The Almighty Martial Arts System - Chapter 319

Watching Jiang Fei’s back as he entered the villa, Ye Yuanyuan stood outside, her barely developed chest heaving with anger. Her beautiful, naturally large eyes, which were often intimidatingly striking, were filled with rage mixed with a good dose of embarrassment.

She knew she could be a bit aloof and cold, but she wasn’t really a proud, tsundere girl with a princess complex. It was just that she genuinely had never bought groceries or meat before. The mere thought of going to a local market made her feel utterly out of place.

The mental image was absurd: a woman carrying a designer LV handbag worth over a hundred thousand, dressed in high-end brand-name clothes and jewelry, wearing sunglasses, and then… holding a shopping basket, heading into a crowded, bustling market to buy vegetables. Did that even make sense?

Just looking at Jiang Fei’s retreating back made her teeth itch with frustration. The idea of charging after him for a fight was out of the question – her martial arts skills were mere child’s play compared to his, and challenging him would only bring humiliation. As for turning around and leaving in a huff…

If it were just about missing this one meal, Ye Yuanyuan felt she could probably endure it. But Jiang Fei had made it clear: if she skipped this meal, she shouldn’t even think about coming back for future ones.

Knowing Jiang Fei as she did, she had no doubt he meant every word. Next time she tried to mooch a meal, he would undoubtedly make her complete today’s unfinished task!

“What a despicable guy!” Unlike some girls who might stomp their feet in anger, Ye Yuanyuan just clenched her fists and shook them fiercely towards Jiang Fei’s back.

After hesitating for a long while, her expression shifting several times, the anger in her big eyes finally faded, replaced solely by awkwardness and embarrassment. She turned around decisively and headed towards Uncle Wang’s butcher shop at the village entrance.

There was no helping it. She had met her match. Even if she was unwilling, she had to comply.

“I’ll drink all his rice wine and red wine during dinner tonight! How dare he mock me like this!” Ye Yuanyuan thought bitterly to herself.

Trying hard to keep her cheeks from flushing, she quickly walked along the dirt road towards the butcher shop.

Uncle Wang’s butcher shop was one of the liveliest spots in the village. Located right next to the senior citizens’ activity center, it was where villagers gathered to drink tea, play cards, and chat in their free time. The village’s only small convenience store was also nearby, selling snacks, melon seeds, and pastries. So, the area around the butcher shop was always bustling.

It was just past 5 PM. The setting sun hung over the mountain peaks, its colorful evening glow casting brilliant rays, setting off the scenic beauty of Rice Village like a picturesque poem.

Yet, Ye Yuanyuan’s steps gradually slowed.

Villagers playing cards, some not yet off work, were chattering noisily. A few lively, adorable children were playing and chasing each other on the road. Two of them even weaved around Ye Yuanyuan as they ran. This made the aloof Ye Yuanyuan feel even more awkward.

Putting on a facade of nonchalance, she walked up to the butcher shop next to the activity center.

Seeing such a beautiful young woman approach, the butcher, Uncle Wang, even if he didn’t know her personally, could guess she was a guest brought by Jiang Fei. He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly about Dr. Jiang’s remarkable prowess – young, handsome, wealthy, and top-notch at charming women. In the half-year or so since he’d arrived in Rice Village, the stream of beautiful girls at his villa never seemed to end; there must have been at least eight or ten by now!

But Dr. Jiang was a good man, so it was fine.

Uncle Wang mused to himself.

“Looking to buy some meat, miss?” Uncle Wang asked proactively with a friendly smile.

Hearing this, Ye Yuanyuan felt a strong urge to turn and flee. Forcing herself not to let her eyes wander away from the hanging pork cuts, she maintained a stiff expression and said coldly and succinctly, “Pork. And ribs.”

“Alrighty! We’ve got plenty of ribs left, I’ll bag some up for you in a moment. Which cut of pork would you like? Pork belly, rump, leg, or shoulder?” Uncle Wang asked cheerfully, while thinking to himself, What a cold-mannered girl, both in speech and presence! Quite different from Lin Moli, Bai Ruoxi, or Xia Xiaozhi.

“Huh?”

Hearing the list of names, Ye Yuanyuan was baffled.

Pork belly, rump, leg, shoulder…

What on earth were these? She had never heard of them! Accustomed to a life where her hands never touched kitchen work, focused more on martial pursuits, she barely knew some vegetables. She could distinguish between rabbit, chicken, beef, and pork in a general sense, but the detailed cuts of pork? She was completely clueless.

Perhaps sensing her discomfort, Uncle Wang quickly changed his approach, asking in a simpler way: “Miss, would you prefer meat with more fat or more lean?”

This, Ye Yuanyuan understood. Keeping her face cold, she replied promptly, “Half and half.”

She loved the twice-cooked pork Jiang Fei made, and she knew it required a half-fat, half-lean cut. Using only lean meat wouldn’t taste as good. While Jiang Fei’s incredible cooking skills could make even fatty meat seem non-greasy, it still wasn’t ideal.

