Lu Yizhan had been busy in the kitchen for a long time. He came out holding a steaming pot, breathing warm air as he went: "Quick, quick, quick! Get the induction cooker ready! It's gonna burn me to death!"
Fang Dian quickly unfolded a table and directed Bai Liu to bring over the induction cooker. Just before Lu Yizhan was about to drop the pot from the heat, they managed to set the pot down steadily.
A large pot of steaming spicy hotpot base bubbled on the induction cooker, and the burning, warm aroma of spices instantly filled the room. Every available table, chair, and stool nearby was covered with plates of prepared ingredients, and freshly washed lettuce was still dripping with water.
Lu Yizhan let out a sigh of relief. He patted his hands, taking a moment to admire his work with great satisfaction as his elbow rested on Bai Liu's shoulder. "Not bad, right? I boiled this big bone broth over high heat for more than an hour. If I were to sell it, with my skills, it'd have to go for at least 168 yuan a pot, don't you think?"
"Pork spine costs over forty yuan per jin. This pot of soup is the most expensive thing in the whole house. If you hadn't brought people over, I wouldn't have made such an expensive hotpot base…"
Before Lu Yizhan could finish speaking, Tang Erda, holding up that bottle of wine worth over sixty thousand yuan, looked up at Bai Liu, who was standing next to Lu Yizhan. "Is there a bottle opener?"
From the freezer, Mu Ke took out a lobster with claws almost as big as his head before turning his head to look apologetically at Lu Yizhan. "I'm sorry, there are still some ingredients left to prepare here. Could I borrow the kitchen for a bit and have my steward help finish up?"
The smile on Lu Yizhan's face slowly froze. "…"
Lu Yizhan slowly pulled his elbow from Bai Liu's shoulder and stepped aside, slightly dazed. "…The knives I have here probably aren't sharp enough to handle this lobster…"
Mu Ke politely smiled. "That's unlikely. This lobster isn't expensive. It can be handled in any way."
Mu Ke handed the lobster to the steward as he spoke. Lu Yizhan glanced at the tag hanging from the lobster's tail. Beneath a string of English was a dollar sign, followed by a five-digit number.
After getting Lu Yizhan's approval, Mu Ke called in four butlers, then turned to Lu Yizhan and said, "We'll be careful while using your kitchen and won't damage anything."
Watching Mu Ke lead his chef team into his cramped kitchen, Lu Yizhan's dazed gaze carried a subtle hint of sadness. "…You don't need to be too careful."
That lobster was already more expensive than their entire three-square-meter kitchen.
Bai Liu casually grabbed a bottle opener from the fridge door and handed it to Tang Erda. Faded characters printed on it read Brave The World, clearly gifted along with buying beer. "Can this open it?"
"It can." Tang Erda took it directly and was about to open the bottle when Lu Yizhan, who was standing next to him, suddenly raised his voice to stop him. "It can't!"
"That bottle opener has opened cans of stinky tofu and Lao Gan Ma." Lu Yizhan stared at the label on the alcohol, struggling to maintain a calm expression. "…I'll go find a new bottle opener for you."
After rummaging through the cupboards for a long time, Lu Yizhan finally found a bottle opener that wasn't a free gift and handed it to Tang Erda with tearful eyes. "Open it. This is probably the most glorious moment in its life."
With a peng, the bottle of alcohol was opened, and at the same time, the doorbell rang.
Bai Liu turned around to open the door. At the door stood Liu Jiayi, wearing a small floral dress, her hair styled in pigtails, princess shoes with white lace-trimmed socks, and two pink bow clips. She remained relatively silent.
"You dressed up today." Bai Liu tactfully commented, his face carrying a trace of a smile. "It suits your age."
Liu Jiayi tugged her skirt down, adjusted her tense expression, took a deep breath, and was about to taunt Bai Liu when she suddenly heard Fang Dian's surprised voice. "Why is there a little girl here, too?"
In an instant, Liu Jiayi revealed a sweet smile, blinking her big, hazy gray eyes in confusion. "Hello, Sister. It's my first time visiting, but I didn't bring anything, so I just bought some candy downstairs and brought it up."
