After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

As Widow Ning spoke, she added a few words of regret, saying that Cuicui was well-educated and polite, and looked like a lady from a respectable family. She also knew in her heart that her family was probably not good enough for her.

"It's a pity that our Ning family has fallen on hard times, otherwise you and Cuicui would have been a perfect match..."

"Back in the North, our Ning family was quite influential. We were a scholarly family, the kind with a family genealogy. It's just a pity that war broke out. Your grandfather took your seven-year-old father across the river, and we found your old mother on the way..."

"Your father died young, and your grandparents went with him too. Alas—, leaving only your mother to endure this world..."

Ning Nan had been nagging about the Ning family being a "scholarly family" for over a decade, and his mother had long since grown tired of it.

I was so tense last night that I was exhausted and slept all day. My stomach was growling with hunger.

Seeing her eyes growing redder as she spoke, Ning Nan quickly interrupted, "Mother, have you noticed... that Cui Cui has gained a little weight?"

"Huh? Really?" Widow Ning's expression froze, and she wiped her eyes with her brown sleeve. "Has it gotten a little rounder?"

She turned to look at the kitchen.

It's better not to look back.

When they turned around, the mother and son were startled!

My soul almost jumped out of my skin!

Black smoke billowed from Zhu Cuicui's pot, and the fire was blazing so fiercely it almost set the kitchen on fire!

"Don't set the kitchen on fire!"

Ning Nan reacted quickly, stepping into the kitchen and grabbing the pot lid to cover the iron pot and suppress the fire.

"It's okay, it's okay..."

Seeing that her son had brought the situation under control, Widow Ning immediately blocked the kitchen doorway and reassured the guests who had rushed out after smelling the burnt food, "Oh dear, it's alright, Ning boy, you're so naughty! You burned the stir-fry!"

The crowd stopped in their tracks, responded with a few "ohs," glanced at him a few more times, and said, "Ningwa is a good cook, but he's young and too impetuous!" They analyzed the situation seriously while chatting casually as they retreated back to the main room.

These days, a fire is no small matter; the whole house could burn down. "Be careful, Ningwa!" an auntie called out with concern.

Widow Ning nodded repeatedly.

Li Xiaoqiu, who was squatting by the well picking vegetables, frowned. Wasn't Brother Ning Nan chatting with Aunt Ning at the kitchen door just now? When did they go into the kitchen to cook?

She muttered a few words to herself, her two little tufts of hair bobbing on her head. She was a little confused, but as Li Sanzhuang's sister, she had the same skills as Sanzhuang. So she didn't dwell on things she couldn't understand and continued to happily pick vegetables.

In the kitchen, Ning Nan held a wet towel down on the wooden pot lid with one hand and the iron pot handle with the other, his eyes serious and his breath held.

If the pot lid can't keep out the fire, the pot has to be moved out. The kitchen is also a woodshed, with piles of dry firewood at the back. If a fire breaks out, it's no small matter.

moment.

The firewood under the stove was still burning fiercely, but the flames in the iron pot had finally gone out. A spark must have accidentally splashed into the pot and ignited the oil.

Zhu Cuicui stood to the side, her chin slightly raised, her eyes fixed on the iron pot on the stove.

Ning Nan glanced at it.

I almost burst out laughing.

Cui Cui's face was covered in black grime, and her hair was a mess, but her expression remained as stubborn and aloof as ever, and her back was ramrod straight.

Widow Ning slapped Ning Nan's arm without any politeness, her eyes sharp, forbidding her son from gloating. When her gaze turned to the woman, it immediately softened, and she said, "It's alright, it's alright, your godmother is here."

He wrung out a hot towel and wiped Zhu Cuiwei's face and hands. Zhu Cuiwei didn't say anything, looking indifferent but submissive. Soon, her pretty face returned to normal, her fair skin still damp and steaming.

Ning Nan glanced into the pot and knew that the other party wanted to make that dish of rice wine duck.

