At school, Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen are eagerly looking forward to the holiday, and at home, Xiaofeng is also counting the days.

Unfortunately, high school students no longer have the benefit of two days off a week, and they only have one day of rest a week during summer hibernation.

Sunday finally arrived, and Xia Mian had a rare chance to sleep in. In a daze, she noticed that the quilt was carefully lifted, and a soft little thing crawled into her arms.

She closed her eyes and smiled, then lowered her head and rubbed the child's head with her chin, "Awake so early?"

Xiao Feng said happily, "Auntie doesn't have to go to school."

"Yes, Auntie doesn't have school today. She will spend the day with Xiaofeng!"

Xiao Feng rolled around happily in her arms.

The aunt and nephew stayed in bed for a while and then they heard some commotion outside: fresh grass carp had been delivered.

The main ingredient for making fish tofu and fish balls is fish meat. Because their family’s demand is stable now, Xia Wenyue has contacted the supplier and has the fish delivered to their door on time every day.

After the fresh fish is delivered, the scales and bones have to be scraped off by hand. Usually, Xia Wenyue gets up early in the morning to do this.

At the beginning, Mao Huimei would get up early to help, but after she got covered in the smell of fish, Xia Wenyue refused to help no matter what.

After all, Mao Huimei still has to go to work, and she is afraid of the bad influence.

But on weekends everyone goes to help.

After getting dressed and washing up, Xia Mian and Xiao Feng went for a walk around the back room.

"So many fish?" Xia Mian was a little surprised.

Xia Wenyue skillfully prepared the fish while happily saying, "A few days ago, Old Jia from the compound introduced a chef from a restaurant to us. Today, the big restaurant officially placed an order, and it's a large quantity."

"And those hot pot restaurants and barbecue stalls each ask for more on weekends."

Mao Huimei also smiled, "There are quite a few sold individually."

When Xia Wenyue first started selling sesame cakes, she would give a few pieces to old customers to try. After all, this was a new food. At that time, the first month of the lunar year had not yet passed, and many families would eat hot pot. After trying it once, they fell in love with it.

At this time, neighbors are quite close to each other, and if one person knows something, then everyone knows it. Gradually, neighbors would come every day to weigh a kilogram or two of food to cook.

"I think the machine can run for half a day today," Mao Huimei said with a smile, "so we can probably make a couple of hundred yuan a day."

Xia Wenyue had a relaxed smile on her face, "That's about right." At this rate, if a few more big customers come and the machine can run all day, the money spent on the machine can be earned back in a year.

Xia Mian said, "Second Aunt, you can hire two people like Lao Jia and ask them to help with sales. If the products are sold through them, give them a commission based on the sales volume. This way, you can expand faster."

Xia Mian knew that Xia Wenyue was a cautious person. She was enterprising but not reckless. The conditions were not yet ripe, and she would definitely not agree to directly hiring someone to do sales, so it was also good to make it a part-time job.

Nowadays, everyone is probably happy to earn some extra money.

Xia Wenyue threw the fish bone aside and said, "Hey! That's a good idea!"

Her mind raced, "Old Jia happens to be a ready-made brand. Once this order is sold, I'll see how much I can get from him. I'll give it to him directly and have him promote the product for us."

Mao Huilan said, "It seems like their family has a lot of brothers, maybe there are relatives willing to do it."

Mao Huimei smiled and said, "If we have more orders, we'll have to hire people, right?"

"We do need to hire someone," Xia Wenyue said, "but we need to find someone reliable. After all, we're going to set up the skewers stall, and this stall at home really needs some manpower."

Mao Huilan said worriedly, "Can we hire an outsider for this? What if they're like Fatty Wang and secretly learn how to do it themselves? We'll be crying our eyes out."

Xia Wenyue was obviously worried about this as well. "So we have to look for it slowly. Mom will figure out how to find it."

In fact, division of labor and cooperation is the best, but their place is so small that it is too difficult to hide the technology.

"If the order volume is really large," Xia Mian said, "we still have to open a factory."

After Xia Wenyue did it herself, she also realized the benefits of the factory. It not only saves time and effort, but also reduces costs and keeps effective process formulas confidential.

"I went to see that instant noodle factory," Xia Wenyue said helplessly, "I'm afraid it won't be possible to buy it without 40,000 or 50,000 yuan."

She obviously had her own ideas. "Anyway, we can hire someone to handle grass carp first, and then we can figure out the other things later."

