RIIDMDR chapter 104

 

While Yao Lin was tidying up his homemade sauce, Tingcuan went into the room to get a cotton coat for Nan Xu. No one knew what kind of spell Tingcuan had used, but even after passing through the courtyard, the clothes didn’t pick up any of the stench.

The two of them sat on a huge rock and waited. Above them, snowflakes drifted through the air. Nan Xu had walked the mountain path all day, and after being tormented by the courtyard’s smell, he was exhausted. He simply leaned against Tingcuan’s back to rest. Tingcuan’s back, like the man himself, was upright and steady. It gave off a sense of firmness and reliability that made Nan Xu feel at ease.

He opened the system to take a look. Since nothing needed to be sun-dried, he hadn’t checked the weather forecast lately. If not for today’s sudden snowfall, he wouldn’t have noticed how the temperature had been dropping day by day. After all, it had still been around ten degrees just yesterday. Who could have thought it would turn cold so suddenly?

The system showed that the snow would stop after a day. Once the sky cleared, the temperature would plummet, and before long, it would officially be winter.

Nan Xu reviewed the inn’s situation in his head. The hundreds of trees that died together previously because they couldn’t stand the noise had already been chopped into firewood. Along with the wood he had recently gathered from the mountains, a full wall of firewood was now stacked beside the log cabin. He had built a simple shed over it to block the rain, so it wouldn’t get wet. It ought to last through the whole winter.

As for the vegetable field, crops such as winter melons, pumpkins, and corn were harvested and stored in the cellar days ago. The remaining vegetables in the field, such as eggplants and cucumbers, were planted later and matured more slowly. He only picked them as needed for daily meals. After this snowfall, though, they probably wouldn’t survive the cold and would end up frozen. The late-maturing cabbages, on the other hand, were cold-resistant, so there was no need to worry about them.

Thinking of this, Nan Xu stood up. Tingcuan looked at him questioningly. “What are you going to do?”

Nan Xu replied, “I’m going to pick the vegetables that can’t stand the cold.”

Since the system said the cellar had a preservation buff, it would be better to store them there than to leave them to freeze in the ground.

He hurried ahead, with Tingcuan following behind him. When they neared the courtyard, Nan Xu hesitated for a moment but still chose to take a long detour to the vegetable garden behind the house. Perhaps it was an illusion, but he thought he heard a faint chuckle. Nan Xu turned around and glared at Tingcuan.

“Go back and get two baskets,” he said.

Tingcuan nodded obediently. Despite Nan Xu’s angry, embarrassed glare, he showed not the slightest sign of resistance.

The vegetable field was already covered with snow. The crops that couldn’t withstand the cold seemed to shiver. Nan Xu was glad he had thought of it in time. Otherwise, after just one night, his already poor little inn would have suffered a heavy loss.

Just as Nan Xu finished one round of harvesting, Tingcuan came over holding several bamboo baskets. One of them contained a straw hat.

As he approached, Tingcuan placed the hat on Nan Xu’s head. Then, he joined Nan Xu in gathering vegetables and fruit from the trellises.

After several trips back and forth, all the vegetables that were not cold-resistant had been stored in the cellar. When Nan Xu looked toward the courtyard, a lingering shadow remained in his heart. Seeing his hesitation, Tingcuan said, “The courtyard doesn’t smell anymore. Let’s go back.”

Nan Xu looked doubtful. “The courtyard doesn’t smell? What about the kitchen? What about all those pots and bowls?”

“They’ve all been washed. Zhixing even burned some herbs to dispel the odor,” Tingcuan replied.

Zhixing was indeed more reliable than Yao Lin. Hearing this, Nan Xu finally followed him back to the courtyard, though he was still a bit skeptical.

Just as Tingcuan said, the courtyard was now filled with the fragrance of herbs. The strange stench from before was completely gone. The anxious feeling in Nan Xu’s chest eased slightly.

While Nan Xu sniffed around the courtyard carefully, Tingcuan went inside and placed the kettle on the small stove. Zhixing then came out of the house. For some reason, his pale face looked even paler, and his brows were tightly furrowed.

“What’s wrong with you?” Nan Xu asked.

Zhixing seemed to be holding his breath, pursing his lips and shaking his head.

Nan Xu seemed to understand, but weren’t demons able to block their sense of smell like Tingcuan did? Why did Zhixing still look like he could smell it?

Noticing Nan Xu’s confusion, Zhixing explained, “Only great demons like Senior Tingcuan can freely block their sense of smell. I am inexperienced, and the spiritual power in my body is damaged and difficult to repair. Even if I try to block it, I can still faintly smell some things.”

Demons like Tingcuan had survived the changes to the demon realm by refining their spiritual power and techniques to be as adaptable as possible. However, for minor demons like them, accepting the reality of the demon realm’s thin spiritual energy was all they could do. They could only imitate such techniques, but the surrounding energy was never sufficient for perfect execution.

Nan Xu didn’t think too deeply about it. In his mind, Tingcuan’s strength was beyond question. Hearing Zhixing’s words, he couldn’t help but grin gleefully. If Zhixing could smell it at all and looked so miserable, then remembering his own uncontrollable retching earlier, Nan Xu thought that, regardless of Yao Lin’s cooking skills, his ability to endure the stench alone was impressive.

With this thought in mind, he walked into the house just as Yao Lin came out, holding a tightly sealed clay jar. There wasn’t much of a smell coming from it, but the moment Nan Xu saw Yao Lin’s face, that same strange, uncontrollable nausea rose again. He had wanted to greet Yao Lin with a smile, but before he could, he found himself clenching his lips and rolling his eyes toward the wall.

Zhixing wasn’t much better off—he instinctively covered his nose the moment he saw Yao Lin.

