The General's Delicious Wife Chapter 071: Stewed Frog and Potato
Xia Yue Chu could not be bothered with the brothers' discomfort, she started her feast happily.
"If you don't start eating, it's going to get cold!" Xia Yue Chu spat out the bone in her mouth, and looked hopelessly at the two big man who did not even dare to eat forest frogs.
They said they used to be soldiers right, why would they be fidgety or surprised by the likes of this?
"If the both of you don't dare to eat this, I'll go and make another dish. You can't be eating just the dry maize cakes on its own."
Xue Zhuang retorted subconsciously, "Who said I dare not eat!"
Over at Xia Yue Chu's side, she had already swallowed two frogs. While on the other side, those two were still exchanging distressing glances with each other.
"If you dared to eat, then at least move your chopsticks ah!" Xia Yue Chu saw how Xue Zhuang was forcing himself, and she almost could not hold back her laughter and the tensed corners of her lips.
The chopsticks in his hands moved towards the stewed frogs slowly, but refusal were spewing from his eyes.
He hesitantly picked up a piece of the frog's leg, but he did not want to put it into his bowl at all, bringing it to himself and then suddenly changing the direction, dropping it into Qin Zheng's bowl instead.
"You must be tired working in the field all day, eat more!"
"Big Brother..." Qin Zheng suffered in his indignation until his whole face turned red, and finally, he gritted his teeth under the threatening look of Xue Zhuang. "Thank you Big Brother, I, I will try it."
He picked up the frog leg and stuffed it quickly into his mouth, his face was so twisted as if he had taken a big bite of poison.
Qin Zheng's expression began to relaxed immediately afterwards, the frog legs were not as disgusting or difficult to swallow as he imagined it to be. The potato that were stewed together were cooked till it was soft and mash-like, mixed with the stewed sauce completely coating the outer layer of frog leg.
The meat on the frog legs were not considered plump, but because it was constantly active, the meat was firm and tight, at the same time, it was smooth and tender.
The two aspects seemed to be contradicting, but being used here as the description was a perfect fit.
Qin Zheng's eyes lit up as he ate, and he had long forgotten about his resistance just now. Encouraging Xue Zhuang heartily, "Big Brother, you should try it, it's delicious!"
Xue Zhuang did not expect Qin Zheng to switch camp so quickly, he lifted his head up and met with Xia Yue Chu's slyly smiling eyes.
As if he was venting his anger, he randomly clamped a chopstick full and put it in his mouth.
There was no strange taste that he thought it would have, chewing it twice within his mouth, he only felt the springy bounce against his teeth.
The originally clustered particles were chewed apart and dispersed, rolling everywhere within the captivity between his tongue and teeth.
Although it did not taste bad, this unexpected texture was something he had for the very first time.
Xue Zhuang could not decide if he should swallow it or spit it out, and it was rare for him to appear helplessly dazed.
"Haha, you, you ate a piece of frog eggs!" Xia Yue Chu finally could not stop herself from flopping onto the table laughing out loud, she could not help to ask, "How is it, is it delicious?"
Xue Zhuang's mood was about to darken again, but the rich and mellow taste that spread out in his mouth made him unable to disagree.
Xia Yue Chu finally ceased her laughter. Seeing that he was not rejecting it as he initially had, she chose a few pieces of frog legs and placed them into his bowl.
"Forest frogs are especially nourishing, you should eat more."
Despite the initial refusal, they could not stand against Xia Yue Chu's amazing cooking talent.
After Xia Yue Chu had her fill and placed her chopsticks down, Xue Zhuang and Qin Zheng immediately started their daily competition of devouring the remaining food.
The chopsticks were flying over the dishes, and the both of them ate extremely fast. They could not care whether they were picking the frog meat or the frog eggs, and they ate them all without hesitation.
Qin Zheng was completely exhausted today, even the last drop of stewed sauce at the bottom of the pot was soaked up by maize cakes and eaten clean.
He cradled his round belly while lying on the brick bed and sighed out comfortably, "Sister-in-law's skills are really unmatched, I think that no matter what kind of ingredient is it, if it ends up in Sister-in-law's hands, it will always taste good!"
Every time Xue Zhuang heard him calling Sister-in-law, he felt uneasy about it but he could not voice his opinion or correct him, he could only order him around. "Don't you still have to deliver food and change the medicine for someone else?"
Only then did Qin Zheng remembered that he had this errand. He turned over and sagged into the folded blankets, whimpering for a break to laze around. "Big Brother, I'll go after a break, I'm really tired to death today. It's even worst than receiving training from you."
"Ah Zheng is really drained out today, I can go deliver the meal instead." Xia Yue Chu spoke out from the kitchen.
"Tired? After eating so much, this is the best time for work out for digestion. He is just lacking in exercise!" Xue Zhuang replied coldly.
Seeing that Xue Zhuang was really displeased, Qin Zheng hurriedly got up and ran to the kitchen to tell her, "Sister-in-law, you can just pack the food and give it to me. His medication needs to be changed too and it won't be convenient for you to go."
