Chapter 5

“Who is it, trying to smash the place?”

Ge Yuan turned and roared toward the outside. Not only did the banging not stop, it grew even more urgent.

His face darkened as he stood up, opened the door, and prepared to see whose grandson it was. Instead, standing outside was a little girl only five or six years old, clutching a small tin bucket and looking up at him with an angry pout.

Ge Yuan’s expression softened. “Little sister, you’re back.”

He reached out to ruffle the little girl’s hair, but she nimbly dodged his hand, charged straight up to Ye Wanqing, gave her a “hmph,” and then unfriendly carried her tin bucket into the room.

Ye Wanqing: “……”

Ge Yuan did not understand what was wrong with his little sister and stiffly explained to Ye Wanqing, “She has that strange temperament. Don’t lower yourself to argue with a child…… Sorry, really sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Ye Wanqing smiled and shook her head.

In her previous life, after marrying Ge Yuan she had also dealt with Ge Yue. At that time Ge Yue rarely spoke and was indifferent to everything around her, completely immersed in her own world of art. Few people could get close to her heart.

At first Ye Wanqing had also thought Ge Yue was hard to get along with. But once she saw Ge Yue crying while carefully carrying a stray cat home from the roadside to care for it, and later discovered she had secretly sponsored quite a few orphaned children, she realized the girl was actually soft-hearted.

Ge Yue was only six now. Of course Ye Wanqing would not hold anything against her.

Ge Yuan had already gotten the coal fire going. Ye Wanqing used the large iron pot to roast the sesame seeds, peanuts, and beans until fragrant, mixed them, and packed them into the large jars she had bought. The jars could not hold everything, so she borrowed a big plastic bottle from Ge Yuan, filled it, and left it stored at his place.

Seeing that Ge Yuan’s household had quite a few eggs, another idea sprouted in her mind.

“Ge Yuan, can I buy some of your eggs?”

“If you want them, just take them.”

“That won’t do.” Ye Wanqing smiled. “Besides the eggs, I also have to pay you for using this coal stove and the coal. Otherwise I won’t feel at ease using them.”

Ge Yuan’s soaring mood instantly dropped. For some reason he felt a bit unhappy, but he still nodded. “Fine, just give whatever you think is right.”

If he refused, he felt she would no longer use his things.

This little girl looked soft and easygoing, but she was actually stubborn—he knew that.

With Ge Yuan’s agreement, Ye Wanqing began mixing the spices.

She planned to add one more simple yet delicious item to her small stall: tea eggs!

First she washed thirty eggs one by one, boiled them until cooked, took them out and rinsed them in cold water. Once they were cool enough to handle, she cracked each egg without breaking the shell completely and placed them in an aluminum basin nearby.

This aluminum basin could hold about fifty eggs at a time. She had bargained for it while making up the bill at the market. At the time she had not decided what to use it for, yet it had come in handy so quickly.

After preparing the eggs, Ye Wanqing put the mixed tea leaves, star anise, cinnamon bark, dried chilies, and ginger into a small bag made of fine gauze, placed it into the aluminum basin, added water, and boiled everything together.

Once the water came to a boil, she added some soy sauce and sugar.

The pure white eggs tumbled in the sauce-colored water. Waves of fragrant aroma drifted out. Ge Yuan could not help swallowing as he watched, and his stomach uncooperatively growled.

But the tea eggs had not yet absorbed the flavor. They needed to simmer on low heat for half an hour and then steep in the brine overnight for the best taste.

Ye Wanqing looked at the sky. She did not want to go home for dinner and face Ye Xiangdang and Liu Lizhen’s expressions, so she simply asked, “Do you have any ingredients at home? Can I show off my cooking skills and freeload a meal at your place today?”

“Isn’t it bad for you to go back too late?”

Even as he said that, Ge Yuan honestly brought over a piece of cured meat, a handful of garlic, and two stalks of lettuce. He also lifted the wooden lid of the large water vat in the kitchen, revealing two crucian carp swimming inside with their tails waving.

Ge Yuan: “Want tofu? I’ll go buy some!”

Ye Wanqing: “……”

He had clearly already matched the dishes, yet he still said it would be bad to go back late?

While mentally complaining, Ye Wanqing’s hands moved very efficiently.

She did not let Ge Yuan go out to buy tofu. Instead she had him clean the crucian carp. After washing them thoroughly and draining the water, she fried them in oil until both sides of the skin were golden, then added water. Once it boiled she turned the heat to low and slowly simmered them into a soup.

While the soup simmered she sliced the cured meat thinly, peeled the lettuce stems and cut them into fine shreds, arranging them on a plate like a pile of beautiful jade.

She put oil in the wok, added garlic cloves and large red chilies to release their fragrance for a few seconds, then quickly poured in the cured meat and stir-fried. Once the fatty parts of the meat turned translucent and most of the oil had been rendered out,

she added the lettuce shreds and stir-fried until just cooked through, threw in the garlic leaves, added soy sauce and salt, and stir-fried for a moment longer before taking it off the heat.

After she finished this dish, Ge Yuan brought over the washed and pinched lettuce leaves. Ye Wanqing smiled and glanced at the slightly uncomfortable man, took the plate, and quickly stir-fried a plate of plain lettuce leaves in some animal fat.

By then the crucian carp soup had simmered until it was milky white. She added a little white pepper and salt to season it, and dinner was ready.

Ye Wanqing worked efficiently; the entire meal took only about half an hour from start to finish.

Unfortunately, such delicious food could not move the stubborn little girl.

