Chapter 64 The Ji Family's Former Cook

The hoe sent from Xiaonan Village arrived. Molly asked Zhao Jian'an to return the hoe she had borrowed earlier and gave him a piece of smoked bacon as a thank you gift.

When Zhao Jian'an returned the hoe, he had a large cabbage in his hand. "This is a return gift."

"These cabbages are growing very well." Molly smiled as she took them; she was short of vegetables at home and hadn't had time to buy any. "I forgot to ask, whose hoe did you borrow?"

"The battalion commander of the 1st Regiment, Lin Deyong, has a wife named Fang Xiuyan. Fang Xiuyan is also from the village. She has six children and raises them all by her side. She is a very capable woman." Zhao Jian'an shook his head, seemingly thinking of something. "It's just that some things are, well, too hard."

"What do you mean?" Molly asked, puzzled.

“All six children are girls,” Zhao Jian’an said.

Molly frowned; she hadn't expected Zhao Jian'an to be so sexist. But most people are like that in this world, so she couldn't really blame Zhao Jian'an.

"What's with that expression? It's not that I don't like girls, it's just that Battalion Commander Lin's family wants a boy. All of Battalion Commander Lin's older brothers and sisters are dead, and only Lin Yingyang survived to adulthood. His parents dream of a prosperous family with many children and grandchildren. So even though Sister Fang has given birth to so many girls, they haven't made her give the children away. They just want her to keep having children until she gives birth to a grandson." Zhao Jian'an didn't think there was anything wrong with what he said. Even if there was a problem, it was Battalion Commander Lin's family's problem, what did it have to do with him? However, he was kicked out of the house by Molly.

He was dumbfounded when he saw the door slam shut in front of him. Why was he angry?

"Too many children are a burden on the mother. You two can't ask your wife to have too many children in the future, understand?" Molly said to Mo An and Lu Lu in a very serious tone with a stern face.

Mo An straightened up, her little face tense, "I understand, sister."

Lu Lu's dark eyes fixed on Molly. "Mom, how many?"

This means asking Molly how many children she should have.

"Two or three should be enough." That was Molly's opinion.

Mo An frowned and thought carefully for a moment. Many families in the village had five or six children, and seven or eight were not uncommon. His expression became troubled. "What if the wife I marry wants to have many children?"

Molly: "......."

She forgot about that possibility.

"Then let her be."

Ji Hefeng went up the mountain to catch rabbits today, and not only did he catch rabbits, he also killed two wild boars. Goodness, one of them weighed over 200 jin (100 kg) and the other over 300 jin (150 kg), totaling over 500 jin (250 kg).

He followed Molly's example from that day, dragging them back to the barracks. Instead of going home, he went straight to the mess hall.

It was just noon, and many people had just finished eating when they saw the two large wild boars and gathered around them.

"Battalion Commander Ji, did you hunt the wild boar all by yourself?" a soldier asked.

Ji Hefeng nodded and said to the soldier, "Go check if my two children are home and invite them over to join in the fun."

"Okay, I'll go right away." The soldier ran off.

Seeing this, the others enthusiastically said, "Battalion Commander Ji, we'll help you push."

Ji Hefeng didn't refuse, "Sure, I'm tired anyway, you guys do it."

Ji Hefeng simply put down the vines, carried his basket on his back, and moved aside.

At first, only two soldiers stepped forward, one pulling and the other pushing, but they couldn't budge them. Undeterred, they used all their strength, their faces and ears turning red, before the two pigs finally moved a little.

"Are you two even capable?" the people around them jeered.

"Don't make sarcastic remarks. These two pigs are really heavy, probably weighing no less than 400 pounds in total." The soldier in charge of pulling them said, panting. He wondered how Battalion Commander Ji managed to bring such heavy things back from the mountain all by himself.

"These two pigs do look quite big, I'll give it a try."

"If you can't do it alone, all of you should come together."

Finally, a group of soldiers, chatting and laughing, delivered the wild boar to the mess hall.

When Mo An and Lu Lu ran over, they saw Ji Hefeng sitting in the canteen with a basket on his back next to him and a lunchbox in his hands, eating his meal with gusto.

"Brother-in-law, where is the wild boar you hunted?" Mo An asked.

Ji Hefeng pointed inside, "The master is already slaughtering a pig. You can go in and take a look."

Mo An was about to step inside when Ji Hefeng called out to him, "Wait, did your sister say anything when you came over?"

“My sister said there’s no oil at home for cooking,” Mo An said.

"Okay, I understand. You and Xiao Lu go in first, keep an eye on Xiao Lu, and if he gets scared, bring him out."

