Title: Becoming the Vicious Husband of a Provincial Graduate
Author: Zhu Liuliu
Chapter 25
Only after Jiang Ji’s lips fell on his did Ye Li come back to his senses.
His back was pressed tightly against the wooden door.
His legs hung in the air, Jiang Ji’s arms firmly supporting his thighs.
His own hands clutched Jiang Ji’s shoulders.
In two lifetimes, this was the first time he had ever experienced a posture like this.
At the moment, Jiang Ji was only gently licking his lips with his tongue, not kissing him fiercely.
Ye Li took a deep breath and freed one hand to punch Jiang Ji lightly on the shoulder.
“You don’t like it?” Jiang Ji pulled his lips away slightly and asked softly.
“…It’s just that you’re surprisingly skilled.”
Truly.
Ye Li had never expected his inexpensive husband to pull off something like this.
He experimentally rocked his body a couple of times. Seeing that Jiang Ji held him completely steady—no sign of slipping—he grew bolder.
Reaching up, he cupped Jiang Ji’s strikingly handsome face and raised an eyebrow.
“Good husband, where did you learn tricks like this?”
Instead of answering, Jiang Ji asked, “Are you satisfied?”
The single question made Ye Li laugh.
With arms that strong, how could he not be satisfied?
He leaned forward with a grin and planted a loud kiss on Jiang Ji’s lips.
“Next time we share the bed, let’s use this position.”
“….”
Jiang Ji’s pupils contracted.
His throat tightened instantly.
He had not expected Ye Li to throw out such a sentence.
The smile on Ye Li’s face carried a hint of mischief and far more seduction. It was obvious he was deliberately teasing him.
Jiang Ji clenched his teeth and kissed him hard.
This time he was nothing like before. Instead of merely nibbling Ye Li’s lips, he pushed his tongue past Ye Li’s teeth and pressed upward against the roof of his mouth.
That was Ye Li’s sensitive spot.
Every time Jiang Ji’s tongue touched there before, Ye Li would cling to him helplessly.
Now Jiang Ji focused entirely on that one place.
Ye Li twisted restlessly in his arms, small sounds slipping from his throat.
By the time Jiang Ji released him, Ye Li was breathing heavily, his cheeks flushed.
The sight stirred Jiang Ji’s desire to carry him back to the kang and do what they had done the previous night all over again.
But in the end, he simply held him quietly in his arms, slowly steadying his breathing.
Ye Li had already noticed Jiang Ji’s reaction.
He himself was not unaffected either.
Before, he had never truly done anything beyond satisfying his urges alone.
But now that he had experienced it—and perhaps because this body was that of a fulang, not quite the same as an ordinary man—he felt strangely empty inside.
Very empty.
And a little uncomfortable.
He did not dare tease Jiang Ji further. Instead he obediently stayed in his arms and breathed slowly with him.
His inexpensive husband would be gone for ten days.
Ah… how melancholy.
Once the discomfort passed, he said softly,
“Just focus on your studies. Everything at home will be fine with me.”
“I know. If anything happens, come find me,” Jiang Ji replied, tightening his embrace.
Ye Li nodded, then added,
“On the tenth day, remember to come back and get the money.”
Jiang Ji hummed in agreement.
He remembered.
Of course he remembered.
They wanted to say more to each other.
But the truth was, they still did not know each other very well. After those few sentences, neither could think of anything else to say.
Still, neither of them wanted to let go.
They remained like that, holding each other, until the voices of Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya drifted in from outside.
Only then did they exchange a hurried kiss, separating reluctantly.
Jiang Ji pulled Ye Li into the east room and, ignoring Ye Li’s protests, took a mian guo pastry from the basket and insisted he eat it.
“You can fry more later. But you worked all day today—how could you not taste even one bite?”
That single sentence blocked every argument Ye Li had prepared.
Smiling, he accepted the pastry.
His heart felt warm and sweet.
With such thoughtfulness from his inexpensive husband, he was more than willing to work hard for this family.
Just then Jiang Ya’s voice rang out from outside.
“Big brother! Ge! Sister Liu is here!”
The two men stepped out of the hall one after the other.
Jiang Liu had arrived carrying a sack of cornmeal. The Jiang family’s grain all came from Jiang Dahe’s household.
These past few days Jiang Ji had been home, and the flour had been used up quickly.
So Jiang Liu had brought thirty jin.
Moreover, starting tomorrow she would begin working outside the village.
Ye Li and Jiang Ji greeted her.
While chatting, Ye Li broke the pastry in his hand into several pieces and shared it with everyone.
It was Jiang Liu’s first time tasting mian guo, and she found it quite novel.
But when she heard that one pastry cost five copper coins, she nearly jumped.
“So expensive?”
“It’s hardly profitable even at that price. The cost alone is twenty-two coins per jin,” Ye Li replied, counting on his fingers as he explained.
A jin of wheat flour cost seven coins.
Malt syrup cost forty coins per jin. To make the pastries noticeably sweet, at least four liang of sugar had to be used per jin of flour—that alone cost sixteen coins.
Then there was oil.
Oil went into the dough and was needed again for frying. About three liang of oil was used per jin of flour.
Soybean oil cost twenty-seven coins per jin, so three liang was about eight coins.
He had also added several eggs.
But that was because these pastries were meant for Jiang Ji’s snacks.
If they were sold outside, one egg per jin of flour would be enough.
Even the smallest egg cost at least one coin.
And in the future, once the business expanded, Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya’s gathered firewood would no longer suffice. Firewood would also become a cost.
Ye Li added that into the calculation as another coin.
Thus, without counting labor—only flour, syrup, oil, eggs, and firewood—the cost of frying one jin of flour came to thirty-three coins.
One jin of flour produced about one and a half jin of pastries.
