Neither family slept that night; Zhong Ping and his sister Zhong An's beds were separated only by a curtain. Hearing his parents' resounding snoring, he kicked Zhong An's bed.

"You snore even when you sleep, I know you're not asleep, let's chat for a bit."

Zhong An sighed impatiently: "You want to ask about my cousin? I don't even know if the 'shu' in her name is a special one or a 'shu' with the female radical."

"What about Auntie's matter? Didn't you go to visit her with Mom? Did you get along well? To be honest, I'm a little nervous. I hope my cousin won't think we're a burden." Zhong Ping usually loves to listen to novels when he has nothing to do. The more dramatic the story, the more he enjoys reading it, laughing like a goose.

Zhong An turned around and rolled her eyes: "Can't you think of anything useful? Are you planning to stay at their house forever? If I can't find a job, I'll ask my cousin to introduce me to someone and get married. I won't eat their food for free."

"You can get married, but what about me?"

"Why don't you get married too? These days, whoever is more capable is in charge. You're not ugly, just short. There should be some blind women who would want you."

Zhong Ping originally wanted to seek comfort from his sister, but now it seems that if they continue talking, he'll vomit blood.

"With that mouth of yours, just like your mother's, you'll be married off and divorced within three months."

Even if I marry three times, you haven't even married once.

The two started arguing, and their voices grew louder and louder until even the snoring stopped. Just as Zhong Ping was about to retort, a pair of hands suddenly reached in, grabbed both of their ears, and pulled hard. The hands gritted their teeth and asked, "You're not going to sleep, are you? If you're not going to sleep, get out and don't disturb my sleep."

Zhong Ping reached out to grab his ear back, pleading repeatedly, "Mom, I was wrong, I was really wrong, please let go, my ear is going to break."

Zhong An neither snatched nor spoke, but took back his own ear first, and found it was swollen when he touched it.

After Zheng Meixiang got back into bed, the snoring started again within two minutes. The brother and sister didn't dare to make a fuss and turned their backs to play on their phones.

The next day, with dark circles under her eyes, Zheng Meixiang went to the station with her parents. After a hard-fought journey, she squeezed onto the train, threw her luggage to Zhong Dazhuang, and immediately called her third sister: "Lanzi, are you up? Your brother-in-law and I have boarded the train. We'll arrive at 1 p.m. You can come pick us up at the station after you've finished eating. My niece has a car, right? Okay, okay, then I'm relieved."

After hanging up the phone, Zheng Meixiang discussed with the two people next to her about switching seats and calling her children over so the whole family could sit together.

After a flurry of activity, the family of four huddled together to sleep. Zhong Dazhuang, however, couldn't rest easy. He would doze off for a while only to be startled awake again, so he simply stopped sleeping and stared at the luggage rack like a cat watching a mouse.

When Zheng Lanxiang received the phone call, she busied herself preparing lunch in the kitchen. There were so many things that the stove couldn't hold them all, and bowls were scattered on the floor.

At seven o'clock in the morning, Ace, keeping up with his school routine, got dressed and called his younger brother to get up: "Do you want to go for a run in the neighborhood?"

Xing Zhengfei covered his head with the blanket and remained silent.

Ace shook his head helplessly, went out and gently closed the door, said goodbye to his grandmother, went downstairs and ran around the neighborhood twice, bringing back four bowls of cold noodles.

Jiang Shuyin finally got tired of eating rice noodles in soup a while ago, and she ate cold rice noodles for half a month without getting tired of them. Rice noodles are high in calories, so she gained four or five pounds.

The four bowls of cold noodles included Xing Zhengfei. Ace looked at his watch; it was already eight o'clock and he still hadn't gotten up. He pushed open the door to call him: "I brought you breakfast, get up and eat."

Xing Zhengfei went to bed early last night, so he got up willingly this time. He was in a good mood because there was breakfast waiting for him.

Jiang Shuyin saw him point to the five new toothbrushes and cups on the washstand and say, "Go brush your teeth and wash your face, wash your hands and come eat breakfast."

Xing Zhengfei stood there, stunned, still feeling like he was dreaming.

The floor near the washbasin was wet from Heimei and Shuining's spilled water, so it might be slippery. Ace took him there with him.

After washing up and sitting down at the table, Jiang Shuyin said, having almost finished the noodles in her bowl, "These noodles are so delicious, I never get tired of them, but the portion is too small. I'll buy three ounces tomorrow. I'm not going to diet anymore."

After the New Year, she went to get a job. The food outside wasn't as good as at home, so she naturally lost weight.

It's Chinese New Year, so don't mistreat your stomach.

Ace looked up from the sofa and said, "Okay."

Actually, this bowl contains only three ounces.

Xing Zhengfei pushed the bowl over: "I need to eat, Mom, you eat."

Jiang Shuyin couldn't resist the temptation of the food. She really wasn't full, so she hesitated for a moment and said, "How about I take a little, and you can eat the rest?"

Xing Zhengfei located the crystal core by intuition and pointed to Shui Ning's bracelet: "I like to eat this."

Jiang Shu understood and traded the crystal cores for rice noodles with him, and everyone was happy.

At ten o'clock, Xie Yin drove over and sat upstairs for a while. He would then drive two cars to the station to pick up people.

At 11 o'clock, Zheng Lanxiang had cooked all the dishes except for the last dish, steamed fish, which was still in the pot. She would just turn on the stove and drizzle it with soy sauce when she got home. Preparing it in advance would reduce the flavor by half.

"Let's go, let's go. We don't know if there will be traffic today. Let's go early so your aunt won't complain." Taking off her work sleeves and apron, Zheng Lanxiang washed her hands and ran her fingers through her hair in the mirror. Looking at herself in the mirror, she felt a little insecure and quickly asked, "Is it okay for me to go out like this?"

Jiang Shuyin found it amusing: "You're not going on a blind date, so why are you dressing up? Doesn't that make your aunt feel uncomfortable?"

Hearing this, Zheng Lanxiang found herself more agreeable: "That's true, your second aunt is quite petty. Let's go out first."

Jiang Shuyin said to Ace and Xing Zhengfei, "We're going out for a bit. You two stay home and behave yourselves. Don't open the door to strangers, and wait for Mom to come back before you eat the food on the table... Do you understand?"

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