Chapter 12 - 11: Teaching a Man to Fish

When Sev Steele returned home, the four little ones had already tidied up everything and were sitting obediently in the courtyard, twisting ropes. She hadn’t assigned this chore before leaving, but after their adoptive mother had fed them such exquisite delicacies, the children felt uneasy not doing any work.

The three boys worked diligently, but the youngest, Rose, was just slacking off among them. She was still young; her fingers were neither nimble nor strong, so it was perfectly normal that she couldn’t do it well. Seeing her adoptive mother enter the house, she immediately ducked her head, trying hard to minimize her presence to avoid catching any collateral damage.

"Listen up, brats, your mom is back! Guess how many points I made today?" Sev spoke in a gruff tone, but she perfectly timed her display of an excellent mood. This way, it would seem much more normal when she continued to feed the children full meals tomorrow and refrained from beating or scolding them. After all, their adoptive mother had made a fortune. Being a bit more generous to her kids made perfect sense no matter how you looked at it.

Seeing her like this, the children let out a collective sigh of relief. Rose tilted her little face up and asked with a smile, "Then how much did you actually make, Mom?"

"Well, I sold all ten pounds I took out, making a total of 3,268 points!"

Sev looked incredibly smug. Like a newly rich upstart, she rambled on and on about how she had made so much money. The reason she acted like this was to let the kids soak it in, teaching them how to maximize profits under limited conditions. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. This was an eternal truth. She wanted to raise the children in comfort, but at the same time, she needed to teach them how to earn money so they wouldn’t end up sponging off her when they grew up.

Of course, there was another crucial point: she wanted the children to know that because she had made a fortune, her good mood would last. After all, she couldn’t keep wearing the mask of an evil adoptive mother forever. As long as she kept making money, her mood would stay great, and treating them well would gradually become a habit. Over time, they would slowly forget how vicious their adoptive mother used to be. They were just kids, after all; they had short memories. As she treated them well day by day, slowly planting the seeds of love in their hearts, she believed their antisocial personalities would dissolve into nothingness.

This was her true goal!

Listening to her detailed account of how she hit the jackpot, Rusty couldn’t help but marvel inwardly, realizing that money could actually be made this way. In the past, all he had ever thought about was that once he turned eight, he would be allowed to go out scavenging. When that time came, he would be very diligent and hardworking, collecting as many supplies as possible to earn more for the family, hoping the bad woman might abuse his younger brothers and sister less.

But now he finally understood that making money didn’t just rely on hard work. Take the bad woman bringing back over a hundred pounds of wild yams, for example. Normally, if taken to the trading hall, they would sell for at most ten points a pound. But now, simply by processing them and renting a trading platform, she had used only one-third of the harvest to make three times the money of what the entire harvest would have normally brought in. He remembered what she had said before leaving with her backpack—she said she would make more than ten times the money. Facts proved that she had indeed done it.

"Mom, since dried yams can sell for such a high price, let’s take the rest to sell tomorrow!" Rusty said excitedly.

"What’s the rush? The reason I divided the ten pounds of goods into ten portions to sell today was so that more people would spread the word for me.

"Once enough people have tasted it, even more rich folks will want to buy it. Rarity increases value. When more people want it, its price will naturally go up.

"The most crucial point is that this stuff can only be found by chance, not sought out. Even if someone hears about the high price, they won’t be able to find any," Sev said smugly.

Hearing this, although Rusty still didn’t quite understand, he knew his adoptive mother was right. Wild yams were very rare; one might not even stumble across them once a year.

With such a large income, Sev decided to let the children have another full meal tonight, but the four little ones flatly refused.

Rusty even said with a solemn face, "Mom, we need to build up our reserves for the winter. We can’t just waste supplies.

"We’ve already eaten a very full meal today, so our stomachs won’t get hungry before noon tomorrow."

He stopped just short of saying outright: Woman, you can’t be too extravagant, or no amount of money will survive your spending!

Sev saw right through his little thoughts at a glance and didn’t try to persuade them further. After all, in the past, they had only eaten one meal a day—mostly wild vegetables—just barely clinging to life. Since she had transmigrated here, they had already eaten very full meals for two consecutive days. As the saying goes, too much of a good thing can be bad. If she did any more, it would seem abnormal.

Having been busy the entire day—roasting the wild yams in the morning and racking her brains to sell them in the afternoon—she decided to give herself a break. Sev quickly finished washing up and went to bed, collapsing like a corpse. She still had to get up early tomorrow to continue scavenging in the wilderness. She understood the logic that sitting idle would eventually eat away a fortune.

The four little ones also returned to their room, but they couldn’t fall asleep yet. The three boys held a little meeting right there, excitedly discussing what had happened over the past two days.

Rose had no interest in this. She thought about the precious little seedling their adoptive mother had asked her two brothers to bring back today. After mutating from the high radiation of the wasteland, the vast majority of plants had grown tall and sturdy. Like this miniaturized mutated lemon tree, in her eyes, it was just a tiny seedling. Rose had watched with her own eyes as their adoptive mother crushed its fruit, diluted it, and sprinkled it over the wild yam strips. Later facts proved that the wild yams with this added ingredient were indeed much more delicious than yesterday’s yam paste. She just wanted to figure out why this little seedling could produce such magical little fruits.

The wooden crate was placed in a corner of the kitchen. She leaned in to take a closer look and discovered that the little leaves on the seedling were looking a bit wilted. Although she didn’t know much, she still understood that this little seedling seemed to be sick.

Rose felt incredibly anxious. The precious little seedling was sick. If it died from the illness, their adoptive mother would definitely throw a massive tantrum. When that happened, every one of them would get beaten, and it would definitely be the very, very painful kind.

Rose cried from anxiety. She wanted to ask her brothers for help, but she knew they didn’t know how to cure illnesses either. The last time she got sick, so sick she almost died, her three brothers had only been able to gather around her and cry. What should she do? What could she do?

Rose thought as hard as she could in her head, "Little seedling, please get well soon, I’m begging you!"

As she thought this, her tears couldn’t help but fall—DRIP DROP—onto the little leaves of the seedling, rolling down the leaves and seeping into the soil.

Suddenly, Rose saw that the entire little seedling seemed to be enveloped in a faint layer of green light. She rubbed her eyes hard, thinking her vision was playing tricks on her. Sure enough, the green light was gone. However, she noticed that the previously wilted little seedling seemed to have become much more vibrant. The little leaves were a shiny, lush green, just like the green of plant leaves in the wilderness right after a rainfall.

Rose didn’t understand. Was she just confused, or had this little seedling actually been healthy all along and never sick to begin with?

She felt a bit dizzy and her whole body started to grow drowsy. She yawned, returned to the bedroom, and climbed into the large bed. The moment her head touched the pillow, she fell asleep in seconds.

Seeing this, Firestone couldn’t help but laugh. "Look at our little sister. Doesn’t she look like a little sleepyhead?"

Rusty and Zephyr couldn’t help but smile too, and then the three of them successively drifted off to dreamland.