Chapter 141 City Streets 41

Chapter 141: City Life in the Prefecture, Part 41

While the Qin family enjoyed a hearty meal, the neighboring Li family was having a much harder time.

"Mother? How did it go? Did the Qin family agree?"

Seeing Chen Qiaoyun return, Li Youliang eagerly rushed out to greet her, asking excitedly.

Chen Qiaoyun had just been rebuffed by Cui Lanfang and was in a foul mood. Unfortunately, Li Youliang chose this moment to annoy her.

"Agree to what? She threw me out!" Chen Qiaoyun shouted. "Of all the people you could fancy, why set your sights on a widowed male? What's so special about Liu Guyu? He just has a pretty face!"

She threw you out?!

Li Youliang’s face was filled with disbelief. He never expected such an outcome.

Although there had been some unpleasantness with Liu Guyu last time, and he was even caught in the act by Qin Rongshi, Li Youliang thought it was because he was already married with children. But now that he had divorced that jealous wife Sun Yueqin, surely Liu Guyu had no reason to refuse?

After all, he was a scholar. What more could a widowed male want?

Li Youliang was dreaming big, and his mother was dreaming even bigger.

Chen Qiaoyun said, "What’s so good about a widowed male? If you like pretty faces, I think the Qin family’s daughter is pretty too. She’s young, and most importantly, she’s an unmarried maiden!"

But Li Youliang replied, "I’ve already married a woman. I want to try being with a male now. What’s wrong with that?"

"Mother, didn’t you agree? You said Liu Guyu has a talent for making money. If we marry him into our family, we’ll never have to worry about food or drink! With money in the future, we could even buy a little maid to serve you!"

Chen Qiaoyun sneered. "Well, Cui Lanfang wasn’t willing."

Li Youliang: "If the male isn’t willing, how could his younger sister be willing?"

Chen Qiaoyun: "I was just saying. Can’t I even think about it? Her older brother is also a scholar. Didn’t you say the Qin family’s Erlang is very studious? And he’s some kind of—county top scholar?"

Li Youliang: "Yes, he’s impressive. If you marry his sister, after he becomes a provincial scholar or metropolitan scholar, he’ll just overshadow your son. Wouldn’t you be happy then, Mother?"

Chen Qiaoyun was left speechless. She mumbled, "...I just thought she was nice. Pretty, young—young women bear children more easily."

The mother and son began arguing, and the two of them actually started dreaming up impossible scenarios.

It was at this moment that Li Dacai returned. He had been raising a few more boxes of bees in Licuo Village. The weather was too cold, so he had to keep a close eye on them, which was why he had been staying in Licuo Village for almost half a month.

"What are you two talking about? I’m hungry. Is there any food at home?"

Li Dacai entered the house and immediately asked.

After asking, he realized something was off. He looked around and asked curiously, "Where’s Sun Yueqin?"

Chen Qiaoyun was momentarily stunned upon seeing him, as if she had just remembered there was such a person in the family.

Li Youliang was also unusually nervous. His father was, after all, the head of the family. But while his father was away, he had divorced his wife and sent his two children away.

"I—I divorced Sun Yueqin! The children went back to her family with her!"

Li Dacai: "What happened?"

He had been away for half a month, only to return home and find his daughter-in-law and granddaughter gone! And nobody even told me!

*

After that, things quieted down for a while. Li Youliang tried several times to find opportunities to chat with Liu Guyu, but Qin Rongshi was always closely watching. Every time Li Youliang went over, he would see Qin Rongshi giving him a cold, sinister glare, which was quite unsettling.

As the Winter Solstice approached, a familiar face showed up at the shop.

It was Chen Sanxi.

He came in the afternoon. There weren’t many customers in the eatery, and Liu Guyu had stepped out of the kitchen to take a break. When he saw Chen Sanxi, he personally went out to greet him.

"Sanxi? Here to buy some food?"

Chen Sanxi didn’t have much of a craving for good food. He simply nodded and said, "My master's wife and junior sister love eating these. I’m here to buy some for them... Which ones are good?"

