To practice his calligraphy, Jing Chen tried to write recipes. He wrote some simple recipes he often used in his previous life. Most of the writing turned into blotches of ink since he wrote the character too close to each other. It made him sighed; it was such a waste of paper. Currently, he spent three sheets of paper.

On his tenth paper, he finally got a hang of it. He still needed to adjust the space between each character, but it was clearly better than his previous ones. The character began to have strong strokes and solid shape; even though there were some shaky lines here and there. Jing Chen thought it was enough for that day. He would continue writing the next day.

When Jing Chen tidied up, Xue Yu came in. He brought a set of clothes. After having dinner, which was earlier than usual that day, Xue Yu continued to sew until it was too dark to see.

“Chen-ge, your first clothes are finished.”

Jing Chen took the simple clothes from Xue Yu’s hands. The stitches were very neat and small. On each side of the collar, there were two small blue peonies embroidered. Jing Chen felt touched since he had never got any handmade gift from someone before. He took off his clothes and gestured to Xue Yu to help him wear it.

Xue Yu blushed as he fixed the position of Jing Chen’s collar. He didn’t dare lift his head and quickly shift his focus to fasten the belt. 

“Does it look good?” Jing Chen asked. They didn’t have any mirrors at home, so he couldn’t see it for himself. Mirrors were a luxury in ancient times. It was made of bronze, since the glass mirror hadn’t been found yet.

“Y-yes, it looks very good,” said Xue Yu.

“How come Xiao Yu says it looks good when he doesn’t even look at this husband,” Jing Chen teased; he lifted Xue Yu’s chin so they were almost face to face. Xue Yu stumbled backwards as he tried to get away from Jing Chen. He was so embarrassed! It had been a while since he helped Jing Chen dressed. As far as he remembered, Jing Chen never teased him before. It seemed like not only Baibai who became unruly after leaving Jing’s family, but Jing Chen as well!

“I-I, everything looks good on Chen-ge,” Xue Yu finally said. He was held close by his husband, and it made him want to flee. He almost panicked when Jing Chen walked them to the bed. What did Jing Chen want to do?!

Oblivious to Xue Yu’s inner thoughts, Jing Chen helped Xue Yu to sit on the bed. He carefully examined Xue Yu’s fingers. The injuries were hard to see under the dim light, and it was hard to feel since Xue Yu’s skin was rough. 

“You need to be more careful. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

Xue Yu felt ashamed when he realised Jing Chen noticed his needle injuries. He was even more ashamed of his rough hands, which were full of calluses as the result of working in the field. Xue Yu gave Jing Chen a plain smile, “It’s okay; it's just small injuries. They don’t hurt that much,” and tried to pull his hands away.

The sudden move made Xue Yu’s sleeves lifted up. Jing Chen gasped when he saw the bruise on Xue Yu’s right forearm. It looked like a grip mark, with deep crescent moons nail’s marks embedded in the skin.

“What happened to your arm?”

Xue Yu stunned. He hid it very well the whole day, but he made a careless move just now. Xue Yu bit his lips in regret.

“It’s nothing… I just offended someone on my way back and she got angry.”

Jing Chen brushed the wounds, “What did you do to make her angry? It looks like she hurt you on purpose, the nail’s marks are quite deep.”

Under Jing Chen's stare, Xue Yu didn’t dare to lie. So he told him he met Zhang Mei, Jing Hao’s wife, who was back from washing clothes. Apparently, Zhang Mei was angry since he tried to force Wenwen to wash her clothes that day, but Wenwen rejected.

“She was so angry that she tried to push Wenwen to the river, but Wenwen dodged it. She pushed the basket instead, so the clothes were scattered along the river and drifted away. Wenwen had to swim quickly to get all of them back.”

Jing Chen couldn’t believe his ears. The nerve of the Jing family! They were already separated, yet they still wanted to force work on his family? Shameless!

“It was already bright, so most of the people already finished washing clothes. Zhang Mei came back late since she wasn’t used to washing clothes,” added Xue Yu.

Jing Chen shaked his head, “That’s why Wenwen drenched when he came back,” he felt bad for the kid, what would happen if Wenwen didn’t dodge on time?

“I can’t believe they still try to bother us. We don’t owe them anything,” said Jing Chen. Xue Yu replied, “I used to do all of the houseworks in Jing family before, so when we separated, it must be hard for them to adapt.”

Jing Chen snorted, “It’s not Xiao Yu’s fault. Next time they do something, you better pay them back. Or you can tell me, we will settle accounts with them."

“Chen-ge, don’t make trouble,” Xue Yu grabbed Jing Chen’s arm. “It’s better to avoid them, rather than to confront them.”

