To Be the Male Lead's Deceased First Wife in a Historical Chinese Exam-focused Novel - Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Feed Me

As the figure got closer, Wen Ying’s silhouette became clearer in her vision. Yan An tightened her grip on the ox rope. She hadn’t expected Wen Ying to come looking for her.

When Wen Ying got closer, Yan An saw the beads of sweat on her forehead. She felt a certain emotion and her tone softened.

“Why did you come?”

They were still at least a third of the way from Nanya Village. In Yan An’s mind, even if someone were to wait for her, they would at most wait at the village entrance, not come looking for her all the way here.

“I saw that it was getting late and was afraid you were stuck on the road.”

Perhaps she had run too fast, as Wen Ying was still a little out of breath. She was holding a lantern, which looked like it was prepared in case it got too dark to see the road.

When Yan An heard Wen Ying’s words, she felt a genuine sense of grievance while holding the ox rope. She pursed her lips, trying not to show it, but her tone still revealed a little.

“I am stuck. This ox just won’t walk.” Yan An glared at the ox in frustration. It had been standing here eating grass for at least half an hour, and she couldn’t pull it with all her might!

Hearing Yan An’s voice, Wen Ying’s previously tense expression softened, and a faint smile appeared on her lips. She handed the unlit lantern to Yan An and took the basket off Yan An’s back and put it on her own.

“It’s okay, I’ll do it.” Wen Ying took the ox rope and tried to pull it, but the ox remained motionless. Wen Ying looked around. Finally, she took a piece of cloth from the basket and covered the ox’s face, blocking its eyes.

Yan An stared at her actions in a daze.

As Wen Ying covered the ox’s eyes, the ox started following Wen Ying’s lead obediently.

“Yan An, let’s go home,” Wen Ying turned her head to look at Yan An, who was still standing there in a daze.

Yan An came back to her senses. She looked at the incredibly obedient ox and couldn’t help but widen her eyes. “It’s just going to follow you?”

“Yes,” Wen Ying said softly. “When you cover the ox’s eyes, it will become much more timid. Then it will follow you.”

Yan An: “…” “I learned something new.”

After they had walked for a while, as the sky got darker, Wen Ying took out a flint and lit the candle in the lantern. The two of them no longer had to worry about stumbling into a ravine in the dark.

Ever since Wen Ying arrived and started leading the ox back, Yan An’s mood had been a little down. After hesitating for a long time, she finally bit her lip and said, “Wen Ying, did I buy the wrong ox?”

“Hm? Why do you say that?” Wen Ying turned her head to look at Yan An. It was dark, and the candlelight was faint, so she couldn’t see clearly.

“Well… I didn’t choose the ox well,” Yan An said in a lower tone. “What if it stops on the side of the road and refuses to walk when it’s pulling a cart in the future?”

She couldn’t just cover its eyes every time, could she?

Wen Ying’s face softened when she heard her words. “That’s not how it is. Any ox can do this. You just need to get used to each other over time. Don’t you see how obedient Auntie Li’s ox is?”

Yan An felt much better after hearing this. “Then you’ll have to teach me how to get along with the ox.”

“Okay,” Wen Ying said softly.

Listening to Wen Ying’s calm and gentle voice, Yan An pinched her index finger with her thumb, thinking that Wen Ying’s emotions were so stable.

…

By the time the two of them got home, it was already completely dark. Perhaps because it was winter, even the moon in the sky wasn’t very bright, and everything was hazy.

Wen Ying led the ox to the backyard and tied it up. Since she knew Yan An was buying an ox today, Wen Ying had already found some corn stalks and dry grass. She could feed them to it now.

Yan An sat at the kitchen door, so tired that she didn’t want to move. After being busy in town all day and walking back, she had even forgotten to eat lunch. She was so hungry that her head was a little dizzy.

“Rest. I’ll make dinner,” Wen Ying said, telling Yan An to come into the kitchen. It would be much warmer once the fire was lit.

Fortunately, before she went out to look for Yan An, she had already cooked the lamb soup with some radishes. Now, all she had to do was cook the rice and stir-fry a dish.

While Wen Ying was busy, Yan An sat by the stove, warming herself and watching the fire. She saw Wen Ying start cooking the rice and heating up the lamb and radish soup. She was also beating eggs, clearly wanting to quickly stir-fry them so they could eat.

