Chapter 79

Xun Ai is a very skilled cook. Apart from learning how to make pickled vegetables from Chen Sanhe, she has no one to teach her any other cooking methods. She is entirely self-taught.

When they were young, Xun Yi, as the older brother, did the cooking for a long time, but he was really single-minded when it came to cooking.

Whether they ate relief food or hunted prey, they always cooked it.

After eating boiled food for almost a year, Xun Yi caught two palm-sized fish one day. As he was about to put the whole fish, gutted but not scaled, into the pot to make fish porridge, Xun Ai couldn't help but ask for the first time, "Brother, can we grill the fish?"

So, the fish that night was grilled entirely by Xun Ai.

She rubbed a thin layer of salt on the two fish, then pierced each fish with a wooden stick, and kept turning them over the charcoal fire for almost half an hour to roast them.

Because the fish are heated evenly throughout the process, they are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with sweet and savory flesh and no fishy smell whatsoever.

From then on, all meat in the Xun family was cooked by Xun Ai.

Today, Xun Ai went back to her parents' home and brought several pounds of pork and a live fish.

As she carried her things into the kitchen, she discovered that the furnishings, knives, cutting board, and so on were still arranged exactly as they had been before her marriage.

This gave her a sense of disorientation, as if she had only gone out to visit relatives for a few days.

"I'll kill the fish."

Xun Yi followed her into the room.

Since it was a rare opportunity for her to return to her parents' home, Xun Ai shouldn't have been asked to cook. However, Xun Yi's cooking skills were indeed mediocre, so he had no choice but to help out.

He scaled and gutted the fish, while Xun Ai washed the meat and chopped the vegetables.

The child in the main room was bored and started crying again, so Wu Zheng carried her and strolled around in front of the house.

After hearing the sounds of teasing the child fade into the distance, Xun Ai paused in her cutting of meat.

She came back not just to visit Xun Yi, but because her husband was there, there were some things she couldn't ask.

This is a perfect opportunity.

"Little sister."

Xun Ai was still organizing his words when Xun Yi spoke first.

"Actually... even if you don't go back to your parents' home today, I will still go to Turtleback Village to see you tomorrow."

"My elder brother is planning to get married."

Having prepared what he was going to say beforehand, Xun Yi spoke with remarkable fluency.

Clang—

Xun Ai didn't even hold the knife properly before slamming it down onto the thick wooden cutting board.

"W-what did you say, brother?"

Xun Ai's surprise was like when you were about to ask someone, "When are you going to clear the land and plant vegetables?" and they replied, "Hey! What are you talking about? The vegetables have already been planted and grown to maturity, and we can cook them anytime."

In the time it takes to cook a meal, Xun Ai could learn the whole story from his brother.

When Xun Ai heard that her future sister-in-law was Shu Wanxiu, she was only excited, not surprised.

"The day you delivered something to me for her, I noticed something was off about your expression..."

She laughed heartily, her tone full of pride in her keen intuition.

"Well then, after we finish eating, I'm going to go see Sister Shu."

Xun Yi considered things from Shu Wanxiu's perspective, "If you go now, how will she treat you? It might be inconvenient."

Xun Ai smiled proudly, "Why wouldn't it be convenient? I'm going to thank Sister Shu!"

On the day of the baby's third-day celebration, Shu Wanxiu gave her a forehead ribbon. The two had no prior relationship, and Xun Ai hadn't planned how to reciprocate when she received the gift.

I did think of it later during my postpartum period.

"I brought my sister a bag of lampwick cakes, a bag of hibiscus cakes, and a box of angelica root and pig pancreas oil ointment!"

The first two items are snacks to eat, and the last item is for wiping hands.

What else could Xun Yi say?

After the three adults had a hearty lunch, Xun Yi gave Xun Ai a series of instructions as he escorted him to the mountainside.

Xun Ai felt that the two ears on her head were suffering terribly because of her.

There are always people who treat her like an unreliable person, repeating the same advice over and over in her ear until her ears are practically calloused!

Despite harboring resentment, one still needs to show one's attitude.

She patted her chest and assured him, "Don't worry, big brother, I definitely won't say anything out of line."

There were only three things in total, and Xun Yi carried them for her on the way up the mountain, afraid that she would get tired from carrying them!

Xun Ai snatched the bag from his hand and ran to the front of the Shu family's house.

Xun Yi silently stepped back.

He was now hesitant to meet with Shu Wanxiu.

Lately, even imagining him and Shu Wanxiu bumping into each other in the village makes Xun Yi's hands tremble, his heart race, and his face burn.

If I were to actually show these behaviors in front of my sister, it would be truly laughable.

Almost at the same time that Xun Yi retreated into the woods, Xun Ai spoke up from in front of the Shu family's house.

"Sister Shu? Sister Shu? Are you home?"

Shu Wanxiu threw the old vegetable scraps that the chicks had just swept out of the chicken coop into the compost pit behind the house.

When Xun Ai called out "Sister Shu," Shu Wanxiu didn't realize for a moment that he was calling her.

The reason I brought Shu Shouyi out was because there aren't many people on the mountain on weekdays, so it's rare to hear any noise and we just wanted to see something interesting.

She walked through the kitchen to the front of the house and saw a woman with fair skin and delicate features, dressed in a light blue fine cloth, standing about five or six feet in front of her main room.

While Shu Wanxiu was observing, Xun Ai had already recognized Shu Wanxiu and asked her with a beaming smile, "Are you Sister Shu?"

She only asked if it was 'Sister Shu'. Shu Wanxiu was still unsure if she was the one the woman was looking for, so she could only say, "My surname is indeed Shu, and my given name is Wanxiu. May I ask who you are looking for, young lady?"

Xun Ai smiled even more brightly, "I've been looking for you! Sister Shu, it's me, Xun Ai."

"Ah...this!" Shu Wanxiu was stunned for a few seconds, then quickly stepped aside to guide Xun Ai into the main room, "Please come in and sit down."

"Sister, it's no trouble at all. I'll just say a few words and then leave. No need to sit down." Xun Ai said this, but in her heart she was thinking, "Sister-in-law, I really want to come and sit in your house, but my elder brother told me to say this."

Shu Wanxiu was always hospitable, and she was even more so when the guest was a woman.

She repeatedly invited him, and Xun Ai pretended to be unable to refuse, glancing towards the woods.

Then he turned around and happily stepped over the threshold of the Shu family's main room.

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The author says: Angelica dahurica and pig pancreas oil ointment is a recipe from the Eastern Jin Dynasty book "Elbow-Side Emergency Prescriptions". It contains ingredients such as Angelica dahurica and pig pancreas, and is made into an ointment to moisturize the skin of the palms.