Chapter 53.3

Translated by Aviana

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Gradually, the temperature outside was decreasing, turning the weather into a frigid cold. Last night, they even had a light snowfall, but it was only for a short duration and stopped soon after.

Early in the morning, Lin Qingwan rose up and pushed open the door to walk out. Every time she exhaled, the warm and moist air from her lungs turned into white fog due to the chilled weather.

However, she didn’t feel cold thanks to the new double-layered jacket she had made. Yao-shi had even laughed at her, joking that she was wearing such a thick jacket when the winter had barely started, and what would she do during the deep winters.

In reply, Lin Qingwan, too, joked that at that time, she would just remain nestled in her quilts without stepping down from the kang. Nevertheless, no matter how comfortable it was here, it wouldn’t be as good as it was in modern times.

In modern days, so long as you are wealthy, you could just turn on the heater and remain cooped up in the room during the days with snowfall. But here, quite many things are extremely inconvenient. For instance, you would have to use firewood for cooking, and water could only be drawn up from the well.

While standing below the eaves, Lin Qingwan gave her arms a little exercise, stood under the eaves before dazedly staring into the still-dark sky.

The sensation of the frigid chillness on her cheek and the passage of cold, humid air into her lungs unconsciously sent her down memory lane of past life….

Lin Qingwan was a far cry from the children blessed with good fortune in her previous life. As a little girl, she was discarded on the street by her family, turning her into a street urchin.

At that time, she was very young, but she had no recollection of exactly what her age was. Because she had little to no remembrance of the events before that. In the earliest memory she could recall, she was already a little beggar, drifting along with a group of street-urchins, covered in filth from top to bottom, looking for food all around…..

Digging through one trash can to the other or hovering around the food stalls of the late-night markets to get some leftovers….. that’s how they spent their days…..Later, when they grew up, for some reason, she was sent to an orphanage by the government officials…

She stayed in the orphanage till she got admitted into a university. She took a student loan for university fees and earned her living expenses by working part-time while studying. Other kids got into university to enjoy life and fall in love. But, she used to work around the clock to earn money for her living expenses and to pay back her student loans….

After graduation, the dread of poverty propelled her to take up two jobs. During the day, she used to work as a planner in a small firm, while at night, she used to work as an art editor for a website. Round the clock, she was busy with a never-ending schedule. As for why she was that busy, she never had an answer…..

She never had any friends or relatives. The only ones she could have a conversation with were with her company co-workers or some strangers on the internet that she got acquainted. Amidst such lackluster and busy life, her only greatest joy was buying some delicious foods for herself in her spare time or mulling over what to cook when she reached home after a busy day. And on the days when she was too busy, she would make do with just a simple meal box of instant noodles.

Few of the orphans went to look for their biological parents after they grew up. Even if it was a futile effort, they would nevertheless try their best. Only Lin Qingwan was different from them, and such a thought never crossed her mind.

She had always thought of herself as an orphan or a child who wasn’t needed. Otherwise, how would she have turned herself into a street urchin at such a young age?

In the deepest part of her memory, the memories of the home were a woman’s figure, with very vague facial features, cooking with a slight smile on her lips as she fed her meat….

This was her earliest and most profound memory. She could no longer remember how she looked, but the only deep impression she had of this memory was that piece of meat, an unusually delicious piece of meat….

Lin Qingwan couldn’t remember the aroma of the dish, but it became her deepest obsession in her previous life. She had never thought of looking for her parents, but she clung to that piece of meat from her deepest memory.

Initially, she wasn’t aware of what sort of food that was. It wasn’t until a benevolent southerner gifted a dish to their orphanage for the new year that she learned that the meat dish in her memory was called Lap cheong .

Lap cheong (腊肠): Southern flavor of Chinese pork sausages.

That Lap cheong was made using traditional methods.

Later, after she grew up, she came to know that southerners had a tradition of eating this type of Lap Cheong , made by using a traditional technique, during the New Year.

It’s just that their orphanage was situated in the north and isn’t something you could often have, making her regard it as a rare food.

La cheong …made by using traditional technique…a tradition followed by the southerners during New Year….

Unconsciously it became engraved in her memories, to the point, it became a sort of obsession. When she was a kid, she couldn’t eat it. But after she grew up, she was capable of doing so. Every year, she would surely buy some to eat during the new year. But gradually, she came to dislike the La cheong sold outside, finding it unlikable and unauthentic. So, she began to learn how to make it by herself….

She opted for the university in the south, and even after graduation, she continued to live in the south itself….

Towards the new year, she had a sort of aversion, yet also looked forward to it obstinately…disliked it because it was cold and cheerless to celebrate all alone. Yet, she also held conflicting thoughts of wishing to buy lots of food, as if she was telling herself——Yu Ziman, it’s New Year… actually, you can also have a good time even without any company….

Right now, the chillness at the tip of her nose and the wintry breeze rekindled the nostalgic feeling of year-end, making her even reminisce the aroma and taste of La chuang …..

Suddenly, she drooled with desire, her heart craving to eat it….

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