“Well…”
Zhang Han smiled. When he released her hand, Zhang Han involuntarily kneaded it, which prompted Zi Yan to roll her eyes at him.
“Hum!”
Zi Yan did not know how charming she was at this point. She snorted softly and said in a disgruntled tone, “I’ll go abroad in the afternoon. I don’t think you have prepared any food to see me off.”
“Didn’t we get here just now? I’ll take the ingredients when I go back.” Zhang Han was speechless.
“But you’ve never made my favorite dishes. You aren’t sincere at all.” Zi Yan pursed her lips slightly, which made her both sexy and lovely.
“Look over there.” Zhang Han pointed to the planting area and said, “I planted some vegetables over there a few days ago, including spinach, lettuce, cabbage, mushrooms and some other small vegetables.”
“Oh.” Zi Yan was shocked and lowered her head slightly.
“You can have the hot pot when you come back from your business trip. The sheep over there are Ujimqin Sheep, and they are also one of the best breeds for boiling hot pot.” Zhang Han said casually.
It took a long time to breed the livestock in Mount New Moon after being brought. Only in this way could they possess the best meat quality. Moreover, since Mount New Moon was not a treasured place, it needed time to improve the meat quality. After finishing the second transformation, however, the process would be shortened up to one or two days.
Zhang Han knew hot pot pretty well.
Hot pot, which derived its name from the sound of “plop” when food was put into boiling water, was called “antique soup” in ancient times. It was an original delicacy of our country with a long history and was a kind of food suitable for all ages.
It was especially popular in East Asia and people could boil the ingredients whenever they wanted to eat. It was spicy, salty and fresh, oily but not greasy, and made people sweat ceaselessly.
Typical ingredients to make hot pot contained various kinds of meat, seafood, vegetables, bean products, mushrooms, egg products and so on, which could be eaten after being cooked into boiled clear water or special stock. Sometimes these ingredients were served with seasonings.
Zi Yan preferred Chong Qing hot pot, which was well-known in China and was regarded as a culture. It could also be called cattle tripe hot pot or spicy hot pot, and its main ingredients included beef tripe, duck intestine, etc.
Cattle tripe comprised black tripe and white tripe. It was cooked in a few seconds and tasted both chewy and tender.
After hearing Zhang Han’s words, Zi Yan quivered slightly. When she raised her head after a long time, she was as cold as usual, but her eyes were overwhelmed with warmth and emotion.
“It turned out that… he cared about me.”
Happy time really flew and it was noon soon.
“We should go back.”
Zhang Han took some ingredients, containing several potatoes, some cucumbers and tomatoes.
Zi Yan had eaten a tomato just now. She was indeed at ease about these kinds of green fruits and vegetables. Since she raved about the sweet taste of the tomato, even Mengmeng nibbled less than half of a tomato.
While eating, Zi Yan said casually, “I remember there’s a kind of very small persimmon which is also delicious.”
Her words reminded Mengmeng, who waved her small hands and said, “That’s right. The persimmon is red or yellow. PaPa, Mengmeng also likes it very much.”
“All right, PaPa will plant some for you and your MaMa in a few days, okay?” Zhang Han answered with a smile.
“Great! Mwah, mwah, mwah.”
This was just a small episode in Mount New Moon.
After returning to the restaurant at noon, Zhang Han made braised chicken, spicy and sour potato, cucumber with garlic sauce as well as tomato salad.
Cucumber with garlic sauce was the most common dish in the restaurant. The cucumbers grown in Mount New Moon were extremely fresh and were very popular with people.
However, it was braised chicken that surprised Liang Mengqi and other members. Everyone got some and was filled with joy.
“Ooh… this braised chicken is too fragrant. How can San Huang native chickens be so fragrant? Great…”
Every time Pearson enjoyed food in the restaurant, he would sigh with emotion.
What he did made people who were eating at the white table nearby miserable. They wanted to scold him!
Zhang Han, Zi Yan, Mengmeng and Zhou Fei were also enjoying a generous lunch on the second floor. At the beginning of the meal, Zhang Han put a chicken wing in Mengmeng’s bowl first and Mengmeng directly took it with her small palms to chew it up. In the middle of lunch, Zhang Han put another wing in Mengmeng’s bowl.
“Well… This, this chicken wing is for MaMa.”
Mengmeng directly grabbed the top of the wing and put it in Zi Yan’s bowl.
“Mengmeng doesn’t need to do that. It’s enough for me to eat other meat, so dig in.”
Although Zi Yan also liked chicken wings very much, she still put it in Mengmeng’s bowl. What she did was all because of love.
“Uh-huh, no, MaMa. You should eat one. MaMa also should have a chicken wing.” Mengmeng grabbed the wing, placing it in Zi Yan’s bowl again. She was really firm.
“Okay, then I’ll eat it.” Zi Yan smiled, feeling very gratified.
“PaPa should have one, too.” Mengmeng stared at the plate with her big bright eyes, looking for a chicken wing for PaPa.
