"Mother, please don't be upset. In the future, your son will make sure you live a good life."
Seeing Madam Chen distressed by the rice, flour, and vegetables brought by Madam Wang and Mrs. Cao, Zhao Yan felt heavy-hearted as well.
Although Zhao Yan had only transmigrated a few days ago and had yet to build a deep bond with Madam Chen as mother and son, he was deeply grateful to her. The very first person he saw upon crossing over was Madam Chen, which helped him feel much less panic in this unfamiliar world.
Madam Chen exuded a sense of steady reassurance.
Zhao Yan could also feel the genuine care she had for him. Even though he was not the original Zhao Yan, since he now occupied this identity, Madam Chen treated him with all her heart.
Zhao Yan naturally believed that a drop of kindness in need should be repaid with a flowing spring. Since he had transmigrated, he was determined to live a good life.
As a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine in his past life, Zhao Yan had always been an atheist, but after going through this ordeal, he began to feel a sense of reverence. No one knew what the future held, so Zhao Yan only wanted to live the present moment well.
Hearing Zhao Yan's words, Madam Chen felt overwhelmingly warmed to her core. Her son had never been very affectionate with her before, and she had always feared that he looked down on her as a useless mother, which often made her feel inferior in front of Zhao Yan.
An even bigger reason was her sense of guilt; Madam Chen felt that because she was useless, she couldn't provide her son with better conditions.
Not a single book her son used for studying had been bought by her and Zhang Shi; every single one was copied by her son through sheer hard work. He would copy books in the sweltering heat of summer with sweat pouring down his face, and continue copying in the freezing winter when his hands were covered in sores.
She couldn't even bear to look at it.
Yet, ever since severing ties with the main family, she could truly feel her son's affection. This long-lost feeling of closeness almost made Madam Chen's eyes well up with tears again.
"Mother is fine, Sanlang. Don't you worry. You must be hungry, Mother will go make dinner right now."
Madam Chen casually wiped her eyes with her sleeve, hurriedly picked up the corn bread and salted pickles, and rushed off to the kitchen to cook.
They had finally broken away from the main family, and from now on, she would be the one running this household. One could say Madam Chen was brimming with drive.
She needed to make something delicious so Sanlang could properly build up his health. Suddenly, Madam Chen felt that on such a wonderful day, eating nothing but corn bread and salted pickles simply didn't do justice to the occasion.
Besides, there was also Zhao Yan's body, which was just recovering from a major illness.
And so, when dinnertime arrived, Zhao Yan laid eyes on that piece of cured pork, which was currently an immensely precious treasure to their family.
*What kind of occasion is this?* Zhao Yan thought to himself. *Eating cured pork when it's neither New Year nor any other festival!*
Zhao Yan had witnessed the village chief's wife and Mrs. Cao delivering the items from start to finish, which made him all the more aware of just how valuable this piece of cured pork truly was.
Right now, even if they sold every single possession their family owned, they wouldn't be able to afford this piece of cured pork.
Of course, Zhao Yan's books didn't count among those possessions. If anyone dared suggest selling the books, the very first people to object would be Zhao Gao and Madam Chen.
People in this era held scholars in extremely high regard, so books carried a correspondingly high status. Many would rather die of illness than sell their books for medicine, feeling that books were a symbol of their very identity.
Selling their books would be equivalent to stripping away a part of their dignity, which to them was as good as taking their lives.
Zhao Yan didn't support such behavior at all, but the current societal environment was what it was; it wasn't up to him to change it.
He couldn't go against the grain either, as Zhao Yan had no desire to be burned alive as a monster. Therefore, he didn't plan to be stubbornly reckless. He would just keep his disapproval to himself for now, and wait until he had the capability and status to effect change later.
For now, the absolute top priority was eating the cured pork!
In his past life, for the sake of fitness, Zhao Yan's diet had been extremely bland. Boiled broccoli and boiled chicken breast had made him utterly numb.
He didn't have much interest in other foods either, and had never been picky about what he ate.
He belonged to the type who ate whatever was available, making him very easy to feed.
Yet right now, looking at that piece of cured pork, Zhao Yan could vividly feel his mouth watering frantically.
The thing smelled intensely fragrant, and Zhao Yan couldn't wait to dig in.
However, due to his upbringing, Zhao Yan waited for Zhao Gao and Madam Chen to make the first move.
After all, he was the junior and should wait for his elders to pick up their chopsticks first.
Yet who could explain to him why everyone was just sitting there looking dazed at mealtime?
