Over the past few months, Zhan Chunlan and Wang Wenfeng have developed a unique dating style – walking their dog.

As a doctor, Wang Wenfeng was much busier than Zhan Chunlan, but whenever he had a spare moment, he would always be there on time at the gate of her small courtyard to accompany her and Zhan Xiaoman for a walk. Their relationship didn't involve much romantic strolls, but rather seemed to be a quiet, enduring one, filled with warmth and tranquility.

As winter approached and the weather grew colder, Wang Wenfeng specially found wooden boards and tools, and under Zhan Chunlan's guidance, he personally nailed together a small, pointed-roof doghouse. Upon hearing this, Ms. Fang Li made a special trip over, carefully measured the dimensions with a soft measuring tape, and a few days later delivered a set of hand-sewn mattress and a small floral quilt—the cotton fabric with a blue background and small floral patterns was durable and stain-resistant, with a delicate wood trim around the corners.

The most interesting thing is that there is a small curtain hanging in front of the doghouse, with two neat characters drawn in red: "Prosperous House".

According to Ms. Fang Li, who was busy sewing a door curtain for Zhan Xiaoman, Mr. Wang Shuo, who was watching, got itchy fingers and, when she wasn't looking, picked up a pen and wrote the two characters "旺宅" (prosperous house) on the door curtain.

You know what, those two characters, still carrying the scent of ink, paired with the little floral curtain, really do add a unique atmosphere to the doghouse.

Back when Zhan Xiaoman was temporarily staying at the Wang family's house, she easily won over the whole family with her obedient, sensible, and adorable nature. Sometimes, Mr. Wang Shuo would even compete with his son, Wang Wenfeng, to walk the dog.

Wang Wenfeng later secretly told Zhan Chunlan that during that period, Zhan Xiaoman's schedule was fuller than anyone else's: in the morning, he would walk the dog before going to work, then Ms. Fang Li would take it to buy groceries, at noon Mr. Wang Shuo would take it to the park for a walk, in the afternoon Wang Wenchuan would take it out to show it off to his friends, and in the evening, he would bring Zhan Xiaoman to see her.

“No wonder you looked much thinner back then,” Zhan Chunlan couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’ve actually built up some muscle.”

Zhan Chunlan lay in the yard, with a plate of freshly fried potato chips and a cup of jasmine tea on a small table next to her.

Wang Wenfeng helped her tidy up the house.

Perhaps because she had done enough of this since she was a child, she was not very willing to tidy up the house after she came to Haicheng alone. Just keeping it clean took a lot of effort for her.

After Wang Wenfeng started dating her, he probably noticed her reluctance and began to help her willingly. The transition from assisting her to taking full responsibility was very smooth.

Looking at the pile of dog hair she had swept up, she finally felt a little embarrassed: "Brother Wenfeng, aren't you going to take a break? I just brewed a pot of tea, you can come and have a cup."

Wang Wenfeng watched her lying comfortably in the yard, with a brazier next to her and Zhan Xiaoman curled up beside it, almost crawling into the fire: "I'll be done soon. You should keep a close eye on Zhan Xiaoman so that its fur doesn't get burnt again."

"Woof~" Zhan Xiaoman probably understood that it was being mocked, so it raised its head and unleashed a barrage of barks at it.

Wang Wenfeng ignored it and focused on cleaning the whole house: "You'd better be fierce to me now, and I'll teach you how to be a proper dog later."

"Woof~ Woof~" Hearing that he would have to wait a while, Zhan Xiaoman barked even more triumphantly.

In no time, the entire yard was transformed. After washing his hands, Wang Wenfeng sat down next to the man and the dog, tasted a potato chip, and was quite surprised by its crispy and fragrant texture, even though he doesn't usually eat potato chips. He picked up a chip and examined it carefully before asking, "Is this your latest research result? Are you going to put it into production?"