"Okay, I'll keep an eye on him."

Ji Hefeng hadn't finished his meal when Zhao Jian'an arrived. He sat down and immediately asked, "I heard you hunted two big wild boars?"

Ji Hefeng ate without looking up, saying, "Your news is always on time."

Zhao Jian'an: "Shot with a gun?"

"I didn't bring it at all." Ji Hefeng didn't mention that he punched the target, but he kept throwing punches, enjoying himself immensely.

"That's good." Zhao Jian'an breathed a sigh of relief. At this critical juncture, everyone was watching Ji Hefeng, just waiting for him to make a mistake. Even the smallest thing could be magnified and used as a pretext.

"I know what's important." He carefully declined the invitations to have dinner at the regimental commander's and division commander's homes for the next two evenings.

Zhao Jian'an pulled up his chair. "Your wife kicked me out of your house today."

Ji Hefeng paused, looking at Zhao Jian'an in disbelief. He knew that Molly treated Zhao Jian'an differently from others, calling him "Brother Zhao" repeatedly, which made him feel a pang of jealousy.

"What did you do to her?" Ji Hefeng's face was grim, and he subconsciously assumed that Zhao Jian'an had bullied Molly.

"I didn't do anything." Zhao Jian'an scratched his head. He didn't know what he had done to upset Molly. "Tell me what I did and said today, and you can help me analyze where I went wrong."

Ten minutes later.

Ji Hefeng put down his chopsticks and looked at Zhao Jian'an's distressed expression, thinking that he deserved it.

“In our family, girls are just as precious as boys. In fact, our Ji family tradition is that girls should be pampered even more, and when they get married, their dowry must be as long as it stretches for miles,” Ji Hefeng said.

"I never said I didn't like girls, but a family must have a son to carry on the family line. Isn't that something everyone knows and accepts?"

“That’s you, not me. And whether a woman has a boy or a girl isn’t something she can choose. What kind of seeds you sow on a piece of land determines what kind of crops grow. They are the ones who are hurt. I won’t let Molly have six children in the future. She can have as many as she wants, or she can have none at all. Anyway, we have a son now.”

"Are you serious?"

"certainly."

Zhao Jian'an fell into deep thought.

Ji Hefeng ignored him, took the empty lunchbox into the kitchen, washed it clean, and put it back in its original place.

"Uncle Wang, my wife wants some fatty meat or rendered pork fat to make lard. We're out of oil for cooking," Ji Hefeng said.

Uncle Wang was picking bones with a knife when he heard this. Without saying a word, he cut off a large piece of pork fat, then cut off about ten pounds of pork belly and about ten pounds of ribs, put them into a wooden bucket, covered it, and told Ji Hefeng to take it back.

The people in the kitchen just glanced at it, didn't say anything, and continued with their work. This was a wild boar that Ji Hefeng had hunted; it weighed several hundred pounds, and he only took about twenty pounds of meat, which wasn't excessive.

"Thank you so much," Ji Hefeng said with a smile.

Uncle Wang waved his hand, "Hurry up. Take these two children back with you."

Ji Hefeng then called to Mo An and Lu Lu, "Let's go home and check on the rabbits."

Uncle Wang watched the three of them walk away, his eyes moist. No one knew that he had watched Ji Hefeng grow up. When he came to the military camp to work as a cook, it was Grandpa Ji who used his connections to arrange for him to come here, and he also moved his whole family to a nearby town and arranged jobs for his son and daughter-in-law.

Far from the turbulent big city, their family settled into a peaceful life here, while Old Master Ji's family—

Grandpa, the young master is doing well now.

The young master, once burdened with worries and risking his life for military merit, was like a taut bow; he was truly afraid that the bow would snap at any moment. And it did snap—

Upon learning that the young master was paralyzed and there was no possibility of recovery, he was so worried that he couldn't sleep for days and nights, and almost went to the old man to apologize. But before he could even set off, the young mistress named Molly arrived, and two days later, the young master was cured, full of energy and more spirited than before. The weight that had been pressing on the young master's shoulders seemed to have suddenly dissipated, and the young master became vibrant from the inside out.

It must have been that young mistress named Molly who did something to the young master.

Uncle Wang was both grateful to Molly and incredibly curious about her. He had seen Molly twice, but aside from her unforgettable beauty, he couldn't see anything else about her for the time being.

Ji Hefeng caught seven rabbits, three males and four females. The larger ones weighed six or seven pounds, and the smaller ones weighed three or four pounds.

He made the rabbit cage based on Molly's old one, and it was very big, more than enough to hold seven rabbits.