Xia Mian didn't say anything else. Starting a business from scratch is easy to say, but there are many things to do in the process. At most, she was just talking about it and providing Xia Wenyue with some reliable ideas. It was Xia Wenyue herself who really took solid steps forward.

"Sister Mian, didn't you say you would cook for a few days?" Mao Huilan said expectantly, "Go ahead and do it, I'm hungry."

"Wait!"

I said I would accompany Xiao Feng today, so Xia Mian planned to make something cute for him to eat.

The dough on the stove had already risen. When Xiao Feng untied the curtain, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow! Green, orange, and yellow!"

Xia Mian stayed up quite late yesterday, using spinach juice, carrot juice and pumpkin juice, milk and eggs to ferment the colored dough.

They were all swollen quite big at this moment. Xia Mian took a nap and started to make small animals for the children.

Xiao Feng's eyes lit up, "Little Piggy."

Looking at his surprised expression, Xia Mian couldn't help showing off her skills and made him a model of everything she could think of:

"snails!"

"Butterfly!"

“Huahua!”

Xiao Feng touched it unconsciously with her little hand. Xia Mian looked up and saw Mao Huizhu coming out of the east room with sleepy eyes outside the window. It was obvious that she had just woken up.

She gave Xiao Feng a sly smile and whispered, "We'll scare your Aunt Huizhu later."

As she spoke, she quickly grabbed a piece of green noodles and pinched it into a caterpillar.

The method of making caterpillars is very simple. Just roll the green noodles into long strips as thick as your thumb, press out horizontal textures with the back of a knife at intervals of two millimeters, and finally use two chopsticks to gently squeeze along the direction of the strips. Use scissors to cut out a row of claws along both sides, and a fat caterpillar will be formed. Finally, use two black sesame seeds to add eyes.

It was very lifelike. After Xia Mian was done, she suddenly stretched it in front of Xiao Feng. Xiao Feng was so scared that she turned around and hugged Xia Mian's legs.

This made her laugh out loud, and Xiao Feng couldn't help but smile when she realized what was happening.

Hearing Mao Huizhu's footsteps approaching, Xia Mian made a gesture to Xiao Feng to keep quiet.

Xiao Feng turned around, lay on the panel and started staring at the door.

There was a panel right at the entrance to the kitchen. Xia Mian pushed the caterpillar towards Mao Huizhu the moment she lifted the curtain, "Wow, look, a caterpillar!"

Mao Huizhu screamed in fear, slapped him, and turned and ran, "Ah, Mom! There's a huge bug in the house!"

Xiao Feng was stunned for a moment, and stood on tiptoe to look at the lump on the panel. He blinked and looked up at Xia Mian again, "Auntie, it's flattened."

Xia Mian was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, "Yes, it was flattened." Huizhu was indeed a wild girl.

Xiao Feng tiptoed closer to Xia Mian, staring at the dough in her hand.

Xia Mian laughed and teased him deliberately, "What else do you want to pinch?"

Xiao Feng pursed her lips, a sly look flashed in her grape-like eyes, and she whispered, "Caterpillar."

Xia Mian couldn't help laughing, "Okay, pinch the caterpillar."

After a while, Mao Huizhu dragged Mao Huilan to the kitchen.

My eyes widened when I saw a row of green, yellow and orange caterpillars.

Mao Huizhu reacted and immediately showed an excited smile on her face, "Sister Mian, give me one!"

Xia Mian slapped her little hand down and said, "Take it after it's steamed. It will be flattened if you pinch it raw."

Mao Huilan also found it interesting. "This one is so similar, especially the green one. It makes people's hairs crawl all over their bodies."

Mao Huizhu pointed at the green dough and said, "Sister Mian, pinch this, pinch this!"

So at Mao Huizhu's strong request, not many cute little animals were made, but a lot of caterpillars were made.

When they came out of the pot, they crawled on the steamer one by one. Although they looked cute because of their swelling, some of them looked hideous because of their deformation.

Mao Huizhu immediately picked out the scariest-looking one and said, "Sister Mian, I want that one!"

Xia Mian picked up one for her and Xiao Feng respectively. The two children took it in their hands and froze it for a while. After it cooled down a little, they didn't eat it as expected. They just took it and ran to the yard opposite.

Xia Mian shook his head and laughed, and shouted, "The meal will be ready soon, call Chenchen and come over quickly."

