But when Jiang Ye saw Ji Yang standing there with tears in her eyes, the laughter that had risen in his throat was forcibly swallowed back down. He walked over, wrapped his arms around her, and comforted her.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Everything’s fine, really. It’s your first time cooking, so this is perfectly normal. It’s my fault. I didn’t explain things clearly. When a pan catches fire, you can’t put it out with water, or the flames will only get bigger. You’re supposed to cover it with a lid. I didn’t make that part clear to you earlier.”
Perhaps the commotion had been too loud, because it attracted the attention of the people in the courtyard. A few of them came over to see what had happened.
The moment they lifted the door curtain, they saw Jiang Ye holding his wife in his arms. Instantly, they exchanged mischievous looks and grinned knowingly.
Jiang Ye hurriedly waved his hand at them, telling them to get lost.
Ji Yang felt terribly aggrieved.
When had she ever cooked before? In her previous life, she had a personal assistant who took excellent care of her. She had never needed to worry about such things. At most, she would make herself a cup of instant noodles.
In this life, she had wanted to learn how to cook properly, only for something like this to happen the very first time she tried.
The more she thought about it, the sadder she became.
Tears began rolling down her cheeks one after another.
The God of Fate was simply too cruel, dragging her into an era where clothes, food, and practically everything else were in short supply, and nothing was convenient.
She had already compromised and was doing her best to adapt to her circumstances. Even when she had first arrived and discovered that the female lead had been reborn, her parents were biased, her intended partner had been stolen from her, and she might originally have been destined to be sent to the countryside, she had never felt this discouraged.
But…
But now, she just felt miserable. Even the cooking pot seemed determined to bully her.
She wanted to cry.
Jiang Ye had still been in the mood to joke around moments ago, but the moment Ji Yang’s tears touched his heart, he immediately felt sorry for her. He gently patted her back.
“Don’t cry. It’s my fault. Next time you cook, I’ll stay right beside you the whole time. I won’t leave, all right? Please stop crying.”
“There’s going to be a next time? I never want to cook again!”
Ji Yang could be a little spoiled at times. After being comforted like this, she cried even harder. Burying her face in Jiang Ye’s chest, she mumbled through her sobs, her voice muffled and full of grievance.
“I really tried my best… I remembered everything you told me. Dry the pan, add the oil, wait for it to heat up… But when I saw the flames suddenly burst out, my mind went completely blank. I forgot everything…”
Jiang Ye tightened his arms around her, holding the woman whose shoulders were trembling with sobs even closer. He gently patted her back, his voice as soft as warm water.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry. It’s not your fault. It really isn’t.”
He raised a hand and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks with his fingertips. Then he brushed aside the wisps of hair above her forehead that had been singed and curled by the flames, his voice growing even gentler.
“You’ve already done very well. It was only your first time. And I told you just now that I should have explained everything beforehand. This is my fault.”
After a pause, Jiang Ye continued, “How about we put a cold compress on your face first?”
The burn needed to be treated, or it might get worse.
Only then did Ji Yang remember her face. She immediately pulled away from Jiang Ye’s embrace and looked up at him, her eyes still red.
“Is my face badly burned?”
“It’s not serious. The heat from the fire just made it a little red. A cold compress for a while should help. Don’t worry.”
As he spoke, Jiang Ye turned and quickly walked over to the water vat. He scooped up a ladle of cold water, found a clean piece of cotton cloth, soaked it, and wrung it out until it no longer dripped. Then he returned to Ji Yang and carefully pressed it against her reddened cheeks.
“Hiss”
The moment the cloth touched her face, Ji Yang sucked in a breath and instinctively tried to pull away.
Jiang Ye quickly steadied the back of her neck, his touch gentle.
“Bear with it for a little while. Just a few minutes. Otherwise, your face might swell up tomorrow, and that wouldn’t look good.”
Ji Yang obediently stood still. Her eyes were still red, and the tip of her nose was red too, making her look like a little rabbit that had been wronged. She stood quietly, allowing Jiang Ye to tend to her face.
