Chapter 223 - Chapter 223: Dragon Boat Festival
Chapter 223: Dragon Boat Festival
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Dragon Boat Festival.
Ji Chi had no concept of the Dragon Boat Festival. He was an orphan, and all the holidays from childhood to adulthood were irrelevant to him. He had grown up in a foreign country, and the Dragon Boat Festival was already a distant memory in his mind.
Jiang Junlin also didn’t like to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival because he didn’t eat rice dumplings. Gu Ziyu, on the other hand, was enthusiastic about celebrating various festivals. If it weren’t for Qingming Festival being for the deceased, he would probably want to celebrate that too.
On this day of the Dragon Boat Festival, Ji Chi was invited to Jiang Junlin’s house to celebrate. Ji Chi rarely had time off and wanted to invite General Jiang for a fishing trip. “I have something to discuss.”
Gu Ziyu said, “Uncle is coming to celebrate!”
“Then count me in!” Ji Chi said. “It’s not something very important.”
“Then come early!”
Gu Ziyu was nine years old this year, with a youthful voice, but he was quite tall, taller than most kids his age, already showing the prototype of a young man. He had also graduated with a Ph.D. and officially joined the national security agency, becoming a promising young man under Chen Liangdong’s guidance.
This wasn’t Ji Chi’s first visit to Gu Ziyu’s home. Since Lu Zhiyuan moved to the Blue Fields Villa this year, Ji Chi had been coming over frequently and was quite familiar with the place. He brought two bottles of red wine with him.
As soon as he parked the car, he saw Lu Zhiyuan in the courtyard… cutting pork belly.
Ji Chi didn’t know what to think.
“You’re here just in time. Come over and help cut the meat!” Lu Zhiyuan looked at the oil on his hands with disdain. He really disliked doing household chores, but Gu Ci and Gu Ziyu enjoyed the atmosphere.
“Third Master, is it appropriate?” Ji Chi, who was used to calling him Third Master, asked.
Is it inappropriate for you or for me?” Lu Zhiyuan raised an eyebrow, smiling, but there was a domineering air about him as the superior. “Then I’ll have Jiang Junlin do it later.”
“I don’t believe you can boss him around.”
Lu Zhiyuan said with a smile that was not quite a smile, “As long as Cici can boss him around.”
“I don’t believe it!
Lu Zhiyuan lightly chuckled and said, “Ji Chi, you behave yourself. Cici can boast about your virtuous and gentle qualities at Jiang’s house later. Don’t forget, you’re still being kept out by the Jiang family.”
Ji Chi replied, “The pork belly is here; I’ll do it!
He washed his hands, put on gloves, and came over to cut the meat. Gu Ci took out the washed bamboo leaves for the rice dumplings, and Lu Zhiyuan went to pick up the bamboo leaves and sun-dry them together. The two of them even shared a sweet kiss.
Gu Ci said, “Why hasn’t Big Brother arrived yet?”
“What can he do when he comes? He doesn’t even eat!” Lu Zhiyuan said.
Gu Ci said, “1 specially prepared honey jujube rice dumplings for him.”
“Why don’t 1 have the meat and salted egg yolk dumplings that I like?” Lu Zhiyuan asked.
“Ziyu doesn’t like salted egg yolk!” Gu Ci replied.
“Ziyu also doesn’t like honey jujube rice dumplings, so why are there honey jujube rice dumplings?” Lu Zhiyuan asked. “Why does Jiang Junlin have the privilege to eat honey jujube rice dumplings that Ziyu doesn’t like?”
Gu Ci looked up at the sky in silence and thought for three seconds before saying, “A husband can be replaced, but big brother can’t. Understand?”
Lu Zhiyuan looked at her.
It seemed that the days of “lock me up, break my legs, and don’t want to change my husband” were long gone.
“Third Master, your status in this family is getting lower and lower!” Ji Chi added from the side.
“Better than you, who still can’t get inside the door.”
Ji Chi didn’t respond.
Ouch, that hit close to home!
Lu Zhiyuan disliked Jiang Junlin, and Jiang Junlin didn’t necessarily like him either. However, on special occasions like holidays, the older brother and brother-in-law had to meet at the same dining table.
The older brother’s lover also happened to be his right-hand man.
It was quite a predicament!
Just as they were discussing, Jiang Junlin’s car parked next to Ji Chi. He was carrying a box of crabs and a box of seasonal cherries. Ji Chi smiled when he saw him, “Big brother, 1 cut the pork belly for today’s rice dumplings. Will you do me the honor of having one?”
“Thanks for the invitation, but no,” Jiang Junlin coldly declined.
Ji Chi looked disappointed, like a little puppy that had been rejected, but Jiang Junlin was as unyielding as ever. Fruits were acceptable, but he would absolutely not touch a single bite of the rice dumplings, no matter how they were offered.
Lu Zhiyuan nodded coldly in acknowledgment, and that was it. Their way of interacting had always been distant, as if they were strangers.
Saying one more word would mean they lost.
“Uncle, Uncle…” Gu Ziyu waved from upstairs and then ran downstairs. “Let’s make rice dumplings together, and I’ve got honey jujube ones that you like.”
“Sure, you take the crabs and steam them,” Jiang Junlin rubbed his head affectionately. Gu Ziyu eagerly took the crabs and cherries inside and volunteered to steam the crabs.
After draining the rice dumpling leaves, Gu Ci and Lu Zhiyuan started to make rice dumplings with great enthusiasm, all while wearing disposable gloves.
