The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

Shen Cao was worried that the smell of pig intestines would bother others, so since it was still early, she took her younger siblings and walked home.

It's only springtime, and the afternoon weather isn't particularly hot. Now that the most important matter—the house—has been settled, Shen Cao feels inexplicably comfortable. Looking at the azure sky, she feels like a little bird ready to spread its wings and take flight, eager to show off her skills.

She glanced at her younger brother and sister, who were following closely behind her, helping her push the stroller. However, Shen Qing seemed somewhat distracted. She followed Shen Qing's gaze and saw that he was indeed still just a child.

In her previous life, she was an only child and always envied those who had younger brothers and sisters or older brothers and sisters. Now, she not only has younger brothers and sisters, but also an older brother.

As the older sister, you have to satisfy all your younger siblings' requests, especially their appetites.

She turned around and took her younger brother's hand, "Come on, let's go buy some. Just looking won't satisfy your craving."

Shen Qing was startled by his sister's sudden voice. When he realized what she meant, he was overjoyed. Da Niu from the village always showed off how delicious the candied hawthorns were. He used to be too embarrassed to ask for them when the family was poor. Now that he was making money, he couldn't hold his sister back from doing something big.

Now that his sister has discovered his thoughts, she not only doesn't scold him for wasting money, but also wants to take him shopping. He is overjoyed.

As they left the county town, Shen Qing and Shen Wan each held a candied hawthorn, while Shen Cao slowly pushed the cart.

Three figures, one large and two small, stood back to back. Although they were dressed in coarse cloth, the smiles on their faces were almost overflowing, and no one could doubt that they were very happy.

"It's delicious! Da Niu really didn't lie to me." Shen Qing said to Shen Cao with a smile.

Shen Cao smiled at him, "If you have other fruits, like grapes or oranges, candied hawthorns would taste even better. I'll make them for you when I have the chance."

Upon hearing that his older sister could make even more delicious candied hawthorns, Shen Qing's eyes immediately lit up. "Sister, you're amazing! You must make some for Qing'er!"

"Okay, when we move to the county town, I'll cook it for you."

"yeah!"

When she got home, Shen Cao put the basket containing the pig offal at the door and didn't take it back, mainly because the smell was too strong.

Seeing that Shen Cao had left the basket outside, Shen's mother asked with some confusion, "Why didn't you bring it in?"

Shen Qing, who was standing nearby, answered first, "Mother, my sister bought some pig intestines and such, and they smell terrible."

Shen's mother had bought pig offal before, which included some pig intestines. She washed it many times but couldn't get rid of the smell. Even after finally cleaning it, the smell would come back when she boiled it.

"Cao'er, have you forgotten? I bought some before, but you said they smelled too bad and told me not to waste money."

Shen Cao was surprised that the original owner of this body had eaten it before. She pretended to have forgotten and said, "Mother, I saw a recipe for pig intestines in an ancient book. It said that it could remove the odor, so I bought it to try."

Although she didn't know where Shen Cao had read the ancient book, she remembered the immortal her daughter had mentioned before, so she figured it must be the one she had seen back then, and decided not to ask any further questions.

After putting her things away, Shen Cao went to the kitchen, grabbed some things, and then picked up her basket and went to the stream in front of her house.

Knowing that Shen Cao was going to wash the pig offal, Shen's mother picked up two stools, told the two children to watch the house, and then went out with Shen Cao.

When Shen Cao arrived at the stream, she found many people washing clothes there. After greeting them, she went downstream to a secluded spot.

Mother Shen propped up a stool and handed one to Shen Cao before sitting down herself.

The women washing clothes were mostly young wives from the village, including Aunt Li.

When Shen Caogang arrived, Aunt Li gestured with her lip to the young woman next to her. The young woman was shy and knew what Aunt Li meant, but she pretended not to see it.

Aunt Li could tell from the young woman's appearance that she was too shy to speak, so she cleared her throat and asked, "Shen family daughters-in-law, are you here to do laundry?"

When Shen's mother looked up, she saw that it was Aunt Li talking to her. Her family had had a falling out with Aunt Li's family before, and she didn't want to talk to her. But she thought about the neighbors and how they would run into each other again, so she had no choice but to answer, "No, Cao'er brought some pig offal back from the county town. I'm washing it before it gets dark."

Aunt Li curled her lip and said, "Oh, didn't your Shen Cao go to the dock to earn money? Why is he still eating that stuff?"

“I saw it that day. Shen Cao’s stall was packed with people, and business was booming.”

"You earn so much money, why are you reluctant to spend it on your family?"

Shen Cao originally didn't want to interrupt, but Aunt Li clearly had ill intentions. "Aunt Li, if I make money, I won't buy this pig offal anymore. I'll at least buy some pork belly and ribs to try."

"What money are you going to make? You'll have to pay back what you earn anyway, don't you know that better than anyone?"

Aunt Li was so embarrassed by the rebuke that she immediately threw down the washing stick in her hand, saying, "How can you talk to your elders like that? You have no manners."

Shen Cao wasn't angry when she heard this. "You are well-mannered. After all, you are the county magistrate's mother-in-law. You are different from us country folk. You are the most well-mannered."

Shen Cao knew Aunt Li all too well. She always acted like the county magistrate's mother-in-law. Everyone had been bullied by her. The county magistrate was old enough to be her daughter's grandfather, yet she still insisted on marrying her daughter off to him. The villagers secretly looked down on her.

Sure enough, the people around her changed their expressions after hearing what Aunt Li said, and stopped chatting, focusing on washing clothes.

Seeing that no one paid any attention to her and that she had almost finished washing the clothes, Aunt Li, afraid of being laughed at, left with a "You wait here" and went away.

Shen's mother looked at Shen Cao with concern, "Cao'er, why are you getting involved with that kind of person? It's better to avoid trouble."

"Mother, it's alright, don't worry."

After the little incident, Shen Cao first took out all the pig offal, including pig intestines, pig heart, pig liver, and pig stomach, with the pig intestines making up the majority. The pig heart, pig liver, and pig stomach were easy to clean, so Shen Cao handed them over to her mother.

She first turned each pig intestine inside out, then rinsed away the dirt inside and cleaned away the excess fat.

Then she added the starch and salt she had taken from the kitchen beforehand, put it in a basket, and kneaded it vigorously.

After rubbing and scrubbing, all the mucus on the pig intestines was cleaned off.

After she finished dealing with it, she found that Shen's mother had already washed up.

She repeated the process several times, and feeling that she had washed enough, she went home with Shen's mother. The real challenge was what to do after they got home.

When she got home, she found that Shen's father had already returned.

The family sat down in the main room, and Shen Cao told them about buying the house that day.

Mr. and Mrs. Shen were shocked. They thought they had at most rented the house, but they never expected that Shen Cao would actually buy it.

Thinking that Shen Cao had borrowed the money, and with Aunt Li's previous incident still fresh in her mind, she immediately became worried. "Is this young master Shen reliable? Will he be like Aunt Li and make things difficult for us? So much money won't be as easy to handle as it was for Aunt Li."

Shen Cao felt a warmth upon hearing her parents' concerns, and then she revealed Shen Yu'an's identity, which put their minds at ease.

“However, we haven’t bought the house yet; we need an adult’s signature,” Shen Cao suddenly said.