Chapter Sixty: Wok-Fried Soup

  "Wow, you guys are really something! The green onion pancakes are so delicious! I'm going to order 8 more servings. The braised pork belly is also super tasty. And the stir-fried greens with garlic are amazing too! The service here is top-notch, the staff are all very friendly and attentive. I'm definitely coming back here again!"

  Chen Tianfa saw this and had no choice but to let Xiaoyao push him out while he held his son's hand, not wanting to make his daughter angry.

  Just as Xi Mei "successfully" sent her father out the door, she hadn't taken two steps when she called out to him from behind. When Chen Tianfu looked back at her in confusion, Xi Mei quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and gave his dark face a intimate kiss, "Mmm".

  Poor Chen Tianfa hadn't reacted yet, and the door in front of him was slammed shut with a "bang". Ruihao stared at his father with a resentful gaze, "Dad, why did I also send something to my sister, but she didn't even give me a kiss?"

  He heard his son's aggrieved voice in his ears and saw his resentful face, Chen Tianfa finally reacted, suddenly bursting into loud laughter, saying: "Why? You say why? I'm her dad, she doesn't kiss me, what's the point of kissing you, a little brat?"

  His dark face flushed with a red glow, and he walked away in a daze. Ha ha, the good girl had just kissed him, and happiness came too suddenly, he wasn't mentally prepared yet. He walked in eight-character steps to their own house to show off to Zhao Shi. Tsk tsk, this silly dad.

  But in the house, Xi Mei was watching a pile of things on the bed with several sisters after sending away two people and climbing onto the bed.

  "Sister, what can we do about this?" Xi Mei asked Xi Juan in a dilemma. But Xi Juan shook her head helplessly after hearing it, "I don't know either, there are so many things, if Mother sees them tomorrow, it won't be good."

  "Yes, yes, if Mother sees it, she'll nag again." Xihe nodded in agreement.

  "Alas, this won't work either, that won't work either. What do you say we should do?" Ji Mei, who was impatient by nature, had had enough. Upon hearing her say this, the several sisters all fell silent. Indeed, what could they do?

  At this moment, Xi Mei suddenly stood up and shouted: "How about this, we can have a midnight snack, eating while chatting is so comfortable, so pleasant..."

  Lost in her own eloquence, she suddenly felt as if the palm wind of Er Jie's 'Nine Yin White Bone Claw' had swept past her head, and she looked at Xi Mei with a face full of grievance. Who knew that the other person would say one sentence to bring her back to reality: "Can you speak human language?"

  Watching Xi Mei eat a bitter melon, San Jie Xi He bursts into laughter, Xi Mei's heart is filled with tears, hum, gloating over someone else's misfortune.

  However, looking at several sisters, she still didn't have the courage to 'resist', and suddenly saw her second sister's increasingly unpleasant gaze. Xi Mei hastily stepped forward to explain, "Sister, this means that we can sleep a bit later tonight, eat something and chat."

  "So you're saying we already know? Why go around in circles talking about things we don't understand, isn't that just beating around the bush?"

  I heard that happy sister was also thinking, right, why did I take off my pants? Suddenly reacted and rushed to her second sister, "Ah, second sister, you're so bad, dare to say that about me, watch me scratch your itch."

  As they chatted, she scratched her itch with her hand, and for a while the whole house was filled with the silvery laughter of several sisters.

  As soon as Chen Tianfa returned to his room in a daze, Zhao's wife had already made the bed. "Back from delivering things?"

  "Ah, ah, I've brought something back. Ah? What thing, I don't have any?" Chen Tianfa found himself speaking carelessly and quickly made amends.

  "Alright, I still don't know you? When you went to the town this afternoon, did you dare say that you didn't buy anything for that little girl? I saw your bulging pockets, looking at your silly face, wasn't it Xi Mei who drugged you again?"

  Zhao was busy with her work, and at the same time, she mercilessly exposed Chen Tianfa's lies. Just as she had just finished and was about to turn around, she suddenly bumped into a wall of people behind her. "Ah, you're courting death! Why are you standing behind me?"

  Under the lamplight, Zhao's coquettish appearance was just like ten or more years ago, her face flushed red, and her black eyes sparkling. Chen Tianfa didn't speak, but took out a silver-made hairpin from his bosom and handed it to Zhao, saying "Child, this is for you."

  "Give me?" Zhao asked in surprise.

  "Well, here it is. All these years, you've had a hard time marrying me, not even getting a decent piece of jewelry. This one isn't worth much either, don't be disdainful." Chen Tianfa said in a low voice.

  "Not disgusted, not disgusted." Zhao held the hairpin in her hand and couldn't bear to put it down. At this moment, a strong force came from her waist, and when she lowered her head again, she found herself being picked up by that person.

  "What are you doing? Let me down quickly, you shameless old man."

  "Alright, we should also go to sleep. Tonight, let you take a good look at what is called 'old' without proper shape." Along with the oil lamp being blown out with a "puff", the whole room instantly fell silent.

  The next day, Xi Mei woke up to a huge jolt and shouted "Earthquake! Earthquake! Run quickly!" before even opening her eyes.

  Who knew that after shouting, the swaying stopped, and a few soft laughs were heard in her ear. With great effort, she opened her eyes to see her older sister holding her clothes and waiting for her. The little girl asked drowsily: "Sister, why did you wake me up so early? I wanted to sleep some more."

