Chapter 9 - Let"s Eat Breakfast
Su Wan quickly filled her bucket until less than half of it was covered with shrimp and decided that this much will be able to more or less fill those five husbands of her"s including her and mother Lin . After all they needed to settle down in their new house without any energy left after running around so much , how will they clean up ?
Su Wan didn"t mind if the house was big or small but she cared about its cleanliness, with dust and dirt coating her room"s floor she was certain she wouldn"t be able to sleep . Thus , to make sure that Her husbands worked hard , Su Wan decided to have them eat their fill . ??
When she returned to Lin Chen"s side she was surprised to find that Lin Chen though a novice was quick to learn infact the man even rushed back to where they were temporarily lodging and brought back another bucket .
In just a short while he had become such a skilled fisherman that he filled both buckets with fishes until the last of the fishes were flapping over each other .
" Why did you catch so much?" seeing two buckets full of fishes even Su Wan was stupified , this - just how many days he wanted to eat fish ?
" This one is for us and this one is for selling to the villagers " said Lin Chen pointing to the other bucket " Believe it or not , villagers have hard time catching fishes , if someone catch and bring it to them they will buy it for three or two copper coins , its not much but in our condition every coin counts "
Su Wan "s mouth turned into an O shape and she nodded . This husband of her"s had quite some business skills , though he looked like an idiot with that grin .
She sneaked a peek at his grinning face furtively .
A handsome idiot .She rectified .
Bearing the three buckets Su Wan and Lin Chen returned back to their hut , on the way she brought some coriander and ginger .
Lin Chen saw the originally jingling pouch get smaller and smaller and felt his heart ache , as Su Wan "s husband it should have been him who brought things for his wife but because of his lack of capability , he could only watch his wife use all her savings to feed him and his brothers .
He saw how tired his wife was yet she still woke up from her nap and went to catch fishes and shrimps to cook something for all the brothers . In the future he will definitely treat her well and never bully her , except when they were on the bed , or else how will he have kids ?
Su Wan who was haggling with the vegetable seller didn"t know that the brat beside her was already lost in his day dreams .
***
" W- Wife , th-third br-brother , you , you are her-here " Lin Yu who was tending the fire and cooking the vegetable broth and rice as per Su Wan "s wishes hurried to welcome them .
" En we are back " Su Wan naturally responded not caring about his stuttering , Lin Yu saw her respond without looking at him with pity and felt a warmth burst forth in his heart . Except his family everyone treated him like a disable person when he could mostly do whatever a normal person could do , except for his slight stuttering and limping , there was nothing wrong with him .Why should he be looked at by a sympathizing gaze ? When his elder brother told him that he too will be following them to marry their wife , Lin Yu was stunned and anxious , how can he marry a wife ? What if she looked down at him ? Compared to his four brothers he wasn"t a looker nor was he strong and neither could he flatter a woman .
However , Su Wan didn"t care about these slight things and treated him like she treated anyome else , she left him in charge of making the fire and cooking the rice .It showed that she thought of him as a normal man .
Su Wan didn"t know what Lin Yu was thinking instead once she saw that the rice was ready , she took the shrimps and started to peel and devein them .
First she started by peeling , she grabbed a shrimp and pulled off the legs then used her thumbs to crack the sh.e.l.l open along the underside (where the sh.e.l.l is softer) , then she pulled off the sh.e.l.l and after peeling it off , she started to devein it , she made a shallow cut along the back of the shrimp and then pulled out the vein with the tip of her knife.
[ A/n : I"m a vegetarian , I have no idea how these things work nor have I eaten shrimp , if anything is wrong with the process please chose to ignore it ]
Lin Chen and Lin Yu saw her doing something that was both disgusting and gruesome , so how can they as the men of the house let their wife do something like this ?
Lin Chen and Lin Yu hurriedly took away the knife from Su Wan and started to clean the shrimps as Su Wan taught them to .
" Oi , Third Lin ! Are you selling these fishes ?" while Lin Chen was messily deveining the shrimps , an old villager walked over to their hut and pointed to the bucket that was filled with fishes .
" ah yes , yes ..Uncle Guan , I"m selling those " said Lin Chen hurriedly wiping his hand on the rag that Su Wan gave him " The big ones for three copper coins and the smaller ones for two , which one would you like ?"
Uncle Guan lived in the village with his wife and Son , his son was yet to marry a wife and was really lazy . Seeing , Lin Chen and Lin Yu working even on the day of their marriage , Uncle Guan grew even more dissatisfied with his son while he praised the Lin brothers for being so hard working .
