The Female General Dominates All After Transmigration-Chapter 197 - 194: Tempering Character, Chestnut Cake
The couple watched as the door to the small room closed. They turned their heads simultaneously, meeting each other’s gaze. Wang Liansheng felt a bit awkward, then forced a sheepish smile: "I didn’t expect it..."
The new schoolbag and stationery were unprecedented in the market, much more novel than what students usually used. When Wang Liansheng brought them home, Ling Chengyan thought she should put them away until the children were a bit older, more mentally mature and stable, before letting them use these things.
Or perhaps, it wouldn’t matter if they never used those things, fearing that using new things and being admired for it would cultivate a sense of vanity and showiness in the child.
Unexpectedly, Wang Liansheng didn’t keep it secret and let the news slip. Then, unable to resist his daughter’s sweet persuasion, he actually gave out the stationery box.
This, in turn, led the teacher to visit their home.
However, the situation had already happened. Her blaming or getting angry at Wang Liansheng now would be of no avail. The immediate focus was on how to correct her daughter’s small mistakes.
Little Shi Tou had already drawn up a training plan, so Xiao Xing should follow suit.
Not to mention that exercising can strengthen muscles and bones, it can also build willpower and temper one’s character, which is quite good.
Therefore, on the second day of her rest at home, Ling Chengyan took the three children to the training ground and found two platoon leaders who stayed behind to explain the training for the kids.
Three children, with three distinct appearances.
Being a boy, Hongbing had a hero complex from a young age, admiring soldiers, his eldest brother, and fourth aunt. Now, he was so excited to train with professional soldiers that he almost skipped while walking, his face full of excitement and expectation.
Xiao Xing and Shi Tou, previously dragged by their mom for morning and evening runs, were a bit intimidated by such training.
Upon hearing the news, Xiao Xing even held onto Ling Chengyan’s hand and pleaded, saying she had changed and promised not to make mistakes again, asking if she could skip the training. But Ling Chengyan ruthlessly refused her.
Ling Chengyan personally devised the training projects. Since Shi Tou was still young, much of it couldn’t be practiced yet. Xiao Xing, however, was already eight years old. Although she missed the best age for building a foundation, her bones and tendons were relatively resilient now, so she could begin most external martial arts practice.
Thus, Xiao Xing started with the most basic activities like practicing horse stance and leg stretches. These training exercises, while seemingly not demanding, truly forged willpower and sculpted character...and on the first day, Xiao Xing was pushed to tears. She cried with tears and snot flowing profusely.
Nevertheless, this girl had a stubborn streak and a will not to lose. Despite the messy crying, she didn’t indulge in pity but persevered while gritting her teeth.
This made Ling Chengyan secretly breathe a sigh of relief. With this kind of persistence, she needn’t worry about Xiao Xing giving up halfway; rather, she could slowly hone her, ensuring not to spoil her decisiveness.
What seemed like just a small matter of a stationery box was met with such caution by Ling Chengyan, appearing as if she was making much ado about nothing. However, from her past life, she had seen enough of how wanton rich families raised their spoilt, incompetent, reckless, ignorant children... There were far too many such useless ones.
Since she had taken on the care of these two children, she could not let them grow up to be wastes.
At noon, when Ling Chengyan returned home with the two children, she found a delicious cream cake and chestnut cake prepared by their dad, instantly reviving the three lifeless little guys. They cheered and ran over to eat the cake, smiling with joy, unable to feel the soreness from just a while ago.
Ling Chengyan boiled herbal soup in a large pot, giving the three children a steam bath at noon, and then had them lie on the bed for a massage.
After a good nap, Ling Chengyan finally told them that they wouldn’t need to train that afternoon, but each must write ten pieces of calligraphy.
The children were quite satisfied. Compared to being reprimanded on the sports field, ten pieces of calligraphy seemed like nothing.
"Write carefully, one mistake and you will be fined another piece!" Ling Chengyan added, and the three children quickly agreed, running back to their rooms.
"At the start, training shouldn’t be too intense. From now on, you are responsible for waking them up every morning and sending them to the other side of the sports field."
Wang Liansheng agreed, turned around, and took out a small box from the fridge to hand to Ling Chengyan: "Have a piece too."
Ling Chengyan looked up at the box in his hand: "What is it?"
"Cake. Chestnut." Wang Liansheng replied in a low voice, with a smile, "I remember you love chestnuts."
Ling Chengyan wasn’t particularly fond of snacks. When she brought back some chestnuts from mountain training, she talked about how delicious they were to promote them to the kids.
So Wang Liansheng deduced her love for chestnuts from that incident?
Ling Chengyan lowered her eyes, smiled, and took the box from his hands. Opening it, she found inside a small cake with a rich chestnut aroma.
She dug out a piece and put it in her mouth. Inside was chestnut paste, with a slightly sandy texture, not as overly sweet as a cream cake, but with a strong chestnut flavor...
Ling Chengyan lifted her eyes to meet Wang Liansheng’s expectant gaze and couldn’t help but smile: "Tastes good."
Saying this, she used a spoon to dig out a piece and held it in front of Wang Liansheng: "You try it."
Wang Liansheng was slightly stunned, opened his mouth to eat it, then nodded smilingly: "Yes, it’s quite good."
"You’ve never tasted it before?" Ling Chengyan asked with a smile.
Wang Liansheng shook his head with a silly grin: "The kids were eating it..."
His sentence broke off, while Ling Chengyan chuckled, shaking her head: "It’s just a cake. Let’s buy more next time, so everyone can have some."
Wang Liansheng laughed and readily agreed: "Sure."
While speaking, he suddenly remembered something, ran to the hallway’s coat rack, fished out a piece of paper from his bag with delight, and handed it to Ling Chengyan.
"A remittance slip?" Although Ling Chengyan had never received remittances, she recognized it.
She took a closer look and saw on the envelope-like remittance slip, there were only recipient, sender, and amount. In the tiny remarks at the seal were two simple words: manuscript fee.
On closer inspection, the sender was the name of a provincial newspaper.
"Manuscript fee?" Ling Chengyan asked.
"Yes, I’ve submitted a few times, and this is my first publication." Wang Liansheng touched his head with slight embarrassment.
His work was a small article, short in length, and earned just a few bucks as manuscript fee.
Yet, Ling Chengyan was quite pleased, looking up at Wang Liansheng, her eyes filled with a smile: "Not bad, Comrade Wang Liansheng."
"Thank you for the encouragement, Leader." Wang Liansheng happily replied.
Then, the two exchanged smiles while looking at each other.
While the kids were at home writing, Ling Chengyan took the initiative to accompany Wang Liansheng to the post office to collect the remittance.
On the way back, Ling Chengyan suddenly remembered: "I think I heard that published articles come with copies for authors, didn’t they send you one?"
Wang Liansheng laughed: "They did send one, but it was sent directly to the office, and I forgot to bring it back."
Ling Chengyan laughed: "Remember to bring it back. It’s your first publication, you should keep it as a memento."
