Whatever the two men discussed inside the house, Wen Yu knew nothing of it. When Xiao Huiniang went to the kitchen to start the fire, she felt awkward standing alone in the courtyard, so she followed to help.

This wasn’t her first time entering the kitchen, but that morning she’d only searched for a flint near the stove. She hadn’t touched anything else.

Now that Xiao Huiniang had already lit the fire, Wen Yu glanced at the counter where various bowls, chopsticks, ladles, and basins were placed, then looked at the stove with its two woks, only to discover she had absolutely no idea where to begin.

Though she had been in kitchens before, in the Prince’s manor, there were specialized servants tending the fire, and various ingredients were all prepared by servants. Even when cooking, what ingredients to add when, what seasonings to add when, how much seasoning, and when to adjust the heat to high or low at which stage of cooking—all these things had the head cook standing by to direct.

She only needed to take the dishes servants brought over and the pre-measured seasonings, and when the head cook said it was time, pour them into the wok and stir. The fire maids would control the heat.

After the food was cooked, plating and serving were all uniformly done by servants, yet among noble families, this already counted as cooking by their own hands.

Right now, if Wen Yu were to make a dish by herself, she did remember the steps for commonly prepared dishes, but in the Xiao family kitchen, there clearly weren’t ingredients for any of the dishes in her mind.

Wen Yu could only ask Xiao Huiniang, “Aunt, what are we having for lunch?”

Xiao Huiniang was adding firewood to the stove opening, her face flushed red from the firelight. Hearing the question, she said, “We’ll cook a pot of pig slaughter soup and stir-fry some bamboo shoots with a cut of tender meat.”

Wen Yu froze slightly upon hearing the three words “pig slaughter soup.” Before today, she had never even heard of this dish, let alone knew how to make it.

Fortunately, Xiao Huiniang didn’t intend for her to cook. After adding the firewood, she stood up from behind the stove, skillfully picked up an iron spatula and a brush made from thin bamboo strips bound together, and began scrubbing the blackened iron wok. Looking quite intent on showing off her cooking skills to the young people, she said to Wen Yu, “A’Yu, go outside and bring in the liver and kidneys.”

Finally assigned a task, Wen Yu felt relieved. She stepped outside but saw that the two men who had been hanging meat in the house earlier were now in the courtyard—one crouching to wash something, the other half-standing, holding a gourd ladle and slowly pouring water down.

Seeing her come out, Hou Xiao’an smiled with his gourd ladle, showing two canine teeth. “What are you looking for, big sister?”

Wen Yu said, “Where are the liver and kidneys?”

Hou Xiao’an lifted his chin toward the space behind her. “They’re hanging on the wall right behind you, big sister.”

Wen Yu turned and saw a string of internal organs hanging on a wall nail, still dripping blood. Even though she’d mentally prepared herself, her complexion still changed imperceptibly.

In her dozen-plus years of life, the only complete animal parts she’d ever seen were pig heads used for sacrificial offerings during festivals.

But even those she’d only glimpsed from afar. How could it compare to now, when she had to personally pick up this… this bleeding animal viscera?

These things bore some resemblance to human organs. Though Wen Yu had seen dead bodies on her escape route, she’d never witnessed anyone being disemboweled on the spot with their internal organs removed. Looking at that bloody mass now, a wave of discomfort rose within her.

But she forcefully suppressed it, trying to maintain an unperturbed expression on her face as much as possible. She stood on tiptoe to retrieve it, only her face looked somewhat pale.

Xiao Li happened to glance up and see this scene. He frowned slightly and said, “The blood from the liver hasn’t been washed yet. Take this string of intestines inside first.”

Then he said to Hou Xiao’an beside him, “Go get them and wash them.”

Hou Xiao’an obediently called out to Wen Yu, “Leave them, big sister. I’ll get them.”

As he spoke, he’d already put the gourd ladle back in the water vat and walked toward the wall with a smile showing his small canine tooth.

However, after Xiao Li spoke, Wen Yu didn’t stop. Instead, she stood on tiptoe and yanked down the palm leaf rope stringing together several masses of organs. Gripping the bloodstained rope tightly with all five fingers, her face pale, she handed it to the approaching Hou Xiao’an. Forcing a smile onto her face, she said, “Much obliged, young brother.”