Yao Lin: …

Yao Lin thought: A demon shouldn’t have their heart shattered three to five times a day.

He didn’t linger there any longer. Hugging his jar of fish sauce, he went back to his room. After leaving it for a while longer, it should become even more flavorful. When that time came, he planned to bring it to his family to try—it was, after all, a gesture of goodwill.

—

According to Nan Xu’s memory, the first snowfall should be brief, merely announcing the arrival of deep winter. However, the snow in the mountains fell endlessly for two days and nights, blanketing the ground before finally stopping at dusk on the second day.

Due to the belief that “humans are difficult to raise,” the three demons in the inn reached a mutual understanding: they kept Nan Xu locked inside, refusing to let him go out into the snow for fear that he would catch a cold.

When the snow finally stopped, Nan Xu ignored their objections and dragged Tingcuan out to the courtyard to build a snowman. Yao Lin and Zhixing were eager to join them, but Zhixing still had psychological scars from Yao Lin’s previous “stink bomb” incident, so he refused to cooperate. By nightfall, there were three snowmen in the yard.

The one built by Nan Xu and Tingcuan had a round belly and looked quite silly and adorable. Zhixing had made a hedgehog-shaped snowman with many thin icicles from the eaves stuck on its back. As for Yao Lin’s snowman, it was best not to look at it. No one knew what plant he had used to obtain red juice, which he splashed on the snowman’s head in an attempt to dye it red. However, the juice soaked into the snow, turning the entire snowman’s head crimson and making it look eerie.

After playing and eating dinner, everyone went to their rooms to sleep. Nan Xu had changed to his thick winter quilt but still couldn’t get warm. Even though the blanket was heated by his body, it felt like there was always a draft seeping in. Perhaps it was because he rarely felt cozy in his bed during the winter.

During moments like these, Nan Xu would toss and turn in the blanket, then burrow into Tingcuan’s arms. Tingcuan, also under the blanket, was like a human heater, completely embracing Nan Xu.

“So warm!” Nan Xu sighed contentedly and playfully hinted, “If you were a fluffy fox, you’d be even warmer.”

Tingcuan chuckled softly, rubbed Nan Xu’s head, and tucked the blanket around his neck. “Sleep.”

“Ah!” As expected, his hint failed to work. Nan Xu sighed helplessly and, as usual, drifted into a sweet dream.

The next morning, the air was chilly, and Nan Xu had a hard time getting up. Tingcuan had risen a while earlier, and the warmth in the quilt quickly faded after he left. Nan Xu stayed wrapped up for a bit before sitting up and putting on a thick coat.

Golden sunlight spread across the sky, signaling a clear and sunny day. The snow in the courtyard hadn’t melted yet, and Zhixing was sweeping it with a bamboo broom. A thin layer of snow rested on the grape arbor’s leaves. Standing beneath the arbor and looking up for a moment, Nan Xu decided it was finally time to make that grape wine he had been putting off.

The freshly picked grapes were still a bit chilly. After washing and drying them, Nan Xu placed them in a clay jar, crushed them, added yeast, sealed the lid, and moved the jar to a corner to ferment.

After working busily all morning, Nan Xu’s body was steaming with warmth. No longer feeling cold, he went down to the cellar and brought up a small basket of soybeans.

After sweeping the courtyard, Zhixing went to check on his precious herbs. When he returned, he saw Nan Xu pouring the soybeans into a basin of water. He curiously asked, “Owner, what are you doing?”

Nan Xu looked up at him with a smile. “Making tofu.”

It was another new word that Zhixing had never heard before. He silently memorized it, ready to help. However, Nan Xu waved his hand — the soybeans needed to soak for five to six hours, so there wasn’t much to do yet.

While waiting, Nan Xu cleaned all the tools he would need. The stone mill in the courtyard hadn’t been used since grinding cornmeal about a month ago, for example.

By mid-afternoon, the soybeans were soft. Nan Xu brought them to the mill and ground a bowl of soybeans and water into pulp. He filtered the mixture with gauze, setting aside the bean dregs, which he planned to mix with rice bran later to feed the pigs. He poured the liquid into a pot and boiled it.

As the water boiled, a thin layer of bean curd skin formed on the surface. Nan Xu lifted it out with chopsticks and hung it on a bamboo pole to dry. Then, he poured in brine, covered the pot, and removed the firewood from the stove.

By now, the aroma of soybeans filled the entire inn. Perhaps because the smell was unfamiliar, Yao Lin was the first to poke his head in. He was followed by Zhixing, who joined the little observation squad.

Yao Lin stood beside the pot, his eyes fixed on the lid as if he could lift it with his gaze alone. Zhixing sat by the stove and picked up some firewood but then noticed that it was already empty, with only a trace of warmth remaining.

“No need to add more fire,” said Nan Xu.

Zhixing put down the firewood. “Oh.”

After waiting about ten minutes, Nan Xu lifted the lid. The soybean liquid inside had solidified. He gently tapped it twice with a spatula, and the soft tofu inside trembled, looking extremely appetizing.

Nan Xu took a few bowls, scooped in the tofu pudding, and seasoned them according to everyone’s tastes. Then he sent the two curious demons out of the kitchen. With two bowls left in front of him, he hesitated for only a moment before sprinkling sugar into one and adding the sauce he’d made at noon to the other. He carried them to find Tingcuan.

Tingcuan was busy today, checking if the chicks were cold and hiking over the hill to cut grass for the lambs. His celestial air had almost been replaced by the warmth of earthly life.

Without fussing over sweet or savory, they sat around the table and shared both flavors of tofu pudding. Their stomachs were filled with a tender, comforting warmth.

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