Chapter 32: First Hearing of the Pharmaceutical Factory

When Wen Jiajia got home, Wei Dai was already there.

It was easy for others to see that Wen Jiajia was hiding something. At least Wei Dai saw it at a glance and asked her, “What happened?”

“Nothing.” Wen Jiajia hadn’t thought it through yet, so she had to think about it again.

Putting this aside for the moment, Wen Jiajia excitedly stretched out her wrist in front of him and said, “Take a look. Does it look good?”

She specifically picked a watch that was small and delicate, a bit like a lady’s watch. Although it was expensive, the more she looked at it, the more she liked it. If she had changed to a thicker one, she would probably just wear it for fun and then keep it at her bedside as a fixed clock.

Wei Dai took a serious look and said, “It’s very beautiful.”

He praised her sincerely, and Wen Jiajia believed him.

Wen Jiajia was so pleased that she kept waving her hands. Even the things in her bag had been prepared by Wei Dai.

“Oh, by the way, where are Wen Chun and Wen Xuan?” Wen Jiajia thought of the two sisters and asked. Then she looked at the table and saw that there was no cake left. “Did they have lunch today?”

“At the Xie family next door. They had lunch today. I brought some food back for them.”

Wen Jiajia felt relieved.

Wei Dai asked her, “Can I invite someone to dinner tomorrow?”

After moving, it’s customary to invite relatives and friends for a meal. Although she didn’t have any relatives here, she did have quite a few good friends.

“It would be better to do it tomorrow. If it’s the day after tomorrow, the meat and bones will have to be salted.” Wen Jiajia wrinkled her nose. She didn’t like eating fresh meat that had been salted.

Of course, bacon and other things don’t count.

The weather was still a bit cold, so Wei Dai put the meat and bones in the cupboard without worrying about them going bad.

He then put the rice and flour into the grain jar in the kitchen.

This was the big jar that Wei Dai had bought from a fellow villager today. It could hold at least 200 kilograms of rice and was covered with a wooden lid, which effectively prevented rats and moisture.

Wen Jiajia asked him, “How many people will come tomorrow so I can make arrangements?”

Wei Dai pondered for a moment and said, “About 12 people.”

Wen Jiajia was surprised that Wei Dai had so many friends. She was a little worried. “Will there be enough food?”

Wei Dai consoled her, “It’s okay. I’ll try to buy some more tomorrow.”

He placed two bottles of wine in the cabinet in the living room and said, “It’s a training period recently, so you can’t drink during this time. You can have a drink during lunch.”

He remembered that Wen Jiajia seemed to have a good alcohol tolerance.

Wen Jiajia uttered, “Eh,” and said disdainfully, “No, I like fruit wine or rice wine.”

She didn’t like the spicy taste of white wine.

However, after two or three months, when the bayberries are ripe, she could use this white wine to make bayberry wine.

Now that she had bought the vegetables and food, she would naturally cook for herself tonight.

After all, no matter how rich and powerful one is, eating in the cafeteria every day is too extravagant.

Wei Dai was going to the yard to plow the soil, and Wen Jiajia took over the job of making dinner.

It was getting a little late, and although the sky was still bright, it changed its face like a child and would surely become dark in less than ten minutes.

Wen Jiajia didn’t plan to steam rice and decided to make noodles.

What kind of noodles?

Noodles with pickled mustard tuber and shredded pork.

The flour was kneaded into dough, and Wen Jiajia sprinkled flour on the chopping board before beginning to pull the dough.

She was very particular and had three chopping boards in the kitchen.

One was for cutting raw food, one for cutting cooked food, and the other for making pasta.

Wei Dai expressed his incomprehension of this, but Wen Jiajia called him a rough man. Under her strong persuasion, Wei Dai finally gave in and made three chopping boards for her.

In fact, Wen Jiajia felt that it was still not enough.

She also needed a board for cutting fruit because, in her previous life, she had five cutting boards at home.

However, considering that there wasn’t much fruit that needed to be cut in this era, she decided to let Wei Dai handle it.

She cut the fresh meat into shreds and brought the bowl of pickled mustard tuber from the table.

First, she fried the meat in a pan, then added the pickled mustard tuber when the meat was cooked.

When it was almost done frying, she poured boiling water into the pot.

Although this stove was not big and could only hold one pot, there was a small opening in the corner next to it. This small opening could be used to bake some food or put a small casserole on it to make soup, which was very convenient.

The soup in the pot was bubbling, and Wen Jiajia put the thinly shredded noodles into it.

After thinking about it, she washed a few more vegetables and added them to the pot.

“Time to eat!”

Wen Jiajia leaned her head out of the kitchen window and shouted to Wei Dai, who was digging the ground.

“Okay!”

Wei Dai put down his hoe, washed his hands, and went next door to bring over the two sisters who were having fun.

“Aunt! Where did you go today?” Wen Chun rushed over like a firecracker and hugged her thighs.

Wen Jiajia noticed that Chun’er had become much livelier after moving here, which really surprised her.

She guessed that it was probably because her hometown had brought Wen Chun too many bad memories.

Wen Xuan was a carefree person. She was still young at that time and didn’t remember much about her family.

Now, she had even forgotten their faces.

But Wen Chun remembered because she was precocious and more sensitive.

It was actually a bit cruel to let this child, who still remembered her family very much, live in a house full of traces left by her family.

As for the villagers… you can’t say they are bad. Maybe they think Wen Chun and Wen Xuan are immature. They tend not to pay too much attention to the psychological problems of three-year-old children and often show an expression of “you are so pitiful” in front of Wen Chun and Wen Xuan.

