CH 23

“Sour plum soup”

Cheng Yun brought the things home. Upon arriving home, Yang Hongjin and Wang Liang were with each other. There was no communication between them, but surprisingly the atmosphere was harmonious.

Seeing him return, Yang Hongjin happily called out, “Wife,” and Wang Liang lifted his head and quietly greeted him.

“You two continue working, I’ll go to the kitchen first.” Cheng Yun pinched Yang Hongjin’s face as he passed by, like pinching a child’s face. The idiot was still happy and grinned.

Cheng Yun couldn’t wait to take out all the ingredients. Making sour plum soup was not difficult, but those who had never done it before might not know what ingredients to use and the taste would always be a bit off.

He first washed all the ingredients clean and added them to the water to soak, following the proportions of half a catty of dried plums, half a catty of hawthorn, three liang of tangerine peel, and two liang of licorice. (T/N: 1 liang is about 1.33 ounces/38 grams)

While waiting, he went out again alone and picked some osmanthus flowers from the back mountain based on memory.

In addition to his and Yang Hongjin’s portions, he also reserved some for Aunt Wang’s family, his own family, and he could also bring some for his second brother to relieve the heat. The fragrance of osmanthus was soft and matched with the icy sour plum soup in the hot summer, it was a great enjoyment.

It takes some time to soak the ingredients, so he first made two simple dishes. He had some duck intestines and cucumber left over from helping Yueqiong Tower adjust the dishes before, so he simply made a dish of stir-fried duck intestines and smashed cucumber, telling Wang Liang to ask his family to let him stay and eat with him.

It was the first time Wang Liang had tasted Cheng Yun’s cooking. He smelled the aroma while Cheng Yun was cooking, and his stomach was growling. He didn’t expect that the aroma was not even one-tenth of the taste of the dishes when he actually ate them!

His eyes brightened, but because he was not good with words, he could only quietly lower his head and eat to show his support.

Cheng Yun thought he was very hungry and poured him a glass of water. “Take your time eating, no need to rush.” He also picked up two chopsticks of food for Yang Hongjin, his tone intimate. “You too, there’s still a lot of food left. If it’s not enough, I’ll make some more so don’t choke on it.”

“Wife, you eat too.”

There was one more person for lunch today, and Yang Hongjin was originally a bit unhappy, but his wife said she would teach this person how to make tables and chairs and make him a useful person. He didn’t know what to do and could only follow his wife’s lead.

But when he sat at the dinner table, he could feel the difference in his wife’s attitude towards him and that person. Yang Hongjin’s frustration was instantly swept away, and the food tasted even better than before!

Wang Liang ate while sneakily stealing glances at Cheng Yun and Yang Hongjin from the corner of his eye, feeling a bit envious in his heart.

He grew up in this village, and the most famous people in the entire Tiejia village were undoubtedly the two in front of him.

Yang Hongjin, needless to say, was the only fool in the village. In such a small place like Tiejia village, people inevitably mentioned him whenever they gathered together.

The entire Yang family was the topic of everyone’s conversation. Before they talked about Yang Hongjin, and later they talked about Li Fengjiao who married into the family. At that time, having a fool in the village was rare, and some families would scare their naughty children by saying, “If you don’t listen to me, Yang Hongjin, the village’s fool, will come and beat you.” Over time, even adults avoided him, and some naughty children formed teams to bully Yang Hongjin.

Later, Li Fengjiao came, and her tough personality made people keep their distance. Everyone said that Yang’s fool finally had someone who could control him.

Aunt Wang was a kind-hearted mother who, looking at her own healthy children, often thought of Yang Hongjin’s pitiful situation. He had an uncooperative stepmother, and occasionally she would complain at home, saying that Yang Hongjin was the most pitiful child in the world. After a while, Wang Liang also learned about the poor fool in Tiejia village.

The same was true for Cheng Yun. Although he did not experience the transition of Yang Hongjin from “evil” to “pitiful”, his red dot was light in color, and even Dr. Liu said there was nothing he could do. From childhood to adulthood, he was called by others as a pitiful child.

