they weren’t allowed to check her results.
Her results had become a thing of the past for everyone as they discovered she wasn’t a Shaw and had been replaced at birth.
It was really ironical that the Shaw family celebrated Lily’s passing of the college entrance examination while the Cole family didn’t do as much as flaunt Ethan’s score despite their disparity.
It felt like they were pitying the Shaws for ending up with such a daughter that they didn’t even find her worthy to compete with. It really was beyond the line.
Ethan, however, couldn’t care less about any other things as he saw Elena and Paula exchange greetings and Elena transferred 500 steamed buns to the steel lunchbox Paula had been carrying.
And then Elena went away.
He didn’t even get the time to say something.
He really wanted to know what was going on but his pride stopped him from intruding further.
At least now he knew where she lived and what she did.
Now he could compete with her for buisness.
He wouldn’t droop to cooking, though.
He would do something else.
He would create a chain of restaurants selling food, following his recipes in this town and would also sell her buns.
Not because he pitied her but he truly felt concern from her.
From a rival to a fellow rival.
It was mutual respect.
Although Elena didn’t put him in her eye at all and considered it a minor prelude, Mary was fixated on yhe young man.
He seemed well-raised and seemed to know her daughter but she didn’t know him.
"Elena, do you know him?" She asked softly, not wanting to pressure the child.
"Yeah... He’s my lifelong rival. Ethan Cole..." Elena replied offhandedly, uncaring about the whole matter.
Mary couldn’t help but turn back to look at the handsome young man frowning and nodded at him before turning and walking away.
Ethan didn’t know the context of their conversation but nodded back at the stranger accompanying Elena.
His goal was simple, bring Elena buisness while taking care of building one himself.
He already had a place in town to start cooking.
The training school was where he could teach the kids as well as others on how to cook while also hiring professional chefs, making them sign NDAs, before teaching them the city’s recipes.
He was sure no one in the town would’ve tasted them and if he tuned them like Elena, it would suit the town’s environment well.
Without any delay, he got into decisive action mode.
"Paula, book as many buns as possible from her. We resell them at twenty-five cents at our restaurant."
He ordered before walking away, leaving a stunned Paula who was wondering where did this sudden restaurant came from.
Ethan himself wasn’t going to get involved but using Paula suited him just fine.
He wanted to help Elena but didn’t want her to discover it.
If Elena could read his thoughts, she would annoy and mock him for being a tsundere.
Alas, Elena didn’t have telepathic powers.
The only skill she had was cooking and she was using it to the fullest.
Cooking and selling meat buns and cooking st home exhausted her daily but she did it willingly.
She wanted her family to get used to such a life so they could easily move to the town or even the city in the future.
Yes, she never planned to stay in the village forever.
She planned to move away and live a comfortable life.
Her elder brother did eighteen odd jobs in town and barely made a living but he was quite hard-working.
Her father and mother worked in the fields all day and they too were exhausted everyday.
She was just helping them share the burden and live better lives.
She knew the importance of education and wanted Emma to get a better education.
As the schools in rural villages barely had high school graduates as teachers.
If she wanted, she could also become a teacher at the rural school but she chose not to.
As it was hard to meddle between kids’ disputes and controlling unruly children was too taxing.
She’d rather cook snd earn money.
Right now her daily earning exceeded what a teacher would make after a month of hardship.
That didn’t mean she was doing a simple job, it wasn’t an easy one either way.
Cooking, making the fillings, rolling and preparing six hundred buns daily was a massive task.
Even if Mary and Sarah helped her, it took a long time to finish it and she had to prepare a day earlier for it.
Her life was far from easy.
But by the standards of rural villagers, she was living quite a life.
Actually, Thomas and Mary’s heart ached at seeing their city pampered daughter having to do chores and so many tasks but they couldn’t find the words to stop her.
They didn’t have the means to provide for her so they could only support her.
But then she dropped a bombshell the moment she returned home.
"Let’s sell the land," she said during dinner.