The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 055: Protecting Wife
"Mother, what you said is wrong." Xia Yue Chu replied slowly "In the past few years when Da Zhuang was not here, I wasn't just eating the rice at home without contribution, I have not laze a single bit of the work in the field, I have also not missed out in any chores in and around the whole house. Besides, I am not a newly married bride, I also know the rules in the family, each wives of each families can accept their own side jobs to earn their own money, those have always been their own private savings, how is that seen as hidden. What's more, I have never forgotten to bring Sister-in-law and Xiao Qin along whenever I go out for my business, and now you are still eyeing on this money I made by myself. Even if you retell this story outside, there is no logic to it at all."
"I am only saying a few sentences about you and you have an entire repartee waiting for me!" Madam Sheng pointed to the tip of Xia Yue Chu's nose, shrieking. "I think not only have you harden your backbone now, but even your mouth is a lot sharper. Don't tell me about those useless things, you are not the head of the family and you don't understand how expensive the commodities are. Ever since Da Zhuang came back, how much money had the family spent in total? You think that all those that you eat and drink are something that had fallen from the skies?"
"Mother, Da Zhuang's legs and feet are inconvenienced. We have always been cooking with a separate fire, other than using the grains ingredients from the house, everything else are either given by my mother's family or gained through my own efforts, and every time when there is something delicious, we never forget a share for Father and Mother and the kids. Do we have to really move out completely before everything is okay?
How could Madam Sheng be willing to let them branch off from the family, her initial plan was to scrape some more oil and water (Meaning: to squeeze out more benefits) from Xue Zhuang, and now that there was Xia Yue Chu, a huge money making tree, before her eyes, all the more was she refusing to let go of her hands.
The abacus in her heart snapped loudly, Xia Yue Chu went cooking a banquet for the Cui family this time, adding in the preparation time which was only but two more days or so, and she could make five taels of silver like this, how much money would she get in a year?
By that time, wouldn't their whole family be sleeping on a bed of silver?
So right at this moment, Xia Yue Chu must be suppressed, and the money must be taken from her, if she had began the practice otherwise, it would have been even more impossible to take the money from her in the future.
Thinking up to this point, Madam Sheng suddenly remembered something, grabbed Xia Yue Chu by her wrist and spewed angrily. "I just remembered, the last time you went to cook the newlywed return banquet for the Cui family, you came back lying to us, saying you only made a few hundred copper coins, if its not for Xiao Qin following you today, I would still have been kept in the dark by you!"
Xia Yue Chu looked at Madam Sheng's greedy and ugly face, only to feel that her stomach was beginning to churn.
"Last time for the newlywed returning banquet, there were two tables, and there were only relatives and friends of the Cui family, they were all home-cooked food, so the pay is naturally not that high. This time, for the Old Sire's birthday celebration, people were coming from all over the town and cities, there were five tables set up inside, not only so, there are also rare dishes that take a lot of time and skills such as crabs, sea prawns, and baby quails. Even so, the salary is only one and a half tael of silver. The remaining four taels are given by the Cui family as tips. If Mother doesn't believe it, the Cui family is right there in the village, if you don't believe go knock at their door and ask them yourself!"
After saying so much, Xia Yue Chu did not want to continue the useless chatter with Madam Sheng anymore. Seeing that it was getting late, she grabbed the wild pheasant, preparing to go back and cook it.
Madam Sheng had been thoroughly confused by all that Xia Yue Chu had said, she had not even heard of crabs and sea prawns.
As for going to the Cui family and ask?
She wanted to go too, but she had to have the courage to do so.
"I don't care if you are paid or rewarded, you have to give me the money regardless!" Madam Sheng could not win the debate with Xia Yue Chu, and she did not plan to argue with her anymore, so she habitually pulled out a firewood stick from the firewood stack next to her, looming over Xia Yue Chu's face and striking it towards her.
