8 Chapter 8
◎Please bear with it◎
Nothing happened during the night and dawn came in a blink of an eye.
Early the next morning, Xiao Muyan knocked on Jiang Jingyun's door.
He applied some bruise wine on his ankle and used his strength to rub the bruise on his ankle. Jiang Jingyun screamed in pain, and Xiao Muyan's ears turned red when he heard it.
"The bruises need to be rubbed away. Just bear with the pain." Xiao Muyan couldn't help but explain.
Jiang Jingyun was sweating profusely and his face turned pale in that June day.
He understood the truth, but it really hurt.
Noticing that the force on his feet had been reduced, Xiao Muyan subconsciously reduced his strength, guessing that it was because he had screamed too loudly. Jiang Jingyun knew that this was also for his own good. He pursed his lips tightly and endured the pain: "I can do it. Rub it harder."
In order to divert his attention slightly, Xiao Muyan asked about what happened yesterday. Because he came back very late yesterday, he didn't have time to ask in detail.
Jiang Jingyun explained the whole story in detail. When he talked about the facial features of the three people, Xiao Muyan, who was rubbing his feet, narrowed his eyes slightly and secretly memorized them one by one in his heart, but when he looked over, he lowered his head to hide the flicker in his eyes.
After rubbing for about a cup of tea, all the blood clots on his feet were rubbed away. Jiang Jingyun's feet looked red and swollen, which was very scary.
"Hiss, it looks like a big pig's trotter." He smacked his lips. Hmm, he was a little craving for the braised pork trotter.
Xiao Muyan laughed at the side. Who would say that about themselves? "I'm going to the town to sell the prey this time. Do you need me to bring anything for you?"
"Yes, yes, yes, please buy me some things." Jiang Jingyun responded repeatedly, "Everyone has helped me a lot recently, and I am very grateful, so I want to treat everyone to a meal, especially Brother Xiao, you must come."
However, although it was a treat, after deducting the part needed to pay off debts from his recent earnings, there wasn't much left. He was counting on his fingers, "Please bring me a piece of pork belly, two pig's trotters, and a pack of offal, and buy me some ingredients for the stew." Recently, there had been people following Jiang Jingyun, trying to secretly copy recipes for stewed food. He didn't even dare to go to the pharmacy because the food at home was almost used up.
After saying that, he took out the small treasury from under the bed in front of Xiao Muyan. Every time Jiang Jingyun sold the braised food, he would go to the bank to exchange the scattered copper coins for silver. Now the silver had already spread a shallow layer at the bottom of the box. He took out fifteen taels of silver and handed it to Xiao Muyan, "These ten taels are for you, Brother Xiao, and the remaining five taels can be used to buy things. I will refund you if you have more or make up for the shortfall."
"Okay." Xiao Muyan agreed readily and took the silver. "It's getting late. I'll leave first."
"Okay, be careful on the road." Jiang Jingyun waved goodbye.
After seeing Xiao Muyan off, the two younger children of the Jiang family also returned from their uncle’s house. The younger sister hummed and moaned beside Jiang Jingyun for a while, until he promised not to go out and stay at home to accompany her, then she happily shared the dried sweet potatoes she brought back from her aunt with everyone.
Although he was recuperating at home, Jiang Jingyun couldn't rest either.
I have been going out early and coming back late for most of the month, and I fall asleep as soon as I get home after work. Now that I am resting at home, I find that the house is dirty and messy, with weeds half a person tall and chicken feathers flying all over the sky.
This is unbearable.
This is a humble room, but it must be clean.
He asked his younger brothers and sisters to weed and sweep the floor, and he sat there and ordered them all around. After a busy period of work, he finally finished cleaning the house.
I worked like this until the afternoon when I finally finished it. Jiang Jingyun felt comfortable seeing the house tidy, clean and tidy.
