Chapter 118 Do you know what it's called when a blind boy learns to crochet? It's called "blindly weaving"...

On the second day that Ji Fengnian took care of the child, An Shisi and Wen Xingmou ran away.

On the third day that Ji Fengnian was taking care of the child, Bai Mangmang and Wen Xing ran away.

On the fourth day, only Wen Xingrui, Wen Xinglan, and Wen Xinghe remained. Wen Xinglan and Wen Xingrui were overjoyed to be taken out to play by others, so Wen Xinghe was the only one who could still walk with Ji Fengnian.

Wen Xinghe was not left behind voluntarily; she was forcibly dragged out by Ji Fengnian.

With one hand holding Wen Xinglan and Wen Xingrui, Ji Fengnian could only hold one child with the other. The other children could run and hide, but Wen Xinghe couldn't run or hide, so he could only grit his teeth and be dragged to walk every day.

“We’ve been walking for a long time,” Wen Xinghe said.

Ji Fengnian carried two children on his back, walking briskly and steadily: "I've only walked one lap, my feet haven't even warmed up yet, let's walk two more laps."

Based on Wen Xinghe's observations of the welfare home's perimeter over the past few days, it takes about an hour to walk around once, so two laps would take another two hours. Wen Xinghe really didn't want to walk anymore. "I made an appointment with Sister Miaomiao to learn crochet with Grandma today, and they're waiting for me."

Bai Miaomiao has recently been learning to crochet with her grandmother and has crocheted many cute hair clips and dolls. Yesterday, she even gave Wen Xinghe a crocheted bag charm. Although Wen Xinghe couldn't see it, the texture of the yarn felt soft to the touch, and he liked it very much. He immediately hung the little charm on his crossbody bag.

Ji Fengnian: "How can a blind person like you learn to crochet? Can you even see what your crocheted pieces will look like? Do you know what it's called when a blind person learns to crochet? It's called blind crocheting!"

Wen Xinghe fell silent. She had indeed made it up, but she was also angry. Ji Fengnian was being sarcastic to her. What right did he have to be sarcastic to her? She walked with him every day, and her feet were aching. Couldn't she find an excuse to rest?

Ji Fengnian took a few steps but didn't hear Wen Xinghe speak. Seeing her frowning face, he knew she was angry. He stopped and said, "Okay, okay, you're not making this up. I'm the one who's talking nonsense. Come on, let's go back to studying."

Wen Xinghe withdrew her hand from his clothes, pouted, and silently walked back along the tactile paving. Don't think she didn't know that Ji Fengnian was just too embarrassed to stay at home, so he walked around outside every day. Nobody wanted to walk with him anymore, but she insisted on doing so. He laughed at her for being blind, and now the blind didn't want to play with her anymore.

There is a tactile paving on the road outside the welfare home. Wen Xinghe has become familiar with this tactile paving in the past few days. She tries her best to keep her back straight, restrains herself from raising her arms to feel for the wall, and tries to take steady and firm steps. Then she walks towards the gate of the welfare home without saying a word, as if this can prove that she has the ability to ignore Ji Fengnian.

Normally, Ji Fengnian would clear away any haphazardly parked bicycles or other obstacles on the tactile paving to make it easier for Wen Xinghe to pass. But now, Wen Xinghe suddenly shook off him and quickly turned back. And there was a shared bicycle crookedly parked on the tactile paving that had just been cleared. Seeing that Wen Xinghe was about to crash into it, Ji Fengnian took a few steps forward, grabbed Wen Xinghe's collar, and stopped her from going any further. "I already said I was going back, why are you still angry?"

Wen Xinghe: "I'm not angry, I'm just going back."

"Hmph, are you stupid? Do you think I can't see through you?"

Ji Fengnian used the force of grabbing Wen Xinghe's collar to pull him back, then wrapped his arm around Wen Xinghe's back, pulling him between his arm and back, "If you can't walk, I'll carry you back, okay?"

Wen Xinghe was surprised that Ji Fengnian would be with her. Wasn't he supposed to be carrying Xiao Ba and Xing Rui on his back? Wen Xinghe reached out and touched his back, but it was empty. She quickly asked, "Where are your two younger brothers?"

The two younger brothers stood on the ground, looking completely bewildered. Why had their older brother put them down?

Ji Fengnian: "They are not tired, they can walk on their own."

Wen Xinghe: "They're not very good at walking yet, they'll fall down."

Ji Fengnian: "Which child doesn't fall when learning to walk? They learn to walk by falling down."

Wen Xinghe: "I can walk by myself."

Ji Fengnian: "Weren't you tired?"

Wen Xinghe: "I didn't say that."

Ji Fengnian: "I can see it."

Wen Xinghe: "..."

Then Ji Fengnian carried Wen Xinghe on his back and led Wen Xingrui and Wen Xinglan slowly toward the gate of the welfare home.

...

An Fusheng had been talking about buying a car for Wen Min before the Lunar New Year, but he didn't have time to go look at cars before the holiday. Now that the third day of the Lunar New Year has passed, he figured many shops would be open, and since he had nothing else to do, An Fusheng started to get restless again. "Aunt Wen, shall we go look at cars?"

Wen Min thought that the orphanage really needed a car, so she said, "Let's go."

So Wen Min and An Fusheng took An Shisi and Wen Xingmou to the car market to look at cars.

