On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the Zhou family had a grand reunion dinner, enjoying a lively and joyful meal together.
Zhou Mingyuan, Zhou Qingyang, and Sheng Xiping sat together, the three of them opened two bottles of good wine, and chatted while drinking.
It was rare for Zhou Qingyang to talk about his time in the army, and everyone listened with great interest.
Even Sheng Xinhua, who was focused on eating, kept staring at his uncle, scrutinizing him. No one knew what the child had understood.
"You little rascal, what can you understand? Come on, eat your food, Grandma will peel a piece of ribbonfish for you."
The "knife fish" that Wang Chunxiu mentioned is actually ribbonfish, which is what the locals call it.
This was a hospital benefit this year. I didn't even cook it on New Year's Eve, but I took it out today and fried a plate of it to treat Sheng Xiping and the others.
Wang Chunxiu specially removed all the bones from the knife fish, leaving only a few pieces of fish meat, and placed them in Sheng Xinhua's bowl.
Seeing that Sheng Xinhua wasn't eating and was staring intently at his uncle, they smiled and urged their grandson to eat.
Sheng Xinhua was listening with great interest when he looked down and found that there was more delicious food in his bowl.
The kid didn't care about anything else, he just grabbed it and put it in his mouth.
There are many fish in the river of Qianchuan Forest Farm. Sheng Xi'an and Sheng Xikang often go to catch them. It can be said that Sheng Xinhua has eaten a lot of freshwater fish, but he has never eaten saltwater fish before.
After the ribbonfish is marinated to absorb the flavors, it is deep-fried until the outer skin is crispy and the fish meat inside is tender.
Sheng Xinhua tasted it and thought it was quite delicious. He chewed it a couple of times and swallowed it, then stuffed the rest of the fish in the bowl into his mouth.
“This child has a real appetite, he’ll eat anything. Here, let Grandma cut off another piece for him.”
As an elder, I like children like Sheng Xinhua who love to eat the most.
Seeing that Sheng Xinhua liked to eat knife fish, Wang Chunxiu quickly peeled two more pieces for him, put them in his bowl, and told him to eat slowly.
"Come on, daughter, you should eat too. It's good to eat more seafood."
"The company gave us half a fish this year. Take some more with you when you go back." Wang Chunxiu smiled and put two pieces of fish on Zhou Qinglan's plate.
Zhou Qinglan called home a while ago to tell her family that she was pregnant again, and Zhou Mingyuan and his wife knew about it.
The couple were indeed a little worried about their daughter's health, but the pregnancy couldn't be blamed solely on Sheng Xiping.
Fortunately, Zhou Qinglan was in good health, and this time she wasn't too overwhelmed, which relieved the Zhou couple.
"Okay, then I won't stand on ceremony with Mom."
Zhou Qinglan was quite straightforward; she didn't bother with formalities and simply nodded in agreement.
The mother and daughter hadn't seen each other for a while, so they naturally had to have a heart-to-heart talk.
Meanwhile, Zhou Mingyuan, Zhou Qingyang, and Sheng Xiping were getting more and more into it, chatting about all sorts of things.
The meal lasted quite a while, and by the end Zhou Mingyuan was a bit tipsy. Zhou Qingyang, who had trained in the army, didn't seem to mind and even kept pulling Sheng Xiping to drink more.
"That's enough, don't drink so much. Didn't you see Xinhua rubbing his eyes because he was sleepy?"
"Hurry up and finish your drinks, I need to get Xinhua to sleep." Wang Chunxiu spoke up from the other end.
If you want to talk about anything else, Zhou Mingyuan would definitely have something to say. His son and son-in-law are both here during the New Year, so what's wrong with having a few more drinks?
But as soon as his grandson was mentioned, Zhou Mingyuan immediately lost his temper. "Yes, yes, that's enough. We're having a party tomorrow, so we can drink more then."
As he spoke, Zhou Mingyuan finished the little bit of wine in his glass.
Zhou Qingyang and Sheng Xiping each had a little less than half a glass left, so they clinked their glasses together and downed the rest in one gulp.
After that, the two young men ate another bowl of rice before they were finally finished.
While Zhou Qinglan was tidying up the table, she held Sheng Xinhua in her arms and gently patted and soothed him until he fell asleep.
After putting Sheng Xinhua to sleep and tidying up the kitchen, Wang Chunxiu had nothing else to do, so she sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) and chatted with Zhou Qinglan.
As for the three men who were drinking, Wang Chunxiu sent them to the west room, where they fell fast asleep.
When her daughter and son-in-law rarely come back, Wang Chunxiu feels she can't get enough of them.
However, she still has a lot to do; her family is having a dinner party tomorrow, so she needs to prepare the dishes quickly.
Zhou Qinglan naturally couldn't bear to see her own mother busy herself, so she asked her younger brother to watch over the sleeping Sheng Xinhua while she went to the kitchen to prepare the vegetables for tomorrow.
The mother and daughter chatted as they worked, and before they knew it, it was dark.
The next day, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, was also the day Zhou Mingyuan and Wang Chunxiu hosted a dinner party.
Zhou Mingyuan invited several leaders from the bureau and their families over, while Wang Chunxiu also invited the hospital's president and several directors.
"Honey, something seems off today. Why is Director Chen from the hospital bringing his daughter?"
How old is his daughter? She's probably not married yet, right? What's Mom up to?
Sheng Xiping, who was supposed to be chatting with Zhao Yongsheng and the others, took a moment to go to the kitchen to find Zhou Qinglan and asked in a low voice.
Zhou Qinglan didn't say anything when she heard this, but just lowered her head and smiled.
Although her mother hadn't mentioned it to her, Zhou Qinglan could more or less guess that there was definitely more to today's meal than met the eye.
From the way Zhou Qingyang's parents spoke yesterday, you could tell they were anxious about his marriage.
Therefore, the fact that a young woman of similar age and unmarried status suddenly appeared at the Zhou family's dinner party today is quite obvious.
"Don't make wild guesses. They're all Mom's colleagues from work, and they have a good relationship with her."
It's Chinese New Year, let's all come and have some fun. They've brought their daughter, how can we refuse?
Zhou Qinglan glared at Sheng Xiping, not allowing him to talk nonsense.
Zhou Mingyuan and his wife definitely didn't tell their son about this beforehand, and even the girl probably didn't know what was going on.
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