Chapter 164: Chapter 160: Another Declaration

Xu Huan nodded. Seeing that Li Jing had no intention of inviting her in, she took the hint and said, “Alright, I’ll head back now.”

“Wait!” Li Jing stepped out, pulling the door closed behind her. She took out ten yuan and gave it to her, exchanged a few more words, and then let her leave.

As she watched Xu Huan ride away on her bike, she turned and went back inside. An elegant-looking man was sitting on the living room sofa, flipping through a newspaper.

’Thinking of Xiangyang’s stubborn temper, Xu Huan doesn’t stand much of a chance with him.’ The thought came to Li Jing, but then she considered him marrying a widow. ’If the Lin family finds out, who knows how they’ll laugh at me.’ A wave of frustration washed over her.

****

As Li Xiangyang neared his front door, he saw Old Li standing there, gazing down the alley. He smiled. “Old man, are you waiting for me?”

“Why would I wait for you? You’re not three years old!” Old Li waited for him to get closer, then sighed. “Your sister brought a girl over to see me today. I think she’s a good one, better than the others you’ve met before.”

Li Xiangyang’s expression immediately darkened. He pushed his bicycle into the courtyard, parked it, and turned to look at Old Li. “Dad, let me make myself clear one more time: I already have a girlfriend. Whether you approve or not, the only person I will marry is Lin Lan.”

’Any woman who hangs around Li Jing is trouble,’ he thought. ’Even if Lin Lan rejects me, I would never marry someone my sister introduced.’

Seeing how serious he was, Old Li knew there was no point in saying more. He glared, his mustache bristling. “Marry whoever you want! What the hell does it have to do with me!” With that, he stormed into his room, slamming the door shut with a BANG.

Li Xiangyang glanced at the closed door, shook his head, and carried his money pouch into his room to put it away. Then he came out and went to the kitchen.

Old Li sulked in his room for a while. When he came out and saw his son cooking in the kitchen, he walked to the doorway and asked, “You really won’t regret this?”

Li Xiangyang stood up, walked to the doorway to face him, and said with great solemnity, “Dad, I’m a man in my late twenties, not some hot-headed seventeen or eighteen-year-old kid who acts on impulse. I’ve thought about this for a long time. I know exactly what I’m doing.”

Old Li looked at him for a moment, then walked over to the stove and sat down. He lowered his head and thought for a while. “Let me think about it for a few days.”

’I know my son’s personality,’ he thought. ’But I just can’t bring myself to agree to him marrying a widow with a child right away. I’m just not ready to accept it. I’ll drag this out a few more days and see if that girl, Xu Huan, can change his mind.’

****

After seeing Li Xiangyang off, Lin Lan went to the backyard. She found Little Douzi squatting in front of a broody hen, the two of them staring at each other. “Son, what are you doing here?”

Little Douzi pointed at the hen in the coop. “Great-grandma said that when they guard the nest and don’t leave, it means they’re going to hatch chicks.”

Lin Lan noticed the hen looked tense. “Are there any eggs in the nest?”

Little Douzi looked up at her. “There are two.”

Lin Lan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Did you put them there?”

“Yeah! I just put two under its belly to see if it would work.” Little Douzi stood up and tugged on Lin Lan’s hand. “Mama, will it hatch chicks?”

Lin Lan wasn’t sure how to explain fertilized eggs to him. After a moment’s thought, she said, “Mama heard from Grandma that the eggs for hatching chicks are different from regular ones. You have to pick special hatching eggs, the ones with a little black dot inside, for the mother hen to sit on. Only then can they hatch.”

Little Douzi’s eyes widened. “Oh, really? Then I’ll take them out so you can see if they have a little black dot!”

“Son, let’s forget about it for this year. It’s getting cold, and it’s hard to keep newborn chicks alive. We can ask Auntie to stick a feather in its nose, and it’ll stop being broody.”

Little Douzi looked at Lin Lan, thought for a moment, and nodded. “Okay! We’ll let it hatch chicks when it’s warmer.”

“Good boy!” Lin Lan ruffled his hair, then lifted the hen out of the coop. She found a feather and carried the chicken to the back door.

She held the chicken by the neck while Lin Yuezhen inserted the feather horizontally through its nostrils. The two of them then released the hen back into the bamboo grove and watched it flutter away.

Before they had eaten, Wang Zhixue arrived carrying a fish basket. He grinned at Little Douzi and said, “Come look! Your big cousin caught a ton of loaches!”

“Let me see!” Little Douzi peered into the basket and saw it was half-full of loaches. “Wow, that’s a lot! Where did you catch them, Cousin?”

Wang Zhixue smiled. “Someone else caught them. I bought a whole basket for three yuan and brought half over for you to fry up and eat.”

Lin Lan took a look. They were all as thick as an adult’s thumb. “You must have picked out all the big ones for us! It’s not easy to find loaches this big and uniform.”

Wang Zhixue scratched his head. “They’re easy to find. The winter paddy fields are full of them.” He poured the loaches into a bucket. “Auntie, they’re all cleaned already. You just need to wash them and they’ll be ready to cook.”

“Great, thank you, Zhixue.” Lin Lan said, and the matter with Yang Lirong came to mind. “Has your mom already given the tofu stall to Auntie?”

Wang Zhixue nodded. “Yeah. We’re building a furnace at home to make dried tofu, and we’ll start roasting it tomorrow. Auntie came over to my house this afternoon and asked where we get our beans from. My mom didn’t tell her the truth, just said she had someone buy them for her.”

He recalled his mom saying that his aunt was too calculating. If they let her ask their grandfather-in-law to help buy beans too, over time, even the closest relatives could become enemies.

Lin Lan thought about it and understood Yang Liqun’s concerns. She said, “I get it. You should have a word with my younger aunt, just so she doesn’t let it slip.”

“Okay!” Wang Zhixue agreed, then picked up his fish basket and left.

Little Douzi looked at the loaches in the bucket. “Mama, are we going to fry them and eat them now?”

“Sure! Go to Great-grandma’s house and bring Dandan and Great-grandma over. We’ll fry half and braise the other half.”

“Okay! I’ll go right now.” Before the words were even out of his mouth, Little Douzi was running out the door, with Wangcai trailing behind him.

Lin Lan rinsed the loaches once, then she and Lin Yuezhen cut off their heads. They cleaned them thoroughly inside and out, then blanched them with hot water.

They divided the loaches into two portions. One portion was mixed with scallions, ginger, pepper, and salt to marinate.

Lin Yuezhen took some pickled ginger, pickled peppers, and pickled carrots from the pickle jar and chopped them up.

The loaches for the braised dish were lightly fried and then removed to a plate. Leaving some oil in the wok, they stir-fried the pickled ginger, pickled carrots, garlic cloves, and pickled peppers over low heat until fragrant. They added broad bean paste, cooking it until the oil turned red, then added water and brought it to a boil. After returning the loaches to the wok to cook for a short while, they added sugar and a splash of white wine to let it simmer.

Once cooked, the loaches were first removed and arranged on a serving plate.

They brought the remaining sauce to a roaring boil, drizzled in sesame oil and Sichuan peppercorn oil, and thickened it slightly with a cornstarch slurry. After tossing in some cilantro and scallion leaves, they quickly stir-fried them before scooping the sauce up and pouring it over the loaches.

“It smells so good! I smell fish with broad bean paste!” Dandan and Little Douzi ran in.

Lin Lan turned around and beamed at the two of them. “Auntie made the loaches, and she did it yuxiang style! Where’s Great-grandma?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep