Chapter 12
"Sister, it seems they're looking for you!..."
Wen Yu had no idea what the two had discussed inside the house. When Xiao Huiniang went to the kitchen to light the fire, Wen Yu felt awkward standing alone in the courtyard and followed to help.
This wasn't her first time entering this kitchen, but earlier she had only searched for flint near the stove without touching anything else.
Now that Xiao Huiniang had already started the fire, Wen Yu glanced at the cutting board holding various bowls, utensils, and cookware, then looked at the stove with its two pots, realizing she had no idea where to begin.
Though she had been in kitchens before, in the prince's mansion there were specialized maid servants tending the stove fire, with all ingredients prepared by servants. Even during cooking, there were head chefs instructing when to add which ingredients, what seasonings to use and in what quantities, and when to adjust the flame intensity.
She only needed to stir the pre-prepared ingredients and measured seasonings into the pot when instructed, while the fire-tending maids controlled the heat.
Plating and serving were entirely handled by servants, yet among aristocratic families, this still counted as "personally cooking."
If asked to prepare a dish alone now, Wen Yu could recall the steps for commonly made dishes, but the Xiao family kitchen clearly lacked the ingredients for any recipe in her mind.
She had to ask Xiao Huiniang: "Auntie, what are we having for lunch?"
Xiao Huiniang added firewood to the stove, her face glowing red from the flames, and replied: "We'll make a pot of pig slaughter soup and stir-fry some tender meat with shredded bamboo shoots."
Wen Yu paused slightly at hearing "pig slaughter soup" - until today, she had never heard of this dish%e2%80%94let alone knew how to prepare it.
Fortunately, Xiao Huiniang didn't expect her to cook. After adding the wood, she stood up from behind the stove and skillfully picked up an iron spatula and a brush made of thin bamboo sticks, scrubbing the blackened iron pot with evident pride in demonstrating her skills to the younger generation. She told Wen Yu: "A Yu, go outside and bring in the pork liver and kidneys."
Finally given a task, Wen Yu felt relieved and went outside, only to find the two who had been hanging meat indoors now in the courtyard - one squatting while scrubbing something, the other standing half-bent, slowly pouring water from a gourd ladle.
Seeing her emerge, Hou Xiao'an grinned, showing his canine teeth: "What are you looking for, sister?"
Wen Yu said: "Where are the pork liver and kidneys?"
Hou Xiao'an tilted his chin toward her back: "They're hanging on the wall behind you."
Turning around, Wen Yu saw the string of organs dangling from a wall nail, still dripping blood. Despite mental preparation, her face paled almost imperceptibly.
In over ten years of life, the only complete animal part she'd ever seen was the pig's head used for festival sacrifices.
But those were always viewed from a distance - never like now, where she had to personally handle these... bleeding animal organs.
Somewhat resembling human anatomy, even having seen corpses during her escape, Wen Yu had never witnessed live disembowelment. Staring at the bloody mass, she felt rising discomfort.But she forced herself to endure it, maintaining as calm an expression as possible while standing on tiptoe to reach for it, though her face appeared somewhat pale.
Xiao Li happened to glance up and see this, frowning slightly as he said, "The blood on that liver hasn't been washed yet. Take this string of intestines inside first."
Then he turned to Hou Xiao'an nearby and said, "Go fetch it for washing."
Hou Xiao'an obediently called out to Wen Yu, "Sister, just leave it. I'll get it."
As he spoke, he had already returned the gourd ladle to the water vat and was walking toward the wall with a smile, his little canine teeth showing.
After Xiao Li spoke, Wen Yu didn't stop but instead stood on tiptoe and yanked down the palm leaf string holding the clump of offal. Clutching the blood-stained string tightly with her pale hand, she handed it to the approaching Hou Xiao'an, forcing a smile as she said, "Thank you for your trouble, little brother."
After speaking, she turned and went to the water vat to scoop water and wash the blood from her hands.
Xiao Li kept watching her, and Hou Xiao'an was also momentarily stunned by Wen Yu's sudden action.
By the time Wen Yu finished washing her hands and straightened up, her expression showed no trace of emotion when her eyes met Xiao Li's. She simply took the cleaned string of pig intestines from his hand and said, "Then I'll take this inside first."
Only after Wen Yu's figure disappeared through the kitchen doorway did Hou Xiao'an shuffle over to Xiao Li's side with the string of pig offal, asking him, "Did you see that?"
He gestured, scratching his head and ears, at a loss for words: "The way she looked just now—it was clear she'd faint if she had to look at this offal for one more second. But when you told me to take it, she just had to grab it down herself anyway."
Recalling what he had just witnessed, Hou Xiao'an muttered in puzzlement, "Why does she have to be so stubborn?"
Then he added with great curiosity, "I really wonder what kind of family raised a girl like that."
Xiao Li remained silent. It was only when he took the offal from Hou Xiao'an and began carefully washing it that he said in an extremely low voice, "...Just dead stubborn."
—
In the kitchen, Wen Yu sat hugging her knees on the low stool behind the stove, her chin resting on her arm as she gazed half-lidded at the fire in the stove opening.
It wasn't that she didn't know what was good for her—she naturally understood that the rogue had sent the boy over probably because he noticed she was somewhat disgusted by the bloody offal.
But nominally, she was still a maidservant that Chen Lai Zi had pawned to the Xiao family. Since Xiao Huiniang and her son did all kinds of dirty and heavy work themselves, if she were to avoid getting dirty or tired and couldn't do anything properly, it would make her seem like a mistress instead.
Although Xiao Huiniang treated her extremely well, she couldn't overstep her bounds.
