The scar was still there, but it seemed lighter and less distorted. She needed to confirm it quickly, so she quickly got dressed, got out of bed, and headed to the west room.
After feeding the chickens, Mrs. Su came back and saw her daughter rushing out of the house. She was frightened by the mud she was dropping as she walked. She didn't even have time to put down the wooden basin before she followed her to the west room.
Ye Nuan ran to the water tank, opened the lid, and peered inside. The water was crystal clear, and the light from above was shimmering and blurry, vaguely seeming shallower. Hearing footsteps behind her, she quickly replaced the lid and turned to look at her mother.
Su saw her face clearly and was shocked. "Ah Nuan, what's wrong with you? Why are you so pale and gray?" She looked like a snake shedding its skin. She was worried that her daughter was sick and asked what was wrong.
Ye Nuan shook her head. "Mom, I'm fine. I feel like a layer of dust has fallen off my body, and the scars on my face seem to have faded. Can you show me, is that right?" She raised her face. Su leaned in to take a closer look, her eyes filled with surprise. She seemed still unsure. She pulled Ye Nuan out into the yard, facing the sunlight, and carefully examined her for a moment before saying, "Yes, it has faded. The edges are a little blurry."
The scar on her daughter's right cheek, previously deep and prominent, now appears much smaller, its border almost flush with normal skin and even smoothing out. She touched her daughter's intact left cheek, feeling it delicate and smooth, like fine silk. She couldn't help but praise, "Ah Nuan, your skin is becoming increasingly supple." Without that scar, her entire face would be more tender than tofu.
Her daughter's skin was good before she was disfigured, but not as delicate as it is now. After being disfigured and exiled, she had to sleep in the open air all the way, and she was overly worried, so she looked thin and withered. The change now really surprised Su.
Ye Nuan was just wondering if her mother would get suspicious, when she heard Su say again: "Is there really a dragon vein under our yard? Not only do the vegetables grow so fast, but they can also nourish people." But it seemed that only her daughter was like this. She and Xiaohu were at most in better spirits and physical strength, and looked more hydrated.
Uh, she was overthinking it, and her mother would automatically make up the reasons!
In fact, the reason why Ye Nuan had such a big reaction after drinking the spiritual spring water was entirely because she had her own spiritual spring, which could be upgraded to better purify the body. If it were Su or anyone else, at most their skin would become more delicate and smoother, but they would not directly excrete pollutants like her.
After her mother sighed, Ye Nuan hesitated and said, "Mom, the bed seems to be covered with dust..."
Su quickly left her and headed for the room. Seeing the bed covered in mud and dust, she immediately started yelling. In a moment, she had taken the quilt off and brought it out. She said to Ye Nuan, "I'll wash the quilt. I've boiled water in the pot. You go get some water and take a bath. Keep an eye on your brother."
Ye Nuan agreed, and Su took the clothes to wash. Ye Xiaohu sat in the sun, peeling melon seeds. She filled the water and said to him, "Xiaohu, stay home and don't leave. I'll wash them and they'll be done soon."
"Yes, sister."
There was no wooden tub at home, so Ye Nuan could only scrub with a bath towel. She rubbed her body back and forth vigorously several times, changing the water three times before finally getting it clean. She looked at the dark water in the tub and felt embarrassed to pick her toes. If only there was a river here so she could take a bath.
Ye Nuan cleaned herself up and put her veil back on. Her mother and brother had already finished their breakfast, leaving only her. After a quick breakfast, she ran to check on the seeds she had brought back yesterday.
Wheat, rapeseed, watermelon, and grapes had already sprouted. She planted the grape and watermelon seedlings first, then dragged Ye Xiaohu to Feng Dazhu's house next door. Feng's mother, who was now able to get out of bed, smiled and wrinkled when she saw her. She asked her to sit down and called into the house, "Dazhu, the girl from the Ye family is looking for you. Come out quickly."
"Ye girl, please sit down. Dazhu just went to fetch water. I'll ask him to bring two buckets to your house later." Since there was a well, things have become much more convenient. She no longer has to worry about her son getting into danger.
This is all thanks to Ye Nuan.
Ye Nuan agreed but didn't sit down. She waited until Feng Dazhu came out in a hurry before saying, "Brother Feng, I have two plots of land in my backyard. I'd like you to help me open them up. I'll give the vegetables from the yard to your family. Is that okay with you?"
