Chapter 44.3

Translated by Aviana

Wang-shi angrily curled her lips. The third branch was quite poor. From where would they get money to buy things?!

But after thinking about it again, the second branch bought these many things and must have spent a lot of silver. But where did they get silver from? Furthermore, Yang Tiezhu didn’t seem to have gotten money for medicine from the family. From where did the second branch get this much silver?

Thinking of this, her eyes couldn’t help but brighten up.

“Second dimei, your second branch might have quite a lot of savings. You didn’t get the money for second younger brother’s treatment from the family either. Moreover, you bought so many things yet again.”

He-shi, who had all along been watching here as she stood by the main room’s entrance, upon hearing Wang-shi mention the pot that doesn’t boil, immediately yelled, “Wang-shi, other than eating till you are full, don’t you have anything to do? Quickly come here and help me wash mine and your father’s clothes!”

哪壶不开提哪壶 (nǎhúbùkāitínǎhú): lit. mention the pot that doesn’t boil (idiom); to touch a sore spot / to talk about sb’s weak point

Hearing this, Lin Qingwan replied to Wang-shi in a loud voice: “Eldest sao, you care so much about our second branch, ah! Otherwise, how about you give us some silver? It just so happens that we are very much lacking silver at the moment and are still in ‘debts’.”

Recalling the second branch’s expensive medicine fees, Wang-shi quickly waved her hand, “From where will I have silver?”

“When you don’t have silver, why do you care so much about our matters?”

With an eye-roll, Wang-shi counterattacked, “After taking a look at your hefty expenses, you haven’t taken silver from the family either; you must have quite a bit of savings, no?”

“Eldest sao, you don’t know, but it’s been quite a hard on us recently. The family didn’t take out any silver for Tiezhu’s medicinal expenses. We were in a critical situation as if the fire was singeing our eyebrows. There was nothing we could do at that moment. I had no choice but to look for the eldest gu to borrow a bit of silver and also had to pawn my silver hairpin. Only then was I barely able to pay for Yang Tiezhu’s treatment.” Lin Qingwan tilted her eyes and meaningfully looked at the He-shi who was standing by the main room’s door and listening to this side. She turned around and asked, “Mother, you see if you can give a bit of silver so that I can repay all the money I owe eldest gu? I won’t mention my silver hairpin, but I can’t not repay eldest gu!

火 烧眉毛 (huǒshāoméimao): fire singes one’s eyebrows; desperate situation / extreme emergency

姑 (gū): father’s oldest sister

Annoyed, He-shi glared at Wang-shi before turning to look at Lin Qingwan with wide eyes.

“This old lady doesn’t have any silver to give you to repay your debts!” Saying so, she turned her body and quickly entered the main room, yet not forgetting to scowl at Wang-shi and bellow at her, “Wang-shi, you come here and wash mine and your father’s clothes.”

Seeing the look on He-shi’s face, Wang-shi suddenly realized that she dug a pit for herself. She glared at Lin Qingwan and quickly turned around to run towards the main room.

Lin Qingwan smirked and marched towards her room while saying to Yao-shi, “Third dimei, you can leave your things here for now. Wait till the night before you come to take your things, lest they see you and make trouble for you yet again.”

Yao-shi gratefully nodded her head. For a moment, being watched by Wang-shi as such, she was truly nervous, fearing that Wang-shi might come to know that she was receiving work from outside and make a big fuss. Fortunately, second sao covered her.

Yang Tiegen, after keeping all the things in the room, went back. He was still quite busy helping the mason remodel their room. Yao-shi, also seeing that there was nothing she could do here, went back to her room.

Back in the room, Lin Qingwan first took a seat and poured herself a glass of water, and drank in one go.

Seated on the kang, Yang Tiezhu pitifully looked at her.

“Wifey, you have been out for so long.” With a glass in her hands, Lin Qingwan sat on the kang, feeling amused.

