Chapter 154

Xu Ran first turned around in the kitchen. Liu Tong was dealing with the vegetables brought by Wu Mei and the others. Xu Ran said to him, “Tongtong, you can first wash half of the vegetables, otherwise I’m afraid we can’t finish them all this time.”

Liu Tong nodded. “I know. You go and see if Wu Mei and the others are back. Tangtang and Guoguo also went away after dinner. I wonder why Gao Quan took them out.”

Xu Ran replied, “I know it. Don’t worry. Gao Quan won’t do anything bad to the two children. By the way, you’d better prepare some seasonings. Later, let our guests put some of it into their own bowls and choose whatever they want to eat.”

“How to do it?” Liu Tong asked Xu Ran with a bowl in his hand.

Xu Ran walked over to give him a demonstration of the method, “Just take a big bowl, and then put some seasonings in it. Note that the quantity is appropriate. Also, you’d better put more garlic which will spice up the flavor to the food. Yes, very good. Then add more…”

Xu Ran explained and demonstrated at the same time how to mix and add the seasoning into his bowl. Liu Tong could only watch him by the side and still didn’t know how to do with his.

Xu Ran didn’t notice this until he had finished his job. He patted his head in annoyance, “How about you try again, Tongtong?”

Liu Tong smiled and shook his head. “Alright, next time!” It’s not like we won’t eat anymore after this meal. I’ve remembered everything you said. Let me try next time.”

Xu Ran chuckled and then said, “I’ll go see if Tangtang and the rest are back. I must remind them to tell us next time when Gao Quan takes them out in the future, otherwise it will be worrying where we can find them.”

“Mm.” Liu Tong nodded, “Go and take a look. They’ve been out for a long time.”

As soon as Xu Ran left the kitchen and got to the yard, he heard a knock on the door, “Dad, Daddy, open the door. I’m Guoguo. I’m back.”

As the Spring Festival was coming, Xu Ran was worried about the safety. Thus as long as no one was in the yard, the door was locked from inside.

Upon hearing Guoguo’s voice, Xu Ran immediately rushed to open the door.

Outside the door, both Tangtang’s and Guoguo were standing there and their clothes were wet.

Xu Ran didn’t know if it was because they had been stuck in the snow outside for a long time, or if they were sweating a lot. And their faces were all red.

Xu Ran quickly pulled the two children into the house, “Where have you been? Why are your pants all wet?

Before Tangtang and Guoguo could say something, Gao Quan came in with two dogs. He said to Xu Ran, “We went up the mountain. They ran for a long time around the mountain and practiced Kungfu. And it was snowing, so their clothes are wet.”

Xu Ran nodded but did not say anything. Instead, he led Tangtang and Guoguo go upstairs while telling them, “Don’t go out if it is snowing in the future. You can also practice calligraphy at home. Look, your clothes are wet and you will catch a cold if you do not take care of yourselves. In a minute, you have to drink some traditional Chinese medicine. You don’t like to drink it, do you!”

Although Tangtang and Guoguo wanted to say that they were not afraid of taking medicine, they had to shake their heads at the thought of its bitterness,”No, we don’t like it.”

“That’s good! And remember, if you go out next time, remember to inform me and Daddy where you are going so that we can find you. You don’t want us to worry about you, do you?” ”

Xu Ran lectured the two children while walking into the house. Tangtang and Guoguo obediently agreed, “Dad, we will keep it in mind.”

After they got to their room, Xu Ran quickly looked for clothes for them while asking, “Are the clothes you wear inside wet? Do you need to take a shower before changing them?”

Tangtang replied, “Dad, the clothes I wear inside are not wet. It’s fine for me. I don’t have to change them.”

Guoguo also nodded, “Dad, mine are not wet.”

After Xu Ran got their clothes from the wardrobe, Tangtang and Guoguo had taken off their clothes and pants.

Xu Ran felt the clothes they wore inside. They were not wet indeed.

Xu Ran said, “Your clothes are not wet, but you must be sweating after running for so long. You should change your clothes! Now that you will feel cold taking a shower, I will get a basin of hot water for you to wipe you two with wet towels.

Xu Ran gave them the clothes and went downstairs to get some water.

And when he came up, the two children lay naked in the quilt, looking quite comfortable.

Xu Ran pulled Tangtang out of the quilt first. He soaked a towel in the water, wrung it out and then wiped Tangtang all over. Then he let him wear clothes by himself. Next, he wiped for Guoguo.

Just after serving the two children, Xu Ran heard a voice from downstairs. He guessed that it should be Liu Qing and the rest, so he urged Tangtang and Guoguo to hurry up and went downstairs with the basin of water.

There downstairs, Xu Ran found that they were indeed Liu Qing and the others including Wu Mei and Wu Lan. Because of their arrival, the house sprang into life. After pouring away the water , Xu Ran went over to greet them one by one.

Both Wu Lan and Liu Qing had also brought baskets of food with them. Liu Tong glared at Xu Ran while picking up the baskets. Xu Ran rubbed his nose, indicating that he was innocent.

He was about to go to the kitchen to get the food ready when Xu An ran out and called Xu Ran, saying that the soup was boiling.

