Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on my brother and sister-in-law on their wedding night.

My sister-in-law’s family had no elders, and Mother hadn’t exactly put her heart into the preparations, so the wedding was a little chaotic. Someone had scattered lotus seeds on the bridal bed but forgotten the peanuts. When I noticed, I wanted to sneak back in and toss some on.

But by the time I returned, they had already shut the door.

The candlelight inside was tiny. I couldn’t see my brother’s expression, but his voice sounded terribly flustered. “D-Don’t be afraid. The candles will get dimmer and dimmer, and I’ll be gentle.”

My sister-in-law pushed him away. “Idiot. The brighter the candles are on a wedding night, the better. Go get the scissors and trim the wick. If it isn’t bright enough, wouldn’t that handsome face of yours go to waste?”

People always talked about shy new brides, but in our family, the shy one seemed to be someone else.

Then my sister-in-law said something even bolder. My brother seemed to have been pinned underneath her as she declared, full of fighting spirit, “Young Mr. Tian, I don’t care whether you married in for money or to repay a debt of gratitude. Since you’ve entered the Feng Family, you have to do your utmost to get me pregnant. Tonight is our first time, so you’d better let me get a good look at what you’re capable of.”

I was still wondering who Young Mr. Tian was when I suddenly remembered that my sister-in-law was three years older than my brother. Calling him young sir did make sense.

But as for what he was capable of after that, I never found out. A maid passed by and, blushing, led me away.

I didn’t dare ask Mother either. Things between her and my sister-in-law were still a bit awkward.

My sister-in-law arranged for us to live in the biggest courtyard, but Mother insisted on squeezing into a small side courtyard with Father and me. When my sister-in-law assigned maids and servants to us, Mother said outright that we couldn’t possibly accept such luxury. Even for three meals a day, she sent me off to eat with my brother and sister-in-law while she stayed behind and drank thin porridge.

My brother and sister-in-law were one step away from standing outside the courtyard every day and begging her, but she still wouldn’t budge.

When I asked Mother why, she sighed. “All of this belongs to that young lady. What decent family lets a daughter-in-law support an entire household? The more I eat, the less your brother will be able to hold his head up.”

I liked my sister-in-law very much. She didn’t treat me like a silly little girl. Since I liked counting copper coins, she tossed me into the accounts room and let me count to my heart’s content. She even had the accounts keeper’s wife set problems to test me.

She said, “Learn. Learn as much as you can. In this world, only skills you’ve mastered will never run away from you.”

So I hid it from Mother and secretly told my sister-in-law what Mother had said.

She stroked my little face, which had grown a bit plumper. “Is braised pork tasty?”

I nodded. “It is.”

“Then how about I move a small kitchen into your courtyard and have Aunt Tian make it for you every day?”

When my sister-in-law said this, she smiled like she was up to something. It didn’t take long for me to understand what she was smiling about.

What is meat? Meat is the most tyrannical delicacy under heaven.

In one little courtyard, a pot of three-layered pork belly simmered in an iron wok with rock sugar, soy sauce, and a few star anise pods.

That smell could make even a sleeping pig drool.

Mother wasn’t asleep, so of course it went straight up her nose.

The first meal, she gulped down her porridge and fled back to her room. The second meal, she started swallowing before the porridge even reached her mouth. By the third meal, I stuffed a big piece of meat into her mouth. Gulp. She swallowed it right along with her saliva, then took two mouthfuls of plain white rice, and oh, did she eat with relish.

Once you take the first bite, you get used to the second. No amount of pride is worth that much trouble. I told her that adding a small kitchen meant hiring more people, and only then did she obediently sit down at the same dining table as my sister-in-law.