Chapter 26: Drunkenness

◎ Hot Pot Time~ ◎

In winter, it gets dark early. By the time the two of them got home, a light drizzle had started to fall. Inside the house wasn’t any warmer than outside.

Jiang Che quickly went to light the kang (heated brick bed), while Wei Xuan headed to the kitchen to boil some water for a bath and cook some noodles to fill their stomachs.

By the time they got into bed, the sky outside was completely dark.

“Winter nights come so early.”

“Can’t sleep? If you can’t sleep, we can find something to do.”
Before Wei Xuan could respond, Jiang Che had already sealed his lips with a kiss.

They had to go back to work the next day, but thankfully there was no need to prepare braised meat now, so the two of them got up a little later than usual.

That evening after work, Jiang Che told Wei Xuan that he’d already arranged with Song Jianjun to come over for dinner on the eighth day of the New Year.

“Just him?”

“For now, just him. I’ll ask the other two if I run into them.”

Wei Xuan had no objections—if more people came, it just meant cooking a couple more dishes. And now that she had Jiang Che helping her wash vegetables, cooking had become even easier.

On the eighth day of the New Year, Jiang Che came straight home after work to help his wife with the preparations. By the time Song Jianjun and Jiang Tao arrived, Wei Xuan was already cooking.

She figured that with two men coming over, they’d definitely want to drink.

So she decided to prepare hot pot.

All she needed to do was stir-fry the base, then move the stove into the main room so they could add ingredients to the pot while they ate. To go with it, she’d just prepare a plate of fried peanuts—easy.

She had prepared plenty of ingredients for the hot pot. Aside from cabbage, radish, and winter melon, she’d also bought tofu, tofu puffs, and bean sprouts. For meat, there were homemade veggie balls, meatballs, slices of fish, and slices of pork. She even made some egg dumplings.

There weren’t many options in winter, but thankfully she had enough of everything, more than enough to feed them all.

If it still wasn’t enough, she could always cook some noodles or dumplings—they had plenty at home, and it was easy to just heat them up.

The two young men followed Jiang Che into the kitchen to greet Wei Xuan.

When Wei Xuan saw them come in and completely block the already limited light, she quickly shooed them out. “You two go sit in the main room, dinner will be ready soon. Don’t just stand here—the kitchen smells are strong.” Since it was cold, Wei Xuan had added a good amount of chili peppers to the hot pot base.

The two of them were fairly familiar with her, so they didn’t stand on ceremony. After greeting her, they went straight to the next room.

During the meal, while they drank, Wei Xuan sat nearby eating and helping add ingredients to the pot as needed.

The three men were chatting about old times. Wei Xuan couldn’t join the conversation, but she listened with great interest.

At some point, Song Jianjun seemed to remember something and asked Wei Xuan, “Sister-in-law, have you been in touch with Qianqian lately? I couldn’t make it back to the county for New Year this year, but I heard from my mom that she had a bit of a falling out with the family.”

Jiang Che was a year older than Song Jianjun, and Wei Xuan used to call him “ge” (older brother) when she saw him with Bian Qianqian. Now, being suddenly called “sister-in-law” felt a little awkward—even though she’d already heard it once earlier, she still wasn’t completely used to it.

Once she got over that small moment of discomfort, she seriously thought about the question. To be honest, she hadn’t considered getting in touch with Bian Qianqian. For one, she’d just gone through a major life event—marrying Jiang Che—and hadn’t had the time or energy to think about friends.

Secondly, she subconsciously still avoided friends who had been close to the original host, afraid they might see through her.

So, when faced with Song Jianjun’s question, she could only shake her head regretfully and say she wasn’t too sure.

Song Jianjun had just asked casually anyway. Seeing that Wei Xuan didn’t know, he didn’t take it to heart and turned to join the conversation between the other two.

Jiang Che and Jiang Tao were chatting about Jiang Che’s upcoming wedding.

Song Jianjun was clearly envious when he heard it: “You guys are all getting married, and I don’t even have a shadow of a partner yet.”

