The Villainess Female Supporting Character Raising Her Bun

It was a dreamless night.

Cheng Huan woke up early the next morning and started preparing for the New Year’s Eve dinner.

Cheng Huan saw a lot of fresh meats and vegetables when she made the noodles the night before. Jiang MingYuan said he had someone delivered them. She didn’t ask who delivered them but she could tell they were all of high-quality from the looks of them.

The preparation work was almost the most complicated. Cheng Huan started the porridge and soaked the beef in cold water. She pulled the lamb chop out to defrost and sliced up the pork belly for a dish a braised pork.

She placed the meat inside of a pot with water over low heat and the porridge was almost ready. There were some pickled carrots lying around and Cheng Huan gave them a try. They were not bad. They were crispy with a hint of sweet. She placed some of them inside of a bowl and made two egg pancakes. She had just brought them out when the father and son came downstairs.

XingXing bounced down the stairs being held by one hand. As soon as he walked over, he sniffed and asked for meat. He was very disappointed after he discovered that all of the meats in the kitchen were still raw.

“Mommy, I want meat,” said the little kiddo with a pout.

Cheng Huan patted him on his head. “They will be ready for dinner.”

“What about lunch?”

“We will have noodles with shredded chicken.”

“No meat?”

“Shredded chicken is meat.”

“Um, I guess.” XingXing wasn’t entirely satisfied with that answer but that wasn’t much he could do about it. His words didn’t have a lot of pull. He agreed begrudgingly then made another request. “Can I have a chicken thigh too?”

Cheng Huan sat him down at the dinner table and took the bowl of porridge from Jiang MingYuan. She tore off a piece of pancake and shoved it into his mouth. “Stop talking and have some breakfast.”

“Oh.” XingXing shove the pancake inside of his mouth with his hand. He chewed and swallowed it and expressed his opinion again. “Mommy, the pancake is so tasty!”

***

Jiang MingYuan went to do dishes after lunch and Cheng Huan started to stew the chicken.

These were free-ranged hens from the village. Its muscles were taut with nothing extra. Perfect for a broth.

While the chicken broth was being made, the lamb chop was about to finish defrosting. Cheng Huan was not good at this. She looked at it over and over again and, finally, stepped aside and had Jiang MingYuan over to chop it up into pieces.

Jiang MingYuan was strong and chopping up a piece of lamb chop was not a big deal for him. His knife work, though, was very mediocre and the pieces were all of different sizes.

They were only meant for themselves so Cheng Huan didn’t care that much. Setting aside the lamb chop, she started on the rest of the stuff.

There were so much to do that even with a helper, Cheng Huan was still running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

The chicken brother was already done and Cheng Huan made three bowls of soup from it. The family of three went to visit the graveyard after breakfast.

Father Jiang was buried on the mountain and there was a highway wrapped around the mountain leading to the public graveyard. The road was not very wide and many cars were parked on the side. They couldn’t squeeze past with their little car so they had to park and walk over.

There was a flower stall as they neared the graveyard. The flowers were very fresh but also expensive. Jiang MingYuan bought three bunches and each of them walked inside with one of them.

The graveyard was very big and was built with the formation of the mountain in mind. It was lower in the front and higher in the back with a narrow path 2 meters in width in between. Cypress trees were planted on both side of the path, giving the graveyard a lively feel.

There were a lot of visitors on New Year’s Eve and many of them greeted Jiang MingYuan on their way. He was somewhat known in the small town. Even though he didn’t come back very often, but many knew him and wanted to network with him. Jiang MingYuan didn’t seem impatient with this endless string of people that had approached then. He would greet them all but not much beyond that.

As much as he didn’t say much to each of them, but as there were so many of them, it still took them half an hour just to go from the entrance of the graveyard to his father’s grave. Father Jiang’s grave was located in the back of the graveyard. This area seemed fancier than the rest of the graveyard and the spacing between graves was more generous.