"Okay." Feng Dazhu was an honest man and agreed immediately.
Li glared at him, pulled the man behind her, and walked towards Ye Nuan, smiling very kindly: "What are you talking about, little girl Ye? It's only natural for Dazhu to help us. We don't want your things."
Feng Dazhu was feeling a bit depressed. At his mother's urging, he had been harboring feelings for Ye Nuan for a while. But the longer he'd been there, the more he'd felt unworthy of her, a feeling that intensified when he saw City Lord Qi. He hadn't considered that, but his mother hadn't been clear-headed.
Their family was short of food, so it was nice of Ye Nuan to hire him to work in exchange for food.
Li was talking to herself, and her attitude was too attentive: "Dazhu, take the hoe and Ye girl."
Ye Nuan naturally understood what she meant, so she said, "If Brother Feng can help for free, then there's no need for that. My mother said that we can't take advantage of others. I'd better hire someone else." After saying that, she turned around and left.
Li choked for a moment, and seeing her really leave, she quickly called out, "Hey, Miss Ye, don't go! If you insist on giving it to me, forget it. Let my Dazhu go, and you can exchange the vegetables for it."
Ye Nuan's eyelashes were slightly curved, and when she turned around, her expression returned to calm. "Then Brother Feng, come with me."
She also asked Feng Dazhu to call the other three people from the same village and make sure that the two acres of land behind the house were dug out before dusk. With four people working for her, she should also prepare water and lunch.
Lunch was simple: a bowl of brown rice per person, along with some greens and crispy dried radish. It was a simple meal, but Feng Dazhu and the other three found it more and more delicious, eager to devour the entire bowl. The warm food also alleviated their fatigue. As they worked the soil, they chatted with Ye Nuan.
"Ye family girl, what are you planning to plant on this large piece of wasteland?"
Apart from growing some vegetables in the yard, basically no one in Dahuang Village grows crops on such a large piece of land, because no matter what is planted, it basically will not survive.
Ye Nuan answered casually, "I exchanged wheat and rapeseed seeds at the Creation Pavilion before, and these two plots of land are just right." The people in the village didn't know that she had been to the Creation Pavilion.
The people who came to help were all surprised to hear that she wanted to plant wheat and rapeseed. A villager who had been staying in the village before kindly advised: "Girl from the Ye family, you'd better not plant them. It's a waste of food. Let's put it this way, some people in Dahuang Village have tried to plant them over the years, but none of them succeeded." He reminded her because Ye Nuan was a nice person.
But the girl from the Ye family was stubborn. Not only did she not listen to his advice, she also laughed and said, "I have always believed that everything I plant will survive. I will definitely ask you to help me harvest it when the time comes."
Seeing that persuasion was useless, the four of them had no choice but to finish the work seriously. After the sun went down, each of them received a handful of leeks, two corns, and three radishes. Looking at the lush greenery of the Ye family's yard, Feng Dazhu and the others were stunned. It seemed that the Ye family's vegetables could never be eaten up!
After the other three had left, Feng Dazhu still hadn't left. Seeing that he was feeling awkward, Ye Nuan asked in confusion, "Brother Feng, what's wrong?"
Feng Dazhu hesitated for a long time before saying, "Miss Ye, can you teach my mother how to grow vegetables when you have time? It's not a problem for our family to always ask you for vegetables. My mother is feeling better now. You teach her how to grow vegetables and I will help you water the two acres of land behind the house." His mother actually knew how to grow vegetables, but it was difficult to grow vegetables in the wasteland, so she wanted Ye Nuan to teach her how to grow vegetables big and green.
"Sure." Ye Nuan agreed immediately, and then said, "There's one more thing I need to ask Brother Feng."
"Miss Ye, you say."
"Brother Feng, can you make woodwork like tables and bathtubs?"
Feng Dazhu nodded: "Yes, my father is a carpenter. Before coming to the wilderness, I often went out to work with him."
That's easy.
"Build me a half-person-high square table with a few benches and a small bathtub. After you're done, you can have food or rocks."
Feng Dazhu was very happy to get the job. "Okay, this is easy. I'll go chop down trees for you tomorrow and cook for you. I'll just ask for vegetables." Isn't the purpose of picking up stones to exchange for food? Why bother with that?
Feng Dazhui put the vegetables he got back home, and before it got dark he went back and forth to fetch water to water the two acres of land behind the house.
