CH 21

“Having a temper”

Cheng Yun didn’t know about Lin Yimu’s rich psychological activity. He and Yang Hongjin each carried a large piece of wood and headed home.

Earlier, Aunt Wang had mentioned that she wanted Wang Liang to learn woodworking from Yang Hongjin. Cheng Yun had observed for a while and felt that Yang Hongjin did have some skills. So after they returned home, he asked Yang Hongjin to work on the wood piece, and he himself went to Aunt Wang’s house.

Aunt Wang had just seen their figures and was very nervous. On one hand, she wanted to remind Cheng Yun of their previous agreement, but on the other hand, she was afraid that he would not want it and that saying too much would embarrass them. Unexpectedly, Cheng Yun came to the door soon after.

After thinking about it, Aunt Wang felt that Cheng was definitely here to talk about woodworking. She quickly patted Wang Liang sitting beside her and asked him to be clever.

“Aunt Wang, are you busy?” Cheng Yun knocked on the door and walked in.

“Not busy, not busy,” Aunt Wang quickly greeted him and said, “Sit down quickly. Here, have a drink first.”

“No need to be polite,” Cheng Yun smiled. “I won’t beat around the bush. I came here to talk about what we discussed last time, that is, letting Wang Liang learn woodworking from Hongjin.”

Aunt Wang’s eyes lit up when she heard it, and she looked at Cheng Yun with anticipation. “Go on.”

“It’s like this. We were busy in town for a while before, so we put this matter aside. Recently, our home was troubled by termites, and I remembered that you had mentioned that Hongjin knows woodworking.”

Cheng Yun first explained that he didn’t intentionally delay it, and then said, “I asked Hongjin to try it out first. I haven’t seen him do these things before, and I don’t know if he has the skills to teach others. I was afraid that if Wang Liang came and couldn’t learn anything, it would be a waste of your time.”

“Cheng-Ge’er, you’re too modest. The furniture made by your family’s Hongjin is top-notch,” Aunt Wang interjected. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes before. If it weren’t for Hongjin’s second brother holding her back, that troublemaker Li Fengjiao would have dragged him to town to work as a laborer.”

Cheng Yun raised his eyebrows, surprised by this new information. However, he had never considered sending Yang Hongjin out to work and earn money to support the family, at least not now.

“These days, he made a chair by himself, and it looks pretty good. We’ve been using it at home for two days, and there haven’t been any major issues. Coincidentally, our tables and chairs were infested with termites a few days ago, so today we went to the back mountain and brought back some wood to make a new set of furniture.”

“He’s starting from scratch this time. I thought if Wang Liang doesn’t mind, he could learn alongside us,” Then Cheng Yun quickly added when he saw Aunt Wang’s excitement. “But you know Hongjin’s situation, he can’t teach Wang Liang by hand. He can only work by himself while Wang Liang watches. And if there’s anything he doesn’t understand, Hongjin may not be able to explain it to him. If you think that’s okay, we can start anytime.”

Aunt Wang had been waiting for this opportunity for so long. Nowadays, people hide everything they know, fearing that someone else will learn it and take away their unique skills. If someone wanted to become an apprentice, thry would have to spend a lot of money. And after they became a master, they would also have to share their earnings with their teacher.

It’s not that she doesn’t want to give Yang Hongjin a share, but she feels that outside teachers are not familiar with the roots and don’t know how effective their teachings are. On the other hand, she trusts Cheng Yun and his husband, who won’t use this against them. If Wang Liang doesn’t understand or can’t learn something the first time, he can watch it a few more times. Eventually, he will be able to learn the skills.

Aunt Wang agreed immediately, and Cheng Yun didn’t waste any time, taking Wang Liang and returning to his own home.

When they arrived home, Yang Hongjin was chopping the wood they had brought back. He raised his head to call, “Wife”, only to see a man behind Cheng Yun, and stood up abruptly, dropping his tools to the ground.

Wang Liang was not very brave to begin with. When Yang Hongjin acted like this, he was frightened and subconsciously hid behind Cheng Yun.

This made Yang Hongjin even angrier. He stepped forward and pulled Cheng Yun into his arms, hugging him tightly while keeping a wary eye on Wang Liang.

Cheng Yun was confused by Yang Hongjin’s sudden actions. It took him two seconds to react, and he patted him while laughing. “He’s Wang Liang, Aunt Wang’s son from next door. You’ve seen him before. Don’t you remember?”

“I don’t remember!” Yang Hongjin said, pouting.

Cheng Yun was stunned for a moment before bursting into laughter. He thought it was hilarious that he had learned to have a temper.

He patted Yang Hongjin’s waist and patiently explained to him, “Wang Liang came to learn how to make tables and chairs from you. Didn’t you say before that you wanted to become a useful person? Now, because your tables and chairs are made well, others want to come and learn from you. Hongjin is great!”

“Am I great wife?” Yang Hongjin loosened his grip on Cheng Yun’s hand and as he spoke, a smile returned to his face. He grinned widely and said, “Wife, I’m great!”

“Absolutely, Hongjin is the greatest!” Cheng Yun laughed and patted his head as a reward, just like he always did. Yang Hongjin took advantage of the situation and turned his face towards Cheng Yun, indicating for him to ‘reward’ him quickly.

Cheng Yun’s face turned red instantly. He glared at Yang Hongjin, but it had no effect. He didn’t even dare to look at Wang Liang’s expression, so he just turned around, used Yang Hongjin’s tall body to block Wang Liang’s view, and quickly kissed him on the face.

Yang Hongjin was happy, as receiving this “reward” meant that his wife truly thought he was great. His hostility towards Wang Liang also faded away. As usual, he gave Cheng Yun a kiss in return and then let go of him. He turned to Wang Liang, who was standing aside trying to lower his presence, and said, “Come and learn how to make tables and chairs with me!”

Cheng Yun covered his face with one hand and waved his other hand, indicating for Wang Liang to do as he pleased. He didn’t want to say anything else, so he turned and walked into the main room.

He worked on his vegetable garden and took care of the chickens and ducks in the backyard for a while until the heat on his face subsided. Only then did he dare to walk back into the house.

The weather had been consistently hot recently, and even staying indoors was uncomfortable. Cheng Yun had lost his appetite and even lost interest in developing new dishes for Yueqiong Tower.

He missed the soda and milk tea that he could be buy everywhere in the past, but with his abilities, he couldn’t make such high-difficulty drinks. However, after walking around the backyard, he had a new idea.

Last time, when he was developing new dishes, he bought a lot of spices in town, including tangerine peel and licorice root.

Before coming here, Cheng Yun was a southerner, and there were many herbal tea shops on the streets there. The most popular drink in the summer was sour plum soup, and these two spices happened to be the raw materials needed for it.

Cheng Yun rummaged through the small cellar in the kitchen and found hawthorn and rock sugar. With only the most important ingredient, dried sour plums, missing, he could make the sour plum soup.

Cheng Yun was dying to drink some sour plum soup. He couldn’t resist it for even a second. He asked Yang Hongjin to stay home and teach Wang Liang how to make chairs while he ran to borrow some dried sour plums from Aunt Wang’s house.

To his surprise, Aunt Wang’s house didn’t have any dried sour plums either. Cheng Yun thought for a moment and remembered that the original body’s mother was often sick and had to drink Chinese medicine regularly, so their family always kept a lot of dried sour plums.

Cheng Yun hesitated for only two seconds before heading to the Cheng family’s home.