Chapter 37: Wei Dai Returns Home

A week was enough time for Wen Jiajia to completely get over the embarrassment.

The day Wei Dai came back, Wen Jiajia still had the energy to make fun of her own embarrassing incident.

Wei Dai returned on the day of Grain Rain^[1]“Grain Rain” (穀雨) is the 6th solar term in the traditional Chinese calendar, occurring around April 19-21 each year. It marks the time when rain becomes more frequent and beneficial … Continue reading, and it was already two o’clock in the morning when he got back.

The entire family quarters was quiet; these returning people did not make much noise.

Wei Dai often went out, and it was common for him to return home in the middle of the night, so he carried the key with him.

The sky was as black as ink, and the moon was nowhere to be seen.

“Click–” The door lock opened, and Wei Dai walked toward the yard with his luggage.

He walked straight into the house without stopping.

Wen Jiajia was a sound sleeper, and usually, even the loudest noises cannot wake her up.

Just like the previous few nights, Wen Jiajia slept soundly even during the heavy rain in the middle of the night. She didn’t even hear Shen Xunzhen next door calling her to raise the chicken coop.

Fortunately, the rain stopped soon. If it had continued to rain at that intensity for another hour or two, she might have been able to enjoy fried chicken again the next day.

Tonight, when Wei Dai came back, he happened to see Wen Jiajia calling Wen Chun and Wen Xuan to get up and use the bathroom. Wen Jiajia was dazed and only felt movement outside the door.

Of course, she wouldn’t think he was a thief, because a thief would have to be quite brave to come to the army.

It must be Wei Dai.

Wen Jiajia suddenly woke up, and when she opened her eyes, she heard the sound of the living room door closing again.

She got up in a hurry, opened the door, and said in surprise, “Wei Dai, you’re back!”

Wei Dai was startled unexpectedly, as he knew how soundly his wife usually slept.

“Did I wake you up?”

Wen Jiajia walked over quickly and said, “No, Chun’er and Xuanxuan are in the bathroom.”

Wei Dai understood that when he was away for a few days, the two sisters had occupied his bed again.

Wen Jiajia held his shoulders with both hands and looked him up and down carefully. She asked him to turn around so she could check his back.

Wei Dai felt warm in his heart and couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t worry, I’m not hurt this time.”

Wen Jiajia glared at him. “Come on, you said last time that you weren’t injured.” As a result, there was a big cut on his arm that almost required stitches.

If he hadn’t made a sound when she accidentally touched him, she wouldn’t have known about it.

She finally understood that this person only reported good news and not bad news.

Wei Dai pressed her hand on himself. “Really, really! How about you come with me to take a bath, and I’ll let you see for yourself?”

Well……

Without waiting for her to answer, Wei Dai hugged her tightly and buried his face in the crook of her neck. The hot breath from his nose hit her skin and tickled her collarbone.

Wen Jiajia couldn’t help but worry: Wei Dai wasn’t injured, so could it be that his comrades were injured… or that something happened?

Otherwise, why was he acting like this?

Thinking of this, she sighed. The country was not truly peaceful and stable in this era. Not to mention spies and secret agents, there were always frictions at the border.

She raised her hand and gently patted Wei Dai on the back, thinking that he must be traumatized.

However, half a minute later, Wei Dai suddenly chuckled. “Jia Jia, did you take a bath with roses today? It smells so good.”

Wen Jiajia: “…”

Yeah, what’s wrong? Dog nose!

There is a rose tree next to the yard. I don’t know if it is wild or planted by someone. It bloomed in mid-April. The flowers are bright red and have a strong fragrance.

There have been continuous heavy rains during this period, causing the roses to become green and lush, and petals to fall into the soil in large pieces.

Although Wen Jiajia did not cherish flowers as much as Lin Daiyu, she could not bear to see them wasted, so she picked up fallen petals every day, dried some of them, and made them into sachets. She planned to make the rest into scented dew.