Finally, he helped fill the water tank in Ye Nuan's house.
Ye Nuan specially picked some more garlic for him, "Brother Feng, call me when you're done tilling the land. I'll go teach your mother."
After Feng Dazhu left, Ye Nuan, along with Su Shi and Ye Xiaohu, began planting rapeseed and wheat. The seeds were too small to plant individually, so they had to be scattered in patches and then covered with soil using a plow.
Ye Nuan scattered the leaves and Su covered them with soil. As she covered them, she asked, "Is this all right? What if a bird eats it?"
Ordinary seeds might be eaten by birds, but her seeds were soaked in spiritual spring water and sprouted after a while, so the birds didn't have time to eat them.
"No, mother. We'll make a scarecrow with straw later. The birds will be scared and won't dare to eat it."
When Ye Xiaohu heard about the scarecrow project, he immediately started gathering nearby dead grass and branches. By the time Ye Nuan finished sowing the seeds, she had already gathered quite a few. Su went home and fetched some rope, and the three of them toiled for a while until they had two scarecrows, one facing south and one facing north, fluttering in the wind.
Considering that there was not much oil and wheat left at home, Ye Nuan specially took some spiritual spring water from the large vat and watered the seeds again, making sure to shorten the growth cycle of the seeds without making them mature all at once.
It was dark when we finished.
Ye Nuan was very curious. Jin Qiu didn't come to her house the whole day. Could it be that Village Chief Jin didn't allow it?
She didn't have time to take care of these things. At night, she pickled and sealed the cabbage that had been dried a few days ago, and started to make corn and bone soup.
The broth from the bones turns from clear to pale white. As the thick broth simmers, the sweet aroma of corn permeates the meaty aroma of the bones, filling the entire kitchen with an alluring, mellow fragrance. When the broth is almost done, I remove it from the pot, add salt, and sprinkle with chopped green onions. The hot broth stirs, adding a touch of the meaty aroma to the light green onion fragrance.
A large bowl of bone corn soup was placed on a low table, accompanied by a small dish of crispy radish and white rice. It was such a happy moment. Ye Nuan first filled a small bowl for Xiao Hu, then for Su Shi, and finally for herself.
No matter what kind of soup it is, it is best to drink it while it is hot.
Su picked up the spoon and sipped the soup. The scalding liquid burned her mouth, so she smacked it twice and blew on it before putting it into her mouth. The soup was rich and fragrant, and the warmth went straight to her stomach, instantly relaxing every pore. The meat on the shank bone was soft and loose, and it fell off with the slightest touch of her lips and teeth.
The bone marrow in the bone was translucent and gelatinous. She poked it with chopsticks and sucked it hard. The fatty and fragrant marrow penetrated her tongue. It had a strong meaty aroma and a sweet corn flavor. It was delicious and not greasy.
Su couldn't help licking her lips and praised: "Meat is still delicious!"
“My daughter is such a great cook!”
Ye Nuan smiled and curved her eyebrows. "It's just a soup. Just put the bone corn in it. You can do it too."
Su disapproved: "Even if you add water and corn bones, different people will make it differently. The heat and time must be just right. Mother has made soup before, and it was so unpalatable that she almost vomited." The man never touched it and told her directly that it was unpalatable.
"It would be nice if we could open a restaurant outside the wilderness in the future."
Ye Nuan said, "It can be opened even without leaving the wasteland."
Su pursed her lips and said: "Come on, people here are not getting enough to eat, they are short of food and water, how can we open a restaurant?" She said as she took another bite of corn, the rich juice of the corn exploded in her mouth, and suddenly her whole mouth was filled with sweet fragrance mixed with the aroma of meat.
Ye Nuan looked at her mother's satisfied expression and smiled silently. Nothing is impossible. Nothing in the world is difficult for those who set their minds to it!
The night sky over the wasteland was lonely and beautiful. Insects began to chirp in the yard, and the wind was strong. Ye Nuan was worried that the beans and cucumber racks would be blown down, so she squatted beside them with a small hoe, piling mud on top. Grape and watermelon seedlings sprouted along the wall, and weeds began to grow in the vegetable patch.
It seems I'll have to find time to pull the weeds tomorrow, and by the way, cut some bamboo to make a fence, and get some cypress thorns to smoke the meat.
Ye Nuan waited a little longer, but the falcon didn't show up. After placing the bones for Xiao Hei, she washed her hands and went to sleep.