While steaming the buns, Xia Mian had already prepared several dishes, and all he needed to do was make an egg soup.

Xia Mian looked at the time. She remembered that Ning Shaobai seemed to be on duty today.

He took out an aluminum lunch box, put a few pieces of thick omelette, braised beef in soy sauce, and chicken wings in it, picked up some hand-torn cabbage with chopsticks and added a few crispy pickled radish strips, and then put the caterpillars with the most ferocious faces in it.

Xia Mian chuckled, put the lunch box into his cloth bag and prepared to go next door.

Just as he reached the door, he saw Ning Shaobai passing by. Xia Mian chuckled, "What a coincidence."

She handed over the bag, "This is a heartwarming lunchbox. Thank you, Dr. Ning, for your great help."

Ning Shaobai looked at the cloth bag hesitantly, full of vigilance, "What are you doing now?"

Xia Mian was immediately hurt and said, "Doctor Ning, how could you think of me like this? It hurts my heart so much. I'm obviously repaying a favor."

As soon as she finished speaking, Chenchen screamed and ran out from the opposite door, with Mao Huizhu behind her holding a hideous caterpillar and laughing.

Xiao Feng's short legs couldn't run as fast as them, so he followed them out slowly. When he saw Xia Mian and Ning Shaobai, his eyes lit up. He ran over with the insect in his hand, pouting his little mouth and making a "woohoo" sound to scare Ning Shaobai.

Ning Shaobai took a step back, and Xiao Feng immediately giggled, "Uncle Ning."

Ning Shaobai pulled his ahoge hair and raised his hand to knock Xia Mian on the head, "Repaying a favor?"

"Isn't it? You're so cute, I'm remembering you specially." Xia Mian's tone was a little regretful.

Alas, these naughty kids. Dr. Ning's surprise was over.

Ning Shaobai rolled his eyes and took the cloth bag, "Then I really thank you very much."

The three children each had a caterpillar and played with it for almost the entire morning, scaring one or the other out of the blue. The adults only had to look scared to make them laugh uncontrollably.

At noon, I was forced to take a nap on the bed due to summer hibernation.

"Chenchen, aren't you going out to play with dad today? Hurry up, you can see dad after you wake up."

"Xiao Feng, we are going out this afternoon too. Have you forgotten?"

"Huizhu, what time is your appointment with Niuniu?"

The three little guys finally calmed down.

After an hour's nap, the three children woke up one after another. Xia Mian took Xiao Feng and Ning Shaoyun to meet up and prepare to go to the art exhibition together.

Most of them were works of Zhu Yuanhai's closed disciples. Ning Shaoyun specifically told Xia Mian to let Xiaofeng go and take a look.

Although Xiaofeng has not formally started learning painting skills, he has been exposed to art since he was a child, and he has a strong talent in this area.

Huo Xuewen drove them there. He had promised Chenchen that he would take him ice skating, so he took Chenchen out to play today.

I took them to the gallery by the way.

Before getting off the car, Ning Shaoyun was worried and gave Huo Xuewen and Chenchen a few more instructions.

They both listened attentively until Ning Shaoyun was about to get off the car. Huo Xuewen suddenly said, "Xiaoyun, what time do you finish? I'll pick you up."

Ning Shaoyun smiled and said, "No, I can't say for sure. Just have fun with Chenchen."

Huo Xuewen pursed his lips and said nothing more. Xia Mian could see that he was not speechless like before, but was overly cautious, as if he was afraid of displeasing Ning Shaoyun.

Xia Mian sighed secretly and said nothing. After all, this was Ning Shaoyun's private matter. She just needed to support her when Ning Shaoyun needed support.

There were a lot of people at the exhibition. After all, Zhu Yuanhai was a leader in the industry, and his disciples naturally attracted a lot of attention, so many people came to see him.

Ning Shaoyun took Xia Mian and Xiao Feng to the lounge upstairs first. Zhu Yuanhai and several of his disciples were there.

As soon as Xia Mian took Xiao Feng in, there were several shouts of surprise.

"Hey, baby Xiao Feng is here!"

"Junior brother, come to me quickly, it's been a long time since we last met."

"Xiao Feng, please let me hug you. I'm too nervous."

“…”

In almost the blink of an eye, the little guy was surrounded.

Xiao Feng seemed to be accustomed to such scenes. Seeing his senior brothers and sisters reaching out their claws, he quickly ran to Zhu Yuanhai, hugged his legs and asked for help: "Teacher!"

