Chapter 25.1

Translated by Aviana

Early in the morning, when the sun hadn’t risen yet, Lin Qingwan woke up to make breakfast for everyone.

It wasn’t that she was diligent and wanted to show off in front of her Popo*; rather, yesterday night, He-shi ran to their room window to remind her that she would be the one cooking today must not wake up late.

* 婆婆 (pópo): husband’s mother, mother-in-law

In Yang jia*, all the meals are prepared by xifus*, one per day rotation-wise. Previously, Wang-shi and Yao-shi would take turns to cook. But now, with her also being married over, three of them would take turns to cook.

* 家(jiā): family, house

*媳妇 (xífù): daughter-in-law

The rules are for everyone in the family. As such, Lin Qingwan also didn’t have any objections.

Knowing that she had to do housework today, Lin Qingwan intentionally dressed herself in a coarse cyan-colored skirt.

As soon as she walked into the kitchen, she found He-shi already standing there waiting for her.

She greeted her, ‘Mother’.

He-shi gave an ‘en’ and pointed towards the chopping board with a blank face before turning around and leaving.

Lin Qingwan was a bit dumbfounded. She walked towards the chopping board pulled it over, only to find a bit of maize flour, millet rice along with a few potatoes, and two capsicums on it.

Lin Qingwan felt someone approaching her from behind; she turned around to see Yao-shi coming in.

“Third dimei.” She greeted her.

弟妹 (dìmèi): younger brother’s wife

Yao-shi walked towards her side, stood by the chopping board. Looking at things on it, she slowly spoke to Lin Qingwan in a low voice.

“Second brother was afraid that today being your first time, you wouldn’t know what to do, and as he also couldn’t help much, he let me cove here to lend you a hand.” Lin Qingwan smiled gratefully, “Had troubled third dimei.”

Yao-shi gave a timid smile and rolled her sleeves to help her with the stuff on the chopping board.

“In our family, the cooking is different from other households. The quantity of ingredients and all are decided and prepared by Popo a day earlier, and will give it to us every day at the time of cooking.” Yao-shi explained in a small voice.

She took millet rice in a pot and washed them neatly, added adequate amount of water, and then lit the stove with the fire, before placing it on the stove.

Lin Qingwan also learned at Yang-shi’s place how to light a fire on the stove, but wasn’t as skilled as Yao-shi.

She then cleaned the board and kneaded the maize flour on it to make steam corn bread.

Lin Qingwan felt a bit dizzy. According to what Yao-shi said, the meals menu is all decided by He-shi. Then how much quantity everyone eats is also fixed? Then if perhaps one day He-shi’s is not in a good mood, then everyone in the family won’t get anything to eat?

Have to say, her assumptions were actually quite right.

Looking at Lin Qingwan’s dumb expression, Yao-shi continued to say in a low voice as she kneaded the dough with her head lowered, “That’s why when you are kneading the dough and are dividing them into small parts to make steam cornbread, you have to make sure that they are neither too big nor too small. In our family, including adults and children, altogether they are a total of 16 people. Adults would get two steamed cornbread, while children will get one.”

Meaning, in other words, if divided into bigger pieces, the quantity would be insufficient, and if divided into smaller size, the quantity would be too much, making it quite difficult to divide, which might annoy He-shi in the end.

Seeing Yao-shi knead the dough, she took potatos and crouched down to peel them.

By the time she was done with peeling the potatoes, Yao-shi was also done with kneading the dough. Seeing this Lin Qingwan went to help her in pinching the dough into cornbread’s shape.

This is not the first time Lin Qingwan has made cornbread. At Yang-shi’s place, she prepared a few along with her, however, she could not make them well. The surface of the cornbread didn’t come out smooth. Although the size of each cornbread was the same as Yao-shi’s, the shape was different.

Not one bit like Yao-shi’s cornbread, whose cornbread were just like assembly line in the factories – perfectly round with smooth surface, and also uniform in size. At first glance, all of them appeared to be exactly same.