The next morning, Su went to do laundry, and Ye Nuan took Ye Xiaohu to make breakfast. Ye Xiaohu followed her and asked, smacking his lips, "Sister, do you have any more sunflower seeds?" He really wanted to eat some.
Are you greedy?
She looked up at the corn hanging on the porch to dry, and suddenly said, "Xiao Hu, eat your breakfast first. I'll make you some popcorn later."
Ye Xiaohu tilted his head and asked in confusion: "Popcorn?"
It didn't matter what kind of flower it was, as long as it was delicious. Ye Xiaohu happily finished his breakfast and waited for his sister to make some popcorn.
Ye Nuan served her mother's breakfast, covered it, and placed it on a small table nearby. She then fetched some semi-dried corn kernels from outside, lit a wok, and poured in some cold oil. Over low heat, she added two handfuls of sugar and then stir-fried the corn kernels.
The golden kernels were evenly coated in syrup. She turned to look for the lid, but it was missing. Her heart skipped a beat. She glanced around the room, spotting the lid outside the kitchen. She quickly dropped her spatula and went to retrieve it. But moments later, the popcorn in the pot started popping with a bang, sending it flying all over the room.
Ye Xiaohu thought they were setting off firecrackers and happily caught popcorn everywhere. He chewed every piece he caught and shouted happily, "Sister, the flowers are so sweet!"
Ye Nuan was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. She picked up the lid and put it on in two steps.
Ping-pong, ding-dong, bang-bang-bang, another chaotic sound. Suddenly, two people rushed in. Su and Jin Qiu ran in with panicked faces, anxiously asking, "Ah Nuan, what's wrong?"
"Sister Nuan, what exploded?"
Su looked around the room. Besides the golden and crispy steamed buns all over the floor, the most eye-catching thing was the pot on the stove that kept making popping sounds.
"A Nuan, what's in there?" It seems like there's a little beast bombarding it.
Ye Xiaohu was still stuffing a few popcorns into his mouth, chewing them while mumbling, "Mom, popcorn is delicious!"
Ye Nuan, standing in front of the stove holding the pot with one hand, felt both embarrassed and amused. "Mom, I just wanted to make some popcorn for Xiaohu as a snack, and I accidentally made this!"
"Popcorn?" Su Shi didn't quite understand. What kind of food could explode like a firecracker, all over the place? Is this edible? Don't let it blow your mouth off.
Ye Xiaohu ate with gusto. Jin Qiu saw that the popcorn was golden and crispy, with a layer of oil on the surface, and tasted extremely sweet. He couldn't help but reach out to pick up a piece from the stove and put it in his mouth.
As she chewed, the popcorn made a crunching sound. It was crispy and fragrant, yet not greasy. It was more special than any snack she had ever eaten. Jinqiu stuffed all the scattered popcorn on the stove into her mouth, and immediately there was another round of crunching sound.
"Sister Nuan, it's so delicious. You must teach me how to make it. I want to make it too." Who would care about the candied date paste cake at home when there is popcorn?
Su stood aside and muttered, "Is it really that delicious?"
Jin Qiu and Ye Xiaohu nodded frantically, finishing their meals and staring intently at the pot. When the popcorn finally stopped popping, Ye Nuan quickly opened the lid, and the scorching aroma filled her face, a long-lost taste.
Ye Nuan took a deep breath and couldn't help but sigh: It would be perfect if there was Coke and a movie.
"Mom, try it!" She took one and gave it to Su, who bit it into her mouth while holding her hand.
Crack!
"So crispy and fragrant!" Such a special taste, no wonder Xiaohu is so happy.
With the experience from the first time, Ye Nuan fried a second batch, using a large bowl instead of oil paper. She gave one portion to Su Shi and then headed north with Jin Qiu and Xiao Hu towards the cypress forest. The two of them, bowls in hand, sizzled all the way from the west to the north of the village, their scorching aroma filling most of the village.
The villagers stopped to look at it curiously, and asked what was in Jinqiu's bowl while savoring it.
"Popcorn is delicious, fragrant and crispy, even better than date paste cake." She reluctantly gave Hu Ya two pieces. After eating, Hu Ya opened her eyes wide, asked what it was made of, and ran home.
Ye Nuan spent the entire morning chopping bamboo and cypress thorns to the sound of the two little kids' "crunch, crunch." When she returned home with the bamboo and cypress thorns, there was a crowd of people waiting outside the gate, all asking how to make popcorn.
