Affected: He left with big strides.
Letting the two newly acquainted brothers grimace and bandage themselves up, Su Xiaoman went to the kitchen to cook. The house originally didn’t have a kitchen, but recently, Xie Mingtu had built one and even added an old-fashioned stove.
At Su Xiaoman’s strong insistence, Xie Mingtu, using his understanding of basic physics, crafted a makeshift “oven” out of mud.
Since Xie Mingtu’s elder brother had come to visit, Su Xiaoman wanted to treat him to a proper meal. Jiang Leiyan also brought plenty of things when he arrived, including malted milk powder, baby formula, and chocolates. Su Xiaoman hadn’t looked too closely at the other items.
The household’s current staples consisted mostly of taro, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes. While these weren’t bad, eating them too often could become tiresome. Especially sweet potatoes and pumpkins—if she were in Xie Mingtu’s shoes, Su Xiaoman thought, she’d have grown sick of them after so many years.
The water jar in the house contained two or three carp caught by Xie Mingtu at the river yesterday. They were fat and ideal for making fish soup, which Su Xiaoman had already planned to cook.
She also had a secret ambition to raise fish in the small stream near their home, but she wasn’t sure if it would work.
There was a jar of lard in the kitchen. When they moved in, they had rendered some pork fat, leaving plenty of lard residue. Su Xiaoman didn’t like lard residue, but Xie Mingtu loved it, so she had stir-fried it with green peppers for him twice. They’d finished it within two or three meals.
Taro, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and fish—these were all delicious ingredients, but they needed oil to bring out their best.
When Su Xiaoman cooked, she wasn’t stingy with oil, though she wasn’t excessive either. She steamed the taro first, then stir-fried it with ginger, garlic, scallions, and chili peppers to make a fragrant, braised taro dish.
The carp were pan-fried before being cooked into a creamy white soup, enhanced with sour bamboo shoots and pickled vegetables gifted by her mother, Liu Shufeng. She added red chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns for extra flavour.
She made plenty of soup since Su Xiaoman herself loved the tangy warmth of pickled fish soup, especially during the autumn and winter months.
Additionally, she baked pumpkins and sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes were easy—just thrown into the oven to bake. The pumpkins were cut into small pieces, mixed with a bit of oil and starch, and baked alongside the sweet potatoes.
Xie Mingtu didn’t like baked sweet potatoes, finding them too sweet, but he loved baked pumpkins. The pumpkin pieces, lightly coated in starch, turned slightly crispy on the outside and were incredibly tasty.
… Far better than boiled pumpkin.
Su Xiaoman kept the menu simple, adding stir-fried cabbage and lotus root. She figured these three dishes would be enough for the three of them.
As she cooked, she debated how much rice to make, pouring cup after cup and wondering if it would be enough for these two. After all, pumpkins and sweet potatoes could also serve as staple foods. If they weren’t full, she could always cook some noodles in the pickled fish soup!
By the time Xie Mingtu had finished treating his wounds, he was already pacing like a cat drawn to the scent of fish. However, with Jiang Leiyan there, he reluctantly stayed in the room, chatting intermittently with his brother.
After their earlier sparring, both men were ravenously hungry. The aroma wafting from the kitchen, especially the pickled fish soup, was making it impossible for them to sit still.
Both were thinking the same thing:
I’m so hungry…
When the meal was ready, Su Xiaoman had Xie Mingtu bring it to the table. The three of them sat down to eat. As Su Xiaoman slowly savoured her first bite of taro, she noticed the two men devouring their food like a storm sweeping through a forest. The rice in their bowls vanished at an alarming rate.
Half the pot of rice was gone in no time.
Pouring some pickled fish soup over her rice, Su Xiaoman continued watching the two of them eat.
“Your cooking is amazing, Sister-in-law,” Jiang Leiyan praised. He had always considered himself unpicky when it came to food. In the military, he ate whatever was available, often gulping down meals during missions without complaint.
But his sister-in-law’s cooking was extraordinary. The pickled fish soup and braised taro were so delicious they could make one bite their tongue. Even the simple stir-fried cabbage and lotus root were more flavourful than anything he’d had before.
Jiang Leiyan’s speed at eating was a skill honed in the military mess hall. He ate fast!
Seeing this, Xie Mingtu couldn’t help but speed up as well. Despite Su Xiaoman having prepared a generous spread, most of the food was gone in just ten minutes.
Even the pickled fish soup had been finished, leaving only a pile of fish bones.
