Fortunately, they were lucky; the snow stopped just as Yan Xia's family started eating.

Many children who had already eaten their New Year's Eve dinner ran to Yan Xia's house to pick up firecrackers. Since Yan Xia's door was not closed, they could see them.

It was Chinese New Year, so she didn't care if she picked it up.

"Come on, let's dig in! Cheers! Wishing us a healthy and prosperous new year, and may Xiaohe have a smooth delivery and our whole family be safe and sound!"

Yan Xia raised her glass high.

The children had never seen anything like this before.

They quickly followed their mother's example and raised the cup filled with milk tea.

They each said a few kind words.

After taking a sip of milk tea, they waited for Yan Xia to pick up her chopsticks.

Only then did they begin to eat their New Year's Eve dinner.

"Wow, these four-happiness dumplings are so delicious! Mom, did they have radish in them?"

Xiaohe raised her willow-leaf eyebrows high, her mouth stuffed full of radish balls, making her speech a little unclear.

"Radish? Why am I eating lotus root?"

Wax Plum looked at the glutinous rice balls in the bowl, somewhat puzzled.

"I ate fish meat, which was fresh, sweet, and juicy, and there were no fish bones. Mother, you are amazing! When winter is over and the restaurant starts serving food, you must show off your skills to the customers. Then our restaurant will definitely become famous throughout Jiashu County!"

Still Water was incredibly excited.

She was already imagining what the future would hold.

"Oh my, it smells so good! Mother, you cooked this rabbit meat so well, it's so delicious I could cry!"

Jin Lu praised it highly.

Yan Xia was speechless. Ever since her second son took over the restaurant, he'd become incredibly sweet-talking.

"Mom, it's really delicious. The chicken soup is especially flavorful. I want to have another bowl."

Jin Fu drank the soup first.

The old hen was raised on our own and fed entirely natural food. It's nothing like the modern factory-farmed chickens, plus wild mushrooms from the mountains.

The two flavors combine.

It's so fresh you'd want to gulp it down from the soup bowl.

"Drink less soup, there's not enough food for you. Here, try the sausage that Mom made herself, isn't it delicious?"

It's called sausage, but it should actually be called saliva.

Unlike smoked sausages, Yan Xia's sausages are mixed with finely ground chili powder, a little sugar and wine. They are salty with a hint of fragrance, sweet with a hint of sweetness, and spicy with a hint of spiciness. You can eat several pieces without getting tired of them.

There was absolutely no meaty smell.

A 3:2 ratio of lean to fat meat is simply perfect.

"The cured pork Mom makes doesn't have a smoky smell at all, it's delicious! Mom, your cooking is amazing!"

Wax Plum was the first to pick up a chopstick and put it in her mouth, nodding in delight at how delicious it was.

"Sweet and sour fish is delicious too, it doesn't have any fishy smell at all. My mother used to make it, but that fish tasted muddy and was so fishy that I couldn't even bring myself to eat it. The sweet and sour fish that my mother makes is both sweet and sour, the fish meat is very tender, and it's very flavorful inside. It's sweet but not too sweet, and sour but not so sour that you'll frown. It has a slightly salty and fresh taste. Mother, could you teach your daughter-in-law how to cook? I'm afraid even the imperial chefs in the capital can't cook as well as my mother!"

No wonder they're a couple.

They all had the same sweet tongue, and their compliments made Yan Xia blush.

It's not that she's a good cook; it's that she uses plenty of ingredients. It's not that the younger daughter-in-law's mother can't cook fish well. Most farm families either boil fish in plain water, stir-fry it with a little oil, or mash the fish into a paste, mixing the bones and meat together, which doesn't taste very good either.

Yan Xia used more than a dozen kinds of seasonings to make the fish, and she also pan-fried the fish in heavy oil until golden brown on both sides. This amount of oil is enough for an average family to use for two or three months.

It's not an exaggeration at all.

When they cooked, they would take a burlap cloth, soak it in lard, and wipe the pot.

This is where the oil comes in.

Not every family can afford to eat lard.

They're having a joyful New Year's Eve dinner here.

Inside the dilapidated temple, Yan Hecheng was preparing to heat up his dinner. A cold wind was blowing everywhere outside. He got up to close the door, but then he saw a bamboo basket at the doorway.

A thick burlap cloth covered the bamboo basket.

Upon opening the lid, they found four bamboo tubes, one of which was filled with rice.

One serving was four-happiness meatballs, and the other two were Chinese sausage and spicy stir-fried rabbit.

It was still steaming.

It must have been just placed there.

Yan Hecheng took the bamboo basket into the temple and locked the gate.

She sat by the fire and ate her meal with tears in her eyes.

Upon seeing the rabbit meat, he knew that the bamboo basket was a gift from his daughter's family.

The brown rice porridge in the clay pot had solidified at a low temperature, and no one would touch it tonight.

[Target person detected]

Name: Yan Hecheng

Gender: Male

Age: 52

[Affection Level: 100]

[Congratulations, host, you have earned 100 points]

Points have been credited to your account; current account balance is 100.

Yan Xia was eating when she heard a familiar mechanical voice.

She paused for a moment, then returned to normal after half a second.

Pretending nothing was wrong, she continued gossiping with her children.

"Oh, Tian Gui!"

"Tian Gui, where are you?!"

"Time to come home for dinner, Tiangui—"

Wang Lihua's voice echoed throughout the entire village.

As darkness fell, Wang Lihua had already prepared the New Year's Eve dinner, but her nephew was still not home. She searched the entire village but couldn't find him, and she was getting anxious.

If something happens to her nephew, how will she explain it to her in-laws?

Could it have fallen into the river?

Or perhaps they were scammed by a flower seller?

Her mind was racing with chaotic thoughts, and Wang Lihua was almost in tears.

"Pear Blossom, stop looking at the village entrance. Your Tiangui is wandering around the Yan family's place. Hurry up and go look for him there—"

An older woman stopped Wang Lihua.

She had just gone for a stroll in the field, thinking to see if the unpicked cabbages had frozen to death, when she happened to see Chen Jia Xiaotiangui wandering around near Yan Xia's house.

"Oh, thank you, I'll go right away."

After thanking her, Wang Lihua went straight to Yan Xia's house.

Yan Xia's family has already eaten half of their New Year's Eve dinner.

The people began to eat at a slower pace.

They ate and chatted, and the main room was warm with a coal stove.

The food also cooled down slowly.

During the Lunar New Year, no household closes its doors. In addition, the door to the main room was left ajar because the coal stove was not closed tightly.

Sudden.

A person pushed open the door and walked straight in.

"Grandma Yan, I'm hungry and I want to eat meat. Can I have my New Year's Eve dinner here?"

It turned out to be Chen Tiangui from the Chen family.

His cunning eyes darted around, looking everywhere.

He has a shifty, sneaky look that makes him instantly repulsive.

"Don't you have a home? Go back to your own home!"

Jin Lu's cold gaze startled Chen Tiangui, causing him to take a step back.

“I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to Grandma Yan. Grandma Yan, you used to love me so much, you would give me meat, right? I want to eat meat. My great-grandmother and parents are gone, and I haven’t eaten meat for days.”

Chen Tiangui felt a little aggrieved whenever he thought of them.

But when he caught a glimpse of the dishes on the table, his mouth almost watered.

Oh my god, so much meat!

There were so many dishes! They smelled so good! It turned out that the aroma he had smelled in the village that afternoon was coming from Aunt Yan's house.