Yu Dong decided to prepare the bone broth porridge for Chen Mi and braised pork meat for Shen Mi and Ye Liu . So once she was sure that Ye Liu will not be coming soon in the kitchen , she took out the rice , shiitake mushroom scallions, fish sauce, sesame oil, and some fermented black beans , she skipped the hot peppers and chilli oil . The pork bone borth had been simmering for two hours thus Yu Dong only needed to skim its impurities and start preparing the bone broth porridge , she had also boiled the pork belly together with the bones thus once she was done with cooking the bone broth porridge , she started cooking the pork belly . She took an uneven wok and added some sugar and oil in it , then fried the pork until it was brown – then she added some water , cooking wine , Shaoxing and regular and dark soy sauce .

After forty five minutes of toiling in the kitchen , Yu Dong finally plated the dishes on the tray and walked back to Chen Mi ‘s room because she has timely hidden the things back in her inner world – Ye Liu who returned mid way while she was cooking wasn’t suspicious , he just thought that Yu Dong brought so many things from the money that she earned today .

” eat ” handing the bowl porridge to Chen Mi , Yu Dong said ” I will be just outside , if you want anything call me , I will come back ”

Yu Dong understood that her mers were not that close with her yet , if she ate together with them , they might be a bit restrained so she went outside to eat once she was done delivering food .

Chen Mi looked at the bowl of porridge and suddenly felt a bit emotional , for three years he had been with Yu Dong but never had she shown such kindness to him – she was so gentle and nice that Chen Mi was getting greedy he wished Yu Dong remained like this forever .

” What’s wrong with her today ? ” after a while Ye Liu asked the most trickiest question , the braised pork belly was just as good as anyone else , yet to Ye Liu who had eaten meat for first time felt like he was dreaming , not only was he not beaten or scolded when Chen Mi gave birth to a mer but they even got to eat meat ? Where was such a good thing ?

” Don’t talk nonsense ” even though Shen Li was confused as well but he didn’t think that as husbands they should be talking about their wife behind her back ” its – just don’t talk about Yu Dong behind her back ,I know you are worried but as long as she doesn’t harm us , what’s the big deal ? ”

Shen Li was a typical gentle mer to him a wife hitting his husband was not a big deal , as long as His wife doesn’t go over the top , he doesn’t mind living with her . Ye Liu rolled his eyes he knew that Shen Li will react like this , so he shut his mouth and began eating .

Yu Dong who was eating her dinner , could hear the three mers talking and sighed. The pork belly didn’t taste as good as her mother’s and the porridge was a bit more on the thicker side , Yu Dong liked it a bit runny but then again she wasn’t a cook – once she was done eating she took out her pouch and counted the money , even though it was enough to buy two goats , it wasn’t enough to buy clothes for the baby .

In the end Yu Dong went inside her room hoisted her bow and knife and walked out of the house but just when she was leaving the front gate , she realised that she hasn’t told her mers that she was going to hunt and if she goes missing this late at night – with her track record the mers might believe that she actually ran away from the responsibilities after giving them a mouthful of good food !

So Yu Dong turned on her heels and went back inside the house knocked on Chen Mi’s room and entered . Chen Mi too had finished eating and he was now feeding the baby mer who have gotten hungry after crying so much , Yu Dong smiled at the little baby sucking and puckering his lips as he drank the milk from the small exquisite bamboo spoon Chen Mi was holding .

Then she looked at Shen Li who was looking at her with a confused expression .

” I’m going to hunt ” said Yu Dong patting her knife ” the money is not enough to buy a goat for the baby and we need goat mill every day we can’t always borrow it can we ? So I will be back in a while and there is also the matter of clothes ”

Yu Dong gave Shen Li and the others a small explanation , then turned to the door but just as her hand reached to the latch , Shen Li jumped on his feet ” wait , you – you are going to the forest this late at night ?”

Yu Dong frowned when she heard him question but she nodded , she knew he was worried about her safety so she smiled reassuringly ” don’t worry nothing will happen to me – and night is the time when many animals come out of their caves , if I want to hit a bumper hunt , I need to hunt at night ”

Ye Liu frowned then placed his bowl and said ” can you not go ? We can still make do without a goat ”

Yu Dong shook her head ” no can do , If I buy milk everyday for six months all my money will go into buying milk , why waste money when I can just take a little risk and buy a goat ? Don’t worry I have gone with my mother to the forest a lot of time when I was young , I know the way , and I won’t get hurt ”

When Shen Li and others saw that Yu Dong was so firm they couldn’t stop her , Yu Dong bid them goodbye when they stopped , stopping her patted the baby mer ‘s head and walked out .

Chen Mi who was clutching the baby struggled for a bit then covering the baby ears he shouted behind Yu Dong’s back ” Wife , take care ”

” I will ” Yu Dong who heard his shout at the front entrance replied then closed the door and asked her neighbourhood aunty to keep an eye on her house then finally left for the forest .