“They are the one who makes trouble for us, so we’re the one who’s right. What’s more they want from us anyway? They have everything! Still trying to force Wenwen to wash their clothes? So shameless!” Jing Chen complained. Xue Yu secretly smiled; he felt happy Jing Chen stubbornly defended their family.

The next morning, Jing Chen cooked steamed buns for breakfast. Jing Chen used the braised pork leftover from yesterday as a filling. When he was cooking, he found the snow fungus that they picked a few days ago in the cabinet. It was all shriveled and half dried. While the wood ears fungus were already consumed as additional ingredients in stir-fried dishes, they totally left the snow fungus out. Jing Chen put all of them in a basin, then soaked them with warm water. It would take a while until the snow fungus got its original form back.

“So happy ah~! Good food everyday~!”

Baibai said as he munched his bun. He was eating his second bun already, and he felt he could eat one more. Being spoiled by his father’s cooking like this made him believe he was the happiest child in the world!

“Don’t talk when eating,” Yiyi said to his twin. He was happy as well, especially when he was allowed to follow Jing Chen to the mountains today. Since Baibai helped Jing Chen yesterday and escaped sewing practice, this time it was his turn.

Jing Chen planned to go to the mountain to search for more wild vegetables’ seedlings. He had cabbage, ginger, garlic, and scallions in his backyard, but he wanted to add carrots, radish, cucumber, and asparagus as well. On top of that, Jing Chen wanted to cut some fruits’ stems such as pomelo, pears, oranges, and lemon and brought them home.

To make Yiyi not exhausted, Jing Chen carried him on his shoulder the whole way. Yiyi was very excited! He was so tall now, and able to grasp some fruits as they walked. He picked the pears from the shortest branch, and put them in Jing Chen’s basket. Yiyi didn’t speak much, but he was very helpful. When they went to the water springs, Yiyi picked more varieties of wild vegetables than Jing Chen. Jing Chen praised him wholeheartedly, which made Yiyi very happy. 

When they came back, Xue Yu already cooked lunch. He cooked braised eggplant and pan fried fish with ginger slices. The eggplants were given by Auntie Zhang, while the fish were caught by Wenwen after washing clothes. 

It was delicious. It seemed like Xue Yu started to get used to using more spices and oil. The fish were crispy and salty, while the eggplants were sweet and rich. Jing Chen and the kids liked it very much.

After lunch, Xue Yu, Wenwen, and the twins continued to sew the clothes. Wenwen was very excited; finally, they had new clothes! Each of them had a total of four sets of clothes, how wonderful! They also had two sets of inner clothing as well. Since Xue Yu teached them the basic embroidery as well, Wenwen planned to embroider simple mandarin oranges on each side of his collar as a good luck charm. Although it was more common for gers to embroider flowers, Wenwen liked his idea better.

While the others were busy sewing, Jing Chen started working on snow fungus. He wanted to make snow fungus soup with pears. This soup was eaten as dessert, so it tasted mostly sweet and fresh. This soup was believed to be good for health and could strengthen the body.

Making snow fungus soup was very easy. After trimming away the tough roots part, Jing Chen tore the fungus into pieces. Then, he put the snow fungus and water into a pot; and waited for it to simmer. Jing Chen also peeled and cut the pears into pieces before adding them into the pot. After the pears were soft enough, Jing Chen added brown sugar, dried dates, and goji berries. Since all three were sweet, Jing Chen added more water to make sure the sweetness wasn’t overwhelming.

Now, he just needed to wait until it was syrupy, and the soup turned into a light brown colour. It would take a while, but it would be perfect to serve as an afternoon snack for his family.

After planting all the vegetables and the fruits’ stems in the backyard, Jing Chen went to practice his calligraphy. This time, Jing Chen used the paper to write his temporary business plan. 

After all of the shopping they did, there was 22 taels of money left. He put 8 taels as a budget to rent the stall for at least six months. Since he wanted to use taro as base flour for his food, Jing Chen also added 4 taels as a budget to order a bigger & customized grinder. On top of that, Jing Chen planned to give 5 taels of money to Xue Yu to save. These 5 taels would never be used except in emergency situations. The rest of 4 taels would be split into two: for his capital to start business and for their daily necessity for at least two months.

The profit of the food would be saved to buy land and house. It was a long way to go, but Jing Chen was excited nonetheless. 

Thanks for reading everyone! This chapter hasn't beta read-ed, I hope there won't be many mistakes <3!

Notes:

- There were none this time:)

Pics from left to right:

[1] Braised Eggplant, Snow Fungus Soup