Zou Yanhong leaned out the window, sniffing around like a hound trying to locate the source of the enticing aroma.
“After living here all these years, I don’t remember anyone in this building having such good cooking skills?” she muttered suspiciously. “Did a new breakfast shop open at the entrance of the Family Compound?”
Just as she was speaking, her husband Yang Yong approached holding his teacup. He poured himself some water from the teapot and watched her with amusement while drinking. “Yanhong, what are you doing? Sniffing around everywhere first thing in the morning.”
After searching for a while, Zou Yanhong finally pinpointed the source of the fragrance. Pointing downstairs, she said, “Xiao Lu’s household downstairs must have hired a new nanny. The cooking smells wonderful—we can even smell it throughout our entire building.”
“That can’t be true,” Yang Yong didn’t believe it at all.
Zou Yanhong moved away from the window. “Come smell for yourself if you don’t believe me. It seems like they’re stewing chicken soup and cooking meat.”
As a mid-level leader in the Public Security Bureau, Yang Yong couldn’t bring himself to do something so childish, afraid his colleagues might see him. Still, he caught a faint whiff of the aroma and shook his head with a wry smile.
“It might be good that Xiao Lu found a new nanny. The previous one was indeed inappropriate. Once when I met her on the road, she actually came up to ask me about Xiao Lu’s monthly salary and what benefits he gets during holidays. If I didn’t know she was a relative, I would have thought she was a spy.”
“What does being a relative matter? Relatives can still cheat you,” Zou Yanhong retorted, having been cheated by relatives herself. She glanced downstairs and sneered, “That old woman asked me too.”
“She ran into me while grocery shopping and hesitantly asked whether Xiao Lu’s apartment belonged to the state or was his own. When I asked why she needed to know, she refused to explain.” Zou Yanhong scoffed lightly. “As if nobody knows—she thinks Xiao Lu is a Golden Turtle Son-in-Law, a Diamond Bachelor, and wants to marry off her niece to him. Really… insatiably greedy.”
Yang Yong took another sip of water and waved his hand. “Forget it, this has nothing to do with us. Let’s not gossip about others’ private matters. It wouldn’t be good if Xiao Lu overheard.”
Noticing his wife’s lingering anger—clearly reminded of being badly cheated by relatives recently—Yang Yong felt a twinge of guilt. He quickly took out the prepared breakfast from the refrigerator with an ingratiating smile. “You should go out now. I’m going to heat up breakfast. The kitchen will get hot once I turn on the stove.”
“Don’t you need to put on makeup? The new store opens today.”
Zou Yanhong shot her husband a glare but quickly remembered the important matter at hand and hurried out of the kitchen.
The couple only had one daughter, currently in her second year of junior high.
Their daughter Yang Yun was introverted and disliked talking to people. Lately, she had become increasingly sluggish in her actions, especially when it came to going to school.
It was almost time for school, yet their daughter still hadn’t gotten up. Zou Yanhong knocked on her door. “Get up! Look what time it is! Hurry and eat breakfast, then Dad will take you to school.”
After saying this, she checked the time and rushed into the bedroom to put on makeup.
The Yang family’s breakfast was quite lavish today—mini meat buns and Changfen bought from an outside breakfast shop, stored in the freezer, ready to eat after steaming.
The family sat around the table. Their daughter, Yang Yun, sniffed the aroma of food in the air and, for once, felt a rare appetite. Hesitantly picking up her chopsticks, she initially reached for a small meat bun but reconsidered and instead picked up a piece of Changfen.
Zou Yanhong looked at her daughter, whose figure had noticeably slimmed down, feeling both heartache and joy. In the past, her daughter had always talked about losing weight, and now she had finally succeeded. Zou Yanhong was happy for her but also worried about how little she ate and her sallow complexion.
“Don’t eat Changfen. That doesn’t have as much nutrition as meat. Have a meat bun instead,” Zou Yanhong said, placing a small meat bun into her daughter’s bowl. She then tapped the bowl to remind her, “Final exams are coming up. You shouldn’t keep dieting—you’re already in great shape now! Focus on your studies. What’s your target ranking for this final exam? Tell me.”
Yang Yong was about to tell his wife to change the subject and avoid bringing this up at the dinner table when he noticed his daughter’s expression suddenly change. Her face turned pale and sallow, and she made a few guttural sounds in her throat, as if trying to hold back the urge to vomit the Changfen she had just eaten. After struggling for a moment, she managed to suppress it.
“I’m done eating,” Yang Yun said, putting down the Changfen she had only taken one bite of, covering her mouth as she ran to the bathroom.
Yang Yong put down his chopsticks. “Why did you have to bring up her grades? Let her eat in peace first.”
Zou Yanhong glanced anxiously toward the bathroom, both worried and annoyed. “You always play the good guy. I was just trying to show some concern.”
“Go check on her. What’s going on? Why has she been vomiting so much lately?”
“Xiao Yun, has your stomach been bothering you lately? I’ve noticed you keep going to the bathroom to retch. Did dieting mess up your stomach? Let’s take a day off today and go to the hospital,” Yang Yong quickly followed her to the bathroom.
His words were met with even louder retching from his daughter.
Breakfast ended after just a few bites, leaving only Zou Yanhong alone at the table. As she smelled the aroma of cooking drifting up from downstairs, her eyes inexplicably reddened.
Perhaps it’s the most ordinary, everyday moments that stir the deepest emotions in people.
…
Downstairs, unaware of what had happened in the Yang family upstairs, everyone was immersed in the delicious aroma of food filling the room.
Lin Xiangxiu entered the kitchen and soon brought out two bowls of chicken noodle soup, each with slightly less noodles than usual. The portion was awkward—one bowl was too much, and two bowls seemed a bit too little.
Fortunately, Lu Xingzhi didn’t mind. He just looked at his sister, Lu Xiaoxia, with a meaningful gaze and said, “I remember when we were kids, someone was criticized by our grandmother for picking out green onions and throwing them into our eldest brother’s bowl. That person said she would never eat green onions in her lifetime.”
“Who! I don’t know,” Lu Xiaoxia buried her head in her noodles, feeling that these noodles were more delicious than any she had eaten before. She had never realized how chewy and fragrant hand-pulled noodles could be, and how satisfying it was to eat noodles in the morning!
As for not eating green onions…
Principles are meant to be broken!
Sensing her cousin’s gaze, Lu Xiaoxia turned her body to the other side, trying to maintain her authority as the older sister. “That was so many years ago, and you still remember it. Just as our eldest brother said, people with good memories like you are the worst. Besides, what’s the big deal if I eat a few bites of your noodles? I was the one who helped you find Xiao Lin in the first place. Don’t be ungrateful!”
Lu Xingzhi leisurely ate his noodles, occasionally pairing them with a bite of Cong Jiang Lao Ji. He ate with immense satisfaction, as if his entire being had been gently smoothed over. Hearing his sister’s words, he was reminded of his childish elder brother and curved his lips into a smile.
The siblings each had a bowl of noodles, and by the end, the noodles, bowls, and plates were all clean—not only was the chicken soup finished, but even the scallions and the last traces of oil in the plate had been scooped up by Lu Xiaoxia.
After finishing the meal, the two sat on the sofa, one on the left and one on the right, their eyes unusually vacant, as if they were dazed from eating.
It was then that Lin Xiangxiu asked about her interview results.
“Mr. Lu, may I work here?” She took off her apron and asked with a cheerful smile.