Chapter 9

The New Year is a busy time, especially for dual-income families. During the day, they have no time to prepare, so they can only use the evenings. Wu Jianguo was a typical workaholic, which left Chu Yumei to bear the brunt. For several days, as soon as she got home, she would head straight to the kitchen to steam buns, cook meat, fry meatballs, and prepare dumpling fillings, leaving no time even to make dinner. She had to wait for Wu Jianguo to come home and then quickly prepare some simple dishes like cabbage and vermicelli to feed Wu Tian and his sister.

Writing couplets wasn't an easy task. These past few days, Wu Tian's appetite had been great. He was happily eating from a large enamel bowl when Jia Liang came running over, shouting.

Wu Tian couldn't help but feel annoyed. Although he and Jia Liang were close friends in his previous life, the age gap between them was too large now, and they had nothing in common. Not to mention, writing couplets every day was exhausting, and he had no mood to play with Jia Liang.

"Wu Tian, Wu Tian, you haven't finished eating yet?" Jia Liang shouted as he burst into the room.

Wu Tian casually grunted, continuing to slurp the vermicelli in his mouth.

"Eat faster, my dad is looking for you!" Jia Liang said bluntly, pulling a small stool over and sitting next to Wu Tian.

Wu Tian was taken aback. Jia Liang's dad was looking for him? As a seven-year-old kid, he didn't think he had much to do with an adult. If there was something, shouldn't he be talking to his parents?

Sure enough, he heard Jia Liang's father and Wu Jianguo chatting in the kitchen.

Jia Liang's father, Jia Chunshan, was older than Wu Jianguo and was currently the deputy factory manager of the city's first printing factory. However, according to his previous life, Jia Chunshan wouldn't hold this position for long...

"Ha ha, I came to ask your son Wu Tian for help..." Jia Chunshan said with a smile at the kitchen door.

Wu Tian was stunned again. Was he really looking for him? What could he, a young child, do to help? Could it be...

Wu Jianguo and Chu Yumei were also puzzled. "Old Jia, what can a child like Xiao Tian do to help you?"

"Ha ha, your Xiao Tian isn't just any child; he's a prodigy! The couplets he wrote, people queue up for hours at the Xinhua Bookstore and still can't get them. I'm here to pull some strings..." Jia Chunshan said with a smile.

Wu Jianguo and Chu Yumei exchanged a glance, even more confused.

"Uh, you didn't know Wu Tian was selling couplets?" Jia Chunshan noticed their puzzled expressions and was also confused.

"Wu Tian, Wu Yuan, come here!"

After a moment of silence, Chu Yumei suddenly shouted, startling everyone.

As a mother, although she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she could tell that the two kids had been acting suspiciously these past few days. Now, with Jia Chunshan's mention, she decided to interrogate them.

Wu Yuan, of course, had heard the conversation outside and was already trembling in fear, looking at Wu Tian with pleading eyes.

Wu Tian hurriedly gave his sister a reassuring look. In fact, on the second day of selling couplets, when their total earnings exceeded fifty yuan, Wu Yuan had been terrified by the "huge" profit and wanted to confess to their mother and hand over the money. It took Wu Tian a lot of effort to calm her down. Now, if their mother started yelling again, she might confess everything.

Wu Tian wasn't afraid of his parents knowing about the couplets. Being called a prodigy was part of his plan. The key was that this "initial capital" couldn't be known by his mother, or it would definitely be confiscated.

So, he had to step in and help his sister deflect most of the attention.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Wu Tian said, holding his enamel bowl and slurping the vermicelli as he walked out.

"Where's your sister?" Chu Yumei, who had been chopping dumpling filling, shouted, brandishing a cleaver.

"Don't scare the kids..." Wu Jianguo quickly grabbed the cleaver, smiling awkwardly at the embarrassed Jia Chunshan—where had they seen a mother brandishing a cleaver to scold her son?

