Chapter 1 (Part 2): The Culinary Tycoon

“Wait, you don’t know about this place? Then how did you end up in our back mountain?” Chang Hao blinked his round eyes and explained to Yu Qingze, “We’re in Niutou Village, which belongs to Tongshan County. Tongshan City is about twelve or thirteen miles away from here, not too far. It takes a little over half an hour to walk there.”

The boy’s response confirmed part of Yu Qingze’s speculation. He remained silent for a moment and then started conversing with him, coaxing more information.

By the time Chang Le arrived with the doctor, Yu Qingze had gathered quite a bit of information. He learned that this was a country called Dasheng, which had been established just fifteen years ago. Niutou Village had around forty to fifty households and was dominated by two prominent surnames, Yu and Chang. The parents of Chang Le, the two brothers who had saved him, had passed away when Chang Hao was only two years old, leaving them with their grandfather behind.

Chang Hao was still young and only had knowledge of his village and some distant places like Tongshan City, Yunzhou above it, and the capital city, Jingcheng. Beyond that, he had no knowledge.

Yu Qingze wasn’t in a hurry. He could gather more information later. For now, the most important thing was evidently how to explain his identity to the Chang brothers.

An unidentified stranger, regardless of the era, always raised concerns.

After the doctor examined him and confirmed that Yu Qingze was fine, he advised him to rest for a few days and left.

Yu Qingze’s mind was still spinning with possible explanations, but the brothers didn’t ask him where he came from or what he was doing here. Chang Le saw off the doctor and went to cook, not returning, while Chang Hao was sent away by his brother to attend to something else.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Yu Qingze breathed a sigh of relief and decided to go outside for a look. On the floor, there were a pair of wooden clogs and a pair of straw shoes. He felt a warm sensation in his heart, thinking that the hosts didn’t know his preferences and had prepared both.

He put on the straw shoes and slowly made his way to the door. His left foot was twisted badly, and the entire top of his foot was swollen, making it impossible to exert any force. He could only walk slowly on tiptoes.

Just as he reached the entrance, Chang Hao came back with a forked tree branch and hurriedly exclaimed, “Hey, Big Brother Yu, why are you out? Here’s a wooden crutch my brother just made.”

Yu Qingze accepted the makeshift wooden crutch and thanked him with a smile, saying, “Thank you, you went through the trouble.”

Chang’s house wasn’t large. In the middle was the main hall, with two rooms on the east side and a kitchen on the west side. Behind the kitchen were the pigsty and bathing area.

Yu Qingze exited his room into the main hall. Against the north wall of the hall, there was an altar table with two memorial tablets placed on it, accompanied by a clay incense burner. When he looked at the characters on the tablets, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the writing here was the same as the writing in his world, albeit some of it in traditional forms.

Along one wall was a square table with four wooden stools. On the other wall, there was a pile of rice, still containing bits of straw, indicating that it had just been harvested and hadn’t been dried or stored yet. In the corner of the wall, there was a partially woven straw mat and some strips of bamboo.

Everything was simple and easy to understand at a glance.

On the other side was the kitchen, from where the crackling sound of firewood burning could be heard. Yu Qingze made his way over, and Chang Le was behind the stove, cooking. He saw Chang Le casually snap a dry tree branch, which was as thick as his arm, into two pieces with a loud snap.

“…,” Yu Qingze’s mouth hung open as he stared at Chang Le’s thin arms, then looked down at his own, speechless. That’s some strength.

After a moment of bewilderment, Yu Qingze saw Chang Le looking over. He leaned against the door frame, raised the wooden crutch in his hand, and smiled as he expressed his gratitude, “Chang Le, thank you.”

Chang Le shyly smiled in response, waving his hand to indicate that there was no need to thank him, and then he gestured towards the outside.

“My brother wants you to sit outside. It’s smoky in the kitchen,” Chang Hao timely translated.

