Chapter 275

Bryan didn’t hesitate to flop into his chair. Seeing his Jane approach with a basin of water, he called out urgently, "Sis, sis, my hand hurts a lot, ah, I can't even lift my arm. I need sis to help me wash my hands and feed me!” Jane: “...” Brother, could your act be any less obvious? Jane placed the basin on the ground and drying with all his might, she helped her brothers wash their hands and faces. When Jane left to get water, Bryan winked gleefully at Jordan. “Humph!” Jordan gave a cold humph, turned away, and didn’t bother with him. Dinner time. Tony strode up with his mug in hand. “Let's all raise a toast to the first batch of friends visiting our Pumpkin House. Welcome to Jordan, Yorick, Cecelia, and our little gang, Jane, Daisy, and Ariana, Welcome!” Everyone immediately raised their mugs in camaraderie, “Cheers~~~” Jane too held up her little mug and said loudly, with all seriousness, “Dried Scallop!” Everyone immediately burst into laughter at her mispronunciation. Tony was amused, "Our little foodie, Jane, do you want to eat some dried scallop?" Initially lacking said desire, Jane was now persuaded by Tony's tease and found herself craving the salty and umami taste of the dried scallop. She blinked her sparkling big eyes expectantly at Tony, "Uncle Tony, I wants to eat dried scallop, can we have dried scallops tonight?" "Of course~~~," Tony started, but before he could finish his sentence... The indifferent voice of the show's lead director echoed off-screen, "We've provided you the ingredients for today's noon meal free of charge as a welcome to the first group of participants. However, starting from tonight, you will need to exchange your labor for the food ingredients you need." "How do we exchange?" Jane asked from the side. "The ingredient rate for this afternoon is as follows: one pound of meat for thirty pounds of corn, one pound of vegetables for ten pounds of corn!" Just as Jane was about to haggle with the show's crew... Jane leaned in next to him, asked softly with her sweet, babyish voice, "Uncle Tony, Uncle Director, they are in the sun without any food, can Jane bring them some buns?" The buns Jane referred to were the meat sandwiches that Tony just filled up on the table. Daisy lifted her face, furrowing her brows, and dropped her eyelids to look towards Jane, "They are already making us shell corn to exchange for food, and you still feel sorry for them. You're too kind!" Jane winked cheekily at Daisy. Understanding dawned upon Jane. She picked up a meat sandwich and handed it to Jane, "Go ahead!" At the same time, she couldn't resist shouting at the lead director outside, "Director Feng, look at our Jane, and then compare to yourselves. Do you really have the heart to impose such harsh conditions, leaving us without ingredients to make a delicious meal for our little ones tonight?" The directors' faces all carried expressions of indifference, adamantly refusing Jane's attempt at bargaining. Holding the meat sandwich, Jane toddled off, heading right towards the lead director, Tony. Tilting her cute, chubby little face upwards, she lifted her small hands high with the sandwich, "Uncle Feng, Jane invites you to eat a bun. Brother Caspian's buns are so tasty!" As she spoke, she swallowed some saliva. Who could resist such a soft and cute human cub? With shock and amazement, Director Feng took the meat-stuffed bun and immediately took a big bite. Jane, who couldn't control her drooling, asked, "Uncle Feng, is the bun tasty?" "Yes, it's very delicious." Director Feng looked at Jane, his tone filled with gentle indulgence. With her big, bright eyes curved into happy crescents, Jane sweetly said in her baby voice, "Uncle Feng, you've eaten Jane's bun, so you must give Jane some scallops!" Director Feng: The meat-stuffed bun in his mouth suddenly lost its attractiveness. After swallowing the mouthful of meat-stuffed bun, he squatted down and asked Jane, "So, how many scallops does Jane want?" Jane turned her head and counted the number of guests seriously. "One, two, three...ten, eleven!" After counting, she turned back to Director Feng and said, "Uncle Feng, we have eleven people here. Each person gets a pound of scallops, so Uncle Feng can just give us eleven pounds of scallops!" Director Feng's eyes twitched. Eleven pounds! Little one, aren't you planning to store our entire season's scallops? Director Feng looked at Jane, thought for a while with a frown, "Jane, how about this, Uncle Feng will be more generous and give you 15 taels of scallops? Fifteen is four more than eleven!" Jane blinked her big eyes and tilted her head cutely, "Uncle, you can't trick Jane. Although fifteen is bigger than eleven, one pound equals ten taels! Jane knows this well!" Director Feng: "......" Such a shrewd little girl! Just as Director Feng didn't know how to get out of the situation. Jane tiptoed up, her pale and tender little hands pat his shoulder, "However, Jane also