" Let"s see ,give me the big one " said Uncle Guan pointing to a particularly fresh and lively fish that was still flapping hard against the others
" Alright " Lin Chen took the knife from Lin Yu and dealt with the fish that Uncle Guan was pointing at " it will be three copper coins , Uncle Guan "
" Here- oh that smells good "
The villagers were usually close with each other especially old villagers like Uncle Guan , when the old man smelled something good , he spoke out without much thought .
" Would Uncle Guan like some?" adding the fresh coriander and spring onion to the ladled porridge , Su Wan asked , she even added a bit of black pepper to it , since she didn"t had any sauces she could only make do with it .
" Ah , no , no " rejected Uncle Guan quickly he didn"t know that the appetizing smell came from the Lin brothers pot ..If he did he wouldn"t have spoken out . He too lived in the same village and knew that the Old madam Lin sent the Lin brothers packing with only half a bucket of rice and nothing else ,if he ate food from their pot wasn"t he s.n.a.t.c.hing it directly from a starving man ?
" Go ahead Uncle Guan , its nothing much but its my wife"s hospitality to you , eat up " Lin Chen too took a bowl from Su Wan and hurriedly started to eat it all up if not for it being so hot , he would have swallowed it all in one go !
It was just so delicious ! completely diffrent from second brother "s cooking , no wonder mother kept saying they needed a woman in their lives .
Without Su Wan who else would have cooked such a delicious thing for him ?
Uncle Guan could no longer refuse , after all this was Lin Chen wife"s hospitality , if he didn"t eat maybe the new bride will get hurt . And the porridge do looked really good .
Su Wan didn"t let Uncle Guan think much about it and handed him a bowl , after all this old man just brought three copper coins worth of fish , giving him a bowl of shrimp porridge wasn"t much .
" Here , you go mother " she took the bowl from Lin Yu and gave it to mother Lin with a plate under it making sure that mother Lin didn"t touch it directly .
" you child ah , you should eat more " seeing the bowl that was completely filled to brim with glossy rice and popping red hot shrimp , mother Lin couldn"t help but feel choked . How many years it has been since she last ate a good meal ?
" we have a lot mother , you should eat your fill " said Su Wan as she sat down and began muching on her porridge as well .
" that"s right mother " Lin Chen agreed and ladled more in his bowl sitting back on his boulder " Don"t worry eat as much as you like it , we got some fish as well , wife said that she will cook Soilburied steak "
" Salisbury Steak " Su Wan hurriedly corrected him lest he made every one believe that she was going to feed fish buried in soil to her family .
" Yeah that"s the one " said Lin Chen rubbing his head with a stupid smile .
When they heard Lin Chen everyone laughed even Su Wan
" Ah ! This was good " said Uncle Guan getting on his feet " here Lin Chen give me another small fish , I will have my wife prepare a lavish meal for me tonight "
Lin Chen nodded and hurriedly dealt with the fish handing it to Uncle Guan , everyone knew that Uncle Guan brought the fish as he didn"t want to eat their food for nothing but no body said anything and finished their meal .
" i-it w-was really de-de-delicious , wife " said Lin Yu taking the bowls amd chopsticks for cleaning , his wife cooked now it was his responsibilities to wash .
" Thank you " smiled Su Wan accepting Lin Yu"s praise infact she didn"t deserved much praise as she only cooked the porridge a bit differently than others , the villagers used rock salt as whole but Su Wan , grinded it with a clean rock and evenly divided it making it less coa.r.s.e . Since, the flavour of the salt spread evenly , every one thought it was delicious except her .
Gah! she missed fish sauce so much ! Her fish sauce! Her chilli pepper ! Her soy sauce
Without them this meal was really too bland .
By the time Lin Yu finished washing the bowls , Lin Rui returned with the house and farming deeds ..
Author"s note :Hey my lovely readers I hope you are liking the story till now , I know there are a bit unrealistic things involved in the novel here and there but author san hopes that you will ignore it , I would love to read your lovely comments if you want you can leave them below and - dun dun dun !!
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Character details :-
Su Wan :- protagonist , a chef in her previous life was divorced and cheated by her husband hence she has her trust issues .
Lin Jing :- eldest Lin brother , stoic and a man of few words , doesn"t like to talk to anyone other than Su Wan, his brothers and his mother .
Lin Yan : - Second Lin brother , cold and indifferent on the outside yet tries to take proper care of his brothers and mother . Has a sharp tongue against fairer gender Except his wife and mother .
Lin Chen : - Third Lin brother , energetic and ever smiling but gets really angry when his family is involved.
Lin Rui :- The fourth Lin brother , has a scholarly aura , gentle and refined doesn"t like to raise his voice but knows when he needs to get angry .
Lin Yu :- The youngest fifth brother, weak and shy a bit reticent , takes after his mother and looks slightly feminine , still going through p.u.b.erty because of lack of nutrition thus his voice is still on a softer side . The baby brother who will soon turn a big bad wolf when he gets his wife .