Zhu Yuanhai patted his little head with a smile and said to several disciples, "Stop teasing him. What? Aren't you afraid of embarrassing me now?"

Several senior brothers and sisters laughed:

"Oh, I'm not nervous anymore as long as Xiao Feng is here."

"Let Xiao Feng take a look at our paintings and we'll have an idea."

Although Xiao Feng doesn't understand the picture collection, he has very sharp and rich emotions. In short, any painting that can move him must be good.

"Baby Xiaofeng, let's go downstairs and look at the paintings."

Xiao Feng looked up at Zhu Yuanhai, who said with a smile, "Go ahead, Xiao Feng should take a closer look."

Xiao Feng immediately ran towards Xia Mian quickly, "Auntie!" for fear of being caught by his senior brothers and sisters.

It made everyone laugh.

"Little Junior Brother is becoming more and more clever."

"Exactly. The calf was moving so fast that I couldn't catch it."

"Yeah, he was so good at the beginning."

Xia Mian laughed. Although she was not very familiar with them, she knew them all. During the Chinese New Year this year, when Xia Mian took Xiao Feng to pay New Year's greetings to Zhu Yuanhai, these senior brothers and sisters gave him red envelopes.

Obviously, everyone dotes on him.

But Xiao Feng wanted to be with her aunt more today, so she hugged Xia Mian's legs tightly and said, "Aunt, let's go see the paintings."

Xia Mian picked him up, and several senior brothers and sisters followed, "Let's go, let Xiao Feng give us some 'comments'."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Feng hugged Xia Mian's neck tightly, as if he was afraid that these people would snatch him away.

One of the sisters couldn't help but stroke his ahoge and said, "Don't worry, I won't fight you today. Let's watch next to each other, okay?"

Xia Mian doesn't know much about painting, but Xiao Feng immediately became focused after seeing the painting. He seemed to be able to perceive the wonderful world behind the colors.

Several fellow students followed behind them, watching and discussing in low voices, and then teased Xiao Feng about their feelings when seeing the paintings.

If the child's face is relaxed, happy, sad, or surprised, the owner of the painting will be very happy.

"Look, our Xiao Feng felt it."

"Haha, it's okay, I'm not nervous anymore."

"I think it won't embarrass the teacher."

…

In the middle of the day, everyone had their own things to do and gradually dispersed. Xia Mian took Xiao Feng to watch slowly.

More than two hours passed unknowingly. After looking at the last painting, Xia Mian turned back to look for Ning Shaoyun.

She was surrounded by two young men and seemed a little uncomfortable.

Xia Mian hurried over and saw that one of the young men looked familiar.

The young man said excitedly, "Teacher Xinyun, I didn't expect to meet you here."

He slapped his forehead and said, "Look at what I said. It's perfectly normal for you to come to Professor Zhu's student's art exhibition."

Xia Mian recognized him as Wei Hongqiu, who had admired Ning Shaoyun very much at Old Master Ning’s birthday party.

It’s just that Xia Mian didn’t recognize the young man next to him, and Ning Shaoyun’s discomfort seemed to come from this young man.

The other person was well-dressed and handsome, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses gave him an unpredictable and mysterious aura. However, the gaze he gave Ning Shaoyun was a little... burning?

"So it's Teacher Xinyun. I've heard a lot about you." The young man said, "I'm Ren Xiude..."

Wei Hongqiu couldn't help but ask, "Teacher Xinyun hasn't released any works yet. How did you know about it, Brother Ren?"

Xia Mian couldn't help laughing. This young master was really naive and honest.

Ren Xiude seemed a little embarrassed as well. He looked at Wei Hongqiu helplessly and said to Ning Shaoyun, "Excuse me."

Then I continued to introduce myself, "I love art, so I opened this gallery. I am really honored to attract artists like you."

Ning Shaoyun smiled and said politely, "So you're the owner of the gallery. You're really young and promising."

Ren Xiude smiled and said, "Teacher Xinyun, you are too kind."

He checked his watch and said, "At this time... my friend just opened a French restaurant. The food is very good. I wonder if I would be honored to treat you to afternoon tea."

Wei Hongqiu said excitedly, "If Teacher Xinyun goes, I want to go too!"

Ning Shaoyun said hurriedly, "Sorry, I have some plans later, so I won't be going."

Ren Xiude said regretfully, "Then we can only do it another time. Why don't you leave me your contact information, Teacher Xinyun?"

