Chapter 10: A Regenerating Supply of Rice, Oil, Salt and...

Chen Xiao Mi started to let Lu Lin take over cooking since the ‘muddy stick’ episode.

Chen Xiao Mi was talented in hunting, cooking was more like a chore to him, but he had always been cooking for his brothers since he had no other option. And he found Lu Lin’s cooking was just significantly better than his, so why not let Lu Lin take over.

It wasn’t just Chen Xiao Mi who thought that way, his two brothers had been looking forward to Lu Lin’s cooking as well.

Chen Xiao Mi asked whether Lu Lin was willing to go to the mountains with him and dig out more muddy sticks this day, Lu Lin readily agreed.

Chen Xiao Mi ventured further down the mountains after Lu Lin found the muddy sticks like last time.

Lu Lin sneaked to the convenience store and got a long knife to dig out the Chinese yam, this time it went a whole lot faster due to the knife. Lu Lin dug out two muddy sticks in no time. He didn’t continue to dig more, he started to look for vegetables and mushrooms to get a varied diet. Seeing the full basket, Lu Lin was perfectly content, he went back home without waiting for Chen Xiao Mi.

Chen Xiao Cai squatted down and looked at the basket with his eyes wide open, Lu Lin came home with so much food!

“There are as many as eight eggs here!” Chen Xiao Cai exclaimed.

“These are pheasant eggs, I found them in the mountain.” Lu Lin lied to Chen Xiao Cai’s face without blinking an eye.

Chen Xiao Cai looked at Lu Lin with disbelief written all over his face. ‘The eggs look so clean and round, no way they are pheasant eggs, did he… did he steal them from the villagers? But wait, I haven’t heard anyone complaining about this, and a coward like him… hmm… I don’t think he has the guts to steal.’ Thought Chen Xiao Cai.

Lu Lin noticed Chen Xiao Cai’s facial expression, he explained, “There are many breeds of pheasants, you know, and of course the eggs look different accordingly.”

Chen Xiao Cai squinted at Lu Lin while he talked that nonsense.

Lu Lin pinched Chen Xiao Cai’s cheek and said, “Look at you, pulling a long face all day long, girls don’t like serious boys, no one is gonna marry you if you carry on like this.”

“I’m not going to get married!” Chen Xiao Cai raised his volume.

‘Ha, you say that now you brat. One day you will change your mind.’

“Not getting married? You want to rely on your brother forever?” Lu Lin teased him.

“I’m not going to rely… …”, Chen Xiao Cai blushed, he didn’t finish his sentence.

“All right kiddo, can you please get me some firewood, I will cook soon.” Lu Lin softened his voice.

Chen Xiao Cai didn’t want to do what was told by Lu Lin, but he agreed there wasn’t firewood left, so he pouted and left the room in a huff.

Lu Lin started to chop the yam and wash the veggies and mushrooms.

Chen Xiao Mi had three serves of the porridge that night, his brothers had swept away the mushroom and scrambled eggs, yearning for more.

The stewed chicken Lu Lin cooked the next day was critically acclaimed by the Chen Brothers as well, they had not only eaten up the chicken, the had also gulped sown the broth.

“Brother.” Chen Xiao Cai tugged at Chen Xiao Mi’s sleeve.

“What’s wrong?”

“Something strange happened.”

“What strange thing?”

“There seems to be more rice in the sack.” Chen Xiao Cai kept a straight face.

Chen Xiao Cai specifically remembered he checked the rice and did some calculation by heart before Lu Lin married Chen Xiao Mi, but the rice pile seemed to be getting bigger and bigger despite they had been having porridge for days now, and the rice seemed to taste better as well.

Lu Lin had been very generous with the rice from the convenience store, no wonder Chen Xiao Cai had noticed.

“And we have been having eggs a lot lately. He always says he found them in the mountain, but how come we rarely find even one egg when we go to the mountains, the eggs all look very clean unlike the ones we have found before. So are the salt and oil. There are more salt and oil in the jars.”

“Isn’t that a good thing.” Chen Xiao Mi said calmly.

“It is great, but it’s also very strange. We have been eating so well lately, all thanks to him… …”, Chen Xiao Cai’s voice got lower and lower, he felt so guilty for talking about Lu Lin behind his back while Lu Lin had been so nice to them.

“Maybe he brought all those stuff from his maiden family and hid them somewhere, don’t tell anyone about this.”

Chen Xiao Mi recalled what he had done since his father passed away, he would hide stuff in the caves and ask the old hunter to sell the game for him. And thanks to all that preparation, Chen Xiao Mi could support himself and his two brothers when he first lived apart.

Chen Xiao Mi thought that must be what Lu Lin had done as well. Chen Xiao Mi felt so happy that Lu Lin was willing to share his case-dough with them. And he felt obliged to keep it a secret for Lu Lin’s sake, Lu Lin’s family would create a disturbance if they found out.

‘He is willing to share so much nice stuff with me and my brothers, that’s actually very sweet and touching.’ thought Chen Xiao Mi.

Chen Xiao Mi didn’t have a high expectation for Lu Lin who had committed suicide to avoid marrying him, but now he started to see Lu Lin differently. He enjoyed Lu Lin’s cooking and he thought life would be great with Lu Lin’s company.

Bearing the load of bringing up a family alone wasn’t easy for Chen Xiao Mi, but he chose not to say it. And now he felt better with Lu Lin’s assistance.

Chen Xiao Cai thought what Chen Xiao Mi said and nodded, “I know what to do, don’t worry.”

Chen Xiao Cai trusted his big brother and he would do whatever Chen Xiao Mi told him to even though he still found a lot things happened to Lu Lin didn’t add up.

Chen Xiao Mi found Lu Lin an interesting character as well, but he chose to see the bright side of everything because life was too hard.