Dumpling Wrappers

Tang Jingwen got into Song Yihe's car and asked as she fastened her seat belt, pretending to be casual, "Yihe, I didn't expect to run into one of your patients here."

Song Yihe started the car and murmured, "Mm."

He hadn't expected it either.

Tang Jingwen glanced at the man in the driver's seat. He was always so cold to her, and when she remembered that she had just told that patient to go home early, she began to feel uncomfortable.

"Yihe, are you close to that patient? How do you even know she quit her job?"

"She mentioned it once."

"Patients these days are ridiculous. They even tell their doctors when they quit their jobs. What, does she think the doctor will waive her medical fees because she's unemployed?"

Song Yihe frowned in displeasure. "Jingwen, to patients, doctors are the people they trust most in the hospital. So a lot of patients tell their doctors things unrelated to their conditions. They're willing to talk, and we're happy to listen. That's our job and our responsibility."

Tang Jingwen knew her words had upset him and quickly changed her tune. "All right, all right, I was just saying. But you have such a good memory, remembering every patient's situation."

Song Yihe thought of how she had gone running in the morning because of what he'd said, and the corners of his mouth curved up. "She's rather special."

Tang Jingwen unconsciously clenched her hand.

A woman's sixth sense told her that the girl might become a threat to her someday.

But a moment later, her smile returned. "When are Uncle Song and Aunt Song coming back? I haven't seen them in ages."

"It might be a while yet. Jingwen, from now on, if there's nothing else, you don't need to bring me food. I can eat at the cafeteria."

Tang Jingwen's expression changed instantly. "Why? Haven't we always gotten along well? Is the food I bring not to your taste?"

Song Yihe rubbed the spot between his brows. "You're grown up now. We should avoid giving people the wrong idea. I heard Uncle Tang has been introducing you to potential boyfriends. You should meet them instead of keeping your focus on me."

"But you're the only one I like. I've been by your side ever since we were little."

"But I don't like you that way. I have no romantic feelings for you, and I don't want there to come a day when we can't even be friends."

Those words were a little harsh.

Tang Jingwen sniffled. "Yihe, we grew up together. If you had someone you liked, that would be one thing. But all these years, you've thrown yourself into your work, and I've never seen anyone get close enough to become part of your life. Why can't you consider making room for me in it? Maybe you'd find things were different?"

Song Yihe stopped the car outside her house and turned to look at her. "Jingwen, it's precisely because we grew up together that I can't hold you back. You're not that young anymore. It's time you had a love life of your own."

For some reason, as he listened to her just now, he had suddenly thought of the patient named An Zhiwu.

He knew the blogger named Xia Qian. From the look of things, An Zhiwu seemed to be a photographer.

Tang Jingwen hadn't expected to convince him right away, either. Worried that arguing any longer would thoroughly annoy Song Yihe, she unbuckled her seat belt. "I'm going home. See you next time."

Song Yihe felt rather helpless in the face of Tang Jingwen's stubborn refusal to listen.

Sigh, I can only distance myself from her little by little.

After Tang Jingyun left, An Zhiwu helped Xia Qian sort through the things she had brought back from her overseas shopping service.

By the time they finished, both of them were covered in sweat.

"Zhiwu, why don't you take a shower?"

An Zhiwu took a sip of water. "No need. I'll shower when I get home. You still have photos to take later, so you go shower and put on your makeup."

Xia Qian nodded and ran off to the bathroom.

An Zhiwu sat on the floor, thinking about what had happened earlier.

Whether in looks or ability, it was perfectly normal for Song Yihe to have a girlfriend.

With what he had going for him, wouldn't it be strange if he didn't have one?

Perhaps it had been a long time since she'd eaten dog food.

After suddenly getting a helping of it, she felt a little upset.

She figured that, in Song Yihe's eyes, she was just one of his countless patients.

By the time Xia Qian came out in fresh clothes,

An Zhiwu had already gotten herself back in the right frame of mind and immediately switched to work mode.

After they finished the shoot,

sure enough, Xia Qian started wheedling and pestering her again.

"Zhiwu, you have no idea how awful the food abroad is. I haven't had a filling meal in days."

"When I was abroad, I kept thinking about the pork rib soup you made last time."

"Dear Zhiwu, please do your livestream at my place, okay?"

An Zhiwu looked at Xia Qian hanging off her arm. She couldn't imagine how someone who was 170 centimeters tall managed to act like a little bird snuggling up to someone who was 166 centimeters.

She felt a little helpless. "What do you want to eat?"

Xia Qian immediately stood up straight, stars shining in her eyes. "I want boiled dumplings, but not the frozen kind from the supermarket!"

An Zhiwu nodded. "That's easy. For the sake of your figure, how about we make dumplings with a vegetable filling?"

Just hearing that made Xia Qian's mouth water, and she nodded like crazy.

Making dumpling wrappers was hard work. Although they could be bought ready-made, they tasted very different from ones rolled out by hand.

An Zhiwu decided to roll out the wrappers before the livestream.

She ordered the ingredients they needed on Meituan.

Then she took the flour out of the cupboard.

She had actually been quite surprised that Xia Qian had flour at home. Xia Qian explained that she had originally bought it intending to make flatbreads when she got back.

Later, she realized she'd been overambitious and had left it sitting there ever since.

Luckily, it was still good to eat.

An Zhiwu scooped out a large bowl of flour, added warm water, and mixed it evenly.

Then she began kneading the dough. Kneading was hard work.

An Zhiwu's arms ached from kneading. Seeing how hard she was working, Xia Qian volunteered to help.

In the end, neither of them could lift her arms, and they had kneaded the flour into a smooth ball of dough.

Then they left the dough to rest for twenty minutes.

Once it had rested, An Zhiwu took a piece of dough, rolled it into a long rope, cut it into small pieces and flattened them, then began rolling out the dumpling wrappers.

Xia Qian didn't have a rolling pin at home, so An Zhiwu used a beer bottle instead.

Xia Qian found the process of rolling out the wrappers quite interesting and fetched another beer bottle to join An Zhiwu.

It took the two of them almost an hour to roll out about fifty wrappers.

"I'm exhausted. This is more tiring than a full day of taking photos, but it's pretty satisfying."

An Zhiwu was exhausted too. She decided she would buy ready-made dumpling wrappers next time!

By the time the preparations were done, it was almost six.

An Zhiwu logged in to Y Cat and secured her phone in place.

At Xia Qian's request, she would be making the dumplings with An Zhiwu this time, so both of them would appear on camera.

The two of them entered the livestream room right on time.

As soon as they went in, a lot of viewers poured in.