Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 962 - 944. Master Jiang’s Past

Chapter 962: 944. Master Jiang’s Past

It’s great that family is moving in!

Once the family is settled, a chef can stay for the long haul. It’s not easy to find a good chef!

Lao Song’s family welcomes everyone warmly; there’s got to be a shared meal for such an occasion! But after the excitement, Master Jiang still has to go back to his dorm to settle in.

As soon as he leaves, Song Tan becomes happy: "Is everything ready for Master Jiang?"

Master Jiang used to dine with them, but now that his family has come, the other families will also come in the future. Besides Professor Song’s situation, it’s not good to always eat at home... the house won’t fit everyone if more come!

Moreover, my aunts and uncles are still eating in the cafeteria!

However, it will only be a bit troublesome this year. Once the mountainous area expands next year and the villagers’ planting scales up, directly buying vegetables from the village will be no issue!

So Seventh Uncle nods: "Everything is packed, we’ve provided all the ingredients we have at home; if they want vegetables, they can just pick them straight from the field."

With patches of radishes and cabbages on the mountain, could anyone lack food?

Then the people of Lao Song’s Family can relax.

It has not been easy! Master Jiang is here without relatives or friends, familiar only with Seventh Uncle. Being a chef here, he really has no personal agendas, using whatever is available...

The old saying goes, "A chef who doesn’t pilfer, a harvest that isn’t robbed," showing how rare Master Jiang is!

Meanwhile, on the mountain, Master Jiang is proudly opening the door to show his wife: "Wait a second, I’ll turn on the air conditioner..."

Du Mei is a bit dissatisfied: "This air conditioner isn’t as comfortable as heating..."

Master Jiang quickly responds: "It’s not! But during the day, we’re usually at Lao Song’s home by the fire, enjoying food and drink comfortably! You should go there more often, instead of staying in the dorm..."

He hints to his wife: "While by the fire, help yourself to sweet potato strips, roasted sweet potatoes and chestnuts, fried Huang Dou beans, and more!"

Oh my goodness!

Du Mei can hardly imagine: "If you eat these every day, how much will you fart!"

Master Jiang: ...

If you put it that way, yes! He awkwardly says: "Use the sweet potato strips to chew on, everyone loves eating that way... Don’t worry about not fitting in, the people from Lao Song’s Family don’t beat around the bush, you’ll see when you get to know them."

Du Mei isn’t afraid of socializing despite her age. Though a bit uncomfortable, she quickly shifts her attention to an issue at hand:

"Oh my, why did we end up with such a mattress? It’s way too hard..."

The couple spends quite a while planning out the small room, only going down the mountain for dinner when Song Tan calls them in the evening.

On the way down, Du Mei asks: "Have you decided on staying here and working?"

"Yeah," Master Jiang replies seriously: "Don’t look at how there’s nothing here, but I think it’s very easy for their village to flourish."

Besides, after recovering from a severe illness, he had come to a realization: "At our age, how much money is enough? Not being ill and not burdening our daughter is the greatest help."

He looks at his wife again: "You’ve had a tough life over these years. If there’s nothing important in River City, come stay here for a couple of months every now and then to take care of your health. It’s really quite nice."

It’s bittersweet to think about when they got married, Du Mei was working in a supermarket, and Master Jiang was an apprentice. Their combined earnings were just 460 yuan.

It’s all because the parents were not reliable, their health deteriorated early on, and it took many years after getting married to have children. Now, although their daughter is only twenty, they are both almost 50 years old.

Master Jiang was hospitalized and saw too many sick people needing care, burdening their children to the point of exhaustion... Although it is natural for children to take care of their parents, which parent doesn’t feel heartache over this!

Latterly, while more money was being earned, the hard work was indeed exhausting! With money, they would hasten to buy a house and pay off the mortgage, and after finishing one, there would be another. Finally, when they could relax a bit, as soon as Master Jiang let his guard down, he collapsed...

In all these years, to say they purely enjoyed themselves, the couple really didn’t get to enjoy much at all!

Nowadays, whenever Master Jiang mentions this matter, Du Mei can’t help but feel rather uncomfortable. She sighs:

"Alright, let’s just keep at it for now."

During this time without work, with her daughter at university, she would dazedly sleep until late in the morning, then get up and eat something hastily, following that was watching TV all day long...

Honestly, having suddenly become idle, these old arms and legs also feel uncomfortable. If it weren’t for this, she would have waited for the New Year’s Day when her daughter would be on holiday to come over together.

Speaking of her daughter’s holiday: "Oh! I haven’t even seen my girl’s room yet!"

Master Jiang quickly pointed ahead: "Look, that is Lao Song’s family’s factory building, and that big room outside is the dining hall where I work... I’ll take you there this afternoon for a look!"

"Oh!" Du Mei recalled: "Isn’t Xiaofeng staying there?"

"The dormitory! The employee dormitory!" Master Jiang emphasized: "Look at you, I’ve long asked you to come over but you refused, and now you say this..."

Du Mei glanced at him: "What did I say? What did I say?"

There we go! This is just like an old couple, bickering as they arrived at Lao Song’s family’s big courtyard, and immediately Du Mei envied:

"When can you build a villa like this in the countryside? I’d definitely enjoy living there!"

Master Jiang laughed: "For that, I would need to have my own land allocation! Now her yard outside hasn’t been tidied up, come back to see it in spring or summer, I guarantee it will be a wall of flowers!"

"Hey, as if the countryside lacks flowers?" Du Mei disagreed: "Look at that soil, so rich and dark. Plant some green onions, garlic sprouts, or coriander, then when cooking, just grab them, it’s so convenient!"

Master Jiang thought to himself that’s true! Wu Lan also thought the same, and yesterday she pulled them all out and fertilized the soil with dry cow dung to improve it, she felt really heartbroken!

Well, speaking of which, it’s true that the green onions at the doorstep, whether fried with eggs or used for scallion oil, are very fragrant!

At Lao Song’s family, Wu Lan was also discussing this same matter, and she even gained a lot of agreement: "Look! I said we shouldn’t plant flowers at the entrance, if you want to plant, plant them at the side of the road! Plant dahlias at the patch that connects the yard and the asphalt road, bright red, it’ll be so lively!"

She added: "Look how well the green onions are growing at the entrance! And those garlic sprouts, they’re perfect for pork rib soup! If you ask me, they shouldn’t have been uprooted, they’re so delicious!"

Song Tan: ...

"Mom, an entrance flower bed is meant for growing flowers! Besides, our family really doesn’t lack land for vegetables, we don’t need those green onions and garlic!"

"Moreover, think about it, our house with its white walls and gray tiles, how good-looking and imposing that is! But at the entrance, not to mention flowers, there’s not even a single tree... This, this, it’s not respecting Feng Shui at all!"

The term "Feng Shui" obviously hit the inconsistently held values of an old farmer’s family, and at that moment, everyone went silent.

But Wu Lan was still somewhat unwilling—while the reasoning was sound, isn’t this what rural people do! Seeing an empty spot of land they always want to plant something edible...

She muttered: "Then it might as well be called a ’vegetable bed’. Vegetables are green and lush, and they flower too..."