While they were at it, Yan An told Wen Ying about what happened in town, including how she sold the things she carried to the restaurant. This saved them the money for a scale for now.

Wen Ying looked at Yan An when she heard this. She had thought that it would be hard enough for her to carry the winter bamboo shoots to the market by herself, but she didn’t expect that Yan An would be able to go into a restaurant and even run into an acquaintance.

In Yan An’s situation, she used to socialize with scholars or people with a higher social status than ordinary people in town. Now that she had fallen to this level, it was better for her to be seen in a difficult situation by a stranger than an acquaintance. At least her situation wouldn’t spread widely in her circle of acquaintances.

“Aren’t you afraid they’ll laugh at you?” Wen Ying asked in a low voice.

“Laugh at me?” Yan An couldn’t help but laugh. “Then let them laugh. I won’t lose a piece of me. Besides, those people know what I’m going to do in the future. It’s even better if they come to me to cook for them.”

Even if they were laughing at her, wasn’t it a way to gain some fame? She was very confident in her cooking skills and believed that she could use them to change people’s impressions of her.

Wen Ying: “…”

Seeing Wen Ying’s silence, Yan An comforted her. “What’s the big deal? Just believe that there aren’t many people in this world who genuinely want the best for you. Do you think that if I live a good life, many people will wish me well?”

It was enough for everyone to maintain a lukewarm relationship. Whether she was rich or not didn’t benefit anyone else.

Wen Ying slowly let out a breath. “You’re right.”

Listening to Yan An tell her about the things she ordered and the expenses, a warm feeling flowed through Wen Ying’s heart.

This house really seemed to be a home for the two of them, just like Yan An said.

Yan An was also working hard to support this home. At the same time, she would tell her about the situation in the house. Even when Wen Ying wasn’t around, she would make sure Wen Ying was aware of the various expenses so she would know what was going on.

The lamb and radish soup was quickly heated up. Wen Ying also quickly stir-fried the eggs, and the rice was cooked just right. The two of them moved the dining table from the courtyard into the kitchen and started eating there.

Yan An was genuinely hungry. She ate much faster than usual. Wen Ying looked at her and a little worry appeared in her eyes.

“Did you not eat anything in town?”

Because the weather was cold, Wen Ying hadn’t made any flatbread for Yan An to take with her. Even if she had, it would have been cold. She didn’t want Yan An to eat cold food that would hurt her stomach. It was better for her to just buy something hot to eat in town.

“I forgot. I was so focused on getting everything done and coming back early,” Yan An said, quickly swallowing the food in her mouth.

If she hadn’t rushed, she really wouldn’t have been able to finish everything she needed to do today.

Wen Ying served her a bowl of soup and placed it in front of her, afraid that she would choke from eating too fast.

“Don’t do this in the future. No matter how busy you are, you have to take care of yourself first. Those things can be postponed.”

“Okay, I know,” Yan An replied casually, not really taking it to heart.

Wen Ying looked at her helplessly and told her to eat more meat.

“You’re the one who needs to eat more meat. Why haven’t you gained any weight?” Yan An was a little speechless when she saw that Wen Ying was just eating radishes. She directly put two pieces of meat in Wen Ying’s bowl and a chopstickful of stir-fried eggs. “Eating more meat, eggs, and dairy will make you stronger. Look how thin you are. I don’t know where you get all that strength from.”

If her body didn’t have much meat, Yan An was truly afraid that all of Wen Ying’s strength came from overusing her body.

Wen Ying stared at the meat and egg in her bowl, stunned. She didn’t move her chopsticks for a moment.

Yan An noticed that she was staring at the bowl but not moving her chopsticks. She suddenly realized that she had been a little too quick just now and hadn’t used the other side of her chopsticks to give her the food. Since it was only the two of them eating, they hadn’t prepared separate chopsticks at first.

“I’ll take it back, and you can pick it up yourself,” Yan An said, extending her chopsticks to take the food she had put in Wen Ying’s bowl back. However, as soon as her chopsticks reached out, Wen Ying held her bowl and moved it back, avoiding Yan An’s actions.

“No need. This is fine,” Wen Ying said, biting her lip. She still emphasized, “Yan An, I don’t dislike you.”