Not a single person was making a move!
Everyone at the table except Zhao Yan had been ruthlessly tormented by Mrs. Li for so many years. Although they had broken ties, the habits formed over all those years could not be changed overnight.
Zhao Gao, Madam Chen, and Zhao Yun instinctively waited to be assigned their portions. Now that Mrs. Li's torment was gone, it actually made the three of them feel somewhat unaccustomed to it.
Watching the three of them, Zhao Yan suddenly understood.
...Good grief, that old woman really knew how to torture people. Even after she was gone, they were still living under her shadow.
Unable to bear it any longer, Zhao Yan decided to take the initiative.
The cured pork had been sliced into five thin pieces by Madam Chen—heaven knows how she managed it without a knife.
Zhao Yan used his chopsticks to pick up a slice of cured pork, tucked it inside a wild vegetable corn bread, and immediately shoved it straight into Madam Chen's hands.
Madam Chen had been looking down, but feeling something in her hands, she instinctively took it.
Repeating the same action, Zhao Yan shoved another corn bread containing a slice of cured pork into Zhao Gao's hands as well.
Zhao Gao's reaction was identical to Madam Chen's.
*They really look like a married couple in this regard,* Zhao Yan thought to himself as he watched the scene before him.
After also stuffing a corn bread into Zhao Yun's hands, Zhao Yan was satisfied and unhurriedly prepared an identical corn bread for himself.
By this time, Madam Chen and Zhao Gao had finally snapped out of their daze, both of their expressions filled with panic.
"Sanlang, how can this be? Mother doesn't need to eat the cured pork at all. This was meant to build up your strength in the first place, why did you give it to Mother? Oh, this child," Madam Chen said anxiously.
"Indeed, your mother is right. Such a nourishing thing as cured pork would be such a waste for us to eat. You and Yun'er should eat it, your father and I will be fine even if we don't have any," Zhao Gao chimed in, picking up where Madam Chen left off.
Zhao Yun didn't speak, only staring blankly at the pork-stuffed corn bread that Zhao Gao had thrust into her hands.
Zhao Yan himself was craving it, and at a single glance, he could tell that Zhao Yun was yearning for it too. Having rarely eaten anything oily since childhood, this piece of pork-stuffed corn bread held an immense attraction for her.
If her parents and third brother hadn't started eating yet, Zhao Yun would have dug in long ago.
"Father, Mother, just eat it. It's not just me who needs nourishment, our whole family needs to build our strength back up. Only when our health is good can our days get better. Don't worry about me, I'm all healed up." Zhao Yan knew that their past experiences had made Zhao Gao and Madam Chen inclined toward self-sacrifice.
Zhao Yan didn't want such excessive, selfless devotion; to him, true happiness meant everyone doing well together.
He couldn't bring himself to let Zhao Gao and Madam Chen tighten their belts and stint on food while he ate and drank like royalty.
"Father, Mother, hurry and eat. If you don't eat now, it'll get cold. Today is a great milestone for our family, let's all eat a bit better." With that, Zhao Yan immediately took a bite of his corn bread.
Seeing their son eat, Zhao Gao and Madam Chen were both touched that he thought of them, and catching the aroma of the cured pork right before them, they realized they hadn't eaten anything oily in ages either.
In the Zhao Family, the good things had to be reserved for Zhao Dahe and Mrs. Li, followed by the eldest branch. Their second branch seemed as if they didn't belong to the Zhao Family at all, and were never paid any heed.
The last time they had tasted anything oily was three years ago, when Zhao Gao found six wild pheasant eggs and secretly roasted them on the mountain. He ate one, Zhao Yan and Zhao Yun ate two each, and Madam Chen ate one.
That had been their happiest memory from back then.
Hearing Zhao Yan's persuasion and watching him eat with such relish, Zhao Gao and Madam Chen could no longer hold back. They took a bite of their corn bread, and even though they hadn't reached the pork yet, just smelling the aroma made it feel as though they were already tasting it.
Instantly, a stinging soreness filled Zhao Gao and Madam Chen's hearts—they had finally begun living a "good life" too.
Seeing Zhao Yan and her parents eating, Zhao Yun hurriedly dug in as well, the delicious flavor making her squint her eyes in delight.
Seeing his family fall in line so readily, Zhao Yan felt deeply comforted.
He would eat his fill tonight, and tomorrow he would head up the mountain to make some money. Relying on the mountain for sustenance, Zhao Yan planned to put his professional strengths to good use.