"Does Sister want to eat candy?" Liu Jiayi handed it over from her bag, her eyes blinking.
Fang Dian stared at Liu Jiayi for a long time, making her almost nervous, wondering if her disguise had slipped somewhere.
Fang Dian locked her eyes tightly on Liu Jiayi at the door, holding a small bag of candy and tilting her head to look at her. At the same time, she gripped Bai Liu's arm tightly, twisting it as she struggled to control herself and shouted in a low voice: "…She's so cute!!"
"Do you think her mom will mind if she has another mom after coming out to eat?" Fang Dian's thoughts rapidly scattered.
Bai Liu watched as the originally nervous Liu Jiayi let out a sigh of relief, the smile on his face becoming deeper. "I think her mom would be very happy that such a beautiful woman likes her."
Fang Dian swiftly turned around and sped into the home. "Wait a bit, I'm going to put on some makeup! Gimme five minutes!"
Just now, when so many guys showed up, Fang Dian was like an invisible person, wearing big slippers, with messy hair, pacing around the apartment, laughing loud enough to lift the ceiling. Sitting cross-legged on the sofa, she carefully inspected and sized up Bai Liu's team members, while the group stood before her, looking like little minions at a military review.
"You're that young master from the Mu family group! Wow, awesome! How do you know that poor guy Bai Liu?"
"A student from a prestigious university, not bad, not bad!"
"Wow, those muscles of yours, how did you get them? Teach me!"
In short, she didn't care about her personal image at all and didn't think about putting on makeup.
Now that a little girl had arrived, Fang Dian's long-dormant kindergarten teacher instincts suddenly kicked in. She rushed into the room and immediately started changing clothes, fixing her hair, and applying makeup.
Seeing Fang Dian go, Bai Liu squatted down to look at Liu Jiayi, half-smiling. "Xiang Chunhua told me you hate wearing pink dresses. How come you came today in an all neatly dressed outfit?"
"I suddenly liked them today." Liu Jiayi said irritably. "When you visit a friend's home for the first time, you have to dress nicely, don't you know? Not knowing any manners."
Bai Liu thoughtfully dragged out his tone and repeated Liu Jiayi's words. "You're visiting a friend's home for the first time, so why are you so nervous?"
Liu Jiayi froze, but very soon, Fang Dian rushed out of the apartment and eased the situation.
She squatted neatly in front of Liu Jiayi with neat makeup, sweeping away her previous casual appearance. Wearing a dress and a polka-dot bow headband on her head, holding a cloth doll in her hands, she smiled and looked both friendly and gentle, like a weird auntie waving at Liu Jiayi to lure her over. "Little friend, come over, Teacher, pei no, Sister has a cute doll here, wanna play?"
Liu Jiayi: "…"
She hesitated for a long time, but still cooperated and walked over. Fang Dian carefully and tenderly gave Liu Jiayi a hug, then gently patted her fluffy pigtails. The expression on her face looked as if she were about to cry. "She let me hug her, so soft and cute."
Liu Jiayi sat stiffly on Fang Dian's knee, her small hands pressing down on her skirt, not daring to move an inch.
Seeing Fang Dian like this, Lu Yizhan put his hands into his apron and couldn't help but find it funny. "You're with so many children at the kindergarten every day, yet still haven't hugged enough?"
"How could I casually hug them?" Fang Dian propped up her chin and let out a sigh. "You're not allowed to have physical contact with children. There are surveillance cameras in the kindergarten, connected in real time to the parents' phones. If a parent sees you hugging a child without permission, you could get reported."
"Especially for female children. The Parents' Association is especially careful. Even if they take the initiative to get close to me, I can't touch them."
"After all, they're not my children."
Fang Dian seemed to say the words casually, and she herself didn't react much, but nearby, both Bai Liu's and Lu Yizhan's movements froze.
She put Liu Jiayi down and fixed her dress and hair. She squatted down and gently looked at Liu Jiayi. "Now, looking at this little girl who almost became my daughter, the feeling is different, of course."
Lu Yizhan had previously discussed adopting Liu Jiayi with Fang Dian, and Fang Dian had also seen photos of her. It was just that, in the end, Liu Jiayi didn't choose them.
