When Jiang Yan arrived, surprise flashed across his eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
Jiang Yan glanced at Lin Weiwei, who was standing nearby in a white coat, and answered Huo Zhanting, “Er Niu said you got rammed by a wild boar. Is it serious?”
“Not serious. Just some superficial injuries.”
Huo Zhanting had originally planned to go home, but Dr. Lin had said that he might have internal injuries and should ideally be kept under observation for a day, so he hadn’t gone back.
Jiang Yan felt a little guilty.
“Let me take a look…”
She stepped forward to examine Huo Zhanting’s injuries, but Lin Weiwei stopped her.
“Stop! Don’t you have any common sense? Brother Ting is injured. You can’t touch him!”
After shouting at Jiang Yan, Lin Weiwei immediately turned apologetically toward Huo Zhanting and explained, “Sorry. I’m just concerned about your condition. After all, you’re my patient right now.”
“It’s fine. It’s just a minor injury.”
Huo Zhanting voluntarily stepped aside and pulled open his clothes so Jiang Yan could examine his injuries.
For some reason, Jiang Yan didn’t particularly like Lin Weiwei. But she was a doctor who was simply doing her job, so Jiang Yan said nothing.
Lin Weiwei, however, curiously interrupted and asked Huo Zhanting, “Brother Ting, aren’t you going to introduce us?”
Huo Zhanting cleared his throat and formally introduced them.
“This is my wife, Jiang Yan.”
Then he took the initiative to introduce Lin Weiwei to Jiang Yan.
“Wife, this is Lin Weiwei, Dr. Lin!”
Although Lin Weiwei had already known, hearing Huo Zhanting personally introduce Jiang Yan as his wife still sent a dense ache through her heart.
But her face was full of delight as she smiled and teased Huo Zhanting.
“So this is Sister-in-law? Brother Ting, you sure are lucky!”
The tips of Huo Zhanting’s ears turned bright red. He didn’t deny it, silently accepting her words.
Lin Weiwei could barely keep smiling.
“Well, you two chat. I’ll go get back to work. Just call me if you need anything!”
With that, Lin Weiwei hurried away, afraid that if she stayed any longer, she wouldn’t be able to keep up the act.
She had only gone to a hospital in Beijing for an exchange and training program for half a year. How had Brother Ting managed to get married in the meantime?
“Are you close with Dr. Lin?” Jiang Yan asked after Lin Weiwei left.
Lin Weiwei had never openly expressed her feelings. She had always been waiting for Huo Zhanting to make the first move.
Unfortunately, Huo Zhanting was a rough, straightforward man who hadn’t picked up on her hints at all.
He didn’t have any feelings for Lin Weiwei either, so he had never noticed what she was thinking.
Seeing Jiang Yan ask, he answered honestly.
“She’s the military doctor assigned to our unit. Whenever one of the guys gets injured, they go to her. Sometimes our missions require a military doctor, and she’s the one who comes along, so we’re fairly familiar with each other.”
Jiang Yan nodded to show that she understood. She chatted awkwardly with Huo Zhanting for a while and waited until he finished his breakfast before leaving.
“Do you want me to bring you lunch?” Before leaving, Jiang Yan thought about it and asked.
She could consider it compensation for the wild boar incident.
“Can you?”
Huo Zhanting hadn’t actually expected it. Although they were married, that was all they were at the moment. They hadn’t yet built any deep revolutionary comradeship between them.
“Mm!”
Jiang Yan nodded.
“Thank you, wife.”
Huo Zhanting was delighted.
…
Jiang Yan hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, and neither had the two little ones.
But when she returned home, she was surprised to see Huo Wenjin standing on a little stool and cooking porridge, while Xiao Xi sat in front of the stove feeding the fire.
The two brothers were doing an impressively good job!
“Son, you’re amazing! You already know how to cook!”
Jiang Yan happily walked over and gave Huo Wenjin a big kiss.
It was the first time anyone had praised him like that.
And his stepmother had even kissed him!
Huo Wenjin’s little face flushed with excitement.
“Stepmom, I’ll work hard to learn. Soon I’ll know how to cook dishes, too. I’ll make them for you!”
Huo Wenjin excitedly made a grand promise.
Jiang Yan would never dampen his enthusiasm.
“Mm! I’ll look forward to eating the food you make for me!”
“Stepmom, me too! I’m really good at tending the fire!”
Xiao Xi deliberately turned his face toward Jiang Yan, making his intentions extremely obvious.
Jiang Yan gave Xiao Xi another loud kiss and ruffled his round little head.
Then she said to Huo Wenjin, “Xiao Jin, you and your little brother can tend the fire together. Leave the rest to Stepmom. I’ll make you something delicious.”
“Okay!”
Huo Wenjin obediently moved aside and gave Jiang Yan his place.
