Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“The Tangyuan prepared by you is really very delicious,” Yuan Zhou ate another two pieces of Tangyuan and said earnestly.
“Haha. As long as you like it, Little Boss Yuan. Anyway, Little Jiang also said it taste good,” the granny said very happily.
That Little Jiang mentioned by her was naturally her adopted grandson. It seemed that they also got together today and had a family reunion dinner.
“Yeah, I like it very much.” Yuan Zhou nodded his head and then continued eating the Tangyuan in the box.
“Boss Yuan, you are really talented in cooking.”
“It’s fairly cold in Chengdu during the winter. Boss Yuan, you must keep warm.”
“Did you buy long thermal underwear?”
Yuan Zhou ate every mouthful of Tangyuan earnestly and also listened to the granny very carefully.
“Even if you do well in cooking, you must take care of yourself. Are you able to handle getting up so early at 5:30?” the granny asked with a caring tone.
“My mom always complained that I got up late before, but now I don’t sleep so much anymore.” There was still a piece of Tangyuan in Yuan Zhou’s mouth. Though he had eaten 16 before that, he kept feeling that he had two stomachs and neither of them felt full.
After a few more words, the granny no long said anything and just watched Yuan Zhou eat. Before she came to send Tangyuans to him, she had neither told him in advance nor inquired if the restaurant was opened today. She just saw Yuan Zhou cleaning his restaurant in the morning and thus put some more Tangyuans in the pot when she cooked them. Then, she came around the time when dinnertime ended in the evening.
In her opinion, Yuan Zhou was supposed to be free at this time of day. And it was also very good to eat some Tangyuans to warm his stomach.
While Yuan Zhou was eating the Tangyuans earnestly, Wu Hai, who had managed to snatch a lot of Tangyuans and felt satisfied, also returned to his own room. The room was chaotic and cluttered. The scraps of paper, pigments, and drawing boards were all over the room.
Strictly speaking, Wu Hai’s room wasn’t that chaotic. It just lacked some flavor of life and felt like nothing by an art studio. However, Wu Hai indeed lived right there.
Wu Hai’s parents were also artists of minor celebrity status in China. When Wu Hai was 13 years old, however, they went out for painting and, unfortunately, both fell down the cliff, leaving Wu Lin and him alone. His younger sister Wu Lin played the part of their parents and took care of Wu Hai until they grew up.
It might be because they saw the movie Charging Out Amazon that they had one thing in common. Both of them worshipped the soldiers, so their dreams were also to become a soldier. Nonetheless, their parents expected them to become artists who were more brilliant than themselves.
Therefore, Wu Hai chose to carry his parents’ dream on the back and started to learn drawing. He practiced drawing so earnestly that he began to like it. Now Wu Hai became the most well-known young artist in the country while Wu Lin also made her dream come true and became a soldier.
In this aspect, Wu Hai was afraid of Wu Lin. Wu Lin had awesome martial arts and frequently dealt with him using the shoulder throw. Apart from that, she had called the shots ever since they were little. Therefore, he was used to being afraid of her…
Wu Hai felt quite delighted, not only because he acquired a lot of Tangyuans, but also for the matter that he had just done.
He picked up the canvas from the ground and paved it nicely. Different from others who first made a sketch on paper before drawing the painting finally on the canvas, Wu Hai painted freely. He just liked the feeling of the painting brush touching the paper.
He turned off his phone and the computer. What he needed was the absolute silence.
A sketch and a portrait. Wu Hai began to draw up a blueprint with various drawing skills. On compositions of the picture, Wu Hai was quite persistent.
Just like the painting of People Passing by A Small Restaurant he once drew. He tried again and again on the compositions of the picture, the position, and proportion of each individual.
Drawing was an art. Art couldn’t be calculated precisely, but could be tried and experimented.
On the Chinese New Year’s Eve, an individual worked on a picture filled with dozens of Tangyuans.