She was just so emotional to the point her heart felt sour and bitter that Yan An would put food in her bowl, especially meat and eggs.

Back in the Wen family, not only did they not put food in her bowl, but they would also deliberately tell her that the meat and eggs were for her brothers, and she could just eat some vegetables. And it was really just “some.” If she took two more mouthfuls of vegetables, they would ask her if what she had taken earlier wasn’t enough.

Yan An’s outstretched hand froze in the air. She watched Wen Ying pick up the meat with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth, then silently retracted her hand. “It’s good that you don’t dislike it. I just wasn’t paying attention.”

Wen Ying shook her head. “With our relationship, you don’t need to pay attention to these things.”

Yan An: “…” “What can I even say to that?”

“Oh, then you should get more for yourself. We’re not in a situation where we have nothing to eat anymore.” Yan An said vaguely, moving on from the topic.

“Okay,” Wen Ying replied softly.

After dinner, Yan An saw that Wen Ying was about to use cold water from the well to wash the dishes, and her face darkened.

“Use hot water! Didn’t you boil hot water?!” Yan An’s voice couldn’t help but get a little louder. She felt that Wen Ying’s brain had gone blank. It was a cold day, and she was using cold water instead of hot water. Was she afraid her hands weren’t cold enough? And hadn’t she just told her to try to not touch cold water?

Wen Ying was a little startled by her voice. She pursed her lips, but soon turned around and went into the kitchen to get hot water to wash the dishes.

She had just done it out of habit. In the past, she always used cold water to wash dishes at home, even in winter. Her father complained that boiling hot water wasted too much firewood, so he made her use cold water to save it.

Seeing her do what she said without a word, Yan An felt a little uneasy again.

What was Wen Ying’s reaction? Was she unhappy with her because she was so silent? Or did she think that Yan An’s tone was too harsh? But wasn’t she doing it for her own good? Her body was already cold. If she kept doing this, she would suffer when she got older.

She thought about this, but seeing Wen Ying silently washing the dishes with her head down, she felt that she couldn’t just pretend she didn’t see anything. She quietly went to the basket she had brought back from town today, bent down, and took something out of it, tucking it into her arms.

After Wen Ying finished washing the dishes and even scrubbed the wok in the kitchen clean, Yan An walked over to Wen Ying with pursed lips. She said awkwardly, “Wen Ying, I didn’t mean to be harsh just now. My words just came out a little too quickly.”

She thought about how Wen Ying was the one who was doing the work, and her tone had been a little unpleasant. Yan An felt like she was a bad person.

Wen Ying turned her head to look at her.

Seeing that she still wasn’t saying anything, Yan An quietly pouted. She took out the thing she had tucked into her arms and handed it to Wen Ying.

“Here, I bought this for you. It’s for your hands. You can use it after you take a bath.”

It was a small, round wooden box with some simple carvings on it. It looked very plain. It was just sitting in Yan An’s palm.

Looking at the not-so-exquisite box, Yan An pursed her lips and said, “Just use this for now. I’ll buy you a better one when we have more money.”

She didn’t know these things were so expensive until she went into a makeup shop. It was true that women’s money was the easiest to make in any world. She was speechless when she saw the prices.

Wen Ying’s face finally showed some emotion when she heard Yan An say it was for her hands. She frowned. “Why did you buy this?”

These things were extremely expensive. Even though Wen Ying had never used them, she had heard of them. Only those with better living conditions in town could afford these things. There was no way they could afford them.

“I told you, it’s for your hands, to prevent frostbite and cracks.” Yan An directly put the box of hand cream into Wen Ying’s hand. Before Wen Ying could say anything else, Yan An interrupted her. “Don’t be in a hurry. Even if I bought this, it was with the money you earned from digging the winter bamboo shoots.”

All the winter bamboo shoots were sold for 1,344 wen, and this box of hand cream cost 1,500 wen. Although she had to make up for the difference, Wen Ying was worth spending this much money on!

“You…” Wen Ying was speechless for a moment. They were in a time when they needed money. In her eyes, Yan An spending so much money on this was a waste. It would have been better to use that money to buy more rice or more chicks.

