She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 844 - 788: Famine Era 29 (First Update)

It’s already tasty? But nothing’s been added yet!

Though she said so, she wasn’t silly enough to tell him how good she was at cooking.

Even if she said she was hungry, she only ate half a bowl (enamel bowl), while he finished two big bowls.

After eating, he took the pot, bowl, and chopsticks out to wash. Ye Huan wasn’t idle either. She cleaned up the stove, sealed the fire, covered it with a board, put the seasonings in the kitchen, then went into the house and climbed onto the kang.

After Tong Zhan entered the room, he inserted the door bolt. Seeing Ye Huan sleeping in the corner with her quilt, he couldn’t help but smile: "What are you afraid of?"

Ye Huan blushed and glared at him, watching him take off his military coat, shirt, and finally all that was left was a big pair of shorts.

"Turn off the light." The light string was by the door. Even if Tong Zhan wanted to look a little longer, he considered the softness in his arms and thought it might be awkward to get up to turn off the light. So, he obediently pulled the string, and the dim bulb went out immediately.

Unlike the past, even if you turned off the lights at night, the lighting in the neighborhood wouldn’t make it particularly dark. But in this era, when you turned off the light, it was really pitch dark, and you couldn’t see a thing.

He climbed onto the bed in the dark, pouncing directly onto her, ignoring his own bedding and insisting on squeezing over to her.

As soon as he got close, she could smell a masculine scent. She wasn’t sure how to describe it; it wasn’t unpleasant but somewhat intoxicating.

Tong Zhan looked pretty good. If in the past life, with such looks, as long as his fashion sense was on point and his hairstyle okay, he’d be a stylish guy with a bit of a CEO vibe. Regardless of his height or figure, he was a top-tier man. Who knows if her compromise had anything to do with his appearance?

Though the system led her to marry him, if he were ugly, would she have agreed so readily? Truth be told, she couldn’t guarantee it herself.

After all, when Ji Huzi and Tong Zhan stood together, her heart clearly leaned towards the more handsome, taller, and secure Tong Zhan.

This is probably the subconscious reaction spurred by instinct, call it realistic or a natural response, nothing can be done about it, haha.

In those days, quilts were for single people. As soon as he tugged, she felt a chill starting to creep in around her.

"Hey, don’t flail around, there’s a cold draft. Aren’t you cold?"

"It’s cold now, but it won’t be soon. Why are you still wearing clothes? Come, let me help you take them off."

"Wait, don’t pull recklessly. Your hands are too strong, don’t tear my clothes apart."

He turned over, pressing her down. Even with Ye Huan’s warnings, her underclothes still met their demise against his eager assault...

Ye Huan didn’t even know how she fell asleep. When she woke up again, she was the only one left in the bed. The kang was warm, and the nearby stove was open. A large iron pot was on it, seemingly with something he had made. Faintly, she could hear the uniform slogans of the military.

She just turned over, her whole body aching as if she’d been beaten. Damn, that man really wore her out!

Her stomach had already started playing an empty city plan. She didn’t even care whether she had washed her face, she leaned over to the stove and lifted the lid, discovering that he had brought back breakfast from the big kitchen. Two cornbread, a plate of salted vegetables, a bowl of corn porridge, and an egg, not a bad treatment.

Lying on the kang, after eating all the food, she felt alive again, stayed in bed a little longer, and considering the problem of the noon meal, forced herself up. Using the hot water from the iron pot, she cleaned herself up, washed the dishes, tidied up the stove, then remembered to check the watch Tong Zhan had given her. When she looked at the time, oh, it was almost eleven!

Although her body was uncomfortable, she made mixed grain noodles, cut the space-stored carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms into small pieces, prepared the lotus root slices in the pot, after blanching, added peanuts to the water, put in spices and chili, and made Five-Spice Peanuts.

Scooping the peanuts out along with the spices into an enamel basin, pouring out the water, washing clean, and adding fresh water again, she covered it, letting it simmer on a low flame.

In the lotus root, she added green and red chili threads, seasoned with light soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and salt, marinating it aside, not needing to attend to it.

After that, she started kneading the dough, and using the long rolling pin, began rolling out noodles. The dough had to be kneaded harder, or the noodles would stick together. It was quite laborious to roll, but the resulting noodles had good quality and appearance.

By the time the noodles were done, it was 11:45. She quickly grabbed a burning piece of firewood and lit the stove’s hearth in the kitchen.

By the way, their iron pot had already been tempered by her when they bought it, so today it naturally saved her a procedure.

After the wok for stir-frying heated up, she added rapeseed oil, heating until it smoked, then added minced scallion and ginger, stir-frying until fragrant. She added the diced bell peppers from the space, then the previously cut carrot, potato, and mushroom pieces, stir-frying them, adding Five-Spice Powder, a little dark soy sauce, then ladled a scoop of water into the pot from the water barrel, starting to stew. Because of the smoke, she kept tilting her head, coughing.

