Phoenix Revenge System-Chapter 106: PRS 9 Liona

After school, Leo and Lan immediately took off their shoes and bags on the terrace of their house, looking tired.

"Wow, today was so tiring," said Lan, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "There were so many lessons."

"Yes, the teacher gave us a lot of homework," replied Leo as he opened his bag. "But luckily Dad is home. We don’t have to go to the fields today."

They immediately changed their clothes and ate the lunch their mother had prepared. Seeing that their father was at home not working, they could relax a little because they didn’t have to go to the rice fields or farm to help their father finish his work quickly.

"Mother, the food is really delicious today," Leo praised as he devoured the tiwul rice.

"Alhamdulillah, I’m glad you like it," replied Lura with a smile.

Laus was a farm labourer and every time there was work, he would involve his wife and children so that the money he received would not go to other people. All the work was done by his own family.

"Father, is there any work tomorrow?" asked Leo while eating rice.

"No one has given me any news yet, son. Maybe the day after tomorrow or next week," replied Laus as he drank water.

Laus’s family is diligent and agile, making many people happy and often giving them work because with the contract system, the costs they incur are much lower than hiring people with daily wages and it saves time.

Laus himself did not want to work for one employer because that would prevent him from freely accepting work from other people, so he could only rely on farm labourers with freelance status like this and become a piecework farm labourer so that he could freely accept many jobs from many parties.

"It’s better this way," Laus said to his wife. "We can choose jobs that pay better."

"Yes, sir. The important thing is that we work hard," replied Lura, nodding.

After finishing their meal and washing their dirty dishes with bar soap, the two siblings tiptoed carefully towards their mother’s room.

"Shh... quietly, Lan," whispered Leo, putting his index finger to his lips. "Don’t let Mum know what we’re up to."

"Yes, brother. I’m being quiet," whispered Lan back, continuing to follow her brother.

Leo was the one assigned to check on his baby sister, to see if she was awake or not, peeking through the mosquito net used to cover the room instead of a door because wood was expensive and many poor families like the Laus family covered their rooms with mosquito nets that functioned as doors.

Leo opened the mosquito net slightly and peeked inside carefully.

"How is it, brother?" asked Lan hopefully. "Is Liona awake?"

Lan tugged Leo’s shirt several times impatiently.

"Wait... wait..." whispered Leo as he continued to peek.

Seeing her brother nod with a big smile, Lan immediately ran to get her school bag with a beaming face.

"Yes! Liona is awake!" she whispered happily.

Leo was also excited after seeing Liona awake and looking at him with wide eyes. He hurriedly grabbed his school bag with enthusiasm.

"Come on, Lan! Let’s go in!" Leo said cheerfully.

The two of them immediately entered their mother’s room with joyful steps.

"Liona! Your sisters are home!" Leo greeted cheerfully as he approached the bed.

After playing with their sister for a while tickling her little tummy and kissing her chubby cheeks the two of them immediately took their homework books out of their bags and started working on them in their mother’s room, hoping that Liona could help.

"Leo, let’s do it here," said Lan as she opened her book.

"Yes. So Liona can help us," Leo replied with a smile.

Lura, who saw her two children’s behaviour, was surprised. "Why are you doing your homework here?" she asked while folding the blanket. "Why not outside like usual? It’s more comfortable in the living room, it’s more spacious."

"Um... we... we..." Leo stammered, searching for an excuse.

"We want to do our homework here while looking after our little sister!" Lan quickly interrupted. "So you can cook or clean the house. We want to help look after Liona, Mum!"

"Yes, Mum," Leo quickly added, nodding. "We’re big now, we can look after our little sister. You go to work, we’ll take care of Liona."

Leo spoke wisely, looking at his mother with hopeful eyes.

Seeing that her two children seemed to have their own mission, even though she didn’t know what it was—even though she knew exactly that they wanted to ask for Liona’s help—Lura smiled when she saw that they were willing to take care of her baby.

"All right then," said Lura as she stood up. "I’m going outside to get the clothes that have dried on the clothesline and fold them. Take good care of Liona, okay? If she cries, call me."

"Yes, Mum! We’ll take good care of Liona!" exclaimed Lan, saluting.

