Just when I was about to see his face clearly, it was covered with crushed cucumber juice.
Qi Wuze was startled awake, rolling over to sit on the edge of the bed, his muscles rippled beneath his plain white undershirt. The bright moonlight poured down onto the withered Phalaenopsis orchid on the windowsill. He was stunned for a moment, wiped his face in annoyance, and cursed under his breath, gnashing his teeth. "Shh, dead again!"
The sunlight gradually grew scorching. While City Lord Qi's crops withered, the Ye family's courtyard flourished. Ye Nuan blanched the beans and took them outside to dry. Su Shi helped arrange the long strands of beans and asked, "How do we eat them after they're dried?"
Ye Nuan said, "Just let it dry. Use it to make sour beans. They're both appetizing and crispy."
"Sour beans?" Another word she had never heard of before. Mrs. Su discovered that her daughter was very familiar with farm matters and knew more and more, like someone who grew up in the countryside.
"Well, after drying, add salt, garlic cloves, and sugar, seal the jar, and it will ferment and turn sour in ten days or so, and can be kept for a long time." Later, the beans that grow can be dried and made into dried beans, which can be stewed with meat in the future.
I don’t know who has piglets, but we need to raise a few piglets and sheep so that we can have a sumptuous meal during the New Year.
After drying the beans, Ye Nuan took the basket to the chive patch and picked chive seedlings. Su followed her instructions and plucked the chive flowers from the top. She asked curiously, "Aren't you eating chives? Why are you only eating chive seedlings?"
"Both leek sprouts and garlic sprouts can be eaten. They taste great when stir-fried." The yard was filled with the fragrance of grass and trees. Butterflies and bees began to fly back and forth among the corn buds. Ye Xiaohu chased the butterflies back and forth and almost broke the corn stalks.
Su called out a few times with a stern face, but he turned a deaf ear and continued happily chasing butterflies. Ye Nuan chuckled and called out to him softly. Ye Xiaohu immediately turned around and ran towards her, his little face covered in sweat. He said in a baby voice, "Sister?"
His eyes sparkled, and he was looking forward to his sister conjuring up something to eat.
Ye Nuan touched his head and said with a smile: "Pick some chive flowers for me, and I'll make you some mung bean soup later."
The little boy immediately squatted down and imitated his mother, carefully picking the chive flowers. Su was very depressed. This son now always worshipped his elder sister, praising her all the time and treating her words as imperial decrees. He liked her more than her mother.
When they were halfway through picking the chive flowers, Jinqiu came again, casually stuffed two candies into Ye Xiaohu's hand, and then leaned over to talk to Ye Nuan.
"Sister Nuan, please come to my house for lunch today."
Ever since she started calling me "sister," the little girl no longer had a stern face and seemed to be much more lively. Ye Nuan held a handful of chives and asked in confusion, "Why would I go to your house for dinner if I have nothing to do?"
Jin Qiu said, "My mother wants you to teach her how to grow vegetables, fry chive and egg pancakes, and make chicken soup... Anyway, you just go."
"No, I can teach your mother these after dinner. I don't need to eat your family's meal." She put the picked chive seedlings into the basket, got up and went to the kitchen.
Jin Qiu immediately stood up and followed, pleading in his tone: "Just go, my mother said she must invite you over."
Ye Nuan skillfully boiled water to wash the pot, then put two handfuls of mung beans in it and put it on the low stove to boil. Then she began to clean the small jar that the villagers had given her. After washing it, she turned it upside down on the stove to dry. She looked up at Jin Qiu who was trying to persuade her: "Is it really your mother who asked you to do it?"
Jin Qiu nodded sincerely: "Yeah, really, my dad even asked my mom to cook two more dishes."
"Your father knows too?"
"Um."
Ye Nuan paused for a moment and said, "I won't have lunch. I'll tell your parents that I have to cook at home and go after dinner." She saw how difficult it was for Village Chief Jin on the day they dug the well. Now he actually wanted to treat her to a meal. She didn't believe that he had no motive at all.
They were suspicious of each other, and it would be uncomfortable for them to sit at the same table for a meal. Besides, she didn't want to expose the scar on her face in front of others.
Seeing that she really didn't want to go, Jin Qiu's face was a little hurt, and she muttered: "Sister A Nuan doesn't like me?"