“Third dimei, your craftsmanship is really good.” Lin Qingwan sighed.

In her previous life, she also used to cook, and in this life, she had also cooked in Yang-shi’s place, but there were very few people in Yang-shi’s place, and things could also be used without any restrictions. Not like this with quantity already determined and the food should neither be excessive nor lacking.

Yao-shi gave a bashful smile, “I have done it many times. Second sao* will also be able to do like this in future.”

* 嫂 (sǎo): sister-in-law.

Lin Qingwan found out that this third dimei was actually very pretty when she smiles, unlike her usual submissiveness with her head down and silent.

After the cornbreads were shaped, they would have to be steamed. One by one, Yao-shi arranged all of the cornbreads in a bamboo steamer, after which she placed them in another big wok on a stove.

The stoves in the countryside all had two cooking mouths. Usually, one can be used to cook the meals, while the other to steam the buns and breads, extremely convenient. Between the two burners there is one more small burner, which could be used to heat the water and whatnot.

Yao-shi squatted down to light the stove. Seeing that there was nothing for her to help here, Lin Qingwan turned around and chopped potatoes and capsicum into long thin strips to make a stir-fried dish after this.

Soon, the porridge was cooked, and the cornbreads were also steamed.

Lin Qingwan brushed the big iron cooking pot and began to stir-fry the vegetables.

The oil was already poured into a tray by He-shi at an earlier time; one portion of oil per one dish.

Lin Qingwan poured the oil into the pot. The oil was too less that it just greased the bottom of the pot so shallowly. To stir-fry two pots of vegetables, this oil is barely enough. Thinking of this, she became speechless.

To say, in Luoxia village, Yang family’s financial situation is not too bad, so why does He-shi’s mannerism seem like their financial situation is very bad, to be even afraid that when cooking the other person might add too much oil. Or is it for fear that xifus might be ignorant of her oil, and is strict because of that?

Inquisitively, she asked Yao-shi about the salt usage in the family, and Popo’s reason for storing away the food ingredients.

Yao-shi calmly replied that the quantity of salt for every month is fixed. Popo doesn’t store it away, and keeps it in a salt jar. However, every month the salt is only this much, and upon using it would be over. As for the ingredients, they are all managed by Popo; usually, the quantity of noodles used that day are prepared by her in the kitchen. There is also a vegetable garden in the backyard. We, xifus can take those vegetables to make the meals, but as for how much quantity to be picked for stir-frying is determined by Popo.

Upon hearing this, Lin Qingwan’s face became darker. As Yang jia had been like this since the start, she can’t say anything. No wonder Yang Tiezhu had asked Yao-shi to teach her how to cook in the morning, as he also seemed to know the cooking rules set in this house.

One after the other, all the members of the family started to wake up. With Yao-shi’s help, she also completed making breakfast.

Lin Qingwan placed two bowls of dishes and steamed cornbread on a wooden tray, intending to carry them to the main room.

She had just passed through the kitchen door when she ran into Yang Tiezhu, who quickly took the tray from her hands before asking her in a low voice if she was exhausted. Only after hearing her say she was not tired; did he carry the tray into the main room.

Lin Qingwan smiled and once again turned around to the kitchen to help Yao-shi bring out the porridge.

During breakfast, at one moment, He-shi said the porridge was cooked too thin, and at another moment, she said the corn bread’s shape wasn’t good, emphasizing the ones that Lin Qingwan precisely made.

Yang Tiezhu wanted to open his mouth to say something, but Lin Qingwan pulled him from underneath, not letting him open his mouth. On the other hand, she deferentially accepted her mistakes to He-shi, and also very respectfully admitted her mistakes and made a self-criticism.

Originally, He-shi wanted to use this as a pretext to find fault with her, but not only the other party’s bearing was good, but also quite frankly admitted her mistake and underwent self-criticism as not to let this happen again in the future.

She didn’t give her even a bit of reason to use it as a pretext, making her unable to do anything. As such, she could only resentfully pull a long face, not uttering a sound.

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