Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 505 - 504: Little Red Clay Stove

The world was silent, and the snow fell without a sound.

The cold winter days pair best with hot pot.

In the Great Tang, hot pot was called "warming pot" and was favored by many famous people, with countless poems written about it.

Lin Wanwan, accompanied by little Qingyu and Xiao Yixun, sat around a large round table specially crafted by Lin Wanwan, joined by Xiao Chong and Dugu Di. In the center was the warming pot, with smokeless high-grade charcoal burning underneath, surrounded by all sorts of hot pot ingredients ready to be cooked.

There were beef rolls, lamb rolls, donkey meat slices, venison slices, fish slices, shrimp, mantis shrimp, shrimp paste, frozen tofu, greens, cabbage, radish slices, and potato slices. Lin Wanwan’s place might not have much of anything else, but it certainly had plenty of good food.

The base was a tomato soup, with a few pepper grains added in, a true delicacy in the Great Tang.

It must be noted that although Lin Wanwan did not hide tomato seeds, the promotion of tomatoes in the Great Tang was not going smoothly.

In Chang’an, Li Shimin directly treated the cherry tomatoes presented by Xiao Chong’s father, Xiao, as potted plants, not interested in eating them. There weren’t many tomato lovers here in Mao County either.

For ordinary farmers, tomatoes neither had fame nor high value and weren’t highly productive, so few would carefully cultivate them. Only a few households in Lin Family Manor, Lu Family Manor, and Dafeng Village occasionally grew them.

The tomatoes Lin Wanwan was eating now were ones she grew in her greenhouse.

The room they chose for eating the warming pot was one that the original owner of this mansion had built at great expense, deeply reflecting the noble characteristics of the Great Tang aristocracy.

The specific design involved making the walls into hollow cavity walls, commonly known as "fire walls." Fire paths were dug underneath, with the charcoal addition opening set at the bottom of the outdoor eaves. Charcoal fires were lit in these openings, and the heat would warm the entire room along the cavity walls, comparable to central heating.

This design was generally more common in palaces, and not many aristocratic families specifically designed fire walls because it was too expensive.

Extensions of this included heated kang beds and fireplaces. One must say that ancient high society truly knew how to enjoy life.

Lin Wanwan considered it fortunate to have purchased this mansion in bulk.

The original owner had been reluctant to use this room frequently, but Lin Wanwan didn’t care. Buying a winter’s worth of charcoal in the Great Tang was no more than a pepper grain’s worth of expense for her.

The last time she went to Hai City to "visit" her senior brother, she brought back a ton of pepper. She could splash it around carefreely, without concern!

Outside, the wind howled and snowflakes danced; inside, everyone sat around the fire, chatting and laughing.

Reciting poetry and composing verses was an elegant pastime, unavoidable, so Lin Wanwan had no choice but to borrow from existing works.

After a few rounds of drinking games, Xiao Chong drank a cup of warm wine and asked Lin Wanwan with a smile, "Cousin, have you ever thought about publishing a poetry collection for the Prestige Hall? Such good poetry would be a shame not to spread."

Lin Wanwan quickly waved her hand, "No need, no need, my master doesn’t like gaining fame, much less spreading it far and wide."

Dugu Di sighed upon hearing this, "Your master truly is indifferent to fame and fortune. I respect that and toast your master from afar."

Then he raised his glass toward the west and drank it all in one go.

Lin Wanwan suspected he simply wanted to drink more, especially since the wine she brought out today was modern plum wine. Although only twelve degrees, it was far superior to the rough wines brewed in the Great Tang.

Indeed, after Dugu Di finished a glass, Xiao Chong recited another line of poetry, and the two clinked glasses three times in a short period.

Lin Wanwan couldn’t help but laugh; she’d better focus on eating more food!

Next to her, Xiao Yixun always held strong opinions about Xiao Chong and spoke little at the table, only talking to Lin Wanwan or little Qingyu.

