NOVEL WEB Chapter 18: Stir-fried Pork with Bamboo Shoots × Second Sister-in-law × Chicks
Chapter 18: Stir-fried Pork with Bamboo Shoots × Second Sister-in-law × Chicks
It turned out that the little nephews had returned.
Song’er’s voice was the loudest, constantly shouting excitedly: “Dad, put me down, I want to play in the rain!”
“Song’er, be good. Dad is tired today. Don’t make me cook stir-fried pork with bamboo shoots for you when I’m this exhausted,” Li He’s voice was tinged with a forced smile.
If Song’er went out to play in the rain, it was hard to tell if he would be playing with the rain or the rain would be playing with him.
He wouldn’t be able to start cultivating until he entered the village school at six years old next year. Right now, he was still completely an ordinary five-year-old child. If allowed to get soaked in the rain, he would certainly catch a cold.
Just as he was about to throw a tantrum, Song’er heard his father’s words and immediately fell silent in fear.
Whoever wanted to eat Dad’s stir-fried pork with bamboo shoots could eat it, but he wouldn’t.
After a tiring day and getting caught in the rain, everyone quickly ate dinner and retired for the night.
Li Xi, exhausted from the day, decided to take her second sister-in-law’s advice and relax with a hot bath.
As she was enjoying the soothing warmth of the water, she heard her nephew Song’er crying.
That little rascal Song’er, combining his words when he came back, Li Xi knew without thinking what he had done.
A quarter of an hour earlier, Song’er had quietly left the room.
He had heard his parents talking about taking a hot bath, so he decided to continue his great endeavor that had been interrupted earlier that day.
However, Xing’er and Bai’er, who shared a room with him, were not yet asleep and noticed him sneaking out suspiciously.
Xing’er and Bai’er thought Song’er was going to leave them behind to play secretly (which was indeed the case). Xing’er asked softly, “Brother, what are you going to do?”
Song’er was focused on listening for his parents’ movements, and since Xing’er’s voice was quite low, he didn’t hear her.
Bai’er, seeing that his brother didn’t respond to his sister or him, suddenly became anxious and shouted very loudly: “Brother! Going out to play! Without us!”
At this moment, Li He had just finished his bath and was drying his hair. Hearing Bai’er’s voice, he immediately rushed out and caught Song’er red-handed.
So, Song’er, who had wanted to sneak out and play in the rain while his parents were relaxing in their hot baths with their guard down, ended up eating his father’s lovingly prepared stir-fried pork with bamboo shoots, which made him so happy he cried~
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Early the next morning, Li Shan went to town to return the spirit ox.
Li Xi also woke up early, excited. Yesterday, her second sister-in-law said she was going to the market to buy spirit chicken chicks. When Li Xi heard this, she immediately asked to go along, and her second sister-in-law readily agreed.
So today, she would be able to visit the market and see the cute spirit chicken chicks!
Since marrying into the Li family, Liu Qiniang had raised spirit chickens every year. Her chicken-raising skills were praised by everyone even before she got married, and after joining the Li family, the quality of her spirit chickens improved even further.
She figured that while she had always been confident in her chicken-raising skills, there hadn’t been much breakthrough in her technique since getting married. So, the improvement in the spirit chickens’ quality must be due to the local environment.
More accurately, it was due to the difference in the food the spirit chickens ate.
Taohua Village was one of the wealthiest villages in the area, at least compared to her natal village.
Not to mention other aspects, just talking about the spirit fields in Taohua Village, they were almost all large plots of level-one spirit fields. In her natal village, the better fields were those with spiritual energy in the soil, almost but not quite qualifying as spirit fields, colloquially called “level-zero”. The less good fields only contained a bit of spiritual energy and could only grow ordinary crops.
There were level-one spirit fields, but only the wealthy families in the village had a few mu, and they were all low-quality level-one spirit fields.
Her natal village was very far from here, about half a month’s journey on foot. Most families wouldn’t want their daughters to marry so far away, especially since she had excellent chicken-raising skills that could provide a livelihood wherever she went. Wouldn’t it be better to marry near her parents?
But her parents, wanting her to have a better life in the future and not be mistreated by her brother and sister-in-law or married off carelessly, insisted on seeing her off on the ox cart that came to take her to the Li family, despite their ill health.
And before they passed away, they announced in front of the village elders that they were cutting ties with Liu Qiniang, declaring that whether the Liu family became poor or wealthy in the future, it would have nothing to do with Liu Qiniang. This shattered her brother and sister-in-law’s intentions of coming to Taohua Village to cause trouble.
Since her parents passed away, in order to let her brother and sister-in-law see with their own eyes how well she was doing without them, and to let her parents’ spirits in heaven see that she was very happy, she worked extremely hard to manage her life after joining the Li family. She was afraid that others might think she was weak or useless.
