This was the most unpalatable banquet Wen Qinghe had ever eaten.

Wild vegetable leaves, wild vegetable stems, lettuce leaves, cabbage stems, radish greens, radish soup—the whole table was almost entirely green.

Most of the people sitting at this table are aunties, and everyone has contributed a full dollar as a gift.

However, everyone's expression was not very good at the moment.

Upon closer inspection, his face was even greener than the food on the table.

As soon as the only meat dish, stir-fried pork slices with chili peppers, was served, the meager amount of meat slices was immediately picked clean by seven or eight chopsticks.

Wen Qinghe held the chopsticks, completely unsure where to begin.

The family members who were hosting the event today said that there weren't many tables and chairs, so the men all sat at the slightly larger table in the front hall to eat.

Their table was in the northeast corner of the courtyard.

With Yan Xiao not around, she couldn't compete with others.

She didn't want to snatch it at all; she just picked up a piece of vegetable with her chopsticks, took a bite, and left.

As soon as I put it in my mouth, I was disgusted by the bitter taste and the gritty texture.

She looked up at everyone. Although they didn't look well, they all ate their rice bite by bite.

She felt uncomfortable spitting it out and was wondering whether she should force herself to swallow it.

As a result, a large hand with distinct knuckles reached out in front of them.

Then came the man's patient, gentle coaxing:

"Good boy, let go and spit it into my hand."

Wen Qinghe subconsciously wanted to lower her head and spit it out, but she felt that she was being stared at from all directions.

She gritted her teeth and swallowed it without even chewing it.

Tears immediately streamed down her face uncontrollably from the corners of her eyes, and her face turned red.

It wasn't because it was hard to swallow, but because the leaf was too long, and half of it was stuck in her throat.

The man's pupils contracted, and his heart stopped in fright. Ignoring everyone at the table, he grabbed Wen Qinghe, patted her back with one hand, and quickly grabbed her jaw with the other to pry her mouth open.

Before he could reach out to help her pull it out, Wen Qinghe gagged, and the vegetable leaf was promptly spat out.

After this ordeal, the little girl's originally delicate and chubby face instantly turned pale and pitiful, with redness around her eyes and nose, and tear stains all over her cheeks, like a broken kitten that only needs constant care and love or it would be very easy to die.

Those who initially thought she was spoiled now felt it was bad luck to see the table full of vegetable scraps.

Yan Xiao felt extremely distressed.

He said goodbye to the aunties at the table, then strode away carrying the pale, listless little girl home.

…

"Baby, we won't go next time."

Yan Xiao is still shaken by the experience.

Before he brought Wen Qinghe to the table, he had instructed her on this.

"You don't have to eat the food if you don't like it. Just wait for me, and I'll take you home for something delicious."

Seeing Wen Qinghe obediently nod in agreement, he went to the men's table.

These dishes weren't bad for him.

After all, he had eaten things that were even worse than this when he was a child.

He finished a bowl of rice faster than he ever had in his life, and immediately went to find Wen Qinghe.

The first thing I saw was the little girl frowning as she swallowed the vegetable leaf.

He's always pampered her; when has she ever suffered like this?

At this moment, he only regretted not bringing the person home immediately.

"Ayan, I'm alright now."

Wen Qinghe has recovered and is much better now.

Even without Yan Xiao saying it, she would never want to attend a banquet again.

The fear of not being able to swallow that mouthful still makes her feel nauseous.

Yan Xiao settled the little girl on the sofa, took a small bag of dried fruit from the coffee table cabinet next to her, and put it in the little girl's hand.

"Sweetie, eat some of this first to calm your nerves, I'll go cook."

The man went into the kitchen, quickly cracked two eggs, added some minced meat, and steamed them. While the eggs were steaming, he made meatballs with mashed potatoes and beef, and cooked a meatball soup.

I lit a fire on the stove and fried two scallion pancakes with meat filling.

Wait for the fragrance to reach the main room.

Wen Qinghe looked at the steamed egg with minced meat, the fragrant meatball soup, and the golden flaky pastry in front of her.

She didn't understand why she had to suffer like that at noon.

Her daughter Ayan's cooking skills are so good that you probably won't even see the plates once they're on the table.

No, Ayan belongs to him.

The food he cooked was for her to enjoy alone.

…

"I heard that Er Gouzi, who's become rich, got married. The banquet yesterday was really shabby."

"What the hell! We at least contributed a dollar as a gift, but there's no meat on the table at all."

"You didn't know yesterday because you weren't home. Yan Xiao's wife just picked up a piece of green vegetable and it made her feel so disgusted that she almost died."

"Is it that serious? Is it really that bad? Luckily I went back to my parents' house yesterday, so I didn't go and suffer like this."

They all knew that Yan Xiao's family was spoiled, but being spoiled had its advantages; their family wasn't poor.

Unlike these people, who stubbornly refused to waste a single penny, fearing they wouldn't get their one dollar gift money back.

Yesterday, Liu Meihua, a newlywed, passed by these people carrying a basket.

Hearing the whispers around her, her face suddenly turned grim.

I told that old woman that six ounces of meat wasn't enough, but to my surprise, for a banquet of seven or eight tables, we really only used six ounces of pork.

The rest were just vegetable leaves as a makeshift meal.

He couldn't help but complain in his heart that the old woman was far too stingy.

Thinking of Wen Qinghe, she felt a surge of contempt: Of all the people in the village, she's the only one who's spoiled! Why aren't the others disgusted?

Take herself for example, she still forced herself to eat a bowl of rice.

The old woman in the family said it was all for the sake of marrying her, and to save money.

But she only accepted six yuan and sixty cents as a bride price.

Not to mention, I haven't seen a single penny of the money I gave as a gift yesterday.

That old hag promised to take charge of the household after the marriage, and she mentioned it this morning, but she completely ignored me.

She had intended to have Feng Ergou mention it to his mother, but the man hadn't been seen since the wedding banquet yesterday. She even slept alone on their wedding night.

…

The protagonist she was talking about was currently kissing a young woman behind a tree.

If Liu Meihua saw it, she would realize that this was clearly the woman who had been exchanging glances with Feng Ergou that day.

"I'm sorry, Xiuxiu, it's all because she kept pestering me, otherwise I would have been with you long ago."

"But you got married yesterday, so you can't come to see me."

"Wasn't I with you last night? Xiuxiu, you're so good to me, you're as pure as a blank sheet of paper."

Wen Qinghe: Ugh…

…

Wen Qinghe encountered this incident of accidentally catching someone sneaking into the woods twice.

Coincidentally, the male protagonist is the same person.

Sure enough, this man, once he does it once, he'll do it again.

Once you have the first one, you'll want the second.

For some unknown reason, she looked up and gave the man a pointed, disapproving look.

Yan Xiao: ? ? ?