My reborn husband and son are thinking about how to kill me every day.

Watching her son's hurried departure, Liao jumped up and down, shouting, "You little rascal, where are you going? Come back here right now!"

Fang Zijian was no longer listening to her at that moment.

He acted impulsively, went out the door, and ran all the way into the city.

At the village entrance, I encountered an oxcart going to the city. I paid two coins and rode in the oxcart all the way to the Kong family's house.

Upon seeing Fang Zijian, a look of joy flashed across Kong Xiufang's face. She quickly went to greet him and asked, "Did you get it done?"

"not yet--"

Before Fang Zijian could even speak, Kong Xiufang's face turned cold. "What are you doing here? Don't you care about our affairs at all?"

Fang Zijian quickly explained, "No, how could I not care about your matter? I cleaned the old house half the night yesterday, and my back is sore. I came here today because I got something good. You should try it; it might save your shop."

Kong Xiufang then put away her cold expression and said, "What good stuff could you possibly have? They've hired a master chef from the palace; whose pastries can compare? Can you go to the palace and invite a master chef for me?"

As she spoke, she took the pastries Fang Zijian offered her and tasted them. The moment the pastries touched her lips, her eyes widened.

Seeing her reaction, Fang Zijian said with satisfaction, "How is it? It's even better than the pastries from that shop across the street from your house, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes!" Kong Xiufang nodded repeatedly, excitedly asking, "Who made these pastries? Please take me to see the chef."

Fang Zijian then recounted what had happened in the village that day.

Kong Xiufang was not disappointed when she heard that the village had already arranged for refugees to settle in, and that the plan to help them register their household registration in the village had fallen through.

If you can stay in the city, who would want to go to the village?

They had approached Fang Zijian before, but they were truly out of ideas.

But if he could get the house that sells these pastries, his family's shop wouldn't have to close down.

Not only will they not have to close down, but they might even be able to redeem their houses, and it's not impossible for them to even open shops in the inner city.

She knew all too well how excellent the pastry was.

The more she thought about it, the more excited she became. She grabbed Fang Zijian's arm and pulled him outside. "Take me to see that master quickly, let's hurry, or someone will beat us to it."

Seeing that she wasn't angry at all, and even unusually grabbed his arm, Fang Zijian was overjoyed and quickly replied, "I'll take you there right away."

The two rented a horse-drawn carriage and headed towards the village. On the way, Fang Zijian realized he had forgotten to ask his mother who made the pastries.

He suddenly felt flustered, but dared not let Kong Xiufang know.

Fortunately, Kong Xiufang was looking forward to the wonderful life after getting the prescription and did not notice Fang Zijian's restlessness.

Once they arrived in the village, he asked Kong Xiufang to come to his home first, explaining that he needed to tell his family about something.

Kong Xiufang was reluctant to come to his house like this, and said she wanted to wait for him in the car.

Fang Zijian was a little disappointed, but he knew that the two were not engaged yet, and it was not appropriate to invite the girl to his door like this. He could only give her a few careful instructions and then hurried home.

Mrs. Liao never expected that her son would run away in a gust of wind and then run back in just as quickly.

She exclaimed in surprise, "Why are you back again? Your dad just came back, and I told him you went back to school."

"It was so hard to calm your dad down. If he sees you running around like this, not doing anything productive, he'll definitely beat you up again."

Fang Zijian, impatient with her rambling, anxiously inquired about the pastries.

"It was a gift from someone else, how would I know who made it?"

Speaking of pastries, Mrs. Liao couldn't help but nag, "You still have the nerve to ask who made those pastries? You took them all, and your father and I didn't even get a taste. What's the use of raising you all these years?"

Fang Zijian ignored her rambling and urged, "So you're just saying who gave you those pastries, right?"

"So you didn't hear a word I said earlier?" Madam Liao said irritably. "Didn't I say it was given by the prettiest young lady? That young lady is not only beautiful, but also..."

Fang Zijian had no patience to listen to what she said next. He had already dashed off like an arrow.

"My dear child, it's getting dark. What are you rushing off to do?"

Liao called out to Fang Zijian's retreating figure, but Fang Zijian paid no attention to her. He went straight to the carriage and urged the driver to hurry to his old house.