Fortunately, the Li family members were all easy to get along with. Her parents-in-law were fair in their dealings, her brothers and sisters-in-law were kind, her little sister-in-law was also sensible and lovable, and Li Jiang suited her well. They also had an adorable son. She was living a very happy life.
Thinking of this, Liu Qiniang’s eyes suddenly welled up with tears. She quickly tilted her head back and used a handkerchief to wipe away the tears that were about to fall.
Oh my! Wasn’t she just thinking about choosing chicken chicks? How did she end up reminiscing about those old times!
“Second Sister-in-law, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?” Li Xi walked out of the room to see Liu Qiniang with red eyes, as if she had just been crying.
“It’s nothing, Second Sister-in-law is fine. I was just trying to check the weather and accidentally got some sunlight in my eyes. It’ll be better in a moment,” Liu Qiniang said, trying to sound relaxed.
“I must have seen wrong. Second Sister-in-law has never cried since marrying into our family. It must really have been the sunlight in your eyes,” Li Xi believed Liu Qiniang’s words, silently thinking she had been overly concerned.
The market was jointly organized by five nearby villages, specifically chosen for the eighth day of the spring break. By this time, spring plowing had finished, and many families were starting to think about planting their vegetable gardens or raising additional livestock to supplement their income. Whatever they lacked, they could come to exchange on this day. The location was at the intersection of the five villages, so it wasn’t too far.
The aunt and sister-in-law arrived after half an hour’s walk.
Although it was still early, there were already quite a few people at the market. After walking a bit into the crowd, the two of them saw the stall selling spirit chicken chicks.
There were two people at the spirit chicken stall, a man and a woman. Judging by their intimate behavior, Liu Qiniang guessed they were a married couple.
Since Liu Qiniang’s purpose was to buy spirit chicken chicks, she led Li Xi directly to that stall.
Seeing Liu Qiniang approach, the couple noticed her rosy complexion and proper attire, indicating she was quite well-off. They immediately realized that a big customer had arrived.
The woman quickly greeted Liu Qiniang warmly: “Madam, are you interested in raising spirit chickens? Our chicken chicks are the best in the village. You can take a look, and if you’re satisfied, you can choose any of the chicks on this stall!”
Liu Qiniang didn’t respond immediately but crouched down to carefully observe the chicken chicks on the stall.
This was the largest stall in the area. The chicks were placed in wooden boxes lined with some dried grass and cotton for warmth.
The newly hatched chicks had soft yellow feathers, fluffy and round, looking like little yellow pom-poms, extremely adorable.
Some of the chicks were chirping actively, pecking around in the wooden boxes to relieve the itchiness of their new beaks.
Others were sprawled out like little fluffy puddles, huddling together and dozing off.
Overall, from Liu Qiniang’s expert perspective, these chicks were indeed of good quality.
The woman at the stall was clearly skilled at reading people’s expressions. Seeing Liu Qiniang’s expression, she knew she was very satisfied.
“How many spirit chicken chicks would you like to buy, madam?” she tentatively asked.
“How much are your spirit chicken chicks?” Liu Qiniang inquired.
“These spirit chicken chicks are all hatched from eggs laid by mid-grade level-one spirit chickens. When they grow up, they’ll definitely be able to lay eggs, and their quality won’t be much different. I can sell them to you for five spirit pearls each, how does that sound?” The woman, gauging that Liu Qiniang didn’t lack spirit pearls, slightly raised the price she and her husband had originally agreed upon.
Liu Qiniang, hearing the woman’s long explanation, knew she was going to quote a high price. After patiently listening to the woman’s words, she simply said, “Just because they’re from eggs laid by mid-grade spirit chickens doesn’t mean the chicks will grow into mid-grade spirit chickens themselves. I can only give you three spirit pearls each.”
The woman hadn’t expected Liu Qiniang to immediately cut the price to three spirit pearls each. She said, “Madam, look at how good these spirit chicken chicks are. Selling them for three spirit pearls isn’t worth it. How about this, I’ll be straight with you – four and a half spirit pearls for each chick.”
“I’ll take all your chicken chicks, three spirit pearls each,” Liu Qiniang said again.
Hearing that Liu Qiniang wanted to buy all the chicks on the stall, the woman was overjoyed internally. Many thoughts flashed through her mind: “We’ve met a big customer, able to buy all the chicks at once. If only we had hatched more.” “We can go home early today, maybe buy some snacks for the children.”
But hearing that Liu Qiniang was still offering only three spirit pearls each, she became a bit anxious. They couldn’t let such a big customer slip away, but three spirit pearls really wouldn’t do.
So the two engaged in a battle of words, haggling for quite some time. Finally, they settled on a price of three and a half spirit pearls for each spirit chicken chick.
Li Xi observed the entire process, marveling at her second sister-in-law’s bargaining skills.