He was overthinking it.

Su Yujin skillfully peeled the shrimp shells, put the shrimp meat in her mouth, and chewed slowly. Seeing He Yanxiu lost in thought, she asked, “Why aren’t you eating, Second Master?”

“Is your wrist a little uncomfortable when you eat?”

He Yanxiu came back to his senses. “No, I’m done eating.” He breathed a sigh of relief.

He knew it; Su Yujin, as a doctor, would care about him, the injured man.

Was the second master done eating?

Su Yujin looked at the remaining sān zhī mèn guō and beamed with joy.

It was all hers; no one would take it, and she could eat slowly.

He Yanxiu wiped his mouth with a towel, rinsed it, and then called Xing’an to bring over the wooden box. “The matter in Hedong Prefecture was handled well this time, and His Majesty was quite pleased, giving some rewards. You also worked very hard this time, contributing a lot. This is yours.”

Whether it was the poisoning or the mine collapse, it was all thanks to her timely rescue.

Su Yujin, believing she had indeed done well, didn’t refuse and accepted the box, saying, “Thank you, Second Master.” She opened it to look inside.

There were six gleaming gold ingots, ten taels each, which, if converted to silver, would be six hundred taels.

Su Yujin smiled, her eyes crinkling. “Thank you, Second Master.” She said twice.

He Yanxiu felt that asking his mother for some silver was absolutely the right thing to do.

“It’s all thanks to you; you deserve it,” He Yanxiu said with a smile.

Su Yujin paused slightly, thought for a moment, and then hesitantly asked, “Then, Second Master, next time you go on official business, why don’t you take me with you?”

This trip to Hedong had been incredibly fruitful for Su Yujin.

A good friend, a cash cow who had become a business partner, and many rewards from He Yanxiu—she had made a fortune.

Su Yujin wanted more opportunities like this.

He Yanxiu, “…”

“Alright, alright.”

“Thank you, Second Master!”

…

After lunch, Su Yujin prescribed another batch of herbal medicine and plasters for He Yanxiu, instructing Ai Cao to bring back the medicine according to the prescription to boil and grind it.

Having the experience of grinding the medicine powder to make plasters last time, Su Yujin was quite adept this time, making several plasters in one afternoon and sealing them with oil paper.

In the evening, Su Yujin had Ai Cao and Granny Liu carefully prepare the crabs.

Two large baskets of crabs, all alive, needed to be eaten fresh.

Remembering that storage conditions were limited at this time and that crabs would easily become thin and lose their flavor if left too long, Su Yujin took one basket of crabs to Huibinlou and Su Ji’s to divide them among themselves, leaving the other basket in the courtyard for a few people to eat. These were genuine hairy crabs, large in size, each weighing about half a pound, and mostly female.

Su Yujin checked the quantity and did a simple sorting.

For dinner, they made steamed and salt-baked hairy crabs, and the main dish was noodles with crab roe and lard.

The next morning, breakfast consisted of small steamed buns filled with crab meat and roe stir-fried with lard, served with crab porridge and several delicate and delicious cold dishes.

By noon, Su Yujin cleaned the remaining few crabs, removed the inedible parts, split them into pieces, and made spicy crab…

He Yanxiu ate with great relish, even licking his fingers without any regard for his image.

Seeing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

If even the Second Master, a scion of a prominent family, acted this way, then their actions were perfectly normal.

After all, the most essential part of eating such a spicy and flavorful dish, which required tearing it apart with your hands, was licking your fingers.

The spicy crab was delicious, but everyone felt a little disappointed.

The portion was too small!

So much so that after finishing the spicy crab, Xing’an and Ai Cao were secretly considering whether to go to the street to buy some more crabs.

It was the eighth lunar month, the season when crabs were at their fattest and most delicious. Even if the crabs bought casually from the street weren’t as big as the ones He Yanxiu had found, they were still of good quality and worth trying.

But crabs, though delicious, are somewhat cooling and not suitable for eating every day.

After pondering for a while, Su Yujin asked Ai Cao and Granny Liu to help her knead the dough.

This wasn’t ordinary noodle dough; it was made with leftover white rice, salt, five-spice powder, chili powder, flour, sweet potato starch, and egg liquid.

The dough was rolled out, creased, cut into strips, steamed, dried, and then stir-fried in a chili oil mixture primarily composed of chili powder, five-spice powder, cumin powder, Sichuan peppercorn powder, white sesame seeds, salt, and sugar.

After the wide “noodles” cooled, Su Yujin shared them with everyone to taste.

Their bright red color and fragrant aroma were quite appetizing.

But could this really taste better than spicy crab?

Was there truly anything better than spicy crab in this world?

With this question in mind, everyone put Su Yujin’s dish into their mouths.

The aroma and spiciness burst in your mouth, a sensation that seems to hit you right in the head, making it almost addictive. You can’t stop eating it, finishing one strip only to grab another.

When the spiciness becomes unbearable, gulp down a bowl of cold water…

Refreshing!

It really was something even better than spicy crab.

He Yanxiu was also enjoying it immensely, but because of the medicinal soup he was taking, he couldn’t eat much, only getting a small strip.

He was even a little reluctant to eat it, tearing off small pieces at a time, and asked Su Yujin, “What is this food? It tastes so good.”

“Làtiáo,” Su Yujin replied.

Làtiáo?

Fragrant, spicy, and shaped like noodles, the name was indeed fitting.

He Yanxiu then happily ate his only small piece of spicy strip.

Because of injuries to his wrist and ribs, He Yanxiu would be staying in Qinghe for more than ten days. He didn’t consider it a serious illness and didn’t think Su Yujin needed to be by his side every day, so he told her to just focus on her own affairs.

Seeing this, Su Yujin didn’t stand on ceremony with He Yanxiu and simply went to the estate to check on its current condition, as planned.

More than half a year later, Niu Dali was overjoyed to see his employer again and warmly welcomed Su Yujin into his home.

“Everything’s fine at the farm. The wheat harvest was bountiful this year. There wasn’t any heavy rain before the harvest, so each mu yielded dozens of jin more than last year. After the harvest, there were two more rain showers, so the soil is moist enough for autumn planting.”

“This year, we mainly planted corn, soybeans, and cotton. On the land farther from the well, which isn’t in good condition, we planted some sweet potatoes, and they’re growing quite well. If the weather continues like this, the harvest will be good too.”

“Yes, and I’ve had the villagers take care of everything the master reminded me of last time, following his instructions.”

(End of Chapter)

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