Yu Qingze understood and didn’t want to trouble the two brothers any further, so he went outside and sat down by the door.

Outside was a small courtyard enclosed by a fence. On the right side of the courtyard, there was a thatched shed filled with a lot of firewood. The courtyard had already been cleaned up, and several large straw mats were placed on the ground. They were used to dry golden rice, arranged in small, rippling waves using a sun rake. On the other side, there were two racks, where clothes and a fishing net were being dried.

After Yu Qingze sat down, Chang Hao picked up the sun rake from under the eaves and began to gather the rice. As he gathered the rice, he said to Yu Qingze, “My brother says we’re having freshly harvested rice for dinner today. I can already smell the fragrance of the new rice! Ah, it smells so good!”

Chang Hao tilted his head back and took a deep sniff, thoroughly enjoying the moment.

It was already dusk, and the sun was gradually setting, casting an orange hue that colored everything. The young boy’s face, lifted towards the slanting sun, glowed with an incredible radiance, exuding a sense of wonder, hope, and happiness.

It was tranquil.

That was the only thought in Yu Qingze’s mind as he looked at everything before him.

“Is the rice in the house all harvested?” Yu Qingze moved closer and picked up a broom nearby, ready to help sweep the rice. Chang Hao quickly stopped him.

“Eh, Big Brother Yu, please sit down. I’ll do it. It’ll be done in a moment.” The boy took the broom from Yu Qingze’s hand, not allowing any refusal, and helped him onto a stool. He rolled up his sleeves and pants, deftly gathering the rice from the straw mats while still answering Yu Qingze’s question.

“Not yet, it will take a few more days. We have three acres of land, and we just finished harvesting one plot. After the harvest, we still need to transplant the seedlings. We have to finish it before the beginning of autumn. We finished early today, but we’ll be busy again tomorrow.”

“You’ve worked hard.”

“Hehe, it’s not hard. After harvesting the rice, we can have rice to eat and won’t go hungry.” The boy’s face was filled with a satisfied expression, full of anticipation.

“Where is your grandfather?” Yu Qingze asked.

“Grandfather went to the mountain to gather medicinal herbs. The herbs for your ankle and the medicinal drink you had are all gathered by grandfather,” Chang Hao replied.

The two of them chatted casually.

As they were talking, a middle-aged man with slightly flamboyant clothing and a dark red birthmark on his forehead pushed open the courtyard gate and walked straight in. He noticed Yu Qingze and paused for a moment before smiling and saying, “Oh, the young man is awake?”

Yu Qingze didn’t recognize the man, so he could only smile and nod, discreetly observing the man’s peculiar attire.

However, as soon as Chang Hao saw this man, he immediately stopped what he was doing, cautiously watching the middle-aged man. His joyful expression from earlier instantly turned cold, a hint of annoyance flashed in his eyes, and he frowned, calling out, “Uncle.”

The middle-aged man acknowledged the greeting and asked, “Is your brother home? Brother Le, Brother Le…” Without waiting for Chang Hao’s response, the middle-aged man continued towards the kitchen on his own.

Seeing this, Chang Hao dropped the sun rake and quickly rushed in front of the middle-aged man, blocking his way with both hands, and shouted loudly, “My brother is not home, he went to cut pig grass! Uncle, you should go back!”

“You, child, why are you talking like this? I’m looking for Brother Le for something. Don’t block my way.”

“I’m telling you my brother is not here! He’s not going to marry that old widower in his fifties or sixties! If that person really wants to marry, why don’t you just marry him!”

“…”

Yu Qingze: “…” Marry? What’s going on?

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The author has something to say:

Yu Qingze: As soon as I appeared on the stage, my wife was targeted, can you write something better!

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Thingyan: I’m picking up another farming/ger novel while working on The ugly ger’s farming story. Actually, I have been working on this novel for awhile even before the ugly ger, just feeling lazy to put them up on the website.

This one is going to be more food-centered and have some business management elements. Hope you’ll like it ☺️