Wen Yu was lost in her thoughts when she suddenly heard Xiao Huiniang, who was busy working in front of the stove, say, "A Yu, keep an eye on the fire in the stove. I'm going outside to pick some greens."
"Some of the firewood isn't completely dry yet. Just use the dry wood to burn."
Wen Yu snapped out of her thoughts and responded with an agreement. After Xiao Huiniang went out, she noticed the fire in the stove opening seemed to be getting smaller, so she took some firewood from nearby and stuffed it into the stove opening.
However, this firewood was likely the semi-dry kind Xiao Huiniang had mentioned. Not only did it fail to catch fire after being put in, but the thick smoke and moisture even dampened the flames of the originally burning dry wood.
Worried that there wouldn't be enough dry wood and the fire would go out, Wen Yu hurriedly picked out some dry wood more carefully and stuffed it all into the stove opening.But the stove fire did not grow stronger as she had hoped; instead, it grew smaller and smaller, nearly extinguishing. Wen Yu hurriedly pulled out the half-dry firewood emitting thick smoke.
The dense smoke made it impossible for her to keep her eyes open, and her tear glands uncontrollably secreted fluid. Squinting with difficulty toward the stove opening, she saw that the fire had gone out, leaving only a layer of crimson embers still glowing on the wood.
Wen Yu wanted to find the bellows handle to blow air into the stove, but after looking around, she couldn’t find such a device behind the stove.
She had no choice but to lean in and blow, trying to revive the embers. This not only stung her eyes with the thick smoke but also scorched her face from the heat near the stove door.
Wen Yu turned away, coughing uncontrollably. She knew she looked disheveled, but Xiao Huiniang had just stepped out and asked her to keep an eye on the fire. If it went out so quickly, she would have to call Xiao Huiniang back to clean up the mess. The mere thought made Wen Yu’s face burn with embarrassment.
After her eyes recovered from the stinging smoke, she leaned toward the stove door again, attempting to blow into it, but someone gently nudged her head aside.
Wen Yu turned her head, her tear-filled eyes reddened by the smoke, and saw Xiao Li standing beside her. She had no idea when he had entered the kitchen.
Looking at her smoke-blackened face and wide, misty eyes staring back at him, Xiao Li was inexplicably reminded of a white cat his family had once kept. That cat loved to curl up inside the stove to sleep during winter, and every time he lit the fire, he had to reach in and pull the cat out.
Covered in soot, the cat would be lifted by the scruff of its neck, dangling in midair, its round eyes looking at him with a mix of wariness and confusion—just like the expression Wen Yu wore now.
"I… I’ll get the fire going soon," Wen Yu said, reaching for some kindling grass to add to the stove.
Xiao Li bent down, took the grass from her hand, and lightly patted her shoulder, signaling her to move aside.
But the space behind the stove was already cramped, so Wen Yu could only shift inward slightly.
Xiao Li crouched down, removed most of the firewood Wen Yu had stuffed into the stove, and used a pair of tongs to clear the ashes from the center. "You can’t build a fire like this," he explained. "There needs to be space underneath the wood for the fire to breathe. If you pack it all tightly, how can it not go out?"
As he spoke, he turned to look at her. The firelight illuminated the contours of his profile and his long, dark eyelashes. The predatory intensity in his gaze had softened, but his eyes remained as dark and penetrating as ever, making it hard to meet them directly.
Wen Yu was completely consumed by overwhelming shame. The morning’s struggle with the flint and now this incident laid bare the truth: she had no idea how to light a fire.
Afraid of being seen as useless, she could only respond with an awkward "Mm," her neck bent gracefully but her face strained and expressionless beneath the soot.
Xiao Li picked up a bamboo tube resting against the stove wall and said, "If you want to blow air into the stove, use this."
He demonstrated: both ends of the bamboo tube were open, with a larger opening for blowing in and a smaller one for air to exit. A single breath blown through the tube into the stove instantly revived the embers, which had been covered in white ash, turning them crimson again and even sparking. With a soft "whoosh," the fire flared back to life.
Wen Yu thought that if she had known about this tool earlier, she wouldn’t have made such a fool of herself.She stiffened her shoulders, speaking with a mix of embarrassment and feigned composure: "I understand."
Xiao Li shifted his leg to make half the path for her and said, "Go wash your face."
Only then did Wen Yu realize she might have soot smudges on her face. Her already tense shoulders and back instantly seemed coated in stone slurry. When she stepped out of the kitchen door, her entire figure resembled a terracotta statue, not even the hem of her skirt swaying.
Xiao Li glanced at her retreating figure before turning his gaze back to the stove fire. His eyes reflected the warm orange glow as he propped his cheek with one hand, seemingly smiling silently.
When Wen Yu reached the courtyard, Hou Xiao'an was picking vegetables with Xiao Huiniang in the corner vegetable patch. Hearing footsteps, he turned and spotted Wen Yu, unable to suppress a sudden "pfft" laugh.
Wen Yu's shame had nearly reached its limit. She stared stiffly in his direction, and Hou Xiao'an promptly closed his mouth with newfound discretion.
Xiao Huiniang turned at the sound, but Wen Yu had already turned her back to fetch water from the jar to wash her face. Noticing this, Xiao Huiniang couldn't help chiding: "That jar water must be freezing – how can you use it to wash your face? You'll catch a chill..."
Wen Yu mumbled vaguely: "My face feels hot after tending the fire. Cold water is just what I need."
Using the water's surface as a mirror, she washed off the soot stains before going inside to find a clean cloth to dry her face.
Just then, the courtyard gate knocked again. After Hou Xiao'an ran to open it, he called toward the room: "Sister, it seems they're looking for you!"
Author's note:
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