When these two people got together, everyone in the village naturally talked about them when they got married. For a while, they became the topic of everyone’s conversation. No matter who they met, the first thing they said was, “Hey, have you heard about the Yang family and the Cheng family…?”

Wang Liang was biased at first, thinking that these two must be living a very difficult life. When Cheng Yun had just gotten married, he had come to their house a few times, and Aunt Wang had helped them with everything. But now, seeing them in person, he found that these two got along better than most couples he had seen.

Sensing his gaze, Cheng Yun turned his head and raised his eyebrows, “What’s wrong? Don’t like the food?”

“No, no.” Wang Liang blushed when caught and almost buried his head in the rice bowl. After a while, he whispered, “It’s very delicious, I like it…”

He ate two bites of rice and couldn’t help but secretly raise his head to see Cheng Yun helping Yang Hongjin pick out rice grains from the corners of his mouth. One was doting and the other was blissful.

Wang Liang thought to himself that Yang Hongjin was not the most pitiful person in the world, but rather the happiest.

After dinner, Yang Hongjin went to take a nap, but Wang Liang didn’t have this habit, and had nothing else to do. With Cheng Yun’s permission, he followed him to see how to make sour plum soup.

Cheng Yun poured the soaked ingredients, including the residue and water, into the pot and added a large pot of water. He boiled the water with high heat until it started boiling, and the sour and sweet fragrance of plum gradually diffused from the pot. Then Cheng Yun asked Wang Liang to help reduce the fire for it to simmer on low heat.

“W-what are you doing, Cheng-Ge’er?” Wang Liang couldn’t help but ask after observing for a while. “This thing is dark and smells sour.”

Cheng Yun smiled and stirred the soup with a spoon to prevent it from settling. “This is called sour plum soup. It may not look appealing, but it tastes great. It’s perfect for relieving heat in the summer. When we finish, take some to your parents to try.”

If before lunchtime, Wang Liang may have had doubts about Cheng Yun’s cooking skills. However, after eating the two dishes at noon, he was completely convinced. Upon hearing Cheng Yun’s words, he happily nodded.

After boiling for about thirty minutes, Cheng Yun added the final piece of rock sugar and continued stirring slowly. After another fifteen minutes, he stopped and covered the pot with a lid, allowing the fire to burn slowly until it went out completely.

Cheng Yun took two clean pieces of gauze and washed them before laying them flat on the jars that he had prepared in advance. Since Cheng Yun made a relatively large amount of sour plum soup, their cellar space was limited, and there were already many other items there, he just prepared two jars of relatively smaller sizes.

After the sour plum soup in the pot was cooked, Yang Hongjin also woke up. So Cheng Yun asked Yang Hongjin and Wang Liang to each hold one side and carefully pour the sour plum soup from the pot into the two jars.

At first, Wang Liang did not know what the gauze was for. However, now he understood that the gauze served as a filter to remove the lumps of residue from the soup.

After the two men had poured the entire pot of sour plum soup into the two jars, Cheng Yun tied the gauze and the jars were filled to the brim.

He sprinkled osmanthus flowers that he had picked from the back mountain on top of the two jars of sour plum soup. Then, he poured out the residue from the gauze and cleaned it before placing it lightly on the jars. He put one jar in the shade of the kitchen and had Yang Hongjin carry the other to the hall.

Cheng Yun took a large wooden basin, which Yang Hongjin had made from leftover wood a while ago, and filled it with water from the well in the backyard. He then soaked the jar of sour plum soup in the water.

“All done!” Cheng Yun felt refreshed after completing a series of actions. “We’ll have something good to drink soon!”

Yang Hongjin saw his wife’s happiness and laughed and repeated, “Something good to drink!”

Wang Liang looked at Cheng Yun and then at Yang Hongjin. He was inexplicably carried away by their relaxed atmosphere and started to look forward to it too.