Being a Life Player in the Middle Ages

When they got home, John had already prepared all the ingredients Martha had bought that morning.

John looked at the two people coming back arm in arm, still looking very close. Although he didn't know what had happened, he smiled a little.

Good things are going to happen after all.

"Is there anything I can help you with? I'm a pretty good cook."

Mia actively offered to help, and her words were true. Even without the blessing of life skills, Mia had good cooking skills. Her parents paid great attention to the cultivation of her life skills when she was a child. She had learned to cook rice and scrambled eggs and vegetables when she was seven years old. Later, her parents passed away. From high school on, Mia had to cook for herself except when she lived in the school dormitory. To be honest, she has been cooking for 11 years.

But Martha had no intention of asking her for help. John had already prepared all the ingredients, and some dishes that required time to prepare were also being cooked. Martha intended to show off her skills, so naturally she would not give Mia a chance to perform.

So she said to Mia, "Honey, could you go out to the backyard and pick some beautiful flowers and put them in a vase to set our table?"

Mia knew she was just looking for something to keep her busy, but Mia nodded and agreed: "Okay, Mama Martha."

John was stunned by the name, and he subconsciously looked at Martha, who first watched Mia go to the backyard, and then gave him an affirmative smile. Then John knew what the good thing was.

They finally have another child, a cute and sensible girl.

This is indeed something worth celebrating.

There were many flowers and plants planted around the fence in the backyard. Mia didn't recognize any of them, and she had been polite before and didn't touch those well-cared-for plants. But now with Martha's order, she could pick the flowers openly.

In early spring, many plants have bloomed. Martha's garden is full of splendor, with all kinds of flowers, large and small, blooming in profusion.

Mia selected a pink bud similar to a peony among the colorful flowers and was about to pick it when she was suddenly stunned.

When Mia came across this flower, its name naturally popped up in her mind: Anemone. Then came a detailed introduction to the medicinal properties and toxicity of this plant. She could even feel which recipes in the pharmaceutical skill column required this plant.

This has never happened before.

Mia withdrew her hand, no longer wanting to pick the plant that would cause inflammation and blisters if it touched the skin. Instead, she washed it and continued to choose other plants.

After a series of selections, Mia not only harvested a bunch of beautiful flowers, but also figured out her special perceptual ability.

She discovered that plants with medicinal value, whether poisonous or not, would have a series of introductions pop up in her mind when she touched them, just like the item interface in a game. However, plants that had no medicinal value and were just ordinary flowers and plants would not have this situation, and they could not even trigger their own names.

The same situation applies to the vegetables grown in the backyard, except that the recipe that pops up at the end belongs to the cooking skill.

Mia also tried it and found that if she didn't touch it with her hands, such an introduction would not pop up when she touched other parts of the body.

So if she takes the initiative to touch others, would there be anything special?

Mia returned to the house with the bouquet thoughtfully, put the flowers into the vase that had been prepared on the table, and then arranged them to make them more beautiful.

John watched from the side for a while, and only felt relieved after making sure that Mia didn't pick any plants that she shouldn't have. It was when he saw these flowers that he remembered that there were some beautiful but poisonous plants in the backyard. He and Martha knew them, so they would not touch them rashly, but Mia might not know this.

Now that he felt relieved, John planned to remind Martha later and ask her to teach Mia which plants in the backyard should not be touched.

At about the same time, Bayard arrived.

This time he also brought gifts, a large piece of cheese and a bottle of wine. The former was food they often ate, while the latter was seldom available to common people. Even if they did, it was mostly low-quality wine mixed with water. Only nobles could enjoy pure wine regularly.

The wine that Bayard brought could certainly not be of inferior quality.

"Oh, this is the most precious gift."

John sighed rarely. He was not as serious as he looked. He just didn't like to talk much, especially to a little girl like Mia. He always felt that no matter what he said, it would easily scare her, so he would try to avoid speaking in front of her.

But in the presence of Bayard, or wine, he becomes very talkative.

There were few people in medieval Europe who didn't like drinking, especially men. After having a drink, most of them would become talkative and start chatting with people around them.

Even before he drank, John already looked a little tipsy.

