msmithbooks Chapter 413 Newbie Protection Period
Chapter 413 Newbie Protection Period
The New Year's Eve dinner started promptly at 6 p.m.
Priscilla Chan brought out the dishes one by one, filling the table to the brim.
Braised pork belly, sweet and sour pork ribs, stir-fried seasonal vegetables, crucian carp and tofu soup, poached chicken, steamed sea bass, steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli, dry-fried green beans, cucumber salad, preserved egg and tofu, fried spring rolls, and eight-treasure rice.
The twelve dishes are named "Yueyuehong" (meaning "prosperous month after month"), symbolizing a thriving year throughout the twelve months.
Shen Zhiwei took out the bottle of Moutai, unscrewed the cap, and poured a glass for Lu Ran and himself.
Priscilla Chan glanced at him but didn't say anything.
It's Chinese New Year today, and she doesn't want to spoil the fun.
Besides, Lu Ran bought that bottle of Moutai, not Shen Zhiwei himself, so she couldn't say anything.
Shen Zhiwei picked up his wine glass, glanced around the table, cleared his throat, and said, "It's the New Year, and it's not easy for the whole family to sit together. Come on, let's have a drink."
Shen Yuege and Chen Huixian's glasses were filled with juice. The four of them clinked their glasses together, making a crisp sound.
Lu Ran took a sip of Moutai, the liquor sliding down his throat, a warm feeling rising from his stomach.
Shen Zhiwei put down his cup, picked up a piece of braised pork, put it in his mouth, chewed it, and nodded: "Your mother made good braised pork today. It's fatty but not greasy, and melts in your mouth."
Priscilla Chan smiled slightly at the compliment, but said, "You say the same thing every Lunar New Year. You said it was good last year, and you said it was good the year before."
"That's because it's really good. If you didn't cook it well, I would say so too."
"Did you say, 'This meat is a bit dry'?"
Shen Zhiwei, having his secret exposed, lowered his head and ate without saying a word.
Shen Yuege laughed so hard her shoulders were shaking. She picked up a piece of pork rib and put it in Lu Ran's bowl, saying softly, "Eat more. My mom hates leftovers the most; she'll nag for days if there are any."
Lu Ran ate the rib; it was indeed delicious.
The sweet and sour flavor is just right, with a perfect balance of sweet and sour. The ribs are fried until crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and every bite is bursting with flavor.
The family ate and chatted, their conversation ranging from the Spring Festival Gala to relatives' children, and then to the neighbor's dog.
Lu Ran discovered that the topics they discussed during the New Year's dinner were completely different from what he usually talked about with his colleagues at the company.
At the company, we talk about data, users, competitors, and strategic direction; at home, we talk about "what university your third aunt's cousin got into this year," "what job your second uncle's cousin got," and "has that golden retriever downstairs gotten fatter again?"
The first topic made his mind race, while the second made him feel completely relaxed.
Perhaps this is the meaning of the Chinese New Year.
Forget about all that nonsense, just sit down, have a meal with your family, and chat about trivial things.
...
The New Year's Eve dinner lasted for more than an hour, and more than half of the dishes on the table were eaten.
Only a few fatty pieces of braised pork were left, and Shen Yuege had gnawed the bones off the sweet and sour pork ribs. Only the skeleton of the steamed sea bass remained, and the eight-treasure rice was pitted and uneven, like a bombed battlefield.
Shen Yuege leaned back in her chair, rubbing her stomach with a look of both satisfaction and pain: "I can't take it anymore, I ate too much. My abs are probably going to turn into one big muscle."
"You never had abs to begin with," Priscilla Chan said as she cleared the dishes.
"Mom, how can you talk like that? I do. It's just not very obvious."
"If it's not obvious, it's not there. If it's there, it's there; if it's not there, it's not there. There's no such thing as obvious or not obvious."
Shen Yuege was speechless and turned to glare at Lu Ran.
