Chapter 33: Shopping at the Department Store

◎Not Suitable for Children◎

“Hey, you’re here.” Jiang Che stood up, rubbed his eyes that had become squinty from the sun, and walked into the kitchen to help bring out the dishes.

“Wow, these radishes look fresh today.” Before sitting down in the living room, he picked up his chopsticks and grabbed a piece of radish to try it. “Not bad, wife, they’re not spicy at all. They’re sweet and crispy, really delicious.”

“Really tasty?” Wei Xuan was still worried that there hadn’t been enough time for them to soak in the flavor.

“Seriously, would I lie to you? If you don’t believe me, you can try it too.”

Wei Xuan hesitantly took a bite of the radish he had picked up for her: “Mmm! Sweet, crispy. Let’s have noodles for dinner tonight.” A simple noodle soup would definitely go well with these radishes.

Maybe it was because they had worked hard in the morning, but by lunchtime, both of them ate quite a lot.

After lunch, they took a nap, and when they woke up, Wei Xuan went to the kitchen to start boiling the ingredients for the sweet garlic marinade. Once it cooled, she would jar it along with the soaked garlic cloves.

The sun was nice today, so Wei Xuan went to check on the snow cabbage drying in the yard. She touched it and felt that it was ready for the next step.

Making sauerkraut was fairly simple. She just had to place the dried snow cabbage in a jar and press it tightly, adding salted water to soak it.

The pickled mustard greens were a bit more complicated. They needed to be boiled first, then covered and left to sit overnight. After drying them out, they’d need to be steamed. This process had to be repeated three or four times for the greens to be properly pickled.

Wei Xuan usually had a busy work schedule, so it wasn’t until the evening before the winter solstice that the pickled mustard greens were finally ready to be jarred. That night, Jiang Che came home with a few pounds of lamb and proudly said to Wei Xuan, “Wife, guess what I got?”

Wei Xuan leaned in to take a look. “Lamb?” She had never had lamb since coming here.

“Yeah, I ran into some sellers at Wu Yun’s place this morning, so I bought some. How about we make lamb soup for dinner?”

“Sounds good,” Wei Xuan agreed. Lamb soup, even without anything added, always smelled amazing.

That night, they had a delicious lamb soup.

After eating and drinking their fill, Jiang Che turned to Wei Xuan and said, “Tomorrow is the winter solstice. Let’s go home for dinner.”

Wei Xuan felt a little too full after dinner, and with the warmth of the house, she leaned back in her chair and almost nodded off. When she heard Jiang Che’s words, it took her a moment to register before lazily nodding in agreement.

It wasn’t uncommon for them to go back home on holidays, but they hadn’t done so often lately.

What they didn’t expect was that, this time when they returned, Jiang Che’s older brother once again brought up the subject of Jiang Che going to university.

Hadn’t that been discussed half a month ago? Both Jiang Che and Wei Xuan had put it out of their minds by now, thinking it had nothing to do with them.

Aside from Wei Xiaolong, who was going to take the college entrance exam next year, no one else was interested in going to college this year, including them.

So now, when Jiang Che’s older brother brought it up again, Jiang Che was a bit confused.

Jiang’s father was very supportive of Jiang’s older brother’s suggestion and, turning to Wei Xuan, who was just as out of the loop, said, “Besides Jiang Che, Wei Xuan could also try taking the exam! If you don’t make it, it’s no big deal, and if you do, that’s a good thing.”

How is it no big deal? Losing face isn’t a loss?

Anyway, no matter how much the Jiang family persuaded, the two of them stood by their principle—no arguments, no agreement.

After Jiang Che and Wei Xuan left, Jiang’s older brother lamented, “Why doesn’t my little brother want to go? If I were younger, I’d go for sure.”

“Enough. If he doesn’t want to go, then let him be.” Jiang’s mother felt that her son was fine as he was. There was no need to go to university, and of course, if they could get another grandchild next year, that would be even better.

Only Jiang’s sister-in-law, who had overheard her husband’s words, secretly rolled her eyes. Didn’t she know what kind of person her brother-in-law was? Going to college? It was laughable. It was probably faster to just dream about it than hope for it to happen.

Thinking about this, she glanced at her son sitting nearby, feeling a little better. She thought her husband was being stubborn. Relying on Jiang Che to go to college was a pipe dream; it was much more reliable to wait for their son to grow up in a few years.

Anyway, no matter what others thought, Jiang Che had already made up his mind not to take the exam. After leaving the house, he completely dismissed his older brother’s advice.

He and Wei Xuan started discussing the dumplings from dinner.

Wei Xuan also thought the filling for tonight’s dumplings was a bit too salty. Thinking of the sauerkraut at home, she said, “Then why don’t you bring some meat back tomorrow? We can make sauerkraut dumplings at home.”

Jiang Che thought it was a good idea and agreed right away.

After the winter solstice, the weather got colder and colder every day.

Wu Yun had already spoken to Jiang Che a few times about making some soy sauce. He also suggested making more cured meats and sausages this year.

Wei Xuan thought it was a good idea and agreed. With the policy changing next year, making extra money this year wouldn’t hurt.

However, Wei Xuan planned to stop making the nine-layered cake and hawthorn cake for now. She’d been selling those for several months already, and with the colder weather, they were probably going to be even harder to sell.

Since they had promised to take on this task, Jiang Che and Wei Xuan fully devoted themselves to it. They worked tirelessly until the day before the Small New Year, and this year, they didn’t even have time to go back to the Jiang family for Laba (the 8th day of the 12th lunar month).

However, the rewards were significant. The most obvious result was that their money box was once again full.

The small change from last time had been exchanged by Jiang Che at the post office or at Wu Yun’s place every once in a while. Now, they had another box of change, and it took them a full half hour to count it all.

