Chapter 44 Fried Eggs, Henan Steamed Dishes

Lu Zhanlin was slightly surprised when he led Lu Yuanbao into the house.

His eyes moved and scanned the room quickly.

The cobwebs on the roof were gone, the dust on the ground was gone, the furniture was neatly arranged, the environment was spotless, and the simple little house felt brand new even before Chu Yue added the new things she bought today.

This will be his home from now on.

When Lu Zhanlin withdrew his gaze, the cold and hard features on his face softened silently.

He carried Lu Yuanbao into the room, chose a spot and gently put him down, then leaned over and asked in a low voice, looking at Lu Yuanbao at eye level, "Are you hurt in the fight?"

Lu Yuanbao shook his head, "No, I'm not hurt."

Lu Yuanbao and Lu Zhanlin had only met once and were not very familiar with each other, and they did not have the intimacy that came with being with Chu Yue day and night.

The calm and majestic aura of Lu Zhanlin was frightening even to such a young child.

But--

[Yuanbao is the child of Chuyue and me. I am his father. He is not an unwanted wild child.]

Not long ago, Lu Zhanlin's righteous words kept echoing in Lu Yuanbao's mind.

Children aged five or six are smart enough to understand what this sentence means.

Lu Yuanbao felt as if he had dropped something in his heart, and ripples appeared in his heart, making him want to look at Lu Zhanlin again and again.

He whispered in his heart that what his mother said was true, his uncle was really good and would really protect him.

Lu Yuanbao said he was not injured, but Lu Zhanlin didn't believe it. He could see that this child was stubborn at heart. Apart from being close to Chu Yue, he was not close to anyone else.

"Take off your clothes and let me see them."

Not only did Lu Zhanlin say this, he also started to take off Lu Yuanbao's clothes. Lu Yuanbao had just rolled in the mud and his body was dirty, so the clothes should have been taken off.

The cotton coat and trousers were taken off and thrown on the ground. Lu Yuanbao stuffed the child into the quilt first, then pulled up his clothes and checked them carefully.

You don’t know until you see it, and you’ll be shocked when you see it.

Under Lu Yuanbao's round head, his body was very thin and had little flesh. There were bruises all over his body. Lu Zhanlin knew at a glance that those were bruises that had been there for some time.

Today, a few new scars were added to the scars.

It was impossible for Lu Zhanlin to say that he didn't feel heartbroken. He reached out and touched Lu Yuanbao's bruises, and also felt to see if his bones were injured.

"Does it hurt?"

"No..." Lu Yuanbao wanted to shake his head, but then he remembered Chu Yue once told him that you have to speak out when you feel uncomfortable. He moved his eyes and said, "It hurt a little when I was beaten at first, but it didn't hurt after a while."

He survived day by day like this until he was old enough to fight back.

Lu Zhanlin felt heavy in his chest as he listened to Lu Yuanbao's words. He came from the village and naturally knew what kind of treatment an orphan child would suffer in the village.

He touched Lu Yuanbao's head with his broad palm and said, "Yuanbao, this won't happen again. You won't be bullied anymore."

Lu Yuanbao nodded, then turned over in bed, raised his butt and crawled to search the cabinet next to the bed.

He took out a small bottle from the cabinet, which contained grass-green ointment, showed it to Lu Zhanlin, and said with his head raised.

"I applied this and it healed quickly."

Lu Yuanbao remembered Chu Yue's method. He first scooped out the ointment and placed it in the palm of his hand. After rubbing his palms to warm it up and spreading it, he applied it to the injured area.

The new scars were painful when touched, but Lu Yuanbao just frowned and didn't even say a word.

Lu Zhanlin picked up the ointment, looked at it, and smelled it. It had a scent of traditional Chinese medicine, which was used to treat bruises and injuries. The smell was cool, like mint.

The smell of mint reminded Lu Zhanlin of Chu Yue.

He asked, "Where did you get this ointment?"

Lu Yuanbao replied, "She gave it to me."

The little child was unable to call Chu Yue "Mom" for the time being.

Lu Zhanlin was not surprised by this answer. He took the ointment and said, "Let me help you apply it."

After Chu Yue entered the room, what she saw outside the door was Lu Zhanlin helping Lu Yuanbao apply medicine. This was also the first intimate interaction between them as father and son.

Lu Yuanbao lay obediently on the bed, motionless, with his little wolf claws retracted.

After looking at it for a while, Chu Yue felt relieved. She sorted out the things she bought inside and outside, putting those in the living room and those in the kitchen.

Covering the cabinet with white lace fabric instantly gives it a 1970s style. Put a red round tray on it and place the newly bought glasses on the tray.

In the kitchen, glass bottles of soy sauce and rice vinegar, and small clay jars filled with white sugar, brown sugar and rock sugar are neatly arranged.

The room, inside and out, was suddenly filled with the breath of life.

After finishing all these, Chu Yue started to prepare for cooking. She cooked rice in a big iron pot. The rice had a strong aroma from the pot and must be delicious.

Then put a tray on the iron pot. Two plates can be placed on the tray, which means two dishes can be steamed.

Chu Yue made sausage and baby cabbage together.

First, put a layer of baby cabbage, also known as Chinese cabbage, on the plate. Select the tender leaves close to the leaves and stack them neatly one by one without cutting.

Then, I bought some sausages from the market, cut them diagonally into slices, and then placed the sausage slices on the cabbage leaves.

As the high-temperature steam evaporates, the fat in the sausage melts and drips down, just dripping onto the baby cabbage and being absorbed by the leaves, so that the meat flavor is integrated into it.

Baby cabbage itself contains moisture, and under high temperature, vegetable soup will be formed. Combined with the fat from the sausage, the vegetable soup becomes very fragrant.

The other dish is Henan steamed dish.

The method is quite simple. Cut the potatoes into shreds, cut the carrots into shreds, and cut various wild vegetables into sections. After shaking off the water, roll them in flour so that each piece of vegetable is coated with a circle of flour. Shake and place them on a plate.

Yellow shredded potatoes, orange shredded carrots, and green wild vegetable segments—just looking at the colors can whet your appetite.

Steamed dishes, as the name suggests, can be steamed in a pot.

Not only is it simple and convenient, but everything can be steamed. Even celery leaves that you don’t eat daily can be used to make steamed dishes.

After the steamed dishes are out of the pot, they are dipped in a sauce made of sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, salt, sesame seeds, sesame oil and minced garlic. Anyone who has eaten it will know how good it is.

For a family of three, just two dishes are certainly not enough for dinner.

Chu Yue cut some more bacon slices and ate them with a little garlic sauce. She also made a fried egg.