Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 88 Letter from afar
Nanluoguxiang Yuer Hutong
After the banquet started, the people from the Yan family went out. The main reason was that Yan Jiekuang felt that there was no need to stay there and smell the smell, making his parents feel uncomfortable.

The group went to Yuer Hutong. Yan Jiedi was attracted by the big cat as soon as she entered the door. Yan Jiekuang said, "The big cat is invincible in Yueer Hutong, regardless of cats or dogs."

Yan Jie Di withdrew her outstretched hand, and the big cat was understanding and walked to Yan Jie Di's feet and rubbed against them.

Yan Jie Di asked his brother what this meant, and Yan Jie Kuang said, "The big cat likes you, you can touch it."

Yan Jiedi was instantly happy.

Yang Ruiping and Yan Jiekuang went into the kitchen, and Yan Bugui went directly to the study in the backyard.

Yan Jie Di stayed with the big cat in the front yard. After a while, there was a knock on the door. Yan Jie Kuang heard it and shouted, "Who is it?"

"Lao Pu!" the person outside replied.

Yan Jiekuang was stunned for a moment, then he immediately reacted and rushed to open the door.

He let Lao Pu into the courtyard and wanted to let him enter the main hall, but Lao Pu waved his hand and said, "I have a lot of things to do, so I won't stay with you. I just brought you a few letters. Please read them and keep them."

Lao Pu handed the letter to Yan Jiekuang without hesitation, then turned around and left.

Yang Ruiping shouted from inside, "Who is it, Lao San?" "No one, just a messenger."

Yan Jiekuang threw the letter into the space warehouse and returned to the kitchen. Yan Jiedi was busy interacting with the big cat and didn't notice the movement at the door at all.

Yan Jiekuang was very happy, so he prepared delicious dishes to entertain his parents and sister, and said, "I'm not exaggerating, do they know what a banquet is?"

After letting his parents and younger sister sit down, Yan Bugui knew that the third brother was going to cause trouble again, but the food must be delicious.

The first dish is "Horse Trotter Soup" and the second dish is "Fried Tofu".

Yan Jiekuang introduced that these two dishes are typical banquet dishes of the Song Dynasty. He spent a long time to replicate them. Of course, they taste better because there are more condiments now.

Several people feasted their eyes on the exhibition. Yan Bugui said, "Lend me that book later." Yan Jiekuang rolled his eyes.

The third dish is "Hun Yang Mo Hu" and the fourth dish is "Gan Yu Yu".

Yan Bugui knew about these two famous dishes, mainly because Yan Jiekuang told him that no sheep was used, and he didn't have any sheep, so he coated them with his secret seasoning and then baked them. There is no need to talk about dried fish, which mainly depends on the knife skills. Frozen shad is also an excellent ingredient.

The rice is "Qingfeng Rice", a very popular food in the Tang Dynasty. However, Yan Jiekuang did not use camphor-like spices, but just replaced them with normal spices, so it was not difficult to chill it in winter.

The three of them looked at it for a long time, but they didn't dare to pick up their chopsticks. Yan Jiekuang said, "It's only delicious when you put it in your mouth. Hurry up, I've been studying it for a long time."

The four people began to taste the food. The big cat also had a portion of shad and goose meat. The big cat ate with relish and made "meow" sounds while eating.

Yan Bugui gave a very high evaluation after the meal, and said that this was not just about eating, but about culture. His mother and sister didn't care about that, they just thought it was delicious.

After dinner, several people chatted in the main hall. During the chat, when Yan Jie Di learned that the big cat was a female, she pestered Yan Jie Kuang and said that if the big cat had babies, she would definitely give her one.

Yan Jiekuang teased her and said, "You have to ask Big Cat and our mother for their opinions." In an instant, Yan Jiedi became a good girl beside her mother, making everyone laugh.

Yan Bugui looked at the time and made arrangements to go back, but Yan Jiekuang was still worried and sent them back anyway.

When Yan Jiekuang came back, the moon was already high in the sky.

After Yan Jiekuang finished washing up, he went to the study and took out the letters, one from Lou's mother and the other from Xiao'e.

I opened Lou Mu’s first. When I saw the beginning, my heart was warmed. Lou Mu started with “My son”.

