As for Yang Jing . . .

He looked at his hand and suddenly found out how his movements were . . . They were so similar to the actions of the Jiang family’s evil star when beating him?

Thinking of the jinx of the Jiang family, Yang Jing suddenly felt pain all over his body. Although the evil star didn’t hit him too hard these days, he still took a kick from time to time, leaving him bruised all over, so he didn’t have a piece of healthy skin left.

He was tired and hungry . . . Today at noon that evil star allowed him to eat, but only let him eat a small bite!

Yang Jing quickly walked home, ready to eat and sleep before thinking about anything else. 

The Yang family had a small yard in the county town. As Yang Jiang entered the yard, he saw his wife feeding the chicken.

There were a lot of clothes in the yard that he was familiar with, and all the things around him were neatly arranged. His elder son was not here, but the younger one, a four-year-old, was playing with a few pieces of wood in the corner. 

“Yang Jing, where have you been? How come you didn’t come home or go to the yamen in these two days?” When Yang Jing’s wife saw him, she let go of the dustpan with millet in her hand and came over, asking, “Did you gamble again? How much did you lose?”  

Yang Jing usually became most impatient when this woman unceasingly chattered at him, but those past days he had been suffering, and hearing such concern now warmed his heart.

“I’m fine,” Yang Jing said. “You go and get me something to eat! Hurry up!”

“Alright.” Yang Jing’s wife immediately went to the kitchen to cook.

“Wait a minute!” Yang Jing stopped her. “Stir-fry me a bowl of eggs with bacon!” God knows how greedy that evil star was when he ate this dish those days. . .

Fresh meat still needed to be bought, but bacon was still available in the family’s home. Yang Jing’s wife soon cut bacon into small pieces and stir-fried two eggs. She also served Yang Jing the leftover rice from lunch.

With a bowl in his hand, Yang Jing began to eat it up. Only after a few mouthfuls of rice, he felt that his whole person had come back to life. 

“Slow down, don’t eat too fast, be careful of choking, or should I get you another soup?” asked Yang Jing’s wife.

“No,” Yang Jing said. He would already have finished eating by the time the soup was ready.

Just thinking about this, Yang Jing suddenly saw his little son standing not far away, looking at the fried eggs on the table, drooling.

He was a yamen officer. He earned two silver from the yamen each month, and from time to time, he would also receive filial piety from his underlings. He would share some extra money with his colleagues, and he usually had an income of more than 10 silver each month. According to this, his son should eat meat every day, but in fact . . .

He took the silver to gamble, bought things for his lovers, and ate and drank spicy food by himself. In fact, he never brought money home.

The children of his colleagues could go to school, but his eldest son who was already seven years old was still playing, covered in mud in the alley.

“What are you looking at? Go outside and play!” Yang Jing’s wife saw her little son staring at Yang Jing’s scrambled eggs. Fearing that Yang Jiang would get angry, she slapped the child.

“What are you doing hitting the kid?” Yang Jiang trembled when he saw his wife yelling at his second son. He had already understood what had happened to the Jiang family, and it was all caused by old lady Jiang’s harsh treatment of her own son. He decided to not fall into that situation himself!

“Come, Ermao! Come to Dad! Dad will give you eggs.” Yang Jing smiled at his youngest son. 

Yang Ermao, who hadn’t gotten a proper name, lowered his head and looked at Yang Jing a little  fearfully, which made Yang Jing feel a little bad.

Yang Jing ate half of the bowl of bacon with scrambled eggs. He asked his wife to share the rest with his two children. After that, he took two silver from his pocket and gave it to his wife.

He had brought the two silver with him before he went to the Jiang family house. Jiang Zhen beat him all the time, but he never stole his money.

After Yang Jing gave her the silver, he went back to his room to sleep. After a while the smell from the kitchen woke him up.

That’s the smell of braised pork! Regardless of his sore body, Yang Jiang quickly got up from the bed and went to the kitchen, drooling. 

His wife had bought a pork rib and made a bowl of braised pork. The meat was oily and looked delicious. 

Yang Jing is the only son; his parents spoiled him from an early age, which made him develop a reckless temperament. Usually, when such a bowl of meat is put on the table, he would eat half a bowl alone, but now . . .

