Zhao Xile opened her eyes with drool drooling, unable to distinguish between dream and reality for a moment. When she saw Jiang Bai's face, she subconsciously shrank back.
Jiang Bai didn't mind. He touched her flushed face from sleeping, helped her get dressed, and said gently, "Get up and eat!"
Zhao Xile's eyes lit up: So yesterday wasn't a dream!
Aunt Wang didn't expect Jiang Bai to cook her share of the meal. Although it wasn't a famine year, food was still scarce, and Jiang Bai, with two children, was never quite getting enough to eat.
She waved her hand at the steamed egg custard: "Not only am I sleeping at your house, but I also have to eat your eggs. That won't do." Jiang Bai was surprisingly generous and gave her the whole bowl.
Jiang Bai was putting a bib on Zhao Xile. Zhao Xile could eat by herself, but children's hands are soft and they easily get their clothes dirty. Yesterday, she had no experience and found Zhao Xile covered in chicken soup after eating, with her dirty clothes soaking in a basin, which had not been washed yet.
This child only has two sets of clothes. If this set gets dirty again, he'll be running around naked.
While tying a bow, Jiang Bai replied, "These are wild eggs I found yesterday. I didn't buy them. It's alright, Auntie, you can eat them without worry. I'll go find more after I finish these."
Upon hearing her words, Zhao Ping'an was puzzled for a second: He didn't see Jiang Bai bring back any eggs yesterday, wasn't there only one chicken? Then, his attention was drawn to the steaming hot dumpling soup.
—Never mind, maybe they couldn't carry it and hid it on the way. I'll go back and get it this morning.
Thinking about it, he slurped his soup without even looking up.
Aunt Wang pointed at Zhao Xile and said, "Why don't you give it to Xiaole?"
Before Jiang Bai could refuse, Zhao Xile looked up and smiled sweetly at Aunt Wang, saying, "Grandma, I have chicken to eat, you have steamed egg custard."
Jiang Bai interjected, "Auntie, this steamed egg custard is a medicinal dish specially made for you; we can't possibly eat it all."
Only then did Aunt Wang pick up the spoon, muttering, "Medicinal cuisine?"
As she spoke, she scooped up a spoonful and put it in her mouth. For a moment, her thoughts froze.
I don't know if it's because wild eggs taste better, or because Jiang Bai's cooking skills are so good, but this simple bowl of steamed egg custard is so tender and smooth, fragrant and soft. You don't even need to chew it; it just slides down your throat and into your stomach, and your ailing body begins to feel warm from head to toe.
It's so delicious.
Before Jiang Bai could reply, she quickly scooped out two more spoonfuls and put them in her mouth.
Each spoonful tastes better than the last!
When she took the first spoonful, she thought it was because she was hungry. But after a few more spoonfuls, she couldn't help but give a thumbs up. The simpler the ingredients, the more they test a chef's skill. This Jiang Bai is something else.
If there were a mirror in front of her at this moment, she would see that her unusually sallow complexion gradually became rosy after she got up.
Jiang Bai put down his spoon and looked at Granny Wang seriously: "Yes, when there was a famine before, I gave an old beggar two vegetable buns. To repay me, he taught me a little about how to make medicinal cuisine. Unfortunately, I was young at the time and only learned about 50%. Now I'm practicing and it's working quite well."
She smiled shyly: "Auntie, if you don't mind, you can eat my medicinal meals for a few days. I hope it will help your health."
Aunt Wang ate spoonful after spoonful, unable to stop. Upon hearing this, before even swallowing the food in her mouth, she quickly said, "No, how could I not mind!"
Regardless of whether this medicinal diet is effective or not, just based on Jiang Bai's cooking skills, she would be willing to eat it even if it didn't work!
Little did she know that Jiang Bai's delicious cooking wasn't due to anything else, but because he had all the seasonings in his space. Nowadays, rural people even use salt sparingly when cooking, so suddenly eating MSG would make their tongues taste incredibly fresh.
She scraped the bowl clean, then felt embarrassed, wiped her mouth, and said, "I'm not eating your food for free, so I'll pay you whatever it costs." She wasn't short of money; her son was filial and sent her a lot of money every month, more than she could ever spend.
Now her savings are probably one of the largest in the whole village.
Jiang Bai considered it for a moment and decided she couldn't refuse the money. She wanted to start a business in the future, and she couldn't just give away her medicinal cuisine for free to an acquaintance. But pricing was a big problem. If she charged too much, her wages wouldn't keep up with the consumer spending, and she wouldn't be able to sell it. If she charged too little, she wouldn't make enough profit, and all her hard work would be for nothing.
Thinking of this, she passed the buck to Aunt Wang: "Auntie, I've never done this before, I have no experience. Otherwise, would you mind doing it for me?"
Looking at the young woman in front of her, Aunt Wang understood her predicament. Recalling the prices she had encountered when she lived with her son in the county town, she said, "How about this, I'll give you five hundred coins a day, and you can provide three meals a day. Whatever ingredients you need, you can get them from me."
This is an extremely favorable price.
Aunt Wang's son runs a restaurant in the county town. A meat dish there costs only 150 coins. Most families eat simple meals in the morning and evening, only having a more elaborate lunch. Since she doesn't need to buy ingredients, she only needs to pay for labor. At 500 coins a day, that's 15 taels of silver a month—more than Zhao Yi sends home!
Although the price of medicinal cuisine is incomparable to that of ordinary meals, she hasn't achieved anything yet. She knows in her heart that Aunt Wang is paying this price purely to thank her for saving her life.
Since they had already said so, Jiang Bai didn't stand on ceremony and nodded in agreement: "I'll provide whatever ingredients I have on my side."
-
The villagers suddenly realized that they hadn't seen Wang Zhongyi's mother for several days. Several of her friends had come to her house to look for her, but no one answered the door after knocking for a long time.
Did he go to the county town to look for his son without saying a word?
Little did they know that Granny Wang was now living in Jiang Bai's house, a place they were most ashamed to mention!
Jiang Bai has been staying home these days. Wang Da Niang and his family grow vegetables and store grains in advance. If they crave meat, they can go to the back mountain to hunt some game. They don't need to go out or contact others at all, so no one knows about Wang Da Niang's current situation.
A week later, when the village began distributing land, Granny Wang appeared before the entire village, beaming with joy, and everyone was astonished.
Who is this energetic old lady?
Several of her close friends walked briskly over on their bound feet, scrutinized her from head to toe, and exclaimed in amazement, "Did you eat Tang Sanzang's flesh?"
Aunt Wang couldn't hide the smile on her face, and shyly touched her hair.
Everyone's attention shifted to her hair, and they were even more surprised: "Wow, your hair is all black now, so black and shiny." Before, half of it was white.
Aunt Wang cleared her throat and replied in a voice that everyone could hear, "This is all thanks to Jiang Bai."
Everyone gasped, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
—Whose credit are you suggesting?
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