"This 'Persimmon Wishes' and 'Bamboo Leaf Thousand Layers' are new. Quite a few customers have been buying them. Why don’t you try them?"

These pastries weren’t cheap. Ordinary customers weren’t allowed to sample them, but Chen Sanxi was not a stranger. Liu Guyu naturally took two pieces for him to try.

Chen Sanxi liked the taste and didn’t even ask about the price. He nodded and said, "I’ll take these. Pack one box of each for me."

Although Liu Guyu’s shop was simply decorated, the items sold there weren’t cheap. Most of his customers were wealthy families from the prefecture.

Chen Sanxi was dressed simply, in black and gray clothes. Perhaps because he often trained and fought, his clothes had many patches, and the cuffs were frayed. He didn’t look like someone who would spend money on such things.

But when Liu Guyu told him the price, he didn’t even blink and easily took out the money.

Before leaving, Liu Guyu called out, "Sanxi, are you going back home for New Year’s this year?"

Chen Sanxi frowned, thought for a moment, and said, "I’ll be leaving in a few days for a bodyguard mission. It’s very far. I’m not sure if I can make it back before the New Year."

He had been away for three years. The first year, he returned to the village to pay respects to the old hunter.

The following two years, he was too busy and didn’t have time to return to Shanghe Village.

Liu Guyu thought for a moment and said, "When are you leaving? The Winter Solstice is in a couple of days. If you’re still in the prefecture, come over for dumplings! Spending it alone is no fun. It’s better to join us and make it lively."

Cui Lanfang had been feeling down lately because of Sun Yueqin and Chen Qiaoyun. She thought she had finally found a woman in the prefecture she could chat with, only to realize she was a poisonous snake.

Liu Guyu thought that celebrating the Winter Solstice with the family would be a good way to lift everyone’s spirits. Inviting Chen Sanxi over might also cheer up Cui Lanfang, as she would get to see someone from the village.

Chen Sanxi calculated the dates and nodded in agreement. "Alright, I’ll definitely come."

Before they knew it, the Winter Solstice arrived. On this day, it was customary to eat dumplings and lamb. Liu Guyu decided to combine the two and make lamb dumplings.

He minced the lamb and scallions, cracked an egg into the mixture, and gradually added a small amount of scallion-ginger water while vigorously stirring. Finally, he added salt, soy sauce, and other seasonings. A large bowl of dumpling filling was ready.

Stirring was a tough job. The scallion-ginger water had to be thoroughly mixed into the meat, requiring constant stirring to ensure the filling was tender and flavorful.

After stirring for a while, Liu Guyu started complaining he was tired and called over Qin Rongshi, who was kneading dough, to take over the stirring.

Qin Rongshi came over as asked, holding the bowl of filling in one hand and chopsticks in the other, stirring vigorously in one direction.

Liu Guyu took over Qin Rongshi’s spot and started kneading the dough.

Well, after kneading for a bit, he decided this task was also tiring.

Qin Rongshi noticed and said with a smile, "Leave it. I’ll knead the dough after I’m done here."

Liu Guyu rubbed his sore arms and muttered, "I’m just tired from chopping the filling."

Qin Rongshi nodded: "Yes, everything you said is right."

Liu Guyu pouted, punched the dough a couple more times, rested for a while, and then went back to kneading the dough. He covered it with a cloth and let it proof for a bit.

The room was filled with the aroma of lamb broth. Liu Guyu had bought mutton bones and simmered them into a steaming pot of broth. The soup bubbled and boiled, producing fish-eye sized white bubbles, filling the entire room with warmth and fragrance.

The filling was ready, and the dough had risen. Just as they were about to start wrapping the dumplings, Chen Sanxi arrived.

Cui Lanfang was rolling out the dough when she heard a knock at the door. She glanced outside—the courtyard gate was open—and saw Chen Sanxi standing at the entrance with packages in hand. Lucky circled around him, wagging its tail and barking excitedly.

