Chapter 16: Embroidery

The young girl’s voice was filled with undisguised excitement.

Lu Zheng looked at her delicate and pretty face, lowered his gaze, and took something out from behind him.

“Aunt Guifang bought a puppy from my family, said it’s for guarding the house.”

Having lived in the village for so many years, Wang Guifang wasn’t careless about such things. So before clearing land, she went to the Lu family to make arrangements.

But she didn’t expect Lu Zheng to bypass her and deliver the dog directly to her house.

Song Miaomiao looked at the little black puppy that barely reached her calves and couldn’t help but laugh. Her whole face instantly lit up, becoming vivid and stunning.

“This dog is so tiny. Can it really guard a house?”

The little black dog barked a few times, seemingly responding to her doubts.

Song Miaomiao didn’t feel scared. On the contrary, she thought it was… well, to use a phrase from storybooks: totally adorable.

She took the rope and tied the puppy to the latch of the main room’s door.

Seeing that Lu Zheng hadn’t left yet, she felt a little awkward. Remembering something, she ran back into the house and retrieved the snacks she’d put in her basket earlier.

She handed them to Lu Zheng. “Thanks for helping me earlier. This is a little gift in return.”

Lu Zheng lowered his gaze. The coarse hemp rope in her hands contrasted with her pale, slender fingers. Since her hands had just touched water, there were still a few drops clinging to the backs of them.

A barely noticeable ripple stirred in his calm eyes.

He didn’t refuse. He took the snacks and looked at the leaves in the courtyard. “What are you doing?”

Song Miaomiao explained, “I’m making a kind of food, but I don’t know if it’ll succeed. If it works out, I’ll bring you some.”

Lu Zheng asked, “Why not wash it by the river?”

The courtyard was made of packed earth. Everything was damp and muddy, and it could make the house very dirty.

Song Miaomiao recounted what had happened earlier, and Lu Zheng’s expression immediately turned cold.

But he quickly composed himself and told her that wouldn’t happen again.

Song Miaomiao: “???”

What brought that on?

…

After leaving the Wang household, Lu Zheng ran into his older brother, Lu Jun, on the road.

Seeing the snacks in Lu Zheng’s hand, Lu Jun thought they were bought for his son and reached out to take them.

“You really dote on him. These expensive pastries—I can’t even bear to buy them for him.”

Lu Zheng quickly dodged his hand and hid the pastries behind his back.

Lu Jun: “??”

Lu Zheng said, “I’ll buy some for Ying’er tomorrow. These were given to me.”

Lu Jun was puzzled. “If they were given to you, then they’re yours. Aren’t we all family anyway? Besides, you don’t even like sweets.”

Lu Zheng: “…”

He said nothing, but his hand remained behind his back.

Lu Jun, seeing this, rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Suddenly, realization struck him, and he chuckled mischievously.

“I get it! That girl from the Wang family gave them to you, didn’t she?”

Lu Zheng immediately turned and walked in the opposite direction from home, ignoring his brother’s teasing.

“Hey, it’s almost dark. Where are you going?” Lu Jun called after him.

Lu Zheng answered briefly, “Got something to do. Tell Mother I won’t be home for dinner.”

Lu Jun sighed. “Love really is filling enough to live on. Just a few pastries from a little girl and he’s skipping dinner.”

He frowned. “But that direction isn’t toward the Wang family home… Where’s he going?”

…

In the following days—

The villagers of Shili Village noticed something strange.

The usual group of thugs who used to sneak between villages stealing chickens and petty items had all vanished.

Someone occasionally spotted one of them, but the guy had a bruised and swollen face and walked with a limp.

Everyone silently praised the mysterious hero who dealt with these troublemakers.

Truly a good deed.

…

At the Wang household—

Song Miaomiao was making “Immortal Tofu” in front of Wang Tie, Li Caixia, and Wang Big Ox.

She washed the clean “immortal leaves” in boiling water, then fished them out with a strainer and placed them in a basin, where she vigorously kneaded them.

She did this until the thick green juice had been fully extracted.

