Witty Wife, Better Life

Chapter 426: Chapter 416: New Year’s Eve is Approaching

On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, Shen Yunfang delivered the two purchased sleeper train tickets to Uncle Shen’s hands and saw the elderly couple off, finally considering the matter settled.

Why Shen Yunxiu had not appeared, why she hadn’t come to see her parents off back to their hometown, Yunfang had no idea.

With the old couple gone, Shen Yunfang’s life returned to its peaceful state. Shen Yunxiu, like an ephemeral bloom, had appeared for a moment and then vanished without a trace. Yunfang had her own life to manage and had no concern for people who were insignificant to her.

From the twenty-eighth day, she finally managed to clean the courtyard house with her two children. No one was blocking the doorway anymore.

By the twenty-ninth day, she was busy at home making various fried foods. Although other households were also preparing festive food for the New Year, few did it on such a large scale as she did. That day, the scent of fried meat filled the entire corridor.

Aunt Sun was so enticed by the meaty aroma from across the door that she felt restless the entire day and eventually couldn’t bear it anymore, knocking on her neighbor’s door.

Shen Yunfang was deep in frying chunks of meat and too busy to answer the door, so she called for Pangpang inside the house to attend to it.

Pangpang waddled over to the door with his short legs and mimicked his mother’s tone, asking, "Who is it?"

"I’m your Grandmother Sun from across the hall." Aunt Sun, slightly displeased by the child’s question, answered nonetheless.

"Mommy, it’s Grandmother Sun from across the hall." Pangpang toddled back to the kitchen’s entrance to report to his mother.

Shen Yunfang frowned upon hearing this. What could she want at this time?

"Oh, Mommy knows. You go open the door, and Mommy will be right out," Yunfang said and then took two pieces of fried meat, stuffing one into Pangpang’s mouth and handing him the other for his little sister, Manman, to teeth on.

Munching contentedly, Pangpang hurried to open the door.

"Hello, Grandmother Sun," greeted Pangpang politely as he opened the door.

"Hey, hello there, Pangpang. What’s your mom doing? Why has she sent you to open the door?" While speaking, Aunt Sun squeezed into the room, her eyes darting everywhere.

Pangpang was shoved back several steps by her intrusion, "Mommy’s in the kitchen, she’ll come out soon."

"Oh, is that so? Then I will go find your mom." As Aunt Sun headed to the kitchen, it gave her the perfect opportunity to see just how much tasty food her neighbor had fried up. The aroma of frying meat had been wafting since morning, and it hadn’t stopped yet; she could imagine the amount of food the little lady next door had prepared.

At the kitchen door, Aunt Sun bumped into Shen Yunfang emerging from it.

"Oh, Aunt Sun is here. Is there something you need?" Yunfang had a dishcloth in her hand and wiped her hands as she regarded the woman opposite her.

"Hehe, nothing much, nothing much. I was just at home when I smelled the delicious scent from your place, so I came over to have a look. My goodness, both you and your husband are quite capable, preparing so much meat for the New Year. You’ve been frying all day; you must’ve done quite a bit," Aunt Sun almost closed her eyes as she laughed.

"Aunt Sun, are you poking fun at me? What capable people are you talking about?" Yunfang chuckled, then subtly ushered the woman towards the living room.

"Don’t deny it. I’ve smelled it very clearly, the scent has been drifting out since morning. Our entire corridor is filled with the odor from your meat frying," Aunt Sun insisted, refusing to let the matter go.

"Haha, Aunt Sun, you’re exaggerating. Everyone fries something in preparation for the New Year. I heard from Auntie Zhang upstairs that you bought a big piece of pork yesterday yourself. Looks like you’re also set for a good year ahead."

Shen Yunfang sat in the living room and talked with her for quite a while about things that weren’t nutritious at all. Finally, after paying the price of a handful of melon seeds, she managed to send the guest on their way. Phew, dealing with such neighbors can be tiring.

"You little mouse, are you sneaking food again?" Shen Yunfang caught Manman, the little mouse who had been stealing meat, at the door.

"Giggle, giggle, Mommy, Manman loves to eat meat. It’s so yummy." Manman said, and put the piece of fried meat she had just pilfered into her mouth to savor it. She waited for the meat to soften, then slowly ground it into pieces to eat.

"Loving it because it’s tasty doesn’t mean you can eat too much at once. Tell me, just now, how many pieces of meat did you eat?" Shen Yunfang asked with a deliberately stern face.

Just now, while she was entertaining guests in the living room, she saw Manman, like a little mouse, sneaking back and forth to the kitchen. She tiptoed in, afraid of being seen, but when she came out, her face was blooming with a smile, and she bounced back to her room, thinking nobody had noticed her.

Manman made a sour face and began counting seriously with her little fingers. Oh no, she ran out of fingers before she could finish counting—what to do?

Shen Yunfang looked at her daughter’s bewildered little eyes and burst into laughter.

Ah, her precious daughter was really adorable.

That evening, Li Hongjun came home on leave. This New Year, all the students had a three-day holiday, starting from the New Year’s Eve and ending on the second day of the Lunar New Year. Classes would resume on the third day.

In the evening, Shen Yunfang told him about the incidents that had happened with Old Master Shen.

"You did the right thing. If something like this happens again, you know what to do. Taxue did a good job too. Tomorrow, I’ll properly reward her." Li Hongjun furrowed his brows upon hearing about Shen Yunxiu. He had a vivid memory of that cousin; it seemed she hadn’t learned her lesson yet. He would have to give her a hand.

The next day, on New Year’s Eve, Taxue indeed received high praise from Li Hongjun, her male owner, and was rewarded with a whole big bone.

For the New Year’s Eve dinner, their family of five ate together without any guests, which allowed Shen Yunfang to enthusiastically prepare a whole table of delicious food. In the middle was a teppanyaki grill with charcoal underneath, and on top of it was the beef she had marinated in advance, along with picturesque mushrooms grilling beside it, soaking up the meat juices to become quite delicious. There were also essential New Year’s Eve dishes like chicken, duck, fish, and green vegetables; dry-fried green beans, scrambled garlic shoots with eggs, cucumber mixed with cold dishes, and fish-flavored eggplant strips. Shen Yunfang even tried making pumpkin bake with egg yolk for the kids, which received unanimous praise from the three of them.

After dinner, Shen Yunfang gave Li Hongjun two red envelopes, asking him to give the children their New Year’s money.

Pangpang was delighted to receive a yuan as his New Year’s money. Manman was too young to understand the value of money, so she just goofily smiled along with her brother.

In the evening, since they couldn’t sleep yet, the family sat idle at home and Shen Yunfang suddenly felt that they were missing a television. If they had one, couldn’t they be watching the Spring Festival Gala right about now?

Oh, when did the Spring Festival Gala start? Ah, why has she forgotten.

With nothing else to do, Shen Yunfang brought out the premixed dumpling filling and dough, deciding to make use of the time to wrap some extra dumplings to freeze outside for later.

There were three types of dumpling fillings in their house: chive and egg, pork with cabbage, and carrot with lamb.

The lamb had been slaughtered when Shen Yunfang went to university, and the meat stored in the space, they hadn’t finished eating it yet.

The family chatted and laughed together, wrapping several trays of dumplings, and Taxue managed to eat quite a few already. Manman and Pangpang didn’t wrap many good dumplings, but they sure managed to cover their hands and faces in white and black flour splotches.

By ten o’clock at night, the children could no longer stay awake. Shen Yunfang quickly boiled dumplings, everyone had a bite, and then off to bed they went. Staying up to welcome the New Year? Let’s forget about that idea.