Luo Yang stood there for a while, and Xiao Yunying called out to him, "Stop thinking about it, hurry up and catch up."

Luo Yang finally came to his senses and quickly followed after her: "Mother, you are..."

"Just ask what you want to ask, don't beat around the bush."

Luo Yang and Luo Chen exchanged a glance, then mustered their courage and asked, "Does Mother have someone she likes?"

Xiao Yunying glanced at Luo Xin and Luo Li, who were playing with the two puppies running around in front of her, and made sure the little girl hadn't heard her: "No, don't overthink it. I'm really stupid. Why would I tell you this?"

She would never admit that she had suddenly felt a little jealous of Luo Yang's clever mind and had deliberately said it to embarrass him.

Luo Chen bit her lip: "If Mother has someone she likes..."

"Stop!" Xiao Yunying said seriously to the two brothers, "First of all, I don't have that thought right now. I was talking about someone else, not myself."

Secondly, don't forget, you have no say in my affairs. Whether I have someone I like in the future or not, you can rest assured that I will not abandon you until Luo Sheng comes back or until you come of age.

So, don't dwell on unnecessary things and create unnecessary trouble for yourself, understand?

She personally doesn't reject romantic relationships. Although most people in this world don't share her values, there are quite a few like Chen Yuancheng, Fang Rou, and Cheng Yue who are compatible with her. So, she can't guarantee that she won't fall in love with someone in the future, and therefore doesn't say anything definitively.

She knew the children lacked a sense of security, and besides offering verbal comfort and reassurance, all she could do was show them more care and concern in their daily lives.

Luo Chen paused for a moment: "What we meant was that if Mother finds someone she likes, we won't object."

As she said, they couldn't control her, so why bother doing something pointless and pissing her off?

"Huh?" Xiao Yunying raised an eyebrow in surprise. She really hadn't expected Luo Chen to say that.

After realizing what had happened, he patted Luo Chen on the shoulder: "Young man, you're really overthinking it. I said I don't have it now, and that's it. You can't control me, so there's no need for me to lie to you."

"And then what?"

"We'll talk about this later." Xiao Yunying stopped at the Yang family's gate: "Now that we're at the Yang family's, you're not allowed to talk about this anymore."

She knocked on the door twice, and it opened by itself. Xiao Yunying pushed the door open and came in: "The door wasn't locked."

Yang Tianyun was tidying up the leftover wood from making furniture in the yard when he heard the voice and replied, "Knowing you were coming, why did you lock the door?"

Xiao Yunying's smile froze a bit. What a shock! She'd just run into the person she most wanted to avoid.

She immediately adjusted her expression and greeted him, "Brother Yang is tidying up the yard."

Well, she's become the kind of person she used to hate—making small talk.

Xiao Yunying concealed it well, and Yang Tianyun didn't notice that something was wrong with her mood. He said cheerfully, "Yes, we don't need to make furniture for a while. Let's tidy up and put up the couplets tomorrow to prepare for the New Year."

Xiao Yunying didn't know what to say: "Second Brother Yang, you pack up, I'm going to find Fang Rou."

"Go ahead, my sister-in-law and my mother are in the kitchen."

He gave the Yang twins a bag of milk candy that wouldn't fill them up, letting them play by themselves, and took the rest of the things into the kitchen.

"Auntie."

Aunt Yang, chopping cabbage, said, "Yunying is here. Come sit in the main room. Dinner will be ready soon."

"Let me help you out. It'll be so boring going to the main room by myself."

Xiao Yunying handed the oil paper package to Fang Rou: "This is chrysanthemum tea to clear heat and reduce internal fire, and also some candied apricots. They have a sweet and sour flavor that you and your aunt can enjoy."

Fang Rou said, "I just told you to eat less peanuts and melon seeds because they're easy to get a sore throat, and you brought me chrysanthemum tea."

"This is for you. You also use a stove at home, right? Winter is dry, and it's easy to get a sore throat. Drinking some chrysanthemum tea is good. When the kids drink it, you can add two pieces of the rock sugar I gave you last time. They'll like it because it's sweet."

"mother."

The two children from the Yang family ran in, each holding a piece of milk candy, intending to feed it to Aunt Yang and Fang Rou.

Fang Rou put the oil paper into the cabinet: "What new treat is it now? Did your Aunt Yunying give it to you?"

"Aunt Yunying said it's milk candy, sweet and delicious, why don't you have one?"

Aunt Yang said, "Grandma doesn't like sweets, you can keep them for yourself."

The two children said in unison, "No, you just don't want to eat it."

Watching the commotion, Xiao Yunying said, "Hurry up and eat. It's a sign of the child's filial piety. You can come to my house to get more candy after you finish eating. It's just a few pieces."

The two children clung to their legs, begging and refusing to leave. The two women had no choice but to open their mouths and eat.

The children left satisfied. Fang Rou savored the sweet, milky taste in her mouth: "This candy tastes different from the fruit candy you brought last time."

"Pear syrup candy is made from pears, while this is made from milk, so they naturally don't taste the same."

Because it was for children, she checked the ingredient list one by one and only took out those with fewer additives.

Fang Rou opened the pot, and inside were plump, white steamed buns.

It was made with pure white flour, without any black flour or cornmeal mixed in. Xiao Yunying could tell at a glance that it was made especially for her.

"Didn't you put flatbread on top of the stewed goose?"

“I’ve already put it on. My family’s cornmeal is coarser than yours. Even if I mix it with wheat flour, it won’t be very good. You’d probably find it too harsh on your throat. Besides, there’s always a long line at the stone mill in the village every day. Grinding it again would take too much time. So Mom just had Dad buy wheat flour to make steamed buns. It’s easier.”

There's a special threshing ground in the village for drying wheat, with a large stone mill inside. Anyone can go there to grind flour or something; they don't accept copper coins.

As the year draws to a close, every household is busy steaming buns, making dumplings, and filling dumplings. With so much flour being used, naturally more people are bringing wheat grains to the mill to grind it into flour.

"Why bother? You'd have to make an extra batch of steamed buns. I'll just have some flatbread. It's not that precious."

Fang Rou was right. She was used to refined grains and didn't really like coarse grains. Coarse grains would hurt her throat, but not to the point that she couldn't eat them.

At worst, I can eat less bread and more vegetables; I won't starve myself.

Fang Rou and Aunt Yang exchanged a smile: "We knew you would say that. We only called you when it was almost evening. If you had come earlier, you would have stopped us from doing it."

"You really know my personality inside and out. I'm completely convinced. There's no point in me saying anything. What else is there to do? I'll do it."

Fang Rou gave her two heads of garlic: "Go peel the garlic, and then mix it with some cabbage hearts and pig's ears, and that's it."

Xiao Yunying looked down at the two cloves of garlic in her hand. Wasn't this the kind of thing she usually sent the children to do?

That's so misleading.

"Why peel garlic?"

Cut off the root end on the cutting board, stand the garlic upright on the cutting board, and tap it twice with the back of a knife. The garlic skin will come off easily. If there are any remaining pieces, peel them off carefully.

The knives here are thick and sturdy; you can easily chop garlic or cucumbers without worrying about the handle breaking.

This method of mincing garlic is so convenient; you don't have to pain your nails picking out every single root, and it saves time.