Xia Yue Chu agreed after thinking about it, the placement of the wound was too sensitive, the chore of changing the medicine was truly not suitable for her to do.
She packed the specially reserved stewed frog and potato into a clay jar, wrapping it up with a old cotton coat to keep it warm.
"Sister-in-law, you are too concerned over the details, why do we need to wrap it up for him, it will be thoroughly cold by tomorrow anyways."
"This dish can't be eaten cold, it will be too fishy." Xia Yue Chu tied the things up tightly inside a cloth bundle, pushing them to Qin Zheng and told him. "There are breadcakes and salted vegetables, and some fried fish, those are for him to eat tomorrow."
Qin Zheng could not help himself from muttering, "Sister-in-law, you are too kind to him, and you even fried fish for him alone."
"We had caught so much fish previously, giving Aunt Chen a good portion and we still had so much left. I thought your brother and you were getting sick from eating them, so I might as well make them for Feng Qi to nourish his health."
"Sister-in-law, I am telling you, you don't need to care too much about him, that kid is not a kind person." Qin Feng grumbled, "I know from just looking at his eyes, that one is like a little wolf cub, that won't get familiar with anyone even if you feed him."
Xia Yue Chu laughed when she heard what he said, and she merely thought that Qin Zheng was speaking with a child's temper.
After all, he and Feng Qi were about the same age, they were both trained with kungfu and it was normal for them to see each other with rivalry prejudices.
"Since we had saved him, we should do it to the end." She calmed Qin Zheng down, "As for whether he is a wolf cub or a dog pup, it doesn't matter whether he becomes familiar to us or not."
When Qin Zheng heard Xia Yue Chu naturally using the phrase "we", his mood improved all of the sudden. He picked up the cloth bundle and flipped over the back fence with light hearted steps.
During the day, everyone was tired from the busy farm work. So at this moment, the village was surprisingly quiet, and there was not even a person outside.
Qin Zheng did not need to go around the village deliberately, and soon he came to the thatched house.
Feng Qi was behaving honestly this time, and did not trouble himself by climbing up to the beam of the room.
He covered up the area before lighting up the candle, for the fear that the light would be too bright and be seen by others.
The flickering light illuminated the small area on the brick bed.
Feng Qi was sitting on the brick bed leaning on his back, his pair of peach blossom eyes shone brightly as he stared at the cloth bundle that Qin Zheng was carrying.
He twitched his nose, stretched out his injured leg with a courageous expression and said, "Hurry up and change the medicine, I can smell the fragrance though its covered up in layers!"
Qin Zheng remembered what Xia Yue Chu said and turned to unwrap the cloth bundle, taking the food out. "Eat first, it won't be delicious when it's cold."
"Yo, did the sun raised from the west this morning*?" Feng Qi couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and looked at Qin Zheng. Seeing that he was about to take away the dinner, he hurriedly jumped up and latched onto the clay pot, and said with an appeasing smile, "Don't take it away, I'm about to starve to death."
Qin Zheng flung his hands off impatiently, he selected a clean spot to sit down and rushed him. "Eat quickly!"
Feng Qi removed the lid of the pottery jar and took a deep breath, beaming with happiness on his face.
"Hasma stewed potato, your family's diet is honestly good!" Feng Qi ate quickly, stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth, twirled it with the tip of his tongue, his thin lips curled and a few pieces of spotlessly clean little bones were spat out.
He ate most of it in one breath before slowing down and got emotional, "This culinary talent is comparable to those Imperial chefs!"
"Che, you don't even know how to brag, have you ever eaten an imperial meal or seen an imperial chef?" Qin Zheng rebutted spitefully but he was feeling so proud in his heart. "But my sister-in-law's culinary skills is truly impeccable."
"It's just such a pity ah!"
"What's a pity?"
Feng Qi squinted his eyes and licked his lips. "It's a pity that with such a good skills, why marry your brother?"
"I knew it, an elephant's teeth wouldn't come out from your dog's mouth**."
Seeing that Feng Qi had finished eating, Qin Zheng stretched out and grabbed his ankles. With a vigorous pull, he immediately put the person down on the brick bed, he untied the bandage, and began to administer the medicine without mercy.
"Si---"
The medicinal powder being sprinkled over the wound triggered a soul searching moment, that even Feng Qi who had a high tolerance for pain, couldn't help but to suck in a breath of cool air.
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Translator Notes:
*The sun raising from the west, meaning the day is occurring from the opposite direction, its a common exclamation referring to a person behaving in the opposite manner of how they would normally behaved.
**Elephant's teeth coming out from your dog's mouth, meaning a person would not speak too differently from how they would normally speak. So if a person is used to speaking rudely, you would not expect them to suddenly speak kindly. This phrase describes the expected comments coming from a person, like "I knew you were going to say this."
Translated by YellowBean.