“President Fang, even if you want to quit, do you have to do it right away? Can’t you even wait for tomorrow? Did you have to tell me at night?”
“Can’t we talk about this first?”
Xu Mingjing did not continue listening and went back to her room silently.
She believed Wei Zhiqian must be behind this!
Now that Wei Zhiqian had sent word, everyone quickly called to cancel their collaboration without even daring to wait for a single night.
Xu Mingjing later learned from Yuan Zhengwen that Yuanyi had lost one-third of its business.
It was exactly the same as what Wei Zhiqian said.
Since he mentioned one-third, he really meant it.
Of course, this was another story for some other time.
*
In the blink of an eye, it was the Spring Festival and the 30th day of the Chinese New Year.
On this day, Wei Zhiqian had a lot of things to attend to at the old Wei residence, so he rarely came to see Tan Mo.
It was the same every year. Tan Mo knew every year on this day and the first day of the Lunar New Year, Wei Zhiqian was especially busy.
It was probably because she saw him every day before.
Even though it was not time for vacation at Beijing University yet, she could still see Wei Zhiqian every night and live together.
The moment it was time for the holidays, she had fewer opportunities to meet Wei Zhiqian.
Although she could still see Wei Zhiqian, in Tan Mo’s opinion, it wasn’t enough and she wanted to see him every day.
On the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, she couldn’t see Wei Zhiqian for an entire day and she couldn’t see him at night either.
Tan Mo sighed. She really wanted to say “Happy Chinese New Year” to her uncle face-to-face at 12 o’clock.
However, Tan Mo didn’t stay sad for long. Things quickly got busy at home, so she didn’t have much time to think about Wei Zhiqian.
Since the morning, Tan Jinqi had been writing couplets in the study.
In addition to the couplets, he also had to write a lot of lucky characters.
Tan Jinqi wrote a few pieces and rubbed his wrist.
Xu Mingzhen said she didn’t want to waste his good handwriting.
What he wrote was not the same as what they bought outside. His handwriting was naturally unique and more meaningful.
When they stuck his writing up, it would make everyone envious. People could not buy his writing if they had the money.
Tan Mo said from the side, “I like your handwriting the most.”
Tan Jinqi rubbed his wrist and could only continue working hard at writing lucky characters.
Tan Jinyi wasn’t idle either.
Xu Mingzhen had assigned him a task and asked him to draw a new family portrait.
Every year, Tan Jinyi would draw a new family portrait.
Tan Mo said, “Our family portrait is different. Other people use photos as family portraits, but ours are paintings.”
Tan Jinyi’s oil paintings were very detailed and realistic. Even the fine texture of the skin could be seen through a magnifying glass.
Many people who did not know better would not be able to tell whether this was a painting or a photo.
Xu Mingzhen said that the four siblings would have a different appearance every year when they were one year older.
She and Tan Wenci would also have new wrinkles every year when they were one year older.
Therefore, the family photo every year had to be updated.
Every year when it was almost time, Tan Jinyi would start working on it. He had to finish the family photo before midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve.
Tan Jinsheng wasn’t assigned such a task. Xu Mingzhen couldn’t ask him to compose a song for the family every year, right?
Instead, Tan Jinsheng, Tan Mo, and Auntie Guo had the job of making dumplings.
Tan Jinsheng had deft hands. He was a quick learner, so he was able to make dumplings quickly.
At the age of 14, he was already very familiar with the job of making dumplings.
What the Tan family didn’t expect was that Tan Mo, who could learn everything at once, had no talent at all in making dumplings.
However, they didn’t know whether Tan Mo had no talent in cooking or just making dumplings.
In any case, they couldn’t let Tan Mo cook, could they?
Whenever Tan Mo made dumplings, she would place a normal amount of filling at the center of the skin.
No matter how hard she pinched the dumpling skin, the filling inside would always leak out and couldn’t be wrapped.
In reality, she did not put too much filling.
The moment the filling leaked on one side, she went to pull the skin.
Once the filling started leaking on the other side, she would pull the dumpling skin on the other side.
The skin of the dumpling was thin to begin with. As she pulled and pulled, the skin of the dumpling broke.
Tan Mo tried to put less filling.
The dumpling filling she used was simply too little. At most, it was only the size of a fingernail. It was nothing like a dumpling and more like a lump of dough, so it was impossible to serve.
However, Tan Mo wanted to join in and help with the Chinese New Year preparations.
If the whole family was busy, and she was the only one who had nothing to do, it did not seem right.
Auntie Guo had no choice but to think of some way so that Tan Mo could help.
There were all kinds of fillings in the dumplings for the spring festival.
In addition to the normal fillings, rice cake could also be used as a filling to symbolize prosperity.
Jujube fillings symbolized wealth.
Brown sugar fillings symbolized abundance.
Chestnut fillings would bless the family with offspring.
Even though the Tan family did not pay attention to this, they still prepared dumplings with chestnut filling according to the custom.
Whether it was rice cake, jujube, brown sugar cubes, or chestnut filling, they were all cut into large scatter-proof pieces.
No matter how they were wrapped, the dumpling skin did not run the risk of getting torn.
Although such filling was not necessarily delicious, it was still served over the holidays out of tradition for good luck.
Only a small portion of dumplings with special fillings was prepared. Whoever ate them could get good fortune for the coming year.
Tan Mo was tasked to prepare dumplings with special fillings. Since there were only a small number of such dumplings, they did not have to worry about tiring her.
Tan Jinsheng skillfully picked up a small pinch of meat filling with chopsticks, picked up the shrimps placed in another glass bowl, and placed them on top of the meat filling.
Then, he overlapped his hands and placed the skin wrapped around the meat in his palm.
He held the edge of the dumpling skin with his index finger, folded it in half, and gently pinched it again.
Plump ingots filled with meat filling quickly took shape in his palms.
On both sides of the dumpling, two silver ingot-shaped ears were squeezed out from between his thumb and forefinger.
In just a few seconds, chubby dumplings were formed in Tan Jinsheng’s deft slender hands.
Tan Mo pouted as she took some rice cake, and placed it onto the dumpling skin.
She couldn’t do what Tan Chen did and produce chubby dumplings with the flick of her wrist.
She could only pinch the edges of the dumpling skin tightly with her fingertips.
Since she didn’t have to worry about the fillings, Tan Mo could finally follow the video tutorial and wrap perfectly shaped dumplings like two braids.
It just so happened it was perfect for distinguishing the special dumplings from normal dumplings.
Although Tan Mo’s dumplings had very little filling, she was slow in wrapping the dumplings.
Auntie Guo, Tan Jinsheng, and Xu Mingzhen worked together to finish wrapping the dumplings. Tan Mo also finished wrapping the special dumplings she was responsible for.
Auntie Guo took everything to the kitchen.
She just had to wait until it was past midnight to cook and serve them.
Auntie Guo was cleaning up when Tan Mo washed flour off her face and sent Wei Zhiqian a text message..