“Alrighty! Pork belly it is, then!” Uncle Wang brandished his sharp cleaver and deftly sliced off a large piece of perfectly marbled pork belly.

He didn’t bother weighing it. Instead, he took a string made of woven rice straw from nearby, threaded it through a hole pierced in the top of the meat, tied it skillfully into a knot, and handed it to Ye Yuanyuan. He did the same with the ribs – no weighing or chopping into smaller pieces, just tying them up with another straw string.

Jiang Fei had bought meat here often enough that Uncle Wang knew he preferred the ribs left whole to handle himself at home.

The look of discomfort in Ye Yuanyuan’s eyes intensified. If the meat had been put in a bag, carrying it back to the villa would have been somewhat better. But having it tied up with straw strings like this… the mental image…

Ye Yuanyuan felt like she had been transformed into a stereotypical housewife doing her daily grocery shopping. To make matters worse, her arrival had drawn the attention of the elderly folks playing cards in the activity center. Many who had just finished work hadn’t left yet and were now gathering to look at her.

Of course, none of them meant any harm; they were all smiling and even started greeting her.

“How much?” Ye Yuanyuan asked, just wanting to leave as quickly as possible.

“No charge! Dr. Jiang rarely buys anything from me; I can’t take his money. If my wife found out I took money from Dr. Jiang, she’d make me kneel on the washboard!” Uncle Wang said with a hearty, honest laugh.

Everyone in Rice Village held Jiang Fei in high respect, not because of his wealth or anything else, but because in the half-year he had lived there, he had used his medical skills to cure many villagers of their chronic illnesses free of charge. For instance, Uncle Wang’s long-standing rheumatism had been healed by Jiang Fei.

Thus, the villagers’ respect for Jiang Fei came from the heart.

Ye Yuanyuan, accustomed to a colder demeanor, felt overwhelmed by this warmth from strangers and the villagers’ comments like ‘What a pretty young lady,’ ‘Dr. Jiang is so lucky to have such a beautiful girlfriend,’ and ‘You two make such a lovely pair.’ She felt like lashing out but couldn’t bring herself to do so against these simple, kind-hearted people. So, she quickly pulled out two hundred yuan, placed it on Uncle Wang’s table, and turned to leave.

“Heh heh, the young lady is shy.”

“Indeed. What a sweet, innocent girl. Dr. Jiang has great taste, he’s so fortunate.”

“Of course. Someone as good as Dr. Jiang would naturally be liked by good girls… lots of them.”

Hearing their well-intentioned laughter, Ye Yuanyuan, holding a straw-tied package in each hand, fled the scene as if escaping. Her resentment towards Jiang Fei surged to its peak, making her grind her teeth in fury.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it! That bastard Jiang Fei! I’ll make you pay for this one day!” she fumed inwardly.

She soon returned to the villa, immediately picking up the basket of fresh vegetables Jiang Fei had already picked and left by the garden plot. Then, eyes blazing with anger, she marched into the kitchen.

“Back already? That was pretty fast. I haven’t finished cleaning this pheasant yet. You can just put the things down,” Jiang Fei said, deftly handling the plump wild pheasant. The winter melon and fish were already prepared, destined for winter melon and rib soup and West Lake vinegar fish respectively.

Noticing Ye Yuanyuan had fallen silent after entering, Jiang Fei looked up curiously. “What’s wrong with you? You look furious, like you want to eat me alive. Was buying some meat really that hard? It’s not like I asked you to kill someone.”

Ye Yuanyuan threw the ribs and pork belly at Jiang Fei as if they were rocks. Of course, Jiang Fei’s reflexes were too sharp to be hit; he caught them easily and chuckled in disbelief. “You’re really that angry? Is it that serious, Miss Ye? Who upset you?”

Ye Yuanyuan’s face remained cold and tense.

The meat-buying errand was one thing, but what truly infuriated her were the ‘nonsense’ spoken by those simple, enthusiastic villagers. That was the real source of her turmoil.

Otherwise, the meat-buying itself would have merely been embarrassing.

But this matter… she didn’t know how to bring it up. It felt strange, and she didn’t really want to talk about it either. So, she could only swallow her frustration, shoot Jiang Fei a fierce glare, and then leave the kitchen.

She decided she would channel her grief into strength later, eating and drinking heartily enough to make that bastard Jiang Fei regret his actions!

Roughly an hour later, it was completely dark outside.

Rice Village seemed draped under a black canopy, studded with countless twinkling stars. With no croaking frogs or chirping cicadas in winter, the night was exceptionally quiet and serene, further relaxing one’s state of mind.

The dinner Jiang Fei had prepared was finally ready, moved from the kitchen to the dining room, instantly filling the house with an intoxicating aroma.

“Still angry? Don’t be, food’s ready!” Jiang Fei called out cheerfully as he brought out the last dish, the simmering winter melon and rib soup.

Ye Yuanyuan snorted coldly. With practiced familiarity, she first went to the cabinet to fetch the rice wine and red wine before sitting down unceremoniously, ready to eat.