Lu Ran was drinking soup when she was glared at, looking completely bewildered: "Why are you looking at me like that? It wasn't me who said it."
"Look, my mom doesn't side with me when she speaks."
"How can I help you? If I told you you have abs, wouldn't that be blatant lying?"
Shen Yuege was so angry that she kicked him under the table, much harder than last time.
Despite being kicked, Lu Ran continued drinking his soup without changing his expression.
After finishing their New Year's Eve dinner, the four of them moved to the living room.
The TV was on; the Spring Festival Gala wasn't going to start for another hour.
Priscilla Chan tidied up the coffee table, placing melon seeds, peanuts, candies, nuts, and a plate of cut fruit—oranges, apples, and strawberries—arranged neatly.
Shen Zhiwei brewed a pot of new tea, this time Pu'er. The tea soup was bright red and tasted warmer than Tieguanyin.
The four people sat on the sofa, chatting casually.
The TV was showing a local station's Spring Festival Gala. A male singer in a bright red robe was singing a song praising the motherland. He sang very loudly and with great effort, but I couldn't remember anything after listening to it.
Shen Yuege watched for a few minutes and then said, "This song isn't good."
Lu Ran said, "Of course. It's not like I wrote it."
"You're quite good at taking credit for yourself."
"I'm not taking credit, I'm just telling the truth. None of the songs I've written are bad."
Shen Yuege was too lazy to argue with him, so she picked up a strawberry from the coffee table and took a bite.
The strawberries were sweet and juicy. When she ate them, a little red juice got on the corner of her mouth. Lu Ran saw it and pointed to the corner of his mouth.
Shen Yuege took out her phone, looked at the light, wiped it with a tissue, and then took another one.
At 8:00 PM sharp, the Spring Festival Gala began.
The opening song and dance featured a group of actors dressed in red and green running around on stage, while various Spring Festival animations, lanterns, firecrackers, the character "福" (fortune), and zodiac animals were displayed on the background screen. The colorful display made my eyes a little tired after a while.
After watching for a while, Shen Yuege commented, "This year's opening was more lively than last year's."
Priscilla Chan chimed in, "The opening is always lively. If it's not lively, what kind of Spring Festival Gala is it?"
Shen Zhiwei didn't speak, holding his teacup and staring intently at the TV screen, his expression serious, as if he were watching an art film that required careful appreciation.
But Lu Ran noticed that his eyelids had started to droop.
After the opening song and dance, the hosts came on stage. The six hosts stood in a row, the men in suits and the women in bright red, and everyone had a perfect smile, showing eight teeth.
They said a long string of auspicious words, such as "The golden snake dances wildly to bid farewell to the old year, and the galloping horse welcomes the new spring," and after they finished speaking, the whole audience burst into enthusiastic applause.
The television screen cut to the audience below the stage, where everyone was clapping, laughing, and looking at the camera.
Lu Ran suddenly remembered a comment he had read in his previous life—that the people sitting in the audience of the Spring Festival Gala were not ordinary people, but were all arranged.
Everyone's timing for clapping, laughing, and looking at the camera is rehearsed.
He didn't know if the world was like that, but he felt it was probably so.
The first skit began. Two male actors and one female actor were performing a story about "gift-giving." An employee of a company wanted to give a gift to his boss, but he gave it to the wrong person, causing a series of misunderstandings.
Several jokes landed during the skit, and Shen Yuege laughed a few times. Lu Ran didn't laugh, nor did Chen Huixian. Shen Zhiwei, who was dozing off, was woken up by the laughter. He opened his eyes, glanced at the TV, and asked, "Where are we?" No one answered him, so he closed his eyes again and continued to doze off.
The second program was a song, a slow song sung by a female singer whom Lu Ran had never heard of before. The melody was very flat, and the lyrics were not memorable. He forgot it after listening to it.
Shen Yuege listened very attentively, and after listening, she said, "Your breath control is unstable, and the high notes in the chorus are a bit tight."
