After a couple of drinks, Sha Zhu actually said to Fatty, "Your Huaiyang cuisine must have been a big hit today, right? Director Liu doesn't like spicy food, so he's not happy with my Sichuan dishes."

Oh ho, so he knew everything all along?

Sha Zhu could tell what the fat man was thinking just by looking at his eyes: "I may be stupid, but I'm not blind. I've been giving him special treatment for over two years, so I figured it out a long time ago."

Xiao Dang asked in confusion, "Uncle Fatty, Dad Silly, what kind of riddles are you two talking about?"

Sha Zhu sighed, "This girl is still a bit slow to understand, but I don't mind!"

The fat man snorted, "You think you're so great? You're not worthy."

Little Dang protested: "Uncle Fatty!"

The fat man pointed at Sha Zhu: "He looks down on you, yet you still side with him."

Little Dang snuggled up to Sha Zhu, grinning foolishly, and said, "I'm not very smart to begin with, but Dad knows me best!"

The fat man said to Yu Li, "Look at her, doesn't she look like a little fangirl?"

"Little fangirl?" It's a new term, and one that, upon closer examination, seems particularly apt.

Fatty didn't tell Shazhu that Director Liu was from Shandong and preferred Lu cuisine, not Huaiyang cuisine.

Telling him is useless. Back when He Daqing ran away, Sha Zhu's Tan Family Cuisine was probably only half-baked, not even qualified to dabble in it.

Tan Family Cuisine is a cuisine served to officials. It is the family banquet of Tan Zongjun, a bureaucrat in the late Qing Dynasty. He was the second-place scholar in the imperial examination in the second year of the Tongzhi reign, so it is also called "Second-Place Scholar Cuisine".

Right now, Tan Family Cuisine isn't selling well. This is because it primarily features delicacies from land and sea, and its ingredient selection is extremely rigorous.

They still insist on maintaining their high-class image, insisting on only holding banquets in the evening, and only selling two or three tables a day.

Many dishes in Tan Family Cuisine are completely unknown to ordinary people; the most well-known one is probably the one featured in the crosstalk performance "Reporting the Dishes," which includes the line "Clear Soup with Frog Legs"...

During the Republican era, a high-ranking official living in Nanjing specially ordered a dish called "Braised Shark Fin". In order to ensure that the flavor was not off, he actually had the shark fins airlifted to Nanjing by plane.

His extravagance and debauchery are evident.

So even if Sha Zhu knew how to cook, he was like a skilled wife trying to cook without rice.

※※※※※※

Winter Solstice is here in the blink of an eye. Fatty's family is making dumplings and cooking mutton offal soup today.

Yu Li and Chen Yan each rolled out the dough and prepared the filling; the filling was the fat man's favorite chive and pork filling.

Chen Mengqi was also causing trouble on the side; she only liked to eat the crust and didn't like the filling.

The fat man was cooking mutton offal soup in the kitchen. No one knew how he cooked it, but not only did it not have any muttony smell, it also had a faint milky aroma.

The fragrance had already filled the entire courtyard on the north wind.

Yan Fugui, shameless as ever, pulled out his old bowl and leaned against the kitchen doorway: "Fatty, can I have a bowl of your soup? I need to go back and add some water to make a pot of cabbage..."

The fat man was speechless: "I say, Uncle, your children are all employed or married. Your family is no longer poor. Is it really necessary?"

Yan Bugui chuckled and said, "I've been frugal my whole life, I can't change it."

The fat man said irritably, "I think you've been scheming your whole life!"

Inside Qin Huairu's house, Jia Zhangshi took off her reading glasses and sighed, "Life in this courtyard is getting better every day, but our family is still struggling. We originally thought that once Banggeng, Xiaodang, and Huaihua grew up, we would finally be free from hardship. But now it seems that we still have a long way to go with these tough times, sigh..."

Qin Huairu didn't like hearing that and retorted to her mother-in-law bluntly, "How are we supposed to survive? One of us is unemployed, another is an ingrate, and the third is just sponging off me. So many mouths in the family are relying on my salary alone. I'm so tired, and there's no one to help me!"

After saying that, he slammed the door and went out to find some peace and quiet.

Jia Zhangshi was speechless for a long time after being choked by Qin Huairu's words. Finally, she shakily pulled out a bottle of "painkillers" from under the mattress, poured out two pills, gritted her teeth and poured out one more, muttering to herself, "If I die, I'll just take it!"

"..."

Across the street, Sha Zhu's family is also making dumplings.

Xu Damao and his wife were also there. Sha Zhu was criticizing Xu Damao: "You're a useless piece of trash, you can't even make dumplings."

Qin Jingru exclaimed loudly, "Silly Zhu, you're not allowed to bully our Da Mao! Qin Huairu is good at making dumplings, didn't you used to go to her house to make dumplings every year for Chinese New Year?"

Upon hearing the name Qin Huairu, Sha Zhu felt nauseous, as if he had swallowed a fly.

Thanks to Widow Qin, he just ended up in the police station. Qin Huairu accused him of kidnapping and selling people, including Qiangjian; she really wanted him dead!

Sha Zhu's brother-in-law is now an instructor; how could he not know the situation?

The police officer clearly told Qin Huairu, "Jia Dang is over 18 years old and an adult. She has the freedom to choose her own life, and we have no right to interfere."

Qin Huairu raised her eyebrows, her face full of malice: "Then I'll sue her for being unfilial to her parents and not supporting her elderly parents, is that alright?"

The police officer gave her a sarcastic look: "Since Jia Dang turned 14, you haven't given her a single penny, nor have you let her eat a single meal at your house. If you're going to sue someone, shouldn't you sue them for child abuse first?"

"..."

While making dumplings, Xiao Dang was still angry and brought up the old issue again: "This is just never going to end! Sha Zhu, let's get married!"

Xu Damao laughed like a leopard, speechless: "How about I divorce Qin Jingru, and you let Xiaodang, let Xiaodang marry me!"

"You little bastard! I think you're itching for a beating and need someone to loosen your bones!"

"You want a divorce? You want to marry me? You want to get a divorce?"

Sha Zhu and Qin Jingru teamed up to beat Xu Damao in a doubles match, and Xiao Dang also kicked him twice out of the blue; alas, it's another poignant story where only Xu Damao gets hurt...

Just as I was about to cook dumplings, I heard Benleihu knocking on the door from outside: "Fatty, are you home?"

The fat man popped out of the kitchen and said to him, "Here it is."

Benleihu quickly followed and stood guard at the kitchen door. After looking around, he whispered to Fatty, "Xiaomianhu sent word that they're planning something big in a few nights."

"Big move, how big?"

Benleihu huddled by the stove to warm himself for a while and said, "Xiaomianhu has found out that about sixty boxes of goods will be delivered four days from now; every important person in the capital is eyeing this shipment."

Sixty boxes? Even the fat man was taken aback: "Where did such a large quantity of goods come from?"

"I heard that a container of goods was unloaded directly at Tianjin Port and immediately divided up."

The fat man gasped in shock and said to Benleihu, "Don't leave either. Just stay at my house and eat dumplings. Afterwards, we'll go report it together. Later, I'll have Yuli pick out some raw dumplings for you to take back and cook for your aunt."

This... eating and taking things at the same time, Benleihu blushed with embarrassment again.

The fat man was so angry that he kicked him out: "Get back inside! With a face like that, you dare to make a move on my second sister, Grandma!"