12. Chapter 12

Qin Fang almost couldn't hold the bowl steady after hearing this. "Hmm..." He muttered a word. As a young man who had never experienced anything, he felt hot in his heart and excited in his body when he heard about giving birth.

Yang Haiyan then realized that he was a very shy person, and he was shy because of his innocence. "Look at this lard residue, it's actually free. So, you don't have to be reluctant to eat it."

Qin Fang raised his head, puzzled: "Free?"

Yang Haiyan: "Yes, because the lard on the fat is squeezed out to make soap, these lard residues are squeezed out, and the cost is counted in the soap, so the lard residue is free." Then, Yang Haiyan popularized the method of making soap for him.

After listening to this, Qin Fang was really shocked. This soap looked so precious, but the cost was only one penny. More importantly, it was made of lard and wood ash. However, Yang Haiyan, who could make this, was really amazing. Suddenly, he looked at Yang Haiyan with eyes full of admiration, curiosity, and pride.

He admired her talent and profound knowledge, and was curious about how she knew so much and was proud... Such an outstanding woman was his wife.

After dinner, Yang Haiyan looked at Qin Fang with a smile and said, "Husband, can you wash the dishes?"

Because the original owner was beautiful, she looked even more beautiful when she smiled. Especially her curved eyes, Qin Fang couldn't take his eyes off. He couldn't help but say, "Okay." For someone like him, there are no rules in his family. Besides... His eyes moved to Yang Haiyan's hands. Her hands were so beautiful, they were used for writing, embroidering, and making soap. Of course, these rough jobs were left to him.

Yang Haiyan: "Is it really possible? Husband, are you willing to wash the dishes? But wouldn't it be bad if people knew about it? Most families have wives washing dishes."

Qin Fang: "Your hands are precious. You can read and write, make soap, and make clothes..." Just like the hands of a scholar, he was afraid that she would blame herself, so he continued, "And... my father washes the dishes in our family." Father, forgive him for lying.

Yang Haiyan heard it: "Husband, you are so nice." As she said, she waved at him, "Bend down."

Qin Fang was puzzled and bent down obediently.

Then, Yang Haiyan kissed him on the face: "Thank you, husband." After the kiss, she pretended to be shy and ran out of the kitchen.

Qin Fang was left in a daze for a long time. When he came to his senses, he didn't forget to touch his face, and then smiled silently. When he smiled, his originally cold face became warm.

In fact, Yang Haiyan's heartbeat was a little fast when she ran out of the kitchen. It was also her first time to kiss the opposite sex. In her mind, the 20-year-old Qin Fang was like a puppy. To be honest, she felt a little embarrassed to tease him like this. However, seeing him nervous, she thought it was fun.

Yang Haiyan went to the storage room and scooped out a spoonful of wood ash with a spoon. In this era without detergent, the only thing that can clean oil stains is wood ash. So she often set aside some cleaner wood ash to wash oily bowls.

Yang Haiyan returned to the kitchen and saw that Qin Fang had already cleaned the table and was ready to wash the dishes. She said, "Husband, add some wood ash when washing the dishes. This can wash away oil stains and clean the dishes very well."

Qin Fang heard her voice and his heartbeat subconsciously accelerated. He looked serious again: "Okay."

While Qin Fang was washing the dishes, Yang Haiyan went to the kitchen to draw two pictures. When she came out, Qin Fang washed the dishes. Yang Haiyan pulled him and said, "Husband, look at this. This is a sink, built next to the stove. This is where you put the dishes after dinner, so it's more convenient to wash them. And this is an earthen kiln oven, built in this corner." Speaking of this earthen kiln oven, Yang Haiyan saw it in a farmhouse when she was traveling in Northeast China. It can bake bread, handmade cakes, roast duck and roast chicken. Yang Haiyan found it interesting, and after returning home, she asked the village stove builder to help her make one.

Qin Fang listened. He was a farm child, and because he was used to doing rough work, he understood the sink and earthen kiln oven when he heard Yang Haiyan say it and looked at the drawings: "I'll get some materials and make it for you today."

Yang Haiyan: "Thank you, husband, you are the best. After it's done, I'll bake bread for you."

Qin Fang thought of her craftsmanship and couldn't help looking forward to the bread she was talking about. However, "I don't have any silver on me. I need silver to prepare the materials. You have to give me some." It was a bit embarrassing to say it.

Yang Haiyan gave him the one or two taels of silver he handed in today.

Qin Fang: "No need for so much."

Yang Haiyan: "You use it first, and give me the extra when you come back."

Qin Fang: "Okay."

Qin Fang went to buy materials. There were no such materials in the town, so he had to go to the countryside, so he went to hire a donkey cart. Yang Haiyan was not idle either. She went to the blacksmith shop and ordered baking trays. She ordered three types. One was a rectangular iron tray, which was specially used for baking bread, fish, and biscuits. There was also a grilled iron rack tray, which was specially used for barbecue. The last one was an egg tart baking tray, which was used for making egg tarts.

