Summer Set Meal

After Shen Anxia officially returned to Yi'an, Yang Zheng practically lived at the Shen family home. He would pick her up from work in the morning and they would go to work together in the evening. After work, they would go into the Shen family's kitchen to prepare dinner, and after dinner, they would stay with Shen Anxia until around nine o'clock before heading back to the city to stay, instead of going back to Peacock City. This went on for a week. Then, Shen Ke and Zhao Ping went to a furniture store and bought a bed so that Yang Zheng could share a room with Shen Anyi, saving him the trouble of going back and forth every morning and evening.

Yang Zheng was so happy that he couldn't sleep well for two nights.

Since the two families met, Yang Zheng's parents and Shen Anxia's parents have been getting together almost every week, and each time they have to bring three younger relatives. As a result, Shen Anxia has started her busy life again. She has to go to the driving school to practice driving on weekends, and she has to have lunch with both sets of parents on Saturday noon. She is so busy that she hardly has any time to spend alone with Yang Zheng. Although Yang Zheng is a little resentful, he immediately becomes energetic again as long as he thinks about the promising future.

Fortunately, Shen Anxia obtained her driver's license just before the engagement banquet, giving her more free time to occasionally spend some alone time with Yang Zheng.

The Yang and Chen families decided to hold Yang Zheng and Shen Anxia's engagement ceremony in October during the mild spring season. They hired a professional wedding planning company to plan a simple yet formal New Chinese style banquet.

Yang Zheng personally selected all the drinks and small gifts for the engagement banquet, after consulting with Shen Anxia. The children and elders of both families were of utmost importance, so on the day of the engagement banquet, in addition to drinks and champagne, enough yogurt and probiotic drinks were also prepared. The man and his family, especially the children, thought this idea was absolutely perfect.

Yang Zheng looked exceptionally handsome and dashing today, dressed in a black Chinese-style suit. The collar, cuffs, and buttons were all hand-embroidered with gold thread, exuding understated luxury. Ding Fei straightened Yang Zheng's collar, patted him on the shoulder, and praised, "Not bad! Very pleasing to the eye. Did An Xia choose this?"

"Yes," Yang Zheng glanced outside. His parents and Shen parents were greeting guests at the door, while Duan Lixing and his fourth and fifth brothers were entertaining relatives and friends from both families. The banquet hall was filled with joy. He felt a surge of emotion and said, "Big brother, thank you for your hard work!"

Ding Fei looked at Yang Zheng, who was thanking him, with curiosity and asked, "Are you starting to talk nonsense because you're nervous?"

Yang Zheng didn't hide anything from him: "I'm a little panicked."

"You're engaged to An Xia, not someone else, why are you panicking?" Ding Fei chuckled.

Duan Lixing was walking over here, drinking a probiotic beverage as he did so: "Third brother's idea is pretty good. We can prepare this kind of drink for the wedding."

"It's mainly because Anxia likes to drink dairy products, so that's what came to my mind," Yang Zheng explained.

Duan Lixing also noticed that Yang Zheng was acting strangely and asked Ding Fei, "What's wrong with him, brother?"

Ding Fei joked with Yang Zheng, "This guy's nervous."

Duan Lixing was puzzled: "Are you afraid of remembering the procedure wrong?"

"It's not that..." Yang Zheng didn't know how to explain, so he asked Duan Lixing, "Second Brother, do you think An Xia is really ready?"

"?" Duan Lixing asked, "Otherwise what?"

"Is it possible that he mistook admiration for love?" Yang Zheng wasn't quite sure.

"Oh dear, with Anxia's personality, the person she admires most is naturally herself. I was wondering why you weren't entertaining your guests, instead of hiding here," Duan Lixing rarely saw Yang Zheng so nervous, and found it amusing, but still comforted him, "Alright, don't be so delicate, if Anxia saw you acting like a fragile flower, she'd laugh at you!"

Yang Zheng thought Duan Lixing's words made sense, so he mustered up his courage and went with the two of them to entertain the guests.

When Xi Yan entered Shen Anxia's lounge, he saw a young woman wearing a champagne-colored cheongsam, with her hair styled in a beautiful bun and adorned with a Chinese hairpin, engrossed in playing video games.

Shen Anxia looked up at the person who had come in, and took a moment to call out, "Second Sister-in-law! Please sit down."

Seeing her like this, Xi Yan couldn't help but laugh and teased, "They just said that the third brother was so nervous that he hid, but you're having so much fun."

"Huh?" Shen Anxia asked again when she had a moment, "What are you nervous about?"

"Your long-cherished wish has finally come true, your muscles are trembling, aren't they?" Xi Yan joked. "What are you doing?"

"It's a newly developed mini-game. I saw my colleagues playing it, and they taught me before the holiday. I think I'm pretty good at it. I can't believe I've never played something this fun before," Shen Anxia asked. "But what are you talking about, Second Sister-in-law? What happened to Yang Zheng's muscles?"

Xi Yan, a writer, speaks in a free-flowing and unconventional way. Seeing that Shen Anxia did not understand, he explained, "What I mean is, he is experiencing physiological anxiety. From when you were in high school to when you graduated from university, he has liked you for so many years. Every step of the way has been difficult, so he is feeling anxious and insecure right now."

From high school... Who is Second Sister-in-law talking about?

Shen Anxia stared intently at Xi Yan, her eyes gleaming slightly, pondering the meaning behind his words. A strange feeling she hadn't felt in a long time resurfaced, and long-standing doubts returned.

She remembered that Yang Zheng knew she liked milk when they first met. Later, he would always include tomato stew in the meals he cooked for her. He knew she liked kapok trees. He even invited her to dance "Starry Night" in Xinfeng that time... She couldn't quite remember. She wanted to explain to Xi Yan that she and Yang Zheng met through a blind date and had never met before, but she also felt that Yang Zheng might have actually met her before.

