Chapter 43 Chapter 43

When Jiang Huai heard that Wei Xuan was coming to see him, he entered the room and found that the air in the room seemed to be condensed, revealing a stiff and cold feeling.

Wei Xuan and Xiao Jingzhao were silent, and the atmosphere seemed very stiff. Fortunately, Jiang Huai's arrival broke the silence. Wei Xuan and Jiang Huai chatted for a while, had a meal at Jiang's house before leaving.

"Did Brother Wei say anything to you just now?" Jiang Huai didn't want to ask before, but now that Wei Xuan was gone, after hesitating for a moment, Jiang Huai still asked. He was afraid that there might be some misunderstanding, and if it wasn't resolved quickly, it might become a knot in his heart.

Xiao Jingzhao looked at the worry on Jiang Huai's face, shook his head and said, "Nothing."

Jiang Huai saw that Xiao Jingzhao might be unwilling to tell the reason, and frowned. However, from Xiao Jingzhao's attitude, he suspected that the relationship between them was awkward, and it might be Wei Xuan who spoke first. After all, with Xiao Jingzhao's usual caution, how could he offend Wei Xuan for no reason?

Since Xiao Jingzhao refused to say, Jiang Huai took the time to find Wei Xuan.

After learning about Jiang Huai's purpose, Wei Xuan's face froze. He didn't expect that he had been so obvious before. He originally wanted to brush it off lightly like Xiao Jingzhao did, but then he thought, this matter is not just Xiao Jingzhao's problem. If Jiang Huai didn't mean it, maybe it could have been avoided.

Wei Xuan racked his brains to tell some tragic love stories with unequal relationships, hoping to use them to hint to Jiang Huai, but Jiang Huai didn't understand at all. As Wei Xuan was talking, he suddenly started to tell the meaning of the stories.

"Brother Huai, you and Wei Xi are not the same kind of people after all..." Wei Xuan saw that Jiang Huai really didn't understand, and reminded him through gritted teeth.

Jiang Huai almost thought that Wei Xuan still despised Xiao Jingzhao's background. After all, in his understanding, many aristocratic families attached great importance to their status. Although Wei Xuan had not shown it before, it might be that he just did not show it in front of him. When facing Xiao Jingzhao alone, he could not hide it.

But after hearing Wei Xuan's next words, Jiang Huai was dumbfounded. He really didn't expect that Wei Xuan would misunderstand the relationship between him and Xiao Jingzhao.

Although he had initially said that it was a disguised relationship, that was a misunderstanding that could arise from someone unfamiliar with the relationship. When he was with Wei Xuan, weren't he and Xiao Jingzhao interacting normally? How could Wei Xuan have misunderstood him?

"Brother Wei, you misunderstood. Xiao Jingzhao and I are not what you think." Jiang Huai felt that he had guessed the reason and hurried to explain. This time he had been talking about it from the beginning when they met until now. Jiang Huai had mentioned it a few times before, but at that time he didn't think it needed to be explained too clearly. But now, the misunderstanding has become a big deal.

Jiang Huai also felt that it would be inappropriate to let this misunderstanding continue.

Wei Xuan already had some prejudice against Xiao Jingzhao because of this incident. Although this prejudice should not cause any big impact, Jiang Huai felt that there was no need to keep the misunderstanding that could be explained clearly.

After all, Wei Xuan is Xiao Jingzhao's current boss. If the misunderstanding continues to exist, the two of them will always feel awkward when dealing with each other. He can solve the problem with just a few words, so why not do it?

"So our friendship is one of mutual dependence, or a bit of brotherhood." Jiang Huai concluded, perhaps with a bit of attachment as a fledgling. After all, among the good people he met when he traveled through time, Xiao Jingzhao was the most important. But Jiang Huai didn't say this, after all, Wei Xuan had already misunderstood, and this fledgling complex sounded a bit ambiguous, so don't get it wrong.

Wei Xuan understood what Jiang Huai meant, and as he watched Jiang Huai narrate what had happened, his face was full of relief and gratitude. He was also certain that Jiang Huai had no personal feelings for Xiao Jingzhao, or perhaps there was, but Jiang Huai was completely unaware of it at the moment.

If he had known this news before asking Xiao Jingzhao, he would have felt relieved.

But when Wei Xuan thought of Xiao Jingzhao's evasive attitude when facing the questions, his heart sank. It seemed that the situation was even worse than he had imagined.

He originally thought that the two of them had a secret relationship with each other. After all, Jiang Huai was very good to Xiao Jingzhao. If it were him, Wei Xuan asked himself if he could do such a thing, so he also thought it was normal for Xiao Jingzhao to be attracted to him. But the problem was, Xiao Jingzhao was interested, but Jiang Huai was not.

This situation made Wei Xuan think of Wei Shu again. In fact, Xiao Jingzhao's situation was better than Wei Shu's, because Jiang Huai's character was definitely better than the emperor's. But this made things even more troublesome.

Wei Xuan felt a little regretful. If he had known earlier, he would not have tested Xiao Jingzhao. This way, he would not have been discovered by Jiang Huai, and he would not have learned something that would have made him more troubled.

After Jiang Huai said this, he thought Wei Xuan would relax a little, but he didn't expect Wei Xuan's face to look even uglier than before. Could it be that the other party had misunderstood something again?

"Brother Wei?" Jiang Huai saw a worried look on Wei Xuan's face, thinking he was still worried, just like he was worried about his child falling in love too early. Although Wei Xuan was not his real elder, in Anyuan Mansion, with the other elders away, Wei Xuan was the one closest to him. After thinking for a moment, he assured Wei Xuan, "In short, don't worry, there is absolutely no affair between Wei Xi and me."

