Chapter 25

I couldn’t understand why I had to ask him when I just went to the kitchen to watch him make candied haws. However, He Beian didn’t ask any more questions. He just nodded and said, “Okay.”

“That’s great! Thank you~” He Beian was so easy to talk to. Xu Ning’s eyes were filled with visible excitement and joy.

Their ancestor could become an imperial chef, so he must have been quite skilled. She got a great advantage!

He Beian wanted to tell her that there was no need to thank her for such a small thing, but before he could open his mouth, the person who was happily thanking her a second ago had quickly shrank back and closed the door.

After staring at her door for a few seconds, he went back to his room to change his clothes.

Since he was discharged from the army, he didn’t take many things to heart, and he didn’t care about her reaction.

Xu Ning closed the door because He Beian had to pass by her on his way back to his room, and she consciously gave way.

He Beian came out after changing his clothes. The door opposite was still closed. He knocked twice on the door and said, “I’m going to the kitchen now.”

“Okay, I’ll be there right away.” Xu Ning answered while sitting on the edge of the bed towards the door.

If they go to open the door now, they will definitely have to go to the kitchen together, so it would be better for them to go one after the other.

He Beian just informed her, and after she responded, she went out of the house to the kitchen.

Hearing the sound of the kitchen door being pushed open, Xu Ning got up and walked out. He wanted to go to the next room to call He Wanjiao to go to the kitchen together, but the little girl had not finished her homework yet and there was no time.

As for Hu Xianglan, she was sitting on the sofa watching TV. Although she was watching TV, she was obviously thinking about something.

When Xu Ning walked into the kitchen, He Beian had just taken out the inky white sugar jar.

At that time, white sugar was a rare commodity. It was not that people could not afford it, but that sugar coupons were limited.

Few families are willing to use white sugar in cooking, and most of them save it for making sugar water for guests who come to visit.

Putting the sugar bowl on the stove, He Beian turned around and said to her, “These three candied haws don’t require much syrup. Do you have anything else you want to eat? We can make it together.”

He thought he didn’t have the ability to make just enough syrup for three candied haws, so it was inevitable that there would be more, so he could make more to avoid waste.

When Xu Ning heard his words, she recalled the types of candied haws displayed in the candied haws shop in her previous life: strawberry, grape, cherry tomato…

Each one is more expensive than the other. I can’t bear to part with them. I simply can’t bear to part with them!

Unfortunately, these things are more luxurious nowadays and are not in the right season.

She didn’t know what she had at home that could be used to make candied haws, and couldn’t think of anything, so she stood up and said, “I’ll go ask Jiaojiao if she wants to eat anything else.”

“Okay.” He Beian stood by the stove and waited. He remembered that Xu Ning said she wanted to see the process of making candied haws, so he deliberately didn’t do anything and waited for her to come back after asking.

He Wanjiao had a lot of homework tonight. When she heard her sister-in-law say that her brother was willing to do something else, she immediately became interested and started thinking about what else could be used to make candied haws at home.

Dried apricots are fine. They are too sour and will taste good if you add some sugar coating to neutralize the sourness!

If you have apples at home, you can make it with apples. Yesterday I heard from the aunt next door that she had hawthorns at home and I could borrow some to make flattened candied haws.

We have sweet potatoes at home, sweet potato cubes are also fine, and carrots…

Listening to He Wanjiao counting one by one on her fingers, Xu Ning in front could still accept it, but when he heard that she also counted sweet potatoes and carrots, he was confused for a moment.

She had never heard of…

This flavor did not appear in later generations, so does that prove that sweet potatoes and carrots are not delicious?

Everything else was easy, but the hawthorn had to be borrowed from the aunt next door. He Wanjiao didn’t have the nerve to do that, so she had to trouble her mother.

After a while, the anger between mother and daughter had almost subsided. She ran to the outer room, hugged her mother’s arm, and started to act coquettishly and whimper, forcing Hu Xianglan to agree to borrow the money.

It is said to be borrowing, but in fact it is exchanging, and neighbors help each other.