Jiang Junlin said, “I’ll do it!
He didn’t mind the fatty pork at all. Rolling up his sleeves, he took the stick that Gu Ci had been using to stir the fatty pork evenly. Jiang Junlin looked at at least twenty catties of fatty pork and asked Gu Ci, “How many rice dumplings do you want to make?”
“Two hundred to three hundred, I guess.”
Lu Zhiyuan blurted out, “Why are you making so many rice dumplings?”
“For the Dragon Boat Festival, to give to people,” Gu Ci said. “I’ve already talked to my maternal grandfather, uncle, Uncle Chen, Master, and Dad. We’ll send them after we finish making the rice dumplings!”
Lu Zhiyuan and Jiang Junlin agreed on something for the first time. “No need.”
“Why?”
Ji Chi chuckled, and when Jiang Junlin looked over, he couldn’t hold back his laughter. He leaned against Jiang Junlin’s shoulder, soft and boneless, wrapping his waist around him.
Jiang Junlin nudged his elbow backward, but Ji Chi didn’t let go. He insisted on sticking to him and took the opportunity to pat his waist.
Lu Zhiyuan and Jiang Junlin exchanged a glance. Honestly, this year was their first attempt at making rice dumplings themselves, all because Gu Ziyu had a sudden idea to create a Dragon Boat Festival atmosphere.
None of them had ever made rice dumplings before.
Jiang Junlin and Lu Zhiyuan both knew their limits and didn’t think they could make any good rice dumplings. Eating them themselves was one thing, but giving them to others was unnecessary.
Gu Ci also understood the hidden meaning behind her husband and brother-in-law’s words. “1 think… it will definitely be successful!”
She paused and added, “I believe in you!”
“No need!” Lu Zhiyuan and Jiang Junlin said in unison.
Ji Chi couldn’t hold back any longer and burst into laughter while hugging Jiang Junlin.
The glutinous rice had been soaked for a long time, and the golden silk jujubes were washed. After marinating the fatty pork, they all enthusiastically started making rice dumplings, each wearing disposable gloves.
Two hours later…
Gu Ziyu looked at the misshapen and messy rice dumplings, his face expressionless. He concluded, “You guys have let me down!”
The rice dumplings either leaked rice or looked exceptionally ugly, as they were supposed to be wrapped with two leaves, but they just kept leaking. Eventually, they bundled up a mess.
The rice dumplings made by Lu Zhiyuan and Jiang Junlin even turned out round!
Ji Chi, who had a talent for cooking he acquired specifically for Jiang Junlin, contributed several dozen rice dumplings with the best appearance. Half of them had jujubes in them, and he marked the ones with bigger jujubes, specifically for Jiang Junlin.
Gu Ziyu, holding the rice dumplings Ji Chi made, said with disdain, “Dad, yours don’t look as good as mine.”
Lu Zhiyuan said expressionlessly, “After peeling, they all have glutinous rice and meat. What’s the difference?”
Gu Ziyu stared at him indignantly.
For the sake of the rice dumplings, Gu Ci had specially built a stove in the yard and bought a large pot that could cook several hundred rice dumplings at once. The ones to be eaten in the afternoon were placed in a pressure cooker for faster cooking.
Ji Chi said, “I heard that things cooked in clay pots taste better than in pressure cookers?”
Lu Zhiyuan asked, “What’s the principle behind that?”
“I don’t know, everyone says so!”
“Be smarter in life, don’t just follow the crowd!”
Jiang Junlin said calmly, “We should leave room for doubt. Let’s all taste it first.”
Ji Chi suppressed his laughter and remained silent. Whether they teased each other as a husband or a boss, it didn’t concern him. Gu Ziyu, on the other hand, paid no attention to these matters and focused on preparing a lavish Dragon Boat Festival feast.
Jiang Junlin, Ji Chi, and Lu Zhiyuan gathered around the large pot in the courtyard and soon noticed a problem. Ji Chi said, “Uh-oh, we have a leak. Whose rice dumplings were these? They weren’t tied tightly.”
“This one’s also leaking.”
“Let’s pick them out first!”
Jiang Junlin, Lu Zhiyuan, and Ji Chi picked out the leaking and ruined rice dumplings. They retrieved about fifty or sixty of them. Ji Chi commented, “It must be the two of you who packed these. Ziyu, Cici, and I didn’t make such basic mistakes.”
Lu Zhiyuan and Jiang Junlin exchanged a glance and looked towards Gu Ci, who was busy in the kitchen with Gu Ziyu, experimenting with dishes. Lu Zhiyuan asked, “What should we do? Cici is so excited about giving away the rice dumplings; we can’t let her down.”
Jiang Junlin pondered for a moment and said, “To be honest, to avoid a complete disaster, 1 have a whole box of ready-made rice dumplings in my car.”
He had originally prepared them just in case none of their homemade ones turned out well.
Lu Zhiyuan, impressed, gave a thumbs-up. “You’re a lifesaver. We can throw that box in and cook it together. We can pretend we made them ourselves. After all, you can’t really mess up cooking rice dumplings…”
He looked uncertainly at Ji Chi and asked, “Right?”
Ji Chi, also puzzled, looked at Jiang Junlin. “1 don’t know, can we?”
“How would 1 know?”
“Should we throw them in?”
Lu Zhiyuan and Jiang Junlin agreed, “Why not!”