"How did you start cooking? I was planning to get some food from the cafeteria for you. Hand it over to me."

Just as she was squatting down to add firewood to the stove, Tong Zhan energetically walked in, bent over, and took the fire stick from her hand.

"It’s fine, I’ve already finished it. Just need to get this marinade right, and you watch the pot while I go inside to cook the noodles."

The water on the stove was nearly boiling, so she added a stick of firewood, and the fire flared up. Once the pot was boiling, she dropped in the noodles.

When the noodles were almost cooked, she sprinkled in a handful of green vegetables. Since it was mixed flour, the noodles were a bit dark, but the addition of the fresh green vegetables brightened up the color.

Afterward, she lifted the iron pot, sealed off the fire, and the noodles were just the right texture. Then she went to the hall to mix half a bowl of sweet potato starch slurry, poured it into the iron pot in the kitchen, and after stirring it, the marinade thickened up quickly. She picked up a piece of carrot, tasted it, added a bit of salt, and nodded.

"Alright, take it to the room. I’ll steady the water for washing in a bit."

The remaining fire in the stove was still not out, perfect for heating a pot of water.

Tong Zhan took the iron pot into the room, and Ye Huan placed it down while fetching the bowls and chopsticks from the cupboard moved from the kitchen to the hall, rinsed them in a water basin, and then took them into the room.

She scooped some noodles from the iron pot (skipping the cold water rinse during winter) into the bowl, added two spoonfuls of marinade, and then placed it on the small square dining table.

"It’s ready, you can eat."

"You first, I’ll serve myself."

"Go ahead and eat, I can’t eat that much, I’ll serve myself a smaller portion."

Even though in this era, the food standard wasn’t enough to get fat, she was used to feeling about seventy to eighty percent full, and she had maintained this for many years. So, the bowl she prepared for herself was the kind of enamel bowl kids used in this era.

Tong Zhan was already starving; on the stove, he didn’t stand on ceremony and the sound of him slurping noodles echoed, signaling just how satisfying it was for him.

After a big mouthful, he picked up lotus root slices and peanuts to taste, then stared wide-eyed.

"This tastes amazing, much better than what the cafeteria makes. Having a wife makes such a difference, Huanhuan, you’re really something."

The words from a man’s mouth are deceiving; when he praises you like this, there’s usually no good reason behind it.

"I didn’t expect my wife to be so capable. How about we find a time to invite the people from the family compound for a meal? After all, we’ve just moved, and you need to meet people."

"Sure, but how about after we get back from the hometown?"

Going from Beijing back to Henan takes at least two days on the road. You can’t handle things on the 28th and only arrive that day; you definitely need to go back in advance. During these days, she wanted to adapt to the military environment, and her body couldn’t handle entertaining guests.

Tong Zhan nodded, "Naturally, it should be after the New Year. I’m just giving you a heads-up."

"Alright, my holiday lasts a month, from the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month to the 15th day of the first lunar month. I’ll be back to work on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, and all social interactions should be resolved within this month!"

Tong Zhan quickly downed two bowls of noodles. Soldiers eat fast, while she had only finished half a bowl. Finally, he served himself noodle soup, eating the lotus root crunchily, slowing down only when he saw her looking at him, and chuckled sheepishly.

"In Chongqing, I didn’t eat this fiercely. It’s being with these rough men in the military that’s had an effect. I’ll change, just give me time."

"It’s alright, my brothers have the same dining habits. I’m used to it. It’s good if you can change, as the noise really is too much,"

After Ye Huan finished eating, Tong Zhan didn’t just sit back with an air of male chauvinism. Instead, he efficiently cleaned up, telling her not to move and he’d take care of the rest, while Ye Huan watched from the side.

"I wonder how long your diligence will last? Will it shrink as our marriage lengthens?"

Tong Zhan looked up at her, "Don’t worry, you just need to save my face in front of others; at other times, you can handle me however you like."

Ye Huan couldn’t help but burst into laughter, but she didn’t take it to heart. In her view, men of this era were much more traditional than those of later generations.

However, she wasn’t worried. After all, in marriage, if she could make it work, she would, and if not, she certainly wouldn’t make herself suffer for any child or save face.

"Oh, by the way, when did we get green peppers, carrots, and lotus root? I’ve only seen potatoes,"

Ye Huan quickly explained, "I put them in the cellar. I got them through connections and can’t leave them out in the open. There’s not much, and it’ll probably be eaten in the next few days,"

There wasn’t much taken out in the first place. Radishes and cabbages weren’t abundant either since they knew they’d be returning to the hometown soon, and once back, they’d be eating at the cafeteria when work started.