Wen Xuan didn’t understand but didn’t care about it.

The same couldn’t be said for Wen Chun, as it reminded her repeatedly that her family had left.

Even her playmates sometimes talked about her family without restraint.

Wen Jiajia touched her head, held her face, and said, “I went to the city and brought you some butterfly cakes. You and Xuanxuan can have one together after dinner.”

Wen Xuan’s ears immediately perked up. She quickly washed her hands, ran in, and asked, “Aunt, what is butterfly pastry?”

Wen Jiajia opened the cupboard, broke the butterfly cake into two small pieces, and stuffed them into Wen Chun and Wen Xuan’s mouths.

The two girls’ eyes lit up instantly, like a light switch.

The butterfly cakes were crispy and fragrant, and the rich aroma of butter filled their mouths. The saliva they secreted made the butterfly cakes even more flavorful, and the aroma of butter became even stronger.

They had never eaten anything so delicious! Even the crispy peach cakes and the wheat-flavored French cakes couldn’t compare to the butterfly cakes!

“Is it delicious?” Wen Jiajia asked.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan nodded, swallowing hard, and looked at Wen Jiajia eagerly, hoping for another piece.

Wen Jiajia raised her finger and shook it: “Can’t eat now; we have to eat dinner.”

There were hot noodles on the table, waiting to be eaten.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan weren’t ignorant, and plain noodles were also delicious to them.

The two sisters started eating, but Wen Jiajia took the opportunity to close the cupboard door and broke off another half piece.

She walked into the yard as if nothing had happened, broke open the butterfly cake, and said to Wei Dai, who was still working, “Open your mouth.”

Wei Dai opened his mouth obediently.

Wen Jiajia stuffed the butterfly cake into his mouth, his eyes bright. “Is it delicious?”

Wei Dai leaned over and kissed her on the mouth. “It’s delicious. Have you ever eaten it?”

Wen Jiajia put the piece in her hand and chewed. The crispy butterfly cake was just as delicious as the one she had eaten in her previous life. She couldn’t help but feel tears in her eyes. “I’ve eaten it.”

I’ve eaten it a long time ago.

Wei Dai was stunned. He felt that his wife’s mood seemed to change suddenly.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Wen Jiajia pouted and held back her tears. “I just think it’s great to grow up in a big city. I could eat butterfly cakes since I was a child.”

Wei Dai laughed. “Then we won’t go back in the future. If possible, we can find a way to buy a house in the city so that Chun’er, Xuanxuan, and our children can also eat butterfly cakes when they are young.”

“…”

You were thinking about going back to your hometown?

Wen Jiajia was so affected by his words that all the sentimentality in her heart disappeared completely.

“Let’s go eat,” Wen Jiajia said. “I can come tomorrow during the day for the rest.”

She knew how to grow vegetables; after all, she only needed to grow some onions, garlic, and peppers.

Wei Dai washed his hands and went to the living room to eat.

It was indeed getting dark, but not yet to the point where they needed to turn on the lights.

Wei Dai was really hungry. He picked up his chopsticks and started slurping the noodles. After two or three sips, half of the noodles in the bowl were gone.

She had known for a long time that he had a big appetite, but Wen Jiajia was always shocked every time she saw him eat.

“Eat slowly,” Wen Jiajia frowned. “Be careful not to get a stomach ache, and eating something too hot is bad for your esophagus.”

Wei Dai agreed, slowed down, and blew on his noodles to cool them.

Only then was Wen Jiajia satisfied.

As it was getting dark, Wei Dai turned on the light when he went to get his second bowl of noodles.

“Who gave you the pickled mustard tuber?” Wen Jiajia asked.

Wei Dai replied, “A friend of mine, Yang Tianchuan, is from Sichuan and Chongqing. He can’t get used to the food here, so his family sends him all kinds of peppers and vegetables every year.”

Wen Jiajia thought to herself that the pickled mustard tuber they made was indeed very authentic, and the taste was no different from what she would eat decades later.

Actually, one can’t always assume that things these days are delicious.

It is true that things these days are made with real ingredients, but real ingredients don’t necessarily taste good. After all, there are not many condiments nowadays.

Like Wen Jiajia, she often used oyster sauce and chicken essence when cooking, or at worst MSG, and she also used a lot of oil to stir-fry and enhance the flavor.

She didn’t have these seasonings now, and many of the dishes she made didn’t taste as good as they did in her previous life.

She needed to take a shower after dinner.

With a bathroom, taking a bath was no longer a tormenting thing.

In the past, when the two sisters were asked to take a bath, they would hide. If possible, they would avoid bathing for a month.

Now? They were eager to wash.

There was no light bulb in the bathroom, so Wen Jiajia simply brought a flashlight.

Wen Jiajia used soap to make foam and rubbed the two girls’ bodies.

“You need to wash your hair tomorrow. It smells. Don’t run away after lunch,” she said after sniffing it.

The two sisters laughed and were not embarrassed.

Since they didn’t have slippers, after they washed and put on their clothes, they asked Wei Dai to carry them directly to the room.

Wen Jiajia was thinking about how to buy a few pairs of slippers. However, slippers these days were mostly plastic, not to mention expensive, they were also quite ugly.

They were so ugly that Wen Jiajia didn’t even want to wear them at home.

“Then use straw sandals.”

Faced with Wen Jiajia’s dilemma, Wei Dai offered a solution.