Chapter 18 The dumb woman brings food, salted vegetable porridge
Liu Mingan slept soundly and sweetly this time. When he was awakened by the sound of a rooster, he opened his eyes in a daze. The warmth of the quilt made him indulge in it. He felt that his whole body was soft.
"Are you awake?" A cold female voice suddenly sounded nearby. Liu Mingan looked up and saw Jiang Ning's cold eyes that were like frost and snow.
The coldness in Jiang Ning's eyes was like a basin of water poured on Liu Mingan's head. The laziness and confusion he had just woken up disappeared instantly. Liu Mingan realized that the two of them were sleeping in the same bed.
The terrible thing was that he clearly remembered that they were far apart before they slept, so how come they were next to each other now?
What's even more terrible is, why is he leaning his head on Jiang Ning's shoulder with her hand in his arms?
Liu Ming'an felt his head buzzing, something must have happened that he didn't remember.
Seeing him wake up, Jiang Ning pulled out her arm that had been held all night, and at the same time, she didn't forget to complain, "You sleep badly."
"I'm sorry." Liu Ming'an apologized quickly, and at the same time used his hands and feet to climb out of the bed from the other side.
As soon as Jiang Ning said this, Liu Ming'an immediately guessed what happened, and he must have offended someone accidentally. Now it was just embarrassing to stand here, so after putting on his clothes and tidying himself up, Liu Ming'an wanted to go to the kitchen.
"Where are you going?" Jiang Ning called him, and got out of bed, stroking her hair on her shoulders with her hands, and reminded him: "Didn't you say yesterday that you would comb my hair from now on?"
Liu Ming'an remembered this and stopped in his tracks, saying "I'll help you", letting Jiang Ning sit on a stool and began to comb her hair seriously.
"Someone was here just now." Jiang Ning suddenly said, tilting her head slightly to look out the window.
Liu Ming'an paused with the comb in his hand, and asked nervously: "Who?"
"I don't know, I only heard footsteps, and the person walked into the yard and left." Jiang Ning replied.
About half an hour before dawn, Jiang Ning woke up from her sleep when she heard a slight noise outside the house. She wanted to go and see what was going on, but her hand was tightly held by Liu Ming'an. In addition, the person only stayed for a while and then left. There was no extra movement, so Jiang Ning gave up.
But the footsteps should be a woman.
Jiang Ning thought about it, and felt that Liu Ming'an had stopped moving, so she urged: "Don't stop, it doesn't matter for a while, let's go outside and take a look later. I feel that the person seems to have put something down."
The more Jiang Ning said this, the more uneasy Liu Ming'an felt. After quickly helping her to tidy up her long hair, Liu Ming'an said: "Jiang Ning, it's done, let's go and take a look."
Jiang Ning reached out and touched it. It was the same bun as yesterday.
The two of them went outside and found something at the door.
Liu Ming'an looked at the pile of fresh vegetables, a few large eggs, a piece of bacon and two sections of bacon on the ground, and fell into deep confusion: "This..."
Jiang Ning squatted down and looked through it. The vegetables were very fresh, the radish was covered with mud, and the leaves of the rapeseed were still covered with morning dew. It was obvious that they were just picked from the ground.
"Do you have any idea?" Jiang Ning stood up and asked Liu Ming'an.
Liu Mingan shook his head truthfully. He was really confused: "Generally, people give me things because they want something from me. I haven't helped anyone recently. Even if I did, why would they need to give me so many things? And there's no need to send them secretly at night."
Jiang Ning didn't answer. She stared at the pile of things for a moment and asked: "There is a dumb woman in this village, right?"
Liu Mingan replied: "Yes, she is He Zhao's wife. She has never spoken since she was bought. Everyone calls her 'Dumb Lady'." After Liu Mingan finished speaking, he immediately asked: "How do you know her? Haven't you seen her?"
Even if Jiang Ning went out yesterday, everyone was waiting for the officials by the pond at that time, so Jiang Ning couldn't have seen the Dumb Lady.
Liu Mingan was puzzled, but Jiang Ning obviously didn't want to tell him.
"She was also bought? What a coincidence." Jiang Ning remembered the half tongue of that woman. She did not answer Liu Ming'an's words, but told him affirmatively: "These dishes were all sent by her, and the sweet potatoes you ate yesterday were also hers."
Liu Ming'an opened his mouth in surprise and was about to say something, but Jiang Ning interrupted him first: "Don't ask more, put the things away, I'll cook."
Liu Ming'an was stunned for a moment, and then laughed silently.
"What are you laughing at?" Jiang Ning was puzzled.
"Nothing." Liu Ming'an replied, with a deep smile in his eyes. In Jiang Ning's puzzled eyes, he picked up all the things on the ground and put them in the kitchen.
Jiang Ning didn't understand, but Liu Ming'an laughed at that moment because of Jiang Ning. It seemed that after her injury healed, the strong and cold arrogance in her character was fully revealed, often making Liu Mingan feel that this was her territory and he was an outsider.
Just one day had passed, and from politely calling him "Young Master Liu" at the beginning, she now stopped pretending and started to order him around.
This contrast did not make Liu Mingan feel disgusted, but rather very interesting.
Such a strong and cold-tempered person was willing to stay by his side, cook for him every day, accompany him to read and grind ink for him, and even took pity on him because he was uncomfortable sleeping on the table, and regardless of her reputation as a woman, let him sleep in the same bed with her. She was
really a very contradictory girl.
After Jiang Ning entered the kitchen, she picked a large radish, washed it, and cut it into four halves. Then she started to cut the radish into two-millimeter-thick slices. She put the slices into a bowl, filling it up. Jiang Ning sprinkled a handful of salt on it to let it marinate to remove moisture.
Then Jiang Ning washed the rice and put it in the pot. Because she planned to cook vegetable porridge, she only put in half a bowl of rice and a lot of water. The ratio of water to rice was nearly four to one.
After the water and rice were put into the pot, Jiang Ning placed a bamboo steaming rack in the pot, placed a plate on the steaming rack, put a section of washed sauerkraut on the plate, and covered the pot, thus killing two birds with one stone by cooking porridge and steaming sauerkraut.
The high fire produced fragrant rice, and Jiang Ning added firewood to the stove. The red flames licked the dark bottom of the pot, and the water in the pot gurgled quietly.
About ten minutes later, Jiang Ning picked up the bowl of radish slices. At this time, a lot of water in the radish had been pickled, and the spicy taste had also been reduced a lot. Jiang Ning rinsed it several times with clean water to wash off the excess salt, squeezed it dry with her hands, put in the chopped chili rings, ginger and garlic slices, and then poured in a few spoons of soy sauce and vinegar, and mixed them evenly, and a dish of sour, spicy and crispy radish was ready.
At this time, the pickled intestines were also steamed, and Jiang Ning lifted the lid of the pot, and hot steam came out. Jiang Ning dipped her hands in cold water, then quickly reached out to take the boiling plate out of the pot and put it on the stove, and then used chopsticks to pick up the steaming rack.
While the bacon was cooling down, Jiang Ning took a piece of soya bean, washed it, cut it into small pieces, threw it into the pot and mixed it with the thick rice porridge, sprinkled a little salt, and served it in a bowl. After
a few minutes, the bacon was not so hot, so Jiang Ning cut it into thin slices with a slanted knife and put it in the bowl.
Breakfast was ready.