What an enormous pie it was—something he’d never even dared to imagine before.
His thoughts drifted again, and he began picturing what the prefectural city might be like.
They’d only just met today: talked business, talked profit splits, then come back to eat together and chat about everyday things. He still had no idea how bustling and prosperous the prefectural city really was. If he ever got the chance, he’d definitely like to go see it for himself.
The streets would probably be wider than those in the county, with far more people.
The docks would sit by the water, full of boats. Lu Liu had only ever seen wooden rafts and bamboo rafts—he’d never even seen a small boat.
He tried hard to imagine it, but couldn’t quite picture it. He’d heard that people could live on boats too. Many transported goods by water, spending ten days or half a month on the river; the boat became a house on the water.
A house on the water definitely wouldn’t have a kang.
Not every household where he came from had a kang either. Many families just put together wooden bed boards to sleep on.
Only families who struggled most with the cold would be willing to spend silver to build a kang—it was warmer that way, and even with thinner cotton clothes, they could still get through winter.
The Lu family had built their kang late. Lu Liu was already six by then, old enough to remember.
The kang in his room was like the one in this guest room—not connected to the stove in the kitchen. It had its own firebox, and to avoid wasting firewood, they’d built a small stove platform outside.
The family couldn’t afford extra iron pots, so that little stove was only about the size of a brazier. Usually, when heating the kang, they’d set a kettle on it to boil water for tea.
Lu Liu loved tossing in a handful of toasted wheat to boil wheat tea. It quenched thirst and eased hunger at the same time. Once the water was gone, he’d eat the softened wheat as well.
Right now, he really wanted some wheat tea.
A pregnant body could be willful. Once the thought occurred to him, the craving hit hard; if he couldn’t have it, it felt like his heart was being clawed at.
He turned over twice. Shun-ge’er woke groggily and asked, “Sister-in-law, are you uncomfortable somewhere?”
Lu Liu whispered, “I want to drink wheat tea.”
In the middle of the night, away from home—where would they get wheat tea?
Lu Liu closed his eyes. All he could see were golden waves of wheat. So fragrant.
He opened his eyes again. His mouth was dry.
Lu Liu: “…”
This was bad.
He wanted to endure it.
His brother definitely wouldn’t blame him, but waking people up in the middle of the night was just too much trouble.
Shun-ge’er thought for a moment, told him to wait, then got up, threw on his jacket, lit a candle, and tiptoed out. At the door of the next room, he called softly, “Big brother, are you asleep?”
Li Feng heard the movement, got off the kang, and opened the door.
“What is it?”
Shun-ge’er whispered, “Sister-in-law wants wheat tea…”
Li Feng didn’t have any wheat on him. He took the candle from Shun-ge’er, glanced toward the main house, then felt his way to the kitchen.
The house wasn’t guarded against thieves; the kitchen wasn’t locked.
Li Feng went in, but had no idea where the wheat was stored.
Besides, they were guests. Taking something without asking would be stealing.
He sent Shun-ge’er back to the room first, then went outside the east room window and called softly, “Xie Yan, are you asleep?”
Xie Yan was sleeping deeply. It was Lu Yang who heard and answered, “What’s wrong?”
Li Feng paused, then asked, “Can I grab a handful of wheat to eat?”
Lu Yang: “…”
Why don’t you just starve to death while you’re at it.
He put on his clothes and came out to take a look.
Guests were guests—but if guests were hungry enough to eat wheat straight, he had to see what he could make to treat them.
Li Feng tried to stop him several times but failed, so he had to explain, “It’s Xiao Liu—he wants wheat tea.”
Lu Yang’s expression changed instantly. “If Liu-ge’er wants tea, why didn’t you say so earlier? All that hemming and hawing.”
Wheat tea was easy. Light the fire, heat the pot. Once the pot was hot, lower the flame, toss in some wheat, and slowly stir-fry it until fragrant.
Pour boiling water over it, and the wheat aroma bloomed immediately, filling the water with the scent of grain. Drinking it was deeply satisfying.
Lu Yang made a whole teapot, poured a bowl, and handed it to Lu Liu.
Lu Liu felt terribly embarrassed. “You all got up…”
The tea was still hot, so Lu Yang set it on the table to cool a bit.
