After sleeping through the night, Tian Yao felt that his face wasn’t as itchy or painful as the night before. But when he checked his reflection in the water vat, his cheek was still swollen and a bit red. The applied medicine had dried, crusting on his face. He looked truly hideous.
In his drowsiness, Tian Yao vaguely remembered Yu Nian giving him a kiss when he got up in the morning. Holding the water ladle, Tian Yao grinned foolishly.
Little Gray usually escorted Yu Nian to the school every morning. Today, perhaps because its face was also swollen, it hadn’t gone out and was lying in the kitchen.
Man and dog glanced at each other, then both turned their heads away simultaneously.
Breakfast was still warm. Yu Nian had transferred the settled honey into the old sugar jar; it was now placed in the most conspicuous spot, easy for Tian Yao to see at a glance.
He had originally planned to deliver it to Liu Zhi. But with his face so swollen now, he didn’t want to go out. Fine, he could wait until his face healed. It wasn’t like Liu Zhi would notice right now anyway; Liu Zhi still needed some time to recover his vitality.
But just as he decided not to go out, there was a knock at the door.
Chen Xu was carrying a basket of red eggs. He knocked symbolically and walked right in. Seeing Tian Yao’s face, he jumped in fright. “What happened? Did Yu Nian hit you?”
It wasn’t Chen Xu’s fault for thinking that. It was mainly because after witnessing Shen Qiao’s beaten state before, the memory was still fresh and terrifying.
“No, no, no, how could he possibly hit me?” Tian Yao hurriedly raised his hands to cover his swollen face. Hearing the commotion, Little Gray came out, but seeing it was Chen Xu, went back to lie down.
Chen Xu studied his face for a long time before handing over the red eggs. “You weren’t home yesterday afternoon, so I came again today.”
Yesterday afternoon, Tian Yao had been up the mountain, and Yu Nian was at the school. Of course, Chen Xu had found no one then.
Since Chen Xu was here, there was no need for Tian Yao to make a trip himself.
Tian Yao fetched the jar of honey Yu Nian had prepared from the kitchen. “This is for Liu Zhi. I figured he’d be craving something sweet right now.”
Chen Xu reached out and took it, somewhat surprised Tian Yao had such a fine item. “This stuff is precious. How can I accept this?”
He was a little embarrassed, but the item was simply too good. “Why don’t I buy it from you with money?”
Tian Yao made a motion as if to hit him. “Just go home already! Don’t you have diapers to wash? A baby to care for? A Liu Zhi to look after?”
Chen Xu took the gift and left, afraid Tian Yao might actually strike him.
Liu Zhi’s vitality had recovered a bit. For the past couple of days, Madam Liu and Sister-in-law Liu had been taking care of him. Father and Mother Chen helped look after the baby. Everyone had clear roles, and it was very harmonious.
Madam Liu had brought a goat that had just given birth. With its milk supply currently abundant, they’d avoided the expense of hiring a wet nurse.
When Chen Xu returned, he first gave the honey to Madam Liu, then went to the room to see Liu Zhi. After that, he started speaking mysteriously to Liu Zhi.
Little Bao was soundly asleep next to Liu Zhi at that moment. Liu Zhi glanced at him and spoke without much energy. “Why so secretive?”
“When I went to Yao Ge’er’s place today to deliver the red eggs, I found Yao Ge’er’s face was all swollen on one side,” Chen Xu whispered.
Liu Zhi slapped the bed, the motion tugging at his own wound and making him hiss in pain. “What did you say?”
Chen Xu immediately became nervous. “Don’t get worked up! It couldn’t possibly be Yu Nian who hit him, right?”
Both had experienced the earlier incident with Shen Qiao and were naturally somewhat wary.
Liu Zhi: “He said Yu Nian didn’t hit him? He said it, and you believed him?”
Chen Xu looked innocent. “No, I mean, a ger like Tian Yao… who could even manage to beat him up?”
Full of suspicion, Liu Zhi only hated that he couldn’t get up right now. Otherwise, he would have marched straight to Tian Yao’s. “No wonder he didn’t come to see me today.”
“What are you two talking about? So serious.” Madam Liu came in carrying a bowl of honey water. Seeing both their expressions were poor, she assumed Liu Zhi was throwing a tantrum. “Look, the honey water Chen Xu got for you. Drink up, sweeten your mouth a little.”
Liu Zhi asked suspiciously, “Where did this honey come from?”
Only then did Chen Xu say, “Tian Yao gave it to us.”
Liu Zhi looked at the honey water and thought back to what Chen Xu had said. He rolled his eyes at Chen Xu. “Guess why Yao Ge’er’s face is swollen!”
Chen Xu shook his head.
“He must have been stung by bees.” Liu Zhi reached out and smacked Chen Xu. “You scared me to death! I thought Yao Ge’er had been wronged somehow.”
