CH 117

Zhulan was indeed a bit tired, and she didn’t tidy up the clothes in her bag. She put them aside and waited for washing tomorrow, and she didn’t want to tidy up the things she brought back from Pingzhou. She just wanted to take a rest; so she coughed and asked, “It’s been a long time since I lay down on a comfortable kang. I’ll bring out clean clothes, and you’ll change into another one and lie down and rest for a while?”

Zhou Shuren’s expression improved a lot. He was really scared before. A few steps away, he thought of so many possibilities; if something happens to Zhulan, what should he do, they have always been dressed as one, and no one can separate the other. But fortunately, Zhulan was in good condition, “Okay.”

Zhulan took out the clean clothes, she and Zhou Shuren didn’t avoid changing, anyway, they were both wearing undergarments. But Zhulan couldn’t help but glance at Zhou Shuren, it turned out that before she knew it, she had already been defenseless against Zhou Shuren!

The two of them changed their clothes and rested in the warm quilt. Neither of them slept. Zhulan thought about Zhou Shuren’s nervousness towards her, and Zhou Shuren thought about Zhulan.

After dinner was ready, an hour later, the third son and the fourth son came back from studying, knowing that shǎozi had made trouble, they didn’t dare to come to the main room.

After Zhulan and Zhou Shuren rested, their complexions improved a lot. Because Zhulan didn’t explain the dinner, Li didn’t dare to ask her father-in-law. But she wasn’t so stupid that she didn’t know how to please her. The staple food was corn tortillas, stewed fish with sauerkraut. She took a bowl of flour and made pimple soup.

That night, Zhou Shuren didn’t like to see the two daughters-in-law very much. One of them cried at every turn. It was not taboo before, but now it was a taboo.

Zhou Shuren’s face turned black, not only Li and Zhao, but the entire Zhou family didn’t dare to say a word. They used to be able to say a few words during meals, but now they are all very honest. The chopsticks didn’t even touch the dishes, and they didn’t dare to make a sound. Anyway, Zhou Shuren exuded his unhappiness, so nobody dared to mess around.

Zhulan was tired, and wanted to be quiet, and suddenly felt that it was very important to have a proper cold face. Recently, there have been too many good faces, and the family has become more courageous.

After the meal, Li Shi and Zhao Shi carefully cleared the table.

Zhou Shuren took a good look at Zhulan. Zhulan didn’t help and talked to Xuehan, and followed Zhou Shuren back to the bedroom.

In the evening, Zhou Shuren came in with hot water, and Zhulan wiped her body and changed into new underclothes before Zhou Shuren came in. Zhulan felt Zhou Shuren’s meticulous care in her heart and wanted to chat a few words, but the warm bed was too warm. Feeling comfortable, before Zhou Shuren could wash up, she fell asleep first.

Zhou Shuren stood on the ground and looked at her for a while, then smiled sullenly, their quilts were all overlapped, what a stubborn person!

Early the next morning, Zhulan woke up comfortably and saw a pile of clothes. Her good mood was gone. Today she had to wash two large basins of clothes. Hey, she missed the fully automatic washing machine for the nth time!

For breakfast, Zhulan brought out the food, rice porridge in the morning, the third son and the fourth son were studying at the clan school, and they had half an hour break at noon to come back to eat. So there was no need to take pancakes and buns. Hence breakfast was much simpler.

After breakfast, Li Shi came to check her favors, “Mother, I see you have a lot of clothes to wash, I will wash them for Mother.”

Zhulan was at the top of the food chain. Before her arrival, it was always Li Shi and Zhao Shi who did the laundry. However, Zhulan had a slight obsession with cleanliness and doesn’t like others touching her clothes. She even refused to let anyone use her bed sheets. She said, “No need, just help me organize the things I brought back first.”

Li Shi had already noticed the two boxes long ago, but she was afraid of her father’s reaction, so she remained silent and just watched. “Alright, Mother,” she replied obediently.

The two boxes that Zhulan brought back were not purchased by her. Zhulan usually buys delicate items. Both boxes were prepared by Zhao Bo. He helped find a shop to buy furniture and made quite a profit from it. Zhao Bo already had some wealth and hoped to establish a good relationship with Zhou Shuren. Zhou Shuren gave him money to buy furniture, and in return, Zhao Bo sent the prepared gifts to the inn.

