Jiang Ning held a steaming cup of milk tea and naturally handed it to Lu Yan: "Come in and sit down. It's cold outside. Have some milk tea to warm yourself up."
Lu Yan reached out and took it: "Thank you."
Zhuang Yan was in charge of taking the gifts she bought from the car inside. She glanced at the two girls sitting on the sofa chatting together, like a gathering of best friends.
After putting down his things, Zhuang Yan went straight to the kitchen and helped Aunt Jiang cook.
“I originally planned to treat you to a meal during the Spring Festival, but Ningning and I were going back to our hometown to pay respects at our ancestors’ graves during that time, and she was going abroad after the New Year.”
“New Year’s Eve counts too, let’s just consider it an early Spring Festival.” Zhuang Yan asked, “Aunt Jiang, aren’t you coming along?”
"I won't go for now. I definitely won't be used to living abroad. Let Ningning go and get used to it first."
Aunt Jiang cooked a lot of elaborate dishes, and not only that, she also made dumplings.
She made a lot of dumplings, and the ones she couldn't finish could be frozen. She even packed a few boxes for Zhuang Yan to take home and eat. Homemade dumplings are healthy because they don't use any fancy technology or heavy cooking.
Aunt Jiang served everyone a bowl of dumplings: "Eating dumplings during the New Year is for good luck. We're supposed to eat glutinous rice balls here, but Ningning doesn't like sweets, so I substituted boiled dumplings." She looked at Lu Yan, "Yan Yan, why don't you try them and see if they suit your taste?"
Lu Yan picked one up; it was her favorite corn and shrimp dumpling flavor.
"tasty."
"Then eat more, but eat slowly, be careful not to burn yourself."
Lu Yan hadn't eaten two when she bit down on something hard. At first, she didn't react. She opened her mouth, and with a soft thud, a silver coin fell into the bowl.
"Did you find a silver coin in your food? We have a custom here that whoever finds a silver coin in their food will have good fortune for the whole year. Did you knock your teeth out?" Aunt Jiang asked with concern.
Lu Yan picked out the silver coins from the bowl: "No."
She felt a sense of family atmosphere for the first time, and her heart warmed. She enjoyed the meal very much. There were four people at the table, and three of them took care of her. Zhuang Yan served her rice, Jiang Ning served her soup, and Aunt Jiang served her vegetables.
Aunt Jiang: "Are you getting used to the food?"
Lu Yan had finished eating. She put down her chopsticks and said earnestly, "It was delicious."
"If you like it, come here often when you have free time. Auntie will cook for you for free."
......
The atmosphere was pleasant and harmonious; the four of them simply gathered together for a meal.
Before leaving, Aunt Jiang put the chicken she had just killed into a bag and asked Zhuang Yan to take it back to make soup.
Once in the car, Zhuang Yan told Lu Yan the truth: "Aunt Jiang must have known where the silver coin was when she made the dumplings. She secretly marked it and put it in your bowl."
"She's such a kind person." In all her years, there have been very few people who have shown Lu Yan kindness without any ulterior motives, but Aunt Jiang is one of them.
She even stole the person her daughter liked... but she didn't care at all.
Lu Yan finally understood why Zhuang Yan had liked Jiang Ning before; a daughter raised by someone like Aunt Jiang couldn't be bad.
Is this place very close to your high school?
"It's a half-hour drive there. What? You want to go and take a look?" Zhuang Yan asked her. The best way to understand a person is to visit the places they lived in as a child. He also really wanted to visit Lu Yan's school.
Let's go.
Lu Yan wore a high ponytail today, looking like a college student, full of youthful energy.
Counting the time in his previous life, Zhuang Yan hadn't been here for more than ten or twenty years. After getting out of the car, he took Lu Yan's hand and strolled around the area.
The school has changed a lot. There are many more snack shops nearby, and several new buildings have been added to the school.
With security guards watching, strangers couldn't just go in. Zhuang Yan could only hold Lu Yan's hand and walk around the area, then find familiar shops from his memory and introduce them to Lu Yan.
"See that fried chicken shop? When I was in school, I often ate there when I was hungry. As soon as class ended, I'd run to the school gate and wave, and if the security guard wouldn't let the students leave, the fried chicken owner would bring the chicken over. Also, their spicy chicken noodles were only three yuan a box, clean and delicious. Ten yuan of pocket money could buy a lot of food. We can hang around a bit longer and then fight with the elementary school kids for it after school..."
The trees outside the school are planted with ginkgo trees, and all the leaves fall off in winter.
Lu Yan suddenly said, "Ginkgo trees are most beautiful in autumn."
Zhuang Yan agreed: "These ginkgo trees have been here since I was in school. In autumn, this whole area turns golden yellow, and on the other side are osmanthus trees..."
“I know, I’ve been here before.”
Zhuang Yan stopped in his tracks: "When?"
Lu Yan looked up: "Seven years ago, I came to see you. You were in your second year of high school then. It was right here, where you could see the playground inside. You were standing on the platform reading your self-criticism. That day, I saw paper airplanes in the sky."
In a corner unknown to anyone, even Zhuang Yan himself was unaware of her existence, yet Zhuang Yan had somehow barged into her heart.
The paper airplane that day flew into many people's hearts, and it also flew into hers.
The 17-year-old Zhuang Yan, full of youthful vigor, inadvertently amazed the 20-year-old Lu Yan.
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