Upon hearing this, Sister Yang slammed the meat - cleaver she was holding straight down onto the wooden table with a "thud", making the blade tremble twice.
"Hey! Big Beard, go back and tell the Third Boss that there's no one I can't discipline. Tell him to rest assured!"
Big Beard let out a hearty laugh. "Alright! Sister Yang, I'm leaving this person in your hands. I'll be off!"
As soon as the big - bearded captain left, Sister Yang immediately wiped the smile off her face and said to Xuan Yuanjue, who was pretending to be Boss Wang, "See that freshly slaughtered pig on the table? Skin it, disassemble the bones, and remove the internal organs. What are you standing there for? Hurry up!"
Then she turned to Shen Li, who was currently posing as Li Erhua. "You're so thin you can't do any heavy work. Just wash and shred that plate of potatoes."
Shen Li, without any resistance, walked over to the large plate of potatoes soaking in water on the ground and resignedly started washing them.
While she was bowing her head, Shen Li quietly sized up Sister Yang, whom Big Beard had mentioned. She saw that Sister Yang was a woman in her late twenties, wearing a rose - red top and a gray headscarf. Her attire was neat and practical. Although she looked thin, there were well - defined muscles on her arms under the rolled - up sleeves.
Sister Yang, who had been sitting on a small stool, suddenly turned her head towards Shen Li. Shen Li had just averted her gaze before Sister Yang looked over.
"Hurry up! At this rate, the brothers won't get their dinner until nightfall!"
Sister Yang walked up to Shen Li and kicked the water basin in front of her.
Shen Li wiped the sweat off her forehead and said with a smile, "I'm almost done. It's quite fast!"
As she lowered her head, Shen Li was secretly amazed at Xuan Yuanjue's disguise technique. It was not only flawless but also breathable, so she didn't feel stuffy.
With Sister Yang glaring at her from the side, Li Erhua quickly finished washing the potatoes. Then she deftly fished them out, placed them on the chopping board, picked up the kitchen knife, and started shredding them with a series of "click - click - click" sounds.
Looking at the shredded potatoes Shen Li had cut, Sister Yang showed a satisfied smile. "Your knife skills are quite good!"
"Hehe! Not bad. I used to work as a handyman in a restaurant in our town. After I got married, I cooked for many years. It's all practice."
Sister Yang nodded and said no more.
While Shen Li's hands didn't stop shredding the vegetables, her mind wandered elsewhere. She had to thank her past self for her knife skills because in this place, there was a custom that a newly - wed bride had to make breakfast for the elders in the family on the second day of marriage.
Although Consort Chen was a consort, not an ordinary mother - in - law, in her past life, Shen Li still got up early on the second day to make breakfast in order to please Consort Chen.
For that breakfast for Consort Chen, she had practiced with the kitchen maids in the mansion for more than half a year.
Even after her wedding, she would occasionally cook for Xiao Hanzhi, hoping to hear him say, "You've worked hard!"
Shen Li silently shook her head in her heart and stopped thinking about those memories of the past.
She knew her cooking skills were good, so this time she deliberately cut the shredded potatoes a bit poorly, but they were still better than those of some ordinary women.
On the other side, Xuan Yuanjue was struggling with the pig. There was still a woman beside him staring at him and occasionally scolding him for his clumsiness.
By late afternoon, Shen Li had lost count of how many large basins of vegetables she had shredded, and Xuan Yuanjue had been forced to chop meat and break pig bones. After all this hard work, both of them felt their arms were so sore they could hardly lift them.
Even though they had worked so hard, for dinner they only got a bowl of plain shredded potatoes, a bowl of stir - fried Chinese cabbage, and two bowls of rice porridge, with no sign of any fat.
Adhering to the principle of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", Shen Li had no choice but to sit on a small stool and hold the bowl to eat.
Xuan Yuanjue's behavior surprised Shen Li. She had thought that as a high - ranking heir, he would either throw down his chopsticks and leave or at least find it hard to swallow such food.
But unexpectedly, not only did he do the rough work all afternoon without a single complaint, but he also ate his dinner with gusto.
Seeing him eat the shredded potatoes as if they were some imperial delicacy, Shen Li also picked up a chopstick full of shredded potatoes and put them into her mouth. The taste was not great, just passable.
She asked curiously, "Is it really that delicious? I think it's just okay."
Xuan Yuanjue picked up another large chopstick full of vegetables and put them into his mouth. He squinted his eyes as if savoring the taste. "Delicious! It's incredibly delicious!"
Then, seeing Shen Li's obviously disbelieving look, he looked at her again and seriously added, "After all, it's the dish my wife cut with her own hands."
Shen Li looked at his face, kicked his shoe awkwardly, then turned around and didn't look at him. "Stop talking so much. Hurry up and eat."
But her cheeks quietly turned red.
Unlike Shen Li and Xuan Yuanjue, who were arranged to eat in a corner squatting on the ground, the two or thirty women who had just cooked in the stockade were now sitting around the tables in the wooden shed, eating together. There were both meat and vegetables on the tables, a good combination of meat and vegetables.
Sister Yang was obviously the leader of these women. Her words carried a lot of weight, and these women respected her very much.
Now a woman in her thirties sitting on Sister Yang's right - hand side, looking at Shen Li and Xuan Yuanjue chatting and laughing, whispered to Sister Yang, "Sister Yang, you know what? Their relationship as a young couple is really good!"
Sister Yang just glanced up and then looked away.
In the evening, all Sister Yang gave to Shen Li and Xuan Yuanjue was a room filled with sundries. Inside the room, besides a narrow, shabby single bed, there were all kinds of discarded items.
"There are no empty rooms in the stockade. You'll have to make do here for now."
After saying that, Sister Yang threw their luggage to Xuan Yuanjue, left an oil lamp, and then walked away. Shen Li and Xuan Yuanjue were left looking at each other in the musty - smelling room.
"Wife, you wait here. I'll clean this up before you go to sleep."
Saying so, Xuan Yuanjue grabbed a handful of dry grass from the ground, swept away the cobwebs on the ceiling, cleaned the small wooden bed, laid a thick layer of dry grass on it, and finally pieced together the two cloths that had wrapped their clothes to make a bedsheet.
"Come on, wife! Look, I've cleaned it up nicely. Hurry up and go to bed."
By the dim light of the oil lamp, Shen Li looked at Xuan Yuanjue, who didn't even notice the dust on his face and was still smiling. She suddenly felt touched. Li Erhua had such a caring husband, which made her a bit envious.
"Fool, your face is dirty! You look so ugly!" Since Shen Li didn't have a handkerchief, she could only stand on tiptoe and use her sleeve to wipe the dust off Xuan Yuanjue's face.
Looking at Shen Li's gentle face so close to his, Xuan Yuanjue's smile deepened.
The scene inside the room was seen by someone outside, and they really thought the two of them were a loving couple.
Only after seeing the light go out in their small room did Sister Yang start walking towards the Third Boss's courtyard.