Chapter 21

“I know… you’re doing well now.”

Su Wan understood what he meant by that.

The original Su Wan wasn’t a bad person, just rather selfish. She could understand Chen Yuan’s feelings.

Once outside, Su Wan took her mom to clean the pig offal.

It was about seventy to eighty catties of pig offal—three people cleaning it went pretty fast. Especially the two mothers, who were incredibly efficient. After more than two hours, everything was cleaned thoroughly.

Once clean, Su Wan began teaching them how to blanch it—what ingredients to use and roughly how many grams of each.

Since the whole family could eat spicy food, she added more dried chili peppers.

Looking at the huge pot of marinade, the two mothers were curious but didn’t say much.

At first, the pig offal still had an unpleasant smell, but after an hour, the aroma started to emerge, soon filling the area around the house.

Su Jianguo came out from the house and asked Su Wan, “Little sister, what smells so good?”

“Something delicious. Second brother, what were you just doing?”

“Doing laundry,” Su Jianguo replied.

Su Wan pointed at the pot covered with a lid. “No rush. Big brother will find out soon enough.”

“Dinner will be a bit late tonight.”

Su Jianguo, hearing there was something tasty coming, didn’t mind the late meal. In fact, he was a little excited.

By now, it was already getting dark. In winter, it gets dark by around five. It was past seven, and with the lights on outside, most of the sisters-in-law had already taken their kids back home, so it was relatively quiet. They were sitting in the yard cleaning pig intestines.

Su Wan had also taken out the pig stomach separately to make a Cantonese-Hakka specialty—chicken stuffed in pig stomach—for Chen Yuan’s recovery. With pepper and slow stewing, it would be rich, sweet, and nourishing.

Zheng Aifang asked her son to cut out five catties of pork, while the remaining seventy-five were split: half to make cured meat, and half to make sausages.

By eight, the braised meat was done. Everyone washed their hands and gathered at the table for dinner.

Chen Yuan couldn’t walk yet, so he remained lying in bed. He was sipping the chicken and pig stomach soup that Su Wan had specially made for him, feeling incredibly content.

“Get to bed early later. After dinner, we still need to make the cured meat,” Su Wan said while gnawing on a chicken wing.

“I want to take a bath later,” said Chen Yuan.

“That’s fine. With Second Brother here, it’s easier to help you bathe. Just make sure not to get your head wet,” Su Wan said, nudging Su Jianguo who was focused on eating.

“Second Brother, after dinner, help Chen Yuan with his bath, but make sure his head doesn’t get wet.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of my brother-in-law.”

Su Jianguo wasn’t as tall as Chen Yuan—about 1.75 meters—but working on the farm had made him strong. Carrying someone weighing over 140 catties was nothing for him.

After dinner, Su Wan and the two mothers stayed outside making sausages and curing meat under the lights.

To make good sausages, the pork needed to be seasoned with white liquor. She even opened a bottle of Moutai. The rich fragrance of the liquor instantly stirred the drinking urges of both Su Jianguo and Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan couldn’t drink, but Su Jianguo could.

He poured himself just a sip. The mellow aroma made him feel intoxicated already.

“Alright, I’ll let you bring a little home later, but don’t drink too much,” said Zheng Aifang, knowing her son enjoyed drinking but still wanting to keep it in check.

Su Jianguo, being sensible, replied with a smile, “Don’t worry, Mom. I won’t overdo it. Drinking too much just causes trouble.”

After all, it was because Chen Yuan drank too much and ended up sleeping in the home’s guest room, and Su Wan mistakenly entered the wrong room, that the two of them ended up married.

He had been drunk that night too, and only heard about it later from their parents. He still didn’t know exactly what happened, but he didn’t want something like that to happen to him.

Ever since that incident, the three brothers had become extremely cautious with alcohol and never let themselves get drunk again.

Drinking should be moderate. No need to go all out.

What if he ended up with a wife like Chen Yuan did? That’d be terrifying—he didn’t want to get married yet!

By the time the sausages were done and the meat was fully marinated, it was already past 11 p.m.

Su Wan finished tidying up the house, took a shower with her tired body, and had just lain down in bed when a pair of hands gently began massaging her shoulders.

“Tired, aren’t you?”

Su Wan grabbed Chen Yuan’s hand. “Your hand isn’t healed yet. I’m fine. Young people aren’t that fragile. A shower and some sleep and I’ll be recharged.”

“I can’t help with anything right now… everything’s falling on you alone…”

“Don’t say that,” Su Wan said as she buried her head into his chest in the dark. “You’re recovering now. Once you’re better, there will be plenty of things you can do. We don’t have to rush anything. Nothing’s more important than your health.”

Chen Yuan gave a soft “mm” in reply. In the dark, Su Wan couldn’t see his ears turning red.

After hesitating a moment, he asked in the cover of darkness, “What you told Mom… that I’m taking medicine and that’s why you can’t get pregnant—is that true?”

“Of course it’s true. Medicine isn’t that advanced these days, but I read some medical books back at the hospital. That’s what they said. These days, people care a lot about eugenics. When you had surgery, you were given anesthesia, and now you’re still taking medication—it takes time for those drugs to leave your system.

That’s why I told Mom we’d wait two years before trying. Since we’re only planning on having one child, we should be careful. Don’t you think?”

“We talked about this before—you’re not planning to have kids right away, and I won’t be able to settle down for the next couple of years either. I’ll hardly be home. So it’s better to wait until we’re both more stable.”

Chen Yuan felt like Su Wan was hiding something from him. She seemed really eager to start a business and make money. And while he understood the upcoming economic reforms might bring change, he didn’t have her foresight, so he didn’t say much.

As for having children, he wasn’t in a rush either. But he was concerned that the medication might affect the baby in the future.

If the drugs would clear from his body over time and not impact the baby’s development, then he could feel at ease.

“You’re not upset, are you?”

Su Wan asked nervously.

“I’m not upset. I don’t want to have kids that early either. And having a few extra years of just the two of us isn’t a bad thing.”

Su Wan still had her hand in Chen Yuan’s when he said that, and her whole body started to heat up.

W-What was he talking about?

They’d been married almost a year and had only slept together once. What “years of just the two of us”?

That’s what she thought—but she didn’t say it aloud.

Snuggled in his arms, Su Wan felt like she was burning up.

Just as she tried to wriggle out of his embrace, Chen Yuan’s voice—low and coaxing—whispered right in her ear:

“Did you ask the doctor… when we’ll be able to resume our husband-and-wife life?”