In the meantime, it was quite boisterous in Zheng Jiawei’s family. They lived in Chongqing and Wu Hai had given him his new year holiday ten days before. Therefore, Zheng Jiawei had stayed for ten days at home. Now, they were watching the Spring Festival Gala after dinner.
The Spring Festival Gala was a must on the evening of Chinese New Year’s Eve, but it was also becoming worse and worse. It was actually a habit rather than an enjoyment to watch it now.
Before, life wasn’t so good and there weren’t so many delicious dishes on the dining table, but it was joyful to sit in front of the TV and watched various programs of the Spring Festival Gala.
Though the Spring Festival Gala wasn’t so good as before, the beautiful memories from before could compensate that. Thus, they would grumble every year but still watch it.
“Jiawei, it’s so late. Where are you going?” Zheng Jiawei’s mom asked her son when she saw Zheng Jiawei take his car keys and prepare to go out.
“Mom, give me a few sections of the sausages and a small piece of preserved pork,” said Zheng Jiawei.
His mom didn’t know why his son wanted those things, but she still took them out and handed them to Zheng Jiawei.
“Mom, I’m going out now for something. If it’s too late, I won’t come back tonight.”
After he finished his words, Zheng Jiawei took the sausages and preserved pork in his hand and went out. He drove out the underground parking garage and headed for the exit of the city.
On Chinese New Year’s Eve, tolls were free, congestion was non-existent, and cars on the highway were few. This was the reason why Zheng Jiawei could still drive quickly yet maintain a safe and steady pace.
Yuan Zhou’s restaurant.
Having eaten the granny’s Tangyuans, Yuan Zhou sent her back to her home. But when he returned to the restaurant, he felt something was off.
He felt that there were rocks in his stomach, that was how full he was.
With a dull complexion on his face, Yuan Zhou suddenly realized that he had eaten a total of 24 pieces of Tangyuans today, including his own 16 and those sent by the granny.
Right now, he was nervous about nothing but Tangyuan.
He lay down on the seat and felt a stomach ache even when he tried to turn himself over. He even didn’t have any strength to close the door and go upstairs. Not long after that, however, a person came by.
The arrogant clothing, prideful complexion, and complacent movement style had obviously indicated that it was Chu Xiao.
“Tangyuan is one of the representative snacks of China with a long history. Tangyuans originate from the Song Dynasty. AT that time, the Ming Province started to eat a new type of food made from black sesame, pig oil and rough sugar as base ingredients. First, grind the black sesame into powder form, then mix the pig oil, and rough sugar along with it and shape them into a ball. The outside would be molded by glutinous rice.
Chu Xiao walked up to Yuan Zhou and immediately brought out those tediously long words, regardless of the Yuan Zhou paralyzed state. After he finished his words, he left immediately, firmly and neatly.
Yuan Zhou watched Chu Xiao’s back become smaller and smaller and in the end, disappeared.
So why did Chu Xiao come back to say those things that could be from Baidu for?
After he rested for half an hour, Yuan Zhou closed the door and went upstairs.
About three hours later, Wu Hai’s door was knocked by somebody. It wasn’t anybody else, but his agent Zheng Jiawei.
“Who’s that?”
As soon as Wu Hai opened the door, Zheng Jiawei appeared in his vision. What followed was a paragraph of caring words in a soft voice.
“Are you all right, Little Hai? Did you eat anything on Chinese New Year’s Eve? Don’t tell me you didn’t eat anything.”
“Last time, you told me that Boss Yuan might not open the restaurant on that day.”
“I’m all right. I even ate 18 pieces of Tangyuan today.” Wu Hai’s answer was undoubtedly very complacent.
After all, the Tangyuan was acquired by him with his wits.
“Great, that’s really good. I brought you some preserved pork and sausages to you. Let me boil them for you shortly.” Zheng Jiawei entered his room and tidied up the room habitually.
Please, do believe that there must be someone who cares about you in a corner of this world.
