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While waiting for the water to boil, Xiaoguo began to wrap the wontons.

With a wonton skin in hand, she picked up some meat filling with her chopsticks, and placed a prawn on top. Then, she rolled and pinched the edges of the skin. A completed wonton in the shape of a small ear immediately appeared on the bamboo tray.

Halfway through the wrapping, Zhuang Zhuang and Qin Anming happened to come in to wash their hands. They thought it looked fun, so they joined in to help with the wrapping.

“These are prawns? From the sea?”

Qin Anming was wearing a dubious look on his face as he touched the almost transparent prawns in his bowl. Zhuang Zhuang and him had never seen any creatures from the sea. If they had seen a prawn without knowing what it was, they would have thought that it was something dirty, especially with its head and long feelers. Those big eyes looked especially terrifying.

“Yes, I peeled off its shell and head, leaving only its flesh.”

Xiaoguo brought the prawns closer and showed them.

Zhuang Zhuang carefully reached out and touched the prawns in the bowl. When he felt the slimy texture, he immediately retracted his hand in shock. He looked at Xiaoguo with his big frightened eyes, wondering why it felt so strange.

Xiaoguo couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “How cute.”

After the two of them were done studying the prawns, they got ready to wrap the wontons. Xiaoguo patiently showed them the steps. Qin Anming got the hang of it after some time, but Zhuang Zhuang was still trying to figure out the one in his hand.

After a period of time.

“Can you take a look at my wonton?”

Zhuang Zhuang managed to make only one wonton after a long time. He couldn’t wait to show it to the two adults.

Xiaoguo chuckled. Qin Anming was the first to praise Zhuang Zhuang.

Zhuang Zhuang was very excited. This was the first small wonton he had made. He carefully placed it on the small tray that Xiaoguo specially prepared for him. She also promised him that she would cook his wontons separately from the rest.

As he thought about his little wontons, his hands started moving faster. Working on the wontons, one after another, he seemed to be working faster than the two adults.

Xiaoguo glanced at the boy curiously. When she saw what he had done, she quickly stopped him. “Zhuang Zhuang, the wontons will turn into porridge when they go into the pot.”

How are these wontons? They weren’t completely sealed and the meat filling was exposed at the edges. Once they go into the pot, the filling will escape from the skin.

Zhuang Zhuang listened to Xiaoguo and began to slow down. He started going through each step carefully. Although the shapes were still not round, at least the edges were tightly sealed.

When they were almost done, Xiaoguo patted the flour off her hands. There wasn’t much filling left. She would leave the wrapping to them while she started preparing the wonton soup.

The water in the big pot had started boiling. Xiaoguo let it continue to boil while she went ahead to heat up oil in a pot with a bowl of shrimp heads in her hand. She added the shrimp heads into the pot and stir-fried them until the shrimp oil was released. After that, she scooped out the shrimp heads and threw them away. Hot water and salt was added to the pot for boiling the dumplings. Just like that, a simple pot of wonton soup was made. Before serving, she will add spring onions and sesame oil to the soup.

Of course, it would be even better if there were seaweed and shrimp skins. She had forgotten to ask the seafood seller if she had those. If the seller had those items, she could buy some back. She wondered if she could possibly meet any seafood sellers in the future.

On the other side, Qin Anming and Xiaoguo were done with the wontons. They asked Xiaoguo if she wanted to cook them.

“Yes, I will.”

Xiaoguo lifted the lid of the pot and let Qin Anming put the wontons in. She stirred the pot gently with a spatula to prevent the wontons from sticking to the pot.

When the soup was almost ready, Xiaoguo took out three large bowls and scooped the wontons out with a skimmer. She dropped them into the bowls and added boiling soup to them. After which, she added a handful of spring onions and a few drops of sesame oil. Three bowls of piping hot wontons were ready to be served.

The rest of the wontons were scooped onto a plate and placed on the table.

Now that the pot was empty, Xiaoguo went on to cook the wontons that Zhuang Zhuang made. He was getting impatient. From the moment the wontons were dropped into the pot, he could barely keep still. He kept hanging around the stove to keep watch. When he saw Qin Anming carrying bowls of wontons out, he was furious. Why were his wontons taking so long to cook?

Xiaoguo also prepared a big bowl for Zhuang Zhuang. Although he was small, his appetite was big. She scooped all the wontons into his bowl and added soup. However, there were more wontons than soup.

The three of them sat at the table with a large bowl of wonton soup placed in front of each of them. Other than Xiaoguo, Qin Anming finished up three big bowls. Even Zhuang Zhuang ate up one and a half bowls of wontons.

Looking at the table, Xiaoguo was quite satisfied. There was only a plate of wontons left. She could fry them for breakfast the next morning.

