CHAPTER 33: CHAPTER 32: FOUR UNFILIAL CHILDREN

"Crack!" A sound echoed.

Several fresh river fish were thrown into the bucket by Qin Yao, who looked down at the man holding a bowl in front of her:

"Add some water to keep them alive, we’ll have them as a treat for everyone tomorrow at noon."

Liu Ji curiously asked, "Where did you get these fish from?"

He leaned over to take a glance inside the bucket; there were four large and one small fish, the large ones were three fingers wide and the small one was two fingers wide. The fish, deprived of water, were struggling in the bucket with mouths agape.

Liu Ji quickly stood up and scooped several ladles of water from the water jar into the bucket. The fish, once in water, flipped over and swam around, possibly a bit cramped in the small bucket, their tails slapped together, splashing water all over Liu Ji’s face!

Qin Yao, seeing his dumbfounded and awkward appearance, curled her lips into a mocking smile, found a dustpan to cover the bucket, and pressed it down with a stone to prevent the fish from jumping out.

"Caught from the river. I have to continue working; remember to cook the meat for dinner." Before leaving, she deliberately emphasized.

Liu Ji wiped the water off his face, responded with an "Oh," stood up, and looked around blankly—he actually had no idea how to cook!

This noon, he had barely managed to cook a pot of porridge amidst the chaos and had already forgotten that she told him to cook the meat in the morning.

At this moment, that piece of meat was hanging under the beam of the side room. Liu Ji quickly cleared the basin of bowls in front of him and walked over with some trepidation.

There were four pounds of meat left, bought three days ago, and if it hadn’t been for the recent low temperatures, it might have already spoiled.

He took it down and sniffed it; there was no odor, but it no longer held its fresh color.

Holding this piece of meat, Liu Ji stood dazedly by the window, pondering for a long time, digging into all his memories about cooking meat, only to realize how pitifully little he remembered about kitchens and food.

All he recalled were already prepared meals on the table.

If he couldn’t manage to cook this meat tonight, he feared he wouldn’t get through the night.

Such thoughts saddened Liu Ji immensely.

He thought of himself as a towering seven-foot man, who had always eaten ready-made food since childhood. Besides, in all of Sheng Country, which man ever cooked in the kitchen?

This was humiliating him, making him a laughingstock among all the men in the village!

Qin Yao, that wicked woman, was truly malicious!

Da Lang and the other three were playing hopscotch by the bed. Seeing their father standing by the window in a daze for so long, they thought he was bewitched.

Second Lang tentatively called out, "Dad?"

This light call awakened Liu Ji, who was drowning in his sorrow.

Feeling as if he had found a lifeline, he quickly turned around, weighed the piece of pork in his hand, and asked them if they knew how to cook meat.

Even Sanlang and Si Niang nodded, indicating they knew.

Liu Ji awkwardly "coughed" a couple of times, gathered his fatherly dignity, and pointed to Da Lang and Second Lang, intending to assign them the task of cooking the meat, while also planning to have Sanlang and Si Niang handle washing and picking vegetables, so all he would have to do was stand by the stove as a supervisor.

He thought it was a good plan, but hadn’t given a thought to whether the four kids would listen to him.

Da Lang said, "This is the work Auntie assigned to you, Dad, and you’re giving it to us? What will you do then?"

Liu Ji thought, "Of course, I’ll lay back and watch you work."

Not wanting to see him act like a scoundrel, Da Lang lowered his head and continued to play with the stones.

Second Lang’s eyes rolled, and he came up with an idea.

"Dad, I can teach you how to cook, but you have to share Auntie’s copper coins with us." He offered.

"You little rascal, so fixated on money at such a young age!" Liu Ji felt frustrated.

Once money was in his hands, he believed it should not leave, no way!

Expecting his reaction, Second Lang merely shrugged indifferently, squatting back down to continue playing with his siblings, not even giving him a glance.

Liu Ji was almost beside himself with anger, and he walked up to the four, quietly gritting his teeth:

"Are you four even my children? I am your real father, yet I can’t even assign you some work?"

Second Lang shot him a glance, "Auntie didn’t assign this task to us, but if she did, my big brother and I would do it without saying a word."

"Right, big brother?"

Da Lang nodded repeatedly without looking up, worried that if his real dad kept being a troublemaker, their stepmom might leave him.

If that happened, she wouldn’t be their stepmom anymore, so she couldn’t take care of them either.

Of course, if their stepmom didn’t mind, the four of them would follow her for sure.

The brothers exchanged a look and reached a consensus.

Liu Ji was so furious that he raised his hand to spank the children. Sanlang and Si Niang were staring at him innocently with their big eyes, and their two identical, clean little faces appeared so pure and innocent.

Liu Ji took a deep breath, and in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to hit them.

He paced back and forth in the room irritably, occasionally glancing outside to monitor Qin Yao’s whereabouts and check the time remaining, realizing he didn’t have much time left.

"What on earth did I do in my previous life to deserve these four unfilial children?" Liu Ji ranted helplessly, leaving him as the only voice echoing in the house.

"Fine, give money!" he gritted his teeth and said.

The four siblings exchanged a surprised glance, and Second Lang immediately said, "One copper coin each!"

Liu Ji’s sentence seemed to come from between his teeth, "Fine—"

The siblings all immediately presented their palms to him; Liu Ji rubbed his throbbing temples and motioned for them to follow him to the main house to retrieve the hidden copper coins, distributing one to each.

The four children did give him what they knew once they got the money.

Da Lang had watched their aunt cook, and because meat was being fried that day, he remembered the process exceptionally well.

First, clean the pot, dry fry with a thin layer of oil, put sliced fatty meat in first, and stir-fry over high heat to render the fat, then add ginger and garlic, follow with sliced pork belly, add salt and sauce, and finally serve.

Liu Ji asked, "That’s it?"

Da Lang nodded heavily, "Mm, that’s it."

If there were other side dishes, they could be thrown in to stir-fry together. Anyway, no matter what vegetables, as long as they tasted of meat sauce, they’d surely be delicious.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have any vegetables at home, so Da Lang didn’t mention it.

"Dad." Da Lang looked at Liu Ji seriously, "Don’t always upset stepmom, or what if she leaves you?"

After speaking, he called his siblings to dash excitedly to Liu Huolang’s house in the village, completely ignoring their dad’s furious expression.

"Leave me?" Liu Ji slapped the stove, "She should be grateful if I don’t leave her first!"

After his harsh words, he quickly turned around to see if she was there, and when he saw she wasn’t, he regained his smugness.

The relatives and clansmen who were helping him saw him muttering and grinning alone by the stove and sighed lightly:

"It’s indeed a rare sight to see Liu Laosan cooking for us."

In the village though, it seemed no family had men cooking; all the women did the kitchen work. If a man was forced to cook, it meant there was a shrew at home.

In any other family, this would be a reason for ridicule, but in Liu Ji’s case, everyone only thought he deserved it.