"Sanxi is here? Come in, you’re just in time! We’re about to wrap the dumplings. Once they’re done, we can cook them right away!"

Cui Lanfang called out from inside while walking toward the door. She noticed the packages in Chen Sanxi’s hands.

"You silly kid, bringing gifts again! The older you get, the more formal you get! Come in and sit down!"

Qin Banban appeared out of nowhere and handed Chen Sanxi a gray cloth apron, tilting her head with a smile as she said, "You came at the perfect time! Come in and help wrap the dumplings! How many you wrap is how many you eat—wrap too few and you'll go hungry!"

Cui Lanfang shot her a look and scolded her with a laugh, "You silly girl! He’s a guest—how can you make him do the work himself?"

But Chen Sanxi surprisingly chuckled a little. First, he handed the gifts to Cui Lanfang, then tied the apron around his waist, and finally said, "Auntie, don’t scold Banban. She’s right—it’s only proper to lend a hand instead of waiting to be served."

Amazingly, these words came from the same person who used to be a man of few words with an icy demeanor.

Liu Guyu found this new behavior curious and couldn’t stop staring at Chen Sanxi.

Qin Rongshi, however, frowned immediately. He stopped wrapping dumplings, fixed his gaze on Chen Sanxi, glanced at his sister who was still grinning foolishly, and then looked back at Chen Sanxi, his eyes sharp enough to pierce through him.

But halfway through his intense stare, someone poked him in the back. He turned his head and saw Liu Guyu making faces at him.

"Qin Erlang, even Chen Sanxi has learned to speak nicely now. When are you going to practice your smooth talk?"

Qin Rongshi looked somewhat resigned and retorted, "Do my words not sound pleasant?"

Liu Guyu tilted his head, thought seriously for a moment, and said, "Your voice is nice."

"Thank you," Qin Rongshi said sincerely, then added, "And don’t poke me with your flour-covered hands."

Liu Guyu: "???"

Qin Rongshi turned away, but Liu Guyu quietly reached out and gently poked him a couple more times, muttering to himself, "I’ll poke you, I’ll poke you."

Qin Rongshi naturally heard him and turned back to give him a helpless look.

"Stop staring! Hurry up and wrap the dumplings!"

Liu Guyu continued poking him while eyeing the dumplings Qin Rongshi had wrapped. "Not bad, you’ve improved a lot. Save these bigger ones for me."

Qin Rongshi: "Okay."

Chen Sanxi had already tied on the apron. Qin Banban found another rolling pin for him and rolled out the dough into thin, round wrappers, handing them over one by one.

Chen Sanxi was rough around the edges. When he lived alone, he lived rough—cooking was just about filling his stomach, with no regard for taste. He had never wrapped dumplings before, and the ones he made were misshapen, with the filling leaking out.

"Ah! Not like that! I’ll teach you!"

"Like this, then like this, yes... hey, don’t use too much force."

"...Oh, it broke again."

Qin Banban had gotten friendlier with Chen Sanxi recently. Although Chen Sanxi didn’t often visit Liu Guyu’s eatery, he frequently went to Huichun Clinic.

As an escort, it was common for him to get bumps and bruises during martial arts practice, so he often went to the clinic for medicine. Before long, he had used up his stash of loose silver he kept there.

With their relationship now more familiar, they bantered more freely. Qin Banban grew anxious watching Chen Sanxi’s clumsy dumpling-wrapping, almost about to guide his hands directly. Qin Rongshi watched from the side, his brow furrowed tightly.

"Banban, come here. I’ll teach him."

Qin Banban turned her head at the sound, her frown even deeper than Qin Rongshi’s.

"Brother, no offense, but... your dumplings don't look much better. Only Brother Liu praises you."

Qin Rongshi: "..."

Liu Guyu: "..."

The youngsters joked and laughed, the atmosphere harmonious and cheerful. Cui Lanfang couldn’t find room to join them, so she sat to the side, looking on with a smile. Just seeing them like this made her feel much happier.