Over the past two or three months, Wu Yun had delivered enough meat for three whole pigs. In addition to making cured meats, sausages, and soy sauce, they hadn’t stopped making braised meat daily, and even ordered more supplies.

Now, apart from the cured meat and sausages they kept for themselves, all the other stock had been sold out. They had earned a total of 1,216 yuan, not counting the few cents left over. Adding the previous 3,000 yuan, the two of them now had over 4,000 yuan in hand.

Wei Xuan neatly arranged the money into stacks, saying, “One stack is one hundred. Next time you need to exchange money, just take it directly.”

Jiang Che nodded, acknowledging that he understood. He thought about how tomorrow would be the Small New Year, and this year, they hadn’t even had time to make a new outfit. He couldn’t sit still and wanted to take Wei Xuan to the department store.

“Since we still have some industrial coupons left, let’s use them all up today.”

Wei Xuan was also excited. After all their hard work, this would be their reward to themselves.

So, they changed their clothes and rode their bikes out the door.

At the department store, they first went to look at clothes. This time, Wei Xuan didn’t hold back. Whenever she saw something nice, she bought it, regardless of the price. They each bought a coat, a pair of shoes, and only left when they had spent all their coupons. They left the store reluctantly, still feeling a little unsatisfied.

Jiang Che felt that the amount of coupons he had was too little. His wife only bought one piece of clothing. He thought to himself, if only shopping didn’t require coupons—just paying the price would be so much easier.

Wei Xuan didn’t know what Jiang Che was thinking. She felt fine about it, knowing that the day when they wouldn’t need to worry about this was not far off. They just needed to keep working hard and wait for that day to come.

Next, they went to buy some skincare items for Wei Xuan—specifically the snow cream that Jiang Che had previously given her. This time, she bought three boxes: one for herself, one for her mother-in-law at the Jiang family, and one for her own mother.

The department store had a lot of different items, but without coupons, they could only stop and look at some things. In the end, they bought some milk candy and two cans of milk powder before heading home.

On the way back, Wei Xuan asked Jiang Che where he had gotten the milk powder coupons.

“You remember when you sent the malted milk back to your in-laws, right? Those coupons are special supplies, so they’re not always available. I thought milk powder would be good for supplementing the body, so I asked Wu Yun to keep an eye out. Not long ago, he gave me two coupons, so I used them today.”

Knowing that Jiang Che was thinking about Wei Xuan’s family, she felt very happy in her heart. So, that evening, she made a dish that Jiang Che loved to eat.

Jiang Che looked at the braised pork with preserved vegetables on the table and asked in confusion, “What’s the special occasion today? Didn’t you tell me to eat less fatty meat?”

Since Wei Xuan made preserved vegetables, she had once made braised pork with preserved vegetables, and Jiang Che completely fell in love with it. Wei Xuan also liked eating it, but she preferred the preserved vegetables soaked in broth, while Jiang Che liked the fatty meat on top, sticky and tender. He would eat piece after piece without stopping.

Wei Xuan had concerns, thinking that even though he was young, eating too much fatty meat wouldn’t be good for him. So every time she made this dish, she specifically chose lean meat with less fat, even though Jiang Che had mentioned it several times. She still didn’t change it.

However, the braised pork with preserved vegetables served tonight was mostly fatty meat, so it was no wonder Jiang Che asked this question.

Wei Xuan, of course, didn’t want to say what was really on her mind, so she pretended to be angry and gave him a playful glare. “If there’s food, just eat it!”

“Hehe,” although he didn’t know why, he clearly felt that his wife was in a good mood tonight. His thoughts went a little astray, and he started imagining some inappropriate scenarios.

Wei Xuan noticed his strange smile and asked, “What are you laughing about?”

“Nothing, nothing. Eat your food,” Jiang Che replied.

“How strange.” Wei Xuan mumbled but didn’t think much of it.

It wasn’t until later that night when they finished bathing and went to bed that Wei Xuan realized that Jiang Che might have eaten too much fatty meat and, with no energy to spare, had used it all on her instead.

The couple kept each other up until the middle of the night, and the next morning, Wei Xuan almost couldn’t get out of bed.

It wasn’t until dinner at the Jiang family’s house that evening that Wei Xuan gave Jiang Che a good face.

Tonight, the Jiang family was gathered, and after a long time, Jiang Erjie (Second Sister Jiang) had returned with her two daughters, though Jiang Erjie’s husband didn’t show up.

Jiang Erjie explained to the family that her husband had some matters to attend to and couldn’t come, and both Jiang Dage (Big Brother Jiang) and Jiang Che, who knew the situation, didn’t comment. The rest of the family didn’t think much about it.

Jiang Che and Wei Xuan, when they returned home that night, whispered to each other, speculating that Jiang Erjie’s husband must have felt ashamed after being hit by Jiang Che last time, which was why he didn’t show up tonight.

But this person wasn’t very important to them, so they casually mentioned it and moved on.

They then started discussing what they should bring to Wei Xuan’s family this year.

This year, just like last year, they would spend New Year’s Eve at the Jiang family’s house, go to Wei Xuan’s family on the first day of the New Year, and return to the city on the second afternoon.

But this year, unlike last year, when they went to Wei Xuan’s family on the first day, not only would they see Wei Xuan’s immediate family, but also her two uncles, who had brought their families over.

Wei Xuan’s second uncle only had one son and one daughter. His daughter, Wei Xuan’s older cousin, Wei Yuee, was married quite far away and wasn’t present today. She would return on the second day. So, today, only her second uncle and aunt, along with their youngest son’s family, came.

Wei Xuan’s second uncle’s youngest son, Wei Junliang, was the same age as Wei Xuan’s second brother. He was 27 years old after the New Year and was already married with children.