......
Returning home.
The sky had already darkened.
Dinner was eaten.
Dinner was rice cooked by brother-in-law. The rice was very hard, requiring three more chews than usual to swallow.
Jiang Yu ate while sighing, "Our family's conditions are so good now. This rice is cooked so dry and firm. In the past, one scoop could have cooked a whole pot."
Jiang Feng was also struggling to chew the rice, commenting between bites, "The young hero doesn't want to eat soft rice anymore."
Jiang Changtian had his Luoxia sister cook him noodles separately.
As he ate, he said, "I'm suited to eating the soft rice my wife cooks for life. Too hard doesn't work, it hurts my teeth."
Qin Luoxia just smiled gently.
Inspector He had gone out for a social engagement in the evening.
Jiang Mianmian had put in some labor this afternoon and felt quite tired, so she ate half a bowl more than usual.
Jiang Changtian and his wife were delighted to see this.
As parents, they always felt their daughter was too thin, surely because she ate too little each day.
When it came time to sleep at night,
Jiang Changtian quietly told his Xia-mei about the day's events in bed.
"She really helped sew up someone's fingers. I saw it wasn't done carelessly. There were fine tubes inside, all seemed to be connected, matched one-to-one. Do you remember that human bone diagram Mianmian drew? This child seems to have seen many corpses, and dissected ones at that."
Qin Luoxia felt a bit guilty.
Could it be the child took after herself?
Although she had never butchered people, when it came to butchering animals, she did it thoroughly and clearly.
When she carried the baby on her back as a child, did she also do such things? She seemed very skilled at it. She could butcher a wild boar neatly, categorize and arrange it properly, piece by piece. She could even cut up a wild boar and reassemble it into four chickens...
Guilty conscience.
Finally feeling that her daughter had traits similar to her own.
Especially similar.
But especially guilt-inducing.
Qin Luoxia laughed it off, changing the subject, "Yu-er seems to be showing a bit now. Her belly isn't pointed or round, hard to tell if it's a boy or girl."
"Boy or girl, the Meng family will surely cherish it. If they don't, that's fine, we'll keep it at home. It's good to have a prosperous household with many people."
"Feng-er still doesn't have a suitable match. What do you think of Governor Wu's daughter?"
"Not much. She seems a bit silly."
"It's alright. This prefecture town is too small to meet suitable matches. We'll look in the capital later, there's sure to be someone suitable there."
The couple's feet touched as they chatted idly.
Jiang Changtian fell asleep.
He began to snore softly.
......
Jiang Mianmian returned to her own chambers.
The room was very large.
It was specially requested by her.
The bed was huge.
There was also a desk, bookcase, tea table, drawing table, sofa, carpet, and a dressing room.
In short, it had to be very large, very comfortable, and fully equipped.
A bathroom was also installed.
Going out to relieve oneself at night was too difficult.
Doing it by the bed at night was too smelly.
For reading at night, the oil lamp had to be bright.
Candles were expensive, commoners generally wouldn't use them. Commoners used oil lamps more often.
One oil lamp could last a long time.
Jiang Mianmian occasionally liked to arrange many oil lamps and candles, curling up on the sofa to read.
When she needed to use the bathroom, she'd slip on her slippers and go to the washroom.
There was a small tea table by the sofa, with snacks and tea. Pangya would also attend to her.
If she walked too much, Pangya would even massage her feet and calves. This was required by her aunt.
Her aunt said a young girl's legs should be massaged regularly, worried that her calf muscles would become hard and thick, unattractive.
Her dressing room was very large, with many clothes, the better ones in complete sets, so she didn't have to consider how to match them. Of course, she didn't have to wash them herself either.
Her current clothes required special care when washing, they couldn't be washed casually. The kind where you put them in a basin and beat them with a stick by the river would generally ruin them in one wash.
These brightly colored dresses and robes were also particularly troublesome to wash.
In any case, there were special laundry people.
Her family was now of the "three changes three times" class.
That is, the family had many clothes, able to change at least three sets every day.
Not only were there many clothes, different clothes were worn to different places, and social circles were also diverse.
In short, it was a class slightly higher than middle class.
Jiang Mianmian had eaten too much dinner, the rice was indeed very hard. Fortunately, she had changed her teeth, but these new teeth also needed protection. They were for life, and dentistry standards were too low at this time.
At this moment, she didn't want to sleep, nor did she want to lie down and read.
Jiang Mianmian pulled out a black-covered book-like object from the cabinet.
The cover read "Mianmian's Diary".
That's right, this was Jiang Mianmian's diary.
All proper people had a diary.
She would make her own records.
Probably because of confusion.
At some times, or at certain moments, she always felt a bit out of sorts.
As if her body was lying down, but her soul was floating up, sweeping with a third-person view.
So she would write in her diary.
Recording daily life.
Then she would also draw some strange pictures in the diary.
Write some special requests.
For example: It's so hot today, I really want to wear a thin, multi-layered, cool, and pretty dress.
Then after a few days, Father would bring her a dress, saying he happened to see it outside and it seemed fine.
For example: Unhappy, don't want to eat.
Then in the evening there would be all kinds of especially delicious food.
For example, today I don't want to memorize books, really don't want to, can't memorize them.
But Father would still make her memorize.
There were always one or two days when he pretended not to have seen her diary.
Jiang Mianmian knew this well.
But she would still write seriously.
Like today.
It was also a day worth commemorating.
She must write in her diary.
Today's first surgery, finger reattachment.
Surgery difficulty: 8 points.
Surgery completion: 7.8 points.
Need to remind about correct methods for preserving severed limbs.
Cannot delay too long.
Jiang Mianmian recorded the process of performing surgery on someone today, what was lacking, and how to improve.
She wrote very carefully, stroke by stroke.
Although it was all written by her, who knows, it might become important archaeological material in the future.
Mainly to make archaeologists doubt history and science.
After seriously writing a proper diary entry,
Jiang Mianmian took Jiang Xiaoshu and Pangya for a walk around, seeing that the large rock in the backyard had already been moved away by people Father had sent. The efficiency was high.
Next, life became simple, with few words in the diary.
Second day.
No classes.
Distributed porridge.
Third day.
No classes.
Distributed porridge.
Fourth day.
No classes.
Distributed porridge.
Fifth day.
No classes.
Distributed porridge.
Today, that burly man with the exceptionally thick neck who kept cycling through the queue came to find me.
When he saw me, he knelt down and pulled out a bloody knife, pointing it at his own neck, saying: "These past few days I've been coming for medicinal porridge, but starting from the second day, there was a group of people acting suspiciously. I, Zhang Kuibiao, have eaten five days of filling meals from you, Miss, and have no way to repay. I followed this group and overheard them planning to kidnap you, Miss, during the chaos. So I killed them first. I've committed murder, I'm telling you, Miss, to thank you for the meals. I, Zhang Kuibiao, stand by my name and my actions. I killed those people, and I'll pay with my life. I won't implicate you."
I reached out to stop him, almost failing to do so, his strength was too great.
I thought these things only happened in storybooks, yet it truly happened before my eyes.
I had people send him to the magistrate's office. If he truly committed a crime, Father will sentence him. If he did nothing wrong, would this count as proactive self-defense?
In any case, this truly is an era of righteousness and decisive action.
I hope to see Zhang Kuibiao tomorrow.
I hope to establish a medical department.
Lastly, I hope Mom makes fewer noodle dishes, I want to eat rice.
The diary closed.
The blue leather cover was beautiful.
......