knows that eleven catties of dried scallops are a bit too much. Jane is a good child and won't give Uncle trouble. Uncle, just give Jane fifteen liang of dried scallops!" Director Feng breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Jane in her grown-up demeanor, he couldn't help but pinch her little face. "Jane, you are such a good girl!" Jane, holding the dried scallops, returned to the cool pavilion, and handed the scallops to Tony, "Tony, Jane has saved you forty-five catties of corn!" Ariana on the side has already started clapping her little hands, "Jane is amazing!" Jane looked at her and gave her a brilliant smile. Then she went back to her seat in her cute little pitter-patter. Jordan reached out to lift Jane onto the chair, filled her bowl with rice, and added a bit of each dish, and also handed her a meat sandwich. Jane held the meat sandwich in one hand and a small spoon in the other. "Ah woo," she bit into the meat sandwich, and like a little squirrel, her cheeks bulged as she chewed. The adorable scene melted the hearts of everyone at the table. Cecelia couldn't help but poke Daisy, "Look at you, can't you learn from Jane? Stop always making such a solemn face, you're eight, not eighty. Can't you be a little cuter?" Daisy glanced at Cecelia, turned her head, and asked Jordan, "Brother Jordan, do you have a girlfriend?" "If you don't have one, would you consider having one? If you already have one, would you consider having another? Regardless of whether you're interested in having one or having an extra one, you could consider my sister. She's very eager to join your family and become a big sister to Jane." Cecelia: "......" Feeling so awkward she could dig a three-bedroom one living room house with her toes. What on earth did she do in her past life to get a sister like this in this life? She hurriedly smiled apologetically at Jordan, "Jordan, Daisy doesn't know what she's saying, spouting nonsense, please don't take it to heart!" "No worries, children have a way with words, Jane often does the same." Jane, who was currently stuffing her mouth with tender corn and fried pork, turned to look at Jordan, her big eyes blinking... Haha, Jane says: "Not me, not me! Don't make things up about me! Why, suddenly I notice that my brother knows how to comfort people. Indeed, only having a sister can bring out the deepest tenderness in a man's heart. Haha, Daisy, you have such a poisonous tongue, I love it!" ... At this moment, Bryan picked up a piece of boiled rabbit meat, barely getting it in his mouth, he widened his eyes, looking at Jane. After swallowing, he quickly picked a piece for Jane, "Sis, try this rabbit." Then, he looked towards Tony and said, "Tony, own up. When did you sneak into my house to learn cooking techniques?" "???" Tony was bewildered, "I went to your house to learn cooking?" "The boiled rabbit meat you made tastes exactly the same as what my sister made!" exclaimed Bryan, emphasizing each word 'exactly the same' dramatically. "Oh, I didn’t make this boiled rabbit. Caspian did." Tony turned towards Caspian. Jane was chewing the rabbit meat with her cheeks puffing out, which indeed tasted similar to the one she had made. When making boiled dishes, she would habitually add a bit of mint, and the boiled rabbit meat also seemed to contain mint. This habit originated from when she was in an orphanage before her time travel, a place where she was always hungry. The older brother who taught her to set up traps to punish the kids who bullied her often caught some wild game, like frogs, sparrows, eels, and loaches. Occasionally, if big brother got lucky, he could even catch a wild rabbit. Whenever big brother caught some wild game, he would invite her to join and they would cook it together in a broken pot by the small woods near the orphanage. They didn't have much seasoning back then, so the big brother would pluck a handful of mint from outside the orphanage and add it to the wild game. He said that mint could mask the wild game's gamey smell. These things happened before she time-traveled, and it felt like a long, long time ago now. If calculated by age, those happened when she was three years old, just a year ago. She vividly remembers that when she woke up one day, Big Brother had already left. The Director Mama said a kindhearted person had adopted Big Brother and took him abroad to study. Although she, at three years old, resented Big Brother for departing without saying goodbye, she was also happy for him. She regretted for a long time that Big Brother taught her so much and gave her so many delicious things, yet she never even asked for his name. As she grew up, she found no clue to locate Big Brother. But thinking about it now, Big Brother looked about sixteen or seventeen back then, and generally, people wouldn't adopt such an old child. So, why did Big Brother leave the orphanage back then, and how did he end up as an artist in Brother Jordan's studio?