With that, she turned to the water vat to scoop water and wash off the blood she’d gotten on her hands.

Xiao Li kept watching her. Hou Xiao’an was also momentarily stunned by Wen Yu’s sudden action.

When Wen Yu finished washing her hands and straightened up, her eyes met Xiao Li’s. No emotion could be discerned on her face anymore. She simply took the initiative to receive the string of washed pig intestines from Xiao Li’s hand, saying, “Then I’ll take these in first.”

Only after Wen Yu’s figure disappeared at the kitchen doorway did Hou Xiao’an shuffle over to Xiao Li’s side with small steps while holding the string of pig organs, asking him, “Did you see that?”

He gestured with his hands, scratching his ears and cheeks, extraordinarily at a loss for words. “Just now, her expression clearly showed she was about to faint from looking at this string of organs one more time, but when you told me to get them, she absolutely insisted on taking them down herself.”

Hou Xiao’an recalled what he’d just witnessed and muttered, “Why is she so stubborn?”

Then he added quite oddly, “I really don’t know what kind of family could raise a girl like this.”

Xiao Li made no sound. Only when he took the organs from Hou Xiao’an’s hand and carefully washed them did he say in an extremely low voice, “…Stubborn as a mule.”

In the kitchen, Wen Yu sat hugging her knees on the low stool behind the stove, her chin resting on her arms, half-lowering her eyelids to watch the firelight in the stove opening.

She wasn’t ungrateful. She naturally understood that the scoundrel had that youth come over because he’d probably noticed she was somewhat disgusted by the bloody organs.

But nominally, she was at least a maid Chen Laizi had given to the Xiao family. When even Xiao Huiniang and her son did all the dirty and tiring work themselves, if she minded the filth and feared hardship, unable to do anything well, it would make her seem like a mistress instead.

Though Xiao Huiniang treated her extremely well, she couldn’t lose her sense of propriety.

Wen Yu was immersed in her own thoughts when she suddenly heard Xiao Huiniang, busy at the stove, say, “A’Yu, watch the fire in the stove opening. I’m going outside to pick some vegetables.”

“Some of the firewood isn’t completely dry yet. Just mix it with dry wood when burning.”

Wen Yu came back to her senses and responded affirmatively. After Xiao Huiniang left, she noticed the fire in the stove opening seemed somewhat small, so she took some firewood from the side and stuffed it into the opening.

However, this wood was probably the half-dry firewood Xiao Huiniang had mentioned. After being placed in the stove opening, not only did it fail to ignite, but the thick smoke and moisture also smothered the originally burning dry wood, diminishing its flames.

Worried that insufficient dry wood would cause the fire to go out, Wen Yu hurriedly and carefully selected some dry firewood and stuffed it all into the stove opening in one go.

But the stove fire didn’t burn more vigorously as she’d hoped. Instead, it grew smaller and smaller, nearly extinguishing. Wen Yu frantically pulled out that half-dry wood producing thick smoke.

The thick smoke stung her eyes so badly she couldn’t open them. Her tear ducts involuntarily secreted tears. She forced her eyes into slits to look toward the stove opening, only to discover the fire had gone out anyway, leaving only a layer of crimson charcoal fire wrapped around the wood.

Wen Yu wanted to find the bellows handle to pump air into the stove opening, but after looking around, she didn’t see such a device behind the stove.

She could only lean in close and blow air, trying to fan the bit of charcoal fire into flames. This not only made her eyes sting painfully from the thick smoke, but her face also hurt somewhat from being roasted by the temperature at the stove door.

Wen Yu turned her head away for a coughing fit, knowing full well how pathetic she looked. But Xiao Huiniang had just gone out and asked her to watch the fire. If the fire went out in the blink of an eye, she’d have to call Xiao Huiniang back to clean up the mess. Just thinking about it made Wen Yu’s face burn with embarrassment.

After recovering from that bout of stinging in her eyes, she leaned close to the stove door again, attempting to blow air inside, but someone pushed her head aside.