Lu Ran glanced at her and thought to himself, "A diva is a diva, even when listening to the Spring Festival Gala, she's analyzing whether others sang well or not."
The third performance was a crosstalk routine. Two actors in long gowns recited a bunch of tongue twisters on stage, then bowed and left.
Lu Ran felt that the only funny part of the crosstalk was that the supporting actor forgot a line and paused for a second before continuing. That pause was funnier than the whole crosstalk.
The fourth act was acrobatics, where a person performed various difficult moves on a swaying pole, which was terrifying to watch.
Priscilla Chan's palms were sweating as she watched, and she kept muttering "Be careful, be careful, be careful."
Shen Yuege remained calm, munching on sunflower seeds as she watched, occasionally remarking, "This move is so difficult," or "This balance is amazing."
After watching the acrobatics, Priscilla Chan glanced at the time; it was only a little past nine. She said, "It's still early, how about we play some mahjong?" Shen Zhiwei woke up at this moment, and his eyes lit up immediately upon hearing the word "mahjong": "Let's play. It's been so long since I've played." Shen Yuege said she wasn't very good, and Priscilla Chan said, "If you don't know how, you can learn. Who's born knowing how?" Lu Ran said he could, although he wasn't very good, he understood the rules.
The four people moved to the dining table.
Shen Zhiwei took out a mahjong set from the cabinet, put it in a red box, opened the box, and the mahjong tiles clattered onto the table.
Priscilla Chan cleared away the leftover food from the table, laid out a tablecloth, and the four of them sat on opposite sides and began playing cards.
Shen Yuege stacked the cards very slowly, making sure each card was aligned before placing it down. The resulting wall of cards was crooked and twisted, like a drunken snake.
Priscilla Chan glanced at it, reached out to help her adjust it, and said, "If you stack it like that, it'll collapse with a single push." Shen Yuege smiled sheepishly and continued stacking.
They determined the seating arrangement by feeling the wind: Shen Zhiwei sat to the east, Chen Huixian to the south, Lu Ran to the west, and Shen Yuege to the north.
Shen Zhiwei rolled the dice; the result was neither high nor low, and he started drawing cards himself.
After Lu Ran finished drawing his cards, he sorted them out. His hand was pretty good; he had a pair, two straights, and the rest of his cards were also fairly neat.
He glanced at Shen Yuege, who was looking at her cards with a troubled expression. The fourteen cards were arranged in a mess, and she didn't know how to arrange them after looking at them for a long time.
Priscilla Chan played a card, a "ten thousand".
Shen Zhiwei followed with a "20,000" bet.
Lu Ran drew a card, a "3 of Wan", which made a straight. He put the "3 of Wan" into his hand and discarded a useless "East Wind".
It was Shen Yuege's turn.
She looked at her own cards, then at the cards played by others on the table, hesitated for a long time, and finally drew out a "Fortune" card and played it.
Lu Ran glanced at the "Get Rich" sign, then at Shen Yuege's expression.
Shen Yuege's expression was very serious, as if she were working on a very difficult math problem.
After playing a round, Lu Ran was ready to win.
He's just one "six of bamboo" away from winning.
He calmly touched and played the cards, his face expressionless.
Shen Zhiwei played a "five of a kind" card, but Lu Ran didn't take it.
Priscilla Chan drew an "eight of bamboo" card, but Lu Ran didn't take it.
He was waiting for that "six articles".
After spinning around twice more, Shen Yuege drew a tile, glanced at it, and slammed it onto the table. The sound wasn't loud, but her tone was excited: "Self-draw!"
Lu Ran paused for a moment, then peeked at the card she had knocked over.
It was a mess, but I did win.
She won with a "mixed suit" hand, a clean hand, and all three players paid her.
Lu Ran stared wide-eyed at Shen Yuege with some disbelief.
Is this the legendary newbie protection period?
...