Salted Fish Poisoning

Chapter 33

When Li Wenchuan returned, he saw Jiang Hansheng studying how to turn on the gas stove.

Jiang Hansheng pressed the button and turned the knob. At the faint click, flames sprang up. He immediately let go, and the fire died down again, leaving him no choice but to turn the knob back.

"Let me. That's not how you use it." Li Wenchuan operated it with practiced ease. A small flame rose, and he adjusted it to the right level.

Jiang Hansheng was surprised. "When did you learn how to do that?"

He had clearly been about the same as Jiang Hansheng before, but now he was more capable.

"I watched Uncle Zhang and the others use it at noon today, so I gave it a try too. It was pretty simple once I got the hang of it."

People learning to cook for the first time were always filled with enthusiasm for the unfamiliar process. They might cook constantly, regardless of whether what they made tasted good. Li Wenchuan was in exactly that phase. He did not even know what an imperial kitchen looked like, but cooking with his own hands felt incredibly interesting.

Once the bottom of the wok had heated enough for water droplets to evaporate, he poured in an appropriate amount of peanut oil. When white smoke began to rise from the surface, he tossed in the prepared Sichuan peppercorns, minced garlic, and dried chilies, stir-frying them to release their numbing, spicy fragrance.

When Sichuan peppercorns ripened on the tree, there was no need to pick them—even approaching them, one could smell that tingling scent. It was like walking into a spicy hotpot restaurant, making the tip of one's tongue go faintly numb.

After being fried in hot oil, the fragrance spread everywhere. Mixed with the other seasonings, it filled the entire room with a fresh, savory aroma.

Professional steps combined with unprofessional hands resulted in the two of them coughing and sneezing wildly.

"So pungent, cough, cough, cough." Jiang Hansheng covered his nose and squinted his eyes so they would not sting.

Li Wenchuan moved back slightly with the spatula in hand. "Quick, turn on the exhaust fan. I forgot to turn it on earlier."

"Where's the switch?"

"Feel around. It should be by the wall."

"Should be?" He could not find it.

"You still haven't found it?" Li Wenchuan could not help stepping forward to turn it on himself. With a click, the exhaust fan began working furiously, drawing the oily fumes out of the room. "Isn't it right here?"

The implication was: You couldn't even find this?

Jiang Hansheng felt wronged. He genuinely had not found it just now.

It was probably like when, as a child, you asked your mother where something was. She said it was in the drawer, but you turned the drawer upside down and still could not find it. Then your mother would rush over grumbling, casually reach in, and roar, "Isn't it right here?! Are you blind?!"

The miraculous hand of creation—courtesy of mothers.

Jiang Hansheng rubbed his nose and said nothing. Under Li Wenchuan's instructions, he brought over the Hand-Blue Mushroom.

Once the Hand-Blue Mushroom went into the wok, the scent of mushrooms began to spread. They added some fermented bean paste for seasoning, and both of them felt that they really were hungry.

There were quite a few tiny caterpillars while they sorted the greens. Vegetables grown for a farming household's own consumption were not sprayed with pesticides, and since the owners had not tended the garden these past few days, the bugs had run rampant.

One soft, green little worm after another went into Coo Coo's stomach.

Li Wenchuan planned to go into the vegetable garden later and catch some more for Coo Coo, treating them as her dinner.

Those bugs would later turn into butterflies, the common little white butterflies of the countryside, so there was no guilt in feeding them to a chicken. Mainly, he was worried that Coo Coo would enter the vegetable garden and start eating the vegetables. Otherwise, he would have simply let the chicken in for an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Li Wenchuan could not quite judge the amount of salt. He picked up a piece of mushroom with his chopsticks, caught it with a bowl, and held it out before Jiang Hansheng. "Try it. Does it need more salt, or is there too much?"

The filming crew had all thought Jiang Hansheng would refuse. After all, the two of them did not seem particularly familiar in the eyes of outsiders.

If things got awkward, how were they supposed to edit around it?