Ye Nuan patted her head and chuckled: "Of course, if I didn't like you, I wouldn't let you come to my house. Don't think too much, I just don't like going to other people's homes for dinner. Besides, my mother and Xiaohu are still at home, and neither of them can cook. Am I going to take them all to your house?" I guess Mrs. Tao would be unhappy.
Jin Qiu thought of her mother's repeated instructions to only invite Ye Nuan, and finally she was speechless.
Hesitantly, Ai Ai said, "Then you must come after dinner. I'll wait for you at home."
Seeing her bitter face, Ye Nuan said casually, "How about having a bowl of mung bean soup before leaving?"
"Okay!" Jin Qiu smiled and squatted aside to watch the steaming mung bean soup.
This girl always comes to her house, probably because she is attracted by the food. No wonder the standard for marriage is that the candidate can cook.
After half an hour, the fragrance of mung beans wafted out of the pot. When the lid was removed, the aroma became even stronger. Ye Nuan added a few spoonfuls of sugar, stirred it clockwise, and took the pot off the stove and placed it on the cooktop.
Jin Qiu shouted outside twice, and Ye Xiaohu immediately came running over. He leaned over the stove and stared at the bowl in his sister's hand.
"Pull Xiaohu away a little, don't let him get burned." If he gets burned by the freshly cooked mung bean soup, his skin will definitely peel off.
Jin Qiu pulled Ye Xiaohu over, and the two of them stood in a row, staring at the mung bean soup and smacking their lips.
The soup in the bowl is emerald green in color, with green beans blooming. It is crispy and chewy in the mouth. It is obviously hot, but has a cool taste.
As a child, Ye Nuan loved mung bean soup, especially the kind with distinct, soft, mushy grains. As an adult, she'd also tried coastal mung bean and kelp soup and mung bean and lily paste. But she wasn't so fond of mung beans that had been boiled into a fine, soft paste. Perhaps a person's tastes were influenced by their childhood eating habits.
Jin Qiu said as he ate, "It's delicious. I have plenty of mung beans, red beans, and soybeans at home. I'll bring some to Sister An Nuan tomorrow. Can you cook some for me?"
"Of course." Red beans can replenish blood, and soybeans can be used to stew meat and make soy milk.
After Jin Qiu finished her mung bean soup, Ye Nuan gave her two cucumbers. Before she left, she reminded Ye Nuan to come back later.
The sun was approaching noon. Ye Nuan squinted her eyes and looked in the direction she was walking, wondering what the Jin couple's intentions were.
When the three of them were having lunch, Su asked worriedly, "A Nuan, why do the Jin family insist on asking you to go? Are they trying to act as a matchmaker for that bastard Jin Bao?" That bastard liked to hang around her house when he had nothing to do, and he still had evil intentions.
"Mom, you're overthinking it. How could he even think of marrying me when he hasn't even seen my face? He probably just wants me to teach them how to grow vegetables. I'll take Xiaohu with me later. Mom, gather the beans from outside the yard. I'll make pickled beans when I come back."
When Mrs. Su heard that they were going to take Xiaohu with them, she felt relieved. Then she said sternly, "Anyway, you'd better be careful. Don't suffer in silence. If they dare to bully you, fight back. At worst, we won't stay in the village." Anyway, her daughter is so good at growing vegetables that she can live well anywhere.
Ye Nuan, who had lived for over twenty years and was enjoying the affection of her family for the first time, felt a mixture of warmth and bitterness in her heart. She smiled with her eyebrows curved, "I understand, mother." She thought of something else and asked tentatively, "Mother, although my grandparents are gone, and the Rongguo Mansion is inherited by a bastard, if you ask them, they won't just watch Ye Ling abandon you and your brother. Besides, Ye Ling and you have been married for over ten years. If you show weakness, he might soften his heart. You..."
Mentioning this, Su's face instantly darkened. She sneered, "Duke Rong's Mansion? Even before he got married, that illegitimate younger brother was cunning, jealous, and mean to others. My elder brother and I scolded him several times. I wonder if your uncle's death had anything to do with him. If I ask him to beg him, he might be waiting for me to come and see a joke. Loyalty is usually from the butchers, and unfaithfulness is usually from the scholars. Ye Ling is cruel. Whether it's to us mother and son, or to that mother and son, he won't show mercy. He can abandon that mother and son for wealth and fame, but he certainly won't offend His Majesty for us. I will never show weakness to him in my life..."