Today's dinner was particularly rich. For the main dish, Martha killed a hen that she raised to lay eggs and made a roast chicken. She also bought a sea bass, which has fewer bones. The fish meat was cut into slices, marinated, fried, and eaten with fresh vegetables. It was a bit like a fish salad.

There is also pickled bacon and fried eggs.

The vegetables include cabbage, lettuce, onion, etc., all of which are boiled in water. However, Martha specially prepared several sauces with different flavors to match these tasteless boiled vegetables. As for the taste of the sauce, Mia herself is not very accustomed to it, but her body does not reject it, probably because she is used to it.

Of course, a hearty dinner also requires fruits and desserts. Almond pancakes and nut mille-feuille are a highlight, but there are relatively few fruits in this season, so there are only various dried fruits and candied fruits on the table.

All the dishes were added with some spices to a greater or lesser extent, which was enough to prove that Martha had invested a lot of money in this meal. Not to mention ordinary people, even ordinary rich people might not be willing to eat like this.

Martha and her husband usually only prepare such a sumptuous meal when entertaining important guests or celebrating holidays. However, for them, today is a day worth celebrating as well as a holiday, as they have an important guest - Bayad who brought Mia to them.

Mia was given a glass of wine. Although she was still young, she was old enough to drink some wine here. Moreover, people at that time believed that wine had the effect of curing diseases. Not to mention children, even pregnant women would drink wine.

Mia was not old enough to drink, so naturally she had never tasted wine. She was naturally curious, but after drinking it, her acceptance of wine was only average, and she felt it was not as delicious as milk tea.

During the meal, Bayard wanted to find an opportunity to ask Martha and her husband about the adoption, but when he heard Mia call Martha "Mom" and the latter responded to her with a loving face, Bayard knew that he was probably too late again.

"It seems like you and Mia are a good match."

After dinner, unable to resist Mia's insistence, Martha took her to clean up the mess. John took the unfinished wine and went to the herbal medicine shop outside with Bayard to continue drinking. The shop was closed at this time, and this place became a temporary living room.

John, who was drunk, did become talkative, and the smile on his face never disappeared: "Mia is indeed a very good child, we all like her very much."

Bayard hesitated for a moment, then whispered in a voice that the two people in the kitchen couldn't hear: "If you want to go through the adoption procedures, it may take a while. Did Mia tell you that she still needs to deal with her father's affairs, mainly the inheritance?"

John knew about this. In fact, when Mia came back in the afternoon, she told Martha about going out to see a lawyer in the morning, and John heard it.

"I'm afraid you can't go through the adoption process until she inherits the estate."

At this time, the adopted son has the same inheritance rights as the biological son. Similarly, after being adopted, the adopted son loses the inheritance rights to his biological parents. So when they went to go through the adoption procedures and her relatives found out, she would definitely not be able to get back the inheritance.

John nodded. He had also considered this issue. "There's no rush. Let's wait until Mia's side is settled. Regardless of whether this procedure is completed or not, we will love her like our own child."

It would only take a few months to board the ship, so he was not in a hurry. I think Martha would not be in a hurry either. After all, the child was by their side, and they would not be separated because of this.

Mia was also used to doing housework. With her help, the two of them quickly cleaned up the mess, and then came out with glasses to chat with Bayard and the others. However, Martha drank wine with them, while Mia drank warm water with a little honey.

She had been staying here for a few days, and Martha and her husband knew that she didn't like beer and only liked to drink water to quench her thirst. Of course, this was only after Mia confirmed that their daily water came from a public pool, and the water in the pool came from a clean water source far away. The pipes of the elevated aqueduct built to transport water were also ceramic pipes instead of lead pipes. Only then did she dare to drink it, and the water had to be filtered through several layers of gauze to remove impurities before being boiled.

She also knew that it was troublesome to drink water, so she prepared the tools and boiled the water herself at first. She even thought about going back and making a simple filter after gathering all the materials. Anyway, she could not accept drinking wine as water.

In fact, Martha wanted to help her boil water, but she just added a filtering step. She didn't think it was troublesome, but seeing that Mia looked worried about causing trouble for them, she could only acquiesce to her boiling water herself. However, since she saw Mia boiling water to drink, their house had two more ceramic pots, one for raw water for her to filter, and the other for boiled water.