The whole mountain is my hunting ground.

Chapter 1675 Ma Ling: My Kind-Looking Father-in-Law

Chapter 1675 Ma Ling: My Kind-Looking Father-in-Law

Since getting married, the young couple had been sleeping until seven or eight o'clock every day. But with their families moving in, that kind of life from a few days ago is completely gone forever.

It was only a little past four in the morning when Ma Ling faintly heard some noises outside the back window.

Although she didn't know whether it was her in-laws or her sister-in-law who got up, Ma Ling immediately got out of bed and got dressed.

"What are you doing?" Zhao Jun asked groggily, opening his eyes after hearing a noise nearby. "What time is it?"

Ma Ling took her watch out of her pillow, glanced at it, and said, "4:20..."

"Huh?" Zhao Jun was taken aback when he heard this, and at the same time he also heard a noise outside the north window.

After a moment's thought, Zhao Jun knew that Zhao Youcai must be planting food in the backyard to feed the dogs.

"You sleep a little longer." At this moment, Ma Ling, who had already gotten out of bed, told Zhao Jun, and then said, "I'll get up and see what chores I can help Mom with."

These days, how many daughters-in-law can sleep in late? Especially new daughters-in-law, Ma Ling is afraid that her mother-in-law will find fault with her.

As Ma Ling went out of the west room and crossed the corridor, she saw Wang Meilan kneading dough in the outer room.

Ma Ling was afraid that making a sudden sound would frighten Wang Meilan, so as she walked forward, she deliberately rubbed the soles of her shoes on the ground twice without lifting her feet.

Hearing the slight noise, Wang Meilan turned her head and quickly asked in a low voice, "Oh dear, why are you up? Did Mom make a noise?"

Zhao Jun and Ma Ling's bedroom was on the far west side. From the outer room, there was a corridor about five meters long. This corridor was against the south wall and had south windows, while on the north side of the corridor was a room with a south-facing door.

Because part of the room was taken up by the corridor, this room was about ten square meters smaller than Zhao Jun and Ma Ling's bedroom.

The Zhao family's house is symmetrical from east to west, and the two rooms on the east side have the same layout.

The two small houses also have windows facing north and south, but unlike the main house, which opens onto the courtyard through its windows on both sides, these two small houses open onto the courtyard through their north windows, while their south windows open onto a corridor.

Because there are two corridors, each more than five meters long, separating the east and west huts, the outer room can be kept quiet so that neither the east nor west huts can hear it.

"No, Mom, I'm awake." Ma Ling smiled, glanced over as she spoke, and then lowered her voice to ask Wang Meilan, "Mom, what are you doing?"

"Mom is kneading the dough, rolling out the noodles, and making the meat sauce," Wang Meilan said. Ma Ling continued in a low voice, "Mom, I'm going to wash my face and hands, and then I'll roll them out for you."

"No need..." Wang Meilan wanted to stop her but couldn't. Seeing Ma Ling walking towards the pool, Wang Meilan quickly followed.

At this time, Zhao Chun and his family of three were still sleeping in the east hut. Wang Meilan did not want to wake them up, so she could not speak loudly.

Wang Meilan caught up with Ma Ling, gestured with her chin towards the north windowsill, and said, "My dear girl, I've filled all the thermos flasks on the windowsill and under there with hot water. You can use any of them."

"Hey!" Before Ma Ling could finish her reply, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law heard a "clang" from outside the north window.

Wang Meilan was taken aback, then immediately understood and asked Ma Ling, "Was it your dad banging on the door and waking you up?"

"No, Mom," Ma Ling said with a smile. "Otherwise, I'll get up this morning every day too."

Wang Meilan certainly wouldn't believe it, but she didn't say anything more. After Ma Ling finished washing up, she went over to help Wang Meilan roll out noodles.

The Zhao family lived in the forest area, and Zhao Youcai had been the king of the forest farm canteen for twenty years, so he could not accumulate many things next to his house, but he had plenty of kitchen utensils.