“No,” Zhan Chunlan shook her head: “Potato chips are just vegetables in most people’s eyes. Frying potato chips at the market is very wasteful of oil. At this stage, ordinary people still cannot accept this kind of behavior of making a dish of ‘vegetable’ that is both wasteful of oil and time to sell.”

“Indeed.” Wang Wenfeng nodded. It’s not worth it for most people in China today. “However, it’s quite interesting to eat this with a cup of herbal tea.”

"You understand me so well!" Zhan Chunlan turned her head, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him. "I fried a lot more, and it's all packed up. You can take it home later; Aunt Fang should like it."

"Mm." Wang Wenfeng nodded. He liked the way she always thought of her family. Only by keeping him in mind could she extend that love to her family in everything she did.

Meanwhile, at the Haicheng Building, several waiters were gathered together discussing:

"You know, potato chips are just fried potatoes, what's so great about them? How come those foreigners never get tired of them?"

"Who knows? There are so many good things to eat, all they do is waste food. It was fine before when they wanted pizza and hamburgers, but this time they insisted on eating potato chips. I don't know what's wrong with them."

"I heard that all the potato chips from Friendship Store have been delivered here. There weren't many to begin with, and they're eating them like food. They're almost gone. The director is going bald in his office. If this batch is gone, who knows what we'll do next?"

"Sigh~ I heard they don't want to eat our country's food, saying it has too much oil and seasonings and is unhealthy, so they have no choice but to eat potato chips."

"Are you sick? What do you mean by unhealthy? We've been eating this food for thousands of years and haven't had any problems. How could their country have known about it for so long?

"Who says otherwise? Besides, these potatoes aren't even deep-fried; they're made with way more oil than you would use for cooking. How can you not complain about the excessive oil?"

In the office, the director looked at the chefs with a serious expression and said in a heavy tone, "The food that was served today still hasn't been eaten. Do you know why?"

One of the chefs looked indignant and said, "I heard about it. I think the food this time is too greasy and unhealthy."

"Can't you use less oil?" Although the director didn't understand, he still went along with the foreign guests' request.

Another chef said with difficulty, "Master chef, there's already very little oil in the dishes this time. Any less, and the oil won't even be enough to coat the pan, and the food will burn."

"What can we do then? We can't just let them eat potato chips forever, can we? They won't kill anyone, but the Friendship Store is gone. How are we going to find another one?"

Suddenly, the director said to the Western chefs, "Have you not prepared any Western dishes these past few days?"

"Why didn't you make it? Either you complained that our steaks were overcooked, or you said our beef had a bad taste and wasn't good."

"What about pasta? Hamburgers? Pizza?"

“They used to eat solid food, but recently they've only started eating potato chips.”

The director frowned: "Since when did this start?"

One of the chefs hesitated before answering, "It seems that when Friendship Store said they were out of potato chips, they started eating only potato chips and didn't want to eat anything else. They just had potato chips and soda every day."

“They kept asking for Coke every day. When the waiter said they didn’t have any, they asked someone to go outside to buy some. Later, when they heard that there was no Coke in all of China, they said that China was indeed poor and stingy, not even having Coke.”

The director frowned. As a Chinese person, anyone would be angry to hear such slanderous remarks about the country. However, these foreign guests were not just foreign friends; they would also be visiting several factories in Haicheng and might sign orders. With the country in dire need of foreign exchange, they could not afford to offend them over such a matter.

"Those potato chips, I heard they're fried in potato oil, can you make them?" the director asked, still somewhat unwilling to give up.

"Yes, we can, and we've done it once before, but they still didn't like it."

A young chef said indignantly, "I think they're just trying to make things difficult for us. I've secretly tasted it myself, and it's clear that ours tastes better than the imported ones. They're just lying through their teeth."

The director gave him a serious look: "If you say this here, that's fine, but if you say it outside and those people hear it, it will affect the important matter of export earnings, and I can't save you then."

Although the young chef was resentful, he suppressed his anger and agreed, "Understood."