Chapter 1698: In Another Twenty Years

Translator:

Atlas Studios

Editor:

Atlas Studios

Especially her mom. Even though she looked young, there was the occasional strand of gray hair that constantly reminded them of the fact that their elders were growing older by the day.

Zhai Xin thought for a moment before cajoling Miao Jing. “Grandma, I want to join the air force in the future, but I’ve heard that the food in certain areas in the army is really delicious. How about this? I’ll try to learn from them. You’re a year older, and so am I. Don’t forget that I’m already a young adult. I’ll cook for you in the future. Grandma, you won’t despise my poor cooking skills, will you?”

His grandma was already in her sixties. If not for her love for her grandchildren, a woman nearing the age of seventy would definitely not be able to go into the kitchen to whip up such a feast. Even if the majority of the food was cooked by his mom, and grandma had started to delegate work to his mom, it was still hard work.

“No?” Zhai Yaohui huffed. “Your grandma took so much effort to raise you up and even made so many delectable dishes for all of you, yet you dare to ask your grandma to eat it? If you don’t cook well, then you’d better learn until you get good at it. We’re already so old. We don’t want to be your guinea pigs. Only when you’re successful should you serve the best and most satisfactory dishes to me and your grandma.”

Was the food cooked by Er Bao even edible? Would they get food poisoning from it?

Thinking about how he had never been able to hone his culinary skills, Zhai Yaohui looked at Er Bao, who was similar to himself, with a gaze full of distrust.

When he was younger, Miao Jing had gotten pregnant and given birth to Zhai Hua and Zhai Sheng. At times, their elders had not been able to rush down in time. Thus, the responsibility of taking care of Miao Jing naturally fell on him, her husband. Unfortunately, the soup that Zhai Yaohui made was as bad as drinking poison.

Miao Jing had only tried it once in her life, but it was unforgettable. What was even more embarra.s.sing was that he had wanted to take good care of Miao Jing for once, but he had made such a fool of himself. Zhai Yaohui clearly remembered that he had followed the instructions to boil the soup and had not taken matters into his own hands by adding whatever he pleased. Nonetheless, after Miao Jing drank the soup, she almost had no milk to feed her child, saying that something had triggered her.

From then on, Zhai Yaohui gave up on honing his culinary skills. If he really wanted to take care of Miao Jing, he would find some other ways to do so. It was best not to expose such a weakness to others in the future.

It was because of such an ‘experience’ that Zhai Yaohui had such a huge reaction upon hearing Zhai Xin’s words. He was definitely more reliable than Zhai Xin. Even so, Miao Miao had no milk left after drinking the soup that he had made. If Miao Miao were to eat Er Bao’s food, would she be sent directly to the hospital? That was too high a price to pay.

After giving it some thought, Zhai Yaohui corrected himself. “Didn’t you say that you wanted to join the air force because your goal was to fly in the sky and not hide in the canteen as a cook? There’s no point in learning how to cook. Our family has already hired an auntie. Your grandma’s health is not good, but we have an auntie to help us out with the household ch.o.r.es. You don’t need to worry about these small things.”

Initially, Zhai Yaohui wanted to say that he and Miao Jing were living very well because they had a daughter-in-law like Qiao Nan taking care of them.

But knowing that his son, who shared the same temper as him, was present, Zhai Yaohui swallowed these words and held back. At this time, the auntie that the family had hired came in handy and Zhai Yaohui successfully used her as an excuse.

Upon hearing Zhai Yaohui’s words, Miao Jing recalled that ‘special’ memory, and she chuckled stiffly. At that time, she was a first-time mom, and Old Zhai had just become a dad for the first time. Her mother-in-law’s health was poor, and her father-in-law tried his best to take time out to spend time with his wife and to take care of his wife. As for her, she was a military wife and lived with Old Zhai in the army camp.

As such, when she gave birth, her mother-in-law was not by her side to take care of her. Only when she gave birth to Zhai Hua did her mother-in-law think that Old Zhai was not able to take good care of them. As such, she hurried down to the army camp to help out with Miao Jing’s confinement.

Because she had drunk Old Zhai’s soup, she had almost run out of milk, causing Zhai Hua to starve for several meals. This angered her mother-in-law so much that she beat into Old Zhai for a long while. Old Zhai was brilliant in every way, but he just could not get a hang of cooking.

It was truly not an easy thing to have been able to drink the soup made by her own husband. Because Zhai Yaohui was willing to take the initiative to do such a thing and get down and dirty to make soup for her, Miao Jing was incredibly touched and thought that Zhai Yaohui was truly a good man.

After her parents pa.s.sed away, she had always been living with her uncle. When she was at home, she could only sit at the same table as her uncle when eating. It was exactly because of this that she had seen too many examples in the village of husbands never helping out once women had given birth and were serving their confinement period.

It was still manageable if the woman’s mother-in-law helped out. But for those without mothers-in-law, there would be no peace for even a single day even during her confinement period. Although she would not need to battle the elements and work out in the fields, she would still have to single-handedly manage every single household ch.o.r.e in the family.

Compared to those women, she was so much luckier to have met a good man. The more she thought that Zhai Yaohui was a good man, the more anxious Miao Jing got about Zhai Yaohui because she did not want to lose Zhai Yaohui. Especially with Qi Minlan nearby, Miao Jing’s entire focus was on Zhai Yaohui while she was younger, ignoring the growth of her children.

At this age, Miao Jing realized that she was now much calmer when she thought about everything that had happened in the past. She would no longer fly into a rage upon hearing the name ‘Qi Minlan’.

No matter what, Old Zhai had only married a village girl who was clueless and almost illiterate because her father had saved her father-in-law’s life. And in just a few years’ time, she had transformed from a village girl who was destined to be a farmer to an enviable wife of a chief.

“Actually, I think I’ve been very fortunate my whole life.” Miao Jing had not been able to stop herself from blurting out her thoughts.

Zhai Yaohui’s expression changed and he gripped onto Miao Jing’s hand tightly. “It’s the New Year. Don’t talk about your lifetime. You still have a long time to live. When you and I both can’t walk anymore and need people to push us around on wheelchairs, then you can talk to me about your lifetime.”

Miao Jing’s words would not comfort anyone and would only make people feel a little jumpy, especially since it was New Year. She was alive and well, so why would she suddenly bring up her past and say that she was thankful for it? She still had a long way to go. Only people who were nearing their deaths would talk about their whole lifetime.

“That’s right, grandma. You’re still so young. When you go out with Mom, you guys are like sisters. What do you mean by a lifetime? We can talk about this in another twenty years.”