Back in the old house, we had all these things, but there wasn't enough space to display them. This house is bigger, so Wang Meilan brought all of them over.

Eight linden wood cutting boards are nothing special; they're easy to find in the forest area. But four large, single-plank linden wood cutting boards, each 1.2 meters long and 80 centimeters wide, are something that even forestry workers don't all have.

As the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law each used an 82-centimeter rolling pin to roll out the dough, Zhao Chun came out of the east hut.

"Oh my, my eldest daughter's awake." Seeing Zhao Chun, Wang Meilan asked, "Did your dad bang on you and wake you up?"

"No way, Mom." Zhao Chun denied it at first, because the stoves in the backyard were all on the west side, so Zhao Youcai's tinkering wouldn't have much of an impact on her room.

Immediately afterwards, Zhao Chun frowned and glanced at the stove next to the east wall, and said, "Mom, how much are you burning so early in the morning?"

The Zhao family had five large brick houses, each with a chimney on the east and west sides. The east and west walls of the outer rooms were fire walls, each connected to a stove. These stoves were not made of brick, but were cast iron boilers.

Two boiler drums were inserted into the fire wall. On this side of the fire wall was the outer room, and on the other side were the two small rooms to the east and west.

The middle part of the furnace cylinder is connected to an iron pipe, which extends horizontally for one meter and goes up to connect to the water tank. The iron pipe goes out of the water tank, runs along the wall and against the ceiling, and goes to the corridors on both sides, through the walls above the door frames, and into the east and west main rooms.

The two large rooms did not have heated walls, but they did have radiators. So when a stove was lit in the outer room, the heated walls in the two smaller rooms would heat up first, while the radiators would heat up relatively more slowly.

"Hehe." Wang Meilan chuckled upon hearing this and whispered, "Aren't you afraid my grandson will get cold?"

Judging from the eight thermos flasks filled with hot water on and off the windowsill, Wang Meilan had a high fever that morning.

"What's so cold?" Zhao Chun frowned and said, "The more I sleep, the hotter it gets. The heated wall is so hot it's burning my face."

Inside the fire-walled room, in the middle, there was a large iron plate. That iron plate was standing upright. If it were flat, it could be used to fry eggs, if not grill meat.

Hearing Zhao Chun say this, Wang Meilan smiled again, pointed to the north window, and said, "Before your father left, he said he wanted to heat the kang (a traditional heated bed) for you, but I didn't let him."

In the Zhao family's new house, all the holes for the kang (heated brick bed) are outside, under the north-facing window, facing the backyard.

Compared to traditional kang (heated brick bed) which is located indoors, this type of kang cools down quickly and is not as warm. However, it is cleaner; no matter how you heat the kang, there is no ash in the room.

Another advantage of this type of kang (heated brick bed) is that it does not disturb the people inside the house when the kang is heated.

Just as Wang Meilan said, if they wanted to heat the kang (a traditional heated bed) in Zhao Chun's room, they could simply heat it outside, without affecting the family of three's sleep at all.

Upon hearing that Zhao Youcai was going to heat up the kang (a traditional heated brick bed), Zhao Chun laughed and said, "He's going to heat up the kang again? Are you going to steam the three of us for me?"

Zhao Chun's words amused Ma Ling and Wang Meilan.

Just then, Zhao Youcai returned after feeding the dog.

As he entered the room, Wang Meilan pointed to the west wall and said to Zhao Youcai, "Look at you, making a racket all morning, did you wake up your old daughter?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Ling's eyes widened instantly, and she felt a surge of panic.

A person's name is like a tree's shadow. From the legends and evaluations of Zhao Youcai that Ma Ling had heard since childhood, she could tell that her father-in-law was definitely not a bad person, but he was certainly not a kind one either.

"Oh dear!" To Ma Ling's surprise, when Zhao Youcai looked at her following Wang Meilan's words, he had a look of apology on his face.

“My dear daughter, I was so busy working that I didn’t think about it at all.” After saying this, Zhao Youcai’s face showed more annoyance. “This is ridiculous. It’s kept my daughter from sleeping well.”

