CHAPTER 47: CHAPTER 47: I DON’T WANT YOU TO SUFFER

"Let’s grab a few more things and head home!" Bai Xue didn’t respond to Zhang Yuan, getting ready to enter the space.

"What else are you taking?" Zhang Yuan was puzzled.

"My parents and siblings haven’t had rice yet! I’ll take some home to make rice for them! And I’ll grab some pork belly to make braised pork for them. We’ve had some meat today, but they haven’t tasted it yet!" Bai Xue explained.

"Oh, Xiao Xue! We also need to prepare for our engagement banquet tomorrow!" Zhang Yuan suddenly remembered the engagement banquet they agreed on with Grandma Bai.

"Alright! I know!" Bai Xue nodded, blushing. She had already planned it out in her heart. Since she had the supermarket space, there was no reason to make Zhang Yuan buy things from outside. The food for the engagement banquet would come from the space.

"I’ll go in with you!" Zhang Yuan didn’t want Bai Xue to leave his sight for a moment. Perhaps this was what being head over heels in love felt like.

"For the engagement banquet, we can just prepare six dishes, right?" Zhang Yuan asked Bai Xue, since he was unfamiliar with the traditions here.

"Four dishes are actually enough. There aren’t many formalities here, and those with fewer means don’t even arrange engagement banquets; it’s settled with a verbal agreement! Let’s just make four dishes! Otherwise, my grandma might think you’re loaded and wouldn’t leave you alone!" Bai Xue said.

"I don’t want to shortchange you! An engagement only happens once in a lifetime! I don’t want my girl to feel any less special!" Zhang Yuan began to sound mushy, making Bai Xue a bit uncomfortable.

Isn’t this era supposed to be more reserved? She didn’t notice it at all in Zhang Yuan.

First a confession, then a proposal.

"Not feeling shortchanged. I’d rather not have my grandma causing trouble at our house every day, that would be disastrous! So, it’s settled! Four dishes! We’ll make sorghum rice and corn cakes as the staples! With what we have at home and what you’ve brought over, that’s enough! Our family won’t eat coarse grains anymore, they’re just too hard to swallow!" Bai Xue swallowed hard as she spoke.

"Okay! I’ll follow your lead!" Zhang Yuan agreed without objection.

Xiao Xue wouldn’t make a big fuss, so he would make it up to her in other ways. She was the girl he had longed for, and his one and only in this life; he couldn’t let her feel shortchanged.

Bai Xue took ten pounds of rice and ten pounds of pork belly from the supermarket. The meat would be used for the engagement banquet too. Even with just four dishes, there had to be some meat in them.

She also took easy-to-store winter staples like potatoes, cabbage, radishes, vermicelli, and dried bean curd slices. This way, there were enough dishes for the engagement banquet.

She didn’t dare to take too much rice at once, fearing that Grandma Bai might notice during the crowded banquet. So, she brought out only ten pounds.

"Alright! Let’s go!" Bai Xue securely placed all the items she was taking out and led Zhang Yuan out of the space, planning to take them out when they got close to the village.

The two locked the courtyard door and rode their bikes home, trying to get back before it got dark. They needed to return before her two sisters cooked dinner, as they planned to make rice and braised pork.

Rushing back, they arrived home just as the two sisters were about to start cooking.

Zhang Yuan carried all the items they brought back inside.

"Xiao Yuan, why did you buy so many things?" Bai Daliang looked at the rice, meat, and vegetables, worried about Zhang Yuan’s spending.

"Uncle, tomorrow we’re throwing two engagement banquet tables! These are the ingredients for tomorrow!" Zhang Yuan doesn’t explain further; he intended to make it up to Xiao Xue later, so he took advantage of this moment.

"That’s too much! We can just invite family over for a meal without getting so much!" Bai Daliang still felt troubled.

"That’s right! No need for two tables, one is enough! We’ll invite your second and third uncle along with grandpa and grandma to settle the engagement!" Wang Cuihua agreed.

"Mom, shouldn’t we invite grandma and grandpa for the engagement too?" Bai Rushan asked.

Upon hearing Bai Rushan mention grandma and grandpa, Wang Cuihua’s expression stiffened. She hadn’t seen her parents in a long time; it hurt her inside, but she managed to suppress her feelings as she spoke.

"No need to invite them; your grandparents are busy at home."

"Busy with what? Grandma and grandpa don’t have to go collect firewood; uncle does that! I heard their health hasn’t been good..." Bai Ruchuan remarked, puzzled. Grandma and grandpa were always so good to them. As a child, he loved being held by them. But later on, their mom didn’t allow them to visit their grandparents, nor did she take them there. Once, when he sneaked off to visit them, his mom found out and punished him severely.

"Little Chuan! Go out and help your sisters with the fire!" Bai Daliang snapped.

He knew about the grievances between his wife and her family. When their sons brought it up, he quickly checked his wife’s expression. Luckily, Wang Cuihua didn’t react much.

"Fine! I’ll help with the fire. I’m just telling the truth, why can’t I talk about it! Mom isn’t being filial and even stops us from mentioning..." Bai Ruchuan muttered and went outside.

"Alright, Cuihua, Little Chuan was too young to remember those days! Let’s not dwell on unhappy times!" Bai Daliang comforted Wang Cuihua, whose expression had darkened.

"Okay" Wang Cuihua merely responded, her head bowed, masking any expression as she soothed the little one who had just awakened.

Seeing the increasingly tense atmosphere in the room, Zhang Yuan said, "Uncle, I’ll go help them outside!"

And then he dashed out.

"Is there anything I can help with?" Zhang Yuan addressed the scene outside where the three sisters were busy cooking, and Bai Ruchuan was disgruntled with tending the fire.

"Brother-in-law, you take over the fire!" Bai Ruchuan quickly stood up and offered his spot. "I’ll go hang out for a bit..."

"Alright! Go on!" Zhang Yuan, won over by being addressed as brother-in-law, took up the task of tending the fire.

In the end, Bai Xue cooked a large pot of rice, made braised pork, and stir-fried sour and spicy potato strips. As the dishes were set on the table, everyone was tempted to swallow their tongues.

"Sis, is this rice? It’s rice!" Bai Ruxia exclaimed, almost drooling as she stared at the large bowl of white rice, more excited than seeing the braised pork.

"Xiao Xia, look at you getting so easily impressed. Hurry up and serve the rice. Sis will make rice for you every day from now on!" Bai Xue laughed.

"Every day? Really?" Bai Ruxia always trusted her older sister’s words, and hearing about eating rice every day made her exceedingly happy.

"Third sister, look at you getting so easily impressed. There’s braised pork too! But you can’t help but stop in your tracks at the sight of rice, is rice better than braised pork?" Bai Ruchuan returned from his walk around, having forgotten the earlier incident, teasing his third sister as usual.

"Get lost! I haven’t tasted rice before! I’ve had meat!" Bai Ruxia retorted, serving the rice while talking.

Bai Xue and Zhang Yuan exchanged glances and chuckled. Compared to the steady personalities of Bai Ruyun and Bai Rushan, Bai Ruxia and Bai Ruchuan’s lively and cheerful nature was more entertaining!

"Xiao Yuan! From now on, don’t buy such expensive fine grains. Rice is something that’s hard to acquire even if you have money! We can’t eat like this!" Wang Cuihua, returning to her usual self, sighed looking at the large bowl of rice.

Her grandmother wanted a sip of rice porridge before she passed away but didn’t get to taste it, passing with regret. Now they were eating rice; wasn’t this indulgent?