“I already bought it. Just use it,” Yan An didn’t want to argue with her. Wen Ying was used to being frugal, so of course, she would be reluctant to buy these things for herself. And if it weren’t for Wen Ying saying she was worried about her rough hands before, Yan An wouldn’t have bought it. Since Wen Ying was worried, it meant that she cared about her hands. So it was better to take care of them.

Yan An also handed the rest of the money she had brought back to Wen Ying. “Here, it’s all for you.”

Wen Ying held the money in one hand and the box of hand cream in the other. Finally, she sighed softly. “It seems I can’t let you manage the money in the future.”

This was only the first day she had given Yan An money, and she had already bought something like this. Wen Ying couldn’t deny that she was touched that Yan An had brought this back for her, but at the same time, she felt that she wasn’t worth spending so much money on this.

Yan An’s eyes widened when she heard this. “Who are you looking down on? I’m very good at budgeting!”

In the past, she didn’t have to worry about how much money she spent. Now that she was in this world, she was really making every penny count!

Wen Ying looked at her helplessly. What Yan An had done today couldn’t make her believe that she was good at budgeting.

Seeing her like this, Yan An huffed and rolled her eyes at her. “I’m not going to argue with you.”

Although she still had to do the bookkeeping, Yan An was so tired today that she just wanted to go to bed. She would do the rest tomorrow.

Before going to bed, Wen Ying finally took out the box of hand cream. She opened it and held it out to Yan An.

Yan An: “?”

Yan An: “What are you doing? I bought it for you.”

“Let’s use it together.” Seeing that Yan An wasn’t moving, Wen Ying simply sat on the edge of the bed. She used her fingertips to scoop out some of the white cream from the box and grabbed Yan An’s hand to rub it on the back of her hand.

Yan An: “…”

Her hand was being held, and she couldn’t pull it away. Yan An silently watched Wen Ying. Not only did she put the cream on the back of her hand, but she also wanted to help her rub her entire hand!

“Isn’t this crossing a line?”

Yan An quickly shouted, “I’ll do it myself!”

“Is Wen Ying an ox too? What’s the point of using all that strength on me?!”

When she heard her anxious voice, Wen Ying looked at her. In the end, she let go of her hand and watched her rub the cream on.

Yan An was terrified of being watched by her. She was afraid that Wen Ying would come over and rub it on her again. After quickly rubbing it on, she directly turned over and lay down with her back to Wen Ying.

“Okay, you can rub it on yourself and go to sleep.”

Wen Ying looked at her quick movements, pursed her lips, and chuckled softly. She looked at the hand cream Yan An had bought for her. It was expensive, but there wasn’t much in the box. Wen Ying was reluctant to use too much. After lightly applying a layer, she blew out the candle and lay down on the bed.

The two of them lay on the bed. Yan An also wanted to ask Wen Ying how her studies at Teacher Yi’s house went today, but she was so tired and exhausted that she fell into a deep sleep shortly after getting into bed.

After she fell asleep, she seemed to feel that the temperature around her was a little low. Yan An’s body unconsciously moved toward the middle, until a warm, soft body held her in its arms. Even her cold feet were wrapped up, and Yan An finally fell into a peaceful sleep.

In the darkness, Wen Ying couldn’t see Yan An’s face. She just tightened her arms around Yan An. Feeling Yan An’s cold feet, Wen Ying thought about buying her a bed warmer. She would fill it with hot water every night before bed and put it at Yan An’s feet. She would probably sleep much more comfortably.

And so, Yan An slept comfortably until dawn. After a good night’s sleep, her body felt relaxed and lazy. She turned over and saw that Wen Ying was no longer in bed.

It was very comfortable under the blanket, but outside the blanket…

Yan An stared at the outside of the blanket for a long time. Finally, she accepted her fate and dragged the clothes that Wen Ying had left by the bed into the blanket. After they were warmed up, she shakily put them on while still in the blanket. She only managed to straighten them out after she got out of bed.

This weather was getting colder by the day.

Yan An was cursing at the heavens in her mind. Did the weather have to be this cold? What would happen if it were a little warmer?

When she went out, Wen Ying had already finished many of her chores. She was even sitting in the study reviewing what she had learned yesterday. She was probably reviewing while waiting for Yan An to wake up so she could make breakfast, so it wouldn’t get cold.

“I woke up late,” Yan An said, stretching.