Enlightenment dawned on Chen Xu. “No wonder! I saw their Little Gray had a swollen face too. I was wondering who could beat up even Little Gray.”
Liu Zhi took a sip of honey water before scolding, “Chen Xu, do you have a hole in your brain?! I really want to hit you right now.”
Tian Yao waited until the swelling on his face had completely gone down, leaving no trace, before coming to Liu Zhi’s house to see him.
Liu Zhi’s postpartum recovery was going very well; his entire face had a healthy, ruddy glow. Hearing Tian Yao’s voice, he immediately sat up.
“Face healed?” Liu Zhi lazily leaned against the bed, looking at him with a half-smile.
“How did you know?” Tian Yao came over, first glancing at the sleeping Little Bao, then feeling a bit embarrassed under Liu Zhi’s gaze.
“Chen Xu thought Yu Nian had beaten you up.” Liu Zhi laughed. “He came back talking all mysteriously to me.”
Tian Yao laughed too. “Who could possibly beat me up?”
After their laughter subsided, Liu Zhi’s expression became serious again. “I still have to scold you. Harvesting honey is so dangerous. Such a tall tree. What if something had gone wrong?”
Tian Yao was about to brush it off as nothing when he saw that Liu Zhi was actually crying! He hurriedly found a handkerchief to wipe his tears. After wiping them, he was utterly helpless. “Wait, why are you crying?”
Liu Zhi sniffled. “I can’t help it. When I think about you possibly getting into an accident, I just…”
Tian Yao coaxed him for a long time, nearly wanting to flee. Only then did Liu Zhi return to normal. As luck would have it, Little Bao woke up just then, wriggling on the bed.
“So small. So tiny and soft.” Tian Yao reached out and gently poked the baby’s bottom.
Liu Zhi felt the same; seeing Little Bao, his heart felt like it was melting. “What about you? When are you planning to have children?”
Tian Yao paused. Since he and Yu Nian had consummated their marriage, they hadn’t deliberately tried to prevent pregnancy or anything. But he still hadn’t conceived yet.
“I don’t know. We’ll just let it happen naturally.” Tian Yao thought for a moment. Now really wasn’t the ideal time for a child. There were still so many unresolved matters. Adding a child to the mix would just tie their hands and feet, making many things inconvenient.
Tian Yao then changed the subject. “We’re planning to go to town during the autumn harvest break to start treating Yu Nian’s legs.”
Liu Zhi nodded. “It’s the right thing to do. As long as there’s still a chance for treatment, he shouldn’t be unable to stand for his whole life.”
After thinking a bit more, Liu Zhi asked, “Is the silver still enough?”
“It’s enough. Don’t worry.” He had managed to save a bit of money recently.
The Chen family’s circumstances were better than the vast majority of households in Huailing Village. In previous years, besides the land they were allocated, the entire family’s diligence and hard work had allowed them to live quite well.
When Chen Xu was young, Father and Mother Chen had sent him to a martial arts school to learn martial arts. When he grew a bit older, he worked for an escort agency, running armed escorts. He was young, hardworking, and risked his life, which earned him a fair amount of money. After marrying, after discussing it with Liu Zhi, they’d bought a few more mu of land in the village. They farmed the original land themselves and hired landless villagers to farm the newly bought land for a share. It could also be considered doing a good deed, allowing those without land to earn some grain.
This was also part of the reason Chen Li kept trying to return to her maiden home. Chen Li hadn’t always had this temperament before she married. No one knew what happened after, but her greed had grown increasingly shameless.
Although everyone disliked Chen Li, she was, after all, born from Mother Chen’s own womb. They always thought she must also be having a hard time at her husband’s home. So every time she came back, Father and Mother Chen would still quietly slip her some things. Liu Zhi saw all this but never made an issue of it.
It wasn’t until Chen Li directly harmed Liu Zhi that Chen Xu truly became furious. Because of that, this was the first time in a long while that Chen Li had come back. And as expected, she had brought nothing but ill intentions.
Liu Zhi looked at Tian Yao and reached out to stroke his hair. “Everything will be alright.”
Tian Yao broke out in goosebumps. Having a child had completely transformed Liu Zhi; this was simply terrifying.
The conversation eventually turned to Chen Li. During Liu Zhi’s childbirth, Madam Liu and Sister-in-law Liu likely hadn’t told him about what happened. Father and Mother Chen also doted on Little Bao dearly. Right now, Liu Zhi could be considered to have everything going smoothly. If they had told him about Chen Li despising Little Bao for being a ger, Liu Zhi would surely have fought her.
“So, what’s Chen Xu planning to do about that elder sister-in-law of yours?”