Unfortunately, she failed to make the perfume and only made a semi-finished product. Today, she poured half a bottle into the bathtub to test the smell, so now she was filled with the floral scent.

Wen Jiajia now understood that Wei Dai was fine.

If something had happened to his comrades, he would definitely not be able to laugh.

Wei Dai just hugged her tightly and said, “Don’t go to sleep yet. Wait until I finish my shower, and then we can talk, okay?”

The word “talk” here needs to be enclosed in double quotation marks.

Wen Jiajia deeply suspected that Wei Dai wanted to say “dirty words.”

She rolled her eyes and patted his shoulder heavily. “You haven’t even showered yet, but you’re hugging me so tightly? Really, go take a shower!” He was so sloppy.

Wei Dai laughed. Where was the warmth just now?

The thermos is filled with water every night. Wei Dai has a hot body, and although a kettle of water can only make a bucket of warm water, it is enough for him.

Wen Jiajia carried Wen Chun and Wen Xuan back to their rooms. The two of them slept surprisingly well. They had just finished using the bathroom and were now sleeping soundly again. Even pinching their noses could not wake them up.

Wei Dai took a quick shower. Wen Jiajia had just laid back on the bed for a few minutes when he came into the room, all steamy.

Wen Jiajia turned on the flashlight, and sure enough, the man was shirtless.

Being shirtless meant that he was indeed not injured; otherwise, he would have put on some clothes. Only then did Wen Jiajia feel completely relieved.

She quickly closed her eyes and pretended to yawn. “Go to sleep, I’m so sleepy.”

Wei Dai was helpless. This was treating him like a scourge.

He didn’t put on his clothes either. He just threw his shirt on the bedside table on his side, lifted the quilt, and lay down in the bed.

When Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were still there, Wen Jiajia lay on his side, so the quilt was filled with the rich scent of roses. As the temperature rose, the fragrance doubled.

In the silence, Wei Dai sighed, reached out to hug his wife tightly, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

The next day.

It didn’t rain last night, so the corridor under the eaves was unusually dry, and there was even a faint glimpse of sunlight.

There was a thin layer of mist floating in the green hills, like flying gauze, and the scenery on the mountainside was half hidden and half visible in the mist.

Wei Dai goes to bed late and wakes up late.

When Wen Jiajia woke up and observed him carefully, she found that his face was clean-shaven and he looked haggard, which showed that he must have been extremely tired during his mission.

Wei Dai was snoring softly and looked like he would sleep a little longer, so Wen Jiajia didn’t disturb him.

She gently lifted the quilt and got up, tiptoed out of the room, and then closed the door carefully.

After washing up, Wen Jiajia started to light the fire and cook.

There was a market nearby yesterday, but Wen Jiajia didn’t go because she was preparing for an exam, so she just asked Sister Bao to help buy a batch of food.

What? There is a five-pound live duck tied in the corner of the yard.

There are also three kilograms of millet, which Wen Jiajia specially asked Sister Bao to buy for her to make porridge in the morning.

There was also a small piece of lean meat, about half a pound, and a basket of eggs. She counted them yesterday and there were exactly 60.

Finally, there was a rare item: preserved eggs.

This province is known for its preserved eggs, reputed to be one of the origins. Consequently, preserved eggs are often sold here.

However, preserved eggs are more expensive than ordinary eggs. Nowadays, people spend every penny carefully. Except for those who enjoy rare foods and have plenty of money, few are willing to buy preserved eggs.

Wen Jiajia is one of those who love rare foods and has enough money. Sister Bao knew this, so she not only bought them for her but also bought 20 preserved eggs at once.

Wen Jiajia was, of course, extremely delighted with Sister Bao’s approach, as she loved preserved eggs.

She said that 20 were not enough for her.

Preserved eggs mixed with cucumbers make a delicious dish that can be eaten for fun. Or you can mix them with roasted green peppers and eggplants. Wen Jiajia can eat two bowls of rice with this dish.