The cold compress worked. After a while, Ji Yang felt the burning sensation gradually fade, and her dejected mood improved considerably as well.
After changing the water several times, Jiang Ye removed the cloth and examined her face. It seemed to be more or less fine now.
However, when his gaze fell on the right side of Ji Yang’s face, he couldn’t help pausing.
Her eyebrow on that side had been burned completely bare, and even the few remaining eyelashes had been singed. He instinctively rubbed his forehead and glanced at the section of her hair that had been burned halfway through. His voice carried a mixture of helplessness and concern.
“Yangyang, look at your hair. It’s been badly singed. How about… asking Mom to trim it for you? Would that be okay?”
Ji Yang lowered her head to look at her scorched hair. That very morning, she had still been admiring how beautiful and thick it was. By evening, it had ended up like this.
Her heart ached.
“All right. I’ll have to trouble Mom to help me trim it.” She couldn’t very well walk around with half-burned hair.
Everyone who had come over that evening was young. After returning from work and seeing to a few things, Jiang’s mother had gone back to her room.
When she heard a knock at the door, she got up to open it. The moment she did, she saw her son standing outside with… her daughter-in-law.
She froze for a few seconds. Then her eyes immediately landed on Ji Yang’s face. The corners of her mouth lifted almost imperceptibly before she quickly pressed her lips together again. She instinctively covered her mouth with her hand, but even her eyes betrayed the laughter she was struggling to hold back.
Nevertheless, her voice sounded concerned.
“What happened here? Oh, Yangyang, did the fire flare up and burn you? Your face is a little red, your hair is singed, and your eyebrow… Jiang Ye, what on earth were you doing? How did you take care of your wife?”
Jiang Ye shot his mother a look that clearly said, Please get yourself under control.
Then he led Ji Yang inside and explained, “When Yangyang was still at her parents’ home, my mother-in-law was so worried about wasting food that she wouldn’t let her cook. I figured my own cooking was passable, so I thought I’d teach her. I never expected the pan to catch fire while I stepped away. That’s how Yangyang got burned. It’s my fault for not explaining things properly.”
In just a few sentences, Jiang Ye briefly explained what had happened.
“Well, of course it’s your fault! Yangyang doesn’t know how to cook, so why were you in such a hurry to teach her? You could have taught her gradually later on. Look at her! You’ve practically turned her… turned her…”
Jiang’s mother glanced at Ji Yang again, then quickly looked away. Her expression became rather peculiar as she continued, “Look at what you’ve done to her!”
By now, Ji Yang had figured it out. Jiang’s mother thought she looked so funny that she wanted to laugh.
Ji Yang had felt a little aggrieved at first, but after all this time, she had already calmed down quite a bit. She had always been rather easygoing and wasn’t the sort of person who couldn’t take a joke.
So she looked at Jiang’s mother with a pitiful little expression and said, “Mom, why don’t you just go ahead and laugh? You must be having a hard time holding it in.”
“Hahahahahahahaha! I’m sorry, Yangyang… Hahahahahahahahahaha! It’s just… it’s just…”
“I understand, I understand.”
There was a small, round, red-framed mirror on the cabinet in Jiang’s mother’s room. Its back was decorated with a picture of a person.
When Ji Yang noticed it, she walked over, picked it up, and examined herself in the mirror. She stared silently for two seconds before saying, “I really do understand.”
If someone else looked like this, she would want to laugh too.
And she might not even be able to hold it in.
Seeing that Ji Yang was in much better spirits, the corners of Jiang Ye’s mouth lifted as well. He hadn’t forgotten the reason they had come.
“Mom, could you trim Yangyang’s hair for her? Cut off all the singed parts.”
“Sure.”
Jiang’s mother instructed Jiang Ye to bring over a stool, then found a piece of cloth and draped it around Ji Yang’s shoulders. After having her sit down, she untied Ji Yang’s braid and combed her hair until it was smooth. Then, carefully and meticulously, she snipped away the burned ends.