Chapter 56 - Did He Deliberately Want to See Her Embarrassed?
Hearing what Xiao Jing said, the woman felt ashamed and embarrassed, but she was also relieved.
She stood up and offered her seat to Xiao Jing. At the same time, she stretched out her hand and wiped the sweat from her face. It was unknown whether it was because of the heat from the fire or just because she was tired, her face was flushed redder than when she moaned and wailed in bed.
Nonetheless, at this time, such a tender and beautiful face was covered with black marks.
As she wiped the sweat, another black streak was added to her forehead.
Xiao Jing looked at her tender face carefully as a ray of craftiness flashed in his eyes. However, he didn’t say anything. He sat on the little low stool and began the preparations to light a fire.
The woman did not leave. She stood still beside him, her black eyes looking at him from time to time, as if to see what he was going to do.
Last time when Xiao Jing taught her how to light a fire, the woman didn’t listen very seriously. She barely remembered the general idea of the steps so it was a totally different ordeal when she had to actually work on it.
Xiao Jing also took note of her gaze, a fleeting smile passing in his black eyes.
“In the beginning, you can’t put too much firewood. You can’t use large pieces of wood either.” Xiao Jing took out all the firewood that the woman put inside the stove and explained while doing it, “You may put dry leaves and small twigs first, and wait for the flame to grow bigger.”
As he spoke, the fire that the woman couldn’t ignite for so long, suddenly burst into flames that kept growing bigger.
‘It turns out that we have to pay particular attention to so many things while making a fire.’
The woman finally realized it. As soon as she withdrew her gaze from the vigorous flames, her eyes were suddenly met with Xiao Jing’s teasing gaze staring at her with a deep smile on his face.
Her chest thumped twice abruptly, and her face seemed to burn.
At first, the woman was unsure as to how she should face Xiao Jing’s meaningful eyes. Her pupils trembled and dodged, but in the end, she gritted her teeth and turned to look at Xiao Jing again.
After the flames of her anger went out, she turned around and walked out of the kitchen room, intending to wash her hands by the water tank.
Taking the wooden scoop to draw some water, she noticed her reflection on the surface of the water. Her fair and clear face was covered all over with pitch-dark traces.
The woman’s eyes widened in disbelief. Her hands loosened as she almost dropped the wooden scoop in surprise.
She finally understood why Xiao Jing looked at her with a teasing gaze and an unknown smile on his face.
‘Hmph, stinky man!’
Even though he saw it, he didn’t even remind her. So, did he deliberately want to see her embarrassed?
Xiao Jing sat in the kitchen, looking at the warm flame and paying attention to the sounds outside the house. After a while of silence, he heard the sound of pouring water. An image of the woman gritting her teeth in anger flashed through his mind, and he laughed out in a low voice.
Not long after this brief interlude, the aroma of the rice spread out from the kitchen room.
The woman had been standing outside the house because she didn’t want to go in and see Xiao Jing, but at this time, she couldn’t help but move her legs and walked back to the kitchen room.
She wiped the small table where they ate, and neatly arranged the washed chopsticks and small bowls.
On the other side, Xiao Jing also opened the lid of the pot. After the dense vapor of water dissipated, he saw the shiny white rice and the steamed vegetables and meat put on it.
The woman had chopped up some cabbage leaves and laid them at the bottom with some pieces of dried meat cut to the same size on the top.
As the heat cooked the dried meat, the fat on it was steamed out and it ran down into the cabbage leaves, giving the cabbage leaves a meaty taste.
Furthermore, Xiao Jing’s dried meat was too salty, so it was difficult to eat it alone. Now that it was mixed with cabbage leaves, the excessive salty taste was canceled out, giving both dishes a perfectly balanced taste.
All these things were present in Xiao Jing’s house. He also cooked and ate them every day, but he had never thought of such a method. Moreover, he used to believe that as long as he cooked it together with the rice, it would save both time and effort. However, this was completely different from his carelessly made clump of food.
After the only dish was set on on the table, the woman was a little embarrassed. However, it took her so much time to light a fire that she didn’t have any time left to cook another dish.
The woman waited for Xiao Jing to sit down before picking up her chopsticks.
After he sat down, Xiao Jing glanced at her and said, “Let’s eat.”
The woman’s appetite was still as small as before. She stopped after eating a few mouthfuls of the simple dish and a small bowl of rice. On the contrary, Xiao Jing finished everything in his bowl, even the last bit of the dried meat and vegetable juice and the scorched rice at the bottom of the pot was not spared by him.
Everything was eaten clean, not leaving a single grain of rice. After finishing, he licked his lips, wishing to continue.
Sitting beside him, as the woman watched Xiao Jing eat, she couldn’t help but wonder if she didn’t cook enough food today.
After the meal, Xiao Jing cleaned up and went to wash the dishes and the pots as before.
The woman watched from the side, frowning slightly as she recalled the saying ‘a nobleman stays clear of the kitchen’. She could reckon that her daddy had probably never entered the kitchen once in his life. Although Xiao Jing was not a scholar or a nobleman, in the secular world, it was the norm for men to go out to work and women to stay at home. She had assumed that washing clothes and cooking were just the beginning of the chores she had to do. Xiao Jing would surely put aside things for her to do one by one.
She looked at the person squatting beside the water tank, washing the dishes with both hands at lightning speed. Suddenly, she realized that she didn’t know what the man was thinking at all.
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Author’s Note:
The original idea was to let the woman fail to cook the meal properly and make Ah Jing eat all the charred black food. But still hesitated to write it when pen met the paper and decided to give the woman some proficiency in this aspect. >×<