She looked at Ye Nuan again, the gloom in her eyes slowly dissipated, and a smile appeared on the corner of her lips: "Besides, how can I let my Ah Nuan wander in the wilderness alone? The three of us, mother and son, are united, and we must be together wherever we go."
Ye Nuan felt a slight soreness in her nose and whispered, "Mom..."
"Okay, stop being so cheesy with me. Go quickly. I'm waiting for you to come back to make pickled beans." Her mother stood up suddenly. The emotions in her eyes had disappeared, and she looked decisive.
Ye Nuan: ....I was touched by the loneliness.
Unlike her first visit to the Jin family, this time, Jin Qiu had specifically invited her to be a formal guest. As a guest, one should act like a guest. Ye Nuan plucked some cabbage from the vegetable patch and cut some leeks, carrying them in her hands as she headed to the Jin family's house.
When Ye Xiaohu heard they were going to visit, he jumped for joy. When they arrived at the Jin family's house, the village chief was sitting on a wooden block in the yard, smoking a pipe. He bared his yellow teeth and gave Ye Nuan a wrinkled smile: "The Ye family is here."
"Jinqiu, make me some tea!"
Jinqiu rushed to the front yard like a gust of wind and invited Ye Nuan to sit inside. She made tea herself. Tea leaves were rare in the wilderness, and her family was the only one in the village that had them. After making the tea, she brought some melon seeds, sesame candies, and candied fruit to the table and invited Ye Xiaohu to eat.
Ye Xiaohu glanced at Ye Nuan and his lips smacked.
"Eat." Ye Nuan said softly.
She handed the vegetables to Jinqiu, looked around, and asked, "Where's your mother? Didn't you ask me to teach her how to grow vegetables?"
Jin Qiu said hurriedly, "My mother and eldest brother are in the backyard. My eldest brother is digging the ground and my mother is feeding the sheep."
"You have sheep?" Ye Nuan became interested. Without even drinking her tea, she stood up and headed for the backyard. Before she could even take a step, Village Chief Jin, who had been sitting outside smoking a pipe, came in and said in a slow voice, "Don't leave, Ye family. I have something to ask you."
Jin Qiu was slightly stunned. She looked at her father, then at Ye Nuan, and asked doubtfully, "Dad, what do you want to ask Sister Nuan?"
Village Chief Jin glared at his daughter and said, "Don't interrupt. Go to your mother's place."
What was she going to say, and she had to avoid it herself. Village Chief Jin wouldn't tell her until she left. Jin Qiu stamped her feet and turned to go to the backyard.
He nodded to the edge of the table, motioning Ye Nuan to sit down, and then he pulled a chair and sat opposite her.
Seeing his posture, he seemed to have something to say. Ye Nuan sat down, calmly lowered her eyes, and said softly, "What's the matter, Village Chief?"
Village Chief Jin took another long drag on his pipe, the smoke swirling around him. The girl across from him had a straightforward expression, a calm demeanor, and was evidently well-educated. He pondered the question he wanted to ask for a moment before finally saying, "We're going to collect rocks tomorrow. Will your family come?"
Ye Nuan expected him to ask many questions, such as: why did her vegetables grow so fast, why did the wild animals not bite her, where did they come from, what crimes had they committed. But he didn't ask any of them, instead asking this insignificant question.
"go."
Village Chief Jin seemed a little surprised and continued, "I heard you traded vegetables for a lot of things. The villagers also sent you a lot of gifts to express their gratitude for the well water. Your family should have enough food by now, so why are you still picking up stones?"
"Salt, our family is short of salt. I can pick up a lot of stones. It's okay to share half of the stones with the village chief this time. Can the village chief take me to the Creation Pavilion?" She heard that the Creation Pavilion has all the products of Beichen, even those from other countries. As long as you have jewelry, you can exchange anything you want. She wanted to go and see if there was anything she needed. The sign card Qi Wuze gave her had not been used yet.
Village Chief Jin had many questions to ask, but after hearing her question, he didn't want to ask the rest. He looked at her leisurely for a moment and said leisurely, "It's not impossible to take you there, but I have two requests."
Ye Nuan said, "You say."
"First, you can't give the vegetables in your yard to the villagers in the village. Second, you can't teach them how to grow vegetables and raise livestock." There is little food in the wasteland, and it usually takes a lot of stones to exchange for some. However, the vegetables grown by the Ye family are very cheap, and a pot of soy sauce can be exchanged for a basket. If this continues, the villagers will probably rarely pick up stones.