"Ah..." Ma Ling was stunned. She never expected that her father-in-law, the legendary Ergudong, would be so kind and gentle.

Thinking back to the day of the wedding banquet, when her father-in-law generously gave her several large red envelopes, Zhao Youcai's favorability in Ma Ling's heart instantly reached MAX!

Wang Meilan and Zhao Chun: "..."

The mother and daughter stared at Zhao Youcai, neither of them expecting him to say such a thing.

Especially Wang Meilan, she started it with the idea that speaking frankly is harmless. Based on Wang Meilan's understanding of Zhao Youcai, if she pointed out Zhao Youcai's mistakes in front of her daughter-in-law, Zhao Youcai wouldn't talk back, at most he would just stay silent.

Ma Ling is a sensible girl, so she will definitely try to smooth things over. Then Wang Meilan will take the opportunity to back down and tell Zhao Youcai not to get up so early to bother her anymore.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Youcai's actions overturned Wang Meilan's perception of him.

“Dad, no…no, Dad.” Ma Ling stammered a little and quickly waved her hand, saying, “Otherwise, I would get up every day before this time.”

"It's alright, my dear," Zhao Youcai laughed. "You young people aren't like us old folks, you can sleep a little longer. Um, Dad won't be feeding the dog early anymore, he'll feed it around eight or nine o'clock from now on."

Looking at her kind and gentle father-in-law, Ma Ling was at a loss for words. This young woman, always honest and straightforward, instantly made up her mind to be a good daughter-in-law to Zhao Youcai.

Ma Ling was a bit clumsy with words; she had things on her mind but couldn't express them. Zhao Youcai wasn't usually very talkative either, but today was different. Ma Ling fell silent, but Zhao Youcai frowned and said to Wang Meilan, "You're just rolling out noodles, why do you need your old lady's hands to get involved?"

As he spoke, Zhao Youcai said to Ma Ling, "My dear girl, go inside and rest. Dad will roll the dough with her."

Wang Meilan: "..."

“No need, Dad!” Ma Ling, who was still excited and moved, said loudly, “You’ve been busy all morning, go inside and rest for a while, I’ll roll it out.”

After saying that, Ma Ling turned around, grabbed both ends of the rolling pin with both hands, and folded the large sheet of dough inward against the board.

Then Ma Ling bent down, pushed the large rolling pin with both arms, and rolled the folded half of the dough outwards.

"Oh my, my daughter is really capable." Zhao Youcai praised Ma Ling with a smile, and Ma Ling, who was already full of energy, worked even harder.

As soon as Zhao Youcai finished speaking, he sensed something was wrong. He looked to the side and met the strange looks from Wang Meilan and Zhao Chun.

Zhao Youcai blinked at the mother and daughter, then walked to the west hut to rest.

It's good to have a big house with many rooms; now Zhao Youcai even has a room to rest in.

When Zhao Jun got up, he saw Zhao Chun cooking noodles, while his wife was chopping cucumber into thin strips.

These days, even in the city, few daughters are spoiled. Someone as old as Ma Ling is already quite skilled at chopping vegetables.

But when Zhao Jun looked over, he saw Ma Ling, who was cutting cucumbers, with a serious expression on her face.

Zhao Jun blinked twice, wondering if someone had said something about Ma Ling. In Zhao Jun's mind, only Zhao Youcai would be capable of such a thing. But with Wang Meilan around, this shouldn't have happened.

"Son, you're up?" Seeing Zhao Jun come out, Wang Meilan called out to him with a smile, "Go wash your face, your brother-in-law is done washing."

When Zhao Jun went over, he saw Zhou Jianjun wiping his face with a towel.

"Brother-in-law, let's go back this afternoon," Zhao Jun said to Zhou Jianjun. "Bring Xiong Ba back, and I'll cut you a piece of meat."

To pull the bear up the mountain, we need a Liberation truck, but today Jie Chen is going to Old Zheng's house for a blind date, so we have to wait for him to come back before we can go up the mountain.

