Crossing Over to Yamada Love

Steward Xue immediately stepped forward and began slapping Cui Shi across the face, thinking to himself as he did so: You're asking for it! The master hates it most when maids climb into his bed, and you dare to say things like you're giving him a maid, or that the master has taken a fancy to you. If I don't hit you, who should I hit?

Looking at Cui Shi, who was being beaten and screaming, and Feng Shi, who was terrified, Mo Lan felt relieved but also a little puzzled as to why Xue Lingfeng was reacting so strongly!

Mo Jin also got up from the ground and walked to the three young masters of the Xue family. He knelt down and said in a trembling voice, "Young masters, please be magnanimous. This country woman is ignorant. Please have mercy on her this time. I kowtow to you." After saying that, he kept touching the ground with his head.

Mo Quan looked at Mo Jin, whose forehead was red from kowtowing, and felt a pang of pity. No matter how bad Feng and Cui were, they were still his wife and daughter-in-law, and he had no choice. He sighed and walked over. He pulled Mo Jin, who was still kowtowing, and was about to kneel down with him.

As soon as he walked over, Xue Lingfeng glanced at Steward Xue. When Steward Xue saw that Mo Quan was about to kneel down, he hurriedly stepped forward and pulled him back.

"Master, look, even Old Master Mo has come to plead for them. Why don't we let these two ignorant women off the hook and tell them not to bother the Mo family anymore?" Steward Xue helped Mo Quan up and asked Xue Lingfeng for his opinion in a low voice.

Xue Lingfeng nodded, then turned and walked towards the carriage outside. Throughout the entire process, he didn't glance at Mo Lan once, but Xue Lingyun did look at Mo Lan, and Xue Linglei cast a concerned glance at him.

After the three gentlemen left, Steward Xue hurriedly shouted at Madam Feng and Madam Cui, "Did you hear that! You are not allowed to come here to cause trouble again, or you will be thrown into jail."

"I heard you, I heard you, I won't make a fuss anymore, I won't make a fuss anymore," Madam Feng hurriedly replied. Madam Cui, whose face was red and swollen from the beating, seemed dazed and didn't know how to respond.

Steward Xue nodded in satisfaction and went to catch up with the young masters.

Mo Quan helped Mo Jin up, sighed, and didn't know how to comfort him.

"It's all my own fault! I couldn't control my son. Brother, I'm sorry, I'm going home now." Mo Jin's aged expression at this moment was like a candle flickering in the wind, a heartbreaking sight.

"Why aren't you getting up yet? Stop sitting there pretending to be dead." Madam Feng watched as Mo Jin staggered out. She also got up from the ground, kicked Madam Cui who was sitting there motionless, and told her to get up.

"Mother, I don't want to go to jail! I don't want to go to jail! It's all because Changsheng lost thirty taels of silver! If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have bothered to cause trouble! Mother, I don't want to go to jail!" Cui Shi was kicked awake by her mother-in-law and started crying, hugging her leg.

"You've been blinded by greed! The young master of the Xue family is gone, and they're not letting us go to jail. Don't come here to cause trouble anymore. Get up and go back home!" Madam Feng felt ashamed as her daughter-in-law hugged her leg and cried.

"Really?" Cui looked around and couldn't see anyone from the Xue family anymore. She breathed a sigh of relief. She had been completely stunned when she heard that they were going to put her in jail and beat her.

Cui finally managed to stand up, but before she could take a step, Feng smelled an unpleasant odor. Looking at the ground, her face flushed red.

Some people in the crowd, with sharp eyes, noticed it clearly and secretly laughed.

Completely unaware of what had happened, Cui looked down at her mother-in-law staring at the ground. Huh? There was a puddle of water on the ground. What was that? Had she wet herself in fear? Cui's face flushed crimson. She touched the back of her skirt—it was wet! She covered her face and ran outside.

"Pah!" Madam Feng spat and strode out.

The craftsmen came in to eat, and most of the onlookers left. Surprisingly, two people stayed behind to eat the Mo family's roujiamo (meat sandwich).

Mo Lan returned to the backyard and lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed), feeling utterly exhausted. She let out a long sigh, figuring that after this incident, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law wouldn't cause trouble for her family anymore. She sighed again. She didn't intend to ask the Xue family for help with the village affairs; there weren't any major problems there, and the trivial matters could be resolved eventually. It was the future troubles that she wanted to address with the Xue family's help. She'd take it one step at a time, trusting that the Xue family wouldn't abandon her in the future.

After a few days of rest, Mo Lan finally recovered. During this time, Liu Hu visited her every day, bringing her either crabapples or eggs. Yesterday, he even brought her a basket of wild grapes, which were sweet and sour and quite delicious, though a bit small. Wild grapes are used to make wine, but Mo Lan didn't plan to do that; she'd just eat them as fruit. While eating, Mo Lan wondered how much her mother must worry about him bringing her food every day.

Cheng Xiao also visited her once, which was less frequent compared to Liu Hu, presumably because he wasn't as convenient as Liu Hu.

Meanwhile, chubby Xue Linglei brought Mo Lan snacks every day, one day it was four kinds of pastries, the next day it was some famous snack. The happy little Mo Lan ate non-stop every day.

That day, Mo Lan had just finished introducing the dishes to the Xue brothers and was about to go downstairs when Xue Lingfeng called her back.

