Chapter 002

Guagua squatted on the ground. Her small hands first pressed on the basin, where a piece of old ginger was placed at the bottom of the shallow water.

Once she was ready, her small hands began to move, rubbing the mud off the ginger under the water.

Xu Xiangjuan was carefully chopping the chicken pieces; Zhou Chengning was a meticulous man, and the chicken was cleaned very thoroughly. A quick rinse was enough.

The chicken thighs were chopped separately and set aside. Since the weather wasn’t very hot, the chicken thighs could stay out without spoiling.

Once the chicken was chopped, the garlic and ginger were ready. The garlic didn’t need to be cut further, while the ginger was sliced into pieces.

“Guagua, do you want some chili?” 

“Yes.” She wanted everything.

At this moment, Zhou Chengning spoke up, “Guagua, don’t have chili, it’s not tasty when it’s spicy.”

Since Dad said it wasn’t tasty, Guagua, like a leaf swaying in the wind, shook her head and said she didn’t want it.

“It’s fine, just add one or two chilies.” Zhou Chengning pulled two dried chilies from the string hanging by the door, washed them, cut them up, and added them to the garlic and ginger.

One pot was used to steam rice, and another was used to cook the stewed chicken. The pot for the chicken still had some water in it, and once it was almost preheated, Xu Xiangjuan scooped out the water, leaving a little bit for the heat to evaporate, and added some lard.

As soon as the lard hit the hot iron pan, it sizzled and crackled. The pan was hot enough, and the slightly yellow lard melted quickly. The ginger, chili, and garlic were thrown into the pan to be sautéed until fragrant.

Once it was ready, the chicken pieces were added to the pan and stir-fried. Later, cooking wine, soy sauce, salt, and white sugar were added. After stir-frying for a while, water was added, and the lid of the pot was placed on.

Guagua didn’t know that white sugar was sugar, and Xu Xiangjuan didn’t want her to know, fearing that she would constantly ask her dad for sweets.

She locked the condiments in the cabinet, leaving only the salt container on the counter. Xu Xiangjuan went to listen for the sound of the rice.

There was a faint sizzling sound. “Ah Ning, the rice pot doesn’t need more firewood, just lower the heat and let it simmer for another two or three minutes, then remove all the firewood.”

Although they didn’t have a watch at home, they had a clock, which was hung on the kitchen wall.

The rice was being steamed in the iron pot. Listening to the sound, when it started sizzling, the heat should be turned off, because if it was left too long, the rice would burn at the bottom. Anyway, the rice was steaming while the chicken was still cooking, and it should be done soon.

“I know.”

Xu Xiangjuan couldn’t remember what was drying at home, so she went to the small room specifically used for storing dried goods and pickles. There were several woven bags—green beans, red beans… and dried mushrooms.

As she was thinking that stewing just chicken would be too greasy, she happened to spot the dried mushrooms.

She grabbed a handful of dried mushrooms and returned to the kitchen bedroom. Guagua was still standing by the stove, staring at the pot, her actions unchanged.

Using a gourd ladle, Xu Xiangjuan scooped a few ladles of water into a basin and soaked the dried mushrooms. Although they wouldn’t soften immediately, it was better than washing them and throwing them directly into the pot.

With a bowl and clean chopsticks in hand, she went back to the small room, opened the jar of pickled dried radish, and picked out a bowl of dried radish before sealing the jar again.

The stewing chicken pot had come to a boil. Xu Xiangjuan added the soaked dried mushrooms into the pot. The mushrooms came in large and small pieces; she had discarded the spoiled ones before soaking them, and she didn’t bother cutting the large pieces. She just threw them all in. 

“Ah Ning, lower the heat on the chicken stew and reduce some of the firewood.”

“How long should it cook on low heat?”

“Half an hour. I’ll go check if Niuniu is awake. When it’s almost done, I’ll remind you.”

She went to the inner room, but Niuniu hadn’t woken up yet. Xu Xiangjuan then felt relieved and went back to the kitchen.

The kitchen was filled with a lot of smoke today; it wasn’t usually this smoky. After reducing the chicken stew’s broth, she served it. “Put it in the outer room to eat.”

The outer room was the room where they received guests, separate from the inner room where they slept. The outer room had a table and chairs.

Their bedroom was basically a single room, with a spacious double room divided into the inner room for sleeping and the outer room for receiving guests.

Xu Xiangjuan was busy in the kitchen while Zhou Chengning, holding a small bowl of stewed chicken, went to the outer room. Guagua followed behind her dad.

The little girl had been following the chicken around all day.

When Xu Xiangjuan returned to the kitchen, Zhou Chengning was alone.

Guagua was probably so captivated by the chicken that she couldn’t move.

“Is this lunch box mine?” Normally, the lunch box only had half a box of rice, a few vegetables, and a few pieces of dried radish.

“If it’s not yours, could it be mine? Your school has a steaming cabinet. Remember to steam it properly before eating.” Xu Xiangjuan said as she packed the lunch box, pressing down half a box of rice, adding several mushrooms and pieces of chicken.

Rice was still the most filling.

She placed the lunch box into a net bag and said, “Put it here, and remember to take it tomorrow.”

Although she had filled a small basin with chicken, there was still plenty left from the whole chicken. She set aside a few pieces to give her husband to take to school for lunch tomorrow and packed another bowl to send to her mother.

