A Family Dinner

"Those two little kids are way too cute! Those two buckets of crayfish must weigh at least three or four jin, right?"

"The streamer probably isn't feeling too good right now, hahahahaha."

"Haha, look, the streamer's gone into the water. Can't beat them, so he's going straight in to catch them by hand?"

"This is so much fun, haha. I love these two little kids. They're adorable."

Yes, Ye Huan had gone into the water. He had lost face today. Who knew these two little girls were such fierce crayfish anglers? They could have warned him! He was livestreaming here-where was he supposed to put his face?

So he went into the water to catch crayfish by hand. In the end, he barely caught any crayfish, but gathered half a bucket of river snails. The viewers were delighted, teasing him one after another for being no match for two toddlers.

Ye Huan no longer cared. He had already lost face today anyway. Watching the two little girls keep lifting their crayfish rods, each time bringing up a big crayfish waving its claws and legs, he gave up and lay flat.

Tonight's big crayfish were up to them. Ye Huan started swimming around instead. He had to admit, in this weather, a swim really felt good. But anyone who couldn't swim, and children at home on vacation, shouldn't copy him. Without an adult along, it would be bad if something happened.

Once the two girls had filled their uncle's bucket with crayfish too, Ye Huan came ashore. He grinned at the sight of so many crayfish. "Wow, that's a lot! Little Tangyuan, come eat at Uncle's house tonight."

"Okay!" Little Tangyuan had only ever eaten at two homes in the village: her own and her great-grandpa's, which was Ye Huan's home. Most households in the village weren't well-off, so they generally didn't invite other people's children over for meals.

Besides, Ye Huan's Second Uncle often taught Little Tangyuan not to eat at anyone else's home except her great-grandpa's, saying it wasn't good. Little Tangyuan had remembered that.

"Whoa, this many people? What's going on today?" As Ye Huan went to put his phone away, he saw that nearly three thousand people were watching the livestream and jumped in surprise. What was going on?

The viewers wanted to laugh at that clueless look of his. Every time, he just streamed without paying attention to anything else. They were about to take a few digs at him when Ye Huan looked up at the sky. "It's going to rain again. That's it for today. Time to go home and scrub the crayfish. Beer tonight..."

Then he ended the stream. The viewers were dumbfounded. What was that supposed to mean? He had just ended it?

Fortunately, the half-hour shower wasn't very heavy. It rained for a while as Ye Huan trimmed the crayfish, then stopped.

"Second Uncle, I was just about to head over. Little Tangyuan's eating here tonight. You don't need to go home either. Stay and have a few drinks with my dad." Seeing his Second Uncle come in, Ye Huan assumed he had come looking for Little Tangyuan.

"Oh? All right. I happened to bring you some mixed little fish. They're all cleaned. Uncle, you're home." Only after Second Uncle finished speaking did Ye Huan notice the bamboo basket in his hand, holding about three or four jin of assorted small fish and shrimp.

"Oh, that's quite a lot! Great, haha. Second Uncle, put it there. My dad and the others will be back soon. Bring Second Aunt over tonight too. We've got lots of meat at home. It'll spoil if we don't eat it," Ye Huan said.

"All right, hehe. I'll have a few drinks with Uncle today." Second Uncle didn't stand on ceremony. He set down the little fish and shrimp, saw Little Tangyuan and Jingjing sitting quietly watching cartoons, chatted with Ye Huan's grandpa for a while, then headed home.

"Come over early, Second Uncle, and bring Second Aunt." Ye Huan was close to Second Uncle's family, so he called after him.

"Will do!" Second Uncle went home first.

While Ye Huan dealt with the crayfish, Grandpa took out a wild goat leg, prepared it, and set it to stew, then moved on to the venison. They had eaten one pheasant yesterday, and his mother had given the extras away.

Ye Huan called his father and asked him to catch a chicken or duck from the hill behind the house and bring it back for another dish tonight. They had no pork at home, and the venison and roe deer meat weren't suitable for stir-fries. Still, Ye Huan didn't mind. Four or five stir-fried seasonal vegetables, three little pots of stewed meat, mutton flash-fried with scallions, a pot of little fish with griddle cakes, a chicken or duck, and seven or eight jin of big crayfish would be plenty.

As for the river snails, those things couldn't be eaten without purging their grit for a few days. They were too dirty.

His father came back first, sometime after four, bringing one of their own free-range mountain chickens. Ye Huan cleaned it straight away and set it to simmer in the courtyard. Since they had a chicken, he would make chicken soup.

Before long, Ye Huan's mother and Bai Jie came home too. They chased him away, complaining that he wasn't doing a good enough job, and took over the kitchen.

"Mom, stick a ring of unleavened flatbreads around the pot of little fish at the end," Ye Huan told his mother before leaving.

"I know. When it comes to eating, you're the boss," Ye Huan's mother said with a laugh.

At seven that evening, a tableful of delicious dishes was laid out in the large living room of Ye Huan's home. Ye Huan filled his father's and Second Uncle's glasses with beer. Grandpa had tiger-bone liquor, as usual. Ye Huan filled his own glass too, and everyone dug in.

"I could eat a whole pot of these little-fish griddle cakes all by themselves." Ye Huan gave his mother a thumbs-up. "Mom, these flatbreads are really good today! Two kinds of flour?"

"Such a picky palate. Your sister-in-law made the little fish and griddle cakes," Ye Huan's mother said, speechless. This son of hers could list every detail of whatever he ate the moment it entered his mouth.

"Oh, Sister-in-law, nice work. Really nice. Delicious. Jingjing, Little Tangyuan, isn't it good?" Even while giving his thumbs-up, Ye Huan didn't forget to get a couple of reviews. He asked the two little girls, who each held a small piece of flatbread in one hand and a chicken drumstick that had been blown cool in the other.

"Mm-hmm, yummy!" Both little girls nodded straight away, gnawing on their drumsticks. Meat was what tasted good. Was Unca being thilly??

"Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, don't be shy. Help yourselves." Ye Huan's father urged his older cousin and his wife to eat some meat. "Xiaobai's dad, that wild wolf, stayed with us for a few days and insisted on bringing us a heap of meat, hehe."

However Ye Huan looked at it, he felt his father was showing off, but he had no evidence.

"Disco's amazing!" Jingjing said, and everyone burst out laughing. Xiaobai looked up in confusion, seemingly having heard someone mention its dad, then buried its head in its food again.

Saihu, that simp, was once again being all lovey-dovey with Little Flower, the two of them wrapped up in each other. Out of sight, out of mind-Ye Huan had the married couple eat in the passage outside the main gate.

"Xiao Huan, are you really not handling the cooperative venture this time?" Second Uncle asked after drinking a bottle of beer.

"Ah, I'll take a break. People in the village aren't what they used to be. There's no need for me to keep rushing to offer," Ye Huan sighed.

"That's right. Things really aren't like they used to be. Just wait until New Year and see. Hardly any of those kids who went away come back behaving properly. They're either boasting loud enough to shake the sky or loafing around without a care. Ah, Tangyuan's parents heard that the shoe factory will be laying people off next year too. Business is bad." Second Uncle nodded.

"If things don't work out, have my cousin and his wife come back and grow vegetables. Other people are one thing, but what is there to say between us? We're all family." Ye Huan didn't mind. Not cooperating with the whole village didn't mean he couldn't cooperate with people he was close to. It would only mean supplying a little "nutrient water," after all.