NOVPUBWu Lingyu thought to herself, "If only I could be Brother Fan’s sister."
But, she couldn’t bring herself to say such a thing out loud, so she just kept her head down, allowing Yao Jiping to stroke her hair.
Yao Jiping was also thinking to herself, "I wonder if my darn son can step up, get married right after graduating from college. It would be great if the first child could be twins, boy and girl at once. But then again, between Xiaoxiao and Yu’er, it would be best to have both... Tsk tsk, what am I thinking..."
Yao Jiping silently smacked herself a few times.
"Aunt?" Seeing Yao Jiping’s hand motionlessly resting on her head for a long time, Wu Lingyu timidly reminded her.
"Ah... Yu’er, here, have a big shrimp!" Yao’s mother came to her senses and smiled as she offered Wu Lingyu a big mantis shrimp from her lunch box.
"Aunt, I really shouldn’t..." While she said she shouldn’t, when Yao Jiping extended the bright red large shrimp toward her, she honestly opened her mouth wide.
"Tasty? Shrimp are nutritious; have another!" The motherly love that had long been missing from Xu Qingfan’s life suddenly poured out onto Wu Lingyu.
"Aunt..." Wu Lingyu chewed on the shrimp meat, as the second large shrimp was already presented in front of her.
"Eh~ Eat slowly, no rush!" Yao Jiping smiled broadly, thinking to herself that Yu’er was so much better, as her foolish son seemed too mature to be his age.
...
Meanwhile.
Upon returning home, Xu Qingfan headed straight to the kitchen and lifted the lid of the rice cooker.
"Yellow flower steamed chicken, blanched mantis shrimp, nice, all my favorites!" Pleased, Xu Qingfan nodded as he looked at the dishes kept warm in the rice cooker.
Since the improvement in their financial situation, their culinary standards had also improved.
He remembered in his past life when they ate pork every meal, delicacies like chicken, goose, or ribs were a rare treat; the daily food cost for the family never exceeded ten yuan.
A bit over one yuan for a pound of pork hind leg to last a day, and another yuan or so for some vegetables; it was all quite rudimentary. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
Unlike now where just a few of these fat mantis shrimps were worth over twenty yuan.
Many people had their sense of prices messed up by the meaningless 648 in games, even twenty years later, many places could still put together three dishes and a soup for ten yuan.
He served himself some dishes into a bowl, closed the rice cooker lid, and carried the stainless steel bowl over to Xia Xiaoxiao’s house.
"Have you eaten?"
"I have." Xia Xiaoxiao glanced back at Xu Qingfan briefly before returning her gaze to her test papers.
"Stop studying, watch some TV or you might actually pass the test!" Xu Qingfan leaned in to see the little girl working on math problems, joking as he spoke.
"Get lost!" Xia Xiaoxiao pushed his head away in disgust.
"How’s the wound?" He squatted down to touch the scab on Xia Xiaoxiao’s knee.
"Ouch~ Are you trying to kill me? Don’t touch it!" Xia Xiaoxiao sucked in a breath from the pain.
"Still hurts?"
"What do you think!" Xia Xiaoxiao glared at him, feeling wronged.
"Have a shrimp, eating shrimp makes wounds heal faster!" Xu Qingfan nudged the bowl on the table, motioning her to take one.
"No hands!"
"Want me to peel it for you too, how nice of you to think so."
"Hmph! Peel it or not, I don’t care." Xia Xiaoxiao drew her attention back to her paper, acting haughty.
But the pen in her right hand remained still; she seemed to be thinking, though her mind was already elsewhere.
Xu Qingfan chuckled, extending a peeled shrimp towards her mouth: "Ahh—open up."
Xia Xiaoxiao wrinkled her nose at him, her face expressing that she was only eating to spare him face. Just as the little girl was about to bite, Xu Qingfan suddenly snatched his hand back.
"Xu Qingfan!!!" Xia Xiaoxiao, having missed the bite, placed her hands on her hips and glared at him.
He brought the shrimp back in front of Xia Xiaoxiao, but this time no matter what, she refused to eat, mumbling, "When treated courteously without merit, those who walk the honorable path will not accept; when kicked and offered charity, even beggars disdain it!"
Because of a test, she had to memorize some ancient Chinese phrases that she learned in middle school.
"Damn! If I hadn’t taught you that, you wouldn’t know what it means to use it against me!"
Xia Xiaoxiao continued with an expression as if daring him to react.
"Alright, alright, I won’t tease you this time, this is praising and giving to you!" Xu Qingfan shrugged with a grin on his face.
Xia Xiaoxiao glanced at Xu Qingfan, pretended to turn back in slow motion, then snatched the shrimp flesh from his hand as fast as lightning.
"Hmph!" The little girl chewed and snorted lightly.
"There’s still some roe, don’t waste it." Xu Qingfan passed the rest of the shrimp head to her.
"No thanks, it’s fishy and tastes awful!" Xia Xiaoxiao said, her mouth full of shrimp meat.
"You don’t know how to eat; the roe in a whole shrimp is the most valuable part." He scoffed at Xia Xiaoxiao and then sucked down the remaining roe himself.
Xia Xiaoxiao, having gotten her way, stayed silent, humming Eason Chan’s song from ten years ago, smiling contentedly.
Xu Qingfan paid her no more mind, like he was in his own house, he turned on the TV in the living room, looking for something to watch while eating.
Almost finished with his meal, Xia Xiaoxiao suddenly turned back and asked, "Are you going out this afternoon?"
"Ah? Yes, I’m going to Yiyi’s place, didn’t I tell you yesterday?" Xu Qingfan said, putting down the now cold leftovers.
"Oh." Xia Xiaoxiao pouted and said nothing more.
Xu Qingfan could guess that Xia Xiaoxiao wanted him to stay at home and play games with her but he wouldn’t break a promise already made, especially since he would also get to see Aunt Zhang, hehehe...
