Chapter 38
"It's a pity that the braising sauce was wasted," Luo Ge muttered as she looked at the remaining sauce in the pot after the braised dishes had been devoured.
"Dear wife, why don't we braise the remaining tiger meat and rabbit meat? That way, nothing will go to waste," said someone from the Gu family.
Indeed, their side had not fared much better, and this evening meal had turned into a competition to claim the braised meats.
"Can these be braised?" Gu Jinchen asked, rubbing his stomach as he leaned back on the chair with the two little ones after they had eaten their fill. He asked this additional question, fearing that the tiger meat might not be suitable for braising.
Before leaving, he had left a piece of tiger meat at home, intending to let Luo Ge taste its freshness.
"...Tiger meat... should be fine, I suppose?" Luo Ge thought, echoing Gu Jinchen's question. After all, the saying goes that anything can be braised with the right sauce.
However, she had never tried braising tiger meat before, so it would be an experiment.
"Alright, I'll go clean up the dishes."
"Okay." While Gu Jinchen was cleaning up, Luo Ge took out some lotus roots from her space and added them to the braising pot, as braised vegetables are also quite fragrant.
The little ones never paid much attention to such details – they ate whatever was given to them. With Gu Jinchen's help in distracting them, they wouldn't notice anything amiss.
Before going to bed, she would let the ingredients braise for an hour or two, then turn off the heat and leave them in the pot overnight. They would be ready to eat the next day.
In the evening...
"Drink some water before you sleep," Luo Ge said, as she always did, pouring Gu Jinchen a cup of water from her space before bedtime.
Working in the fields was physically demanding, so every night, she would have him drink some well water from her space before going to sleep.
The two little ones and Luo Ge herself would also drink the water, as it was beneficial for their health. Over time, it had become a habit.
"...What's wrong?" Luo Ge asked, puzzled as to why Gu Jinchen, who would usually obediently drink the water before sleeping, had not moved.
"Dear wife, is this water... also from that space of yours?" Gu Jinchen asked hesitantly after a moment.
Previously, he had simply accepted the water without much thought, believing that his wife was just being considerate. However, now that he knew about the existence of her space, he couldn't help but ponder.
Moreover, earlier in the mountains, he had suddenly felt that his agility and stamina were significantly stronger than usual.
So, he couldn't help but wonder if this had something to do with the water.
As far as he knew, his training methods hadn't changed much lately – they were the same as always. The only difference was this water that his wife insisted he drink every day.
Therefore, he had started to connect the dots, suspecting that his recent physical enhancements might be related to this water.
Upon hearing his question, Luo Ge paused briefly. She hadn't expected him to be so perceptive as to make the connection.
"Yes, drink it. It's good for your health, and I won't harm you," she said, nodding in acknowledgment after a moment's thought.
Hearing her words, Gu Jinchen chuckled and pulled her into his embrace, downing the water she had handed him.
"Of course, I know you would never harm me."
"If I can't even trust my own wife, how can I be your husband? How can I be worthy of you sharing your secrets with me?"
Luo Ge froze for a moment, then smiled and snuggled contentedly into his embrace, closing her eyes to sleep.
"As long as I'm here, you need not worry about anything," Gu Jinchen said softly, gazing down at her. "I will protect you until the end of our days."
He was a man of his word, and once he made a promise, he would see it through.
From then on... this also became his excuse to strictly watch over her.
They slept soundly that night.
...When Luo Ge woke up, the three of them – the one big and two small – had just returned from their outdoor training, drenched in sweat.
"You're all sweaty and dirty little rascals. Go wash up quickly. I've boiled some water for you," she said, having prepared hot water for them while cooking breakfast. "Wash first, then come back for your meal."
"Okay."
After the little ones had bathed, she handed them the apples she had taken from her space earlier.
"Eat some pastries first, then have the fruit. Your uncle bought these from the county town; there aren't many, so don't tell others, okay?" she said, turning to Gu Jinchen, who was carrying a pot.
Gu Jinchen simply nodded in agreement with his wife's words.
The two little ones looked at the fragrant apples in their hands, then back at Luo Ge and Gu Jinchen.