There was nothing left of the soup that was made from prawn heads. Xiaoguo washed the bowls with hot water that was used to cook the dumplings. She rinsed them again with clean water and wiped the table.

Although she was done cleaning up, she was not in a hurry to return to the house. Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve—so all the ingredients required for the reunion dinner must be taken out. Especially the frozen meat and seafood in the fridge must be defrosted in advance.

After placing all the frozen meat and seafood in a basin, Xiaoguo returned to the house.

Looking around the house, she took out a brush and a piece of rice paper. She sat at the desk and began to list out the menu for dinner the next day. Once the dishes were written down, she wouldn’t have to worry about missing anything out.

First, she wrote down the hot dishes that were more time-consuming to make. These would be made the first thing tomorrow. Those dishes were braised pork shoulder, roasted chicken, steamed grouper, sweet and sour pork ribs, and plum pickled pork.

Next were the stir-fry dishes. There was fried squid with green onions, braised prawns, shredded pork with Beijing sauce, stir-fried celery with nuts, and spicy stir-fried octopus.

For the cold dishes, she would make some vegetable salad, sour and spicy shredded chicken, and century egg tofu.

At this point, Xiaoguo counted the dishes. The total number of dishes should add up to an even number for New Year’s Eve dinner, it would be inauspicious to have an odd number. There were a total of thirteen dishes here. But the number fourteen is inauspicious, so she could only make sixteen dishes. Sixteen is an auspicious number.

After thinking for a while, she added three fried dishes to her list. They were sweet potato balls, bean paste pancakes, and brown sugar glutinous rice cakes.

Fortunately, she had the glutinous rice cake that Mrs. Yang had given her some time ago.

She counted a few more times and found that sixteen dishes were just right. After confirming that there were no mistakes, she placed the list on the table.

Rubbing her stiff shoulders, Xiaoguo thought to herself that she would have to get up early tomorrow to pack.

As soon as she stood up, she heard crackling sounds coming from outside. Xiaoguo felt a tinge of joy. “Why are there people lighting firecrackers today?”

Zhuang Zhuang and Qin Anming also heard the commotion and came out of the back room. They called out to Xiaoguo as they walked out of the room.

The three of them walked to the courtyard and listened to the commotion outside. They were tempted to check things out.

Zhuang Zhuang took the lead and looked at Xiaoguo. Qin Anming did the same.

“Mother?”

“Xiaoguo…”

“…” The corners of Xiaoguo’s mouth twitched. She felt extremely helpless. No matter the age, everyone likes fireworks. “Let’s light some.”

Since she had bought a lot of firecrackers, they should just indulge themselves.

As soon as Xiaoguo said that, Qin Anming and Zhuang Zhuang laughed out loud and immediately ran to the back room. When they came out, each of them was carrying a bunch of firecrackers.

The trauma that Xiaoguo had encountered as a child resurfaced in her heart, so she subconsciously ran to the door. Once the firecrackers are lit, she will run back into the house.

“Zhuang Zhuang, are you able to light it?”

Qin Anming looked at Zhuang Zhuang, who was eager to give it a try, and felt a little amused. “Could that little person handle it?”

Zhuang Zhuang did not speak. He skillfully opened the torch and blew on it. When the torch started burning, he raised his eyebrows and looked at Qin Anming. “Of course!”

Though he had never lit one himself, he had seen others do it before!

Qin Anming smiled and nodded. Then, he took a pile of firecrackers and moved them further away. He was going to let Zhuang Zhuang light them up first.

After Zhuang Zhuang watched his uncle leave, he felt a little uncertain. After all, this was his first time lighting firecrackers. What if his legs went weak…?

A mother knows her son best. Xiaoguo looked at the back view of the boy and knew what was up. It seemed that she had to do something about it.

And so…

“Brother!”

Xiaoguo wasn’t going to do it herself. She would let Qin Anming do it.

Qin Anming didn’t go far. He just moved the firecrackers to one side for safety reasons. Just in case the lighted firecrackers caused the rest to burn as well.

Hearing Xiaoguo’s voice, Zhuang Zhuang was stunned and looked at her in embarrassment. Xiaoguo didn’t show any signs of laughing at him. She just brushed it aside and asked Zhuang Zhuang to come over and watch his uncle.

Qin Anming was always by his side. As soon as he was summoned, he immediately took the torch and said, “Get ready!”

Xiaoguo and Zhuang Zhuang raised their hands to cover their ears at the same time and grinned. They nodded at him to indicate that they were ready.

As soon as he lit up the firecrackers, Qin Anming ran over to join them. He covered his ears and looked at the firecrackers with a nostalgic look in his eyes.

It had been a long time since he had played with firecrackers. The last time he lit firecrackers was when Xiaoguo got married. Thinking about it, it had been a long time since then…