Everyone laughed after she said that. Xu Lai put all the seafood in, and once it boiled, she ladled some into everyone's bowls. Then she took out the casserole and poured the rest of the porridge into it.

She took a spoonful and drank it. The seafood porridge was especially fresh and sweet. She squinted her eyes, clearly satisfied.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, Xu Lai took out a cantaloupe, cut it up, and handed it to her grandparents and Grandma Jiang.

Zhao Qingyun stood by, waiting with his hand outstretched, but when it came to him, there was nothing. "Aren't you going to give it to me?"

Xu Lai took a bite of the melon and said, "I'll take care of you like this when you're old, but for now, take it yourself."

Everyone laughed. Grandma Jiang brought up the Dragon Boat Festival in a couple of days and said, "Since our two families are so close, why don't we celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival together? Xiuying, what do you think?"

Grandma was naturally delighted, saying, "I think it's great; it'll be more lively with more people."

Xu Lai agreed, "It's good to live together, otherwise two or three people would be all alone."

The day before the Dragon Boat Festival, Zhao Qingyun took a day off. Xu Lai was going to make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) today, and she also went to the street to buy two jin (1 kg) of beef to make cold shredded beef and send it to Xu Yan.

She had mentioned sending him cured meat last time, but she was busy selling peaches and had completely forgotten about it. When she remembered, Xu Yan said, "Sister, if you delay a few more days, the Dragon Boat Festival will be here soon."

Upon hearing this, she said, "Then how about this, I'll send you some more zongzi."

She also bought two pounds of pork and salted duck eggs. She didn't need to buy bamboo leaves, as her grandmother had planted several bamboo trees, so she could just pick the bamboo leaves directly.

She carried a basket on her back to pick zongzi leaves, and also took a small pair of scissors. Her grandmother planted them by the roadside, and villagers would pick some after asking.

When they arrived, some people were already picking the bamboo leaves. When they saw them, they said, "Aunt Xiuying, your bamboo leaves are growing so well, so green."

Grandma said modestly, "Oh, I just planted a few things casually and didn't take care of them. It seems this land is very nutritious."

Xu Lai was busy cutting leaves with scissors when the aunt noticed her and asked the grandmother, "Is this your granddaughter?"

Grandma smiled and said, "Yes."

Xu Lai was mentioned, then showed her face and greeted her aunt.

The man praised, "The young lady is beautiful, just like you were back then."

Grandma's smile deepened: "Oh my, she's much prettier than this old woman, and she's a better cook too."

The person inquired, "Do you have a boyfriend? If not, I can introduce you to one."

Grandma chuckled and said, "That depends on her own thoughts. We're old, we don't interfere in our children's affairs."

Xu Lai worked quickly and picked half of them. Seeing that her grandmother had almost finished picking, she said, "Grandma, let's go back and wrap some zongzi."

When she got home, she took a large basin, put the bamboo leaves in it to soak in water, and sprinkled some salt in.

Then she soaked glutinous rice. Since many people were eating it, and she also needed to send some to Xia Ning and Xu Yan, she prepared five catties.

While the glutinous rice was soaking, she prepared the filling, cut the pork belly into chunks and marinated it with soy sauce, and removed the yolks from the salted duck eggs and drizzled some white wine to sterilize them.

As she was preparing, Zhao Qingyun lifted the kitchen curtain and walked in, carrying glutinous rice and candied dates.

Xu Lai guessed, "Do you want a sweet one?"

Zhao Qingyun nodded: "The old lady likes sweet rice dumplings, but I didn't know if you make these, so I prepared some myself."

Xu Lai's brain raced, and she quickly made a decision: "Okay then, I'll soak some more red beans and wrap them together with some jujubes."

Zhao Qingyun agreed, soaked the glutinous rice she had brought in a bowl, and then asked, "Is there anything I can do?"

Xu Lai thought for a moment, and since the bamboo leaves hadn't been washed yet, she said, "Then go and wash the bamboo leaves clean. Use a loofah to scrub them clean, otherwise there will be insect eggs left behind."

Zhao Qingyun rolled up his sleeves and squatted down by the basin to brush the leaves. Xu Lai was worried that his legs would go numb from squatting for too long, so she said, "There's a small stool over there. If your legs go numb, you can take it and sit down."

He grunted in agreement, then picked up the stool and sat down. Xu Lai smiled at this, thinking, "This guy is really something."

After preparing the filling, she was ready to make cold beef. The beef had been soaked in advance to remove the blood.

Cut the beef into chunks, put it in a pot of cold water, add braising spices and cook for 30 minutes. After cooking, take it out, let it cool, and then cut it into small strips.

Heat oil in a wok, add the aromatics and fry until golden brown. Remove the aromatics and then add Sichuan peppercorns and beef strips to the hot oil.

Stir-fry the beef until slightly browned, then add chili threads, 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce, chicken bouillon, salt, chili powder, and cumin powder. Stir-fry evenly, sprinkle with white sesame seeds, and serve.

As soon as this dish was finished, the kitchen was filled with a terrible stench. Xu Lai coughed every now and then. Although it was pungent, it was really good with rice and also suitable as a snack.

In the afternoon, she placed the glutinous rice under the grape trellis and the filling on a small table. To prevent Xiao Hei and Lai Fu from stealing the food, she specially moved a table.

She hadn't added any alkali to the glutinous rice yet, but then she remembered the method of adding wood ash and wanted to try it. So she went to find some straw and burned it in a brazier.

My grandma used to coat salted duck eggs with a layer of wood ash.

She added water to the burnt wood ash to let it settle, and then used the resulting water to mix with glutinous rice. She kept half of the glutinous rice and added baking soda directly to it, wanting to see which method produced a better taste.

With everything ready, the two grandmothers pitched in. Xu Lai's zongzi-making skills weren't that great, but they were passable.

Zhao Qingyun tried to learn from the side, but each one he wrapped fell apart. Xu Lai couldn't stand it anymore, so she pinched his fingers and said, "Wrap it like this: first scoop in the rice, then put in the meat, then add more rice. Don't fill it too full, or the filling will leak out. Then cover the leaves with your hand like this, and use your thumb to press down the excess leaves."

Wrapping this zongzi was quite difficult, but fortunately it was wrapped tightly.

Zhao Qingyun didn't say he was giving up, but he kept spilling rice as he wrapped the rice, and eventually he felt a little embarrassed to wrap any more.

It took the four of them more than two hours to finish wrapping the rice. Xu Lai counted them and there were about a hundred. She also marked them: the ones with hemp rope were red bean and jujube sweet rice dumplings, and the ones with palm leaves were salted egg yolk and pork rice dumplings.

Add water to a pot, boil half of it, and steam the other half. This way, the rice dumplings won't spoil easily, and the glutinous rice will be more compact.

Since the rice dumplings took a long time to cook, Xu Lai cooked some simple egg noodles for everyone to have a little something to eat before the dumplings were cooked.

Three hours later, Xu Lai touched the surface of the zongzi and found that it had softened. Then she took one out, tasted it, and shouted, "The zongzi is cooked! Come and eat!"

Zhao Qingyun took a sweet rice dumpling, peeled it open, poked it with chopsticks, and handed it to the old lady. Grandpa and Grandma preferred savory rice dumplings, so Xu Lai gave them one each and then asked, "Zhao Qingyun, which one do you want?"

Zhao Qingyun thought to herself, "He only thinks of me when he's distributing zongzi," but still said, "Give me a sweet zongzi."