“Here it is.” Zi Yan found that there was a chicken wing in the corner of the plate, so she picked it up with chopsticks and put it in Zhang Han’s bowl. Meanwhile, she said, “You’re tired, so just eat one.”
“I don’t need…”
Zhang Han chuckled. When he was about to say something, Zhou Fei stared at Zi Yan’s and Zhang Han’s faces several times and said exaggeratedly,
“Wow! Really? I’m still here. Why do I seem to be neglected by you? Have you displayed your affection to the point of ignoring everything? Gee, it seems that in the morning in Mount New Moon you…”
“Zhou Fei!” Zi Yan put the chicken wing in Zhang Han’s bowl, stared at Zhou Fei and said, “If you don’t want to eat, you’d better go downstairs!”
“Oh! Are you driving me off? It seems that I’m not loved as a gooseberry.” Zhou Fei was not afraid at all but quipped audaciously. .
“If you continue to talk nonsense, I… I will sew your mouth!” Zi Yan snorted softly.
“Hum, troublesome Aunty Feifei, I’m going to sew your big mouth,” Mengmeng mumbled indistinctly because there was meat in her mouth.
“Just eat.” Zhang Han laughed.
“My gosh. You three are ganging up against me. Whooh… I stand alone. Why doesn’t Lili come? I must be bullied without a helper.” Zhou Fei made a strange face. When she saw Zi Yan putting down her chopsticks and being about to move, she quickly turned into a smiling face and said, “Just eat. The chicken cooked by brother-in-law is so delicious, ha, ha.”
After finishing speaking, she started to eat alone. Zhou Fei, however, felt very happy finding that Zi Yan and Zhang Han was getting closer and closer.
If Zhang Han was a jerk who was sorehead and negative as she heard before she returned home, Zhou Fei would be disgusted with him. But she did not expect that Zhang Han was so outstanding. Most importantly, he doted on Mengmeng. All these made Zhou Fei feel that it was best for them to be together.
Zhang Han did not eat the chicken wing in the bowl. He just put it into Mengmeng’s bowl when Mengmeng finished eating her chicken wing.
“No, PaPa should eat.”
But Mengmeng was immovable. Zhang Han helplessly took the chicken wing back and ate it.
In fact, Zhang Han did not like chicken wings very much. But for Mengmeng, chicken wings and drumsticks were the best parts of a chicken to eat.
After lunch, Zhang Han drove Zi Yan and Zhou Fei to the airport.
When they were about to get out of the car, Mengmeng cried in Zi Yan’s arms since she did not want MaMa to leave her. Zhang Han was really worried for he failed to make her stop crying.
Zi Yan was also helpless. After coaxing for more than ten minutes, she made Mengmeng stop crying.
Finding the departure time coming, Zi Yan and Zhou Fei left reluctantly. Mengmeng was going to cry again.
“Mengmeng, stop crying. Your mother will be back in a few days.” Zhang Han said with a sigh.
“Whoop… How many days will MaMa be away? Mengmeng doesn’t want MaMa to go.” Mengmeng pouted and was about to cry again.
“Well, well, don’t cry, Mengmeng. Mengmeng is the cutest. Stop crying and PaPa will take you to the amusement park, okay?” Zhang Han had the presence of mind to divert Mengmeng’s attention.
“Hm?”
Mengmeng stopped crying as expected when he talked about the amusement park. She blinked her big eyes and whispered, “Are we going now?”
“Yes, we’ll go now, but Mengmeng can’t cry. Wipe your tears.”
“Well, Mengmeng won’t cry.” Mengmeng reached out her hands and wiped her tears off.
“Then PaPa will take you to the amusement park. Do you want to sing a song to PaPa?” Zhang Han continued to divert Mengmeng’s attention.
“Ok.” Mengmeng’s voice was still somewhat muffled.
But under Zhang Han’s regulation, Mengmeng sang a few songs. Then the car rang with cheers and laughter again.
They came to the Ocean Park again and Mengmeng wanted to take the sky-scraping wheel once again. She found it fun looking down from such a high place.
“PaPa, it’s so high, ho, ho, ho. There’re lots of little people on the ground.”
“PaPa, erm… Uh… Big Heihei and Little Heihei haven’t been to the amusement park yet. Mengmeng wants to bring them!”
For Mengmeng, the two were her good friends. The amusement park was so interesting that Mengmeng certainly wanted to bring them here.
Zhang Han did not hesitate to hear what she said. He touched Mengmeng’s head with a smile and said,
“Then PaPa will bring you, Dahei and Little Hei to here in a few days, ok?”
“Great, PaPa. It’s very kind of you. Mwah, mwah, mwah. And we should come here with MaMa.”
“Well, I’ll bring her too.”
…
Zhang Han and Mengmeng were having a good time in the amusement park, while in the frontier between China and Laos.
“Golden Triangle is ahead and we can reach General Will’s territory within an hour.”
Ning Xuan said, looking at the mountains ahead. She seemed to be familiar with Golden Triangle.
—————