“I’ll make a bowl of egg drop soup. You take this bowl of rice and the other bowl over to Mom’s,” Xu Xiangjuan instructed her husband, handling things with ease.

Zhou Chengning never disagreed, so he took the rice to the outer room.

When he saw Guagua standing on a small stool, trying to reach for the stewed chicken he had placed in the center of the table, Zhou Chengning said, “Guagua, Dad will give it to you. Hold it with your own hands. If Mom sees, she’ll scold you, and then you won’t be allowed to eat chicken anymore.”

“Eat chicken~” Guagua finally quieted down.

Zhou Chengning, helpless, picked up his daughter and placed her on a long bench, wiping the drool from her mouth with a towel. Afterward, he couldn’t bear to resist and placed two pieces of boneless chicken in a bowl, handing it to her.

With meat to eat, Guagua was thrilled. She grabbed her own small spoon and began eating the chicken.

With his daughter content, Zhou Chengning went back to the kitchen to add more firewood, while his wife was still busy making the egg drop soup.

Making egg drop soup was easy. Father and daughter would have meat for dinner tonight. Xu Xiangjuan didn’t want any, so she just beat two eggs for herself, preparing a more luxurious version of the egg drop soup as a supplement.

Once the egg drop soup was ready, Xu Xiangjuan took a bowl of chicken to head out. “Ah Ning, I’m going to take this bowl of chicken to my mom. You serve the soup, and you and Guagua can start eating.”

“I’ll go with you, and bring Guagua along.”

“You know my mom has an opinion against you…” Xu Xiangjuan paused, then relented, “Alright, you bring Guagua, and come with me.”

Her mom had no objections toward her, or the two grandsons, but she had strong reservations about her son-in-law.

At first, her mom had hoped she would marry Wang Qiang, a stocky man with a square face, from a wealthy family in Maodong Village.

He had three brothers, and with the family’s recent economic success, they had gotten into the dried meat business, earning more money and becoming increasingly wealthy. With these conditions, her mom had grown more and more satisfied with him.

But Xu Xiangjuan wasn’t satisfied.

She was the youngest daughter in her family and had studied through high school—how difficult it had been back then! She had decided that she would marry someone who had at least finished high school.

Wang Qiang hadn’t even graduated elementary school. His voice was harsh and unpleasant, and although his brothers ran the family business, he did nothing but take all the credit. He was the best at boasting, and the worst part was he didn’t care about cleanliness.

Xu Xiangjuan couldn’t even stand being close to him because of his body odor.

Anyway, it wasn’t going to work.

She didn’t agree to it.

She went and asked Aunt Qian, who was well-known in the surrounding ten villages for matchmaking, to find her a potential partner.

It was Aunt Qian’s first time encountering a grown woman seeking her help to arrange a match, but the girl was straightforward, so Aunt Qian didn’t refuse and kept an eye out.

There was actually a match in the town. It was time for them to meet, and they had to see each other’s parents—not the man’s parents, but the woman’s.

Xu Xiangjuan was well-known in the village as a bold woman. She directly led the man to her house and told her family that she would marry no one else but him.

That nearly drove her mother mad.

Once Xu Xiangjuan made up her mind, no one could change it, and in the end, she did get married.

However, Xu Xiangjuan’s mother, Wu Caifeng, never had a good opinion of her son-in-law and always gave him a cold shoulder.

The courtyard they lived in now belonged to Xu Xiangjuan—it was part of her dowry. She had also taken 800 yuan in bridal money. Although no one knew the exact amount of the dowry, the villagers always thought of Xu’s son-in-law as a “door-in son-in-law,” someone who entered the family by marrying the daughter.

Fortunately, Zhou Chengning worked as a teacher at a middle school in the town, so he had an income. Otherwise, people might really have thought of him as a kept man.

When her husband agreed to go with her, Zhou Chengning picked up Guagua, who had already finished two pieces of chicken and was now trying to scoop another piece into her bowl with her little spoon, and took her to her maternal grandmother’s home.

Guagua called a few times, and Zhou Chengning coaxed her, saying, “When we get back, I’ll give you more chicken.” Only then did the little one stop fussing.

“What are you here for again? Did you owe us something in your last life?” Wu Caifeng immediately started scolding as soon as she saw them.

Xu Xiangjuan walked ahead, used to her mother’s way of speaking in riddles and rebuking indirectly. She grabbed a bowl and poured the stewed chicken into it. “Dad, this chicken stew is something I just made. You can have it with your alcohol. Mom, there’s no need to fuss. I’ll be heading back now. I just came to bring you the meat. I stewed a chicken today.”

“Good grief, you’ve killed four chickens, and none of them are too old to lay eggs. Why did you kill them all to eat?” 

Xu Xiangjuan raised the chickens she got from her mom, so her mom knew exactly how many there were.

“If she wants to kill them, then be it. Stop talking about it.” Xu Gensheng had already started eating, and truth be told, the meat was delicious. It came off the bone easily, and the mushrooms absorbed the meaty flavor… He thought he’d ask his daughter’s mother how she cooked it.

Xu Xiangjuan had been brainwashed by her mother’s mindset for years. In the past, when life was better, killing a chicken seemed like no big deal. But now, when their family’s circumstances weren’t as good, splurging on a meal meant they had to tighten their belts afterward.