  Xī jiù shàng qián bǎ tā shēn zǐ fú hǎo, kāi shǐ gěi tā chuān qǐ yī fu, "xǐ mèi guāi, xiàn zài yǐ jīng bù zǎo le, diē niáng tā men yǐ jīng kāi shǐ yān sōng huā dàn le, nǐ zuó tiān bú shì zhǎo èr yā tā men wán le ma? Jīn tiān tā lái zhǎo nǐ wán le, kuài bié shuì le, fǒu zé ràng rén jiā jǐ jí le, niáng yòu guāi shuō nǐ le."

  "Alright, alright, I know, let them play by themselves, I don't want to play with her anyway." Just paused for a moment and suddenly opened his eyes and shouted loudly, "What? Er Ya?"

  She's dead, how did this girl come to play with her? If her mother finds out that she didn't go to someone else's house yesterday and lied about it, her butt is done for.

  She hastily snatched the clothes from her sister's hands and put them on in a flurry, asking as she dressed: "Sister, where is she now?"

  Chrysanthemum calmly helped her put on her shoes, responding with a hum, "This should be in the yard, I just saw her there."

  "In the yard? Alright, I know." As soon as her feet touched the ground, Xi Mei ran off like a puff of smoke, leaving Xi Ju alone to shake her head in dismay. This little sister didn't know whose temperament she had inherited from, being so quick and agile, and then followed her out.

  Xi Mei had just run out of the house and stood still when she saw a little girl about the same age as her third sister, squatting by the chicken coop playing with the chickens. Seeing Xi Mei come out, the little girl excitedly shouted: "Xi Mei, I'm over here!"

  The little face was somewhat darkened from long running in the sun, with two sheep-like braids on its head floating up and down with its master's jumps.

  "Xǐ mèi, I heard Auntie say you came looking for me yesterday? But how come I didn't see you? Didn't you find me? Let me tell you..." Just as she was about to speak happily, Xǐ mèi covered her mouth with one hand.

  "Shh, keep your voice down, don't let my mom hear." Seeing Xi Mei's mysterious expression, Er Ya also felt the same way, covering her own mouth, although she didn't know why they couldn't let Auntie hear.

  Pulling Er Ya to a place where the Zhao family couldn't see, he squatted down and said to her: "That, after a while you wait for me to finish eating, we'll go play house together. No matter what others ask you, you must say it's a secret, did you hear?"

  Er Ya nodded slightly as if she understood and didn't understand at the same time, "No matter what they ask me, I'll say it's a secret?"

  "En en, that's right. Now I'm asking you." Xi Mei pretended to be Zhao Shi and said: "Er Ya, what did you play with Xi Mei yesterday?"

  Er Ya happily replied, "I didn't yesterday..." Before she could finish speaking, Xi Mei glared at her and said, "Forgot to tell you what to say?"

  Er Ya hastily shook her head, "I remember, I remember, it's a secret, yes, a secret." After nodding and finishing speaking, she curiously asked Xi Mei again, "But Xi Mei, what is a secret?"

  "Hey, I don't even know what the secret is and you're already listening to Xīmiè's nonsense. Xīmiè impatiently said: "Oh, a secret is just a secret, I'll explain it to you later, now wait for me for a bit, we'll go out together."

  "Alright, I know, hurry up, Xi Mei." Er Ya said innocently.

  Haha, Xi Mei was secretly delighted in her heart. She was still worried about finding an excuse to go out today, but unexpectedly someone sent a pillow while she was dozing off.

  With a happy heart, I finished breakfast and went out with Er Ya. However, as we walked, the two of us became one, where did Er Ya go? It turned out that Xi Mei found an excuse to send her away.

  Walking on the familiar mountain path, looking at the dappled sunlight shining through the leaves onto her own body, the little girl happily narrowed her eyes, what to feed the handsome boy today?

  She rushed out when she left, and didn't dare to bring anything from home. Moreover, after what happened last night, she didn't even dare to take out food, fearing that her mother would take her to see a doctor.

  When she finally walked to the cave of yesterday, she found that there was not even a shadow in the cave! Her little flower quilt was thrown on the haystack, and the cave was still set up as yesterday, but where did the handsome guy go?

  Someone who was frantically running around in circles inside the cave suddenly heard a noise outside, and rushed out to see Xuan Yuan Lie walking towards the cave with a wild chicken in his left hand and a bunch of wild grass in his right hand. He probably also heard the noise inside. Xuan Yuan Lie looked up, glanced at her, and clicked his tongue, still not showing any warmth.

  But who is Xi Mei, with a face thicker than the city wall, how could she be hit by this little thing? She immediately followed behind him and asked: "Brother, is this wild chicken you caught? It's really fat! How did you know I wanted to eat chicken? Brother..."

  He couldn't take it anymore, his handsome eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, and without a word, he took the wild chicken outside to deal with it. Ji Mei felt that his complexion was even worse than before.

  Forget it, what's the point of thinking so much? What I should be thinking about is how to make chicken delicious. The roasted chicken from this morning is too greasy. My eyes suddenly fell on a clay pot that was thrown aside, and also the mushrooms left over from the first day when I fled in panic.

  Let's have a clay pot stew then, this dish was originally from Guangdong province, and she learned it from an old lady when she traveled there before. After being simmered for a long time, the freshness and nutrients of the ingredients all blended into the soup, which is truly rich and fragrant.

  Hiss, saliva is about to come down, wait for Xuan Yuan Lie to clean up the chicken and come back, at that time, someone in the cave was holding his cheek and being infatuated with something...