"I didn't eat that much. I mostly just wanted a taste."
Yan Lingyun kept her head down and mumbled in a voice as faint as a mosquito. As she spoke, she picked up a slice of meat and put it in her mouth, then her eyes lit up at how delicious it was.
Watching the three siblings, Lian Youming grinned. They were quite the characters.
He got up, fetched a few cloves of garlic from the kitchen, and served everyone a bowl of noodle broth.
"Young fellow, you really can cook. My father loves noodles, especially northern flavors. Back when he was visiting the heirs of traditional medicine families, he traveled all over-Shanxi, Henan, even Xijing... My little sister grew up hearing about all that, but who knew she'd ignore every region's customs and only remember the food? That's why she ran off to the Northeast. You have no idea how pitifully she cried, clinging to our legs when Third Brother and the others brought her back. Thank the Dragon Mother Goddess-she nearly froze to death over there." As he spoke, the man broke apart the garlic and ate his chive-and-egg noodles, his mouth glistening with oil.
Only when they saw Lian Youming sitting beside them did the brothers remember something. "Where are our manners? Let us introduce ourselves. I'm Lingyun's fifth brother, Yan Guangming. He's her sixth brother, Yan Zhaomei... Lingyun might be a tiny bit greedy for food, but she's the apple of our eyes. Our father had us one after another, and when he saw we were all boys, he couldn't even be bothered to give us names anymore. He prayed to every god and Buddha every day for a daughter. Luckily, Heaven took pity on him, and we got Lingyun. She's our whole family's precious darling."