In June in Shenzhen, the mango trees in the roadside green belts are laden with fruit, and mischievous children or adults often jump up to pick the hanging mangoes.

Shenzhen is changing rapidly. Xia Minmin and Tang Meng haven't been out for more than two months, and the shops on the street are no longer the same ones.

"Xiaomin, so many new shops have opened!"

The newly opened shops, from their storefronts to their interior design, are very similar to those in Hong Kong.

"Yeah, it's only been two months since I last came out to play, but the changes are huge. If I didn't come out for a year, I probably wouldn't even recognize the roads!"

In all the years Xia Minmin has been in Shenzhen, she has never seen the city stop infrastructure construction.

"Mengmeng, let's go to that hot pot restaurant! There are so many people lining up, I've never eaten there before."

The hot pot restaurant Xia Minmin pointed to was clearly from Sichuan province; it had a flame pattern painted on the storefront, so it looked very spicy.

The spicy aroma of the hot pot can be smelled from a great distance; it's very strong.

"Is this going to be very spicy? But it looks so delicious! I can smell the aroma just by standing outside."

Tang Meng used to eat very bland food, whether in Shanghai or Shenzhen. It was only in the last six months, following Xia Minmin, that she was able to eat a little spicy food.

"It shouldn't be too spicy, right? There aren't many hot pot restaurants in Shenzhen with such long queues. They must have turned down the spiciness level. Should we go ask if they have mild spicy?"

"No need to ask anymore, let's just go to this place and queue up. I can take my time eating."

He had just finished speaking when he pulled Xia Minmin to join the queue.

Tang Meng is a typical example of someone who is bad at cooking but has a huge addiction to spicy food. She always cries from the spiciness, and every now and then she will ask Xia Minmin to go eat spicy food.

Xia Minmin and Tang Meng waited for half an hour before it was their turn.

Almost everyone in the hot pot restaurant had bright red lips, and some people were drinking carbonated beverages because of the spiciness.

Tang Meng was so frightened by the scene that she swallowed hard and held Xia Minmin's hand tighter and tighter.

"Sister, we ordered the mildly spicy broth! Don't get it wrong!"

Tang Meng repeatedly emphasized the spiciness level to the waiter, making the waiter's expression a little stiff.

"Mengmeng, you've emphasized it so many times, I've definitely remembered it, so don't worry!"

In less than five minutes, the hot pot base, dishes, and drinks were all served on Xia Minmin's table.

Once the pot boiled, Xia Minmin quickly put the beef tendon in. Most people like to cook beef tendon for 4 minutes, but Xia Minmin prefers a melt-in-your-mouth texture and cooks it longer.

"Xiaomin, pour the shrimp paste in. It's been a long time since I've had shrimp paste."

Xia Minmin dumped all the beef balls, beef balls with a "pissing" sound, and fish balls into the pot in one go.

"Mengmeng, I'm going to make the dipping sauce now."

The dipping sauce station was not far from Xia Minmin and her friends' table, and the restaurant thoughtfully posted dipping sauce guides in a prominent location.

Xia Minmin prepared two dipping sauces, one with dry seasoning and the other with sesame sauce.

"Xiaomin, why did you make two dipping sauces? Let me see them, I'll make mine the same way you did later!"

Xia Minmin handed the dipping sauce to Tang Meng, "It's the one the restaurant recommended. I don't know if it's good or not yet, but I recommend you try the sesame sauce! This one isn't spicy!"

"Okay, I'll go make the sesame sauce right away!"

Xia Minmin saw that the meat in the pot had floated to the surface. "Hurry up! The meat we're cooking is almost done!"

Tang Meng carefully brought back a large bowl full of sesame sauce.

Seeing Xia Minmin staring at her in disbelief, Tang Meng touched her nose sheepishly, "Xiaomin, I didn't expect sesame paste and peanut butter to smell so good, I accidentally scooped out too much!"

"Mmm, let's eat quickly!"

"The beef balls are so delicious! They're so bouncy!"