The Fang family's old house was built when Fang Lizheng got married. Apart from the main room and kitchen, there were only three bedrooms.

Later, as the number of children increased and the son grew up, he got married and had more children, and the house became increasingly uninhabitable.

Fang Lizheng felt that the old house had walls made of stone, and although he had lived there for many years, it was still sturdy.

He couldn't bear to demolish the old house, so he applied for a new plot of land and built a new big house.

There are quite a few members of the Lu family alone, not to mention the Mu family and the Zhou and Zhao families.

This house is so small, it's definitely not enough for several families.

After discussing it, the families decided to give the bedroom to the women and children, while the men would all make do in the main room.

Although the Fang family left some old furniture in the house for their use, there was no bed.

However, there were mountains behind them, which didn't pose a problem for the group.

Lu Yinheng and Zhou Dalin took the lead and went to the nearby mountains to cut wood and bamboo, planning to temporarily build a large dormitory for everyone to sleep in, while Ji Yunshuang led the people to cook.

The Fang family's old house only had one stove. After discussing it, the families decided to pool their resources and eat together.

Among the families, Ji Yunshuang was the best cook and the most capable person, so everyone unanimously decided to follow her lead.

They hadn't had a proper meal of rice during their escape, and now that they had finally settled down, Ji Yunshuang naturally wanted to eat rice.

She bought a lot of rice while she was in Hongdu today.

She originally wanted to buy more meat and vegetables. But they arrived too late; the butcher shop had already sold out of meat, leaving only a few offal items.

Ji Yunshuang didn't mind and bought all the offal. Besides that, she was also lucky enough to buy a string of lard.

Neither Old Mrs. Zhao nor Mrs. Nie knew how to cook, so they had already arranged with Ji Yunshuang that they would temporarily stay at her place.

Old Mrs. Zhao gave Ji Yunshuang another ten taels of silver and told her to decide how to use it.

The Mu and Zhou families were less well-off, and both families bought coarse grains.

Moreover, due to the invasion of Northern Qi, a large number of refugees poured into Jiangzhou, causing the price of grain in Hongdu to rise considerably.

With grain prices twice as high as usual, both families felt the pinch even buying coarse grains, let alone meat and vegetables.

When they went shopping, the families separated to save time, and the Mu and Zhou families were unaware of what the Lu family had bought.

When Ji Yunshuang suggested eating rice, the two families realized that the Lu family had bought rice, as well as pig offal and other things.

If they eat together, wouldn't they be taking advantage of the Lu family?

After realizing what had happened, Aunt Zhou and Niu Dahua immediately changed their tune, saying they would cook later and that Ji Yunshuang should use the stove first.

Throughout the journey, Ji Yunshuang always borrowed the Zhou family's large iron pot, and when she went hunting with Zhou Dalin, Zhou Dalin never held it against them.

As for the Mu family, whether it's Niu Dahua or her wives, they are all people who don't talk much but are efficient in their work.

Ji Yunshuang felt that both families were people she could get to know better, so there was no need to fuss over such a small thing, and persuaded both families to eat together.

Aunt Zhou and Niu Dahua both felt embarrassed and took turns doing all the dirty and tiring work.

The group took care of all the odd jobs, like washing pig offal and preparing dishes. Ji Yunshuang only needed to cook at the stove.

When Fang Zijian and Kong Xiufang arrived, Ji Yunshuang was making braised pork intestines.

After being repeatedly cleaned and blanched to remove the fishy smell, the large intestine was cut into small pieces.

Ji Yunshuang is currently stir-frying spices.

Freshly rendered lard is already fragrant, not to mention that Ji Yunshuang added various spices and stir-fried it.

The aroma was so enticing that even Ji Yunshuang couldn't help but swallow her saliva, let alone the two who had never smelled such a fragrance before.

Kong Xiufang swallowed hard and asked, "You've come here to settle down, are you a royal chef?"

Fang Zijian thought of his mother's description and shook his head, saying, "Not a royal chef!"

After saying that, he couldn't help but swallow, and said uncertainly, "Maybe they're just descendants of the imperial chefs!"

Before coming here, Sun Xiufang only wanted to get her hands on the pastry recipe, but now... her ambition burned wildly, "Let's go, let's go take a look first."