"What about Auntie and Uncle? Do you have fruit too? These apples are so big, Older Baby can't finish them all. Can Older Baby share with Little Auntie?" the older one asked, clearly catching the "not many" part of Luo Ge's statement.
"Uncle, Second Baby will share with you. Let's eat together," the younger one chimed in, enticed by the red, fragrant apples that looked sweet and delicious.
They wanted to share the fruit with their aunt and uncle.
Luo Ge found the two little ones to be very considerate. The sweet apples she had bought were a smaller variety, no bigger than a fist, so she knew they wouldn't have trouble finishing them.
She patted their heads, then took out two more apples from the cupboard – actually retrieved from her space, using the cupboard to conceal the action – and handed one to Gu Jinchen.
"No need to share. Auntie and your uncle have their own apples too. Eat up."
"Have some pastries first, then the fruit." For breakfast, she had made egg pancakes, so it would be perfect to have the apples afterward.
"Okay." Seeing that everyone had apples, the two little ones obediently agreed to eat without further comments.
"The vegetables we planted earlier have sprouted. You should go take a look later," Gu Jinchen suddenly mentioned while they were eating.
He had returned home unexpectedly that day at noon because he noticed that the vegetables in the garden were growing too quickly. He remembered that just a few days ago, they had barely sprouted.
However, when he checked on them yesterday, they were already a couple of fingers tall, growing at an astonishing rate. He had thought they might be ready to harvest in another couple of days.
At the time, he had assumed it was because his wife had bought a new variety of seeds.
But now, he suspected that it might have been due to his wife's mysterious space.
"Oh? Okay, let's go take a look," Luo Ge replied, having also wanted to check on the vegetable garden, as she hadn't seen it for some time. It had been about ten days since she planted the seeds, so they should have sprouted by now.
"Um..." However, when she opened the garden gate and saw the situation inside, she fell silent in astonishment.
To her surprise, the green onions and garlic she had planted along the edges were already ready to be harvested. Even the ginger had grown to a considerable size.
The tender, white ginger could be dug up and used to make pickled ginger or ginger sauce.
The young bok choy was ready to be picked, and the lettuce and spinach were nearly there too. The vines of the bitter gourds and loofah had spread far, so she would need to set up trellises for them to climb on soon, or else she might have to search all over the ground for the gourds later.
Even the chili and tomato plants had begun to flower.
Gu Jinchen was equally stunned by the sight for a moment. "I'll go chop some long branches and bamboo poles later," he remarked, referring to the vines and the need for trellises, but his expression was puzzled as he looked at Luo Ge.
"This isn't your doing?"
Luo Ge shook her head three times. "No, I don't know why they're growing so fast either."
She remembered buying ordinary seeds online at the time.
This rapid growth of plants seemed almost like sorcery at this point, and she would have been courting disaster if she had done it intentionally.
Aside from sowing the seeds, she hadn't really touched the plants much. She had intended to water them with her space's water in the next couple of days, once they had sprouted, to help them survive better.
But she hadn't expected this situation to occur. Just ten days, and they had grown so fast? Could it be that the inanimate objects from her space had also undergone some kind of mutation?
Recalling the fridge that could maintain a constant temperature without electricity... this possibility seemed quite plausible...
Hearing her explanation, Gu Jinchen fell silent as well.
"Don't worry. Let's just harvest the matured vegetables for now.
The fences around this vegetable garden are quite tall and dense, so it's not easy to see inside from the outside. If anyone asks, just say you got some new varieties from a Western merchant, and you don't know anything else."
"Don't worry, I'm here for everything," Gu Jinchen said in a low voice, seeming to notice her concern.
"Okay." Hearing this, Luo Ge nodded slightly.
Fearing that these vegetables would keep growing at this rate, Gu Jinchen decided not to water them anymore.
He wanted to try first and see if less watering would slow down their growth.
It turned out that without watering, their growth indeed slowed down significantly. These mutant seeds seemed to rely heavily on water.
Once they understood this, the young couple felt somewhat reassured.
Luo Ge discovered that after taking these seeds, her space didn't replenish, so these few types of seeds were the only batch.
That's why she didn't have the heart to pull them all out at once, to avoid others seeing the abnormality.
Unless she never wanted to eat these vegetables openly again, she could uproot them freely.
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