“That’s because you’re too picky,” Jiang Tao teased. Among their group of friends, aside from Jiang Che, Song Jianjun’s family background was also quite good. As for his own family, although both his parents worked, it was still a bit less impressive compared to the other two.

Hearing that, Song Jianjun cried out in mock injustice: “Too picky? I just want to find someone I like, that’s all.” As he spoke, he glanced at the dishes in his bowl, fell into a brief moment of thought, then added, “Actually, someone like your wife, who’s good at cooking, wouldn’t be bad either.” At least he’d be able to eat comfortably.

“Get out of here,” Jiang Che kicked him lightly. “What are you dreaming about? You think someone like my wife is easy to come by?”

Song Jianjun staggered a bit from the kick. Realizing it wasn’t very appropriate to say that in front of Wei Xuan, he quickly chuckled to smooth things over: “Aiya, I just meant your wife’s cooking is amazing, I’m just jealous, nothing else, haha.”

Jiang Che rolled his eyes at him but didn’t bother arguing with this silly guy. Wei Xuan also smiled and said it was fine.

Jiang Tao, taking pleasure in his misfortune, raised his glass and said to Song Jianjun, “Come on, here’s to you finding a wife you like soon.”

Song Jianjun clinked glasses with him sulkily. So what if you have a wife? Big deal!?

After the meal, it was getting late. The three men had all drunk quite a bit. Jiang Che saw them off at the door and came back to find Wei Xuan cleaning up the table.

He said, “Wife, you rest, I’ll do it.”

But seeing he could barely stand, Wei Xuan helped him aside to sit down. “Alright, I’ll do it. You better sit before you fall over.”

Jiang Che was indeed a bit dizzy. He leaned back in the chair, his eyes nearly closed.

Wei Xuan was quite efficient with chores now. In no time, she had cleared the table, stacked the dishes in the kitchen to wash tomorrow, and went to boil water for bathing.

They had used a hotpot in the house tonight, and the smell was clinging to her clothes—there was no way she could sleep without washing up.

Once the water was ready, she went to the next room to call Jiang Che, who was already snoring.

“Get up! If you sleep here, you’ll definitely catch a cold.” Wei Xuan hurried over and patted him awake.

Jiang Che was pulled up by her, and after a moment of grogginess, he finally came to: “It’s done?”

“What do you mean done? Get up, take a bath, and go to bed.”

“Mm,” Jiang Che responded, then sat for a while longer before finally getting up to fetch water from the kitchen to bathe.

Seeing that he was truly awake, Wei Xuan finally relaxed and left him alone, continuing to add water to the pot and boil more.

By the time Wei Xuan finished her bath and came into the room, Jiang Che was already fast asleep.

The next morning, Wei Xuan asked him, “Why was it just Jiang Tao who came yesterday? What about that friend who came with him last time? Why didn’t you invite him?”

Jiang Che took the towel off his face before answering, “You mean Wu Feng? I did invite him, but he said something came up at his wife’s family home, so he couldn’t make it.”

“Oh,” Wei Xuan was just curious and didn’t press further. When she saw he had finished washing his face, she handed him a cup of plain boiled water. “Here, drink some water. You drank so much last night and didn’t get up once for even a sip.”

Jiang Che happened to be parched, so he grinned sheepishly at his wife, took the cup, and gulped it down in one go.

A few days after the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, it was already the fifteenth—Lantern Festival. That day, Jiang Che brought Wei Xuan back to the Jiang family to celebrate. Jiang’s mother also had them carry some gifts to visit Jiang Che’s aunt.

“Your aunt came back on the second day of the new year, but you two weren’t around and didn’t get to see her. This is Xiao Xuan’s first year after marrying into the family—you should at least visit and formally greet her.”

Jiang’s father nodded as well. “That’s right, your mom’s right. Hurry up and go. Once you’re done, come back in time for lunch.”

So the newlyweds, having barely sat down, had to stand up again and trot off cheerfully.