Chapter 984: Imperial Examination Essay: The Evil Mother-in-law (7)

"No, mother, I don't need to learn to work. My husband and I have discussed it and plan to find a capable woman to do the housework. I came here today to ask you and father to help find someone." Zhang Luoyi said with shining eyes.

Mother Zhang opened her eyes wide: "Didn't they say that the Han family is very poor? Can they afford to hire a maid to work?"

"Mom, you bought it with my money..." Zhang Luoyi said in a low voice, stealing a glance at Zhang's mother, feeling extremely guilty.

As expected, Zhang's mother was immediately unhappy: "Why should I use your money? Are you stupid? That is the dowry money I gave you. You can't use it unless it is absolutely necessary. You use it to subsidize your husband's family now. What will you do when your money is used up? What if Han Ji changes his mind and lets you down? Then you will have nothing to rely on! Why are you so stupid? If Han Ji can't afford to buy servants, then he won't buy them. You can be a little tired now. Learning to work won't kill you. Why do you have to give money to your husband's family?"

Zhang Luoyi, however, looked unhappy and said, "Mother, why do you always say that I am giving you away for nothing? It's so ugly. I paid for my wife so that she can do the work for me and avoid the hard work. And my husband said that he will compensate me a thousand times in the future. He knows my efforts. As for whether he will change his mind in the future? Mother, you underestimate your daughter's charm, don't you? My husband is so good to me. He said that he will never change his mind in this life. I am his only wife..."

As she spoke, she became shy and a little proud. However, when Zhang's mother saw her like this and heard her words, she thought she was very confused and her face turned cold: "I think you have been bewitched by Han Ji! Now that you are newly married, you are naturally vowing to each other and loving each other sweetly, but when he really succeeds in life and becomes more knowledgeable, and meets more ladies who can help him, he will naturally look down on you. How can you believe these sweet words from men? I taught you to be too naive. Your father has two concubines when he runs a small cloth shop. If Han Ji really passes the imperial examination and becomes an official, can he really stay with you alone?"

"No, my husband will never betray me." Zhang Luoyi bit her lip, suppressing the uneasiness in her heart, and said firmly. She was so in love that she naturally felt that their love was stronger than gold.

However, Zhang's mother has seen too many stories of affectionate women and heartless men in the world. She does not doubt that Han Ji truly loves her daughter at this moment, but she has no idea how long this love can last. A man's feelings can be gone in an instant. If she puts all her feelings on him, and if he really betrays her one day, Zhang's mother can't imagine how painful her daughter will be.

She could only advise her earnestly: "Silly child, no matter what time, don't put all your feelings on a man. Remember, you are the most important."

"Mom, I understand." Zhang Luoyi replied disapprovingly. At this moment, she just felt that her mother was worrying too much. How could she and her husband fall to that point?

"Mom, the matter of finding a wife is no longer up to you and dad. You must find me someone who is diligent and honest, and do it quickly. I don't want to do laundry and cooking anymore." Zhang Luoyi reminded again.

Zhang's mother looked at her innocent and naive appearance and sighed helplessly.

Han Ji studies at the college in town and lives directly in the college. He only has one day off every two weeks, so Zhang Luoyi can only go back to the Han family alone today. However, the Zhang family loves their daughter and is worried about her going back alone, so they let their driver drive a ox cart to take her back.

"Mom, I'm back." Zhang Luoyi greeted Wu Shichu as soon as she entered the yard. However, when she saw what Wu Shichu was doing, her face turned pale. "Mom... are you killing chickens?"

"Yes, I don't know what happened to this chicken. It has no energy today and can't even stand up. I don't know if it is sick. I'll kill it before it dies. If it dies, we can't eat it." Wu Shichu said without any psychological barriers. In fact, this chicken was very lively, but Wu Shichu wanted to drink chicken soup, so it could only be "sick".

"Oh, so that's how it is. But won't eating sick chicken be bad for your health?" Zhang Luoyi asked with a pale face, not daring to look at the chicken being slaughtered.

"No, when I first learned how to raise chickens, my skills were not good and a lot of the chickens got sick. I couldn't bear to throw them away, so I ate them with Han Ji. Look, aren't we doing fine now?" Wu Shichu said nonchalantly.

Zhang Luoyi felt sorry for Han Jilai when she heard this. While she was eating the delicious and healthy chicken, her husband had to eat the sick chicken that he was reluctant to throw away. This was too miserable...

Wu Shichu had no idea that his daughter-in-law was so sentimental. Seeing her standing there stupidly, he said, "If you have nothing to do, help me boil the pot of water in the house again."

"Okay." Zhang Luoyi was afraid that if he didn't agree, Wu Shichu would ask him to help turn the chicken intestines, so he immediately thought that making a fire was a good thing.

A few minutes later, Wu Shichu cleaned up the slaughtered chicken and returned to the kitchen. She asked Zhang Luoyi to light the fire while she started to stir-fry the chicken pieces in a large pot. She first sautéed the ginger, onion and garlic, then poured the chicken pieces in and quickly stir-fried them for more than ten times. After a while, the aroma wafted out.

Zhang Luoyi hadn't had a full meal in the past two days. She finally had a meal of meat at her mother's house, but she was already hungry now. When she smelled the fragrance, her stomach started to growl quite loudly.

Wu Shichu couldn't help but chuckle: "Are you hungry? Don't worry, it's not cooked yet."

Zhang Luoyi's face flushed, and he covered his stomach and stammered, "I'm not hungry...it's just that this is too delicious..."

"I learned the cooking skills when I was young, but I didn't get to use them very often. After all, our family couldn't afford to eat meat often." Wu Shichu said without any concealment.

She quickly put the soaked mushrooms into the pot, poured in a spoonful of water, put in the taro pieces, then covered the pot and let Zhang Luoyi cook it over the fire.

While Zhang Luoyi was lighting the fire, she smelled the strong aroma coming from the pot. Her stomach had already started to protest and her mouth was watering with saliva. She kept swallowing and staring at the steaming pot. She had never thought that chicken smelled so good before. For this reason, she didn't even feel uncomfortable about lighting the fire. If every meal could smell this good, she would be willing to keep lighting the fire.

Wu Shichu figured out that it was almost time, so he came back to start cooking. After opening the lid, the strong aroma of meat and taro almost made Zhang Luoyi stumble. She couldn't help but say, "It smells so good."

"This is my unique secret recipe, of course it smells good, you'll have a treat tonight." Wu Shichu said, "It's a pity that Han Ji is at the academy today so he can't eat it."

(End of this chapter)