“Still hungry? I can make more,” Su Xiaoman offered, thinking these two might as well have been reincarnated as bottomless pits.
Especially Xie Mingtu—since moving out of the Xie household, Su Xiaoman had adjusted her cooking to match his appetite. No matter how much she made, he always finished it.
Over time, his portions had tripled. Out of concern, Su Xiaoman cooked even more, and yet he still managed to eat it all.
His stomach was like a black hole.
When she mentioned this to her mother, Liu Shufeng, she received a batch of rice, pumpkins, and taro with the advice: “Young men in their twenties just eat like that!”
Su Xiaoman thought, Don’t lie to me. I’ve seen others, like Tang Jianqiang, and they’re not like this.
Now, with his elder brother here, it seemed both were extraordinary eaters.
After finishing the first round of food, Su Xiaoman returned to the kitchen to make a few more dishes. Meanwhile, the brothers sat at the table, snacking on baked pumpkin. Jiang Leiyan, who had grown tired of boiled pumpkin in the military, found himself tempted by the crispy baked pumpkin his brother was eating and decided to try it.
To his surprise, the crispy skin and flavourful taste were delightful. His sister-in-law was truly innovative—if only the military cooks could prepare pumpkin like this.
“Manman’s cooking is amazing,” Xie Mingtu said, his voice bubbling with happiness. Every day, he enjoyed the meals Su Xiaoman prepared, living a life he had never dared to dream of before.
If only he could turn twenty immediately and marry Manman officially.
Yet Xie Mingtu also felt a pang of regret: because Su Xiaoman’s cooking was so good, he found himself eating more and more. Back when he lived with the Xie family, the food was meagre and unpalatable, so he ate just enough to survive, often supplementing with food he gathered himself. He never cared much about eating.
Before meeting Su Xiaoman, he thought eating was just about filling his stomach. Now, it was a deeply satisfying experience for his heart and taste buds.
“You’re a lucky guy,” Jiang Leiyan remarked, his tone tinged with envy. His little brother had managed to find himself such a beautiful and talented wife, someone not only stunning but also an exceptional cook.
For once, Xie Mingtu agreed, feeling that his elder brother had finally said something worth listening to.
After Su Xiaoman prepared a couple more dishes, they finally wrapped up the meal. During their post-lunch rest, Jiang Leiyan brought up the topic of returning to the Jiang household.
“Dad specifically asked me to bring you back so he and Mom can meet you. Grandpa and Grandma want to see you too.”
Su Xiaoman and Xie Mingtu agreed.
Perhaps Jiang Yantang would also return to the Jiang household, but neither of them mentioned it. Su Xiaoman felt that no matter what, Xie Mingtu should go meet his biological parents, siblings, and grandparents.
With their hunger satisfied, Jiang Leiyan began to relax. Though his body ached, he felt a pleasant drowsiness creeping in. Being the adaptable type, he didn’t mind lying on the floor for a midday nap.
In his half-asleep state, his eyes wandered around the room, eventually landing on a book sitting atop the sewing machine.
It wasn’t the sewing machine that caught his attention but rather the book resting on its worktable.
The two elementary school-level individuals in this household appeared to have a few books.
Curiosity piqued, Jiang Leiyan wanted to know what his brother and sister-in-law usually read. He walked over and picked up a book lying on the worktable.
To his surprise, it was an English book in its original text. Flipping through it casually, he was greeted by dense English sentences that made his head throb. His English wasn’t bad—passable, at least—but he had to focus to slowly make sense of the text.
His thoughts swirled: Can they even understand this?
Unable to hold back, the straightforward Jiang Leiyan asked, “Can you actually understand this book?”
Xie Mingtu glanced at it and frowned slightly, countering, “You can’t?”
Jiang Leiyan hesitated. Honestly, he couldn’t understand it all that well. But surely his English was far better than that of these two elementary school graduates.
“Can you read it?” he asked doubtfully, thinking they probably hadn’t studied much English.
“Of course,” Su Xiaoman replied. She picked up the book and read a passage in fluent English.
Jiang Leiyan’s jaw nearly hit the floor. He knew the state of education these days—schools weren’t exactly focused on academics. Even middle schoolers struggled with foreign languages.
Yet here was his sister-in-law speaking English fluently.
He turned to Xie Mingtu, who nodded and casually read a sentence aloud. “We’re helping an old professor translate manuscripts,” he explained.
