95 pairs of red cheeks

  "I really didn't expect your cooking to be so delicious!" Tang Zhendong had just wanted to change the subject, but now he was genuinely praising.

  If you say that cooking seafood is easy, it's indeed not difficult, but it also requires controlling the heat. How to turn off the fire when the shrimp and scallops are at their most tender and fresh, this absolutely needs long-term practice to achieve.

  Turn off the heat too early, and it's undercooked inside. Turn it off too late, and it's overcooked.

  The seafood done by Qingying is just right, neither too early nor too late.

  "This feeling is so warm!" Yu Qingying's expression was somewhat infatuated, she had only moved her chopsticks twice, then focused on watching Tang Zhendong devour his food.

  "Eat up, don't just watch me eat!" Tang Zhendong raised his head to see Yu Qingying staring at him with tears in her eyes, like a disobedient child who hadn't gotten any food.

  "Ugh, I'm not hungry," Qing Ying said with a smile. "When I was young, my parents were always busy, and the thing I enjoyed most was watching them come home late at night and eat the meal I had prepared for them. They would often return very late, and I never really experienced the joy of childhood. Many of my classmates would talk about where their parents took them on Sundays, but I never got to experience that kind of treatment. My parents always had work or social events they couldn't finish."

  As Qingying spoke, tears began to fall. "Actually, when I was young, many people envied my good family conditions and the fact that I could wear many famous brand clothes. But who can understand the loneliness in my heart? So, I had no choice but to study hard, using studying to fill up the emptiness of my home after school. Therefore, I studied desperately and always ranked first in class. It seemed like only this way could make me feel less lonely."

  "This is still good, at least you don't have to worry about food and clothing. When I was a kid, we would either go up the mountain to play, or follow our parents to farm, or play with friends in the west river of our village. In spring and autumn, after school, we would go fishing and catching shrimp. In summer, we would spend all day playing in the water, that's how I learned to swim. In winter, there was a big shallow bay next to our village reservoir, where the ice would freeze thickly. We would use stones to break a small hole in the ice, stick our hands in and feel for river clams. That bay had a lot of river clams, basically every time we broke a hole and felt around, we would find some. We would bring them back, put them in water and raise them, or sometimes cook and eat them right away. Our village was very poor when I was a kid, not everyone could afford meat every day, so we would use river clams as a treat."

  Tang Zhendong made a circle with his thumb and index finger, "The river clams were this big, the meat was this big too, it tasted pretty good, just got stuck in your teeth, haha."

  Tang Zhendong talked about the interesting things in his family, and Yu Qingying listened with some infatuation. Her thoughts involuntarily followed Tang Zhendong's words and also went to the small mountain village where he lived.

  "It's really fun there, I want to go and play too." Yu Qingying was very interested in the various fun things that Tang Zhendong said, and she couldn't help but think of going to experience it for herself.

  "This is not the most fun, the most fun is when spring and summer intersect, go to the back mountain to catch scorpions, that can of bottle, and a big clip, lift up the stone, see a big scorpion when the sense of satisfaction is very large, especially some stones lifted after, there are even a nest inside, your hand-held clip can't stop, need extremely fast speed to clip up, put down."

  "What's the use of catching scorpions?"

  "It has a great use, soaking in wine can relieve muscle and activate blood circulation, stir-frying to eat is also a valuable nutritional feast."

  "Oh, hearing you say that makes me hungry." Yu Qingying smiled awkwardly, her expression still looking very expectant, "Is there anything else interesting?"

  "There's too much to say, if you want me to tell you, it would take three days and nights to finish. Going up the mountain to play, getting tired and eating wild fruits, there are wild ones and some that nobody knows who planted them, anyway picking a few to eat is no big deal. In winter, we can go up the mountain to catch wild rabbits and pheasants, especially when it snows heavily, the rabbits can't run and the pheasants can't fly. If you follow an experienced hunter, you can catch a lot of game. Hunting in the mountains is the most interesting thing. In the past, every household had many homemade guns, but now they've all been confiscated. However, experienced hunters can still catch rabbits with just a thin iron wire on the rabbit's path, setting it up in the morning and collecting it the next morning."

  At the exciting part, Yu Qingying kept clapping her hands, showing her excitement. "Your home is so much fun! When are you going back? I must go with you to play!"

  "I haven't been back for a long time." Tang Zhendong couldn't help but think of the strange looks he got from the villagers when he returned to the village, and the pointing and whispering behind his parents' backs. In fact, Tang Zhendong didn't care, but every time his parents mentioned it, there was always an inexplicable tone of self-abasement.

  "Why don't you go back and visit them more often?"

  Tang Zhendong sighed, "Actually, I also want to go back and take a look," Tang Zhendong told Yu Qingying about the villagers' pointing and staring at him when he returned home after being released from prison. "You say if I go back once, they will have to endure the villagers' cold gaze, and I am also reluctant."

  It wasn't until Qingying realized that Tang Zhendong's problem lay in the fact that although she had chosen to ignore his imprisonment, there were still some things in this world that couldn't be ignored, especially in a rural area with such closed-minded thinking. Who's family scandals would easily be magnified endlessly by the villagers' mouths.

  "Actually, what I want to say is that we already have so many worries in this world, why bother about other people's opinions? It's too tiring. You have your troubles, I have mine, let go of all the complicated thoughts and live a carefree life, isn't that great?"

  "Right, I suddenly have a thought of wanting to drink a cup, do you mind?"

  "Huh? You still have wine here? I was just thinking of having a drink too." Yu Qingying was also reminded of her own troubles by Tang Zhendong's words, although her worries were different from his. Whenever she thought about her parents, Yu Qingying's face would fall into a look of grievance. How she wished that her parents weren't city leaders, but ordinary people, so they could spend leisure time together on weekends, chatting and sharing their hearts like normal families. But it seemed that her own mental health was something she had to manage herself, while shouldering enormous pressure. As the daughter of Yu Zhenhua, doing well was a given, but doing poorly was unacceptable. It was as if the children of leaders were born to be held to higher standards than others.

  Tang Zhendong did not expect Yu Qingying to agree with his idea of drinking, Tang Zhendong's original intention was to ask Yu Qingying if she minded him drinking, but he didn't expect Yu Qingying also wanted to have a drink.

  Tang Zhendong took out a bottle of Haicheng old wine from under the cabinet, poured a cup for Yu Qingying and himself, "I'll drink first, you follow suit."

  Tang Zhendong tilted his head and poured all the wine into his mouth. Yu Qingying also drank the wine in one gulp after trying it, but was so spicy that her eyes welled up with tears, her expression strange, and as soon as the wine went down her throat, two red flushes rose to her face instantly.