Ge Yuan knocked on the door for a long time, but his little sister still would not come out. He could only give up helplessly. “The food our mom made was also this delicious. It’s a pity you’ve never eaten a single meal of it……”

He turned to leave, but the door behind him suddenly opened.

The little girl with a stern face hugged her small water bucket and followed behind him with a serious expression. Her big eyes clearly wrote, “How could it possibly be as good as Mom’s cooking? You’re definitely biased. I’m going to expose you.”

Ge Yuan: “……You’re going to surrender soon. It’s really too fragrant!”

The little girl “hmph-ed.”

After the meal the little girl still did not give Ye Wanqing any good face. But the moment she jumped down from the stool, Ye Wanqing looked at Ge Yuan. “She ate two big bowls of rice and one bowl of soup. Children’s stomachs are weak. Later you should remember to walk her around a few more times so she doesn’t get indigestion.”

Ge Yuan could not lift his head from embarrassment.

She treated the person so badly yet ate even more than them—did she have no shame? Later he definitely had to lecture that damn girl. She was even more shameless than him!

After the meal Ge Yuan insisted on walking Ye Wanqing home. She did not refuse.

It was better for a young woman to be careful when walking at night. Besides, she also wanted to spend more time with Ge Yuan and, once they were more familiar, make some plans for the future together.

She could not take the tea eggs and stall supplies home tonight, so she asked Ge Yuan to deliver them to the bus station for her early the next morning. That way they could meet again tomorrow.

However, plans could not keep up with changes.

Ye Wanqing had thought the two of them would stroll through the thin night, talking about the past and then the future. She never expected Ge Yuan to stay a hundred thousand miles away from her, wishing he could disappear into the air.

She told him to come a little closer. After a long silence he only said one sentence: My reputation is bad. Don’t let it affect you.

Ye Wanqing felt both angry and heartbroken.

In her previous life Ge Yuan had been strong and confident, never showing any vulnerability in front of others. At every moment he looked like a calm, shrewd, and deep black-bellied business tycoon, as if no storm, no matter how great, could destroy him.

Looking at the young him now—lost and slightly self-abased—she could not help softening even more.

Yet when she thought that if he had not been so forceful, never revealing his feelings for her, and even deliberately staying far away out of fear that she would reject him, causing her to misunderstand that he only felt guilt toward her, the two of them would not have spent several years of marriage in cold distance, she became angry again.

Carrying a belly full of complicated emotions, Ye Wanqing walked without realizing it to the entrance of the bus station.

She subconsciously turned her head. The tall figure behind her had indeed vanished without a trace. She was instantly angry enough to laugh.

This bastard—well done!

When Ye Wanqing returned home, what faced her was a tightly closed door.

There was no imagined violent storm—only endless coldness and rejection.

This was not the first time Ye Wanqing had experienced it, but ever since marrying Ge Yuan she had rarely suffered such cold treatment at the Ye family and had almost forgotten these unpleasant memories. In the moment she still froze for a second.

If it had been the previous her, she would most likely have curled up at the doorway for the night, or gone to sleep in the waiting hall of the bus station. But now she walked straight downstairs and knocked on Grandma Chen’s door.

“Wanqing, is something the matter?”

“Grandma, may I stay at your place for one night?” Ye Wanqing smiled apologetically and pressed her lips together. “I don’t have a key, and they won’t open the door for me at home. I…… have nowhere to go.”

“All right, all right, come in.”

Grandma Chen only had one son. Her son and daughter-in-law worked in another place, and currently only a ten-year-old grandson lived with her. Their home was also a three-bedroom, two-living-room place like the Ye family’s, so putting Ye Wanqing up for the night was no problem.

Although she was a bit gossipy, her temperament was soft and warm-hearted.

Ye Wanqing washed up simply and chatted with Grandma Chen before bed.

When she heard that Ye Wanqing had been bullied by little hooligans outside, could not take over the job, and had been locked out because she refused her parents’ demand to marry into Niujiao Town, Grandma Chen was extremely angry.

She pulled Ye Wanqing over to comfort her for a while, then went to make her a cup of her grandson’s milk and coaxed her to sleep. “Sleep well. Don’t you still have to set up the stall tomorrow?”

“Thank you, Grandma.”

Ye Wanqing felt warm inside, and also a little guilty.

In her previous life her temperament had been stubborn and strong-willed. Although she treated people kindly, she rarely took the initiative to get close to anyone. She disliked owing people, disliked showing weakness, and would never open her own wounds to ask for help. When Ye Xiangdang and Liu Lizhen had thrown dirty water on her back then, not many people had stood on her side to speak for her.

She had once felt the ways of the world were cold. But now, when she took a small step forward with some calculation, what she received was full of goodwill.

She silently said “I’m sorry” in her heart.

She had been too narrow-minded.

The quilt at Grandma Chen’s house was soft and warm. Ye Wanqing slept soundly and woke up in good spirits.

She woke a little after five in the morning, washed up quietly, left a note for Grandma Chen, and went out.

When she arrived at the waiting hall it was only six o’clock. She thought she was early enough, yet from a distance she already saw Ge Yuan standing in front of the waiting hall with one hand in his pocket, smoking and guarding her things, looking thoroughly bored.

The moment he saw her coming he instantly perked up, crushed out the cigarette butt, and ran off at high speed.

Ye Wanqing was so angry she shouted, “Stop right there!”

Ge Yuan did not listen. Seeing that he was about to run more than a hundred meters away, Ye Wanqing shouted again, “There are so many things—I can’t carry them alone!”

This time someone slammed on the brakes and stopped in his tracks.