Chapter 24: Cooking Porridge

Autumn weather was really strange—yesterday it rained, but today the sky was clear and sunny. The village head told everyone that today’s task was to start reclaiming the village land so they could plant potatoes. The job was simple: pull out the weeds and break up the soil. As for the men, they were to haul cow dung out of the pens, which would later be used to fertilize the potato fields.

Seeing that Ye Wuyou hadn’t fully recovered yet, Ling Yu told her to rest at home and went to the village head to ask for leave on her behalf. The village head didn’t say much—after all, everyone had seen how badly her family used to beat her.

With no one disturbing her, Ye Wuyou slept until noon. When she moved her fingers, she felt they were nearly healed. Thinking back to last night, when she had gotten an upset stomach from secretly eating greasy food, she felt both embarrassed and annoyed. She blamed it all on Old Lady Wang’s family. If they had let her occasionally eat some meat, she wouldn’t have made such a fool of herself last night. Now Old Lady Wang was once again added to Ye Wuyou’s mental list of grudges.

After drinking the thin porridge Ling Yu had left her in the morning, Ye Wuyou still felt unsatisfied. But she knew her stomach was fragile now and had to recover slowly. She found some stomach-soothing medicine in her space, took it, and then decided to cook herself a good meal.

After the medicine, she stir-fried shredded potatoes, pan-fried a plate of eggs, steamed a big pot of rice, and made minced pork with eggplant. She avoided heavy, greasy dishes for fear of repeating last night’s disaster.

Maybe it was this body’s long-starved instincts, but just smelling the food nearly drove her crazy with hunger. When she finally sat down to eat, she wished she could devour the plates whole. She even complained that her rice bowl was too small and swapped it out for a large basin.

Watching her devour food like a whirlwind, Youyou couldn’t help but click its tongue.
“Hey, bandit girl, were you a starving ghost in your last life? Eating so fast? At least leave me some! That sour-and-spicy shredded potato is my favorite, and the minced eggplant smells amazing!”

But before it finished speaking, Ye Wuyou had already dumped all the dishes into her basin, stirred them together, and shoveled them into her mouth.

When she finally finished everything, she let out a satisfied burp. Rice really fills the belly. That thin porridge in the morning was no better than water.

Putting down her chopsticks, she glanced at Youyou’s resentful face and said, “Put the dishes in the dishwasher later.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me, bandit girl. You didn’t leave me a bite, and now you want me to clean up too? Don’t go—at least tidy this mess before you leave! You can’t be in that much of a hurry!”

Staring at the messy table, Youyou was furious. Ye Wuyou was clearly taking advantage of its cleanliness obsession, knowing it would eventually clean up no matter what.

Annoyed by its nagging, Ye Wuyou cut off the mental link and left the space.

When she came out of her room, she saw Ling Zixiao returning from work, about to chop firewood.

“Weren’t you at the fields? Why are you back already?” she asked. She remembered that even though Zixiao was still young, he usually did adult-level work in the village and earned full work points. It didn’t make sense for him to be home so early.

“Oh, sister-in-law, my brother told me to come back. He said you’re home alone and your hand hasn’t fully healed yet, so cooking would be hard for you. He asked me to come help.”

“Oh, I see.”

Ye Wuyou was at a loss for words. She hadn’t expected Ling Yu to worry that she might go hungry—she had always thought he disliked her and wouldn’t care.

Seeing Zixiao sweating, she fetched a basin of water for him. “Go wash up, I’ll cook. My hand isn’t fully healed, but I can at least make porridge.”

Since Zixiao had just lit the stove, he agreed readily. “Alright, sister-in-law. After I wash, just put the millet into the pot with water.”

Ye Wuyou looked into the pot, which already held half a pot of water, with only a small handful of coarse millet beside it. She could tell at a glance that the porridge would come out thin as water.

Forget it, she thought. I already ate in the space, so I don’t need to compete for their food. Better not waste it. She ladled out some of the water before adding the millet so the porridge would turn out thicker and more filling.

With Ye Wuyou busy in the kitchen, Zixiao didn’t bother staying. He took the wild greens he had gathered on the way home and chopped them up for the chickens.

Even with less water, the porridge still came out thin, and Ye Wuyou frowned. This won’t do. One grown man and one growing boy—how can they survive on such watery meals? Today we still have leftover chicken from last night, but what about later? We can’t live like this. I’ll have to find a way to earn money and buy grain.

Thinking about that, she remembered the 200 yuan Old Lady Wang had gotten from selling her. No, my hand’s nearly healed now. Tonight, I must go to her house. If nothing else, I need to get back what’s mine.

When Zixiao saw the porridge was thicker than usual, he frowned. “Sister-in-law, why is the porridge so thick? Did you pour out some of the water?” He looked worried. He had calculated the water so there would be exactly enough for three bowls.

“No, don’t talk nonsense. Maybe it just boiled down more than usual. Stop fussing and drink up—you still have to take lunch to your brother later.”

Ye Wuyou clearly didn’t want to discuss it further.

Seeing she wouldn’t explain, Zixiao said nothing more. But he made up his mind to tell his brother later. If this kept up, there wouldn’t be enough porridge to go around—no one could afford to go hungry.