He looked at Ye Nuan and waited for her answer.
Ye Nuan pursed her lips. Village Chief Jin's motive was clear: she feared the village would become prosperous, leaving her without a profit. But this deal didn't seem cost-effective to her. The spiritual spring needed the energy from harvested vegetables to upgrade, and she needed to trade these vegetables for other items. If she followed the village chief's demands, the vegetables would likely rot in the fields, the spiritual spring wouldn't upgrade, and her family might even face disaster.
Not worth it!
Village chief Jin is indeed not a good person. He would rather let the villagers starve than to ensure his own wealth.
"I don't agree." She could grow vegetables and exchange them for goods, which was clearly a win-win situation, so why should she give it up because of the village chief's selfish interests?
Village Chief Jin narrowed his eyes slightly, deep wrinkles extending from the corners of his eyes, "Think carefully, this is Dahuang Village." His voice was calm but with obvious threat.
The two sat facing each other in silence, competing secretly.
The sound of footsteps came from the backyard, and Jin Qiu rushed over with muddy feet, pulling Ye Nuan and said anxiously: "Sister Nuan, come quickly, my sheep is about to give birth, and it seems to be having a difficult birth." Ye Nuan stood up, pulled Ye Xiaohu and ran after her.
Village Chief Jin regained his usual amiable demeanor and scolded with a smile, "Qiu girl, stop making such a fuss all day long."
Jin Qiu dragged Ye Nuan straight to the sheep pen in the backyard. A ewe lay on the haystack, groaning non-stop. A pool of dirty blood gushed out from beneath her. A lamb's hoof was stretched out from its stomping ground, but it couldn't get out. Tao and Jin Bao paced anxiously around the ewe, unsure of what to do.
Seeing Ye Nuan desperate, he asked anxiously, "What should we do? Why are we in this situation again?" Their family has always raised sheep, and they encountered this situation two years ago. The ewes and lambs all died. There are only two sheep left in the family. If another one dies, there will only be one left.
Village Chief Jin, who had come along, tucked his pipe into his waistband and quickly stepped forward to pull Tao away. "Move aside, I'll do it." He squatted down, reached out and grabbed the exposed hoof of the lamb and tried to pull it out. Not only did he fail to pull it out, but the ewe bleated in pain.
The ewe probably had a badly positioned fetus. If she tried to force it out, not only would she not be able to pull out the lamb, she would likely die. The ewe's voice gradually weakened, and tears seemed to be streaming from the corners of her eyes. Tao clutched the railing, anxiously muttering to herself, "What should I do?"
The situation was urgent, and Ye Nuan said to Village Chief Jin: "Village Chief, you can't pull it apart by force like this. I should have a way." Her spiritual spring water might be able to help.
Village chief Jin stopped what he was doing and looked at her in surprise and suspicion: "You?" There was a hint of disdain in his tone. It was already amazing that a girl could grow vegetables, so how could she be a veterinarian?
Ye Nuan nodded.
Village Chief Jin suddenly stopped being anxious, stood up and stepped aside, saying to her, "Then you come."
Ye Nuan asked Jin Qiu to fetch a bowl of water. After the water was brought, she opened the fence, walked to the front of the ewe, and squatted down. Using her sleeve to cover her, she quickly dripped a drop of spiritual spring water into the bowl, then fed it to the ewe's mouth and said in a low voice, "Drink some quickly."
Animals are particularly sensitive to the spiritual spring water and instinctively come over to drink it.
Seeing that the ewe had drunk, Ye Nuan said to Village Chief Jin, "Now put the lamb's hooves back into its stomach and let the ewe give birth again."
It was already a difficult birth, and now they had to push it back in. How could it possibly be cured? Everyone present looked terrified and doubtful. Jin Bao, impatient, shouted directly, "If you push it back in, the ewe and the lamb will surely die. How can we still give birth?"
Village Chief Jin slapped him on the forehead and said angrily: "Just do what I tell you to do. Why are you talking so much?" After he finished beating him, he remembered that he had not washed his hands. He did not care about that and looked at Ye Nuan with inquiring eyes.
Jinbao was beaten and had no choice but to do as he was told. After he stuffed the lamb back into the ewe's belly, the spiritual spring water had almost been drunk by the ewe.
Ye Nuan encouraged again: "Come on, try again."
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