The leftover pulp was wrung dry and set aside, and the remaining green liquid was kept in the basin.

Then, she mixed it with water in a ratio of one part leaf juice to four parts water.

She took ash water made from burned straw (filtered through cloth) and poured it into the leaf juice, stirring in one direction with her hand until thoroughly mixed.

Once done, Song Miaomiao washed her hands and turned to the three in the courtyard.

“Once the juice in the basin sets, it’ll become the Immortal Tofu I let you try earlier.”

The Wang family was in disbelief and thought she was joking.

“Miaomiao, you’re not pulling Auntie Li’s leg, are you?”

“You’re telling me just leaves and ash water—without any grains—can turn into that smooth, refreshing, and delicious green tofu?”

Song Miaomiao nodded. “Really. If you don’t believe me, just wait and see, Auntie.”

Two days earlier, after multiple experiments, Song Miaomiao had finally succeeded in making Immortal Tofu.

Wang Guifang was astonished after tasting it.

She said it was smoother than regular tofu, had a hint of fresh fragrance, and paired with honey syrup, it tasted even better than those overpriced herbal drinks sold in town.

Excited by the novelty, she sent a basin to the Wang family.

Unexpectedly, after trying it, they came knocking that same night asking how it was made and whether she’d be interested in selling it together with them.

Wang Guifang didn’t immediately agree, saying it was made by Miaomiao and that she had to ask her opinion first.

Upon hearing this, Song Miaomiao naturally agreed a hundred percent.

After all, the whole reason she had started experimenting with Immortal Tofu was to make money.

She had originally planned to place her Immortal Tofu on Uncle Wang’s tofu stall for consignment sale.

If Uncle Wang was willing to cooperate, she couldn’t be happier.

It was because of this earlier discussion that Song Miaomiao was now openly demonstrating the process of making Immortal Tofu in front of everyone.

Both families waited anxiously for the tofu to set.

Seeing there was nothing to do for the moment, Song Miaomiao went into the house and brought out her bamboo embroidery hoop and resumed stitching.

She hadn’t been feeling well these past few days due to her period. Other than experimenting with Immortal Tofu, she had mostly been lying in bed. As a result, she had already embroidered more than half of the lotus design on the hoop.

Li Caixia noticed her deft movements threading the needle and glanced over. She saw the lotus flowers on the handkerchief were vibrant and lifelike—just like those blooming in a real pond.

She exclaimed, “Miaomiao, you can do embroidery too? Your needlework is really impressive!”

Song Miaomiao blushed at the praise and said modestly, “At my adoptive mother’s house, they hired a professional embroidery teacher for me.”

Li Caixia sighed with admiration.

“With this level of skill, if you were to look for work in town, any embroidery workshop would definitely take you.”

“Girls raised by wealthy families really are different. Just look at Qingqing, she wouldn’t know how to do any of this…”

Wang Tie tugged at her sleeve, and only then did Li Caixia realize she had said something inappropriate and quickly shut her mouth.

Wang Guifang and Song Miaomiao instantly fell silent.

Song Miaomiao looked at the handkerchief in her hand. These skills of hers were indeed built upon money.

In the chaos that resulted from the switched-at-birth incident, she was the only one who truly benefitted. So even though her adoptive mother had treated her so poorly, she couldn’t bring herself to hate her.

“Look! It worked! The leaf juice in the basin really set!”

Wang Big Ox’s excited shout broke the silence and pulled everyone’s attention back.

Wang Tie scooped up a spoonful and put it in his mouth.

It was indeed the same green tofu they had tasted before.

Even the usually reserved and quiet man couldn’t hide his excitement now.

“It really worked! No grain needed—just a handful of leaves and a bit of ash. This is practically a zero-cost business!”

He had been deeply anxious recently because their tofu hadn’t been selling, and he feared the loss of income would make it hard to get by.

Now the appearance of Immortal Tofu gave him hope. If it could be sold, it would bring in a fresh stream of income for the family.

But he hesitated and looked at Song Miaomiao. “You really want to cooperate with me? This Immortal Tofu… your family could easily sell it on your own, couldn’t you?”