Zhulan didn’t know what was inside. So she opened them to take a look. There were two cloaks in one box. The fur of the cloaks was made of rabbit skin. It’s for Zhulan and Xuehan. Rabbit fur cloaks were not expensive, so the two cloaks amounted to three or two taels of silver. There were also some fabric materials inside the box.

The second box contained meat, including wrapped sauced meat and some raw meat. Zhulan took a closer look, “Beef?”

Li Shi had never eaten beef but had seen many kinds of meat, “Mother, it doesn’t seem to be beef. It looks like roe deer meat to me. My father has caught it before.”

Zhulan sighed with a hint of regret, thinking it was beef inside the box. However, she knew that venison was also delicious. In ancient times, there were abundant wild animals, and there were no laws protecting animals. A wide variety of delicacies could be enjoyed, unlike in modern times where even edible animals are protected. “We received quite a lot. We can make dumplings with the venison for dinner tonight.”

Li Shi had been craving meat for a while. When her mother left, she set aside two pounds of meat, knowing that it would be in Zhao Shi’s hands. She knew that Zhao Shi would ration it carefully, so it had been a long time since she had indulged in a hearty meaty meal. This further confirmed her belief that following Mother, she can eat great food.

Zhulan took out the sauced meat from the package, and it was frozen outside for a day and a night. Zhao Bo had wrapped into one package, about eight packages, one package per catty. Plus he gave more than ten catties of roe deer meat. If she included the two gift boxes the return gift was not light.

The two boxes that Zhao Bo gave the return gift in were not cheap ones bought by Zhou Shuren. The wood was good, and the two boxes were not big and were exquisitely crafted and carved.

Li Shi also took a fancy to the box and kept touching it with her chubby hands.

Zhulan, “Are you cleaning the dust?”

Li’s thick-skin didn’t feel the irony, “Mother, these two boxes are so beautiful.”

Zhulan rolled her eyes in her heart, and directly allocated them, “Don’t worry about it, I don’t care about the two boxes. Here you can take it.”

Li Shi withdrew her hand, realizing that if her mother wanted to give the meat to someone else, she wouldn’t dare to argue further. She said, “Mother, I’ll go and cut the venison into smaller pieces.”

Zhulan instructed, “Cut them into pieces weighing about one pound each.”

“Okay.”

Zhulan waited for Li Shi to divide the roe deer meat, and called Zhou Shuren to come out. Zhou Shuren went to the Patriarch’s with a bag of sauced meat and a pound of roe deer meat.

Zhulan asked her Eldest son to follow him to the Patriarch’s house to borrow cattle. When they came back, she sent two packs of sauced meat and four catties of roe deer meat to the Yang family and then sent a pack of sauced meat and one catty of roe deer meat to their eldest daughter’s house.

As for the hairpin, Zhulan was not in a hurry to give it to her, she was going to wait for her daughter to move in and give it to her.

Then she gave the cloak to Xuehan. Xuehan was a little girl after all, so she was reluctant to wear it, and she was reluctant to take it off after putting it on. She walked around the yard, then hurriedly took it off and put it away.

Zhulan’s cape was gray, and the rabbit fur was also gray. She preferred Xuehan’s light green cape with white rabbit fur. She can’t look at it, she will be jealous!

Zhulan didn’t care about Xuehan getting her clothes dirty, she always taught Xuehan to do things by herself. Even if she was a little girl, she didn’t ask Li Shi and Zhao Shi to help.

Throughout the day, Zhulan was busy doing laundry. In ancient times, doing laundry was a difficult task, but since Zhulan was the Boss in her husband’s family, she never ran out of hot water and didn’t suffer much. However, for other households, it was usually the daughters-in-law who had to do the laundry. They had to heat a pot of water even during the coldest winter, and their hands would often get frostbite to varying degrees.

By the way, there was soap in the alternate history, which was what Zhulan found surprising, at least no plant ash was used.

Toothpowder from this alternate history was also good. Although it was not as good as modern toothpaste, it is not bad. The Zhou family always used tooth powder.

Making dumplings in the evening, Zhulan remembered she heard about shouting from Fourth Wang’s family during the day. So she asked Li, “What happened to Fourth Wang’s family?”