After dinner, the family cleared away the dishes and brought small stools to the courtyard to digest the food. Lin Yan lay on a reclining chair. Zhao Shiyun had it made. It was narrow, and sitting on it inevitably strained his back. Zhao Shiyun wanted Lin Yan to be more comfortable.

At first, Lin Yan was unwilling to lie down by himself and asked his father and mother to sit. Li Yuemei and Zhao Qiming persuaded him several times, and Zhao Shiyun also promised to get a new one after a while. Lin Yan had no choice but to give up.

Lin Yan fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan. The weather was getting hotter, and the mosquitoes were becoming more numerous. Every night before bed, he had to fumigate with mugwort to help him fall asleep, otherwise the buzzing sound would be too annoying.

"I've invited the Yang brothers to come to my shop for dinner the day after tomorrow. What dishes do you think we should make?"

Speaking of this, Yu Ge'er sat up straight and asked, "Did you save my Yang brothers? Come to think of it, I didn't even thank them properly that day."

"Yes, you can go with your father and mother then."

Li Yuemei thought she should buy some thank you gift for them, so she asked, "What should I buy to thank them? Meat? Snacks? Cloth?"

"Let's go shopping then. Brother Shiyun and I will buy some groceries, and you guys can go buy other things."

"Okay, speaking of buying groceries, I think the chicken feet stew tonight is great. Do you want to make that?"

Lin Yan scratched his chin and thought: "That's fine, I can cook some fish and some soup. We still have some bacon at home, so I can stir-fry it."

Li Yuemei nodded: "Just do as you see fit."

Others had no objections, after all, they only knew how to eat.

*

After two days of rest at home, today was the market day, so there were many people and it was very lively. I was busy since breakfast. Yu Ge'er came to the shop with me early in the morning. Li Yuemei and Zhao Qiming came after they had finished cleaning up at home, so they would not come later than noon.

Just then, not long after the breakfast was sold out, everyone was processing the ingredients in the backyard when Li Yuemei and the others arrived.

Li Yuemei and Zhao Qiming put down their things and came over to help, and the ingredients were soon prepared.

"Auntie, you keep busy in the shop. I'll go buy some food. We have guests today." Lin Yan said goodbye to Widow Liu and followed Li Yuemei and Yu Ge'er out. Zhao Shiyun and Zhao Qiming stayed in the shop to work.

They first went to a pastry shop. Li Yuemei was dazzled by the exquisite pastries. She called the waiter to ask which pastries would keep the longest, hoping to have the Yang brothers take some home to enjoy later. The waiter recommended Hu Bing, Ying Bing, and Wan San Gao, which were more durable. Li Yuemei immediately disdained them, believing they were meant for traveling merchants or those taking them on the road, and the taste was simply not good. She finally chose some chestnut crisps and the sweetheart biscuits she had bought earlier, and asked the waiter to pack them up.

Yu Ge'er looked at the various snacks and swallowed his saliva from time to time. After all, he was still a child. He looked at Lin Yan eagerly. Lin Yan smiled and pinched his face, saying that he would buy him a candy man after shopping.

Then they came to the cloth shop. Li Yuemei carefully selected the cloth, and Lin Yan also helped with some suggestions, choosing two pieces of cloth that were not too bright in color and were not easy to stain.

Finally they came to the butcher shop. Lin Yan picked out a piece of pork with fat and lean meat and two shanks. The meat was for the Yang brothers, and Lin Yan planned to take the shanks back to cook porridge.

I went to North Street and bought some chicken feet and wings for the chicken feet stew, and then picked out a fresh sea bass from the fishmonger. Passing by West Street, I bought some side dishes, carrots, onions, and also bought two salted duck eggs from Zhou Chunlan.

Several people returned with a full load, and Yu Ge'er was extremely happy holding the candy man.

Back at the shop, Lin Yan and Zhao Shiyun went to the backyard to prepare the ingredients, Li Yuemei and Zhao Qiming arranged the thank-you gifts, and Yu Ge'er helped sell drinks and collect money at the counter.

After a busy day, it wasn't long before noon arrived. The ingredients were almost ready, just waiting to be put into the wok and fried. Zhao Shiyun couldn't help with anything else, so he went to the front to help serve the dishes.

Lin Yan planned to make chicken feet pot, steamed sea bass, salted duck egg and mustard greens soup, and stir-fried bacon with garlic sprouts.

None of these dishes were difficult to prepare, except for the salted duck egg and mustard greens soup, which Lin Yan was making for the first time. He first blanched the chicken feet and wings, while he marinated the sea bass and set it aside.

The bacon was steamed in the rice early in the morning, so the rice in the shop today has the aroma of bacon, as well as the oil dripping from the steaming of the bacon. It tastes delicious no matter how you mix it.

Lin Yan first made the chicken feet stew which took a little longer. The second time he made it, he was very skilled at it. Soon the aroma of the chicken feet stew filled the air. The diners in the shop couldn't sit still and asked, "Young boss, what delicious food have you made again?"

Lin Yan poked his head out of the kitchen and said, "I'm entertaining relatives at home today, so I'm going to make a chicken feet hot pot. If I have time, I'll sell it in the shop for a few days as a summer limited edition."

The diner snorted, "How can it only be a few days old? It smells so delicious right away."

Lin Yan smiled brightly: "This dish is delicious, but it takes a lot of time to make, so it will take me a few days to make it."

The diner was just joking and didn't say anything else. He started to eat his food while enjoying the aroma of the chicken feet pot.