"You've stopped growing vegetables?"

After hearing Xue Lingfeng's words, Mo Lan was taken aback. She hadn't expected that the aloof Xue Lingfeng would know about the vegetable garden. Indeed, yesterday the family had picked all the vegetables in the garden, even removing the stems from the green tomatoes and stringing the peppers together. The potatoes were almost all harvested as well. The leaves in the ground were mostly withered.

"Yes, the garden is closed. That's why I made you a stir-fry of green tomatoes and peppers today. These green tomatoes were just picked; we won't have them again." Mo Lan said to the group with a smile.

"It tastes good, both sour and spicy. It goes well with rice. Fifth Brother, doesn't Auntie like strong flavors? She'll definitely love this." Xue Linglei said to Xue Lingfeng after tasting the stir-fried green tomatoes and chili peppers.

"Okay, Lanlan will pack some for me later, I'll take it with me." Xue Lingfeng nodded, his expression softening as he listened to the chubby boy talk about his mother.

Mo Lan stared at his expression, somewhat stunned. Xue Lingfeng was so handsome and captivating when he was being gentle.

"Is your business open in this cold weather?" Xue Lingfeng looked at Mo Lan, who was in a daze, and his expression returned to its usual coldness.

“I’m afraid your villa will have to stop construction in another month. We won’t have much business then, but you’re always welcome to come for a meal, no matter when.” Mo Lan was a little unsure of Xue Lingfeng’s meaning.

“Really? We can’t come here often now that we’re closed. If you’re still open, we can come here for meals all the time. You’d better prepare some delicious food for us then.” Xue Linglei said first.

"Okay, there's plenty of delicious food. In a few days we'll have glass noodles, and when it gets cold we'll have chicken stew with mushrooms, goose stew with dried potatoes, stewed duck, big fish stew with glass noodles and tofu, paomo (pita bread soaked in mutton soup), casserole, blood sausage, and pork bone stew with sauerkraut. We'll make whatever you want to eat." Mo Lan used food to entice the chubby boy.

"Wow, there's so much food! Vermicelli? What's that? Is this another new dish you guys came up with? Let's make it for you tomorrow, okay?" The chubby boy was itching to try it after being teased by Mo Lan, and he was most interested in the new dishes.

"It's a new dish, but I can't conjure it up for you tomorrow. It's too much trouble to make. I'll make liangpi (cold skin noodles) for you tomorrow. By the way, Madam Xue loves strong-flavored guobaorou (sweet and sour pork), she should like that, right?" Mo Lan asked the chubby boy.

"Yeah, we went back and said the sweet and sour pork was delicious, but the manor was worried that the food outside wasn't clean. No matter what we said, the manor just wouldn't believe us. They made it several times, but the pork was fried so badly that it was inedible." The chubby boy couldn't help but purse his lips when he mentioned this.

"That meat isn't coated in flour and fried. You can't get that look from flour. It's coated with a special powder, and the sauce also needs to be prepared properly. Here's what I'll do: I'll give a copy of that powder to Steward Xue in a bit, and I'll also write down the recipe and give it to Steward Xue. When you get back to your residence, have your cooks make it a few times, and they should be able to make it successfully." Mo Lan spoke calmly, as if she were talking casually.

Upon hearing this, the three of them stared at her in astonishment. Shouldn't the secret recipe be kept in their own hands? Why would she give it to their household?

"Lanlan, this is your family's recipe, can you make the decision?" The chubby boy asked Molan in disbelief.

“Yes, we can. My grandparents, parents, and uncle and aunt are all good people. Our family feels that the Xue family has helped us so much, and we have nothing to repay them with. Even if it's just a prescription, we would be grateful for more.” Mo Lan nodded and said a few words of gratitude.

"Even more! If you want to repay me, you should collect money from Steward Xue every day." The chubby boy started arguing with Mo Lan again.

“That’s different. It’s only natural for Manager Xue and the others to pay for their meals. I’m making money legitimately. If I didn’t accept payment, I would go bankrupt.” Mo Lan didn’t think she had done anything wrong at all.

"You're always right. Remember to make us some stir-fried cold noodles tomorrow," the chubby boy muttered.

"Okay, you guys eat. I'll go downstairs and get you some green tomatoes and rice noodles." Mo Lan said, then turned and left.

After packing the green tomatoes and starch, she asked Mo Changhai to write down the recipe for sweet and sour pork.

"Lanlan, are we just going to give this prescription to the Xue family like this?" Mo Changhai asked, puzzled.

“Uncle, we’ll be relying on the Xue family a lot in the future. We don’t need to curry favor with them, but giving them some food or a recipe is nothing. The Xue family doesn’t run a restaurant, so the recipe won’t get out. We won’t lose out.” Mo Lan’s eyes flashed as she spoke earnestly to her uncle.

“That’s true. I’ll write it then.” Mo Changhai pondered Mo Lan’s words for a moment and nodded.

Mo Lan handed the recipe and the green tomato starch to Steward Xue, told him the secret to making sweet and sour pork, and then unceremoniously took one tael of silver from him, saying it was for the starch and green tomatoes.

Manager Xue frowned. A few green tomatoes and a little bit of starch cost one tael of silver! That's too expensive! The recipe itself is worth some silver, but this family is giving it away for free! Manager Xue shook his head, not knowing whether to call this family shrewd or stupid!

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