Liu Zhi shook his head. “I don’t want to bother. As long as she doesn’t stir up trouble in front of me, I’ll just pretend I don’t see anything if Father and Mother give her things. But if she causes trouble right in front of me, then she shouldn’t blame me for tearing off all pretense.”
“But her constantly coming back like this must still bother you.”
Liu Zhi gave him a smile and leaned in close to whisper. “Don’t worry. After what happened last time when I almost miscarried, my two brothers were furious. They’ve already stirred up some troubles for her at the Zhao Family Village.”
Tian Yao made an “oh” sound. After the incident that day, Liu Zhi’s two brothers would surely go stir things up in Zhao Family Village again. How nice it must be to have older brothers.
After chatting with him for a while, Tian Yao looked at the time and realized he should go home to cook for Yu Nian.
The Enlightenment School had set up a small kitchen. When Tian Yao wasn’t home, Yu Nian ate there. But last night, Tian Yao had told Yu Nian he should come home for lunch today.
When Tian Yao had gone up the mountain yesterday, besides the honey, Little Gray had also caught a fat rabbit. Tian Yao planned to replicate Yu Nian’s cooking method from that day. It was a pity Liu Zhi was still in postpartum confinement and couldn’t enjoy any.
Arriving home, Tian Yao found the rabbit had already been cleaned and prepped by Yu Nian. He froze for a moment. At some unknown point, Yu Nian had already started quietly managing everything in the household, meticulously and orderly – even better than when Tian Yao had handled it all by himself.
He couldn’t read Little Dad’s notes, but he was very familiar with Little Dad’s drawings. So he quickly prepared all the ingredients shown in the pictures.
The lard in the oil jar was almost gone. Tian Yao mentally noted that he needed to go buy some from the butcher’s place in the afternoon. Meanwhile, he added the lard to the wok, watching the snow-white solid slowly melt. Then he added scallions, ginger, and chili peppers to the hot oil to release their fragrance. He sniffed; it was that pungent yet irresistible aroma of the chili peppers.
He then added the prepped rabbit meat, which had already been parboiled. Stir-fried over high heat, the surface of the rabbit meat developed a faint, crispy golden-brown color.
Tian Yao swallowed his saliva. He really wanted to eat some.
Looking at Little Dad’s drawing again, it seemed to depict wine as well. Did he need to add a little wine to it?
Unfortunately, they had no wine at home. Neither he nor Yu Nian were drinkers. In the future, they should probably keep some at home.
The fire in the stove was roaring, and the sizzling sounds from the wok were a feast for both the ears and the eyes.
Soon, the rich aroma of meat spread from the kitchen. Little Gray caught the scent too and started circling around Tian Yao. They had always raised Little Gray well. Tian Yao then realized that Yu Nian had even thought of Little Gray. The innards had long been boiled and set aside, waiting for Tian Yao to wake up and feed them to Little Gray.
Tian Yao crouched down and watched Little Gray eat with relish. “Daddy treats you really well, doesn’t he?”
Little Gray paused its eating, looked up, and gestured with its nose toward the bowl on the stovetop, as if saying, Don’t you have some food too?
Tian Yao was torn between anger and laughter and pressed gently on Little Gray’s neck.
A sound came from the gate. Tian Yao went out to greet them and saw a child pushing Yu Nian back home, only to run off in a hurry before even reaching the door.
Tian Yao began pushing Yu Nian, asking, “Am I that scary?”
“No.” Yu Nian smiled. “What did you cook? I could smell the aroma from far away.”
“That rabbit dish you made for me last time.”
Yu Nian made a sound of acknowledgment. “You made it even better than I did. It smells much more fragrant.”
Tian Yao loved hearing his praise. “When you go to town during the harvest break to treat your legs, I’ll go with you. Then I’ll set up a stall nearby and sell food. What do you think?”
“Won’t it be very hard and tiring?” Yu Nian looked at his sparkling eyes.
“No. If I’m with you, I feel like I’d be happy even eating plain rice and pickles.”
During the meal, Yu Nian once again praised Tian Yao’s cooking skills, sending Tian Yao to cloud nine and making him believe he was the next culinary god.
However, even a clever housewife couldn’t cook without rice. Only a few of the red chili peppers Little Dad had left remained. The newly planted chili peppers had just flowered and bore a few tiny buds.
After eating, they followed their usual habit and walked to the vegetable garden to digest their food. There, they saw that the tomatoes they had planted had already turned from green to red.
“Yu Nian! Are these ripe?”
That shade of red was even deeper and more beautiful than any fruit Tian Yao had ever eaten before. They’d planted half a field; each plant bore three or four fruits. Some were red, some not yet.
Tian Yao’s hand trembled slightly as he went to pick the fruit. The fruit stems had fine, not-too-sharp prickles. Tian Yao picked the very first fruit and held it out to Yu Nian.
He felt like crying again.
