Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 457 1997 years

Early in the morning on New Year's Eve, Yan Jiekuang did not call the children. He packed up, made breakfast and went out, heading straight for his mother's home in the west wing. The city was extremely quiet early in the morning, with the occasional sound of pigeon whistles. The reason why Yan Jiekuang went there so early was because the soup stock he made yesterday had not been turned off all night, just for today's New Year's Eve dinner.

Yan Bugui also got up early today. He posted the Spring Festival couplets and lit up the red lanterns at the door in the morning. The older people are, the more they like to celebrate. Yan Jiekuang knocked on the door, and Yang Ruiping opened it and said directly, "Why are you here so early? Are you still thinking about your soup? Don't worry, I can't do it. I'm watching."

Yan Jiekuang smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Mom. I will prepare a good New Year's Eve dinner this year to reward the old and young in our Yan family."

After listening to this, Yang Ruiping smiled, but he felt a pang in his heart. From what Yan Jiekuang implied, it would be difficult for him to eat his food in the future. However, Yang Ruiping did not react too much on the surface and continued to do what he was doing.

Yan Jiekuang was busy in the kitchen, seriously and devotedly. This was the first time that he prepared New Year's Eve dinner for his family seriously, because he had decided that he would no longer cook after today, because it was too much of his time. Most of his life seemed to be related to the kitchen, and he wanted to break away from his previous life.

Not long after, the second sister-in-law and the children came. The second sister-in-law said that the second brother would go to the bureau to take a look and then come back. Then the eldest brother and Yan Yongqing also came back with their families. The eldest sister-in-law went to the store to check and would come later.

When it was almost noon, Shi Lei and other children came back one after another, and Yan Jiekuang started to cook.

This year's New Year's Eve dinner was still held in the central hall of the backyard, with two large round tables.

There were eight cold dishes: quail in five-spice sauce, salted pork tenderloin, duck in red oil, spicy noodles, chicken in osmanthus sauce, water chestnut in tomato sauce, braised straw mushrooms, and white fungus in pepper oil. Then there were sixteen hot dishes: jade palm offering birthday present, pearl tofu, diced chicken with Polygonum multiflorum, duck tongue with hundreds of flowers, white phoenix stewed with ginseng and Astragalus, dragon and phoenix egg, father and son celebrating together, wild delicacy celery, diced wild duck peach kernels, stir-fried squid, box tofu, fried golden cake, and the last soup: abalone, ginseng, shark's fin and bird's nest soup.

This year's New Year's Eve dinner, whether in terms of material selection or craftsmanship, Yan Jiekuang tried his best to make it perfect. Later, the plating and decoration were all done by Yan Jiekuang himself. When the Yan family saw the exquisite dishes in front of them, they were all surprised. Yan Jiefang looked at his brother in confusion, and only Yang Ruiping sighed and said, "It seems that this is the last meal cooked by our third brother."

No one knows a son better than his mother. Yang Ruiping knew Yan Jiekuang's thoughts. From the moment Yan Jiekuang decided to go to Tibet, he knew that the boy wanted to change. Then he gave up the company, and today's New Year's Eve dinner, all of this was to show an attitude.

Yan Bugui was fine. He knew the situation but didn't say it. His third son wanted to let himself go for once. What could he say? He couldn't say he supported him. He could only pretend he didn't know.

The children were very happy and chatted with each other. Yan Jiecheng opened the good wine and poured it for everyone. He also said, "Hey, this year it's not just the four of us who are drinking. Look, Shi Lei and Yongqing, as well as Big Fatty, Little Fatty and Yongchang can drink too."

The most talked about issue during the dinner was the return of Hong Kong Island. This was the biggest event in the country and something worth celebrating. Xiaopang said, "If it comes back, we can go there whenever we want."

Yan Jiecheng said: "Why do you need to come back? Before you came back, your father would go wherever he wanted. He even has a villa there."

Instantly, the Yan family fell silent, all looking at Yan Jiekuang. Yan Jiekuang didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said, "It's gone. We sold it a long time ago. Now our family has nothing in Hong Kong Island. Don't talk nonsense."

But many people didn't believe it, and Yan Jiekuang didn't explain it, just lowered his head and drank with his father. Time passed quickly, and after dinner, most people watched TV. Yan Jiefang took Yan Jiekuang to the glass house in the backyard.

Two people, a clay stove, a pot of braised mutton, and a bottle of Erguotou, sat opposite each other. Yan Jiefang asked, "Old Third, what are you thinking? It doesn't seem like you anymore."

"I don't know either. I feel like my life has lost its direction, so I want to go look for it." Yan Jiekuang said while smoking a cigarette.

"Why?" Yan Jiefang asked, very puzzled.

Yan Jiekuang thought for a moment and said, "I don't know either. I just want to go and take a look. I always feel that there is something waiting for me there. The message conveyed to me by the big king and the little king tells me that I must go there. Madam Wanzhi said that I am obsessed with it."

Yan Jiefang remained silent. He really didn't care enough about his younger brother and had no idea what he was doing all day. It just seemed that his younger brother was a little confused.

Yan Jiefang clinked glasses with him and said, "I don't know what happened to you, but I know that this city may be too small to accommodate you. I won't advise you, I can only wish you a speedy return."

Yan Jiekuang nodded, clinked glasses with his second brother, and drank the wine in one gulp.

The two men started chatting, and the topic came up with Xu Damao. Yan Jiefang kept complaining, saying that Xu Damao would go to him for no reason, which annoyed him to death. Whenever he went to him, he would talk about disputes with tenants, and would go to him for even the smallest matters.

At this time, Yan Jiekuang mentioned something that made Yan Jiefang suspicious. Yan Jiekuang talked about his experience at the Lama Temple New Year Fair, which he had never told anyone about.

Yan Jiekuang said, "Brother, let me tell you a story that will scare you to death. Before I went to Lama Temple, once, when I lowered my head to lock the door, the jade on my neck suddenly fell to the ground. It was Madam Wanzhi who put it on me. My first thought was that the red string on the jade might have broken. I quickly picked up the jade from the ground. I checked that the jade was intact. When I wanted to take off the red string on my neck and put it on again, I found that the red string was not broken. So I checked the jade again and found that the hole on the jade for tying the red string was also intact and there was no hole. The string and the hole on the jade were both good, so how did the jade fall off? I was very puzzled, and I still haven't figured out what happened to this day."

Yan Jiefang said: "You are making a fuss, this is just a coincidence."

Yan Jiekuang said: "I also hope it is a coincidence, so I went to Lama Temple the next day, one to pray for blessings, the other to ward off evil spirits. After all, I know that my own heritage also violates the balance of physics, which is why I went to Tibet."

Yan Jiefang also thought of some of the evil things his third son did when he was a child, and stopped asking questions. He was a policeman and still had a lot of resistance to such things.

(End of this chapter)