“What’s there to be embarrassed about? It’s not like you’re asking for dragon liver or phoenix marrow. If we have it at home and you want it, then eat it.”
Lu Yang had grown up hungry; he couldn’t stand seeing his younger brother craving something. If he craved it, he’d give it to him.
Wheat tea wasn’t some great tonic—drinking it was no big deal.
Since he was already up, Lu Yang didn’t go back to his own room to sleep that night. He just squeezed in here instead.
Li Feng couldn’t very well stay, so he went back to the other guest room to lie there alone.
After Lu Liu finished the wheat tea, he lay down in complete contentment.
Sleeping next to his brother, all the stray thoughts disappeared. The moment his body relaxed, drowsiness overtook him, and soon his breathing evened out.
Shun-ge’er was truly envious. He said to Lu Yang, “You brothers are really close. Unlike my brother—what even is he.”
Lu Yang thought Li Feng treated his brother just fine. “It’s just one duck egg. That’s not worth all this.”
Shun-ge’er said, “I have another brother.”
Lu Yang’s way of comforting people was simple and blunt. “Everyone only needs one brother. Just pretend the family ancestors took your second brother away.”
Shun-ge’er asked him, “Then how many brothers do you have?”
Lu Yang: “…”
Cousins didn’t count—those weren’t blood brothers.
The ones he truly treated as brothers were the Luo brothers. That made two.
Lu Yang said, “None of mine are biological either. Two make one.”
Shun-ge’er couldn’t argue with that and just smiled it off.
The room gradually grew quiet, and the three of them slept straight through until morning.
At daybreak, Xie Yan opened his eyes and found his arms empty.
He thought Lu Yang had already gotten up, so he reached toward the edge of the kang. It was cold.
Xie Yan jolted awake.
His husband was gone!
And he hadn’t noticed at all—he’d slept all the way to morning!
He rushed out in a panic, only to see Li Feng squatting in the courtyard feeding the horse. Glancing toward the east wing, he asked casually, “Did the two brothers sleep well?”
Li Feng showed no mercy as he mocked him. “Your husband ran off in the middle of the night and you didn’t even know. You slept like a log.”
Xie Yan’s eyes went wide. “How do you know?”
Li Feng said, “I called you last night—you didn’t wake up. That’s one thing. But your husband was gone half the night, and you only noticed now.”
He looked again at Xie Yan’s scholar’s head. “Slept great, huh.”
Xie Yan felt guilty and forcefully changed the subject. “Why are you feeding the horse? That’s my horse.”
Li Feng corrected him. “It’s a horse you borrowed.”
A borrowed horse was still his.
Xie Yan argued with him.
The two of them were bickering first thing in the morning.
In the guest room, Lu Yang pushed the door open and called out to them to make breakfast.
“Keep it simple—let’s do noodle dumpling soup.”
Li Feng: “…”
Yesterday it was “guests have come, how can we let them cook?” Today he was already being put to work.
Apparently, being a guest at his place had a time limit. After one day, you were nothing.
Xie Yan agreed readily—his cooking skills had improved!
He raised an eyebrow at Li Feng and rolled up his sleeves as he headed into the kitchen.
Li Feng felt provoked and chased after him, sleeves rolled up too.
Like they were about to fight, they got breakfast made.
Noodle dumplings were easy enough. They mixed flour with water and eggs, then cooked them. They also made a few flatbreads.
Last night’s dishes were all gone, but there were still some vegetables left in the basket. Lu Yang took over, stir-fried the last two eggplants, and made a plate of chives with eggs.
Lu Liu loved eggplant. In the morning, he ate eggplant with flatbread and didn’t even want the noodle soup.
Lu Yang said, “Your Da Feng got up early just to make this for you.”
Lu Liu immediately took several spoonfuls of soup, very obliging.
Then Lu Yang teased him again. “Fooled you. Your brother-in-law got up early to make it.”
Lu Liu almost spat it out.
Everyone at the table laughed.
Xie Yan had to go to school, so he hurried off to the academy after breakfast.
Lu Yang planned to walk with his younger brother to Lu Family Village.
Lu Liu still needed to take Shun-ge’er out to buy a few things. They agreed to meet up later at the shop.
It just so happened that Zhao Peilan couldn’t stand staying home alone. Since the shop hadn’t hired more help yet, Lu Yang drove the cart and took her along to the shop.
