Chef Hua
Chapter 392: Episode 218 Sorrow and Joy_2

Chapter 392: Episode 218 Sorrow and Joy_2

"Shush!" Hua Xiaomai pressed her finger to her lips and glared at him fiercely before pulling him further away, "Didn’t I tell you to keep quiet? I’ll just give you two more fares later, so why make a fuss?" After speaking, she hopped back onto the cart and urged him to leave.

Meng Yuhuai walked to the side of the cart, shook his head, and said helplessly, "This isn’t quite appropriate. A lone man and a lone woman, what will people think?"

"What’s inappropriate about it, you old fossil?" Hua Xiaomai pursed her lips. "Before we were married, we were alone together many times. Why didn’t I see you making a fuss then? Yun’er is shy and blushes at a word, and Scholar Wen is so old-fashioned, expecting him to do anything untoward? Bursting in now would only make everyone uncomfortable. Why bother?"

Her words blocked any retort from Meng, and he had no choice but to apologize to the coachman with a smile, turn the cart around, and head back to the southern side of the village.

The couple had disappeared for several days. Without thinking, one would know that Meng’s mother was definitely fuming, only temporarily unable to vent her anger. Once they returned home, the daughter-in-law, not related by blood, would inevitably become her target, facing the unrelenting onslaught of her verbal attacks.

Considering this, Hua Xiaomai had mentally prepared herself thoroughly in advance. Before entering the door, she took a moment to mutter to Meng Yuhuai, and then they both entered the courtyard nervously. Sure enough, just as they stepped through the gate, Meng’s mother, like an arrow, charged toward them with a cold face, ready to scold.

"Mother, Xiaomai picked out many things for you, especially the fabric that you can’t find in Fuzhe County. She chose each piece herself. Come and have a look?"

Meng Yuhuai quickly stepped forward, positioning himself in front of Hua Xiaomai while signaling her with a glance. The little daughter-in-law, holding various dried seafood goods, swiftly darted into the kitchen.

Meng’s mother truly got distracted, following Meng Yuhuai to the courtyard, examining the items unloaded from the cart in detail. She inevitably found fault with a few things, but her hands didn’t hesitate, dragging her belongings back to her room.

Hua Xiaomai hid in the kitchen and took a long breath. She selected some easy-to-rehydrate seafood and retrieved some broth she had previously made from the cupboard, busily working at the stove.

Rehydrating and cooking the seafood took time, so dinner was served later than usual that day. Meng’s mother had tasted a few pastries her son and daughter-in-law brought back from Provincial City and wasn’t really hungry, but she was still upset. After forcing herself to wait in the living room for a stick of incense to burn, she became restless and eventually tiptoed to the kitchen, shouting loudly.

"Are you trying to starve me? Tell me, what good does Yuhuai marrying you do? You said you went with him to deliver something important, and I believed you, but once you delivered it, why didn’t you come straight back? Instead, you linger there? Good grief, you were gone for four or five days, making me eat the same food as those workers in the Sauce Garden every day. How could you do such a thing?!"

She arrived just as Hua Xiaomai was taking a clay pot off the stove and presenting it to her with a smile, "Mother, the food is ready. Do you like what you see?"

In the clay pot was a variety of seafood stewed in broth, including dried scallops, shrimp, and added burdock, cabbage, and shiitake mushrooms. The steam billowed up forming a big pot of soup that continued to bubble even off the heat, wrapping up the strong aroma and piercing straight into the nostrils.

"It’s a pity it’s summer; frozen tofu is hard to buy, otherwise adding some would make it taste even better," Hua Xiaomai observed her mother-in-law’s expression, her lips curling up slightly.

Meng’s mother was once again successfully distracted, gazing at the broth for a long moment before muttering, "What is this stuff? The taste is actually quite..."

"It’s just a pot of various seafoods stewed together, you could even call it a seafood hotpot. This piping hot soup might make you sweat if eaten now, but if you take a bath before bed, you’ll feel more comfortable... I just don’t know if you’ll like these things from the sea, if you..."

"Bring it to the table, bring it to the table," Meng’s mother didn’t have the patience to listen to her speak. She fixated on the clay pot and urged repeatedly, hurrying into the main room.