Chapter 57: Chapter 57: So That’s What Kind of Bird You Are

Zhao Huai’s cooking may not be top-notch, but at least he has the skills to cook up a full table of dishes.

After half an hour of bustle, all dishes were finally ready.

“This smells so good, indeed my husband,” said Yu Qinghan, inhaling the aroma and showing a delightful smile of praise.

Zhao Huai wiped the sweat off his forehead and laughed, “Let’s eat while it’s hot; especially this fried fish in black bean sauce, I guarantee it’ll suit your taste.”

Pei Xiangyun’s eyes revealed a hint of surprise as she looked at the full table of dishes.

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She hadn’t expected her sister’s words to be true.

She hadn’t met many men who could cook in her life, excluding the servants.

Now, she seemed to understand why her sister liked him.

Even her mother rarely cooked, and when her father was away at war years ago, they seldom had meals together, let alone cook for each other. Initially, she thought her sister learning to cook was just a waste of time. How naive that thought was now.

Pei Xiangyun picked up her chopsticks, grabbed a piece of steaming white fish, and began to savor it in her mouth.

Surprisingly, it tasted much better than she had anticipated.

“How is it? Your brother-in-law’s cooking skills aren’t bad, right?” Yu Qinghan smiled charmingly.

“Actually, it’s not bad.” Pei Xiangyun didn’t want to admit it, but the lingering

Trying to salvage her pride, Pei Xiangyun added, “But I’ve heard that a gentleman keeps a distance from the kitchen. Don’t you know that? Or are you saying that you’re not a gentleman?”

Having finished, she showed a triumphant smile on her face.

Zhao Huai smiled lightly, expressing indifference, “This is where you lack understanding.”

“This saying was from the ancient sage, Mencius. The complete sentence is ‘A gentleman keeps a distance from the kitchen for he can bear to watch the life but not its death’.

“The meaning of this statement is that when a gentleman encounters a life being slaughtered, he hopes to see it alive, not bearing to witness its death, this is the reason for a gentleman’s distance from the kitchen. The core value advocated is the virtue of humanity.”

“My husband quite has profound knowledge.” said Yu Qinghan, admiring him.

After one round of explanations, Pei Xiangyun was so stunned, she was dumbstruck!

She had attempted to taunt this rascal, but ended up getting a slap in the face?!

Zhao Huai, seeing her reaction, couldn’t help but chuckle.

He hadn’t spent nine years in education for nothing.

The rest of the time, the three ate and chatted. Zhao Huai and Yu Qinghan laughed and conversed while eating.

Only Pei Xiangyun was in a sulky mood, eating her food quietly in one corner.

She felt as if she was the extra wheel and felt a considerable blow to her pride.

Knock knock knock.

When Zhao Huai was cleaning the dishes, there came a knock from the pawnshop’s door.

“Husband, let me do it, you go open the door.”

“Alright.”

Zhao Huai had also grown used to this. Lately, the number of times he was disturbed at night was far from few.

Opening the door, he saw a bare-chested man and a woman in her forties or fifties.

They looked seemingly common and unspectacular.

“Shopkeeper, we are here to pawn, you see how much this piece of jade is worth.”

The woman looked anxious and hurriedly took out a chunk of turbid jade from her pocket and gave it to Zhao Huai.

“This is my family’s heirloom jade. I’m pawning it here as it’s needed to buy a coffin for my son’s burial.”

“Alright, please wait.”

Zhao Huai had encountered these special circumstances too. Instances like an accident happening at home late at night, money running out for treatment, losing everything in gambling, or running out of money for a burial after a death, etc.

All these were understandable.

Zhao Huai took the jade and activated his destiny to appraise the gem.

After a quick glance, he discovered that this was just a piece of inferior jade with numerous flaws, one of the most inferior types of jade. It could probably be sold for only a few guan at most.

“Approximately three taels of silver.”

Zhao Huai finally gave his price.

The woman pleaded upon hearing his words, “Shopkeeper, would you please consider showing mercy and give a little more, I need to bury my son and dont have much left for buying grains. This jade is my last hope; can you add one more tael of silver?”

Hearing the woman’s words, Zhao Huai contemplated for a moment and slowly eaiA•

“Considering that it’s indeed not easy for you to manage a funeral, let’s say five taels.”Auntie was relieved like she had been pardoned, immediately kneeling down, and said with gratitude:

“Thank you, shopkeeper! Thank you, shopkeeper!”

“Remember, the interest will be calculated as usual, not a penny less,” Zhao Huai added.

He was doing business, not charity, and his heart naturally could not be too soft.

He would help as much as he could, but he would never cross that line.

“I understand the rules.”

Auntie nodded vigorously, then she hurriedly left after taking the money.

Seeing the shirtless man at the back not yet gone, Zhao Huai asked surprisingly, “So, you guys are not together?”

The shirtless man shook his head, and replied, “No, we aren’t. But we are also preparing for funerals. Some brothers from the spiritual mines passed away recently, and I’m helping with their funerals.”

“Here is a spiritual stone, shopkeeper, how much can I pawn it for?” The shirtless man took out a slightly twinkling spiritual stone.

When Zhao Huai saw the spiritual stone, he immediately recognized it. Its quality was not bad, comparable to that of a Medium Grade Spiritual Stone, but it was unrefined.

Then he immediately quoted a price, “One hundred taels.”

Then he asked curiously, “Are you all mineworkers?” “What’s been going on recently? So many people have died?”

“Yes.”

The shirtless man nodded solemnly.

“Shopkeeper, you might not know this, but something strange is happening outside the city. Anyone who passes that hillside late at night, will inexplicably die the next day.”

“Several of my brothers worked the night shift, and on their way home in the early morning, they had to pass that hillside. They all died the next day.”

“If I hadn’t asked one of my brother’s wives about it, I wouldn’t have known about it. I guess the auntie just now was also affected by this.” After hearing this, Zhao Huai frowned deeply and fell into deep thought.

Could it be another demonic creature?

Or could it be the escaped Blackwind Granny?

“Shopkeeper, when will you give me the money? The coffin shop needs a deposit urgently.”

The shirtless man broke Zhao Huai’s train of thought, and couldn’t help but ask.

“Alright, I’ll give it to you immediately.”

Zhao Huai went into the shop, took out two ingots of silver, and handed them to the man.

“Thank you, shopkeeper.”

The shirtless man took the silver and quickly left.

Zhao Huai glanced at the spiritual stone in his hand and shook his head, “Demons are really troublesome.”

“Chirp chirp! ”

Suddenly, there were bird chirps in the shop.

Zhao Huai took a closer look, it was his bought myna bird, right?

It was actually chirping now, for real?

He quickly went up to the bird cage and found that the normally lethargic myna had lifted its little head and its bean-like eyes were full of desire.

Staring at the spiritual stone and jade in his hand.

Zhao Huai immediately noticed this, so he handed over the thumb-sized spiritual stone to see what would happen. As a result, as soon as he handed it over,

The myna bird swallowed the stone in one bite!

Zhao Huai was stunned as he watched.

But after a while, the myna bird regurgitated it.

It was still the same piece of spiritual stone, but the spiritual qi inside had vanished.

“Shit, so that’s what kind of bird you are, give me my spiritual stone back!”

Zhao Huai immediately stood up and unabashedly pointed a finger at the myna bird and cursed.

“Shit, shit.”

Quickly, the same words came out of the myna bird’s mouth.

The tone and accent were almost exactly the same as Zhao Huai’s.

Looking at the myna bird in front of him, tilting its head to look at him and looking innocent with its bean-sized eyes,

Zhao Huai really wanted to give it a good beating.