Of course, these two dishes cannot be prepared in the morning.

What to cook? With preserved eggs and lean meat, it’s clear: preserved egg and lean meat porridge.

Wen Jiajia took out two preserved eggs, opened the cupboard, and cut half of the lean meat.

She first minced the lean meat. To avoid waking Wei Dai, who was sleeping in the house, Wen Jiajia even took the chopping board and meat outside to cut it.

After chopping for a while, the meat was minced and marinated with salt and rice wine. She also chopped some green onions and shredded ginger, setting them aside for later use.

Simmering the casserole over charcoal fire would be too slow, so Wen Jiajia decided to use the stove instead.

The rice was soaked after dinner last night. She drained the water before going to bed and added a small spoonful of oil to the rice.

There’s a little trick to making meat porridge: adding oil. Rice mixed with oil will be more fragrant when cooked.

She put the rice into the casserole, added it to the pot, and started cooking. Soon, steam began to rise from the pot. At first, a few small bubbles appeared tentatively. In less than half a minute, the pot began to boil more vigorously, the rice grains tumbled in the water, and the clear water slowly turned white and thicker.

She added some shredded ginger, covered the casserole, and waited until the rice was cooked and the porridge thickened before adding the meat.

During this time, Wen Jiajia picked some green vegetables and stir-fried them to eat with the meal later.

She also fried some vegetable cakes in a pan; otherwise, they would get hungry quickly with just the porridge, especially Wei Dai.

This person can’t feel full even after eating five bowls of porridge; he needs some dry food as well.

In fact, vegetable cakes are very easy to make. If you want to know the best vegetable to use, it’s cabbage.

Wen Jiajia doesn’t like cabbage. To make this dish delicious, you need a lot of oil.

Haven’t you noticed that decades later, this dish in restaurants is mostly cooked in a dry pot with heavy oil?

Wei Dai rarely eats this dish, and Wen Chun and Wen Xuan have never even tried it, so naturally, they can’t say whether they like it or not.

But the two girls really liked the cabbage pancakes.

She rolled up her sleeves, cut the cabbage into quarters, removed the tough stems, and sliced it into thin strips.

Cabbage alone was not enough, so Wen Jiajia took out a carrot from the cupboard and went to the yard to pick some onions.

She shredded the carrots and minced the green onions.

That’s all for the dish. Once it’s ready, she needed to prepare the batter.

The batter is easy to make: a mixture of flour and eggs, with some salt and five-spice powder.

After seasoning, she added the shredded cabbage, shredded radish, and chopped green onion, then stirred it all together.

She heated the pan, scooped two tablespoons of oil, and swirled it around the pan to coat it evenly.

When the oil was hot, she scooped a few spoonfuls of the vegetable batter into the pan. She didn’t add too much at once, as a thick batter would be difficult to fry.

Wen Jiajia liked her food crispy, so she fried the vegetable cakes for a longer time.

When the surface turned golden brown and crispy, she put the vegetable cake on a plate.

One pan couldn’t hold all the food, so Wen Jiajia used three pans to finish frying the vegetable cakes.

After frying, the pancakes had to be cut into small pieces. She stacked three pancakes together, cut them twice, and ended up with 12 small pieces.

After more than ten minutes, the casserole was bubbling non-stop and the rice grains looked cooked.

Wen Jiajia started to cut the preserved eggs. The preserved eggs didn’t need to be cut too small; they just needed to be chewy to be delicious.

After the preserved eggs were added and cooked for ten minutes, the originally white and thick porridge took on a grayish color. The unique aroma of the preserved eggs gradually wafted out of the pot, causing the two children to rush out with their clothes askew.

“Auntie!” they shouted, “Good morning.”

Well, he is still very sensible, which shows that the Yuhong class has taught him something.

Wen Jiajia put her finger in front of her lips. “Shh.”