The chicks arrived yesterday. There were seven in total, bought from two different farmers. Except for one male, the other six are all females.

The rabbit cage and chicken coop were placed against the wall, and Ji and Feng built a thatched roof for them to shelter them from the wind and rain.

"I'll go to the countryside this afternoon to buy some more vegetables," Ji Hefeng said.

Supply and marketing cooperatives also sell vegetables, but if you want to buy in bulk, it's more cost-effective to buy directly from farmers.

Molly, slicing pork fat, asked him, "Do you have enough money?"

"That's enough." Ji Hefeng chuckled twice and walked over to Molly. "We'll have dinner in the cafeteria. Should we marinate the ribs and pork belly?"

Molly nodded. "Yes."

"I'll pickle them." Ji Hefeng washed his hands and started working, seemingly nonchalant. "Are you angry with Zhao Jian'an?"

“No,” Molly denied.

"But he said you kicked him out of the house."

"Okay, I was a little angry at the time."

"Aren't you angry now?"

"I can't control his thoughts and opinions."

“I’m different from him. Whether it’s a daughter or a son, they’re all the same to me.”

"..." She didn't believe it.

"It's okay not to have children."

“I can’t. I want a child of my own,” Molly said earnestly.

This time, it was Ji Hefeng who was stunned. He looked at Molly in disbelief, "You want to have a child?"

If they wanted to have a child, why did they sleep in the same bed? She was as indifferent as a wooden doll without feelings or desires.

A terrible thought surged into Ji Hefeng's mind: Could it be that Molly wanted to have a child with someone else?

“Children are so cute, why wouldn’t you want to?” Molly retorted.

Ji Hefeng: "......."

Isn't it cute?

Why doesn't he think so?

"When do you think is the best time to have a baby? Or rather, when do you plan to have one?" Ji Hefeng was so nervous when he asked this question that he forgot to breathe.

"It depends on fate," Molly said, putting the pork fat into the pot.

The buzzing sound broke the somewhat strange atmosphere between the two.

Ji Hefeng pursed his lips, turned and left the kitchen, picking up a hoe from the corner of the wall. "I'm going to clear the wasteland."

Molly glanced at his retreating figure, lost in thought.

Molly had already cleared most of the wasteland. Ji and Feng finished hoeing the remaining land, then tidied up the turned-over soil again, breaking up the larger clods of mud. They didn't return to the camp until it was almost dark.

Since no one was home, Molly took Mo An and Lu Lu to the cafeteria for lunch. When they arrived, there was already a long queue. The three of them each carried a lunchbox and randomly chose a queue to join.

The air was filled with the aroma of meat. Mo An sniffed and said, "Sister, the chef in the cafeteria is so skilled. The meat he makes smells so good."

Lu Lu nodded, "It smells good!"

"It smells really good. I don't know what ingredients they used or how they cooked it." The wild boar meat she cooked herself didn't smell this good.

"Molly, thanks to your Battalion Commander Ji, we got to eat free pork tonight," a woman greeted Molly with a smile.

Molly remembered her; she was one of the two women Lu Lu had suddenly attacked a few days ago. She recalled Zhao Jian'an saying that this slightly plump woman's surname was Gu, and she was the wife of Fang You'an, the commander of the 2nd Regiment.

Two boys and a girl were with Aunt Gu. The boy was a head taller than Mo An, and the girl looked about the same age as Lu Lu. At this moment, the three children were curiously looking at Mo Li and the other two.

"You're too kind, Sister-in-law Gu," Molly said.

Sister-in-law Gu smiled and said, "That's not just being polite; we thank you from the bottom of our hearts."

Even when expressing her gratitude, Sister Gu didn't intend to introduce her own children, let alone suggest that the children play together.

The wild boar was huge today, and everyone got a good amount of pork, a big spoonful for each person, which overflowed their lunchboxes.

When it was Molly's turn, Uncle Wang not only gave each of them a large spoonful of wild boar meat, but also packed them a box of sweet and sour pork ribs in a lunchbox.

These spare ribs are for military leaders; ordinary people don't get them.

Molly asked in surprise, "You recognize us?"

"I recognize him," Uncle Wang said, burying his head in serving the next person's food.

Molly and the other two found a table. Molly and Lu Lu sat side by side, while Mo An sat opposite them.

When Ji Hefeng came over with the lunchbox, half of the sweet and sour pork ribs had already been eaten. He felt even more upset; she really didn't care about him.

Ji Hefeng's lunchbox was so full that the lid couldn't be closed. It was full of offal, pork, and ribs, but he still felt empty inside.