Jiang Huai felt that after he said this, Wei Xuan should be completely relieved.

Wei Xuan felt upset when he heard what he said. When he had guessed about their relationship before, Wei Xuan just wanted to break them up, but now he found out that it was his nephew who had unrequited love and Jiang Huai was unaware of it, Wei Xuan felt a little conflicted again.

"You really treat him..." Wei Xuan spoke and realized that he had actually said what was in his heart. He swallowed the second half back. Just by listening to the first half, Jiang Huai knew what Wei Xuan wanted to say.

Jiang Huai was silent for a moment, reviewed it carefully, shook his head and said: "No, at least not for the time being. I don't know what will happen in the future, but... not now."

Jiang Huai said the latter part, thinking of Xiao Jingzhao's face, paused for a moment and continued: "So Brother Wei, don't think about this matter in the future, and don't let it affect your relationship with Wei Xi."

Wei Xuan was a little distracted, and nodded when he heard Jiang Huai's words. Jiang Huai was relieved to see that he had listened to him. Seeing someone delivering documents, he knew that Wei Xuan was very busy recently, so he didn't dare to waste his time and said goodbye and left.

After Jiang Huai left for a while, Wei Xuan finished his government affairs and suddenly stopped when he recalled what Jiang Huai had just said.

If there really was no personal feelings involved, why would Jiang Huai come to me so eagerly?

Wei Xuan felt that his guess was correct, but he was not sure. Most importantly, he did not dare to ask more questions because he was not sure whether he wanted Jiang Huai not to be tempted or wanted Jiang Huai to be tempted.

If Jiang Huai is not interested, then Xiao Jingzhao will be the only one to suffer. If both parties are interested, then both sides will be in trouble.

But, forget it, Wei Xuan sighed and didn’t want to think about it anymore.

…

Ding ding ding!

Jiang Huai knocked on the pot that was brought to him, and the iron made a crisp sound.

This is a pot that Jiang Huai specially commissioned the blacksmith from Anyuan Prefecture to make for him after he earned a lot of money. He didn't have the conditions before, but now he has the conditions. Jiang Huai still wants to improve his eating conditions. The iron pot is the cooking utensil he wants to make the most, because he has tried to use other kitchen utensils to cook, steaming, roasting, and boiling, but it is very difficult to stir-fry.

Even if you manage to fry it, it won't taste like stir-fried food, and it's especially easy to burn the pan. But if you add a little more oil, it will become pan-fried, and the taste will be different from stir-fried food.

It was just an iron pot. Jiang Huai didn't expect it to be so difficult to make. He didn't know if it was a problem with the iron or the blacksmith's skills. After working on it for a long time, Jiang Huai almost forgot about it. The blacksmith shop finally delivered the iron pot, along with a large spatula.

However, this iron pot was not like the thin small pot used on the gas stove that Jiang Huai had seen before. Instead, it was quite similar to the pot used on the big stove in the countryside, and it was a bit thick. But fortunately, the thickness was still very uniform, so it would not be heated unevenly.

Looking at the new pot, Jiang Huai quickly got to work and prepared to cook something.

It’s just that the iron pot was sent in a hurry. The family had already prepared the meal. If I made some complicated dishes on top of it, it would not only be troublesome to prepare, but also waste time.

Although the temperature is a little higher now than before, if the cooking time is too long and it delays the time, the dishes on the table...

Jiang Huai glanced at the dishes on the table. Nowadays, the oil used is either animal fat or sesame oil, but sesame oil is not usually used in cooking, so most of the time, animal fat is used. Animal fat tastes delicious, but there is a problem. It easily solidifies when it gets cold, and once it is frozen, the taste is hard to describe.

So, let’s keep it simple.

When it comes to simple stir-fried dishes, the first thing Jiang Huai thought of was spicy and sour potato shreds, but soon, Jiang Huai remembered that he couldn't make it because there were no potato shreds, and there seemed to be no chili peppers now. Although there are dogwoods now, which can also be a bit spicy, the spiciness of dogwood and chili peppers is quite different.

Jiang Huai remembered that some popular science books said that there should have been chili peppers in ancient times, but they might have existed in the deep mountains and were rarely discovered. He also didn't know whether there were chili peppers in the Great Zhou.

Jiang Huai searched his memory. In addition to spicy foods, he also focused on searching whether anyone had grown flowers and plants that would produce fruits similar to peppers, but there was nothing.

Forget it, I can’t eat shredded potatoes, so I’ll just have some scrambled eggs with tomatoes. Jiang Huai paused, it seemed there were no tomatoes either, so he ate some minced meat and tofu, oh no, it seemed there was no tofu either, but Jiang Huai didn’t know whether there was no tofu yet or his original body had never eaten it before.

But no matter what, it is definitely not available now.

Then let's have some fried winter bamboo shoots with bacon, which is delicious. As for the bamboo shoots, he seemed to have bought them. Just as Jiang Huai showed a hint of joy on his face, he remembered that there was no bacon.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with this pot?" Jiang Huai's expression kept changing, and he looked a little surprised when he saw Xiao Jingzhao standing beside him. If he remembered correctly, Jiang Huai should have been looking forward to this iron pot before, so why did he not look so interested now?

"It's nothing, I just found that there are really few delicious foods." Jiang Huai almost cried. He thought that with kitchen utensils, he would be able to eat all kinds of delicious food, but now he found that the ingredients were too scarce and he had to look for more ingredients.

Just thinking about his own taste and hobbies, and then thinking about the time when various ingredients were discovered in the original world, Jiang Huai really had no confidence in himself.