"The sesame sauce really helped with the spiciness. I didn't feel any spiciness at all while eating hot pot today. I'll bring my parents next time!"

"Mengmeng, be careful with the pissing beef balls, they're a bit hot in the middle."

"Xiaomin, you should eat some shrimp paste too, the shrimp pieces are so big."

"It's really delicious. Mengmeng, do you want some duck intestines?"

"I'll eat just a little bit."

Xia Minmin used serving chopsticks to pick up a little duck intestine, put it in the pot to cook for 15 seconds, and then immediately took it out and put it in Tang Meng's bowl.

"It's so delicious, with a crispy texture and no odor! I never expected duck intestines to be so tasty."

"Right! Do you want to try some beef tendon? It's so chewy and sticky!"

At Xia Minmin's strong recommendation, Tang Meng picked up a piece of beef tendon.

"Delicious, so chewy and sticky!"

Tang Meng picked up a few more pieces of beef tendon.

By the end of the meal, Xia Minmin and Tang Meng were slumped back in their chairs.

"I'm so full!"

"Me too, Xiaomin. Didn't your dad tell you to eat vegetables? Why didn't you order any?"

"We don't need to order vegetables!"

Xia Minmin poured all the vegetables that had been used to line the meat dish into the pot.

Isn't this it?

"high!"

Tang Meng gave Xia Minmin a thumbs up.

"I've checked them, these vegetables are fresh and ready to eat!"

Xia Minmin and Tang Meng finished all the vegetables in the pot and then walked out of the hot pot restaurant, clutching their stomachs.

"You shouldn't have eaten the last bit of vegetables; you're too full."

“I also think vegetables are too filling. Let’s go to the Children’s Palace. It seems they have trial classes these days.”

"I also heard that many new interest classes that weren't available before have started this summer."

To digest their food, the two chose to walk to the Children's Palace, which took them more than forty minutes to arrive.

On the road in front of the Children's Palace, Xia Minmin and Tang Meng had a lot of flyers for extracurricular classes stuffed into their hands.

Xia Minmin and Tang Meng walked along, looking at the flyers in their hands. Xia Minmin wanted to try out several of them.

"Mengmeng, there's a skateboarding class here, I want to try it out."

"Skateboard? What's that?"

"It's a board with four wheels underneath, and you stand on it while it's gliding. I saw it on a Hong Kong channel on TV before!"

In her past life, Xia Minmin really wanted to learn skateboarding, but she was always delayed by various things.

Holding up a flyer, Tang Meng excitedly said, "They also have tennis! I love Sampras, and I've wanted to learn tennis for a long time! But I haven't been able to find a coach yet."

Finding a tennis coach in the 1990s was indeed difficult, and learning tennis was very expensive, beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Tang Meng held Xia Minmin's hand and looked at her affectionately, "Xiaomin, you will stay with me, right?"

Tang Meng kept winking at Xia Minmin.

"But I've already decided to learn to skateboard!"

Seeing Xia Minmin hesitate, Tang Meng immediately said, "It's okay, summer vacation is long. You can accompany me to learn tennis, and I'll accompany you to learn skateboarding!"

"Oh well!"

"That's great, Xiaomin!"

Tang Meng has recently made some progress in practicing Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) and her strength is gradually increasing. She often picks Xia Minmin up!

"Put me down right now! Or I'll get angry!"

Tang Meng poked Xia Minmin's puffed-up cheeks.

"Okay! I'll put you down right away!"

"snort!"

By the time they reached the entrance of the Children's Palace, Xia Minmin and her friends had already received twenty or thirty flyers. Some were located at the Children's Palace, while others were located elsewhere.

"Mengmeng, would you like to learn oil painting?"

“If you want to learn, I’ll go with you. My mom wanted me to learn to draw, but I didn’t want to go alone. With you by my side, I’d like to give it a try.”

The oil painting class is inside the Children's Palace, the skateboarding class is on the field outside the Children's Palace, and the tennis class is in the park near the Children's Palace.