Xu Ran hurriedly called everyone present to get moving. As a result, some of them went to get the bowls ready, some to move the table, while Xu Ran himself went to the kitchen to put a large plate of sliced meat into the pot to cook.

It was really true that more hands made light work. Soon, all of them sat in a big circle around a big iron pot. Next to them was a table with a lot of food and tableware on it.

Xu Ran looked around and saw that everyone was in his place, so he said, “Today, we’ll eat novel food, which is right there in front of us. It’s called hotpot. We’ll put all the seasonings in the pot and then put them on the fire to cook. You can take whatever you like to eat, put it in the pot and scald it. Once it’s done, you can eat it immediately.

This hotpot is quite spicy, and there is also some seasonings over there. Each of you take a bowl and then add some seasonings yourself. I’ve just put some meat into the pot, so hurry up and move if you want to eat meat.”

With that,  Xu Ran started to eat. He got a bowl and a pair of chopsticks. Then he took meat from the pot directly with the chopsticks.

Everyone else there learned from him.

Following Xu Ran’s example, they also got themselves bowls and chopsticks, and then picked meat from the pot.

Only Liu Tong and Qin Shuwen had to take care of their children while busily helping themselves with the food .

After having a few mouthfuls of food, Xu Ran told them to put whatever food they liked into the pot to cook. He reminded them not to put too much food once, or the food might be over cooked in the pot if they couldn’t eat it quick enough. In this way, the food would not be delicious.

Xu Ran hadn’t eaten hotpot for a long time. He didn’t really want to eat much. To him, having hotpot this time meant more a kind of feeling and memory for the past. Thus, he took up the task of looking after the two babies and let Qin Shuwen and Liu Tong enjoy eating.

The banquet was going on, and Wu Mei said to Xu Ran, “Xu Ran, I now understand why you asked each of us to bring over some food. This hot pot is delicious with a lot of food to choose from.”

Xu Ran nodded. “It’s because of this that hotpot is popular. You can’t really stop coming to my house in the future because I asked you to bring food here for the meal! If that happens, Tongtong will scold me!”

People present laughed and Wu Mei said, “Your Liu Tong is reluctant to hurt you. He won’t do anything bad to you even if he should hurt himself. At most, he would rather not go to our homes in the future. Do you guys think so?”

Of course, Wu Lan and Liu Qing echoed his views, making Liu Tong feel embarrassed. He turned back to roll his eyes at Xu Ran blaming him for bringing up the wrong topic.

Xu Ran blinked and teased him. Liu Tong just paid no attention to him and went on with his eating.

The most joyful people in eating were the group of children and Zhuo Yun as well as Qin Shuwen. In the whole process, they said nothing but burying themselves enjoying the food. No matter what food was put in the pot, they would have a try of it.

Xu Ran watched from behind and laughed at them both, “Look at you two. It seems that it’s been a long time since you two last eat. Don’t tell me you haven’t had enough in my house these past two days.”

Zhuo Yun waved his hand, signaling for him to go away, completely ignoring him.

Of course, Qin Shuwen did not dart him a look. Xu Ran, who was despised, could only take care of the two babies by the side alone.

He could only be there watching them eating.

Xu Ran felt that he was a little pitiful. He put forward the idea of hotpot and he took a lot of effort to make it out. However, these people at the moment only knew how to eat but was not thankful to his contribution at all.

Only Liu Tong would feed him some food every now and then.

The first people to get away from the table were Tangtang and Guoguo. They went to Xu Ran and told him, “Dad, let’s take care of little brothers. You go and eat hot pot. It’s so delicious.”

Xu Ran pinched their faces, “Are you full? Do you want to eat some more? You don’t have to care about me. Daddy will change with me when finishing eating. You can go eat some more.”

Xu Ran advised the two children to continue eating. For them, it was just like the beginning of eating. Actually, there was no ending when people ate hotpot. They would go and paly around before coming back to eat again.

Xu Ran looked at the two children and could not help exclaiming how obedient and considerate they were.

Liu Tong also wanted to exchange his position with Xu Ran. However, he knew he was the host of the banquet after all. He had to go on eating with the guests for longer time.

But seeing the two children who obviously had not eaten much but offered to exchange with their dad to eat, Liu Tong was quite touched. Both of the children had been so obedient and had never made him worry.

Liu Tong found half of the food on the table was almost eaten. And he was quite full, so he went to take over the job from Xu Ran and looked after the two little babies.

Actually, they could ask Shao Yu to take care of the babies for them. They didn’t really treat Shao Yu as servants, so Xu Ran would rather do the job himself than let Shao Yu do it.

And in front of so many people, they felt it was not good to show who was the master and who was the servant.

So Xu Ran and Liu Tong took turns to take care of the little babies and enjoy with others the hotpot. Finally, they even felt that they had eaten the most.

After all, every time when it was their turn to come to the table, they would be able to eat as much as they could.

The banquet lasted for a long time. It wasn’t dark yet when they started to eat. When they finished eating, it was completely dark outside. Thankfully, they all came in families, so when they returned, they had more people for company on the way.

There were so many people and almost all the food prepared were eaten up. The rest of the food would be fried tomorrow for breakfast. Once they were full, they should walk home and prepared to sleep. What a life they were enjoying!  People should live like this.