During her pregnancy and after giving birth, at least until Liona was 35 days old, Lura would slowly start doing all her usual tasks with a full workload.

Fortunately, all her children were born normally, so Lura was able to recover quickly and return to her normal activities without any complications.

Inside the room, after their mother left, the two siblings immediately looked at Liona with sparkling eyes.

"Liona, we have homework," said Leo as he opened his book. "Can you help us?"

They continued to recite the questions given by their teacher loudly so that Liona could hear and give the correct answers in her heart.

"Lio, what’s the answer to this one?" asked Lan, pointing to a question. "The question is, if 5 times 7 plus 3, what is the answer?"

"35 plus 3 equals 38!" replied Liona silently in a lazy tone. "It’s so easy!"

"38! That’s right, isn’t it, Mas?" shouted Lan excitedly.

"Yes! Liona is really smart!" praised Leo as he wrote down the answer.

Their decision was not wrong; doing homework with Liona’s help was much faster. Leo even got some explanations that were more complete than what his teacher had explained to him at school.

"Wow, this method is easier than what the teacher taught us!" exclaimed Leo in admiration after hearing Liona’s explanation in his heart.

Even for maths problems, Liona gave him an easier and faster way to solve the calculations, which really helped him answer the multiple-choice questions without using long and time-consuming formulas.

"Lan, write this down! Liona told me a quick way!" whispered Leo as he eagerly took notes.

After helping her two older siblings finish their homework, Liona, who had just remembered something she had been thinking about, began to chatter to herself.

"Oh, I just remembered something..." she muttered to herself.

"I noticed that my family’s fields are mostly planted with corn and cassava," Liona said to herself thoughtfully. "It would be great if those two ingredients could be processed into snacks or cakes so that my mother could sell them, or my older siblings could take them to school and sell them in the canteen."

"That way, my family can earn some extra income!" she continued enthusiastically. "I have lots of recipe ideas from my previous life!"

It wasn’t just Leo and Lan who were surprised by Liona’s words, Laus and Lura, who were in the living room, were also surprised and didn’t expect their baby to have such deep thoughts about helping to ease the burden on her family.

"Sir, did you hear what Liona said?" whispered Lura to her husband, her eyes wide.

"I heard, dear. She wants to help us earn money," replied Laus with a proud smile.

Next, without him knowing, Liona’s mind was racing with ideas of what snacks or cakes could be made with corn and cassava to sell and earn money.

"Corn can be made into grilled corn with delicious seasoning... it can also be sweet boiled corn... oh, or corn fritters!" Liona chattered enthusiastically.

"Cassava can be made into cassava chips, fried cassava sticks, cassava tape... there are so many things that can be made!" she continued excitedly.

Hearing his sister’s ideas flowing freely, Leo quickly grabbed a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. He carefully noted down the recipes his little sister mentioned so they wouldn’t make any mistakes in each step of making the cakes and snacks.

"Lan, help me take notes! Don’t miss anything!" whispered Leo as he wrote quickly.

"Yes, sir! I’ll write down what Liona said about cassava!" replied Lan as she also wrote on another piece of paper.

Recipes that Liona thought were delicious and could make money kept flowing through her mind.

Laus, who was sitting in the living room and heard that what Liona said didn’t seem too difficult to execute, said deliberately.

"Ma’am, did you hear that?" Laus asked his wife.

"I heard, sir. Liona is very smart," Lura replied with a smile.

"In two days, the corn will be ready to harvest," said Laus in a slightly loud voice so that Liona could hear him. "As for the cassava, we still have to wait five more days."

"Oh, really? It’s ready to harvest?" asked Lura in a deliberately loud voice as well.

"Yes, ma’am. I saw this morning that they are all big," replied Laus. "We can try to process them and make something new to sell for money. What do you think?"

Laus deliberately spoke to his wife in a slightly loud voice so that Liona could hear him from her room.

Laus’s guess was correct. Hearing his words, Liona immediately responded happily in her heart.

"Wow!" Liona exclaimed happily in her heart. "I didn’t expect that father had the same idea as me! We’re on the same wavelength!"

"If only I could speak," continued Liona sadly, "I would definitely help father and mother to process it by giving them direct instructions. But now... hah... I can only babble in my heart..."

Liona muttered sadly to herself as she stared at the ceiling.

