Four Ways to Write the Character Hui

The table was laden with food, mostly home-raised bamboo partridges, plump lake fish in winter, black pigs slaughtered for holidays... the very noble breed Gao Dewei believed was better worth raising than investing in cosmetics and beauty treatments.

A hole had been dug into the center of the dining table, with blazing charcoal underneath and a large exposed-copper pot set above it. The fire burned fiercely, the broth boiled away, and the pot was filled with tender lamb ribs and leg meat. Not a single spinal bone had been added. Though that meant less fun gnawing on bones, it let them gorge themselves on meat to their hearts' content.

"In Su Shi's hometown, the Hotpot Province, there's a saying: When Su Wen is cooked, eat lamb. When Su Wen is raw, eat vegetable soup. Everyone, have more lamb. Our lamb doesn't have much of a gamey smell. Today it's simply boiled in spring water with almonds, scallions, and Sichuan peppercorns. It's an ancient recipe, unlike the heavily seasoned lamb dishes common in many places nowadays. Eat up," Gao Dewei said as he introduced the main dish.

"Why would Su Shi be from the Hotpot Province? Wasn't he from Jiangsu and Zhejiang?" Miao Yingying asked curiously.

"No. Su Shi, courtesy name Zizhan, literary name Dongpo Jushi, Han Chinese, native of Meishan." Bai Hui had not yet forgotten all her high school knowledge and recited a passage.

"Miao Yingying, do you think it's because your name has three grass radicals that your brain is about on par with herbivores like pigs, cows, and sheep?" Gao Dewei had spent plenty of time around Miao Yingying in the Capital. He always felt that once she entered college, she had tossed all her high school basics into the clouds, and the drop in her IQ