“There are plenty of ways to make money—it just depends on what you’re interested in.” Jolene tapped her chin with her index finger, running through a mental list of things kids could do. “For example, you could sell lemonade or pastries at your school gate. We could make them at home—the cost wouldn’t be high. Or we could set up a stall at the weekend market selling toys, like ring toss, or blind boxes. Oh, we could also buy some plaster molds and paints, and let kids color the plaster figurines…”
These were all things she’d seen while shopping in her past life. Some parents took their kids out with nothing to do, and these activities were clearly great for killing time—so they should make money.
Ben’s eyes lit up, but then he thought of something and shook his head. “But I don’t know how to bake, and we don’t have any toys to sell.”
“It really depends on which way you prefer. Once you’ve decided, you can ask your brother for startup capital—tell him you want to start a business. For example, ask him for $100. Once you make money, you can pay back the $100 principal and tell him the rest was all earned by you. Don’t you think your brother would be totally shocked?”
Ben rubbed his chubby little hands together, bit his lower lip, and blinked rapidly—clearly excited.
So the child just wanted to surprise his brother—that’s why he wanted to earn money.
Jolene thought it was a great idea. Emma could join in too, and it would give the kids something productive to do, so they wouldn’t spend all their time thinking about throwing tantrums. Perfect.
“Okay! Once I’ve decided, I’ll go ask my brother for the money!” Ben nodded solemnly.
Jolene nodded. She gave Ben all the decision-making power and let him choose. He didn’t even ask for her advice, and he looked really happy.
So maybe treating Ben like an adult had accidentally hit the sweet spot for him?
Either way, Jolene was pretty satisfied so far. As long as her little employer didn’t cause trouble, she could keep her job—just being a little more patient was fine.
Seeming to have found something new to look forward to, Ben was in a great mood and even voluntarily asked for two bowls of dinner.
Giovanni made steak and mashed potatoes that night, with kids’ portions half the size of Jolene’s.
As if competing with Emma, Ben figured that as a big brother who was taller than Emma, he definitely couldn’t eat less than her.
As for Emma—it was even simpler. She’d finally gotten to eat such delicious food, and Mom said eating more would help her grow taller. If Mom stopped working here, she’d probably never get to eat food this good again. So she had to eat more and save Mom money—since Mom said room and board were included.
So, under Giovanni’s shocked gaze, both kids polished off two plates’ worth.
Wide-eyed, Giovanni had no choice but to give Jolene another thumbs-up. He tilted his head toward the boy and whispered, “You’re amazing. I thought I was going to lose my job last month. I tried everything, making all kinds of food, but the last nanny tried every trick in the book and still got chased out by him using ‘not eating’ as an excuse. You saved my job.”
Giovanni wiped imaginary sweat off his forehead. With his deep-set eyes, black curly hair, and expressive face, he spoke with great animation.
From day one, Jolene had sensed he was easy to get along with—and sure enough, he was a funny, cheerful person.
Giovanni was only responsible for three meals a day and loading the dishes into the dishwasher. Apparently, he used to be a head chef at an Italian restaurant and had been poached by Mr. Raymond with a high salary.
Every afternoon, the elusive cleaner would come and give the house a thorough cleaning. Since Jolene was out picking up Ben at that time, she hadn’t met her in the two days she’d been there.
After dinner, Jolene had the kids do homework in the living room. Ben’s daily homework was actually very light—he finished it quickly by himself. If he’d learned it at school, the assignments were a breeze.
For Emma, though, it was still quite challenging. But Jolene planned to have Emma do a year of kindergarten first, then first grade—one grade below Ben.
That night, Jolene returned the Crocodile Kingdom picture book to Ben and picked out another one—a story about a little bear.
Since they’d already agreed that Jolene would read to Ben as repayment, Ben looked quite satisfied. He didn’t see it as helping Jolene do her job—it was his rightful reward.
Sometimes Jolene thought, just like writing novels in her past life where she loved summarizing formulas, when kids looked at things from a different perspective, they’d accept the same situation differently. So fundamentally, Ben was actually a very reasonable child.
Both kids lay on Jolene’s bed while she leaned against the headboard, reading the words aloud and giving them enough time to look at the pictures.
Both children were completely absorbed. What might seem boring to adults was always fascinating to kids.
Jolene also thought as she read—if she summarized and adapted picture books, maybe she could write one herself?
She was overthinking it. Jolene shook her head, feeling like she was obsessed—wanting to write a book about everything she saw. But there was no online fiction in this world. Oh my god, how was she going to survive…
After she finished reading, both kids stared at her with wide, expectant eyes.
“What?” Jolene was bewildered. Being stared at by two kids at once was a bit overwhelming.