After giving a piece of meat to his two children, his parents, and his wife, Yang Jiang suddenly found out that there was only one piece left in the bowl . . . If he ate a few pieces like usual, someone would be left with nothing to eat. 

“I don’t like meat . . .” Yang Jing’s wife gave Yang Jing her piece of meat from her bowl.

“No, you eat it yourself!” Yang Jing refused his wife’s offer and stirred the stewed pork soup in his bowl. He ate two big bowls of rice with that one piece of meat. After eating, he was relieved to see that his two children looked a little closer to him when he met their eyes.

Yang Jing was served at home, but Jiang Zhen was alone at the moment. 

In the afternoon, when he was cooking on the stove, he cooked the pig bones and made a big pot of bone soup. As a result, when he wanted to throw some vegetables in the bone soup and cook them, and then cook a pot of rice, he suddenly found out that . . . he had no rice to cook.

The Jiang family gave him five sacks of rice grains, but it was all rice with shells, not peeled rice!

So if he wanted to eat rice, he had to pound it first . . . However, he didn’t have any tools to pound the rice with.

Forget it. Even if there were no tools, there were still other ways to deshell some rice . . .

Jiang Zhen put the rice into the bamboo tube and kept pounding it with a stick. He finally made himself a bowl of rice with a few deshelled rice grains inside.

He scooped half of the pig bone soup in the pot with a gourd ladle. Jiang Zhen poured the bowl of rice that he managed to deshell into the bone soup left in the pot, then cut the pig liver into small pieces, and threw it into the pot.

As for the rest of the meat, as well as the pig stomach, Jiang Zhen thought it would be better to eat it slowly, so he took out a can of salt brought from the Jiang family and salted it up. By the time he had salted the meat, he had almost run out of salt.

It seems that I need to go to the county town tomorrow, Jiang Zhen thought and began to put firewood in the mud stove to cook the pig liver porridge.

He needed protein and fats at the moment, but vegetables couldn’t be excluded . . . Seeing that the porridge was almost cooked, Jiang Zhen went out and stole a single lettuce from Zhao Jinge’s field . . .

There was really no other way. Who told the Jiang family not to grow vegetables in this field for him, and other people’s homes were too far away? 

However, the vegetables in the countryside were of little worth. It was actually nothing for him to take a few vegetables from others. Moreover, he planned to give Zhao Jinge half of the porridge. 

Jiang Zhen chopped the stems and leaves of the lettuce and put them into the pot. When the porridge was ready, he finally had dinner.

After eating the pig liver porridge, Jiang Zhen chewed the bones open.

Looking at Eldest Jiang’s memory, he learned that when people killed pigs or bought meat and had pig bones left behind, they would not only cook soup with the pig bones but also chop them into small pieces and cook them for a long time. Then . . . apart from the middle part of the bone that couldn’t be chewed and eaten, some bones that could be boiled soft could be chewed and eaten directly.

When others ate like this, he didn’t want to waste it. After all, his body was a little short of calcium.

It’s said that bone soup couldn’t actually supplement calcium. Would it supplement calcium, if he chewed the bones directly?

It was already dark when Jiang Zhen had enough to eat and drink. He lit a fire in his house, and while warming himself, he began pounding rice in the light of the fire, waiting for the night.

When night falls, Zhao Jinge will definitely come to find him!

Jiang Zhen happily pounded the rice for nearly two hours. Even with a bamboo tube, he deshelled enough rice to eat for several days. However, he still couldn’t wait to see Zhao Jinge.

Zhao Jinge is not coming today? Jiang Zhen frowned and threw away the bamboo tube in his hand. He decided to climb the wall.

At ten o’clock at night, it was completely dark and all the villagers were asleep. Jiang Zhen came to the Zhao family’s house and knocked on Zhao Jinge’s window.

After a while, the window opened. It was obvious that Zhao Jinge hadn’n been asleep either. Too shy to come to see me, but still waiting for me?

“Jinge, come out!” said Jiang Zhen.

“I’m going to sleep . . .” said Zhao Jinge.  

“If you don’t come out, I’ll go in.” Jiang Zhen pretended to climb into the house.

Edited by : Faro

Proofreader: Taalia

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