Jiang Yan took over from him and continued cooking the porridge. While waiting, she brought out some flour and eggs.
She was going to make egg pancakes for the two little ones!
Egg pancakes were very easy to make. Mix flour with an appropriate amount of water, add eggs, then toss in some chopped scallions, salt, and thirteen-spice seasoning. Stir everything into a batter, pour it into the pan, and cook.
The pancakes cooked quickly, too. Before long, she had made more than a dozen.
But for Jiang Yan, that amount was nowhere near enough.
She ended up making fifty egg pancakes in total, then stir-fried minced pork with long beans to go with the porridge. She also diced some pickled cucumbers before finally serving breakfast.
The two little ones had already been drooling.
Seeing such a delicious-looking breakfast, they felt incredibly happy.
Having a stepmom was wonderful!
The mother and her two sons ate to their hearts’ content.
Afterward, the two little ones washed the dishes and cleaned the stove.
Jiang Yan helped too, and together they cleaned the entire house from top to bottom. Only then did she take out some large pork bones and start making soup for Huo Zhanting.
These were leftovers from the wild boar they had gotten earlier. Jiang Yan hadn’t gotten around to eating them yet.
Since Huo Zhanting was injured and needed nourishment, she might as well let him have them.
Jiang Yan simmered the pork bones into soup, stir-fried salt-fried pork, made scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and stir-fried eggplant.
She planned to eat first, then take the two little ones with her to deliver the meal to Huo Zhanting.
At the infirmary.
“Brother Ting, what do you want to eat? I’m just about to go to the cafeteria. I can bring you something while I’m there.”
Lin Weiwei had deliberately stopped by the ward to ask Huo Zhanting.
She seemed to have adjusted her state of mind and was back to her carefree, easygoing self.
Normally, Huo Zhanting wouldn’t have refused.
But Jiang Yan had said that morning that she would bring him lunch.
“No need to trouble yourself…”
He hadn’t even finished refusing when Lin Weiwei asked excitedly, “You’re not going to eat? You’re a patient! How can you skip meals?”
Huo Zhanting felt a little embarrassed.
“I’m not skipping a meal. My wife said she’d bring me lunch!”
Lin Weiwei’s face went slightly pale.
“I forgot. Brother Ting is already married.”
With that, Lin Weiwei turned and walked out of the ward.
Huo Zhanting looked completely bewildered.
What was wrong with her?
He didn’t give it much thought, instead looking forward to what delicious food his wife would bring him.
Although he hadn’t eaten her cooking many times yet, his wife’s culinary skills had already won over his stomach.
Huo Zhanting was looking forward to it.
He craned his neck toward the door.
When he saw Jiang Yan carrying a lunchbox and leading the two little ones toward the ward, Huo Zhanting felt his heart swell with warmth.
He eagerly took the lunchbox from her.
When he saw the big-bone soup and salt-fried pork, he casually asked, “We still have meat at home?”
Jiang Yan hadn’t had time to think up an excuse when Xiao Xi immediately sold his stepmother out.
“Yes, yes! We have lots of meat! Stepmom killed a huge wild boar, and there’s still so much meat at home that we could never finish it in our whole lives!”
Huo Zhanting’s expression darkened.
“You went into the mountains? Didn’t I tell you the mountains are dangerous and you’re not supposed to go?”
He actually had the nerve to question her?
Jiang Yan’s expression turned cold.
“Yesterday, Zhao Xiaomei lied to the two little ones and told them I’d gone into the mountains and been eaten by wolves. They were worried about me, so they ran into the mountains and even encountered a wild boar. If I hadn’t gone into the mountains, they would have ended up as the wild boar’s dinner!”
Jiang Yan conveniently left out the fact that she had gone into the mountains first and that Zhao Xiaomei had seen her.
“What?”
Huo Zhanting’s expression changed dramatically.
“Xiao Jin, Xiao Xi, are you two all right?”
Thinking about the danger they had faced the day before, Xiao Jin and Xiao Xi were still frightened. Their faces went pale, but they didn’t want Huo Zhanting to worry, so they forced themselves to shake their heads.
“We’re fine!”
Jiang Yan felt a pang of sympathy for them.
“Oh, right. On the day I arrived, I overheard Old Lady Zhao and Zhao Xiaomei discussing your marriage. I’m guessing she failed to marry you and has been holding a grudge, so she took it out on the two little ones!”
Huo Zhanting frowned.
“That can’t be right. There was never any such thing. I don’t even know Zhao Xiaomei. Where would this marriage have come from?”
It was possible Huo Zhanting genuinely had no idea, but Jiang Yan still couldn’t resist mocking him.
“No such thing? Then how did I hear Zhao Xiaomei say with my own ears that she would only agree to marry you if you gave her the three major household appliances and one sound system, plus a thousand-yuan bride price?”