When the Top Chef Transmigrated into a Scum Alpha (GL) - Chapter 10

Li Yuyan thought that if she could really coax the other party into living with her, she would definitely be very happy.

Thinking this, the way she looked at Shang Wumian unconsciously grew a little hotter.

Shang Wumian noticed nothing.

She had been busy for half the day, and only now did she finally have the chance to sit down and peacefully drink a bowl of congee. She had no attention to spare for anything else.

The sliced fish congee had now cooled to a warm temperature, just right for eating. The fresh fish and rice went down together, giving her empty stomach something to settle on.

Shang Wumian narrowed her eyes slightly and remembered that back then, quite a few readers had questioned why the characters in the book could so easily eat white rice and wheat flour. Wasn’t that too unreasonable?

Clearly, rice and flour should also be things ordinary households struggled to eat.

At the time, the author had made a rare brief response and had not forgotten to joke with the readers who liked her: It’s fictional history. I am the world. If they can’t even eat white rice and noodles, what if I transmigrate into the book one day?

At the time, Shang Wumian had only thought this author was rather interesting. Now… she was grateful for the author’s willful writing.

Leave yourself a way out when writing, so you can meet well after transmigrating.

Although Li Yuyan was eating, most of her attention was still on Shang Wumian. Only when she heard Qu San ask Shang Wumian, somewhat embarrassed, whether he could have another bowl of congee did she finally shift her attention.

Qu San appearing here was rather unexpected.

“Right, Qu San, how come you’re here for dinner too? Could it be that you and Qingwan…” Li Yuyan suddenly wore a look of understanding, smiled, and did not continue.

Hearing that she had misunderstood, Qu San hurriedly explained, afraid he would cause trouble for Lin Qingwan.

After all, he was a Qianyuan. No matter what people said about him, he would not suffer too much of a loss. But Miss Lin was still an unmarried Kunze. He could not let her reputation be damaged.

Li Yuyan glanced at Shang Wumian. Seeing that she had no reaction at all, she understood.

She smiled casually and looked at Qu San to reassure him. “Why are you so nervous? Could I not know what kind of person Qingwan is? I was just asking in passing.”

After dinner, the sky was growing dark, and Qu San and Li Yuyan each returned home.

Shang Wumian habitually helped Lin Qingwan wash the bowls.

Before dinner, Ah Fu had been watched by Lin Qingwan until she finished writing her characters. Now, she was reading a little picture book she had borrowed from Erfuzi.

There were some words she did not quite recognize, but paired with the expressions of the characters in the drawings, she could still understand about seventy or eighty percent of it.

When she reached an interesting part, she even giggled aloud.

As Lin Qingwan washed the bowls, she spared some attention to think about what had happened earlier.

She knew what Li Yuyan’s words had meant at that time.

The drunkard’s intention was not in the wine.

Although on the surface, she had been teasing Lin Qingwan and Qu San, her true purpose had been Shang Wumian’s reaction.

If Shang Wumian had shown that she cared, that would prove there was something ambiguous between the two of them.

Lin Qingwan stacked a freshly washed bowl to the side and continued thinking.

And the fact that Shang Wumian had not seemed to care much at the time had undoubtedly satisfied the other party.

Li Yuyan had developed some thoughts toward Shang Wumian.

This was what Lin Qingwan could not understand.

If, in the previous life, Li Yuyan had gotten together with Shang Wumian because of Shang Wumian’s deliberate seduction, then in this life, why had Li Yuyan instead become the one who took the initiative to become interested?

Was there something special about the current Shang Wumian…?

Lin Qingwan discreetly sized up the Qianyuan standing on the other side and unconsciously frowned.

That face alone was indeed rather attractive.

After Lin Qingwan finished washing the bowls and chopsticks, she suddenly remembered something, so she gave Ah Fu, who was reading the little picture book in the inner room, an instruction. “Ah Fu, remember to change out of your dirty clothes before sleeping and just put them in the wooden basin. Tomorrow, I’ll take them to the river to wash.”

Ah Fu immediately curved her eyes, sweet-mouthed and obedient. “Okay! Thank you for your hard work, Sister Qingwan!”

Lin Qingwan nodded. From the corner of her eye, she caught Shang Wumian looking thoughtful, so she conveniently found a clean set of clothes and gave it to her.

Ah Fu was still young and still had to attend school. Since Lin Qingwan had been entrusted by an old neighbor and friend to take good care of her, she naturally could not let Ah Fu wash her own clothes.

So Lin Qingwan would also wash Ah Fu’s dirty clothes along with her own.

But as for Shang Wumian’s clothes that had not been washed or changed, she did not want to bother with them.

The other party had hands and feet, and her injuries were nearly completely healed. No matter what, she should do it herself.

Shang Wumian was a little taller than Lin Qingwan.

When she transmigrated over, all she had seen before her was a sea of fire. Aside from the few pieces of clothing on the original owner’s body, she had basically not a coin to her name.

Lin Qingwan letting her stay and even buying her a few new pieces of clothing could already be considered the utmost benevolence.

Shang Wumian was self-aware enough not to be shameless to the point of asking someone else to wash her clothes for her. But she remembered once seeing other Kunze washing clothes in the past, using something like a wooden club to repeatedly beat the fabric. It seemed very laborious.

After thinking briefly, she came up with an idea.

If she made a washboard, it would be far more convenient than that clothes-beating mallet.