Ye Nuan answered every question, even explaining the cooking time, the ratio of oil, corn, and sugar. Families without corn offered their own surplus items that the Ye family could use. This round of trading yielded quite a bit of brown rice and small furniture.
As long as she worked hard to farm and upgrade the spiritual spring, she wouldn't have to pick up stones at all. She could grow rice and oil, and she could use the salt to help Qi Wuze make medicine. In the future, she could grow things that weren't even found in the wasteland, or even in this world, and exchange them for many other things. She could even open a small farm in the wasteland like the owner of the Creation Pavilion, allowing the people of the wasteland to freely exchange items.
Ye Nuan was daydreaming about the future. After lunch, she felt completely down. The ping-pong sound of popcorn blasting in the village echoed endlessly. Every now and then, villagers, their heads bruised and their faces blackened by the explosions, would come to her house to complain. Then, she was asked to fry round after round of popcorn, until well into the night, her ears and even her entire head filled with the crackling sound.
When Su and Xiaohu talked to her, her ears began to echo.
Ye Nuan muttered a few words, and Su sat on the bed, laughing so hard that tears came out of her eyes. "These people, they can make a pot lid fly off when frying popcorn, which is considered a skill. If someone comes tomorrow, don't just help them. Let these people go to the vegetable garden in the back to weed and select seedlings. Let's see who can get away with it."
"That's fine." She covered her ears, but there was still a buzzing sound.
"Mom, go pick some rapeseed seedlings tomorrow morning and stir-fry them."
Fresh barley grass stir-fried in water is delicious, nutritious and rich, she has always liked it.
Su stopped laughing and said, "Okay, go to sleep."
She had just laid down when the window was pecking and banging. It must be that prodigal bird. Ye Nuan hurriedly stood up and said, "Mom, I'll go out for a while and be right back."
Su was surprised and went out to see what was happening. She saw Ye Nuan tying up the paper package with three layers of paper inside and outside, and then she pulled out two corns and vegetables and hung them on the claws of a big bird. There were sparkling jewels at her feet.
After the bird flew away, Su asked, "Where did this bird come from? How could it buy vegetables?" One look at the strings of jade beads and it was obvious that it was just a silly bird.
Ye Nuan put away the jade beads and said, "It's City Lord Qi's bird. He often lets the bird come to get vegetables." Qi Wuze probably didn't know that the vegetables were grown by her.
Su was surprised, then asked, "Then why did you accept his jewelry?"
Ye Nuan was helpless. She pushed her mother inside and said, "They have a mine. If they insist on giving it to me, I can't do anything. I'll just consider it a good deed."
"You kid, give me more next time."
"I see. I can't get a lot of birds. When his people come on the first or fifteenth day of the lunar month, I will definitely give him a lot more."
Only then was Su satisfied.
Under the warm moonlight, the mother and daughter fell asleep while talking for a while.
Ye Nuan had been tormented by popcorn all day, and the situation in the City Lord's Mansion, thousands of miles away, was no better. Qi Wuze and Qi Ya, still unsatisfied after eating Ye Nuan's popcorn, had gone to the kitchen late at night to make their own popcorn according to Ye Nuan's recipe.
It was a really interesting and novel experience.
They cooked the corn wet over high heat, adding the kernels only after the oil was boiling, and remembering to add the sugar only afterward. After a while, it still hadn't popped, so the two brothers huddled over the pot to examine it more closely.
The corn in the pot not only fried but also caught fire due to the overheated oil. Not only did it crackle and pop all night, but the entire kitchen was ablaze. The two brothers, their mouths filled with smoke, coughed and ran away. The thick smoke choked the sleeping servants, and the gongs and drums were struck, causing chaos.
After pushing and shoving all night, the kitchen was in ruins the next day.
Several cooks from the City Lord's Mansion hugged Qi Wuze's legs and cried heart-wrenchingly.
"City Lord, could you please stay away from the kitchen from now on?"
"If you don't want us to do it, just say so. There's no need to light a fire!"
"We are too embarrassed to stay in the City Lord's Mansion any longer. We can't even protect the kitchen!"
Qi Wuze, who had been hungry all morning, felt like his head was about to explode. He thought to himself: Could this vegetable seller be a spy of the horse bandits, who wanted to win without a fight and take over Luomu City in one fell swoop?
Well, that is indeed possible!
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