The eldest daughter of the main branch, Jiang Xiaoduo.
From Jiang Dahua's family, Jiangxiaoguo.
And the youngest daughter born to Grandma Jiang, their youngest aunt, Jiang Caier.
All around fourteen or fifteen years old.
In ancient times, rural girls of their age were already married off.
She thought, misfortune should be diverted elsewhere.
"The eldest son of the Jiangs is already thirty-two years old, Jiang Caier is only fourteen... a child born in old age, also the last child of Grandma Jiang, whom she loves as dearly as her own eyeballs. If Zhang Dabao were to court Jiang Caier, Grandma Jiang wouldn't let the matter rest without cursing at the entrance of the Zhang family for a couple of hours."
"For Jiang Caier, there are no daughters who are worthless. Jiang Caier doesn't do any farm work at all, instead, she does embroidery and reads books. Grandma Jiang is hoping she will marry into a wealthy family in the town and become a wealthy wife."
Clearly, Jiang Tanyue is skilled at gathering information; she has already understood the ins and outs of Lake West Village and the Jiang family within days.
The Imperial Noble Consort found Jiang Tanyue more and more pleasing the more she looked at her, the once thin young girl with an expressionless face was now growing on her...
Her eyes were very quiet, when she was not faking smiles, they held a kind of cold indifference that made people's heart palpitate.
Not bad, not bad at all.
Her Majesty the Imperial Noble Consort favored such a scheming young girl.
She had a ruthless hand, was good at sowing discord, and shifting the blame, just like the Imperial Noble Consort in her younger years when she did all kinds of harm.
Being stared at by such a gaze, Jiang Tanyue didn't feel uncomfortable and calmly met the gaze.
Having suffered such an injustice, the Zhang family wouldn't let the matter rest.
They would come to seek payback sooner or later.
Lu Jingzhi said, "When the Zhang family comes, I'll be in charge of the fighting, and you'll be in charge of the negotiations."
And so, the matter was decided.
-
Going up the mountain in the morning, apart from the two wild chickens, Lu Jiangzhi had also secured other provisions.
Bamboo shoots, cassava, potatoes, mushrooms, and some wild fruits, all found deep in the mountains.
What she'd seen far exceeded these. She was lucky enough to come across fruit trees like hawthorn, mulberry, and loquat, and since it was the harvest season, and no one had picked them, they grew naturally and fell off.
The basket wasn't large, so she only brought back a few of each kind.
"Potato stew with chicken." Lu Jingzhi licked her lips. Staring at her, Jiang Tanyue calmly said, "We chopped some wood in the morning. We used it up cooking porridge at noon."
Lu Jingzhi walked around the kitchen.
The not-so-large kitchen seemed rather spacious because it was empty.
Because they were destitute, there were hardly any traces of life. It was neither clean nor particularly dirty.
A large pot discarded by the Jiang family was placed crookedly on the stove because it had a broken mouth.
There was still more than half of the rice left; they hadn't touched the white flour yet.
As for cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar... they were basically non-existent.
"This is really hard for someone who can't cook!" Lu Jingzhi closed her eyes in pain and mumbled, "I'm hungry... my stomach is growling..."
It had been less than an hour since they had eaten lunch.
People need to eat meat.
"Chicken for dinner?" Shen Nanwei's gaze moved between the two, "Who will kill the chicken? Just so you know, I definitely won't do this kind of thing."
Jiang Tanyue took a step back, "I'll go chop wood."
Lu Jingzhi: "I'll go kill the chicken."
"What about you?" Jiang Tanyue asked, just as she had the previous two days, "You have to do something, don't you?"
Shen Nanwei casually answered, "Embroidery."
They divided the work, the chicken went into the pot, water was added, the last chunk of coarse salt was put in, the clean mushrooms, and bamboo shoots were added, everything carefully arranged.
The cover was put on, a fire was lit, the job of keeping the fire going was left to Jiang Tanyue.
On her way back to the room, Lu Jingzhi stopped in her tracks as she cleaned her hands with her water mastery special ability, drawing on the water element in the air.
There was a commotion outside.