RYEY -Chapter 399 A Booming Business

Ye Jun saw Cheng Qiao shake her head and nodded along. Treasures of heaven and earth were rare to begin with—being able to obtain them at all was already a tremendous blessing. One must not be greedy.

“I was being greedy myself,” Ye Jun said with a sigh. “Good things are always limited. Take your Rebirth Pill for example—finding qilin grass was already sheer luck, and developing the Rebirth Pill was nothing short of a miracle.”

“By the way, someone came earlier to probe me, trying to get their hands on my Rebirth Pill. I played dumb and brushed it off. It’s not like cabbages you can get whenever you want.”

Cheng Qiao had given Ye Jun several Rebirth Pills over time. Ye Jun passed two of them on to Ye Chengying and hid the rest very carefully. No one was getting these life-saving pills from him through trickery.

Cheng Qiao smiled. She herself had already accumulated over twenty Rebirth Pills—meaning she could save more than twenty lives. But she had no intention of taking them out. They were reserved for her own family.

“Master, you have more social obligations here,” Cheng Qiao said. “I’ll give you five more Rebirth Pills. If there’s really someone important in urgent need, it’s still worth saving them.”

Ye Jun immediately understood her meaning. Ye Chengying had already arrived in the capital yesterday and was currently up in the mountains discussing major matters with Yao Peng and the others.

“My cousin and the rest are already here. Oh right, Da Lin and Xiao Lin came too. Their wives are helping out at the medicinal cuisine shop. That place is really famous now—even some people from higher up drop by from time to time for a bowl.”

Cheng Qiao nodded with a smile. Not only had the medicinal cuisine shop become well-known, its income was also very impressive. She had already exchanged letters with Ye Ling—the cost of buying the house had long been recovered, and they had made quite a profit as well.

“It’s still early. I’ll go take a look. Master, are you coming?”

“I won’t go,” Ye Jun said. “It’s almost New Year’s. If someone comes looking for me and I’m not here, that wouldn’t be good.”

Cheng Qiao shook her head inwardly. Ye Jun didn’t really care whether anyone came looking for him. What he cared about were the five Rebirth Pills she had just given him—that was the real treasure he was most interested in.

Mother Li also chose not to go. She had been there two days earlier and was already familiar with the shop. Besides, Ye Ling and the others were so enthusiastic whenever they saw her that she felt a bit embarrassed to go again.

So Cheng Qiao and Li Huan took the five children with them, happily heading toward the medicinal cuisine shop. But as soon as their car reached the street entrance, it couldn’t move anymore—the line had already stretched all the way to the intersection.

“Qiao, Xiao Nuan’s shop is really doing great,” Li Huan said. “Let’s find a place to park first, then go together.”

Hearing Li Huan praise her, Li Xiao Nuan happily leaned forward from the back seat and rubbed her soft little cheek against Cheng Qiao’s face. The mother and daughter looked incredibly warm and affectionate.

Cheng Qiao pinched Li Xiao Nuan’s nose and gently patted her cheek. The little girl sat back down with a blissful expression—children with their mother around were truly happy.

“Mom, I want a hug too.”

Sitting in the back, Li Ming finally couldn’t take it anymore. He wrapped his arms tightly around Cheng Qiao’s neck and pulled her toward himself. Li Huan panicked at once—this kid was strong, what if he hurt her?

“Let go, you little brat! That’s your mother—are you trying to murder her?”

Li Huan slapped Li Ming’s arm hard. Only then did Li Ming realize he had used too much force. Cheng Qiao was rubbing her neck too—she had almost gotten it twisted.

“Third Brother, if you want Mom to hug you, you can wait until we get out of the car,” Ye Jing said unhappily, glaring at Li Ming. “How can you hug her like that in the car? What if you hurt her?”

He then stretched out his chubby, fair little hand and gently massaged Cheng Qiao’s neck.

“Little Jingjing, you even know how to massage now,” Cheng Qiao said in surprise. “And you’re doing a pretty good job.”

She could feel her youngest son pressing accurately on several acupoints along her neck. His movements were familiar and deft, as if he truly understood human meridians.

“Mm,” Ye Jing nodded. “Grandpa gives me homework every day. If I don’t finish it, I’m not allowed to sleep.”

Li Ming, who had been feeling indignant, instantly lost his temper upon hearing this. Instead, he patted Ye Jing’s back. This little brother was really pitiful—he himself had never suffered like that.

Xiao Nuan watched Li Ming’s expression—pretending to pity Ye Jing while secretly feeling relieved—and couldn’t help frowning her tiny brows. Didn’t Third Brother know the saying ‘If you don’t work hard when you’re young, you’ll regret it when you’re old’?

“Third Brother, you should really study harder,” Xiao Nuan said seriously. “Later, you tell Mom yourself what score you got on your final exam.”

At that, Li Huan’s face changed. Cheng Qiao also turned to look at Li Ming. His smug expression vanished, replaced by fear.

“This year was first grade midterms, right?” Cheng Qiao asked. “Don’t tell me you couldn’t even manage first-grade exams.”

Li Ming: “……”

“So what score did you get?”

“One hundred.”

“Was that one hundred for both subjects, or one subject?”

First graders only studied Chinese and math, so Cheng Qiao’s head was already starting to ache.

“Mom, I got one hundred in math,” Li Ming said cautiously. “Chinese… we didn’t take the exam, so I got zero.”

“Why didn’t you take the Chinese exam?”

“I…”

Li Ming sneaked a glance at Li Huan. Li Huan felt awkward and tugged at Cheng Qiao’s sleeve, coughing lightly. “I was afraid of missing your train, so I brought Li Ming to the capital two days early.”

So that was it. Then it wasn’t Li Ming’s fault. Cheng Qiao shot Li Huan a look. “Why don’t you hurry up and find a place to park?”

“Oh—okay, okay.”

Li Huan laughed, knowing he had passed this hurdle. It seemed he couldn’t do this kind of thing again. Even though the child was only in first grade, if his studies were delayed, Cheng Qiao would definitely be unhappy.

The car was parked in a recessed spot. Li Huan held little Li Chen in one arm and supported Cheng Qiao with the other. Li Xiao Nuan was quick-eyed and fast-handed, grabbing Cheng Qiao’s other hand.

Li Ming and Ye Jing were a bit disappointed. Cheng Li smiled, taking one younger brother by each hand as they followed behind Li Huan and Cheng Qiao, slowly walking toward the medicinal cuisine shop.

“Oh my, Cheng Qiao is here! And little Cheng Li too!”

He Fei spotted the striking couple and the children following behind them at a glance. Her face, which had been a little droopy, instantly lit up with a smile.

“Hello, Second Sister-in-law. When did you arrive?”

“We just got here yesterday. We’ve been waiting for you,” Cheng Qiao replied. “Little Cheng Li, Xiao Gui is inside—go play with her.”

Cheng Li greeted everyone politely, then led his two younger brothers inside. His eyes scanned the place—he didn’t see Wu Xiaolin. But he had already written to her, hadn’t he?

When Xiao Gui saw the three boys come in, she quickly put down her bowl of porridge and ran over happily. “Hello, Brother Cheng Li! Hello, Li Ming! Hello, Ye Jing!”

Xiao Gui was one year younger than Cheng Li and one year older than Li Ming, fitting perfectly in between. Li Ming was delighted to see her and leaned over to see what she was eating, then asked the server to bring him a bowl of the same medicinal porridge.

The servers all knew who Li Ming was. Since they were family, there was no need to line up—otherwise, they wouldn’t even have this small private room.