In a hurry Xia Yue Chu could only closed her eyes tightly and blocked with her hands.
But the expected pain did not come, only a gust of wind slicing through the air next to her ears.
Madam Sheng suddenly fell to the ground weakly, the wooden stick in her hand fell aside, and there was a dagger stuck in it, it was still swinging from its impactful momentum.
Xia Yue Chu turned her head abruptly and saw Xue Zhuang sitting by the window, in his hand, he was holding a small wooden block which he had been craving these days.
Madam Sheng was so scared that she almost peed her pants, pointed at Xue Zhuang and stammered, "You, you, are really rebelling, I, although I didn't give birth to you, but I... ..."
Saying up to this point, she could see Xue Zhuang pulling out another small shiny knife from his inner pocket, spinning it around his fingertips.
Madam Sheng did not dare to say anything more. The last knife hit the center point of the wooden stick. If this knife had flown over, who could tell where he would aim at.
She did not spare anymore effort to trouble Xia Yue Chu, she was so scared that she crawled and scrambled back to the main house and closed the door shut. Only then did she regained her reluctance to admit defeat and threatened. "You, you wait for me! I'll settle the account with you when your Father comes back!"
Xia Yue Chu pulled out the dagger that was stuck on the firewood and returned to the house with the pheasant in her hand. She returned the dagger to Xue Zhuang, with sparkly eyes exclaiming. "You are amazing! Did you learn this when you were a soldier?"
Xue Zhuang received the dagger, and swishly demonstrated a flower spin technique with the knife, calmly replying. "En, if you want to learn, I can teach you something simple later."
Xia Yue Chu smiled and waved her hand off, "Forget about flying knives, I'm still more interested in kitchen knives!"
Xue Zhuang's expression remained the same when he heard that, but the gleam in his eyes seemed to damper a little.
The flying knife was his unique Kungfu skills, even for a brother like Qin Zheng who had been though life and death situations together, he had never thought to teach him a stunt or two of this skill.
He did not know why he blurted out such a thing just now.
Who could have expected that even after such an offer, Xia Yue Chu was actually not willing to learn it at all, and rejected him without even considering it.
Seeing Xue Zhuang's dark eyes becoming blank in an instant, Xia Yue Chu held back her laughter and said. "Anyway, won't you be around, you will protect me, right?"
Xue Zhuang was taken aback hearing that, a glimpse of surprised flashed through his eyes. His body automatically nodded before he could comprehend it, and then after, his body tensed up again.
Xia Yue Chu revealed a satisfied smile, and patted him on the shoulder. "Isn't it all set! Just wait, I'll make you something delicious for dinner!
After she said so, she took the pheasant into the kitchen.
As soon as she turned around, Xia Yue Chu could not continue concealing the smile at the corners of her lips.
After this period of getting along, she had become more and more clear about Xue Zhuang's character, and he was a person who was cold on the outside and hot on the inside, completely a proud yet delicate troublesome mute.
His entire being already screamed out his apparent unhappiness, yet his expression was still tight and his face was still tensed, behaving as if others could not perceive it.
But as long as you gently stroked in the same direction of his fur a few times, his eyes would immediately flicker with joy, like a satisfied little child.
But strangely, although he behaved like a child, and his legs were not complying to his commands, as long as he was around, it gave off an inexplicable sense of security... ...
Xia Yue Chu patted her face which caught a sudden fever, and concentrated on cleaning up the pheasant in her hands.
Putting the cleaned pheasant into a clay pot, hanging it above the firepit, and cooking it slowly.
She was about to pick up more firewood, but it was raining heavily outside without warning.
Raindrops the sized of beans were hitting the dry land, provoking bursts of splattering dirt, which were then quickly suppressed again by the rapid raindrops, the air was filled with the smell of wet soil.
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Translator Notes:
I truly hope that it was the last of Madam Sheng, but unfortunately... sighs.
Translated by YellowBean.