Chapter 9: Taking a Medicinal Bath

The cheap husband cooked for the first time, not knowing how to add firewood. During the cooking process, the flames in the stove went out two or three times.

Liu Changning had no choice but to squat at the stove herself, helping him watch the fire.

After all the busy work, when the food was ready, a full hour had passed.

A fragrance of cooked brown rice wafted from the large iron pot, drifting from afar. Liu Changning took a deep breath. Starving to the point where her chest was sticking to her back and seeing stars, even though the pot only contained brown rice, the aroma of cooked grain permeating the air was especially tempting.

She narrowed her eyes, the corners of her lips curving slightly.

Since arriving in this place two days ago, apart from a spoiled steamed bun, she had hardly eaten any cooked food.

In her three lifetimes as a human, this one was the most miserable. Her body was so hungry it was limp, with little strength left.

Pei Yuanshao turned his head to see that the farm woman’s originally lowered eyelids were now lifted, revealing a pair of moist eyes, bright and focused on the cooked brown rice in the iron pot.

He looked puzzled, wondering why she was staring at mere coarse grains and vegetables like a hungry wolf with glowing eyes.

It seems she truly is a farm woman who hasn’t seen much of the world.

Smoothing out the wrinkles in his clothes, he lowered his head and his eyes flickered. For the first time in his life, it wasn’t his body being coveted, but the food he cooked. This feeling was quite novel.

He coughed lightly and said slowly, “Let’s eat!”

After speaking, he paid her no more attention and walked out of the kitchen.

The young man had been born with a love for cleanliness. Now that his clothes were stained with oil smoke, no matter how much he patted them, the smell of oil smoke couldn’t be removed.

He turned and went back to the bedroom, changed into a new set of clothes, dawdled for half an hour, then walked into the main hall.

Stepping over the old wooden threshold, he saw that the woman had already placed the rice bowls on the eight immortals table. One hand held a chipped porcelain bowl, the other chopsticks, and she was chewing quickly like a hamster.

Although her eating speed was a bit fast, her movements with chopsticks unexpectedly revealed a hint of inexplicable elegance!

Pei Yuanshao frowned, a flash of complexity passing through his peach blossom eyes.

In the past, she would rise early and work late, while he was rarely home. He truly hadn’t expected that she would have some unusual qualities.

Though doubts lingered in his mind, his face remained impassive.

His long legs stepped into the room, and he found a wooden stool to sit on the other side of the eight immortals table.

Bowls and chopsticks were set on the table, with a large bowl full of yellowed brown rice. In the center of the table were three plates of blackened dishes.

Pei Yuanshao’s face felt a bit hot, the appearance of the food clearly indicating it wouldn’t taste good.

But the woman opposite was eating with relish. He glanced at her hesitantly and asked, “Does it taste good?”

Liu Changning looked up, swallowing the brown rice in her mouth. Her face showed no sign of disdain, just a slight nod: “It’s alright. Though it doesn’t look good, it’s edible. For your first time cooking, being able to make a table of dishes like this is quite good!”

Receiving such praise, Pei Yuanshao was stunned. His earlobes unconsciously grew warm, and a hint of joy arose in his heart.

He curled his lips, hesitantly picking up the wooden chopsticks placed beside the table and taking a bite of vegetables.

As the vegetables entered his mouth, a burnt taste filled it. The supposedly excellent dish turned out to be bland and tasteless.

He resisted the urge to spit it out and swallowed. Glancing again at the person opposite, he saw her eating the food slowly and methodically, unmoved, as if what entered her mouth was a rare delicacy!

Pei Yuanshao’s hand holding the chopsticks trembled slightly. He tasted a bite from each of the other two dishes.

The same burnt taste, either too bland or too salty, extremely unpalatable.

He endured for a moment, then set down his chopsticks on the table with a “pa” sound. The smile at the corners of his lips disappeared completely, and his voice was low, tinged with three parts embarrassed anger: “Stop eating!”

Seeing the woman before him raise her head, a pair of clear eyes looking at him, he felt somewhat embarrassed again and awkwardly added, “It tastes so bad, what if it upsets your stomach?”

Liu Changning’s lips curled slightly. She carefully examined him and found that when he wasn’t being affected, his genuinely expressed appearance actually revealed three parts childishness.

Having lived for several hundred years, this person before her was indeed still just a child.

She curved her lips and pointed at the rice in front of him, saying, “Eat. Although it doesn’t taste good, it’s cooked and can be eaten. This is your first time cooking, being able to make food like this is truly not easy. Think of it from a different perspective – we’re not eating food, we’re eating the sweat of your hard work earlier. Thinking of it this way, doesn’t it taste a bit better?”

She explained patiently. Though it was just ordinary persuasion to her, Pei Yuanshao felt his ears tingling.

He lowered his head, his hair black as satin hiding the daze on the side of his face. Without arguing, he obediently picked up the wooden chopsticks he had set aside earlier and began to chew slowly.

After the two finished lunch, they each returned to their own bedrooms.

When she woke up from a nap, her convenient husband was nowhere to be seen. Liu Changning smiled at his closed door but didn’t bother about him. After all, as long as he didn’t disturb her, what he did was none of her business.

After a simple dinner, Liu Changning dove into the woodshed, tidying up the tools she would need to go up the mountain tomorrow.

Having finished the preparations, she blew out the candle.

Liu Changning began her qi-cultivating meditation, blending with the soft moonlight.

—

At the midnight hour, a crescent moon hung high.

In the deep night, apart from insect chirps and dog barks, all around was silent.

In Xiqiao Village, on the open ground at the west end of the village.

Pei Yuanshao stood with his hands at his sides, dressed in black.

His usual red clothes were nowhere to be seen. Now his entire face was hidden in the shadows, black clothes and ink-black hair, the curve of his profile faintly visible. Though he just stood casually, his whole person exuded the pressure of one in a high position.

The woman kneeling on the ground trembled.

“Hong Zhu is dead?” Pei Yuanshao crushed the beads in his hand, and the evening breeze blew away the powder stuck to his fingertips, scattering it to the sky.

“This slave failed to protect Young Master Zhu, and is willing to accept Your Highness’s punishment!”

***

Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me (Female-dominant)

One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.

Synopsis:

Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.

But this is still far from enough.

He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.

_____

Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.

If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.