Bai Fumei in the 70’s

After Zhou Jiazhen drank the bowl of chicken soup, her forehead glistened with a thin layer of sweat, her stomach was warm, and she was filled with a sense of pleasure as if she were snuggling in the arms of her mother when she was a child.

She wiped away her tears and whispered, "It's delicious, it has the same flavor as the soup my mother made."

This hot bowl of chicken soup improved Zhou Jiazhen's spirits, and the sorrows between her brows were swept away.

She closed the book with a smile, and took out a 0.3 pound meat ticket from her pocket and put it on the table.

"Thank you for the chicken soup. The book you gave me is really beautiful!" Zhou Jiazhen praised heartily.

Zhao Lanxiang said: "I'm glad you like it."

She watched Zhou Jiazhen leave the He family's house and took a bowl of chicken soup to He Songbai's room. She walked to the door of the man's room, Zhao Lanxiang knocked on the door and twisted the handle, but found that the man had locked the door.

"Open the door."

Zhao Lanxiang frowned.

A muffled voice came from inside. The lazy voice seemed to be suppressed by the quilt, with the hoarse sound of someone sounds asleep in the afternoon and just had woken up.

"Sleeping. What's the matter?"

After all, Zhao Lanxiang had shared a bed with He Songbai for more than ten years. A guilty conscience could not be concealed by the hoarse words of the man, how could it escape her ears?

He used to use a rhetorical tone when he was guilty, and his speech would be slower than normal, and now he was pulling his words like a Tibetan Mastiff pulling a load. His tone was not calm at all.

Most likely he was pretending to be asleep.

Zhao Lanxiang said lightly, "You are not opening the door yet? Sister is going to come..."

The "sleeping" man in the room suddenly felt a severe headache in his head, and his frowns almost could lift a chopstick.

He climbed down the bed at an incredible speed and limped over to open the door to this secret girlfriend.

He Songbai hurriedly dragged the woman into the room, peeking his head out of the door frame and searching for the figure of his elder sister.

However... Not even a single hair from Sister He's head could be seen, when he turned back to the woman in his room, he only saw a faint smile on the woman's lips.

He Songbai closed the door and leaning one hand against the door to support his body. He lowered his head and tried to conceal it from the woman, "I was just sleeping."

His ears suddenly turned red at a rate visible to the naked eye, and he coughed, "You stewed chicken soup?"

Zhao Lanxiang put the chicken soup on the table, "Drink it, I'll leave after you finish."

He Songbai did not want to drink chicken soup, but in the end, he couldn't refuse the kindness of this woman. After a short internal struggle, he took the enamel bowl silently and drank the chicken soup.

He drank and chewed a chicken butt, licked it with his tongue sticking out, and there was an unseen fluctuation on his calm face.

After drinking, he wiped the grease from his mouth and said calmly but firmly, "Lanxiang, this is the last time I will eat your food. Maybe you didn't care about what I said. But... remember, men who eat women's soft food are not good men, and you shouldn't look for this kind of man in the future."

After He Songbai finished speaking, he limped to the cabinet and took out a few pieces of banknotes.

Under the woman's surprised gaze, his wide, warm palms covered her hands. The thick calluses on his palms scratched her delicate skin.

Zhao Lanxiang frowned, watching a crumpled note being stuffed into her hand.

Ten dollars, such a large denomination... Probably what's left of his little savings?

He Songbai looked at Zhao Lanxiang's expression. His eyebrows were frowning, his mouth was  bulging fiercely, and he said, "Just give it to you."

Zhao Lanxiang's fingers shook slightly, and she put this crumpled money into her pocket.

The man said again, "Tie Zhu came when you went to the county town this morning. He gave me a bag of mountain goods. I don't need it. You can have it."

He scrambled on his feet, leaned over, and reached under the table. He pulled a bag of things in front of Zhao Lanxiang.

Zhao Lanxiang bent over and lifted it up. She opened it and was surprised to find that it was filled with dried red dates and fresh yam. Both of these were good things to replenishing qi and nourishing the body, which were suitable for He Songbai to eat.

[T/N: "Qi" figuratively as "life force", or "vitality", is the central underlying principle in Chinese traditional medicine and in Chinese martial arts. Believers of qi describe it as a vital force, the flow of which must be unimpeded for health.]

The man's sharp eyebrows sank as if seeing Zhao Lanxiang's thoughts, he said, "I don't like to eat those, and you don't have to make it for me. You eat by yourself, you know?"

He emphasized the word "yourself".

Zhao Lanxiang nodded knowingly.

After He Songbai finished, he patted her head with his broad hand and said lightly, "Go back."

The man's soft voice was almost inaudible, "You careless fool."

However, Zhao Lanxiang heard it. Carrying the yam and red dates, her face suddenly turned pink.

Her heart became sweet like honey.

...

Zhao Lanxiang struggled to carry this bag full of heavy things. With so many things, if she had it eat it all by herself, she was unsure if she'd be able to finish it all even by the year of the monkey. 

She suddenly remembered her deflated wallet and that she hadn't gone to the black market to "replenish" her money for some time.

Zhao Lanxiang planned to use part of this bag of mountain goods to make some yam cakes and take them to the black market to sell. So she asked the captain for one day's leave and got up with greed the next day.

The red dates were soaked in well water, and after being soaked a whole night, they had become round and plump, their color darkening and their texture smooth. Zhao Lanxiang patiently peeled the red dates one by one and put them in the steamer to make them soft and tender. After she steamed them well, she filtered them with a gauze sieve, leaving a fine mash of red dates. After that, she heated the pan, added sugar, and mixed in the red dates.

After taking the pot from the heat, and the red date mash and sugar had completely blended together, the white sugar gradually melted, and a warm and sweet aroma gradually develops.

Then she selected some tender yam, steamed them until its skin became soft and waxy, added glutinous rice flour to create the yam dough. The white greasy yam skin was wrapped in a piece of red date mash, and Zhao Lanxiang kneaded the white yam dough into various shapes, then finally it's steamed in a basket.