"My sister hasn't finished eating!" Wu Tian faced the cleaver without fear, acting as if nothing was wrong, slurping the soup from his bowl and then extending the bowl. "Mom, give me another half bowl, with more meat!"

This made Chu Yumei lose her temper. After all, he was her son, a six- or seven-year-old kid who only knew that meat was delicious. What could she do to him?

Wu Jianguo chuckled and took the bowl, while Chu Yumei's anger subsided a bit but still asked sternly, "What have you two been up to these past few days?"

"We went to sell couplets!" Wu Tian was honest, admitting it outright. There was no denying it, especially since a "customer" had come to their door.

Chu Yumei was stunned. She had been suspicious and angry, but now that her son had admitted it, she was shocked.

The fame of the prodigy couplets had been spreading, and Chu Yumei, who worked at the library across from the Xinhua Bookstore, had heard about it. She had envied the six-year-old prodigy and even fantasized about her own children being as capable. If it weren't for the couplets her father had already written, she might have queued up to buy a set and沾沾 the prodigy's good luck.

Who would have thought that the so-called prodigy was actually her own son and daughter!

"Yuan Yuan, what's going on? Who told you to sell couplets?" Wu Jianguo, seeing his wife speechless and the timid Wu Yuan outside, asked in a much gentler tone.

"Oh, ah..." Wu Yuan stammered, looking at Wu Tian, who was much more cunning than her at ten years old.

"I told them to go!" Wu Tian quickly stepped in to take the heat off his sister.

"Oh, your idea? Why did you sell couplets?" Wu Jianguo asked.

"I wanted to buy fireworks, and my sister wanted to buy face cream. You didn't give us money, so we had to earn it ourselves!" Wu Tian said matter-of-factly. "Our teacher said that getting rich through hard work is glorious, and you can't confiscate the money we earned!"

Wu Jianguo was at a loss, and Jia Chunshan couldn't help but chuckle. This kid was pulling out big principles? For such a young kid, he knew quite a bit! And the kindergarten teacher, teaching such things?

"Did you really earn money? How much?" Chu Yumei asked angrily.

"Thirteen yuan!" Wu Tian said proudly. "I agreed with my sister that I would get six yuan, and she would get seven yuan!"

As he spoke, Wu Tian used his hands to gesture, holding up his thumb and pinky to show "six" and his thumb, index, and middle fingers to show "seven," but he seemed confused about which was "seven" and which was "eight." Finally, he held up his index finger, which looked like the Arabic numeral "7."

This performance made the three adults laugh. A little kid pretending to be an adult, with so many flaws, was naturally amusing.

However, none of them realized the extent of the deception—Wu Tian had concealed 95% of the nearly three hundred yuan they had earned.

As for whether Wu Tian could write and whether Wu Yuan could write calligraphy, Wu Jianguo and Chu Yumei didn't take it seriously. After all, their grandfather had taught them to write from a young age, and although they weren't great, they hadn't earned much money. It was probably just some illiterate people who found it novel to see children writing couplets, leading to a few "deceptions" and the spread of the prodigy myth.

Of course, when Jia Chunshan came to "ask for a calligraphy," Wu Tian and his sister had to show their skills. Wu Tian's "perfect" couplet was only slightly better than what a six- or seven-year-old could write, confirming everyone's suspicions.

But even so, it was still better than what other kids his age could do, and Jia Chunshan didn't hesitate to praise the prodigy, asking Wu Jianguo and Chu Yumei about their educational methods, and using Wu Tian as a role model to scold his son Jia Liang, making Jia Liang look very dejected.

Wu Jianguo and Chu Yumei were flattered and overjoyed. They politely refused Jia Chunshan's payment for the couplets and saw him off. As soon as he left, Chu Yumei immediately reached out to collect the money.

Not giving it? Her mother immediately exerted her authority, ignoring Wu Tian's fake crying and searching both children's pockets, finding the thirteen yuan and putting it in her own pocket before returning to the kitchen to continue chopping dumpling filling.

Wu Tian, the little boy, smiled slyly at his sister, feeling very pleased with himself...