The children worked hard, so of course he had to reward them with something delicious for dinner. But at home... Jiang Jingyun glanced at the two chickens gathered in the yard and decided that they would be the snack for today!
If you can't even eat eggs all day, kill one and make soup to nourish your body!
After selecting today's ingredients, he asked his brother to boil water again, while he sharpened his knife and started cooking the hen. Just as they were busy, they saw Xiao Muyan coming back with a big basket of things, all of which were meat and seasonings that Jiang Jingyun asked them to buy.
Amid the exclamations of "Wow" from the three children, Xiao Muyan silently took out the things in the bamboo basket one by one and put them on the table. After taking them out, he took out two taels of silver from his arms and handed them to Jiang Jingyun who was plucking chicken feathers. "I spent three taels of silver in total, and I'll return the remaining two taels to you."
"Wait a moment," Jiang Jingyun washed the dirt off his hands with soap nuts, and then wiped his hands with a towel before taking the silver.
"Sorry to bother you, Brother Xiao." Jiang Jingyun bowed his head to thank him. He accidentally found that Xiao Muyan's hand had scars, so he took it and took a closer look. "What's wrong with your hand?"
The hand that Xiao Muyan stretched out had some broken skin and bleeding, and there were a few bruises on his arm with his sleeves rolled up.
Jiang Jingyun frowned, "How did this happen? We need to apply some medicine."
"The prey wasn't tied securely, and one of them ran away. I accidentally hurt it when I was chasing it." Xiao Muyan calmly pulled his hand back and put down his sleeve to cover it. "It's okay, it's just a minor injury. It will be healed in two days."
Jiang Jingyun was puzzled. How could someone like Brother Xiao, who roamed in the mountains all year round, let his prey escape? It would be fine if he ran away, but how could he hurt himself by chasing prey? How is that possible? He's not a rookie!
There was something fishy going on, he glanced at Xiao Muyan suspiciously.
"Ahem," Xiao Muyan covered his mouth and coughed lightly, then stiffly changed the subject, "Are you going to kill a chicken tonight?"
"Yeah, everyone is very well behaved on weekdays, and they put in a lot of effort in cleaning today, so we have to make a delicious meal to reward them." Xiao Muyan was reluctant to say it, and Jiang Jingyun did not force him, and continued the topic, "It just so happens that I have nothing to do at home, so I am going to stew some old hen soup to nourish our bodies."
"The light has dimmed a bit," Jiang Jingyun looked up at the sky, and the topic seemed to change accidentally, "By the way, Brother Xiao came back a little late today. Was he delayed on the way?"
"No, you were not here and those people bargained hard, so the prey was hard to sell, so you came back late." Xiao Muyan coaxed him.
"Hehe, that's right. I'm not afraid of bargaining. Next time I'll go with you, and I guarantee you won't suffer any loss." Jiang Jingyun was smug, and he didn't even realize that he was successfully led astray. He even invited enthusiastically, "It's a bit late, why don't you eat here tonight?"
Xiao Muyan looked at his cute and smug look, smiled and shook his head: "No, aren't you going to treat us tomorrow? I'll come over then."
"Okay, I'll show you my great chef Jiang's cooking skills tomorrow at noon." Jiang Jingyun raised his head, put his hands on his hips, and pointed his nose to the sky.
"Okay, I'll wait." Then he went back.
Jiang Jingyun quickly prepared the old hen and stewed it. Seeing that it would be dark for some time, he told his second brother to go to his eldest uncle's and younger uncle's houses and invite them to come over for lunch tomorrow. "Go and come back quickly. Don't waste time playing on the way."
Jiang Jinglin rolled his eyes at his elder brother and muttered, "I wouldn't do that. I'm not a child."
"Yes, yes, you are a big boy now." Jiang Jingyun said perfunctorily, patting his second brother's butt, "Go quickly, and come back early for dinner."
"Hmph, I won't talk to you." Jiang Jinglin puffed up his face, turned around and ran away.
