After waking Liu Qianqian and the other girls upstairs, each carrying a large bowl of sweet fermented rice soup with meatballs, Liu Qianqian absolutely adored this cute and adorable dessert.
They slurped them down one after another. Liu Yue'e watched with great delight.
"Qianqian, eat more if you like it. Auntie made a lot. This dress is so cute." Liu Yue'e said, touching Liu Qianqian's Minnie pajamas.
Liu Xiaoli initially felt it was a bit presumptuous for Liu Qianqian to come downstairs like that, but Shen Fang said, "We're all family here, so please be comfortable at home." After thinking about it, she realized that made sense and nodded in agreement.
Before long, Liu Qianqian finished a bowl of sweet fermented rice soup with meatballs. She picked up the large bowl, looked at Liu Yue'e, and said with a cute expression, "Auntie, I want another bowl."
Liu Yue'e was instantly captivated, charmed, enamored, and fell in love. Just kidding, the 15-year-old Liu Tianxian, with her Wang Yuyan persona, has charmed men, women, young and old alike.
Most importantly!!! After all these years, someone has finally come to appreciate her cooking skills!!!
It's not that Liu Yue'e's cooking skills are bad, but rather that Shen's father's cooking skills are too good. She basically doesn't have to lift a finger. Shen's father is indeed the kind of person who is born to cook, and he is a very good chef. Back then, it was because Shen's father's cooking was so delicious that Liu's mother decided that she had to win over this man. Just based on this dish, it would be such a pity if she couldn't eat it in the future.
I only cook occasionally and often mess it up. Plus, with the chef's help, I can count the number of meals I've cooked over the years on my fingers. It's mostly just making soup or something, and sometimes I even burn it. Today, I'm doing an exceptional performance.
"Mom, it tastes so good today, it's really strange, there's no off-flavor." Liu Yue'e gave her son a quick glare as he tried to dissuade her.
Shen Fang quickly shut his mouth.
"Oh, this is the new bride coming to visit. Grandma, did you cook these sweet fermented rice balls for her? Give me a bowl." Shen Xiaofeng walked into the living room with a smile, holding a list in his hand.
"Uncle, this is a list of newlyweds and newborns in our village this year. Take a look."
"Then there's this year's welcoming of the gods. I've invited the Yingge Dance Troupe from Chaoshan, and also the most famous lion dance troupe and dance team from Guangzhou. We can start intensive training tomorrow. We'll definitely make it a lively and festive occasion on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Let the other villages see the grandeur of our Shenjia Village."
Liu Yue'e served Shen Xiaofeng a bowl.
Liu Qianqian asked curiously, "What is welcoming the gods?"
Shen Fang nodded: "Although we live in a scientific society, we, the people of Guangdong, cannot abandon our Chinese culture. Welcoming the gods is a kind of collective worship ceremony for deities, which is very popular in Guangdong and Fujian. You could also call it welcoming the Lord. The gods we welcome are different in each place. For example, people in Fujian tend to believe in Mazu. In Guangdong, we believe in a variety of gods. My family believes in Zhenwu the Great, while most people in my village believe in Guan Yu or Zhao Gongming. It's not very unified. But you can all see it on the first night of the lunar new year. This time it's a unified collective activity, and more than 10 nearby villages will come to participate."
Shen Kun smiled and said, "You'll see for yourselves then. It'll be very lively. The last time I participated was several years ago. My third great-uncle and I even ran away to get the shoes for welcoming the gods."
Upon hearing this, Shen Fang recalled that back then, in order to be the first to offer incense, he dragged Shen Kun, Shen Lanlan, Shen Xiaogang, and a few others, and they squeezed into the ancestral hall like madmen, tearing their clothes in the process.
This could be called feudal superstition, but many things defy scientific explanation. How can one explain their own rebirth? Therefore, Shen Fang firmly believes in the existence of deities, and that's all that matters!
"Um, Uncle, why doesn't Lanlan call me? I miss her terribly," Shen Xiaofeng said, rubbing his hands together.
Shen Fang laughed: "It was you who insisted on sending him away in the first place."
"Well, I was just thinking of asking you to keep an eye on her. She's my own daughter, my only child."
"I heard you found another girlfriend? Where is she? Why don't you bring her over to meet us? What does she do for a living? How old is she?" Shen Fang offered Shen Kun a cigarette.
Shen Kun scratched his head a little embarrassedly: "I'm still in contact with them, and they haven't agreed yet, so how can I bring them out?"
Shen Qin chimed in, "It's that female teacher our school hired, from Shandong, 32 this year, never married, decent-looking, but a bit odd-tempered. But she's a good person, more than enough for Xiao Feng. If you ask me, Shen Xiao Feng, why are you being so indecisive? If you really like her, just be straightforward and get her in one fell swoop."
"You are widowed, and she is unmarried, a 'leftover woman' in her late twenties. You two are a perfect match."
"Wow, 32 years old and still unmarried???" Shen Fang became interested.
What a joke! The age of marriage in Shenjia Village is less than 20. To be precise, people in this era and society get married very early. Some of them still look like children, and their kids are old enough to run errands. There are no such things as minors or marriage regulations. At most, they are just too young to get a marriage certificate.
Privately, as long as both sets of parents agree and the couple wasn't abducted, they're considered husband and wife after holding a wedding banquet. Especially in rural areas, it doesn't matter if you have a marriage certificate; you're considered a real couple if you've held a wedding banquet.
So being 32 and still unmarried is really quite rare.
Liu Yue'e, Liu Xiaoli, and others also looked on with gossip. Only Man Shen could understand, but she was different. She was a big star, and she had been married before.
It is indeed a bit outrageous for an ordinary 32-year-old woman not to be married.
"Xiaofeng, have you looked into this? 32 years old and still unmarried? There must be a reason. Don't act impulsively just because you like him. You need to understand everything clearly before you do," Liu Yue'e advised.
Shen Xiaofeng scratched his head: "I know all that. The reason she doesn't want to get married is because her family is poor. She has three younger brothers. She's from Henan, where there's a strong preference for sons over daughters. Her requirement for marriage is that she must buy houses for her three younger brothers."
Good heavens, what a brother-obsessed woman!
Upon hearing this, everyone present fell silent. This situation was indeed quite complicated; one wrong move and the family could fall apart. Most people wouldn't want to choose such a family.
Shen Fang lit a cigarette: "You really like it?"
Shen Xiaofeng nodded: "She's a good person, virtuous, capable, and thrifty. I can also tell she's a beautiful person, but she's trapped by her family. Most importantly, she looks a lot like Lanlan's mother."
Shen Fang shrugged. "It's a matter of one willing to give and the other willing to receive: 'Why bother with anything else? Just marry him directly. This amount of money is nothing to you. You two are already in love. He's telling you this because he's waiting for your response. As long as his family doesn't become bloodsuckers, I don't think he has any aesthetic problems.'"
Liu Yue'e nodded in agreement: "Xiaofeng, you need to make this clear. You may be rich, but can you handle three bloodsuckers? Don't forget that your fortune is to be left to Lanlan!"
There was nothing Liu Yue'e could do. She didn't care about Shen Xiaofeng's new wife, but Shen Xiaofeng's money definitely had to be left to Shen Lanlan; she couldn't let another woman squander it.
Shen Xiaofeng nodded: "I'm just thinking about how to tell her."
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