Su Xiaoman added, “He’s a retired professor from Nanjing University, currently working as a translator.”
The more Jiang Leiyan listened, the more incredulous he became.
Two people with elementary-level education claiming to help a professor translate? It sounded like a tall tale.
Even he, having graduated from a proper military academy, didn’t have such skills.
“This kind of thing is simple. You only need a few days to learn,” Su Xiaoman said, feigning nonchalance and pretending to be some kind of linguistic genius. In reality, the genius was Xie Mingtu, while she relied on experience from her previous life.
“Our spoken English comes from the professor. He studied abroad and has very standard pronunciation,” she added.
“…These books are borrowed, of course—we don’t have the money to buy them. We have library cards for the county and city libraries. Don’t you city folk borrow books? The physics and chemistry books are for Xie Mingtu; he’s the one who does those problems. Such simple material doesn’t even require a teacher for him.”
“I only realized how amazing Mingtu was after marrying him,” Su Xiaoman remarked.
Jiang Leiyan was starting to question reality.
Simple?
…Was he the one who was truly lacking?
“Mingtu only needs to read things once to remember them,” Su Xiaoman continued. “We’ve just started studying these. In the countryside, there wasn’t much access to these resources. Luckily, there was an opportunity to visit a city library recently, and we saw so many books.”
“In the Xie household, Sun Mei didn’t let him study…”
Jiang Leiyan felt a wave of dizziness. If that were true, then Sun Mei was beyond hateful. She had stolen a clever, gifted child and made Jiang’s family raise hers.
Looking at Xie Mingtu, Jiang Leiyan’s feelings were a jumble of emotions. He began to regret being so rough with his brother earlier.
His talented brother had been delayed for over a decade by that woman. Meanwhile, their biological mother had cherished a thief’s child, giving him the best of everything, while his real brother had just recently gotten his hands on a few books.
It was infuriating!
Jiang Leiyan clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking audibly. Then, filled with guilt, he pulled his younger brother into a tight embrace.
“Brother, our family will treat you well from now on,” he said.
Xie Mingtu tried to push him away, but Jiang Leiyan held him tightly. With no choice, Xie Mingtu looked toward Su Xiaoman.
Standing to the side, Su Xiaoman watched them with a smile. She thought Jiang Leiyan seemed decent. Even if the rest of the Jiang family were like the original story, having an older brother who treated Xie Mingtu well was already a blessing.
She spread her hands in a helpless gesture.
You brothers can keep bonding—I’m going to take a nap.
After his nap, Jiang Leiyan visited the commune’s educated youth outpost to meet Jiang Yantang. No matter what, Jiang Yantang had been his younger brother for over ten years. And since Sun Mei had orchestrated the baby swap, Jiang Yantang couldn’t have known he wasn’t the Jiang family’s child.
The revelation had been a huge shock for him too.
This trip back to the Jiang household, of course, included Jiang Yantang. Whether or not Xie Mingtu’s biological mother, Xie Yanzhi, had learned the truth yet was unclear, but Jiang Leiyan suspected she had.
If not, the truth was likely already spreading throughout the military compound.
“Jiang Yantang, your elder brother is here—not Xie Weiqiang, but your real Jiang family brother,” someone at the outpost said.
News of Jiang Leiyan’s arrival in the village had spread quickly. With such a major event unfolding, the Jiang family was bound to send someone.
And if the Jiang family officially recognized Xie Mingtu, what would happen to Jiang Yantang? Would he remain with the Xie family as their son?
The Xie family’s situation was dire: Sun Mei had been taken away and would likely serve five to ten years in prison. Old Man Xie wandered the village mumbling about his unfilial sons, refusing to visit Sun Mei himself yet complaining that his children wouldn’t.
The eldest Xie Jianping and his wife were having a hard time in the village with their six children.
Xie Weiqiang and his wife quarrelled constantly, burdened by chores and responsibilities they couldn’t handle, as if to give back everything they enjoyed before. They had a small quarrel every two days and a big quarrel every three days.
Xie Huadong had become completely despondent, while Xie Caixiang had returned to her in-laws, seeing that she could not get any benefits and would possible get into trouble by being involved she was unwilling to involve herself further with the Xie family’s mess.
Even when Old Man Xie begged her to visit Sun Mei, Xie Caixiang refused outright.
“Your mother treated you so well back then, and as her biological daughter, you won’t even go see her,” said Old Man Xie to Xie Caixiang.