The content of the letter roughly described how they went to Hong Kong Island and what happened after they arrived. Now Mr. Lou has established himself there and his career is developing smoothly. She said that she didn’t have many friends in Hong Kong Island and was still studying Tan’s cuisine at home. At the end of the letter, she gave him an address and said that if he had to come to Hong Kong Island, he could take the letter to this address to find Lao Hei. The address was in Tianjin. Yan Jiekuang opened Lou Xiaoe’s letter again. Most of the letter was about her longing for him. She said that he was her only friend since childhood. She also persuaded him to go to Hong Kong Island. She had already gone to college there. The last half of the letter was almost all about tempting him to go to Hong Kong Island.

After reading it, Yan Jiekuang thought that Lao Pu was gone and he probably wouldn’t be able to write a letter. So he decided to talk to him when he had the chance. His family was all here and he had no plans to go to Hong Kong Island.

Yan Jiekuang calmed down, packed up and went to bed.

West Wing of the Front Courtyard of Siheyuan
Jia Zhang was fiddling with the things she had brought back for Yan Jiekuang, a large pile of Pu'er tea bricks and three stones.

Unexpectedly, Jia Zhang found a bunch of ethnic costumes, but the important thing was that she herself didn’t know how to wear them.

Yan Bugui sneered at the tea bricks. Yan Jiekuang said to him, "Don't regret it," and put them in his bag. Comrade Yan Bugui hesitated and finally asked for one piece. Yan Jiekuang whispered in his ear, "Do you know where the starting point of the Silk Road is? Do you know what was sold at the beginning?" Yan Bugui understood instantly.

Yan Jiekuang didn't care about the stone at all. The money he gave to Jia Zhang was a reward, and the money Jia Zhang gave him was a token of her love.

Yang Ruiping took Jia Zhang to the inner room and talked in private, but he laughed from time to time, which made Yan Bugui very anxious, and he also wanted to listen.

Yan Jiekuang left and had to go back to school. Although it was vacation, he had a lot of things to do and a lot of handover ceremonies from various organizations. Yan Jiekuang refused all extracurricular activity groups.

Yan Jiekuang sometimes wondered if his choice of No. 5 Middle School was a wrong one. He didn’t have any good friends, only classmates, and some of them were just academic exchanges. There was no one like Zhang Wenchang, Li Chenggang, or Liu Xiangyang.

New Year's Eve in 1964 was destined to be an extraordinary day for Yan Jiekuang, because at that time, he had not yet thought about what he would learn.

Early in the morning, there was a knock on the door. Yan Jiekuang struggled to get out of bed and went to open the door. "Brother?" This was unexpected, as he seldom came.

"Come in, brother. The fire in my stove is about to go out. Hurry." Yan Jiekuang ran to the backyard wrapped in a quilt.

Yan Jiechang sighed, "What a miserable life!" He lit the stove for the third child, got everything ready, and finally cooked the porridge and kept it warm on the coal stove.

Yan Jiekuang came out and asked, "When did you come to my place during the New Year? What's the matter?"

"Your sister-in-law heard that Da Mao was pregnant, so she sent some nutritional supplements. No." Yan Jiecheng said stutteringly.

“Then what? Keep one? Okay, we two brothers…” Yan Jiekuang didn’t even finish his words.

"Meow~~" The big cat made a long sound. It was angry.

Yan Jiekuang said, "Did you hear that, big brother? The big cat is angry. I won't talk nonsense with you. We'll talk about it after the baby is born."

Yan Jiecheng also heard the big cat's warning and stopped talking. "Well, be home before noon. I'm leaving first."

Yan Jiecheng went straight back to the courtyard.

Yan Jiekuang tidied up his room. He seldom went out now. There were two main reasons for this. First, the big cat at home would not let him leave. Second, he still had not made a choice of major. He had stayed here for a year and had to go to university this year.

The big cat seemed to know his irritability and suddenly meowed. Yan Jiekuang now likes the big cat more and more, because it is considerate.

"Big Cat, I have to go to have the New Year's Eve dinner today and will be back soon. You can stay at home and wait for me to come back and bring you something delicious, okay?" Yan Jiekuang asked Big Cat gently.

"Meow!" The big cat called gently. Yan Jiekuang put the big cat's favorite food in its bowl, placed it as close to the stove as possible, and poured some water.

Then he packed up and prepared to go out. He looked back at the big cat and said, "Don't worry, I'll be back soon."

Yan Jiekuang walked out of the yard, closed the gate, and walked towards the courtyard alone, carrying a bag containing gifts for everyone.

(End of this chapter)