Chapter 415: Chapter 415: Seafood Feast
Huang Huifen went to the kitchen to check, saw a lot of seafood, and heard it was sent from Qing City early in the morning, many of them still alive. Huang Huifen ordered crabs, abalone, and octopus, fresh beef, plus pig trotters, paired with some vegetarian dishes, and a rice fish soup. The meal was quite good.
When the dishes were served, there were steamed red crabs, abalone braised in red sauce with a rich aroma, quail eggs inside, white-cut octopus with a special sauce on the side, beef stir-fried, garlic-flavored pig trotters, beans fried with pickled vegetables, stir-fried hollow vegetables, oyster omelet, minced meat eggplant, and rice fish soup.
"Mom, is this fresh seafood?" Baozi saw fresh seafood for the first time. When he was in Jing City, he ate seafood too, but it was all dried goods, used for soup, porridge, and also stir-frying.
Huang Huifen had heard her son talk about Baozi’s intelligence and knew that for her son’s recent event, Baozi made a major contribution. She hurried to pick up food for Baozi, using unused chopsticks to pick up the tender abalone, oyster omelet, carefully shell the crab, pick out the tender white crab meat, and scoop a bowl of rice fish soup for Baozi to go with his meal.
"Grandma Huang, I’m full, you eat too." Baozi said seriously, holding his chopsticks.
The more Huang Huifen looked at Baozi, the more she liked him, nodded repeatedly, picked up more food for Baozi, and then started eating herself.
With Huang Huifen taking care of Baozi, Yi Roujing didn’t need to attend to him, eating crab happily by herself. She hadn’t eaten crab for a long time, her favorite was the big crab claw, the crab claw meat was the tastiest. Yi Roujing patiently shelled and bit it, sharing some with Baozi, crab shells were cold, Yi Roujing only had one herself.
Seeing Yi Roujing’s nimble crab shelling technique, Huang Huifen knew she must be from a well-off family.
The Dai siblings had eaten a few times before and were proficient, but Guo Xiangxiang was not. It was her first time, watching Yi Roujing’s technique, she slowly fumbled, occasionally poked by the hard crab shell, just as she wanted to give up, a small plate was pushed in front of her, containing tender white crab meat and golden crab roe, all shelled by Yang Junshuai.
Yang Junshuai smiled warmly, eyes gentle, took the poorly-shelled crab from Guo Xiangxiang and began shelling it. Seeing this, Guo Xiangxiang flashed a bright smile at Yang Junshuai, then started enjoying the crab. The tender and sweet meat made her eyes light up.
Huang Huifen forgot to pick up food, holding her chopsticks, eyes fixed on her warmly smiling son, her eyes brimming with warmth. Her biggest worry was her son’s marriage. Actually, with their family’s status, many girls would still want to marry in even knowing about her son’s illness.
But Yang Junshuai didn’t agree himself. He said he didn’t want to burden a girl, knowing he was sick and still marrying would be disrespectful. He had already burdened his family and didn’t want to burden others.
Huang Huifen was heartbroken hearing this, but she knew her son was right. Apart from family, it’s difficult for others to wholeheartedly care for him, and they can’t be expected to.
But now seeing her son getting along so well with the girl his age, Huang Huifen’s heart was moved again, hoping Mr. Chu’s medicine could make her son a normal person, able to date, marry, have his own children, and manage his own small family.
Thinking of this, Huang Huifen looked at Guo Xiangxiang with burning eyes. Though there was a sense of assistance, her son was usually very distant with girls, helping a girl shell a crab was extraordinary. She, as a mother, had never enjoyed such treatment, it was wonderful, it seemed her son understood life.
Guo Xiangxiang was happily eating, suddenly feeling a scorching gaze, looked up to meet Huang Huifen’s burning eyes, a little confused, she only smiled back, making Huang Huifen’s gaze even more intense.
Everyone was very satisfied with the meal, Yi Roujing suddenly wanted to go to a coastal city, stay a while, so she could eat fresh seafood every day.
Even Baozi ate half a bowl more than usual, making his small belly round, then the group followed Huang Huifen for a walk nearby to digest.
Huang Huifen got Yi Roujing’s contact details, thinking of sending them some dried seafood in the future, of course, under the guise of exchanging information about Yang Junshuai’s status.
When they left the Huang Family, it was already dark. They first sent Guo Xiangxiang to the small mansion on Recovery Street, Madam Guo was very happy. It was her granddaughter’s first time dining out, having her own friends, not just caring for herself.
Madam Guo was very satisfied with the aunt who cooked and cleaned for the Gu Family siblings, so she paid a bit more, asking her to also take care of cooking and cleaning for her and her granddaughter. Guo Xiangxiang had no objections.
Agreeing on the meeting time for the next day, Yi Roujing and the others returned to the compound. Dai Chunsheng and Xu Ancheng were not back yet, Li Honghua and Li Hongying had already had dinner.
"Roujing, when will you invite your friend and her grandma over for dinner?" Li Honghua asked, "Wait till Monday when your uncle and aunt are all working, there’s no one at home, they are welcome even if they’re here."
Yi Roujing agreed upon hearing this.
After Yi Roujing washed up and lulled Baozi to sleep, Xu Ancheng returned.
"I’ll wash up first." Xu Ancheng pecked Yi Roujing, took some clothes, and went to the bathroom, coming out without the smell of smoke and alcohol.
"Did you drink?" Yi Roujing smelled a faint scent of alcohol from Xu Ancheng’s mouth.
"Yeah, it was unavoidable." Xu Ancheng said somewhat helplessly, he didn’t like smoking, but going out for socializing with Dai Chunsheng, some people offering or him offering a drink was unavoidable, after all, he was younger and brought by Dai Chunsheng, he had to consider Dai Chunsheng’s face.
Xu Ancheng had his own purposes, connections were important, if he wanted to expand his business later, these occasions couldn’t be avoided.
"Don’t worry, I didn’t drink much. Although they were elders, they were mindful of Dad’s status and didn’t dare let me drink too much." Xu Ancheng explained with a smile.
"Why was Chang Xiuming here too?" Yi Roujing asked.
"The Chang Family has a connection with the Wang Family." Xu Ancheng said, "Mayor Wang’s sister married Chang Xiuming’s third uncle, Chang Xiuming came this time on business."
"Tomorrow, Xiangxiang and I are going to the Department Store." Yi Roujing said.
Xu Ancheng got into bed and hugged her, "I’m off tomorrow, I’ll go with you."
"No need." Yi Roujing refused without hesitation. Women shopping, what would a man do there, besides, Guo Xiangxiang didn’t have a partner yet, she didn’t want to show public displays of affection.
Xu Ancheng felt somewhat aggrieved, but couldn’t say much, just firmly sealed the lips before him.
