Chef Hua
Chapter 56 - 48 Cultured People

Chapter 56: Chapter 48 Cultured People

The newcomer was a young man in his twenties, clad in a pale azure floral padded robe with his black hair neatly tied atop his head. From a distance, he appeared quite tidy and scholarly, but upon closer inspection, Hua Xiaomai noticed that his robe looked years worn, with loose and frayed cuffs and collar, and the man himself was overly thin, giving off an air of slight destitution.

It was still cold after the early spring rain, yet the young man toted a folding fan in hand and emerged from the woods with an airy grace. Startled upon seeing Hua Xiaomai and Guan Rong, he paused briefly before respectfully bowing and saying in a clear voice, "I didn’t realize there were ladies here. I apologize for the disturbance."

Guan Rong greeted him with a smile: "Brother Wen, are you also out for a stroll in the woods?"

Hmm? Hua Xiaomai quickly turned her head and nudged her companion with an elbow, whispering, "Rongjie, do you know him?"

"He’s from our village, haven’t you seen him before?" Guan Rong pursed her lips and lowered her voice as well, leaning in to whisper to Hua Xiaomai, "His name is Wen Huaren, and everyone in the village calls him Scholar Wen. My father told me that he passed the imperial examinations at fourteen. At that time, everyone in the village said he was the incarnation of the God of Literature and would surely be the most successful out of Fire Knife Village. But since then, he’s failed the provincial exams twice and with his parents having passed away early, he’s all alone now. Life... well, it’s not going well."

So, he’s an educated man? Hua Xiaomai looked back at the man, nodded politely and smiled, then plucked a few more peach leaves from the branch, saying to Guan Rong, "Luckily you’re here to help me today. In just a short while, we’ve gathered a whole basket of peach leaves. After the rain, the woods will produce lots of wild mushrooms—perfect for making buns. Let’s pick some. After I check on the bamboo shoots oil at your place, I might still have time to cook dinner, and it’d save my second sister the trouble."

Guan Rong nodded in agreement with a smile, adding a handful of peach leaves to the basket and pressing them down firmly.

To their surprise, Wen Huaren immediately hopped over upon seeing this. He looked down into the basket on the ground and started beating his chest and stamping his feet.

"How could you, how could you pluck all these fresh, tender peach leaves? Ah, ah!" He stamped his foot forcefully and tapped the fan in his palm twice, "Spring is the time of growth, and these new leaves that have braved the cold to sprout from the branches should be allowed to grow freely for true elegance. By doing this, aren’t you spoiling nature? Ignorant, ignorant!"

Hua Xiaomai raised an eyebrow and couldn’t help shooting him a sidelong glance.

Well, alright, she’s a simpleton who doesn’t understand elegance and only cares about filling her belly—how can she compare to this "cultured man"? Look at how emaciated he is; he’s probably been living off the wind these years, right?

She didn’t respond but just packed all the peach leaves in the basket, placing a stone on top to keep them from blowing away, and then moved under the tree to uproot a clump of succulent wild mushrooms, tossing them into the basket as well.

"Brother Wen, Xiaomei sister is picking peach leaves to make sauce, and her cooking skills are excellent," Guan Rong said, still smiling as a way of explanation and to defuse the situation.

"Oh, this young lady knows how to cook?" Wen Huaren immediately perked up with interest and hurried over to Hua Xiaomai’s side, "I heard you mention wild mushroom buns earlier; they must be quite delicious, right?"

"They’re okay," Hua Xiaomai replied perfunctorily without looking up, then walked to another tree.

Perhaps feeling a bit slighted, Wen Huaren touched his nose and glanced around before suddenly opening his fan and giving a sigh, "Ah, the empty mountains after the fresh rain...

"Hmph." Hua Xiaomai let out a cold snort through her nose and almost involuntarily added, "The bamboo shoots hang over the southeast branches!"

Wen Huaren paused, taken aback, and then seemed a little flustered as he strode over, "No, no, that line is... Ahh, ahh, ahh!"

Before he could finish, he suddenly stepped on a patch of wet mud, slicking far away with a swish, swish, and sliding down the hillside, until he disappeared from sight, leaving only his off-pitch cries echoing through the woods.

"Ah?"

Hua Xiaomai and Guan Rong were completely dumbfounded, their eyes transfixed on the unbelievable scene before them. After a moment of stunned silence, they suddenly burst into laughter.

"Do you think... he’ll be alright?" Guan Rong, holding her stomach, laughed as she asked in fits and starts.

"How should I know?" Hua Xiaomai, unable to straighten up from laughing, said, "We need to be careful when we go down the mountain later; a fall is no joke!"

...

The two wandered in the forest for over an hour. Having picked a basketful of peach leaves and a trove of wild mushrooms, they began their descent.

Hua Xiaomai didn’t hurry back to Jing Family’s courtyard; she followed Guan Rong to her home first. Lifting the lid of the jar that held bamboo shoot oil, she indeed saw the liquid inside was murky with a faint rancid smell.

It appeared her guess was correct; dirty water and dust had mixed into this jar of bamboo shoot oil. She scooped out the dark-yellow sludge at the bottom, then heated the oil in a pot to evaporate the remaining moisture. Finally, she threw in a piece of ginger the size of a thumbtip into the jar.

"Don’t leave this bamboo shoot oil in a place where sunlight can reach it; the cooler and shadier, the better," she advised Guan Rong’s mother, then shouldered the basket and jogged back to the west side of the village.

Fortunately, Jing Taihe hadn’t returned from the blacksmith’s shop yet, so it seemed that tonight there was no need to endure the devilish cooking of Second Aunt Hua. Hua Xiaomai sighed with relief, immediately kneaded dough and cleaned the wild mushrooms. She took down two salted chicken legs from the beam overhead, chopped them along with the mushrooms for the filling, then swiftly wrapped the buns and placed them in the steamer. As for the remaining mushrooms, she planned to dry and grind them into powder to add to soups for an extra burst of flavor.

While waiting for the buns to steam, she also washed the peach leaves she had gathered and steamed them.

This ’Fairy Sauce’ involved steaming tender peach leaves, covering them to stew for seven days, then storing them in a dark place for another seven, with a bit of salt added. After the leaves completely turned to water, they could be used in cooking, offering a remarkable flavor whether mixed in salads or used in dough.

At dinner that evening, the table was graced with plump and savory wild mushroom chicken buns, causing Jing Taihe to eat with gusto, oblivious to the grease smeared around his mouth. Hua Xiaomai, preoccupied with the "good news" Second Aunt Hua had mysteriously shared before she left that morning, found herself unable to eat much. After forcing down one bun and a bowl of porridge, she put down her chopsticks and anxiously eyed her second sister.

Yet Second Aunt Hua seemed to completely ignore her, continuously serving Jing Taihe with tender affection, not sparing Hua Xiaomai a single glance. Left with no other choice, Hua Xiaomai dejectedly left the table, washed up in the bathing room, and wearily returned to her own room, locking the door.

As night deepened, Second Aunt Hua and Jing Taihe usually would have gone to bed by this time. With the lamp on the table burning low, Hua Xiaomai was not sleepy. Reflecting on the Spring Wine she was to prepare for Lianshun Escort Agency in a few days, she got up from bed, leaned against the headboard, and ran through the dishes she knew by heart, over and over.

With a "creak," the door opened, and Second Aunt Hua poked her head inside, her voice sweet as honey: "Little sister, you’re not asleep yet?"

*******

A bit later for the second watch~