To Be the Male Lead's Deceased First Wife in a Historical Chinese Exam-focused Novel - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Be Good to Yourself

Wen Ying put away the things she brought back and took out two coins from her pocket, which she handed to Yan An.

“This is what’s left today. It’s all the money we have in the house.”

When she said that last sentence, there was a faint hint of a smile in Wen Ying’s voice.

Before, she would have never been able to face such a situation with such a relaxed and cheerful attitude. After all, what could two coins do? It could pay for one ox cart ride, buy a string of candied hawthorn, or buy two bowls of tea, and then it would be gone. It was hard to feel secure with so little.

Yan An looked at the two coins lying quietly in Wen Ying’s palm and took another bite of her candied hawthorn. “But from the prices you just told me, we didn’t have enough money to buy all of this.”

“Mmm. This morning, I went into the mountains and cut two bundles of firewood. I took them to town to sell. Because I carried more than others, I sold them for 30 coins a bundle.” It was only with the money from those two bundles of firewood that she could afford to bring back a few chicks.

Yan An looked at Wen Ying’s slender figure. “How can this person have those muscles and be so strong while eating almost the same food as me?” she wondered.

“How much was this?” Yan An asked, waving the candied hawthorn in her hand.

“Two coins,” Wen Ying said softly, her lips pursed. Her hand, which was hanging at her side, quietly pinched the hem of her clothes, her eyes a little dim.

The only thing she could afford to give her was a small treat worth only two coins.

“Then why didn’t you just buy two strings so we could each have one?” Yan An said, looking at her candied hawthorn. Only she had one, which felt very unfair.

“Did you walk back?” Yan An asked.

Wen Ying pulled her hand back. When she made a fist, she could clearly feel the two coins in her palm digging into her skin. She nodded.

Yan An: “…”

She looked at Wen Ying, then at the things she had brought back. “Be good to yourself.”

She didn’t buy anything to eat, she didn’t take a cart. These two coins she brought back wouldn’t multiply into more money.

Seeing that Yan An had no intention of taking the money, Wen Ying carefully put it away. She simply smiled faintly and said, “I’m very good to myself.”

“Nonsense.”

Yan An rolled her eyes inwardly. If that was being good to herself, then there were no miserable people in this world.

Thinking this, she quickly put the candied hawthorn to Wen Ying’s lips and said urgently, “I can’t finish it all by myself. You have to eat with me, or I won’t have an appetite for dinner later.”

Wen Ying stared at her blankly. She closed her eyes and obediently bit off a piece, saying softly, “I didn’t consider that.”

She should have walked faster and come back earlier. That way, even if Yan An ate a string of candied hawthorn, she would still have an appetite for dinner.

Yan An went to look at the salt and oil from this world. There was so little of it. The salt was okay; it would probably last for more than half a month. But the oil felt like it would only last for ten days at most. “Is this little bit of stuff really that expensive?”

Seeing Yan An staring at those two things, Wen Ying seemed to understand what she was thinking and explained, “The salt is official salt. If you want cheaper salt, you can only buy black-market salt.”

But the government’s crackdown on black-market salt was very severe, so how could it be something you could just buy anywhere?

“As for the oil, we can only eat this for now. In the future, if we encounter some pork lard, we can buy some and refine our own oil. It will save us a lot.”

But as soon as she said that, Wen Ying’s face froze. She pursed her lips and frowned, looking hesitant.

“What’s wrong?” Yan An asked, looking at her in confusion.

Wen Ying looked at her with a complex gaze. After a moment of silence, she said, “Let’s just buy bean oil and vegetable oil instead.”

“Huh? Why?” Yan An’s eyes widened. “We can refine our own oil if we buy pork lard. Why would we buy such expensive oil?”

“You never used to eat pork,” Wen Ying said softly. To people of status, pork was not a food that could be served at a dinner table. Scholars naturally thought the same, and accordingly, they wouldn’t even eat pork fat.

Yan An was still chewing her candied hawthorn, staring at her blankly. She frantically replayed memories in her mind. It seemed that in her original world, there was a period of time in ancient times when people didn’t eat pork.

She thought for a moment and asked, “Is it because it has a bad smell?”

She couldn’t stand the bad smell of pork. She wouldn’t even feed it to a dog. Even the lard would be unbearable to smell.

Once, Yan An wanted to learn how to refine oil. Who knew she would buy bad-smelling lard? When she fried it in the pot, the bad smell filled the whole house and was so nauseating that she ended up throwing away the whole pot. The smell lingered in the house for several days.

Wen Ying pursed her lips. “The pigs have been castrated. The odor is very minimal.”

Hearing her say that, Yan An was immediately relieved. “If it doesn’t smell bad, then what’s the big deal? Buying lard to refine our own oil saves us money.”

“Mmm,” Wen Ying hummed in agreement, but in her heart, she was thinking that if possible, she would try her best to avoid having Yan An eat lard.