To their utter surprise, Jiang Hansheng simply opened his mouth. "Ah."

Li Wenchuan naturally fed him the mushroom, then asked somewhat nervously, "How is it?"

"I think it tastes fine." Jiang Hansheng took the chopsticks from Li Wenchuan's hand, picked up another piece from the wok, and held it to Li Wenchuan's lips. "If you don't believe me, try it."

Li Wenchuan did not react at all. He simply opened his mouth and ate it, chewing slowly. "It really is pretty good. I thought it would taste bad."

"Once we stir-fry some cabbage, we can eat. How about I do it? I want to give it a try."

"Sure." Li Wenchuan plated the Hand-Blue Mushroom and carried it to the table beside them.

The Household still had an old-fashioned Eight Immortals table, broad and spacious.

Baby bok choy was much easier to make. Heat oil, toss it into the wok, add salt—once it was cooked through and the salt was right, it would taste good enough.

Feeling that it would not be enough, the two of them finally added a dish of scrambled eggs with tomatoes. There had only been one egg in the Household, but Coo Coo happened to lay another one, making the dishes visibly more abundant.

"I saw you talking with Uncle Zhang today. Was it about the online shop?" Li Wenchuan picked up a bite of food. Perhaps because he had made it himself, it did not taste bad, and he ate it with relish.

Jiang Hansheng curled his lips. "You want to come help too?"

Li Wenchuan did not answer. Anyone with the means and the intention could find out roughly who he was with a little investigation. With Jiang Hansheng's connections, learning such things would not be difficult.

He said, "If there's anything I can help with, then of course."

The two old foxes spoke in riddles over the dinner table, leaving the people beside them completely baffled.

After they finished eating, Jiang Hansheng took the initiative to handle the dishes. As he carried the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen, he felt a slight dizziness in his head. He gently shook it off, thinking he was probably tired from being under the blazing sun all day, and did not pay it much mind.

Li Wenchuan went to the vegetable garden to catch bugs for Coo Coo, failing to notice the lost expression that suddenly appeared on the person inside after he finished washing the dishes. That confusion did not last long. Instead, it turned into a look of sudden realization, as though he had affirmed some conviction.

Coo Coo ate a few bugs, tilted her head, and clucked a few times. Li Wenchuan could not understand her. He patted her head. "Hurry up and eat. If it gets dark later, I won't be able to see, and then you won't have anything to eat."

When he returned to the house, he saw Jiang Hansheng leaning against the doorway with his arms folded. Seeing Li Wenchuan approach, Jiang Hansheng smiled. "You're back."

Not noticing anything wrong, Li Wenchuan nodded in acknowledgment.

Jiang Hansheng remained outwardly calm, but frowned almost imperceptibly. Why had this concubine suddenly become so cold toward him?

Could it be that he had bestowed too much favor upon him? As expected, he still needed to be put in his place. He had to let him know that only what Jiang Hansheng gave him was his. If Jiang Hansheng did not give it, then he was nothing.

"Wenchuan, what do you mean by this?" Was the love I gave you too excessive?

Li Wenchuan waved the itinerary the production crew had just given him in front of Jiang Hansheng. "The crew just gave us this. We're going to play a murder mystery game tonight, to relax a little."

The guests did not live together, but there still had to be interaction. They could not let the audience watch them play on their phones in their rooms all night, could they? Especially after Zhao Shiyao had caused trouble today; the editing team definitely could not smooth that over. It was just unclear how they had discussed explaining it.

Little did he know that Jiang Hansheng had already picked up the script. In the world of someone poisoned by Hand-Blue Mushroom, even the unreasonable could become reasonable.

For example, this simple little courtyard had long turned into pavilions and towers in Jiang Hansheng's eyes. After his mind processed and filtered Li Wenchuan's words, they became: there was a gathering tonight, and they were going to meet several important figures.

Heh. He promised to take me along a few days ago. Now he knows to curry favor with me.

He pretended to glance at the schedule. "Oh, then I'll take you there."