With Huo Mingfeng’s help, everything was quickly set up.
But Jiang Mingyu felt that something was missing from the room…
Ah~
The walls were too rough, and the floor tiles were very old, which didn’t match the bright colors of the bunk beds.
She found some wallpaper, intending to put it up, but Huo Mingfeng stopped her: “It’s getting dark, let’s stop here for today.”
“Okay!”
Jiang Mingyu glanced at the setting sun outside the window, then remembered something, took out a wall clock from her ring and hung it on the wall, then took out a pair of watches, one for herself and one for Huo Mingfeng.
To avoid Huo Mingfeng refusing, she said first: “Wear them, it’ll be much more convenient to tell time with these.”
These supplies were originally donated to people in need.
Now they’re benefiting her instead.
Huo Mingfeng didn’t refuse.
On the contrary, experiencing being kept by a woman for the first time, he felt…not bad?
“Wow! Mom, did you do all this?”
“It’s so beautiful! Is this our bed? Are we sleeping here tonight?”
“Sanya wants to sleep with Mom!”
Suddenly, three adorable children followed the noise and peeked into the room. They were instantly amazed and rushed to the bunk bed,
tumbling in like dumplings into a pot, rolling into the large down comforter on the lower bunk, too comfortable to come out.
Huo Mingfeng rubbed his temples, about to scold them to behave.
But Jiang Mingyu grabbed his hand and shook her head.
“Let the children play. It’s warm inside, and they won’t get sick if they play inside.”
After saying that, she took out a set of watercolor pens and drawing paper, and a hand-drawn storybook for the children, letting them play more freely, while reminding them not to scribble with the watercolor pens, otherwise the little bed would disappear.
This threat was significant for the children, and they immediately promised not to scribble or draw anything!
Only then did Jiang Mingyu feel relieved and go to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
She hung a USB-charged night market light in the kitchen, instantly illuminating it like daytime.
Then, Jiang Mingyu took out two packets of braised chicken feet snacks from her ring and arranged them on a cold plate. She cut up an apple she had taken out that morning as appetizer fruit, and since she had time, she also took out a full two pounds of pork belly. She stewed some with potatoes to make a filling dish!
Huo Mingfeng was always away driving a truck, and Jiang Mingyu didn’t have many connections in town.
If his family wanted fresh vegetables, they couldn’t really rely on neighbors to give them some!
Getting them from her spatial storage was a different story.
She cut the pork belly into chunks, put it in a pot of cold water with cooking wine to blanch it, then caramelized sugar and placed it in a clay pot, filled it with hot water, and started stewing. She
also cut potatoes into chunks and placed them on top of the clay pot.
*Gurgle, gurgle*
The gas stove and gas cylinder she took out were connected, and the casserole pot emitted sweet steam from the fire, the aroma of meat tempting.
It would take at least an hour and a half to stew the meat until tender.
She didn’t waste the intervening time, but instead went to the space to feel the soft white ground.
Luckily, she had a hoe among her supplies, so she grabbed it and tried to cultivate the space.
As soon as she dug, a patch of bright red soil was revealed!
The red soil was moist. Jiang Mingyu touched it, her eyes brightening slightly. She quickly surveyed the space: “The soil is still very moist, which means this place can be used for farming. I wonder where the water source is?”
But after searching around, she couldn’t find any water source.
Could it be that there are some conditions for unlocking the space’s water source?
Shaking her head, she first cultivated a small ten-square-meter vegetable patch. Considering that winter was approaching outside, she would plant out-of-season vegetables!
So, from her supplies, Jiang Mingyu took out a bag of summer cowpea seeds, then left her spatial storage and found a few bamboo poles in the nearby woodshed. She prepared to trim them and plant them in the soil,
because cowpeas vines would grow long vines, and the bamboo poles would guide the vines instead of running wild on the ground.
“What are you doing?”
Huo Mingfeng had changed out of his clean white shirt and was back in his old short-sleeved shirt, his strong frame wielding an axe as he chopped firewood in the yard.
Jiang Mingyu pointed to the woodshed: “I want to find two bamboo poles to plant cowpeas.”
Plant cowpeas?
Huo Mingfeng frowned immediately. “Those are summer vegetables.”
Out of season? Could they even grow them?
Although he had heard that scientists were researching this technology,
it hadn’t been widely adopted yet, had it?
He didn’t argue with her, but nodded, “Wait a minute, I’ll whittle two poles for you.”
Huo Mingfeng was efficient; he quickly went into the woodshed and found six dry bamboo poles, whittling each in half for her. “Mingyu, I don’t know how many you’re going to plant, or if you’ll be planting other vegetables. Use these poles first, and ask me if you need more.”
Jiang Mingyu was prepared to explain to him, but she hadn’t expected this man to trust her so much, without even asking a single question.
Instantly, she smiled, feeling a little relieved. “Thank you, darling.”
Her slender body carried the six bamboo poles to the kitchen.
Darling?!
Huo Mingfeng’s face flushed instantly, as if a sweet warmth rushed to his head.
In his twenty-odd years of life, no one had ever called him that.
He rubbed his face, trying to suppress the upturn of his lips, before continuing to chop firewood as if nothing was amiss.
Soon, Jiang Mingyu, carrying bamboo poles, entered the space and planted them in the planting holes in the vegetable patch.
Each hole contained three bright red cowpea seeds, arranged in four rows and five columns, making twenty holes in total. According to the instructions on the bag of seeds, the cowpeas would yield 1700 kilograms per mu (approximately 0.16 acres).
Her ten-square-meter plot only occupied one-sixth of a mu, yielding only 170 jin (approximately 85 kg).
She wondered if growing vegetables in the space would result in a longer or shorter maturation period for cowpeas compared to normal.
Filled with anticipation, Jiang Mingyu found organic fertilizer in her supplies, applied it, filled the holes, and returned to the kitchen to continue cooking.
Because Jiang Qianqin and Jiang Mingzhi had been there for lunch, there were no leftovers.
The braised pork and potatoes were almost done. She turned off the heat, covered the pot, and let it simmer for a while. In the meantime, she took out two tomatoes from her spatial storage and five eggs from the basket of eggs she had taken out during the day. She beat them,
heated the oil, and then poured in the eggs to scramble them.
Sizzle!
A burst of thick white smoke billowed out, drifting joyfully up the chimney.
Passersby at the town entrance were instantly overwhelmed by the aroma.
“Who’s frying eggs? It smells so good!”
“No, no, it smells like meat!”
The children who were playing inside were instantly captivated by the aroma of meat wafting in. They all rushed to the kitchen and poked their heads out, their eyes like greedy little cats staring at the busy figure inside.
The eldest child exclaimed, “Mom, what’s this good stuff? It smells so good!”
The second child said, “I can smell it! It’s braised pork! It must be better than Gou Dan’s!”
The youngest child asked, “Mom, can I help?”
Huo Mingfeng, who was chopping wood in the yard, walked in, picked up one child in each hand, and put them back on the table. “Sit down properly! Don’t disturb Mom while she’s cooking.”
“We’re about to start eating!”
Jiang Mingyu came out of the kitchen,
carrying a plate of braised chicken feet and a plate of golden and red tomato scrambled eggs, all steaming hot and looking incredibly appetizing!
The three children were a little disappointed when they didn’t see the braised pork.
Seeing this, she couldn’t help but laugh and looked at Huo Mingfeng: “Mingfeng, help me bring these two dishes to the table. I’ll go get the braised pork.”