Yan An fed Wen Ying another piece of candied hawthorn. As she bit off the last one from the stick, she thought about Wen Ying’s words.

According to what she said, pigs in this world must have been raised on a large scale. That means when they have money, they can buy pork and make a lot of delicious food!

Just the thought of several dishes made Yan An’s mouth water.

But when her eyes fell on the stick in her hand, Yan An’s craving was slowly suppressed.

“Mmm… our family only has two coins now. If I want to eat meat, the fastest way is probably to cut it myself.”

Although she was craving it, she didn’t dare to tell Wen Ying, so she wouldn’t put any pressure on her.

“Have you decided what to eat tonight?” Wen Ying asked Yan An as she brought the things into the kitchen.

“Oh, I’m not picky. I’ll eat whatever you make.” She had been eating wild vegetables for a few days. Even if Wen Ying gave her a bowl of plain porridge now, she would find it delicious. Not to mention, Wen Ying had bought salt and oil, which meant the food tonight would have some flavor.

Hearing her say that, Wen Ying didn’t press her. She tidied up the area where they had kept the chickens before and put the chicks, which were huddled together, inside. She enclosed the area with a fence so they wouldn’t run around.

Yan An looked at the little chicks, hoping they would grow up quickly so she could eat some meat.

But when she saw Wen Ying busy washing vegetables, Yan An remembered that Wen Ying had been busy all day, while she had been idle at home all day. In the end, she even got to eat the candied hawthorn that Wen Ying had specially brought back for her. She quickly said, “Don’t be busy. I’ll do it. I’ll cook for you.”

As she spoke, she went over and took the vegetables from her hands.

However, this time, Wen Ying hesitated at her words. She had already planned it out. First, she would cook some rice, then chop up some wild vegetable leaves and fry them with egg. Then, she would fry the vegetables Aunt Li had given her, and dinner would be ready.

But now Yan An was saying she would cook… This was not just a simple matter of cooking wild vegetables.

“I’ll do it,” Wen Ying said slowly, not wanting to say anything that would discourage Yan An.

“No, you rest. You can just start the fire for me,” Yan An refused. Then, she seemed to have a thought and turned to look at her, and sure enough, she saw a look of hesitation on her face.

It was obvious that she didn’t want to refuse her, but she was worried about the ingredients. After all, with their family’s situation, they didn’t have much to spare for Yan An to experiment with.

“You have to believe me!” Yan An emphasized. “If you’re really worried, you can just watch from the side.”

“Mmm…” Wen Ying thought for a moment and finally agreed.

Yan An snorted softly, her hands quickly cleaning the vegetables. She asked Wen Ying what she had originally planned to make.

Wen Ying told her about her idea.

Yan An heard it and felt that this was probably the most efficient way to use their ingredients. She decided to follow Wen Ying’s plan.

In the kitchen, Wen Ying started the fire and washed the rice to cook. Yan An chopped the wild vegetable leaves and beat the eggs. All her movements were smooth and practiced.

At first, Wen Ying was worried when she saw Yan An with a cleaver and wanted to do it herself, fearing Yan An would cut her hand. But then she saw her movements were skillful, and the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board was even rhythmic. It was such a simple thing, but when she did it, it had a pleasant aesthetic to it.

The spatula was almost dancing in Yan An’s hand. With her movements, the small kitchen began to fill with the aroma of food. The dishes were simple and homey, but the presentation of Yan An’s cooking was much better.

Eggs were expensive, so Yan An didn’t use too many. She used three eggs and fried them with the wild vegetable leaves. It was enough for both her and Wen Ying.

When dinner was ready and brought to the courtyard, the first thing Yan An did was to put a large portion of the fried egg with wild vegetables into Wen Ying’s bowl.

“Eat more. Look how thin you’ve become,” Yan An said.

In ancient times, eggs were a good source of nutrition for many common people’s families. Especially since the eggs then were not like the ones in later generations, they were probably more nutritious.

“Okay, okay. I’ll eat it myself.” Wen Ying stopped her from adding more, seeing that half of her bowl was already covered with vegetables.

Her original intention for buying the eggs was to try to improve Yan An’s diet and give her some nutrients.

Seeing that the vegetables in Wen Ying’s bowl covered the rice, Yan An was satisfied and nodded. But she still urged, “Make sure you eat more vegetables, you know.”

After saying that, she picked up her own bowl, her heart full of anticipation.

“Eating! Finally!”

But with the first bite, Yan An’s eyes welled up with tears.

Wen Ying saw this and immediately tensed up. She quickly put down her bowl and chopsticks, her voice a little tight.

“What’s wrong?”

Looking at Wen Ying’s worried and tense expression, Yan An shook her head with teary eyes.

She didn’t dare to say it. The coarse rice was so hard to eat!