“Can you read it again?” Ben asked, showing his teeth in a grin, his chubby face for the first time looking like a genuinely innocent child’s, full of anticipation.
Emma didn’t say anything, but her eyes clearly conveyed the same desire.
“Didn’t you say you’ve read this book many times already?” Jolene couldn’t help asking.
These books were all ones Ben had read before. Jolene herself never read a book twice unless she was desperately bored and would skim through it again.
To her, this was just a children’s story with a few lines of text—she wasn’t interested at all. But she had no choice; the kids wanted her to read it, and this was her little employer.
With no way out, Jolene read it again.
And once again, both kids stared with wide eyes. Even when the part came where the little bear got caught in the air, they sat up excitedly, looking at the illustrations as if hearing the story for the first time.
Was their immersion really that strong?
After the second reading, the kids looked at her again—their eyes saying “read it one more time.”
Jolene closed the book and firmly shook her head. “No. A book should be read at most twice, or there won’t be enough time for sleep. Don’t you want to grow taller?”
Rejected, Ben’s expression instantly shifted—from the obedient chubby-faced boy of a moment ago to a little brat glaring at her.
“No! Read it again!” the little brat fumed.
Jolene finally got to see Ben throw a tantrum.
Emma’s eyes widened, and she looked at the big brother with disapproval. She wanted to say something but held back, only gazing at him with a pitiful expression.
Jolene frowned, reminded that this was her job, and nodded. She extended her pinky. “Alright, I’ll read it one last time. But this time, you have to pinky swear with me—once it’s done, you have to go to bed.”
“What’s a pinky swear?” Ben looked down at Jolene’s outstretched hand.
“Emma, explain to Ben what a pinky swear is,” Jolene said, wiggling her hand in front of Emma.
Seeing that there was finally something Ben didn’t know, Emma’s eyes sparkled with excitement. She reached out her little hand, linked pinkies with her mom, pressed their thumbs together, and recited: “Pinky promise—if you lie, you get poked in the eye with a needle…”
Ben quickly covered his eyes, staring at the mother-daughter pair in disbelief.
“Want to pinky swear?” Jolene pursed her lips, watching the little boy.
“Fine,” Ben swallowed, extending his chubby little finger. “Okay. Say what you mean, no lying.”
Jolene raised an eyebrow, a smile tugging at her lips. She exchanged a glance with Emma and read the story one more time.
Only then did Ben obediently jump off the bed and shuffle back to his room to sleep.
Jolene turned off Emma’s light and went downstairs for a drink.
Just then, the front door opened and Mr. Raymond walked in.
Seeing her, Raymond stepped forward and handed her a manila envelope. “Here are your proof of residency and employment verification. You can submit these along with Emma’s personal documents to the school tomorrow. The school will need a few days to review them.”
“Great, thank you,” Jolene said gratefully, taking the documents and nodding. “Have you eaten?”
“Yes. Ben…” Raymond’s eyes curved slightly, but his smile was a bit forced. “Has he gone to bed?”
Jolene covered her mouth, wanting to laugh, but held it in. “He’s already asleep. Actually, he’s quite self-sufficient—he washes up and goes to bed on his own.”
“Really?” Raymond’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Jolene thought about how she’d need to deal with Child Protective Services in the future. It would be best to have some photos of her and Emma together—that way, she could prove she’d been taking good care of the child. Otherwise, if Emma said something wrong or was misunderstood by CPS, photos would be much more convincing than words.
“May I borrow your camera?” Jolene asked.
Cameras these days were mostly film cameras, and Polaroids existed too—but she didn’t know what kind Raymond had.
“Camera?” Raymond was surprised. He hadn’t expected her to ask for that.
“Oh, it’s just—kids grow up so fast. If you don’t take lots of photos while they’re little, by the time they’re grown, you’ll forget what they looked like as children,” Jolene quickly explained.
Of course, she wouldn’t just take photos of Emma—she’d definitely take some of Ben too.
“Alright. I have a Canon film camera in my study, and some film too. I’ll get it for you.” Raymond nodded. “I haven’t used it in a long time. You can give it a try.”
With that, Raymond went to the second floor, to the room on the right, while Jolene waited by the door.
Soon, Raymond brought out the camera and handed it to her, a look of pleased approval on his face. “You’re doing a great job. Giovanni said Ben ate two servings of steak today—that’s rare. It’s nice not having him force me to fire the nanny.”
“Thank you for the camera. I’ll make sure to take lots of childhood photos of Ben, so when he grows up, he’ll have many memories to look back on,” Jolene said, looking up with a smile.
“Good,” Raymond said softly, glancing down at the camera. “When my parents were alive, they used to take lots of photos of Ben too. I think he’ll like that.”
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