“My brother, sister-inw, and grandmother all have very regr routines. They usually take a short nap at lunchtime, and my parents do the same,”


    Zeng Xiaoya said. “I should be the one apologizing. If it weren’t for entertaining me and chatting with me, Sister Serenity and the others would have gone to rest long ago. Everyone is so busy with work, and they all want to rest properly during their rare two-day holidays.”


    “It’s good that Grandma Zhan has a regr routine. Perhaps that’s why your grandmother is healthy and long-lived. Grandma Zhan takes very good care of herself; you can’t tell from her appearance that she’s ny years old.”


    Seeing that she wanted to help, Zhan Yue handed her a pair of clean gloves so she wouldn’t get her hands dirty.


    Everyone going to take a nap also had another purpose: to give Zeng Xiaoya time to chat with Zhan Yue when she was bored, so the two of them could have some alone time.<h3 style="background-color:DodgerBlue">


    It wasn’t that they were being unhospitable; it was to give Zhan Yue an opportunity.


    “How many dishes are you going to make for dinner? You’ve prepared so many ingredients,” Zeng Xiaoya couldn’t help but ask when she saw that Zhan Yue had prepared a particrly abundant array of ingredients.


    Zhan Yue said, “With so many people and such diverse tastes, it’s impossible to please everyone. So I prepared twelve dishes. Four of them are dishes that the children like, and the rest are dishes that we adults like.”


    Zeng Xiaoya also likes a few of the dishes. In short, Zhan Yue has taken care of everyone who is eating at his house today.


    Zeng Xiaoya said, “You’ve thought of everything.”


    “Everyone’s usually busy, and even though we all live in the city, we rarely get together. It’s rare for everyone to be here today, so I naturally want to treat everyone well.”


    Zhan Yue said, “I’m not sure what kind of food you like. Last time we ate together, I noticed and prepared a few of your favorite dishes, which I also like.”


    “Although I grew up eating delicious food, I’m not a picky eater. Maybe it’s because when I was little, my grandma made me learn to cook. Since I was a beginner, I knew my cooking wouldn’t be very good, and she made us eat what we made ourselves.”


    “After eating so much really bad food, even the pickiest eater loses their spice. Seriously, when we first learned to cook, our food was truly awful.”


    “After learning for a while, it gradually got better. Only when we could cook well enough to rival professional chefs would Grandma deign to taste our cooking.”


    Zeng Xiaoyaughed, “Practice makes perfect, everyone’s bad at first, me included.”


    “But I didn’t learn from anyone, I just studied on my own, or searched for tutorials online, and practiced a few times until I figured it out.”


    She hadn’t tasted Zhan Yue’s cooking yet, so she didn’t know if his dishes were good, or who was better than hers.


    With Zeng Xiaoya’s help, the two of them worked non-stop, talking and chatting, and quickly finished.


    Zhan Yue asked Zeng Xiaoya to wash her hands and sit down for a while. He had been baking


    some pastries, and now that they were done, he was going to bring them out for Zeng Xiaoya to try. He had made several kinds of pastries, some for the children, shaped like various small animals, some like flowers (the flower ones were for Xiaoya), and some other styles—all very exquisite and delicate.


    Zhan Yue took out the pastries he had made and ced them on three pretty little tes, three pieces on each te, arranged very nicely.


    He then ced the three small tes on a tray and carried it out.


    Zeng Xiaoya had just turned on the TV with the remote, but the volume was a bit loud, so she quickly turned it down, afraid of disturbing the people taking their afternoon nap.


    Seeing Zhan Yuee out, she casually asked, “What kind of TV shows do you usually watch? Do you have any good TV series rmendations?”


    “I rarely watch TV,”


    Zhan Yue replied, walking over, putting down the tray, and cing the three small tes of snacks in front of Zeng Xiaoya.


    “Xiaoya, these snacks are homemade. Try them and see if they’re good; they’re fresh out of the oven.”