Divorced woman with child travels through time

After Chen Wenfang and Aunt Liu finished preparing the fish, they went to the vegetable garden next door and picked two loofahs, a handful of green beans, and a handful of leafy greens.

For lunch, I made pan-fried crucian carp, crucian carp soup, stir-fried loofah with eggs, braised pork, stir-fried green beans and vegetables, and a whole table full of dishes.

Uncle Liu Hai also arrived, bringing ten jin of cornmeal. Chen Wenfang quickly accepted it, saying, "Uncle Liu Hai, you're too kind. I bought a lot of grain last time."

Uncle Liu Hai laughed and said, "You can never have too much grain, and it won't go bad if you leave it. You don't have any to grow, so it's good to have more."

Chen Wenfang nodded, and everyone sat down at the table. Chen Wenfang kept saying she was going to buy bowls, but she forgot she had too many small bowls, so she used the few that were missing. No one complained.

Chen Wenfang said with a smile, "Come on, everyone, let's eat!" and took the lead in picking up her chopsticks.

Everyone started eating. Chen Wenfang picked up a piece of fish for Shi Tou. The crucian carp had many bones, so Chen Wenfang had fried it first. Aunt Liu was quite distressed by the amount of oil she used while frying it. It was fried until crispy, and the bones could be eaten along with it.

Shi Tou took a bite and exclaimed, "Wow, so delicious!" The oil and salty flavors blended in his mouth, and he couldn't help but take another bite of rice.

Chen Wenfang smiled and said, "Everyone eat, don't make me pick them up one by one."

Aunt Liu looked at Shi Tou and smiled, "Eat, eat, help yourself to the food."

Uncle Liu Hai, biting into a crucian carp, muttered, "This stuff goes so well with wine."

Chen Wenfang remembered this and said to Uncle Liu Hai embarrassedly, "I'm sorry, Uncle, I forgot about it."

Before Uncle Liu Hai could speak, Aunt Liu said, "What's the big deal? We just invited them to dinner at the last minute. No wine? No wine? We'll eat the same way."

Chen Wenfang said with a smile, "I marinated the rest of the fish and hung it on the eaves to air dry. Once it's a bit drier, I'll fry it and have Xuanzai bring it to you. I'll also buy you some wine."

Uncle Liu Hai laughed and said, "No need to be so polite. I just think your fish tastes so good that it would be a shame not to have some wine with it. I still have the wine you bought for me last time at home. Da Zhuang, go and run over and get the wine for me. We'll have wine with it today, and then the fish will be worth it."

Aunt Liu chuckled, "It's all going into your stomach, what's the loss? Really."

Dazhuang was obedient; he put down his bowl and ran home like the wind. He came back in a little while, and Chen Wenfang had only eaten half a bowl of rice.

After a lively meal, Aunt Liu helped clean up the dishes. Then, Aunt Liu and her family planned to go home. Shi Tou didn't want to leave, but Aunt Liu pulled him away by the ear.

Chen Wenfang thought to herself that Aunt Liu must have noticed how tired she was and that she hadn't slept well the night before. She tried to give Aunt Liu the money Liu Hai had paid for the carriage last time, but Aunt Liu refused to accept it and hurriedly took the child and ran off. Chen Wenfang could only watch them leave.

After washing the pots and pans, Chen Wenfang sat under the eaves in a daze, while Chen Xuanyu leaned lazily against her.

After a short while, Chen Wenfang felt sleepy, so she took the child for a nap. They slept until almost three or four in the afternoon. Since there were no watches in ancient times, they tidied up, heated up some leftovers, and ate. Then Chen Wenfang dug out the gold ingots again… Touching the ingots, Chen Wenfang felt a little more at ease. She needed to figure out how to resolve the household registration issue and find out her own identity in this body first. After thinking about all sorts of random things, Chen Wenfang felt mentally exhausted and went to bed early again.

A dreamless night.

The next day, Chen Wenfang and her son were preparing to eat breakfast, holding egg pancakes, when they saw Shi Tou arrive.

"Have you eaten the stone?" Chen Wenfang asked, taking a bite of the pancake.

Stone blushed and said, "I haven't eaten." Actually, I just came here to freeload.

Chen Wenfang placed the pancakes on the table. "Come on, let's eat together." Chen Xuanyu also sat down at the table.

"My mother is behind me," Shi Tou said without ceremony, while eating.

After the three of them had almost finished eating, Aunt Liu arrived. Seeing the egg pancake in Shi Tou's hand, Aunt Liu said with exasperation, "Didn't you just eat at home before coming here?"

Shi Tou Pi said, "But Sister Chen's cooking is delicious. I feel like I haven't been eating enough at home."

Aunt Liu said angrily, "If you're not full, why don't you eat more?"

Shi Tou said seriously, "No, I need to save room for Sister Chen's egg pancakes. Xuanzi said yesterday that he wanted to eat egg pancakes this morning."

Aunt Liu said, both amused and exasperated, "You can't do that again next time."

Chen Wenfang laughed and said, "If the child likes it, he can come. I like him coming too." After hearing this, Shi Tou proudly puffed out his little chest.

Aunt Liu laughed and said, "You just spoil him. He's got all high and mighty."

After a while, the aunts and sisters-in-law from Wangjiazhuang came to Chen Wenfang's house. There were about seven or eight people, mostly young wives, with only two older aunts and even a very old grandmother. She must have been almost fifty.

Chen Wenfang quickly greeted them with a smile. She invited everyone to sit inside, took out a few thatch roots she had casually dug up from the wasteland the day before, explained the process briefly, and then asked everyone to go and dig some thatch roots themselves. She instructed them to wash the roots thoroughly until they were free of sand before bringing them over, and that she would teach them how to cook them.

As soon as Chen Wenfang finished speaking, a young woman angrily said, "Chen Wenfang, if you're going to teach, then teach. Why do you have to wait for us to dig up the graves ourselves before you teach us? Isn't that wasting other people's time?"

Another chimed in, "Exactly! If you're not going to teach us sincerely, fine, but you expect us to dig for it? Does that mean all the syrup will be yours after it's made?"

Seeing this, two more people chimed in, saying, "Teach if you want, otherwise we're leaving."

Chen Wenfang remained silent, coldly watching them finish speaking before saying, "Then you can leave. I'm not teaching anymore. Those who want to learn can dig it up themselves, and those who don't want to learn can leave now. Take it or leave it, if you don't want to learn, get lost."