But she really couldn't remember.

"What kind of look is that?" Xi Yan glanced at Chen Anxia's phone and asked, "Are you playing games..."

Shen Anxia followed Xi Yan's gaze to her phone. The person on the screen was already dead. She locked the screen and tossed it aside.

"Second sister-in-law, who told you that Yang Zheng... has liked me for many years?" Shen Anxia pulled Xi Yan's arm and pressed for details.

"Huh?" Xi Yan was somewhat surprised to see Shen Anxia's expression. "You didn't know? Didn't the third brother mention it to you?"

“It’s not that he never mentioned it at all… He mentioned it once, but when I asked him about it, he changed the subject.”

Xi Yan chuckled: "I was hoping you'd tell me the details, since I haven't had much inspiration for my writing lately, but I didn't expect you to be unaware of this. Their whole group of brothers knows about it—by the way, I heard you gave them a name, 'Flesh and Blood Connected'? It's quite fitting."

Shen Anxia felt a little embarrassed, after all, the boy band's name was really awful.

Xi Yan patted Shen Anxia's hand reassuringly: "When your second brother came back from Xinfeng last time, he told me that he had never seen the third brother like that before... Luckily you're alright, otherwise he probably would have completely collapsed."

Shen Anxia knew that Xi Yan was referring to the time she was almost kidnapped by thugs. She recalled Yang Zheng's fear and self-blame at the time. He probably didn't sleep at all that night.

But where did this "many years" come from?

Before she could figure it out, Rong Yi ran in and called to them, "Second sister-in-law, Anxia, ​​let's go, get ready to start."

Shen Anxia was in a state of confusion as Yang Zheng led her through the entire process. She wanted to ask Yang Zheng if he had really known her for a long time. But how did he know that she liked to drink milk? She should have some recollection of it, right? But she had absolutely no such information in her mind.

She couldn't wait to find a quiet place to properly ask him about these things.

Even after the engagement banquet ended, Shen Anxia didn't find a chance to ask Yang Zheng. After the relatives and elders of both sides saw them off, Yang Zheng and Shen Anxia returned to the Shen family to pack their luggage and went to bed early, because the "Bone and Flesh Connected" boy group would set off for the Xilin Grassland under the leadership of Ding Fei and Ge Chen in the early hours of the next day!

The next day, at the crack of dawn, the group gathered. As usual, Duan Lixing and Ge Chen were the drivers. Qu Cheng, who was also a good driver, drove the third van. They would change drivers for the next leg of the journey.

Before getting into the car, Ding Fei looked at Shen Anxia and shouted a slogan: "Blood Brothers, let's go!"

This amused a group of people who laughed in various ways as they looked at Shen Anxia.

Shen Anxia: "..."

It takes seven or eight hours to drive from Yi'an to Xilin. We stopped at a service area along the way to rest, switch drivers, have some water and snacks, and chat about the local weather and dialect. Shen Anxia thought about Xi Yan's words all night and couldn't sleep. She fell asleep in Yang Zheng's arms as soon as she got in the car in the early morning.

After she had slept enough, the group had arrived at the hotel.

The children, who had probably slept the whole way like her, rushed excitedly into the hotel after getting off the bus. They became even more excited when they saw a small water park in the hotel and begged the adults to go in and play.

The adults weren't going to spoil the fun either; the men took care of the paperwork and packing, while the women took care of playing with the children.

The ladies were all at the water park playing with their children, and Shen Anxia felt too embarrassed to follow Yang Zheng upstairs. She still wanted to ask Yang Zheng some questions, but she couldn't find the opportunity.

The men packed their luggage, and the group of adults led the group of children straight to a popular barbecue restaurant, where they ate and played at the same time.

Yang Zheng's family also runs a chain of barbecue restaurants. After everyone tasted the popular whole roasted lamb, they all remembered the seasonal set meal at Yanhuo Shangshi. Ge Chen, who was standing next to Shen Anxia, ​​asked, "Has Lao San taken you to try that set meal?"

Shen Anxia hummed in agreement: "I've tried it once—the Winter Snowfall Set Meal."

Rong Yi also leaned over and asked, "Just once? Do you know what Third Brother named the summer meal packages?"

"I don't know, I didn't see the menu." Shen Anxia said, puzzled.

Rong Yi smiled mysteriously at Ge Chen, who also smiled coolly. Shen Anxia was completely confused and looked at Rong Yi with a face full of question marks.

Rong Yi leaned close to Shen Anxia and whispered, "I'm really fed up with Third Brother. He's such a love-struck fool—his summer menu should be based on the solar terms, like Frost's Descent, Grain Rain, etc. But when we went to eat there, we found that the entire summer menu was just 'Summer Peace,' 'Summer Warmth,' 'Midsummer,' and 'Thinking of Summer.' I can't remember what they were. Anyway, I'm really fed up with him."

Shen Anxia: "..."

She suddenly remembered that when she asked Yang Zheng what summer套餐 (set meals) he offered last time, Yang Zheng told her to guess.

Shen Anxia smiled and thought Yang Zheng seemed even more childish than herself, but she seemed to particularly like that about him.

After lunch, the group played on the grassland until they were completely absorbed in the fun, riding bikes, driving off-road vehicles, and going on a treasure hunt. Shen Anxia and Rong Yi even took some time to herd sheep with the children. In the evening, they joined the locals for a bonfire party. The bonfire dance was simple and easy to learn, and everyone danced along. They played until midnight, and then looked at the stars outside the grassland for a while before reluctantly returning to the hotel.