Hu Xianglan went to the next door to borrow hawthorns. He Wanjiao and Xu Ning prepared things. Xu Ning held the jar of preserved fruits while He Wanjiao went to look for apples.

The sweet potatoes and carrots are in the kitchen.

After the two of them entered the kitchen and mentioned the options of sweet potatoes and carrots, He Beian hesitated for a moment but still said, “Why not just eat candied sweet potatoes?”

“It’s different.” When He Wanjiao chose to use sweet potatoes to make Tanghulu, she didn’t even think of the matter of candied sweet potatoes, but she answered stubbornly: “One is on the plate, and the other is skewered. The sweet potato pieces can be directly dipped in syrup, and they don’t need to be fried.”

Sweet potatoes have a sweet taste when eaten raw, and are very crispy. When there is no fruit at home, He Wanjiao likes to peel a sweet potato and chew on it. It tastes quite good.

She insisted on making a point, so He Beian turned away from the sweet potato and talked about the carrot, “You can only choose one, carrot or sweet potato.”

When winter comes, radishes, carrots, cabbage and potatoes are the main dishes on the dinner table. He remembered that He Wanjiao said with a sad face that she didn’t want to eat carrots in her life. Now he suddenly felt like making carrots, but who knew if she would eat them?

And can that thing be delicious?

Candied carrots and haws, it’s amazing that she could come up with that idea.

“Then let’s make sweet potatoes.” In her excitement, she included carrots in the ingredients. Faced with the choice between the two, He Wanjiao decisively abandoned it. “Wait until the fruits are harvested in autumn, brother, can you make candied haws for me and sister-in-law again? Then buy more fruits and make a variety of them.”

Before she even started eating the current meal, she had already started planning the next one. Why didn’t she think of asking her brother to make candied haws for her when the fruits were harvested in previous years?

Not wanting to argue with the silly girl about how the weather was too warm to make candied haws, He Beian agreed perfunctorily: “Okay.”

Add water to the pot and take the steamer.

To make flattened candied haws, the hawthorns must be steamed. What used to take just ten minutes now takes half an hour.

Hu Xianglan also came back from her next-door neighbor’s house, holding a small pot of hawthorns in her hand. After delivering the hawthorns to the kitchen, she went back to the house to continue watching TV.

All the things were found and He Wanjiao left, but she hadn’t finished her homework yet.

In a blink of an eye, He Beian and Xu Ning were the only ones left in the kitchen. He Beian was washing the hawthorns that his mother had brought back, while Xu Ning was sitting at the small dining table peeling sweet potatoes.

The yard was quiet, but the kitchen was not much busier than the yard.

Apart from the sound of He Beian washing things, there was the sound of Xu Ning peeling fruits.

Seems quite embarrassing…

Do you want to talk about something?

What shall we talk about?

Xu Ning is not a social leader. In order to survive in modern times, she hides her inferiority complex and introverted personality and tries to be a social leader.

Everyone who knows her says she is an optimist, an outgoing and lively person, but in fact, what she enjoys most is the time after returning home.

If conditions permit, she would like to be a stay-at-home girl, the kind that doesn’t go out for half a month and doesn’t want to socialize with anyone.

After peeling the sweet potatoes, Xu Ning picked up the dried apricots and skewered them with the wooden sticks that He Wanjiao had just found. She began to chat with He Beian, “Mom told you to take me with you to buy vegetable seeds when you have time so that we can plant vegetables in the small piece of land under the fruit tree.”

In previous years, this job was always done by Hu Xianglan, and He Beian was rejected as being in the way when he wanted to do it. But this year, his mother took the initiative to give the job to Xu Ning.

It’s not too hard, but He Beian can’t help but think about it.

Are there conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law?

Is the mother using this matter to intimidate Xu Ning?

Even if it was just a nominal relationship, he would not let Xu Ning suffer any grievances. After thinking for a while, he replied: “I have time tomorrow afternoon. Is afternoon okay? You can just accompany me to buy some seeds, and I’ll take care of the rest.”