Wen Yu turned her head with her pair of tear-filled eyes reddened from smoke, only to see Xiao Li had somehow entered the kitchen and was now standing beside her.

Looking at this person with a face full of soot from the smoke, staring at him with large, watery eyes, Xiao Li somehow thought of a white cat his family had once kept. That cat loved to burrow into the stove opening to sleep during winter. Every time before he started a fire, he had to first reach his hand inside to fish out the cat.

The cat would be covered in ash and dust from sleeping. When he held it by the scruff with all four paws dangling in the air, and its pair of round cat eyes looked at him, it wore exactly this kind of wary yet somewhat bewildered expression.

“I… I’ll have the fire going soon.” As Wen Yu spoke, she tried to add some kindling grass to the stove opening.

Xiao Li bent down to take the kindling grass from her hand and lightly patted her shoulder, indicating she should yield her position.

But the space behind the stove was cramped to begin with, so Wen Yu could only shrink further inward.

Xiao Li crouched down, removed most of the firewood Wen Yu had stuffed into the stove opening, and used tongs to rake the ash from the heart of the stove to both sides. He said, “This isn’t how you make a fire. There needs to be space underneath the firewood for the fire to burn. You compressed it all—how could the fire not go out?”

After saying this, he turned his head to look at her. The contours of his profile and his long black lashes were illuminated especially clearly by the firelight. His gaze held less of that hawk-hunting oppressiveness, yet remained so deeply black that one dared not easily meet it directly.

At this moment, Wen Yu was completely seized by enormous shame. The flint fire-starting from this morning combined with the current incident—the truth that she couldn’t make a fire at all was now glaringly obvious.

Afraid of being disdained for not knowing how to do anything, upon hearing his words, she could only respond with a somewhat embarrassed “Mm.”

The curve of her drooping neck was slender and attractive, but that face she was trying hard to keep taut, looking expressionless and feigning composure, was covered in soot.

Xiao Li picked up a section of bamboo tube resting on the stove wall and said, “When you blow air into the stove opening, use this.”

As he spoke, he demonstrated. Both ends of the bamboo tube had their nodes broken through. The hole for blowing air was large, while the hole for air output was small. When one breath was blown through the bamboo tube into the stove opening, the charcoal fire already covered with a layer of white ash instantly turned crimson red again, even sparking embers. With a “whoosh,” the flames reignited.

Wen Yu felt that if she’d only known about this thing earlier, she wouldn’t have embarrassed herself to this extent.

She tensed her shoulders and said with embarrassment while feigning composure, “I understand now.”

Xiao Li shifted his leg sideways to give her half the path and said, “Go wash your face outside.”

Only then did Wen Yu realize her face might have soot on it. In that instant, her already taut shoulders and back seemed wrapped in a layer of plaster. When she stepped out through the kitchen door, her entire being was like a clay figurine, not even stirring her skirt hem.

Xiao Li glanced past her retreating figure, turned his head to look at the stove fire, his eyes reflecting a warm orange glow. Propping up half his face, he seemed to smile silently.

When Wen Yu walked into the courtyard, Hou Xiao’an was picking vegetables with Xiao Huiniang in the vegetable plot at the corner of the yard. Hearing footsteps, he turned to look at Wen Yu and couldn’t help but let out a “pfft.”

Wen Yu’s sense of shame had nearly reached its limit. She looked at him with a stiff face. Hou Xiao’an quickly and tactfully shut his mouth.

Hearing the sound, Xiao Huiniang turned her head. Wen Yu had already turned her back to draw water from the vat to wash her face. Xiao Huiniang couldn’t help but fret upon seeing this. “The water in that vat must be freezing—how can you use it to wash your face? Be careful not to catch ill…”

Wen Yu said vaguely, “My face is hot from tending the fire. Using cold water to refresh myself is just right.”

Using the water as a mirror, she washed off the soot on her face before going to her room to find a clean handkerchief to dry her face.

Just then, the courtyard gate was knocked on again. After Hou Xiao’an ran to open it, he called into the house, “Big sister, I think someone’s here looking for you!”