“What’s the matter? Missed me?” Yang Tiezhu anxiously nodded, his pair of eyes as wet like a newborn puppy, looking extremely adorable

Lin Qingwan giggled as she stroked his head. Yang Tiezhu was just about to fly into a rage out of embarrassment when a kiss landed on his cheek.

Immediately his bad mood dissipated, and felt sweetness all over.

After his injury, Yang Tiezhu felt that his heart became especially fragile, always wanting his wife to kiss him, appease him, or coax him; only then could he happily recline on the kang all day.

Lin Qingwan could understand Yang Tiezhu’s thoughts. A patient’s heart becomes extremely fragile, especially when he has to lie on the kang all day long and can’t go anywhere, making them feel bored and slightly stuffy. Thus she was also quite generous when appeasing him.

It’s just that for a robust man who was always sincere and straightforward to become naughty like a puppy suddenly, it truly surprised Lin Qingwan. But at the same time, she also couldn’t but feel happy for the distance between the two was getting shorter; she also liked this change.

After a round of appeasement, patting, kissing, and consoling, Yang Tiezhu’s tender heart was satiated. Lin Qingwan also became busy.

She wanted to clean all the kitchen supplies she bought with hot water. She had also bought a big iron wok, which needs to be ‘seasoned’.

In her previous life, too, Lin Qingwan used to cook all by herself. Thus she wasn’t that bad when it came to cooking. But she had a weird quirk when cooking – she never liked using whatsoever non-stick pans, smokeless pans, and the likes. Those sorts of pans weren’t suitable for cooking. She only liked using cooking utensils made of iron.

She liked using iron kitchenware for cooking, but they were quite troublesome to use. In the beginning, she used to worry that they might go rusty. But over time, she got used to them. Just as they say, iron cooking pots possess attributes of a pot i.e., over a long-time usage with good maintenance, it won’t go rusty at all. Even if you pour the water in an iron wok and let it sit for whole, it still won’t form rust.

First, Lin Qingwan put iron wok, bamboo steamer, clay pots, bowls, chopsticks, kitchen knife, and all the other things she bought into the boiling water for a while. Then she cleaned all of them by the well-side. After cleaning all of them and storing them in their respective places, she went onto ‘season’ the iron wok.

T/N note: Seasoning is a process where one ‘bakes on’ a layer of oil/fat to form a strong, thin layer on the rough surface of a wok/iron pan, which acts as a solid non-stick coating layer on the iron pan. And one more interesting fact is that after trying Chinese cuisine in an ethnic Chinese restaurant, some of you must have tried to replicate the dish in your home with the same ingredients yet failed to produce that same taste you got in the restaurant. One of the reasons for your failure might be the wok you have used. A properly seasoned wok infuses a one-of-a-kind flavor into the dish , adding a fantastic flavor .

“Seasoning a wok” was actually quite simple. Lin Qingwan had learned this method in her previous life from an elderly. Following that method, first, she added pork meat with fat into the wok. Soon, oil started oozing out of the fat of the pork. Lin Qingwan, using the pork, quickly started rubbing the oil all over the wok evenly. This process of rubbing the oil must be repeated carefully for few more times.

Waiting till the fat was sufficiently taken in by the surface of the iron wok, she rinsed it with water. The wok was then ready to use.

She planned to stew pig trotters in the wok first for Yang Tiezhu to drink the pig trotters’ soup during dinner at night.

The pork seller had already helped her properly chop the pig trotters. She only had to clean them now. After thoroughly washing them clean, she blanched the trotters in the clay pot for few minutes and drained all the water. She then once again added freshwater into the clay pot and allowed it to boil.

In it, she added ginger, green onions, star anise, and cinnamon and heated them on a high flame. After a while, she also added a few red dates and wolfberries in it. She had bought these two ingredients in the medical center previously. She then lowered the flame of the stove to allow the soup to simmer slowly.

Done with all these things, she washed her hands and went to accompany Yang Tiezhu and chitchat with him.

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