Wen Ying put down her book and walked over to her. She naturally reached out to straighten Yan An’s clothes. “You were tired yesterday.”

Yan An looked down at Wen Ying helping her with her clothes. Even after all this time, the clothes she straightened herself were never as neat and comfortable as the ones Wen Ying did.

“How was your class yesterday? Can you keep up?” Yan An asked. Although she knew that Wen Ying was smart, she still had to show that she cared. After all, this was related to their future lives!

“I think I can,” Wen Ying said with a gentle smile, but she didn’t want to say too much.

“Then what did you learn?” Yan An asked curiously.

After helping her with her clothes, Wen Ying led her to the desk. There were some shapeless characters written on the paper. It was clear that the person who wrote them had just learned how to hold a brush.

Seeing her own handwriting, Wen Ying bit her lip a little in embarrassment, but she also knew that there was no need to feel inferior. It was normal for her to not write well since she was just starting. In the future, she would definitely be able to practice and write better.

“Teacher Yi taught me some basic reading materials,” Wen Ying said, handing a primer to Yan An.

Yan An opened it and looked at the characters inside. She was silent for a moment. “He’s just teaching her to recognize characters directly? Won’t she have to rely on rote memorization in the beginning?”

She thought for a moment. Yan An picked up a brush and said, “Tell me how to pronounce each character and what it means.”

Wen Ying’s eyes moved slightly as she watched Yan An pick up the brush. She knew that Yan An probably wanted to annotate it with her own, simpler characters.

She read each character to Yan An one by one, and at the same time, she tried her best to describe what each character meant. Yan An wrote down each character according to what she said, and then she compared it to the characters of this world. This would also make it easier for her to keep records in the future.

Since it was the first day of school, Yi Shu Hua clearly didn’t dare to teach too much. He only taught 20 characters and gave Wen Ying the homework of writing each character 20 times.

“Hmm…”

Yan An looked at the characters on the table. She took another piece of paper and wrote down the alphabet. She said to Wen Ying, “I’ll teach you Pinyin later. Once you learn Pinyin, you’ll be able to sound out characters you don’t know. Of course, this is assuming that the character can be annotated with Pinyin. You probably won’t need to use it, but once you learn it, you can annotate characters with Pinyin and promote it. This way, everyone can learn characters more quickly.”

Wen Ying looked at the so-called Pinyin that Yan An wrote. Could she really sound out all the characters with these?

Fearing that Wen Ying wouldn’t believe her, Yan An added Pinyin to some characters and sounded them out for Wen Ying.

“See, it’s like this. In the future, when people are learning, they can first learn this alphabet and then sound out the characters based on the alphabet. Isn’t that faster?”

Wen Ying listened to what Yan An was saying. Her brain wasn’t stupid. She naturally understood the benefits of this method. If it could be implemented well, the entire teaching system would probably undergo a major reform.

And this reform was so good that she couldn’t even imagine any downsides.

“Yan An, this method is excellent,” Wen Ying said.

“Of course it is. At least it’s better than memorizing each character one by one, right?” Yan An couldn’t help but say. If she hadn’t annotated it with simplified Chinese characters, she would have already forgotten how to read the characters Wen Ying taught her.

For a person who couldn’t read, seeing those characters for the first time was no different from seeing scribbles. When too many characters were crammed into her head at once, the chaos would lead to no memory retention.

After all, not everyone’s brain was like Wen Ying’s.

Wen Ying nodded in agreement. Just as she was about to say something, a grumbling sound suddenly entered her ears.

She was slightly stunned. Her gaze moved down and landed on Yan An’s stomach. She then realized that it was already late and that they had been in the study for a while.

“Are you hungry? What do you want for breakfast?”

Yan An, who felt embarrassed: “…”

Wen Ying woke up so early and did so many chores, but her stomach hadn’t growled yet. On the other hand, Yan An was the first to get hungry.

“Noodles,” Yan An said.

On a cold winter morning, she still preferred a bowl of steaming hot soup noodles over rice.

“Okay, then I’ll go knead the dough.” Wen Ying couldn’t help but smile when she saw Yan An’s sullen face.

Yan An looked at her indifferently. Her eyes seemed to be saying: “What are you laughing at? Stop it!”

“What an impolite person!”

“You know I’m hungry. Can’t you just feed me?”