Jiang Jingyun sat in the back and shook his head, acting like an old father who was helpless. "Hey, the child has grown up and is in the rebellious stage."
Fortunately, Jiang Jinglin had already run far away, otherwise he would have been so angry that he would have turned into a puffer fish if he knew that his elder brother was talking nonsense.
After amusing his silly brother, Jiang Jingyun felt relaxed all over. He hummed a little tune and began to process the ingredients that Brother Xiao had helped bring back. The weather is hot now and there is no ice storage. If the raw food is left overnight, it will go bad. It is better to process it in advance today so that it will not spoil easily and will be more flavorful tomorrow.
Vinegar-braised pork intestines, braised pork belly, braised pork trotters, peppered pork tripe and chicken soup, plus the braised dishes I've been making recently, and I'll stir-fry some vegetables tomorrow, so I'll barely make five dishes and one soup.
There is not much meat, but there is enough braised food. This is the best banquet food Jiang Jingyun can come up with now.
The younger sister who was joining in the fun and the third brother who was helping to light the fire were already drooling with greed. Jiang Jingyun picked up a piece of meat for each of them to taste.
The younger sister chewed the meat in her mouth slowly while looking at Jiang Jingyun with sparkling eyes, "Brother, your dishes are getting more and more delicious! Can I have another bite?"
The third brother Jiang Jingfeng chewed his portion and swallowed it in two bites. He ate so fast that he couldn't even taste the flavor, but he nodded vigorously in response to his younger sister's words: It's delicious! Still want to eat!
Jiang Jingyun smiled and scratched the tip of his sister's nose, gladly accepting their flattery, but was very moved and refused: "We will only give you a taste tonight. No matter how delicious it is, we will endure it and wait until tomorrow to eat with uncle and others, okay?"
The little sister looked at the delicious food and felt a little regretful that she had to wait until tomorrow to eat it, but she still nodded obediently: "Okay, I'll wait until tomorrow to eat it with the uncles."
"So good!" Jiang Jingyun couldn't help but hug his sister, kissed her little face which had grown a little bit of flesh in recent days, and drew a big cake, "Brother will make a lot of delicious food for you in the future!"
"Wow," the younger sister accepted Jiang Jingyun's big promise without any doubt, and gave him a thumbs up and praised him back: "Brother, you are great too!"
Jiang Jingfeng didn't say anything, but nodded vigorously.
Just as the three siblings were caught up in a cycle of praising each other, the second brother who had gone out to ask for help came back with a sullen look on his face.
Jiang Jingyun took a look and saw that his honest brother was so angry that smoke was coming out of his head. "Why are you even angrier after going out? Who bullied you?"
"No one bullies me." Jiang Jinglin replied sullenly.
"Why are you so angry? Tell me and I'll help you bully him back."
The second brother still didn't say anything, and he just squatted on a small stool, looking unhappy.
Seeing that Jiang Jinglin was unwilling to talk, Jiang Jingyun could only helplessly ask about the result of this trip, "What did uncle and uncle say? Will they come over tomorrow at noon?"
"My uncle said they will definitely come tomorrow, but my uncle... my uncle's family won't come... because..." Jiang Jinglin hesitated, as if he was hesitating whether to say it or not. Finally, he couldn't help but uttered, "Because my aunt said they don't eat our food, so we shouldn't always think about their things."
"Oh..., OK, I understand." Jiang Jingyun touched his second brother's head and comforted him, "I'm sorry for the trouble you've made. I'll go myself next time. Don't be angry. You're so young and you won't grow tall if you keep getting angry. Let's eat first!"
He had originally planned to invite everyone to dinner, firstly to express his sincere gratitude for everyone's recent help, and secondly because he was having difficulty walking and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to get everyone together tomorrow to pay off his debts. He didn't expect to be misunderstood as someone who came to collect money, which made his second brother suffer injustice.
Forget it, he will go there himself tomorrow.
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