Chapter Eighteen Lodging

  Live here?

  He's staying here, what about Wen Ge and Wu Ge?

  What you fear comes true!

  She raised an eyebrow and nodded calmly, "Then I'll go prepare dinner for the general first?"

  No matter what, this is someone else's home, and he has the absolute right to drive her out, let alone live here. Even if he wants her to fulfill her wifely duties, she has no reason to refuse. In this regard, Zhen Shiniang still has some self-awareness.

  She gazed at her for half a day, and couldn't see any emotions on her face. Shen Zhong felt somewhat disheartened, he suddenly felt that he couldn't quite see through the woman in front of him.

  Always gentle and calm, quiet like a serene lake, making you feel at peace just by being beside her. However, you never know how deep the water is, nor can you see the turbulent waves beneath the surface.

  He also decided to live here after a fierce battle between heaven and man.

  After all, the nightmare she left him was too deep and too hard to forget.

  Even now, even when he sees her gentle and quiet, looking at her peaceful as a chrysanthemum, seeing that she is emitting a kind of aloofness that transcends worldly affairs, he still has an unreal feeling. He even suspects that she spent five years learning a high-level chess skill just because she knew he was a chess enthusiast and wanted to use this to confuse him.

  He was worried that once she settled down, she would stick to him like five years ago, coaxing him to take her back to the General's Mansion and then think of ways to torment him.

  However, he had an intuition that she wouldn't now.

  But who can guarantee him that all her behavior today is not another conspiracy, another trick?

  So just now, he made a ruthless decision to stay here tonight. Tonight she really came up close, and he was no longer soft-hearted, immediately driving her out of the ancestral mansion.

  If she doesn't agree to divorce peacefully, then kill her!

  They were husband and wife, having had intimate relations before. He said staying here was also a kind of hint to her, and even if she came up to him, it would be normal. Moreover, he was young and held a high position, with a face that could kill people with its beauty. Not to mention his legitimate wife who had shared the same bed with him, even those unmarried girls who saw him couldn't move their eyeballs, thinking of ways to get close to him.

  He used this method to test whether her temperament had really changed, and it can't be said that he wasn't being sinister!

  But he was also helpless, no matter what, the nightmare five years ago he did not want to experience a second time. More importantly, in just one afternoon, this woman had manipulated his emotions several times, and this feeling was terrifying, like leading troops into battle, he absolutely would not allow such an uncontrollable situation to occur around him.

  "Get ready." Having made up his mind, Shen Zhongge nodded at Zhen Shiniang who was still looking at him, "Don't go to too much trouble, just keep it simple."

  "You want to trouble me, there's nothing here either!" Zhen Shining secretly laughed in her heart, but said with her mouth, "I'll go prepare now, just hope the general eats his fill of mountain delicacies and seafood, don't mind that the food here is too coarse."

  Shen Zhongbo just smiled and didn't say a word.

  Upon entering the kitchen, Ji Yu had already lit the fire and Qiu Ju was bringing in two large carp. Seeing Zhen Shi Nang silently chopping mushrooms, Ji Yu asked, "I'll go catch another one, Miss's braised chicken with mushrooms is especially delicious." Shen Zhong Shuai being of high status, every day having delicacies from mountains and seas, Ji Yu worried that their family's meals were too plain.

  Zhen Shiniang slowly and carefully sliced the mushrooms into thin pieces without looking up.

  She didn't say a word, and the magpie added another piece of firewood to the stove. She stood up with the help of the pot rack, wiped her hands on her apron, and beckoned to Autumn Jade, who was scraping fish scales, "Autumn Jade, first help me catch chickens in the backyard." She was pregnant, but didn't dare play hide-and-seek with those flying and jumping old hens again.

  "It's nothing." Zhen Shining didn't even lift her head, continuing to slice the mushrooms.

  "Miss!"

  "The chicken must be kept for laying eggs."

  "It doesn't matter about this one."

  Zhen Shining glanced at Xi Que's slightly bulging belly, "You're going to give birth in a few months, you should save up enough eggs for a month." The family was poor and Xi Que would be sitting out her confinement period soon. All Zhen could prepare for her were millet, eggs, and a few old hens.

  "The servants have already said that the egg money has been saved, Miss doesn't need to worry." Ji Kuai pointed at the chopping board, "With two more big men and seven or eight people, this little food is not enough?"

  It is often said that in order to capture a man's heart, one must first take good care of his stomach. Shen Zhongge was having his first meal here and couldn't afford to be careless.

  "The dishes are a bit less..." Looking at the freshly cut plate of mushrooms, Zhen Shiniang nodded with a smile, "You go pick some bean sprouts, and wash a few potatoes, these things are the most cost-effective." Looking at their build, these two big men must be able to eat a lot.

  "That stuff is for feeding pigs..." Xiao Wu muttered under her breath.

  How can a great general like him eat the same thing as them?

  "When disaster strikes, rely on potatoes to save your life!" Zhen Shi Niang turned around and fetched a few round scallions from the inner room.

  Jian Zhen's heart was already made up, and Xi Que let out a sigh, took a basin and walked out.

  The little fish can continue to grow, in order to avoid waste, Zhen Shiniang has always advocated for raising the fish big and eating them. Qiuju is even more so, she took her advice to heart and only picked the largest ones, seeing that just two fish filled a large basin, she simply sliced the fish meat and made a chopped pepper fresh fish roll, using the leftovers to make a pot of fish head tofu soup, cut a plate of glutinous rice lotus root, potato stewed with beans, a fresh mushroom egg roll, and cooked a pot of red date glutinous rice porridge. A few ready-made small dishes were prepared within an hour, and a sumptuous dinner was set on the table. First, they set aside Wen Ge and Wu Ge's meals for Qiuju to send to the Xi Que family, and the rest were placed on the table.

  Looking at the simple four dishes and one soup on the table, plus two small plates of pickles, Shen Zhongge secretly regretted that he should have known she couldn't make anything good, and it would have been better to let Rong Sheng order a table from the restaurant.

  "Does the general drink porridge?" Zhen Shiniang picked up a bowl.

  There was Shen Zhongge, and Qiu Ju and Xi Ju did not sit at the same table with her. They had dishes served in the west room for Rong Sheng and three others to eat. The east room only had Zhen Shimu serving Shen Zhongge.

  "I don't like eating sweets..." Shen Zhongke shook his head.

  Zhen Shi Niang secretly stuck out her tongue, and when playing chess he seemed to have said something like that, but she had completely forgotten. She actually cooked a pot of red date porridge, looking as if it was specially made to oppose him. In her heart, she sighed, but on the surface, she remained calm and asked, "Then let's serve General a bowl of fish soup instead. This fish is freshly killed, all raised in our own lotus pond, both fresh and tender."

  "Hmm..." Shen Zhongke nodded and looked at a plate of yellow and white rolled pancakes on the table, asking, "What is this?" He had never seen it before.

  "It's a fresh mushroom egg roll..." Zhen Shi Niang served herself another bowl of porridge and sat down across from Shen Zhong Ke, "First, the eggs are fried into an omelette, then the chopped mushrooms and onions are spread on top. After it's half solidified, it's folded over to form a pancake..." This was her improved version using pizza techniques, Jian Wen's favorite dish.

  It wasn't until she had promised them that they would have mushroom egg rolls for dinner tonight that she wouldn't have gone to the trouble of making this dish for him.

  After the introduction, Zhen Shining raised her head and saw Shen Zhongge frowning at the plate in front of him, where a round and lumpy cornmeal cake sat, and he refused to pick up his chopsticks.