Seeing her baby sad, Lura tried to join in the drama her husband was playing out. She walked towards the door of the room while continuing to talk loudly.

"Really, sir? The corn will be ready to harvest in two days?" asked Lura excitedly. "Then I’ll try to make grilled corn and sweet boiled corn!"

"Oh, really? Can you make that?" asked Laus, pretending to be curious.

"Yes, sir! Coincidentally, in the PKK last month, we received training on that from the village head!" said Lura enthusiastically. "I still remember how to do it!"

Liona, who heard that her mother had received training from the village PKK team, was very excited.

"Great! Mum already has the basics!" Liona exclaimed in her heart. "Mum, I’ll give you a recipe for a delicious grilled corn spread! You just need to find the ingredients!"

Liona said happily in her heart, her eyes sparkling.

"The recipe is easy, Mum! Listen carefully!" she continued.

Liona, who knew that in the 80s, all kinds of sauces and mayonnaise were still unavailable or very rare and expensive, gave a recipe that relied on the spices available at that time.

"For the grilled corn spread, you need garlic, candlenuts, brown sugar, salt, chicken stock if you have it—if not, bone broth will do—butter or margarine, and a little chilli if you want it spicy," Liona explained at length in her heart.

Coincidentally, she had made a spread using local spices when she was in school in her previous life, and she thought it tasted very good, even though it was still inferior to some of the sauces commonly used for spreads in the future.

"Blend all the ingredients, then sauté until fragrant, add a little water, and cook until thickened. Done! The grilled corn spread is ready!" Liona continued in detail.

Lura, who heard Liona’s inner thoughts and felt that the recipe was easy enough to obtain, immediately looked for paper and a pencil.

"Sir, let me write it down first. I’m afraid I’ll forget," said Lura as she sat down on the living room chair.

She quickly wrote it down on a small piece of paper and would try it later when the corn was harvested.

"Write it down neatly, Ma’am. Don’t get it wrong later," said Laus with a smile.

Meanwhile, Liona was still chattering away in her heart, giving various recipes.

"Oh yes! I also plan to teach you how to make your own mayonnaise!" said Liona enthusiastically. "With mayonnaise, you can use it and sauce as a dip for cassava sticks. It will be delicious!"

"For the mayonnaise, you need egg yolks, cooking oil, salt, sugar, vinegar or lime juice. Beat the egg yolks while slowly pouring in the oil until it thickens. That’s it!" explained Liona in detail.

With this innovation, she was very confident that what her mother and sister would sell would definitely sell well, considering that in this day and age, such snacks did not yet exist, so they would have no business competitors.

"It will definitely sell well!" Liona muttered confidently. "Moreover, the ingredients are easy to find. They are not expensive and not difficult to obtain!"

The ingredients needed are also not rare or difficult to find, and they are not too expensive to buy.

"Talking so much makes me thirsty and hungry..." Liona complained to herself wearily. "Oh, my throat is dry... even though it’s just in my mind..."

Hearing her baby’s complaint, Lura quickly entered the room.

"Liona must be hungry," said Lura as she picked up her baby. "Come on, sweetie. Mummy will feed you."

She breastfed her baby, who fell asleep peacefully and soundly after being full.

Meanwhile, Leo and Lan, having finished their homework and with nothing else to do, chose to take a nap, following Lano who had already fallen asleep in the next room.

"Leo, I’m sleepy. I’m going to sleep now," said Lan, yawning widely.

"Yes, I’m sleepy too. Let’s sleep," replied Leo as he tidied up his books.

Meanwhile, Laus, after seeing that all his children were asleep, immediately went to the field to check his corn and cassava crops more carefully to see if they were ready to be harvested and sold.

"I’ll check the condition first. If they’re ripe, we can harvest them the day after tomorrow," he muttered as he walked to the field.

Lura, after breastfeeding and putting Liona to sleep by gently patting her back, continued her work of folding the dry clothes and tidying up the house before all her children woke up from their afternoon nap.

"It must be finished before they wake up," she said as she folded each piece of clothing neatly. "Later this afternoon, I still have to cook again for dinner."

A faint smile was etched on her face as she imagined a brighter future for her family with the help of her extraordinarily intelligent young daughter.