“No way!” Zhou Jianjun shook his head and smiled bitterly. Zhao Chun, who was cooking noodles, then chimed in with a smile, “We won’t go back this morning. His grandma will have to come here by noon.”

Everyone laughed upon hearing this. The elderly couple only had this one grandson, and they cherished him like the apple of their eye. They missed him terribly if they didn't see him for a day, let alone having him brought out for so many days.

Just as Zhao Chun was about to scoop out the noodles, Wang Meilan quickly put the table down.

Just as the table was set up, two barks came from outside. It turned out that Xing San had come over for a free meal.

At this moment, Zhao Hong and Zhao Na in the east wing got up. Little Zhao Na called for Wang Meilan to help her get dressed. Her call woke Zhou Dao, and Zhao Chun hurried to take care of Zhou Dao.

After they left, Zhao Jun and Zhou Jianjun became the ones who put the table down.

Making a bowl of braised noodles isn't too complicated. The meat broth is already prepared. After Ma Ling cuts cucumber strips and cilantro, you can take some garlic cloves, pickled vegetables from the jar, and scallions for dipping sauce, and then you can sit down and start eating.

"Come on, brother!" Zhao Youcai gestured for Xing San to sit down. Zhou Jianjun sat on Zhao Youcai's other side, while Zhao Jun sat on Xing San's side.

Next, Ma Ling should sit next to Zhao Jun, and when Zhao Chun brings the child out, she should sit next to Zhou Jianjun. Then, between the sisters-in-law, there should be Wang Meilan, Zhao Hong, and Zhao Na.

But since her mother-in-law and sister-in-law hadn't sat down at the table yet, how could Ma Ling sit down to eat?

But she couldn't just stand there, so Ma Ling went to wash the pots and wipe the stove.

At this point, Zhao Jun couldn't call Ma Ling to eat, but Zhou Jianjun and Xing San couldn't either.

Then, Zhao Youcai called to Ma Ling, "My dear girl, stop tidying up and come eat."

"It's okay, Dad, I'm not hungry yet," Ma Ling said. "I'll put this pot on the stove."

Today, I used a stove for cooking, and on the stove, I used a cast iron ladle. New ladles need to be maintained. Stir-frying is fine, but after stewing, steaming, or boiling, the wok must be dried and oiled for preservation.

But there was no rush. Ma Ling used this as an excuse to wait for Wang Meilan and Zhao Chun. It was impossible for her to come and sit down to eat just because Zhao Youcai called out to her.

This is something everyone knows perfectly well. Normally, Zhao Youcai should have gone with Ma Ling after he finished shouting once.

But Zhao Youcai called Ma Ling again less than a minute later, his sincere tone perfectly expressing the care of an elder for a younger generation.

Just as Ma Ling was about to refuse, she saw Wang Meilan come out of the inner room with Zhao Hong and Zhao Na.

"sister in law."

"sister in law!"

The two little girls are the bosses at school, but very well-behaved at home. They're also quite shrewd for their age and know how to treat people differently based on their status.

Naive Ma Ling happily agreed twice, and then Wang Meilan dragged her over to eat.

Within two minutes, Zhao Chun came out carrying the child. Just as she sat down, she heard several barks from outside.

Judging from the dog's barking, it must be someone they knew, so Zhao Jun and the others ignored it. A short while later, the outer door was pulled open, and Wang Qiang entered.

Wang Qiang's face was flushed and he was panting heavily, clearly indicating that he had run there.

"Qiangzi, have you eaten yet?" Wang Meilan had just asked when she saw Wang Qiang pull an old book out of his pocket.

Upon seeing the book, Zhao Jun immediately jumped up from his stool!

　Sorry guys, the update is done. My phone broke. I don't know why, I was typing this morning when the screen suddenly opened. I went into town to buy a new one, but I'm still not used to the new phone. What a day!

　　If this counts as today's update, then I owe one chapter. I'll definitely make it up tomorrow at noon.

(End of this chapter)