Chapter 10

Wu Xiaoxiao had the ability to repair machinery, but the problem was how to make others believe that she had this skill…

Wu Xiaoxiao kept this matter in mind and smiled at Chen Si: “Thank you, Dr. Chen. I’ll think about it some more. By the way, I’ll pick some vegetables for you.” Saying this, she ran to her garden and picked two handfuls of tender green beans and two large eggplants to bring back.

—-

At this time, the barefoot doctors didn’t collect much money. Yesterday, Dr. Chen saved her, and today he came again to check on her. Since no medicine was involved, he didn’t charge anything. However, considering it was a matter of saving her life, Wu Xiaoxiao couldn’t let Dr. Chen leaves empty-handed. She couldn’t give him anything else, but some fresh vegetables were no problem.

Chen Si shyly said, “This is too much, I haven’t done anything.”

“Done nothing? You saved my life yesterday, and besides, what you just told me, I didn’t know any of that before. After hearing it, I won’t be as clueless when I go to work today.”

Wu Xiaoxiao found a piece of grass rope, tied the green beans, and handed them to Chen Si: “These green beans are tender right now, you can stir-fry them or make braised noodles with them.”

Her soft little hands lifted his hand, then a bunch of green beans was handed over. Chen Si’s mind went blank, and his face turned red. By the time he snapped back to reality, he was already quite far from Wu Xiaoxiao’s house, holding the vegetables.

After seeing off Dr. Chen, Wu Xiaoxiao went back to her garden to use her abilities. The green beans were growing well, and they would be perfect for making braised noodles with green beans for lunch, a bit salty. Her mom must be sweating from working in the fields, and it would be just the right way to replenish some salt.

The green beans were easy to cook, but making braised noodles was a bit more tricky.

She couldn’t use only white flour, but adding some three-flour mixture made the dough less elastic.

Even though Wu Xiaoxiao was skilled, she couldn’t make long noodles with the dough in this condition. She had to settle for shorter cut noodles. However, the fragrance of the green beans could make up for some of the lack of texture in the noodles. After steaming the noodles, she went back to the garden.

Wu Xiaoxiao picked another handful of green beans, plucked some chives, found two cloves of garlic, and dug out some dried chili peppers her mom had prepared.

Thanks to her abilities, the green beans were tender and didn’t need to be peeled. She casually cut them into inch-long pieces, peeled and minced the garlic, chopped the chives into sections, and then took a little bit of lard from the tea jar.

If there had been some pork belly to stir-fry with the green beans, it would have been even more delicious, but now, she couldn’t afford it, and she was even reluctant to use too much lard.

Even though she only used a little bit of lard, the dish still smelled fragrant after adding garlic, chives, and chili peppers.

Wu Xiaoxiao put the green beans in the pan and kept stirring them until they became slightly dry and crispy. Then she added salt and soy sauce, making sure to add enough, or the noodles would lack flavor.

At this point, the noodles were almost done steaming. The cut noodles were supposed to be a bit soft, and since the dough didn’t have much elasticity, over-steaming would make them unpleasant to eat.

Wu Xiaoxiao took the noodles out, added a little water to the pan, scattered the noodles over the green beans, and covered the pot to start braising.

While the noodles were braising, she cleaned the steamer, reheated it, brushed a little oil on it, and fried two eggs.

Fried eggs need less oil to taste good, and with a little oil, the eggs would turn out fragrant.

After frying the eggs, she cut them into thin strips and added them to the braised noodles, stirring everything a few times. Soon, a large pot of braised green bean noodles was ready.

Wu Xiaoxiao found a large deep basin, put the noodles in it, grabbed the water jug, and filled it with light salted water. She then headed to the fields to bring lunch to her mom.

The team didn’t provide lunch, so by noon, every household had to cook for themselves. Because of this, a family always had to make sure they had enough food for everyone.

—-

At home, she took care of things and made meals for those who were working in the fields.

Wu Xiaoxiao thought that if she and her mom both had to work in the fields later, they would need to figure out a way to handle the meals. They could either prepare more dry food in advance or she could go to work in the fields to earn work points and let her mom rest at home—though she worried her mom might not want to do that.

The sun was high outside, and Wu Xiaoxiao didn’t wear a hat. She had wood-type abilities, so she wasn’t afraid of getting sunburned. During the apocalypse, people who looked fair and smooth either had wood-type or water-type abilities.

There were a lot of aunts and wives walking along the field ridges, bringing food to their families. Their voices rose and fell as they called out to each other, gathering to compare what dishes they had.

“Xiaoxiao, bringing lunch to your mom? Why aren’t you wearing a hat to block the sun? The sun’s so strong, you’ll be sunburned soon.”

Aunt Tian smiled and greeted Wu Xiaoxiao when she saw her.

Wu Xiaoxiao smiled back and nodded. “Aunt Tian, I’m just bringing lunch to my mom. I don’t need a hat, I’m not afraid of getting dark.”

“You should still cover up. This sun is harsh. If you get sunburned and your skin starts peeling, it’ll hurt.” Aunt Tian said as she reached to take off her own straw hat to give it to Wu Xiaoxiao.

“Really, it’s fine, no need. You still need to work in the fields, so you should keep the hat. I’ll just be out here for a short while.” Wu Xiaoxiao quickly ran away.

She ran quickly, and Aunt Tian couldn’t do anything about it. She watched her go and said, “Such a good child. Zhang Fang will enjoy life later.”

Someone else muttered, “What kind of enjoyment? No matter how good this daughter is, she’ll still end up in someone else’s family. If it were me, I’d have Zhang Fang find her a husband sooner rather than later, at least to do right by Wu Lao Si. Otherwise, if she waits too long, she’ll be too old to find a match.”

Aunt Tian shot a glance at Ding Xiumei, who had spoken, and didn’t bother responding to her.

Ding Xiumei had been saying this for a while now. She just wanted to marry off her lazy son to Wu Xiaoxiao. But Ding Xiumei didn’t think about it—her son wasn’t worthy of someone like Xiaoxiao. The young man was already twenty, but he worked three days fishing and spent two days drying nets, living off his parents. It was shameful to even mention it.

Ding Xiumei hadn’t brought it up with Zhang Fang this time, probably because she was still worried about her late husband’s death, afraid it would burden Zhang Fang’s family.

Wu Xiaoxiao had no idea about this little dispute behind her. She quickened her pace, raising her voice to call out, “Mom, lunch is ready!”