With the internet so readily available, information on most common vehicles on the market is transparent. With a specific budget, it's easy to find a suitable vehicle.

An Fusheng had previously asked Wen Min about the budget, and Wen Min said that the standard for official vehicles with seven seats or less was below 188,000 yuan. So An Fusheng selected several shortlisted vehicles based on the budget. An Fusheng could already recite the performance parameters of those shortlisted vehicles by heart. Now, when he went to see the cars, he mainly wanted to test drive those vehicles, feel the driving experience, and then choose one to place an order.

All the cars that An Fusheng selected had 4S stores in the car city. An Fusheng also arranged the test drive sequence. The group visited the car stores and test drove the cars in order, and quickly selected the car they wanted to buy.

An Fusheng and his group returned to the dealership where they planned to buy the car. The saleswoman who served them was a very patient young woman. Even though An Fusheng and his group had already test-driven the car once, she still carefully introduced the vehicle to them and answered all their questions. She was also very sincere when it came to negotiating the price, and Wen Min readily placed a deposit.

Anfu was worried that he was not familiar with cars, so he specially learned a lot of car knowledge and car buying tips online, but none of them came in handy. However, the whole car buying process was very easy and pleasant.

An Fusheng remarked that sincerity is still the best approach to business, leading to a pleasant experience for both buyers and sellers.

...

After booking the car, the family happily went home to cook lunch.

With the restaurant closed recently, An Fusheng has had more time to teach Wen Yue how to cook. Wen Yue already had a basic foundation, but her previous learning was rather disorganized. Now, with An Fusheng going through everything from scratch, she is learning to cook faster and faster, and is even starting to apply what she has learned to other situations.

Today, An Fusheng taught Wen Yue how to make pork meatball soup, using handmade pork meatballs, poached eggs, and red dates to make the soup.

An Fusheng usually makes meatballs by hand-chopping the meat, but now that there's a super big eater in the family, Ji Fengnian, and he was a little late coming back from looking at cars today, there wasn't enough time to make lunch, so An Fusheng had to use a meat grinder to grind the meat.

"Remember to put a few ice cubes in the meat grinder when you're grinding the meat. This will make the minced meat more elastic and the texture better." Although An Fusheng was planning to help Wen Yue grind the meat, he still reminded her.

"Why?" Wen Yue asked.

An Fusheng: "Because the meat grinder runs rapidly, the temperature will rise. High temperature will denature the protein in the meat, causing it to become hard and taste worse. By adding ice to control the temperature, we can maintain the stability of the protein structure, and the ground meat will be tender, juicy, and more elastic."

"Oh." Wen Yue asked, "Then shouldn't we put the meatballs we make later in ice water to help maintain the stability of the protein structure?"

An Fusheng nodded approvingly: "Yes, that's for the best."

...

From a young age, Ji Fengnian's parents taught him not to take advantage of others. Recently, Ji Fengnian had been eating and drinking extravagantly at the orphanage every day, and since the orphanage didn't assign him any work, he felt very embarrassed. He could only help with mopping the floor and taking care of the children every day. But today, Wen Xinghe was uncertain about leaving, so he only took care of the children for half the day. He had nothing to do for most of the morning and wanted to find something to do, but he felt it was impolite to wander into other people's homes, so he had to give up. Seeing An Fusheng and Wen Yue going to the kitchen to cook, Ji Fengnian hesitated for a moment before wanting to go to the kitchen to help.

Ji Fengnian had a conflict with An Fusheng before, and he hadn't spoken to An Fusheng much in the past few days. He felt a little embarrassed whenever he saw An Fusheng. Ji Fengnian lingered at the kitchen door for a while before leaning against the door and asking, "Um, do you need any help?"

Ji Fengnian was prepared to be rejected. He thought to himself that if An Fusheng said it wasn't necessary, he would just play in the yard. That way, he wouldn't be left out of the conversation when the adults were chatting in the living room, and he wouldn't feel comfortable staying on the second floor when the children were playing in a group.

Unexpectedly, An Fusheng said, "Okay, then can you help me chop the meat?"

The surprise came so suddenly that Ji Fengnian was stunned for a moment before he reacted and said, "Sure, of course!"

Ji Fengnian happily entered the kitchen. An Fusheng gave Ji Fengnian some meat that had been cut into small pieces and was about to be put into the meat grinder. "It's calculated as one piece of meat per person. You can add as much as you can eat. If this isn't enough, there's a big piece on your right. Cut it yourself."

"Oh." Ji Fengnian counted the pieces of meat according to the number of people, and there were ten more small pieces of meat than the number of people.

Ji Fengnian glanced at An Fusheng, so he calculated ten yuan for himself?

But these pieces of meat are so small, ten pieces are only enough for ten bites? That's not enough.

Ji Fengnian thought for a moment, then cut a piece from the large chunk of meat on the plate to his right. Looking at it, he realized it seemed a little small. He hesitated for a moment, then cut another piece. After that, he found it was still a little small, so he cut yet another piece…

An Fusheng stood to the side, watching Ji Fengnian cut the meat piece by piece until it was almost finished. An Fusheng kindly reminded him, "There are other dishes as well."

"I know." Ji Fengnian said, cutting off another small piece of meat before finally placing all the meat on the cutting board and picking up the cleaver to start chopping.

...