On the first, tenth, and twentieth of each month, it’s time for the free clinic.
Additionally, there’s a trip to the county town to deliver medicine and sell some herbs, but after that, there’s no other work.
The day after the free clinic.
In the past, he might have gone up the mountain to gather some common herbs.
After all, the herbs grown in the courtyard are all rare varieties, like Tianshan snow lotus or celestial silkworm grass—precious species of that sort.
They’re basically the kind of rare, once-in-a-millennium treasures.
So, let alone selling them, he treasures them too much to even think about it.
However, today he’s not going out.
His little wife just went through her first night as a married woman and is still weak.
As her husband, no matter what, he wouldn’t leave her alone today to go into the mountains by himself, would he?
He opened the lid of the chest under the kitchen cabinet.
The moment the lid was lifted, a wave of cold air surged out.
“Hm, the ten-thousand-year mysterious ice lives up to its reputation as a rare treasure. After all these years, its chill remains. I’m truly a genius!”
He casually took out some fresh meat from beside the block of mysterious ice in the chest.
This ten-thousand-year mysterious ice has a remarkable trait: it preserves the quality of any organic matter placed near it.
Whether it’s meat or vegetables, when placed beside this ice, they don’t freeze but remain perfectly fresh.
This is why, even living at the remote foot of the mountain, he can still enjoy fresh meat and vegetables every day.
However, the mysterious ice has another trait: it freezes all nearby inorganic matter.
It’s only because this chest is enchanted with a special array that it can barely contain the cold.
Of course, the greatest feature of the ten-thousand-year mysterious ice is its ability to preserve a person’s vitality.
If someone is placed beside it, it can sustain their life force, preventing them from weakening or recovering, maintaining them in a perfectly stable state.
This makes it a life-saving treasure.
Of course, he has no need for such a life-saving item, so using it to keep ingredients fresh is quite handy!
From another chest, he took out some pre-prepared noodles, lifted the pot lid, then leaned down to open a small wooden box and placed it in the stove.
Boom~
A roaring flame burst forth the moment the wooden box was opened.
The intense heat instantly raised the kitchen’s temperature by seven or eight degrees.
Strangely, while flames blazed above the box, the box itself remained completely unaffected.
Inside it was the ten-thousand-year fire essence, an object that continuously burns the surrounding air by its very existence.
Only by storing it in magma or sealing it within certain arrays can its heat be contained; otherwise, it constantly radiates heat.
Looking at the roaring flames, Xu Ping’an nodded, scooped a few ladles of water into the pot, and then picked up a kitchen knife, swiftly cutting the meat with precision.
Each slice was executed with perfect accuracy, every piece of meat cut to exactly the same size.
With thousands of years of knife-wielding experience, his mastery of the blade was almost otherworldly.
The kitchen knife danced up and down, and the ingredients on the cutting board were swiftly sliced.
If someone measured them with a ruler, they would find that every piece of meat and vegetable was almost perfectly uniform.
Streaky pork with balanced fat and lean, freshly preserved wild mushrooms, soaked wood ear mushrooms, and a touch of green and red bell peppers.
Hot wok, cold oil—stir-frying began.
After a battle with the flames, Xu Ping’an fished out the cooked noodles, ladled a spoonful of meat sauce over them, sprinkled some green onions and cilantro, and finally drizzled a bit of hot oil on top.
A fragrant bowl of braised noodle soup was complete.
Happily placing the noodles on a tray, he walked into the room.
As soon as he entered, he saw his little wife struggling with her clothes.
Due to her amnesia, she had completely forgotten how to dress herself.
Like a child, she sometimes couldn’t even tell the difference between a top and pants.
Xu Ping’an looked at his lovely wife, her beauty barely concealed by her disheveled robes, her eyes tinged with a hint of frustration.
He couldn’t help but chuckle.
This girl—was she getting mad at herself over struggling to put on clothes?
“Darling~ it’s bullying me!!” she exclaimed.
The moment Pei Qingxuan heard Xu Ping’an’s voice, the anger on her small face grew even more intense.
Pouting, she turned to look at Xu Ping’an, pointing at the robe on her body as if lodging a complaint.
“Darling, I’ll teach it a lesson for you later. Come, let me help you put it on first.”
After last night’s romantic encounter, he was even more smitten with his little wife.
However, the meal was ready, and it would be a waste not to eat it, so no matter what thoughts were swirling in his mind, he decided to hold them back for now.
Moreover, having just experienced her first night, her body was still delicate, and it wasn’t suitable to indulge too much for the time being.
Looking at Pei Qingxuan, her lips pursed and her face full of adorable frustration, Xu Ping’an smiled and stepped forward.
He pulled out the sleeve that had gotten tucked in and helped her put on her clothes properly.
Of course, while helping her with her undergarments, there was inevitably some contact.
But even though his hands touched softness and her fragrance filled his senses, Xu Ping’an admirably restrained his impulses and helped his adorably clueless wife get dressed.
“Time to eat.”
“Mm!”
Looking at the fragrant and appetizing braised noodle soup, her mood finally improved a bit.
She picked up her chopsticks and started eating.
It was unclear to what extent her soul had detached from her body—she couldn’t dress herself, yet she wielded chopsticks with such ease.
“Darling, what are we doing today~?”
“Today?”
Xu Ping’an was caught off guard by the question, but he saw the anticipation sparkling in his little wife’s eyes.
“Yeah~ The day before yesterday, we went to the county town. Yesterday, we held the free clinic. So what about today~?”
Looking at Pei Qingxuan, who was brimming with childlike excitement, he couldn’t bring himself to say, “Nothing.”
“Is there… anything uncomfortable with your body?”
The silly girl tilted her head, her big, innocent eyes gazing at Xu Ping’an.
“Uncomfortable? What’s uncomfortable?”
Xu Ping’an let out a sigh.
After last night’s exchange of yin and yang, where he had given so much of his yang energy to nourish his little wife, how could she feel any discomfort? Even if she had any minor injuries, they would have nearly healed by now.
“Then… how about accompanying your husband to the mountains to gather herbs today?”
“Okay~”
Her big, watery eyes sparkled with curiosity as she looked at him and asked, “Darling~ What fun things are there in the mountains?”
“In the mountains… there are birds, insects, and some small animals. Do you like those?”
“Like our Mumu?”
“Mumu? Who’s Mumu?”
Xu Ping’an was puzzled, but then he saw his little wife point toward the window.
“The little donkey~”
Following her gesture, he looked outside and saw the small donkey standing by the wooden post, looking utterly dejected.
Xu Ping’an slapped his forehead, nearly forgetting about it.
“Wait, what did you call it?”
“Mumu. Didn’t you tie it to a wooden post yesterday when we got back?”
“You named it Mumu because it’s tied to a wooden post? So if I had tied it to an iron post?”
“Then it’d be Tietie.”