This skillful pick-up technique made Xia Mian feel strange.

Ning Shaoyun smiled but said nothing, which naturally meant she was refusing.

Ren Xiude laughed and said, "It seems I was presumptuous. I thought we were both in the art circle and would have intersections in the future."

Ning Shaoyun felt embarrassed after hearing this.

"Yeah, we'll meet again if we have the chance anyway," Wei Hongqiu said, "Isn't that what happened between me and Brother Ren?"

Since the two of them weren't familiar with each other, Xia Mian couldn't tell for a moment whether he really meant it or was just trying to help Ning Shaoyun out. She quickly stepped forward, took Ning Shaoyun's arm and said, "Sister Ning, are you okay? It's getting late, we should go."

Ning Shaoyun breathed a sigh of relief and said to Ren Xiude and Wei Hongqiu, "Then I'll take my leave first."

Wei Hongqiu treated his idol with such enthusiasm, "Keep going, Teacher Xinyun. I look forward to seeing your work."

Ren Xiu De's face was full of loss and regret.

This made Ning Shaoyun feel a little uncomfortable, and she hurriedly took Xia Mian and Xiao Feng away.

The three of them went upstairs to say hello to Zhu Yuanhai and the others, then came down to go home. They needed to cross the pedestrian street and get to the main road so that they could take a taxi.

Then when they passed a street, Xiao Feng slowed down and looked around frequently.

Xia Mian was puzzled, "What's wrong?"

Xiao Feng pointed at the antique shop and said, "Aunt, antiques."

aestivation:……

This area is full of galleries and art museums, and there are indeed many wealthy people and collectors coming and going, so this street naturally developed into an antique street.

Ning Shaoyun couldn't help but laugh, "He remembers it really well. Now all his senior brothers and sisters know that he likes antiques."

"Every time Xiao Feng hides from them, as soon as we mention there are antiques, he'll show up obediently."

Xia Mian laughed. She stroked the child's ahoge and asked, "How about we go buy one?"

At least get rid of this obsession, otherwise it would be easy to be deceived, right?

Xiao Feng's eyes lit up instantly, and she said sweetly, "I want to pick up the leak."

Xia Mian didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Okay! Pick up the leak, it's okay if I can't find it."

Ning Shaoyun whispered, "Although this street may seem famous, everyone in Yan City knows that the real antiques can be found in Zhuyu Alley. Here, they're just ripping off some nouveau riche from outside, so it's probably hard to find anything."

Xia Mian also whispered, "That's perfect!" Anyway, the child doesn't know whether it is real or not, as long as it is bought in the antique street, it's fine. Let's get rid of this obsession first, and then tell him slowly when he grows up.

Ning Shaoyun laughed and shook her head.

So Xia Mian took Xiao Feng for a serious stroll. Although they decided to buy one at random, since they had to spend money, they might as well buy one that was nice-looking or practical.

…

"Boss, this one of mine is truly authentic," the man said anxiously. "Another one sold at an auction last year for 100,000 yuan. I only want 20,000 yuan. Seriously, 20,000 yuan will do."

"I was really in a hurry to use the money, so I sold it at a low price."

"Come on, all ten fake antique dealers would say the same thing," the boss said, clearly not buying it. "I'll give you a maximum of two hundred yuan for this bottle."

"That won't do." The man's voice sounded like he was about to cry.

Xia Mian took a curious look and saw a man wearing a military green jacket with patches all over it. He looked quite young, but his face was full of sorrow and his eyes were red.

Several bosses who came out to watch the fun even joked, "This is quite realistic."

"It would be nice to be an actor."

…

I think this kind of thing happens often here.

Xia Mian didn't care at first, but she felt her hand tighten.

It was Xiao Feng who suddenly stopped and stared at the colorful bottle in the man's arms.

Aestivation: ???

Xiao Feng pointed at the bottle and said, "Antique!"

Xia Mian was stunned for a moment, then looked at the bottle, which did look familiar.

Ning Shaoyun also had a vague memory, "What was that enamel vase from the previous dynasty that was at the auction?"

"An enameled jade vase with goose pattern." Xiao Feng said in a baby voice.

Aestivation:!!!

Are all geniuses like this? It's been a few months, but you still remember?

The man holding the porcelain vase's dull eyes suddenly lit up after hearing these words. He looked at Xia Mian excitedly, "You know it!"

No, you may not believe it, but only this little guy knows it.