Xie Caixiang coldly replied, “She spoiled my second sister-in-law more than her own daughter. If anyone should visit her, it’s my second sister-in-law.”
With that, she walked away without looking back.
The Xie family had become a complete mess.
Jiang Yantang never once returned to visit the Xie family. Seeing this, Old Man Xie gave up on him completely. He muttered that the Xie family wasn’t blessed by good fortune but rather cursed by disaster.
He now deeply regretted ever having this child, believing that without him, the family wouldn’t have fallen apart.
Having been with Sun Mei for so long, Old Man Xie’s thoughts mirrored hers.
“He’s a jinx. From the moment he was born, he brought calamity to his mother.”
“Ungrateful! Even if his mother made mistakes, everything she did was for his own good.”
Old Man Xie took to the village, publicly berating Jiang Yantang for being ungrateful, accusing him of forgetting his roots and shamelessly clinging to the Jiang family name despite being a Xie family descendant.
He no longer cared about his dignity, making frequent scenes at the educated youth outpost. Other educated youth tried to reason with him, but he wouldn’t listen and returned to rant every few days. It seemed like the only way he could ease his guilt and resentment.
In Old Man Xie’s mind, the real villains were not him, but Sun Mei and the useless sons she bore.
Jiang Yantang completely ignored him. He refused to acknowledge these people as his family, feeling nothing but contempt for Old Man Xie and Sun Mei.
He despised his origins.
“Why did this have to happen to me?”
Everything had spiralled out of control since he had been sent to the countryside as an educated youth.
News spread that Jiang Leiyan had arrived in the village. Hearing this, Jiang Yantang’s heart pounded. His second brother was here, which meant the Jiang family must now know the truth, including Xie Yanzhi.
However, Jiang Leiyan didn’t go directly to the educated youth outpost. Normally, Jiang Leiyan, under their mother’s care, would have been attentive to Jiang Yantang, but this time, he rushed to meet his real younger brother, Xie Mingtu.
Would the Jiang family no longer acknowledge him?
“Jiang Yantang, your brother is here! Not Xie Weiqiang—it’s your real Jiang family brother,” someone at the outpost told him.
Though Jiang Yantang wasn’t particularly pleased, he decided to meet Jiang Leiyan anyway.
In Jiang Yantang’s dormitory, the long-separated brothers reunited. Just days ago, their mother had called and asked Jiang Leiyan to take care of Jiang Yantang. But now, the situation had changed drastically—Jiang Yantang was no longer his true brother.
Even so, their father, Jiang Liming, had asked Jiang Leiyan to bring both Xie Mingtu and Jiang Yantang back to the Jiang family home.
After exchanging a few polite but superficial words, Jiang Leiyan got straight to the point. “You and Xie Mingtu will come back with me to the Jiang family.”
“Both of us?” Jiang Yantang asked, surprised.
Jiang Leiyan nodded.
Jiang Yantang shook his head. “I’m not a Jiang family child. What right do I have to go back?”
“Mom and Dad want to see you.”
Nearby, a few of the educated youth, including Lin Baijun, tried to persuade him.
“Jiang Yantang, no matter what, Uncle and Auntie raised you for so many years. You should go back and see them,” Lin Baijun urged.
Lin Baijun believed Jiang Yantang wouldn’t be cast out of the Jiang family. After all, Xie Yanzhi had treated him better than her biological sons. At worst, he could stay as the Jiang family’s godson.
It was far better than returning to the Xie family, a chaotic mess filled with selfish, irresponsible people.
“Jiang Yantang, go with your brother. Auntie must still care about you after all these years. If you don’t go back, she’ll only worry more,” Lin Baijun added.
Jiang Yantang hesitated but ultimately said, “Second Brother, take Xie Mingtu back. He’s your real brother. I’m just an outsider—I don’t belong in your family’s reunion.”
Lin Baijun grew more anxious. “You’re being foolish, Jiang Yantang. Don’t give up on the Jiang family’s resources just because of—”
Before Lin Baijun could finish, Jiang Leiyan interrupted.
“Fine, then don’t come back,” Jiang Leiyan snapped. “You’re not a Jiang family child anyway. We wasted over a decade raising you for nothing.”
Straightforward and impatient, Jiang Leiyan wasn’t one to coddle or beg.
“You don’t want to come? Fine. Your biological parents and siblings are here—you should spend more time with them.”
Jiang Leiyan turned on his heel and walked out, leaving Lin Baijun dumbfounded.
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