Chapter 84: Finding Tree Sap (Part 4)
The metal pipe Becca placed into the tree was steadily dripping sap into the bucket I placed on the ground. I turned to Becca and put my hand up for a hi-5.
"Awesome, Becca! This is exactly what I was picturing when I talked about the sap extraction process!"
Becca enthusiastically slapped my hand. "Thanks, Nick! It wasn't too difficult, we should be able to replicate it with no problem."
"Great, now we just have to sit back and relax as we wait for the sap to stop dripping. Then we can just move to another maple tree nearby and repeat the process. It should be smooth sailing from here!"
After draining a second tree of its sap, the bucket was filled to a satisfactory level. "Alright! Time to head to the kitchen. We have about 3 or 4 hours left before we have to get ready to have dinner with your family."
Becca looked a little worried. "We might not be able to finish finding the perfect recipe for syrup with so little time…"
"It's alright, even if we have to work on it again tomorrow. Plus, I don't have too many time consuming ideas. My best guess is that if you heat it up in a pot, the sugar in the tree sap will carmelize and become much sweeter. After that, my only other guess is that maybe ingredients like sugar need to be added."
"Ok, let's try to do everything you planned in these next few hours and if it doesn't work, we can do some brainstorming together tonight."
With admiration in my eyes, I responded, "wow, my wife is so pragmatic."
Becca laughed my compliment off. "I have to try my best to be helpful any way I can when you are the one that always comes up with the ideas!"
For a second, I didn't know how to respond. Should I pass it off as a joke or should I seriously comfort her? I didn't want her to really feel pressure to always contribute just because I came up with ideas from my world that she had no chance of coming up with.
"You give me too much credit. I'm just selfishly bringing ideas from my world for things that I miss. I only brought up syrup in the first place because it's my favorite and I wanted to taste it again. Also, of course I enjoy us working hard towards the same goal together, but I don't want you to feel pressured or stressed because you think I would be disappointed in you if you couldn't contribute. You just being yourself is enough. I will care about you regardless."
Becca's eyes were starting to water. Her face actually had a shocked expression. "I wasn't thinking too deeply about it, but now that you mention it, I realize I was subconsciously scared that I need to contribute the same amount as you or you would stop seeing me as your equal…the moment I was not treated as an equal by my lover, I would be back to square one…"
"You seem to have a misconception, Becca. I personally believe that all husbands and wives are inherently equal. Luckily, I transmigrated into having a wife that was compatible with me and wanted to help me with my goals. But say I was transmigrated with a wife that loved to spend money and lounge around all day. Maybe we wouldn't be compatible, but I would still treat her kindly and respect her as my equal. So please don't be worried about me turning my back on you or suddenly treating you differently. I like seeing all the sides of you, so it's okay if one of those sides is a slightly lazy side haha." I wanted to pat her head, but my hands were full carrying the bucket of tree sap.
Becca put her hand on my back to get closer to me without getting in the way of my carrying. "I know you are like this, Nick. You are a kind man. I just had a creeping fear because of all my experience in this Kingdom and the stories I heard from other women. Thank you for noticing my subtle subconscious fears. Your words have really taken a weight off of my shoulders. From now on, I won't overwork myself to look good in front of you."
"True love is created when two people show each other both their good and bad sides. They both see all sides of their partner and agree that they love everything about them. I'm glad we are one step closer to that ideal."
Becca pouted light heartedly, "I wasn't hiding that much! At most, I was just working myself a little too hard to make sure you liked me. But in general, I like to be a hard worker."
I smirk back at her, "well you better watch out…you know me as a super competent and hard working man, but I love to laze around the house on the weekends as much as the next guy! Haha"
"That's fine, we can laze around together and call it bonding time."
"Wow, you know exactly how to spoil me."
Becca rolled her eyes playfully, "come on, let's focus on making this syrup. We can't be lazy until after dinner."
I sighed. "Yeah, ever since I transmigrated, I haven't had a single day off. Even when we are here on vacation at your parents, we are busy. Maybe we should have our honeymoon sooner than 6 months so we can relax?"
I subtly dropped my last question because I was starting to feel like I didn't need a whole 6 months to know I loved Becca. I wanted to see what she thought about moving the timeline up.
Becca was slightly blushing because she knew what I was implying. "I have been thinking about that also. But we just decided to not hide our bad sides from each other, so we still have some feeling out to do. Please be patient. If you find a good time when we become free in the future before 6 month, let me know then and I'll see how I feel."
Geez, Becca was pretty much telling me to get the plans ready and then propose to her when I saw fit. I don't mind though. With the way things were going, I'm pretty sure if I asked her earnestly to marry me, she would happily oblige.
We walked the rest of the way to the kitchen in silence.
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