However, egg tart baking trays were more difficult to make in this era, so it took time, while the general rectangular baking trays were faster and could be picked up tomorrow morning.

Three baking trays, two for seventy coins, and an egg tart baking tray for one hundred coins, a total of two hundred and forty coins were spent.

Yang Haiyan returned home, Qin Fang had not come back yet, she took out the quilt in the room to dry. Just after drying, she heard the sound of a donkey cart, saw the donkey cart stopped at her door, and Qin Fang got off the donkey cart.

Yang Haiyan: "I'm back."

Qin Fang: "Yeah." He gave the remaining five hundred coins to Yang Haiyan and took the things off the donkey cart.

The donkey cart made quite a noise, and Mrs. Lu came over curiously to see it. Not only her, but also the mother of another neighbor, Centurion Zhang, came over. Because Zhang's mother had asked Yang Haiyan for something before but failed, she said a lot of bad things about Yang Haiyan to others afterwards. But because Yang Haiyan didn't go out, she usually either went to the military camp to deliver food or did needlework with Yang Dahua at home, so she didn't know about it.

Mother Zhang didn't dare to get close, and secretly watched from the side.

Mrs. Lu: "What are you doing?"

Yang Haiyan said: "Renovate the kitchen and put a sink in it, so it will be more convenient to wash dishes."

Mrs. Lu: "Sink? Wash dishes?" She couldn't figure it out for a while.

Yang Haiyan: "After it's done, Sister Lu can come to visit. If you like it, you can build one at home."

Sister Lu: "Okay."

There was no cement in this era, but there were still walls of buildings. This is the wisdom of the ancients. People in this world use glutinous rice lime mortar to build walls.

Glutinous rice lime mortar refers to the addition of glutinous rice soup to lime mortar to form a new composite mortar. The strength of glutinous rice lime mortar is much greater than that of pure lime mortar, and it is very strong. Of course, compared with glutinous rice lime mortar, ordinary people use a cheaper lime mortar, which is yellow clay lime mortar. Ordinary people can't afford glutinous rice lime mortar.

However, Qin Fang used glutinous rice lime mortar this time. First, only a sink and barbecue are needed, so less glutinous rice lime is needed, so the cost difference with yellow clay lime mortar is not much. Second, the sink is used to wash dishes and will touch water every day, so it should be more moisture-resistant, that is, it should be more sticky and more solid. To sum up the two points, glutinous rice lime mortar is naturally better.

While Qin Fang was building the sink, Yang Haiyan was watching him and praising him from time to time:

"Husband, you are really great."

"Husband, the sink you built is so smooth."

"Husband, are you tired? Have some tea."

"Husband..."

Qin Fang's bones were numb from her calling him "husband", so he worked harder.

It was really quick to build a sink, and it was done in less than an hour. A hole was dug at the bottom of the sink near the wall so that the dirty water could flow out. Then, Qin Fang made a wooden sink plug.

Because the walls of the house were all plastered with lime, the house was bright white, so Qin Fang also plastered lime on the exterior of the sink, which looked more beautiful. After it was done, he looked at Yang Haiyan.

The joy in Yang Haiyan's eyes was obvious. She was very satisfied with the sink: "Great, thank you, husband."

Qin Fang: "Well, I'll make another oven. But this sink needs to be put away for three days. It can't be used now."

Yang Haiyan: "I know, thank you, husband for reminding me."

After having a good lunch at noon, dinner was relatively simple. Eating good meals every day would put too much pressure on this man who was still a big boy. So Yang Haiyan cooked brown rice and steamed sweet potatoes at night. In the eyes of others, this is the coarse grains eaten by ordinary people, and they are very poor. But in Yang Haiyan's view, this is the coarse grains for modern people to keep healthy.

Brown rice and sweet potatoes alone are too dry, so Yang Haiyan made a loofah and shrimp soup.

Originally, Qin Fang was still thinking that if he ate every meal according to lunch, it would probably be not enough for thirty cents a day. But then he thought, she has the ability to eat good meals every day, and she married him but couldn't eat well. Isn't this wronged her? Seeing the food on the table now, he thought again, she is a thrifty person. But for some reason, he still felt a little sour in his heart: "You must have eaten well in Beijing. It's really unfair for you to eat such simple meals with me. You...you can earn some money yourself, so you can eat better." Just look at her fair skin and you will know that if she was not well-fed, how could she have such skin?

Yang Haiyan: "Marry a chicken and follow the chicken, marry a dog and follow the dog. I am willing to follow you no matter what I eat."

Qin Fang was very touched when he heard it. He secretly vowed to work hard to climb up.

Yang Haiyan said again: "Besides, we don't eat simple meals every day. We have a good lunch."

Qin Fang: "You are the head of the family, you have the final say."