There was no beer in those days, so he made do with rice wine and experimented until he found it tasted pretty good. Little did he know that Cui Cui had stolen his recipe, but she was inexperienced and, with both wine and oil in the pan, she panicked and lost her composure when she saw the oil sizzling in the pan.

"Are we still going to make it?" Ning Nan threw away the badly cooked food, cleaned the iron pot, glanced at the residue, and saw that the duck meat was not cut properly, the pieces were too big, and no scallions were added to remove the fishy smell.

"How much is a duck?" she asked, tilting her head back.

Ning Nan curled his lip: "It's cheaper than an old hen. I bought it from the boatman in the east of the village for forty coins."

"Okay." Cui Cui rolled up her sleeves, revealing her two smooth forearms.

Seeing that the woman had taken a stance, Ning Nan rolled up his sleeves and smiled, "Master Ning doesn't accept tuition fees."

The duck the woman used earlier was one he had killed the day before, with all the feathers plucked, so she only needed to chop it. Then, he took another duck out of the cage outside the kitchen and began teaching her how to cook, starting with cutting its throat to bleed it.

"No wonder they say a gentleman keeps away from the kitchen." The woman frowned, staring at the duck blood that was gradually filling the porcelain bowl, feeling a little sorry for it.

Ning Nan held the duck upside down and shook it: "Nonsense," he said casually.

Confucius also said that one should not be too particular about the fineness of the food or the delicacy of the preparation.

"His wife wanted him to cook, but the old man was lazy and played a trick on her, saying something like 'A gentleman keeps away from the kitchen,' or 'He can't bear to see his wife die.' His disciples, upon hearing this, thought it was a great idea to avoid cooking, so they wrote it down and were quite pleased with themselves. But those few mouths were all incredibly picky..."

Some words were said by sages, and some by near-sages. The man misattributed them, spouting nonsense, making fun of and mocking the sages while immersing a duck, whose blood had been drained, in hot water to pluck its feathers.

Zhu Cuiwei stared blankly for a moment.

A bizarre image immediately flashed into my mind: an old man picking at his food while complaining about it. His wife, dissatisfied, slammed down her chopsticks and ordered him to cook the next meal. The old man immediately shut up, but seemingly afraid of losing face, he shook his head and stubbornly said, "A gentleman keeps away from the kitchen..."

As she thought about it, the corners of her lips curved slightly.

She glanced at the man and suddenly felt a strange sensation.

Compared to those old scholars in the imperial court who constantly quote Confucius, this man who is busy cooking a good meal for his friends and neighbors seems to have truly absorbed the wisdom of the sages.

It's like being in a dark room where many people are holding books and shouting, "There's light outside! It's bright outside!" Each one is more red-faced, more indignant, and more convinced than the last. But then, a boy holds up a bamboo pole and pokes it upwards, piercing a hole in the roof... and light suddenly shines in.

Ning Nan plucked the duck feathers. "Come on, let me teach you how to cut it." Zhu Cuicui pursed her pink lips, got up and followed.

It was getting late.

The meal was a pleasant one for both the host and guests.

The aunties held Cui Cui's hands and said this and that, "How beautiful!" Ning Nan heard such words at least four or five times.

Old Han winked at Ning Nan, "Is she your wife?"

Ning Nan shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and only drank a cup of the old wine that Li Xing had brought, which had a mellow taste.

San Zhuang and his sister toasted him, but Ning Nan waved his hand and said, "Nizi, if you are bullied after you get married, your brother and I will still support you." Li Xiaoqiu blushed and nodded vigorously.

Er Lai's hand was injured, but he drank the most tonight and even shed tears. With red eyes, he cried and said, "Brother, I don't want to end up like my father, killing pigs in the village for the rest of my life..."

Ning Nan patted his shoulder: "No...it definitely won't..."

As the guests departed, the hustle and bustle gradually subsided into tranquility.

The moon arrived as promised.

Silver light streamed down onto the windowsill.

Ning Nan leaned against the window, slightly drunk, watching Cui Cui, who was sitting on her desk next to him, writing a letter to Master Zhu.