The Delicate Darling with Her Rough Man

Chapter 77: Chapter 77: Treating a Guest

The cabbage and radishes from Aunt Zhao’s family were delivered after dinner. They even brought along the radishes that Aunt Zhao had helped buy from other families.

Gu Jiaojiao had already paid Aunt Zhao for the vegetables in advance, at market price.

Right now, napa cabbage and radishes were two cents a catty. A total of four hundred catties came to eight yuan. Carrots were five cents a catty, so one hundred catties cost five yuan.

The total came to thirteen yuan.

It might not sound like much, but an intern’s salary was only fifteen yuan back then. For Gu Jiaojiao to spend so much at once was a huge expenditure.

Take Chen Jiefang’s family, for instance. With more than a dozen mouths to feed, their annual share was 810 yuan. That worked out to less than eighty yuan per person for the entire year.

If the villagers found out about this, it would definitely cause an uproar.

Aunt Zhao was a thoughtful person. It was precisely because she had considered this that she had Zhao Tiezhu make the delivery late at night.

The napa cabbages they delivered were cleaned neatly, with all the tough outer leaves removed.

Zhao Tiezhu, a man of few words, helped move the cabbages under the shed before leaving with his pushcart.

By the time Gu Jiaojiao came out with a cup of water for him, he was already out of sight.

So simple and honest.

With nothing better to do anyway, Gu Jiaojiao and Leng Yuan started preparing the radishes together.

Leng Yuan handled the heavy lifting, while Gu Jiaojiao took care of the skilled work.

They worked from dusk until it was pitch-black outside—so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. They had to light a kerosene lamp to continue, and only then did they finally finish preparing all the cabbage and radishes.

The napa cabbage, carrots, and green beans were for pickling.

The white radishes were for preserving in soy sauce.

Gu Jiaojiao didn’t use everything. She stored some of the fresh vegetables in the cellar to be eaten whenever they liked.

By the time they finished, it was already nine o’clock at night.

It took the two of them over three hours just to prepare the vegetables for pickling.

And that was actually quite fast.

To make them last longer, Gu Jiaojiao had decided to pickle them whole, which was what made the process so quick.

The two of them washed up and went into their room.

According to village customs, they should have been asleep long ago.

But neither Gu Jiaojiao nor Leng Yuan were early sleepers. Leng Yuan sat at the desk, pen in hand, writing.

A kerosene lamp flickered on the desk. For a while, the room was silent save for the SCRATCH, SCRATCH of his pen on paper.

Leng Yuan had a habit of writing in the quiet of the night.

With the farm work done, he had resumed his old habits.

Gu Jiaojiao wasn’t used to sleeping early either, so she took out some clothes to mend.

It had a large tear, snagged on a branch when she was gathering herbs on the mountain.

She brought the clothing, along with a needle and thread, over to the kerosene lamp and sat down beside Leng Yuan.

She had a love for beautiful things and had even designed her own clothes before. She knew some basic needlework, so mending was no problem for her.

Neither of them spoke. One mended clothes, the other wrote.

The atmosphere was serene. Even the light cast by the kerosene lamp seemed especially warm and cozy.

A sense of peace settled over Gu Jiaojiao’s heart.

’I’ve been here for a while now. I’ve pretty much adapted to this life. Even though things are a little tough, it’s also quite fulfilling.’

’I’m just a little tired of cornbread. I want to eat things made with white flour, and white rice!’

’Fine grains are scarce and expensive right now. If I want to eat them, I’ll have to spend more money.’

Gu Jiaojiao began to ponder the matter. ’How can I get my hands on some fine grains!’

’In my past life, my best skills were cooking and cosmetology. I also had hobbies like pottery, piano... and so on.’

’I’ve thought it all through. Besides cooking and cosmetology, none of my other skills are practical in this era.’

’What they lack here are technical specialists. The country’s focus is all on production.’

’My piano, flower arranging, pottery, guitar... all useless.’

Gu Jiaojiao decided to focus on cooking and cosmetology.

’Cooking means making food, spending all day by the stove.’ After a moment of thought, she rejected the idea.

’I learned to cook to satisfy my own palate. The thought of cooking like a professional chef all day doesn’t make me happy at all.’

In the end, Gu Jiaojiao decided to focus on making money through cosmetology.

However, she wasn’t sure about people’s purchasing power in this era. She planned to ask Chen Jianshe about it.

’After all, he’s destined to become a world-famous skincare tycoon.’

As she was thinking, Gu Jiaojiao looked over at Leng Yuan and asked softly, ”The village is distributing grain tomorrow. Are you going?”

Leng Yuan finished the last line he was writing and set down his pen. ”Tomorrow is Sunday. I’ll go with you.”

Gu Jiaojiao nodded, then brought up Chen Jianshe. ”Chen Jianshe was a big help with the brown sugar last time. Why don’t we invite him over for a meal tomorrow?”

’Chen Jianshe is Leng Yuan’s friend,’ she reasoned, ’so I should get his approval first.’

Leng Yuan’s movements faltered almost imperceptibly as he was tidying up his paper and pen. Then, as if nothing had happened, he opened a drawer and placed the manuscript inside.

”Alright. I’ll go ask him tomorrow.”

Leng Yuan’s ready agreement surprised Gu Jiaojiao.

’Still, it’s good that I achieved my goal.’

Gu Jiaojiao snipped the thread and looked at the mended tear, immensely satisfied.

She was just about to praise herself for her handiwork when a pair of large hands wrapped around her waist. The man leaned in, and with a slight exertion of force, he lifted her into his arms. Startled, she dropped the piece of clothing, which fell onto the stool.

”You...”

Enveloped in the man’s cool, clean scent, Gu Jiaojiao raised her startled eyes to meet a pair of his that burned with a suppressed fire. A flicker of fear went through her, and she couldn’t help but grip his clothes tightly.

Leng Yuan looked at the timid woman in his arms and let out a low chuckle. ”Let’s have a proper talk about inviting guests.”

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