Doctor Liu wrote some dietary recipes to nourish qi and essence and quietly handed them to me. “Give these to An Jin daily; it will definitely help.”
I accepted them, blushing. “Thank you, Uncle Liu.”
Chapter Twenty-One: Powerless
An Jin was reviewing documents in the study while I crouched in the kitchen watching the dragon-horse young chicken stew. I compared the medicinal diet recipe to ensure no ingredients were missed before putting it away and adding two pieces of firewood.
Dragon-horse, or seahorse, nourishes the kidneys and strengthens yang, and combined with young chicken, replenishes qi and essence. Although An Jin’s performance in bed was commendable, he worked hard during the day and needed nourishment. I lifted the lid, smelling the chicken soup’s fragrance and justifying my actions.
I was secretly stewing the soup to be a good wife, absolutely not to have a child!
“Ah Yao?” Someone pushed open the kitchen door. “Just as I thought.”
I was startled, almost dropping the clay pot lid. “Father-in-law?”
He entered, looked at the stew, and understood immediately: “Ah Yao has worked hard.”
I felt embarrassed and asked why he was here. He simply said that mother-in-law didn’t sleep well, and he came to brew some calming soup for her feet.
Father-in-law’s face looked slightly dark, likely due to exhaustion. I rushed to help, but he insisted on doing it himself, only letting me organize the medicinal herbs.
“Not admitting one’s age won’t do,” he laughed while packing the herbs into the jar. “These days, my eyes aren’t seeing clearly.”
Father-in-law is the most filial husband. Mother-in-law loved vegetarian dishes from the Gusu Temple, so he would wake up early on the first and fifteenth of each month to wait for the meal, buy it, and have someone deliver it quickly so she could eat it while still hot. She also loved reading, so he collected hand-copied and rare printed books, always showing her new ones first.
If I hadn’t been in the kitchen, I wouldn’t have known that father-in-law came every night to brew herbal foot baths for mother-in-law, handling every step from buying to brewing and pouring.
Father-in-law and mother-in-law are about the same age, with her maintaining her beauty while he has gone gray. His devotion reflects his love for her.