So the cost per jin of pastries was roughly twenty-two coins.
Each pastry weighed about one liang and six qian and sold for five coins. Six pastries weighed slightly less than a jin but could be roughly treated as one.
So a jin sold for about thirty coins.
Subtract the cost of twenty-two coins and he earned only eight coins per jin.
But Ye Liang and Liu Yi could not work for nothing.
So Ye Li gave them three coins of that margin.
In the end, for each jin sold, Ye Li earned five coins while Ye Liang and Liu Yi earned three.
Hard-earned money.
After hearing the explanation, Jiang Liu fell silent.
When calculated like that, it was not expensive at all.
But she would have to push a stone mill for three full days just to afford one jin…
If she wanted to marry someday, how many years would that take?
She took a deep breath and forced the thought away.
Better not think about it. That dream felt almost impossible.
The group chatted in the courtyard for a while.
Then Jiang Ji returned inside and brought out the basket.
It was time for him to leave.
The sun was nearly setting. If he left too late, he would not reach the city gates before they closed.
And there was morning reading at the academy the next day.
He had to leave today.
After fastening the basket on his back, he suppressed the reluctance in his heart, waved to Ye Li, Jiang Mai, Jiang Ya, and Jiang Liu, then turned and strode down the road.
Jiang Mai felt reluctant but managed to keep his expression steady.
Jiang Ya, however, pursed his lips and stared at his elder brother’s retreating figure, his big eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
Ye Li also could not immediately look away.
But he was not a child.
Taking a deep breath, he smiled and rubbed the boys’ heads.
“Your big brother will be back in ten days. It’ll pass quickly.”
“Yage’er, when your brother comes back, will you make another gourd-shaped bun for him?”
The gourd bun Jiang Ya made that morning had been shared between Ye Li and Jiang Ji.
Hearing this, Jiang Ya twisted his body and threw himself into Ye Li’s arms, tears glimmering in his eyes.
Ye Li bent down and lifted the little boy.
“Be good, Yage’er. Let’s go back and eat ma ye pastries, alright?”
Being picked up instantly distracted Jiang Ya.
Even Jiang Ji had not carried him like this for a long time!
He was already five years old—a big boy now.
Feeling a little shy, Jiang Ya turned his face away and answered softly.
“Okay.”
Ye Li smiled and patted Jiang Ya’s back, then waved for Jiang Mai and Jiang Liu to follow him home to eat ma ye pastries.
Jiang Liu shook her head and refused. It was nearly evening, and she had to return home to cook.
Tomorrow she would have to come over before dawn to push the millstone, so she needed to sleep early tonight.
Before long, night fell.
With Jiang Ji gone—the big presence in the house missing—Ye Li, Jiang Mai, and Jiang Ya even lost some of their appetite for the buns.
After dinner, Ye Li and the two little ones returned to their own rooms to sleep.
Meanwhile, Jiang Ji could not sleep.
The academy he attended was called Chenji Academy, located in the southern part of the county town. By the time he walked there, the sun had already set.
The academy consisted of three courtyards.
The front courtyard housed the teachers’ offices.
The central courtyard contained the classrooms.
The back courtyard held the dormitories and the kitchen.
The dormitory conditions were rough. Several students shared a single large kang bed, so only students from outside the county stayed there.
Those whose homes were within the city returned home after class each day.
When Jiang Ji arrived at the dormitory, the other students had already returned. He greeted them briefly and began eating his dinner.
He ate three buns and one egg.
Afterward he took a basin of water and his toothbrush outside to wash up.
By the time he finished everything and lay down, it was already the middle of the xu hour—time for lights out.
Darkness quickly filled the room.
He closed his eyes, but sleep did not come as it usually did.
Beneath him, the kang was covered only with a thin straw mattress. After long use it had become stiff and hard.
The room was far from quiet.
The snores and teeth-grinding of grown men filled the space.
He let out a long breath and turned over.
He found himself thinking about going home tomorrow…
Time passed silently.
Before long the rooster crowed.
At Yezao Slope, Jiang Dahe woke up cheerfully and escorted Jiang Liu to Ye Li’s house for work.
Since it was not the busy farming season, the village was still quiet at this hour. Jiang Liu was only a young girl, and Jiang Dahe feared something might happen if she walked alone.
So he accompanied her personally.
After delivering her, he gave a few instructions to work diligently and then left.
Ye Li led Jiang Liu into the mill room.
As a grown man, he felt embarrassed letting her do all the heavy work alone, so he planned to handle smaller tasks:
Scooping soybeans into the mill, cleaning the grooves of soybean pulp and liquid.
If Jiang Liu could not keep going, he was ready to take over.
But to his surprise, Jiang Liu said,
“Ge Li, you go lie down in the main hall. I can manage by myself.”
“It’s alright—I’m already up,” Ye Li replied with a smile.
Jiang Liu thought for a moment and changed her mind.
“Alright.”
After all, it was her first day working. The employer should see how well she performed.
Once some time passed, Ge Li would trust her to grind the soybeans alone.
She grasped the mill handle and began pushing slowly.
Her strength was not as great as Jiang Ji’s.
She could not afford to rush.
Her strength had to be used steadily, like a slow stream.
Footnotes.
- 面果 (mian guo) — A traditional fried pastry made from layered dough, slightly sweet and often shaped into rings or double circles. There is no exact English equivalent, so the pinyin is retained.
- 麻叶 (ma ye) — Literally “hemp leaf,” a type of crisp fried pastry shaped like a leaf, common in northern Chinese snacks.
- 斤 (jin) — Traditional Chinese unit of weight, approximately 500 grams (1.1 pounds).
- 两 / 钱 (liang / qian) — Traditional subunits of weight used in cooking and trade; 1 liang ≈ 50 g, 1 qian ≈ 5 g.
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