Wan Shu could understand the original owner's resentment towards Wan Feng.

She was in the prime of her life and could have married a young man her own age, but because of Wan Feng, she was forced to sell herself to an old widower with children. How could she not resent it?

However, you can't really blame Wanfeng for this. After all, it wasn't that Wanfeng wanted to get injured; encountering the black bear was completely an accident.

He never even considered selling the original owner of the body to pay for his medical expenses.

After being injured, he fell into a coma. When he woke up, the original owner of the body had already been sold.

Even worse, although he saved his life with the money he earned from selling himself into servitude, he was left with a limp.

He can barely walk, but he can't do heavy work or get out of bed.

This was a fatal blow to rural people who made a living by farming. As a result, Wanfeng is now twenty-five years old and still unmarried, making him a well-known old bachelor in Qingshui Village.

And because he couldn't work, he was often looked down upon by his sister-in-law in the Wan family.

It is truly remarkable that Wanfeng was able to save up some grain to help her under such difficult circumstances.

Wan Shu hid the rice under the bed and left the room.

Wan Feng and his five children, who were arguing at the gate of the courtyard, all shuddered instinctively when they saw Wan Shu come out.

Because every time Wan Shu saw Wan Feng, she would go crazy and beat him, and she would roll on the ground and wail, making a very ugly scene.

To avoid attracting the attention of nearby villagers, Wan Feng put down the cloth bag he was carrying at the gate of the courtyard and quickly limped away.

Upon seeing this, the five children immediately scattered like birds and beasts: some plucked feathers, some started a fire, some washed wild vegetables, and some chopped firewood...

Wan Shu: "..." Is she really that scary?

Sigh, never mind, it's not something that can be done overnight to change everyone's impression of her.

Wan Shu walked to the courtyard gate and picked up the cloth bag left by Wan Feng.

Wow, it's quite heavy.

When she opened it, she found a whole bag of buckwheat mixed with beans, with a handful of dried mushrooms on top.

This bag of buckwheat weighs at least five or six pounds. Even if it's mixed with beans, it could still sell for fifty or sixty coins given the current high prices.

Modern people pursue health and often add whole grains such as buckwheat to refined white rice, but whole grains are not suitable as a long-term staple food.

First, there's the taste. Cooked whole grains have a terrible texture—coarse and rough, they irritate the throat. Second, there's the digestive issue. Whole grains are filling but difficult to digest, and with beans mixed in, cooking them like this inevitably puts a strain on the stomach and intestines.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, Wan Shu simply went into the room and mixed most of the rice she had just bought from the mall into the buckwheat.

Eating them mixed together like this can reduce the burden on the stomach and intestines, and allow you to eat them for several more days.

Wan Shu carried a cloth bag mixed with rice to the kitchen and called over Er Ya and Siya, who were cooking wild vegetables over a fire.

"This is the food your uncle sent. We'll cook this tonight and everyone can have a good meal."

Er Ya and Si Ya were both quite surprised. In the past, their mother would never eat the things their uncle sent, finding them disgusting. She would always take them to town to resell before sending them to the Su family.

When they opened the cloth bag, they were even more surprised to see rice mixed in with buckwheat and beans.

"Good heavens! Isn't this rice?!"

"My uncle is so kind! He actually gave us rice. Isn't that something only rich men in town can afford?!"

Contrary to the modern situation where rice is cheap and coarse grains are expensive, in ancient times, refined rice was considered a high-quality commodity, and its price was three to four times that of coarse grains.

The main crop in Qingshui Village is rice, but the farmers live in poverty. In order to fill their stomachs, they exchange the harvested rice for cheaper coarse grains every year, and they rarely eat rice all year round.

Those adorned in fine silks are not the ones who raise silkworms.

Er Ya and Si Ya had never eaten rice since birth. Looking at the round, white rice, they felt both joy and heartache.

"This rice is so good, can we really eat it? If we take it to town to sell, we could probably make a lot of money!"

Wan Shu had already found the key to solving their reluctance to eat, and immediately put on a stern face.

"You're not going to eat, huh? Then I'll send it to the Su family."

Sure enough, as soon as they heard the name Su, Er Ya and S Ya quickly changed their tune and said they wanted to eat there, they wanted to eat there tonight!

And because he was worried that Wan Shu would really send such a good thing as rice to the Su family, he grabbed an extra handful more than he usually did when cooking pure grains.

After watching their work, Wan Shu nodded with satisfaction and then walked over to the three brothers who were gathered around the stove, preparing to cook chicken.

The chicken had already been chopped, and Liang Dazhu stood in the center, preparing to pour the chicken and a large basin of wild vegetables into the water.

Chicken and wild vegetables boiled together in plain water?! Isn't that a complete waste of resources?!

Seeing that the chicken was about to be put into the water, Wan Shu couldn't help but let out a sharp scream: "Stop!! What are you doing!?"

The three brothers trembled in fright and looked at her timidly: "Mother, we're cooking..."

Calm down, calm down, don't scare the child.

Wan Shu took a deep breath and asked as gently as possible, "Mother, do you mean why you cook chicken and wild vegetables together?"

Liang Dazhu scratched his head, somewhat puzzled: "Everyone in the village cooks meat like this, is there a problem?"

Wan Shu: "..." Damn it, she actually forgot that the Great Sheng Dynasty was an ancient dynasty, and its antiquity was not only reflected in its time, but also in its culinary skills!

In those days, there were few seasonings and cooking methods available. Coupled with the scarcity of resources during famine years, this was indeed how meat was cooked in the village in order to save oil and salt.

With so many kids, Wan Shu originally wanted to be a hands-off manager, doing nothing but supervising the work, but now that's probably not an option.

She simply couldn't stand the way good ingredients were ruined by the way they were prepared.

"Get out of the way!" Wan Shu rolled up her sleeves: "Mother's cooking today! I'll show you what delicious food is!"

Before starting her business, Wan Shu worked as a street vendor selling stir-fries to make a living. While her culinary skills couldn't compare to those of a seasoned chef, she was still considered one of the best among ordinary people.

She deftly rendered the chicken fat from inside the chicken cavity, then added the chicken meat and stir-fried it until the surface of the chicken turned a beautiful light yellow. She added seasonings to enhance the aroma, and finally added soaked dried mushrooms to stew.

To save money, she bought farmed chickens that were raised on feed, which had loose meat and didn't need to be stewed for long before becoming tender.

Wan Shu reduced the soup to the right consistency, and instead of eating, she ladled it into two small bowls, covered them with plates, and placed them in a bamboo basket.

She beckoned Wu'an over, whispered a few words to him, and Wu'an grabbed the bamboo basket and ran out like the wind.