For little Qingyu and Xiao Yixun, hot pot was just hot pot, drinking games were boring, and so was drinking wine (not to mention they weren’t allowed to drink); these two little rice warriors were just focused on eating!

What’s the most highly competitive thing about eating hot pot together?

It’s when the meat isn’t cooked yet, and others are already fishing it out! These two little ones were exactly that kind of competitive people.

At first, Lin Wanwan was too absorbed in searching her brain for drinking games to notice, but after a long time without meat, she finally realized and quickly called a halt.

"You two, eating the meat before it’s fully cooked, do you want worms growing in your belly? Little Qingyu, do you remember the worms in your stomach?"

Xiao Yixun didn’t have this experience, but little Qingyu did. Thinking back to that scene, her face instantly turned pale with fear.

"I don’t want worms! I don’t want worms!"

"Then don’t be so hasty! There’s plenty of meat, what’s the rush?"

Little Qingyu muttered, "I want to finish early and go play in the snow."

As for why Xiao Yixun did this?

She didn’t do it to eat quickly and go out to play in the snow, nor because she loved meat. She simply didn’t like Xiao Chong and wanted to take all the meat, so he couldn’t have any!

A very childish form of revenge that Xiao Chong never took to heart.

But Xiao Yixun was not without other methods of revenge; if not for Lin Wanwan’s restraint, she probably would have already given Xiao Chong a taste of Poison Powder.

This young woman skilled in using poison was not someone to be trifled with.

Xiao Chong and Dugu Di were also food enthusiasts. Drinking was one thing, reciting poetry another, but they couldn’t miss out on the hot pot.

In the warm room, everyone ate until they were sweating.

Xiao Chong and Dugu Di already wore little, and Xiao Yixun seemed oblivious to the cold and heat, while little Qingyu and Lin Wanwan, both wearing thick padded embroidered robes, couldn’t help but retreat inside to change into spring outfits.

After the hot pot, Lin Wanwan played chess with Xiao Chong and Dugu Di for a while.

Lin Wanwan liked to glance at a Glazed Mirror while playing chess (which was actually attached to a phone for peeking at the board), and she wouldn’t play chess with them without the Glazed Mirror beside her, such was her principle.

With the help of Lin Wanwan’s cheat device, two genuine chess masters grudgingly became vanquished opponents, giving Lin Wanwan a sense of era-transcending triumph.

No matter how clever you are, you can’t see through my advanced technology!

After joyfully winning two rounds, Xiao Chong acknowledged defeat, and Dugu Di had no choice but to concede as well.

After they left, Xiao Yixun and little Qingyu each returned to their rooms to sleep. Lin Wanwan, holding a newly acquired book of Yu Shinan’s calligraphy, sat alone by the window, gently sighing.

The snow outside hadn’t stopped, but Lin Wanwan had no heart to admire it. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Thinking about the person she was about to send this calligraphy to and the upcoming days, she felt an inexplicable irritation, diminishing some of the earlier joy of her victories.

After sitting quietly for a long time, Lin Wanwan finally blew out the candle, drew the curtains, and opened the Space-Time Gate to return to modern times.

Previously, because of the thief incident, Lin Wanwan had stayed as much in modern times as in the Great Tang. Now, in modern times, it was January 3rd at five in the morning.

At this time, the sky was still dark, but not completely so because the streetlights were everywhere.

While the Great Tang’s space was snowing, this place in the modern world had also seen a night’s worth of snowfall, and a thin layer of snow covered the greenery outside the window.

This snowy scene was rare in Jiangnan.

Lin Wanwan placed the calligraphy book in a prepared Agarwood Box, then picked up the phone on her bedside table to check the messages.

No calls, just a few WeChat messages, with the company’s group being the busiest, followed by various schoolmate groups. The annual class reunion was once again calling for people.

Lin Wanwan still had no interest in attending, nor in participating in the group discussions, just like before.