Chapter 61 - Awake (1/2)

In the eyes of outsiders, ever since Yu Hai got injured, there seemed to be a lot of ups and downs with his situation. Over the past few days, he had been suffering from a low fever. At times, his fever would be so high that the heat would scald the hand. Except for the people of the second branch, the rest of the Yu Family all felt that he wouldn’t be able to survive this hurdle! However, on the sixth day, Yu Hai finally woke up from his coma.

Within the Yu Family, Old Yu and the second branch were probably the only ones who were genuinely happy for him. Yu Caidie, who had a soft temperament and never interfered with other people’s affairs, might had also been sincerely happy for him.

“Grandfather, my father hasn’t eaten anything in five days. I’ll go make a bowl of noodles for him!” Although her father had survived on the mystic-stone water these past few days, eating food was naturally more beneficial for the recovery of his wound.

Old Yu nodded and said, “Alright, cook two fried eggs for your father, too. It’s good that he’s awake. Our ancestors have blessed and protected him… I’ll have Dashan to go to town tomorrow morning and ask Doctor Sun to come check if Dahai is out of danger now!”

Madam Zhang glared at him and wanted to say something, but she held back her words with the thought, ‘For the sake of the three hundred taels, I’ll tolerate it!’

“Okay! Thank you, Grandfather!” Yu Xiaocao loudly replied with a smile on her face. The crude grain pancake and bean paste soup that they ate for breakfast seriously wasn’t something that humans should eat! Since her grandfather had agreed, she mixed the wheat flour with two handfuls of bean flour and made a little more noodles so that her family could also eat something special.

“Mother, I want to eat a fried egg too…” The fat son of the first branch, who was so obese that his eyes were nearly squished together, shouted as he threw the pancake in hands.

Madam Li was so angry that she slapped him, “Eat, eat, eat! Aren’t you afraid of dying from overeating!”

Yu Xiaocao held the pancake that she received in her arms and swiftly finished the disgusting bean paste soup with her nose pinched. After that, she pulled Xiaolian into the kitchen.

Little Shitou copied her and quickly finished his bowl of bean paste soup, which had a burnt taste, and then exclaimed, “I’ll go help heat the pot!”

After Yu Xiaocao looked through the kitchen, she realized that there was hardly any food except for a few dried up radishes, half a bag of bean flour, and a large bag of sweet potato flour. She briefly thought about it, and then asked Xiaolian, “Do we still have any dried vegetables at home?”

Xiaolian pondered briefly and asked, “We have some sun-dried sweet potato leaves and radish leaves, will they do?”

“Let’s use the sweet potato leaves then!” Yu Xiaocao shrugged her shoulders, as if she didn’t expect much from the ingredients, “Xiaolian, let’s make the noodles with a mixture of wheat flour and bean flour!”

“Second Sister makes the tastiest foods! But, our family is usually reluctant about using wheat flour. If we use too much, Grandmother will scold us again!”

Little Shitou was extremely confident in his second sister’s culinary skills. He had also accepted Xiaocao’s story about ‘taking a tour in hell’ and promised to keep it a secret for her. While his second sister was loitering in the underworld, she had unexpectedly won the favor of the God of Fortune and was taught the skills of cooking and money-making. Was this considered a blessing in disguise?

Yu Xiaocao was very skilled in making bean noodles [1]. In her previous life, she and her siblings had experienced a long period of hardship after her parents passed away in a car accident. Thus, she had already developed the ability to make delicious meals with simple ingredients.

Yu Xiaocao smiled as she pinched Little Shitou’s nose and said, “Rest assured! It doesn’t need a lot of wheat flour. Moreover, we’ll be able to get a little benefit from this!”

As she spoke, she soaked the dried sweet potato leaves in the water in order to soften them before putting them in the pot of noodles. Afterwards, she skillfully took out less than half a ladle of bean flour, and then she took out a large bowl of wheat flour from the basket hanging on the beam. There wasn’t much wheat flour within the basket, so nearly half of it was gone after she took out this bowl of flour.

Xiaolian’s eyes widened and exclaimed in alarm, “How can we use so much flour for a bowl of noodles? If Grandmother sees this, she’ll start scolding us again…”

“Just let her! No matter how well we do, she will always find ways to pick on us. If she wants to scold us, then just let her. We can just pretend to not hear her!” Xiaocao poured some mystic-stone water into the basin and mixed it with the bean flour and wheat flour.

Yu Xiaolian looked at her younger sister skillfully kneading and rolling the dough. Her culinary skills were even better that their mother. After a while, Xiaocao had already rolled the dough into a large flattened circle, sprinkled some bean flour on it to prevent it from sticking together, and said without even lifting her head, “The noodles can’t be too thin. If the noodles are too thin, then they will easily jumble together and turn into paste!”

She cut the dough into even strands of noodles. The bean noodles shouldn’t be cut into strands that were too wide, but it should be a thickness that was suitable for eating. It would be better to cook the noodles until they had a soft and chewy texture. The only thing that didn’t really matter was the length of the noodles.

“Second Sister, it looks really delicious!” Little Shitou excitedly looked at the noodles, which were all nearly the same thickness and had a pale-yellow color. He couldn’t help but swallow his saliva as he looked at each strand of bean noodles.

Yu Xiaocao pinched the little fellow’s cheeks, leaving white wheat flour stains on his face. She smiled lightly and bowed her head to cut the scallion and dried vegetables that had been soaked.

She glanced at the basket, which held the wheat flour, and found a fat piece of bacon inside. Thus, she took it down on her own initiative and rubbed it on the hot iron pan. A layer of oil immediately formed in the pan.

Xiaocao put the cured meat, which appeared unchanged, back in the basket and asked Xiaolian to hang it back on the beam. After that, she quickly stir-fried the chopped scallions and dried vegetables, and then added some salt in it.

When the chopped scallions were cooked in lard, it exuded an alluring fragrance. Little Shitou inhaled a deep breath of the aroma and smacked his lips, “It smells so good that I’m about to drool!”