Ye Wen washed her hands by the irrigation ditch and lifted the basket lid. Inside, ten plump white steamed buns were neatly arranged. After roughly estimating how much flour they would take, she nodded slightly. It seemed the second son’s wife had truly taken her instructions to heart this time and hadn’t stolen any bites.
“Mother, I watched Second Sister-in-law cook the whole time today!” Wen Xiangnan hurried over to claim credit. “Second Sister-in-law said that since she wants to learn cooking, she should start with kneading dough. I kneaded all these buns myself! Once my skills improve, won’t I be able to win my future husband’s stomach for sure?”
The girl’s smug expression made Ye Wen laugh. Such a silly child—she was still so young, yet she was always talking about “my husband” this and “my husband” that, not afraid of being laughed at by others.
What’s more, she was clearly being used as free labor and didn’t even realize it, still grinning happily.
Ye Wen didn’t want to dampen her enthusiasm. After all, in ancient times, it was indeed a good thing for girls to learn how to cook. She asked gently, “How many buns did you steam? Did you send some to your eldest sister-in-law?”
“Sixteen. Second Sister-in-law said I should bring these to you first, and she’d wait for me to go back and eat together,” Wen Xiangnan replied obediently.
Hearing this, Ye Wen couldn’t help but shake her head inwardly.
Silly girl. Her second sister-in-law had always been selfish. After going hungry all night and all morning, she must be more eager to eat than anyone else. How could she really wait for Xiangnan to come back?
She was probably coaxing the girl into leaving first so she could sneak a few extra buns for herself. Given Tian Chunhua’s personality, she might even take over Jiang Lian’s share as well.
Fortunately, Ye Wen had prepared in advance. When she divided the porridge in the morning, she had deliberately given Jiang Lian the thickest, largest bowl and hidden three eggs at the bottom. Even if they didn’t get lunch, mother and child wouldn’t go hungry.
Looking at her innocent daughter, Ye Wen sighed silently.
With such a simple nature, she still wanted to enter the inner courtyard of a wealthy household? She’d probably be sold and still help count the money.
Still, Ye Wen didn’t plan to point it out. One only grows wiser after suffering a loss. Letting the girl take a small setback would make her more cautious around Tian Chunhua in the future, so she wouldn’t always be led around by the nose with sweet words.
There were ten buns in total. The eldest and second sons each ate four. Ye Wen felt full after just one and a half, but looking at the endless rice fields, she still forced the remaining half into her mouth.
The dry buns made her throat feel tight as she chewed, and there wasn’t a single drop of oil in the bland vegetable soup. Under the blazing sun, Ye Wen suddenly missed the days of blasting the air conditioner and ordering takeout in her former life.
She used to complain that air conditioning was bad for the body and that takeout wasn’t clean. Looking back now, that had been a life fit for an immortal. How could she have been so dissatisfied back then?
After a bowl of soup and two buns, her stomach was full, but Ye Wen felt even more craving.
She wanted meat!
One vegetarian meal last night could be considered a digestive cleanse, but three meals in a row like this—she felt her stomach was about to revolt.
But in this household, even eating a proper full meal was difficult right now. Meat was such a luxury—how could she possibly get it?
The system shop could exchange it, but how would she explain where it came from?
Ye Wen felt a headache coming on.
She was putting away the bowls when she suddenly heard Xiangnan cry out, “Ah! There’s a snake!”
Everyone tensed up. But when the second son saw where Xiangnan was pointing, he burst out laughing.
“Little sister, what snake? That’s an eel!”
An eel?
Wasn’t that a yellow eel?
The second son reached into the mud and pulled out the soft, snake-like thing. “You spend all day at home dreaming of being a noble lady and never come down to the fields. Even a tiny eel can scare you half to death. Hahahahaha…”
The original owner had indeed kept her daughter out of fieldwork, fearing that sunburn and callused hands would make it harder for her to marry into a wealthy family. That was why Wen Xiangnan didn’t recognize these things from the fields.
Being laughed at by her second brother, Wen Xiangnan felt embarrassed. “It looks just like a snake! How was I supposed to know what it was? It’s disgusting. Second Brother, hurry up and throw it far away!”
“Hey, hey!” Ye Wen hurried over when she heard they were going to throw it away.
“Don’t throw it out! Catch a few more—we can add an extra dish tonight!”
“Mother, this thing is fishy and slippery all over. How can anyone eat it?” The second son looked incredulous. He thought his mother must be craving meat so badly that she’d lost her mind. This thing could be eaten?
Should he take ten copper coins from his private stash and buy some meat to satisfy his mother’s craving?
No, no!
The second son quickly tossed the idea aside. That money was earned from his hard work every morning—he couldn’t just squander it.
“Exactly, Mother. These eels are hard to catch and they bite. They’re covered in slime and look disgusting, and they stink. No one eats these. Just let Second Brother throw it away,” the eldest said as well.
He also thought his mother had gone mad with craving meat, but he felt even more guilty. He couldn’t even let his mother eat a single bite of meat, to the point that she now wanted to eat something that grew in the mud.
Seeing such a strong reaction from her children, Ye Wen said, “Just catch them. Tonight Mother will show you what I can do. I didn’t know this thing could be eaten either—it was your father who said it could!”
When she said that, even though it was noon—the time when yang energy was strongest—the three siblings all felt a chill creep up their backs.
“Mother…” Xiangnan asked hesitantly, “Are you saying… Father is nearby?”
Seeing how frightened they were, Ye Wen knew that people in ancient times feared ghosts and spirits. She quickly explained, “Your father told me this in a dream yesterday. Eldest and Second, you two go harvest wheat. Xiangnan, hurry home to eat. After that, bring me a basin. This afternoon I’ll catch eels, and tonight I’ll add an extra dish for everyone!”
“Got it!” Wen Xiangnan now listened to her mother in everything. Whatever her mother said went, and she answered the quickest.
The eldest and second sons exchanged a look, assuming their mother was tired from the morning’s work and wanted an excuse to slack off in the afternoon.
But slacking off was fine. After all, she was getting on in years. If she worked too much and exhausted herself, that would be troublesome.
If Ye Wen knew what they were thinking, she would probably be speechless and ask the heavens why. She was only thirty-six years old. In her own era, many people her age weren’t even married yet. How had she become an “old person” already?
Once she decided to do it, she acted immediately. After Wen Xiangnan left, Ye Wen began searching for signs of eels.
Eels weren’t easy to catch. If there was water, you could forget about catching them by hand. But now that the paddy fields had been drained, they couldn’t escape. You just had to dig into the mud, and you’d find the eels hiding inside.
Ye Wen dug for quite a while and only managed to get two or three, even getting bitten once in the process.
She was washing the blood from her hand when she saw Wen Xiangnan running back from the direction of home, fuming.
“Mother! Second Sister-in-law only left me one bun! If I hadn’t come back early, I probably wouldn’t have gotten even that one. She lied—she clearly said she’d wait for me to come back and eat together! I’ve always treated her so well, too!”
Seeing her daughter’s indignant, cheated expression, Ye Wen couldn’t help but smile. She had known it would turn out like this.