NOVPUB
Chapter 297: Chapter 287: Can’t Really Deal with This Kid
Li Hongjun came out and was slightly taken aback when he saw the visitors, though it was almost imperceptible. He immediately went up to greet the men from Qiu Fengmei’s family with warmth, then led them into the west room. Before entering, he didn’t forget to ask his wife to take good care of Qiu Fengmei’s mother and others.
Shen Yunfang rolled her eyes in secret. Did he really need to say that? With people standing right there, was she going to ignore them? If she truly acted according to her own nature and shooed them away, she would become notorious in this neighborhood.
But Li Hongjun was indeed overthinking it; Qiu Fengmei and her daughters needed no looking after. Qiu Fengmei had her children join the others in the east room to play with their uncle right after arrival, then she grabbed a little stool to sit beside Wu’s sister-in-law, striking up a conversation with the two.
"Yunfang, this is where you’re wrong. When your family is hosting a meal, why didn’t you mention it earlier? Take a look, our whole family almost arrived late," Qiu Fengmei said, not in complaint, but simply stating a fact.
Shen Yunfang caught on, so she didn’t feel like bickering with this fool. Since they were already here and couldn’t be sent away, she might as well add a few more chopsticks.
"You just got here and may not know that our family is very close to yours—Hongjun. Remember how they used to go on missions together? My man has really taken good care of Li Hongjun..." Qiu Fengmei pulled a small handful of sunflower seeds from her pocket, cracking them and idly chatting away.
Shen Yunfang had little interest in listening to her go on about this. Most of it was about how her own husband had helped Li Hongjun, whether true or not. Saying those things didn’t sound like she was here to make friends but rather to take credit, which made it hard to feel close to her.
Luckily for her, she was the main cook today. She was too busy frying dishes; how could she spare the time to listen to those stories?
With a sizzle, the cured meat hit the pan.
"What did you say?"
"Didn’t catch that."
"Alright, the cooking’s almost done. Sister-in-law, could you take it inside?" Shen Yunfang said to Wu’s sister-in-law.
"Sure thing!"
Qiu Fengmei stopped eating her sunflower seeds, quickly stood up, and helped Wu’s sister-in-law carry the finished dishes into the house. The two of them formed a perfect team, one heading to the west room, the other to the east.
Shen Yunfang pondered a little. Originally planning to make eight dishes, now that a few more people had arrived, it seemed better to make two additional dishes to round up to ten. What should she cook? After a quick thought, she decided to cut up some salted duck eggs and stir-fry some bracken fern. It was normal for everyone to know she had just come over from the countryside and brought a truckload of bottles and jars, so it wouldn’t be strange for her to have homemade duck eggs and wild greens on hand.
With that in mind, Shen Yunfang quickly took a basin to go to the storeroom to get the salted duck eggs. As soon as she entered the storeroom, she saw Erni, who was supposed to be in the east room, squatting in front of a jar, dipping her small hand in and then tasting the liquid with a slurp. Smelling the scent, Shen Yunfang knew the girl had taken a liking to the sweet and sour taste of her home’s sugar garlic, and that’s why she was sneaking over to steal some of the juice. Looking at the other jars, sure enough, most of them had also been uncovered by Erni.
"Erni, what are you doing?" Shen Yunfang, not wanting to scare the child, kept her voice down despite her anger.
Erni, seeing someone coming in, was not frightened but instead dipped her hand deeper into the jar. When she pulled out her hand, it was dripping with sugar garlic juice, and her small mouth was quickly licking it off her hand.
Shen Yunfang held back her irritation and said amicably, "Erni, you shouldn’t eat sugar garlic juice like that. If you put your hands into the jar, the juice could get dirty, and then the whole jar of sugar garlic will spoil..."
Little Erni took a look at Shen Yunfang and ignored her, reaching her small hand back into the jar again.
Well, she might as well save her breath.
"Yunfang, Yunfang? Where did you go, are there any vegetables left?" Qiu Fengmei brought the dishes to the east room, and upon coming out, she saw that Shen Yunfang was no longer by the stove.
Shen Yunfang quickly opened the door to the storeroom, shouting outside, "Sister-in-law Fengmei, hurry over and see, your Erni is in the storeroom." She really couldn’t handle this child any longer; the kid simply wouldn’t listen to her, and she couldn’t actually drag her out, so all she could do was to get the child’s mother to deal with it.
Upon hearing this, Qiu Fengmei hurried into the storeroom, and sure enough, her Erni was indeed inside, and she was even eating something from a jar. Immediately, Fengmei thought of the jar that had been broken during a previous incident. She cursed under her breath, that wretched child, last time they had barely managed to avoid compensating for the broken jar, and now she was stirring up trouble again. What if they were reminded of the last incident? 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
"You wretched child, I knew something was off just now, and sure enough, you sneaked out. Out with you, out with you right now!" Qiu Fengmei rushed over, yanked her Erni up, and smacked her twice on the back. The loud sound echoed, but Erni didn’t even furrow her brow, showing that this level of slapping posed no threat to her anymore.
Nevertheless, at least the child was taken away.
Shen Yunfang didn’t bother with anything else and quickly covered all the jars on the ground. She fished ten duck eggs out of one jar and a lot of bracken from another before leaving the storeroom. After closing the door, she thought for a moment, then went back in to fetch a padlock from another space, came out and locked the storeroom door. Now she had thoroughly blocked any route Erni might use to sneak back in.
She boiled a pot of hot water and cooked the salted duck eggs, then, while they were still boiling, washed the salt-preserved bracken several times in cool water.
After the duck eggs were cooked, she cleaned the pot, put in a bit more oil, and stir-fried two plates of bracken.
"Wow, this is quite a lot of dishes, surely enough," Mrs. Wu, who was serving the dishes, frowned, shocked by the excessive meal.
"Yes, that’s all," Shen Yunfang told Mrs. Wu to take the dishes to the east room, while she carried the last two plates to the west room.
After all, today was her family’s event, and she, the hostess, couldn’t be spinning around the stove from start to finish; she had to entertain the guests a bit as well.
When Shen Yunfang entered the west room, the group of men had already started toasting and making merry. Seeing her come in, they all rowdily called out "Sister-in-law" and "Little Sister-in-law."
Shen Yunfang placed the dishes on the dining table confidently and calmly, and with a smile told everyone, "There’s not much to offer, just things from our own farm. Don’t you all snub it; please eat and drink to your heart’s content."
Wu Guoqiang, laughing, said, "Little sister-in-law, you’re being too modest. If this is what you call ’not much to offer’, how can we ever invite people over again? This is even better than what we have for New Year’s."
"Haha, Brother Wu, you’re too polite. This time we just got a few pounds of meat that Hongjun bought, the rest are all our own produce. Nobody else would fuss over them, only you guys don’t mind."
"We don’t mind at all, at all. Sister-in-law, I don’t mind one bit. From now on, if I could eat like this every day, I’d be satisfied."
"That’s easy enough. You just come over more often, and sister-in-law will cook for you," Shen Yunfang said generously.
"Ah, it’s nice to have another sister-in-law," everyone laughed heartily.
Li Hongjun, too, didn’t keep his usual poker face, but instead, with a smile on his lips, watched everyone bantering and when it seemed about right, he instructed his wife, "Go to the other room to eat, keep the sisters company and take good care of the kids, yeah?"
"Sure, don’t worry," Shen Yunfang greeted everyone again and then left the west room heading back to the east room.