After Shang Wumian had this idea, she took advantage of the fact that the sky had not yet completely darkened, grabbed an axe, and went out.

After returning, she spent a long time in the house polishing the wood she had brought back. Finally, before dawn, she completed the finished product.

—A purely handmade washboard.

When Lin Qingwan was preparing to go out and wash clothes, Shang Wumian somewhat tiredly handed the washboard to her.

“Use this instead of the clothes-beating mallet. It’ll be better.”

“What is this?”

“It’s called a washboard. When washing clothes, you put the clothes on it and scrub. It’ll save more effort.”

Lin Qingwan knew that Shang Wumian had spent nearly the entire night polishing this board, but she had not known what it was for.

Hearing her say it could be used for washing clothes, she was only half-convinced, but she did not refuse.

When she truly arrived at the river and began washing clothes, Lin Qingwan habitually reached for the clothes-beating mallet, only for her hand to touch that unevenly polished board instead.

Her gaze moved slightly. In the end, she still picked it up and tried using it according to the method Shang Wumian had told her.

The clothes became visibly cleaner. It was indeed much more convenient than using the clothes-beating mallet.

It was actually this useful? A few traces of doubt appeared in Lin Qingwan’s eyes.

As it happened, several Kunze washing clothes together nearby also saw this scene and could not help curiously gathering around to ask, “Hm? Qingwan, what are you using? It washes so clean…”

Lin Qingwan remembered the name Shang Wumian had told her and answered calmly, “It’s called a washboard.”

“A washboard? I’ve never heard of it before, and I’ve never seen one either.”

“Exactly. This uneven wooden board can actually be used to wash clothes?”

“How amazing. How did someone think of this?”

The Kunze were extremely curious about the washboard. One after another, they borrowed it from Lin Qingwan and tried using it, and every one of them discovered that it was far more than just ordinarily useful.

After Wu Erhua finished using the washboard, she found herself somewhat unable to part with it.

When she returned it, she did not forget to try asking, “Qingwan, how did you make this washboard?”

Lin Qingwan looked at the washboard she had taken back and told her the process as she guessed it. “Choose a good piece of wood and carefully polish it until it becomes like this.”

But this process only sounded simple. Actually doing it definitely would not be that easy.

Lin Qingwan thought to herself, no wonder Shang Wumian had spent the entire night making it.

Wu Erhua was not confident that she could make an identical washboard, but she truly envied Lin Qingwan for having that one. After thinking it over, she came up with an idea.

“Qingwan, can you sell this board to me? I’ll give you twenty coins.”

Twenty coins in exchange for a board used to wash clothes was undoubtedly a good deal.

When the other Kunze around them heard this, their original desire for the board could not help retreating somewhat.

The washboard was very useful for washing clothes, and it was also an interesting rare object.

But spending twenty coins on it was still a bit too extravagant.

One had to know that with that money, one could buy twenty qiang cakes from the east of the village!

It was also precisely because of this that Wu Erhua was actually very confident Lin Qingwan would not refuse her.

Her family had several mu of farmland, and she was very favored by her elders, so she was not lacking those few coins.

But no one expected that after Lin Qingwan thought about it for a moment, she would actually refuse calmly.

The smile originally hanging on Wu Erhua’s face disappeared in an instant.

She could not help frowning, secretly annoyed at Lin Qingwan’s greed. “Do you think it’s too little? How about this? I can add two more coins at most.”

The surrounding Kunze also began persuading her.

“Twenty-two coins. For this washboard, I think that’s enough.”

“No matter how much effort it takes to make, at its core, it’s still just a board. Qingwan, why don’t you sell it to Erhua…”

“That’s right, Qingwan. At worst, you can just make another one.”

Lin Qingwan only shook her head lightly and did not say anything more, but her attitude of refusal was firm.

In the end, carrying the wooden bucket with the washed clothes and that washboard, she left the riverbank directly.

The price Wu Erhua offered was indeed very tempting.

But the household was not so poor that they lacked money to that degree. That money was completely optional.

Lin Qingwan lowered her eyes slightly and looked at the washboard in her hand.

More importantly, this had originally been made by Shang Wumian’s own hands. Naturally, Lin Qingwan had no right to decide what happened to it.

“Favorability… 1…”

A faint voice sounded in Shang Wumian’s mind. But when she listened carefully, there was no movement at all, so she merely treated it as tinnitus caused by not sleeping well last night.

Her awareness returned, and Shang Wumian said what she wanted to say. “I… want to borrow some money from you.”

Shang Wumian had thought about asking Lin Qingwan for some money, but the other party’s wariness toward her seemed to have never dropped. She would most likely run into a wall.

So she tactfully did not try.

After thinking it over, she actually came up with a suitable candidate to borrow money from—Li Yuyan.

Li Yuyan’s household consisted of only herself. She also had plenty of spare money and counted as one of the more well-off households in the village.

Shang Wumian recalled the few interactions between the two of them and felt that Li Yuyan also seemed quite easy to talk to.

So she came to find her.

What Shang Wumian did not expect was that Li Yuyan agreed very readily.

It was just that she had some additional conditions. “There’s no rush to pay the money back, but you have to make dinner for me for two days. How does that sound?”

To Shang Wumian, cooking was a kind of enjoyment. Making two days’ worth of meals was not difficult.

But she still hesitated. “…Dinner?”

Shang Wumian still remembered the setting of this book world.

She was a Qianyuan. Entering and leaving the home of a single Kunze at night would not be good if others saw it.