Only then did Liu Jiayi remember that matter. She pressed her lips together, seemingly not knowing what to say.
…Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian really would have been wonderful parents—so good that not choosing them left a lingering sense of guilt, as if she had let them down.
"Looking at it now, our judgment really was right." Fang Dian smiled, reached out, and tucked the hair behind Liu Jiayi's ear. "You're such a cute little girl. It's no wonder that more people than just us want to be your family."
"But becoming friends also isn't bad!"
Fang Dian half-squatted on the rug, meeting Liu Jiayi's gaze at the same level. She seriously extended her hand out to Liu Jiayi. "Hello, Little Friend Liu Jiayi. My name is Fang Dian. This year, I'm 25 years old. May I ask if you've recently been thinking about making a new friend with such a large age gap?"
Liu Jiayi was silent for a moment. The corners of her tightly pressed lips couldn't help but begin to curl upward, and two small dimples appeared on her cheeks.
She slightly lifted her chin, putting on an arrogant expression to go along with Fang Dian's act. "Originally, no."
"But I can make an exception for you." Liu Jiayi put her hand on Fang Dian's palm.
Fang Dian exaggeratedly put on a look of being flattered, overwhelmed by the favor. She laughed heartily as she picked up Liu Jiayi and placed her by the dining table. "Such a huge exception! I have nothing to give in return, so I'll just have to treat you to hotpot! Let's eat, let's eat!"
Clear liquor was poured into the glasses, and everyone except Liu Jiayi raised their glasses in celebration. Just as the glasses were halfway raised, the power went out.
Everyone: "…"
Du Sanying covered his mouth and choked out, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault…"
"It's fine." Lu Yizhan didn't mind. "The electric circuit here is old and often cuts out. I'll go get some solid alcohol. Let's take the pot out to the balcony to eat."
Fang Dian let out a gasp. "Wouldn't that be a lobster candlelight dinner? How romantic!"
Bai Liu serenely poured cold water on them. "It's romantic if it's just two people. Aside from Liu Jiayi, we have seven people here. Even if we split into pairs of two, there's still a person left out."
"Okay, Bai Liu, it turns out that once you start working, you become part of society, huh?" Fang Dian rolled up her sleeves. "So you actually dare talk back to me?"
Tang Erda was quickly led astray by Bai Liu. He frowned, seriously pondering Bai Liu's words about "pairs of two." "Then who do I group with? Bai Liu, how about you and I just…"
Mu Sicheng, holding his bowl and eating, loudly retorted, "No, Bai Liu is pairing with me!"
The lenses over Mu Ke's eyes flashed, but his tone when he spoke was gentle and warm. "Bai Liu, come sit over here. I'll scoop out the lobster meat for you."
"…Lu Yizhan got a headache and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Okay, okay, don't be noisy. Sit first, I'll go get ethanol."
In the pitch-black night, amidst the twinkling city lights, there was one unlucky household without power, squatting on their balcony with bowls and chopsticks, having a simple yet lively meal—a hotpot meal worth nearly six figures.
Many years later, when asked about the best meal they ever had in life, Du Sanying, whose memory still wasn't that good, would answer immediately—
—The hotpot from the first time Bai Liu brought him to his friend's home, when the power went out.
At ten at night, Du Sanying lay in Bai Liu's home after bathing and scrolled on his phone.
Du Sanying had just added a lot of people today, so his Moments were full of new content. He carefully went through each one, his lips curling into a smile.
As he scrolled down, he came across a post Fang Dian made on her Moments. It was a hand-drawn picture. It depicted the scene of the people eating hotpot today.
Fang Dian playfully pinched Bai Liu's head in the crook of her arm while reaching into his bowl with chopsticks to grab some food. Lu Yizhan flusteredly tried to stop her, Mu Ke sided with Fang Dian, and nearby, Mu Sicheng watched the spectacle with a mischievous smile. Tang Erda was drinking, and Liu Jiayi, hiding in the corner, was surprisingly taking photos. Meanwhile, he stood there dumbly holding his wine glass, blushing and smiling foolishly, looking quite drunk.
Everyone was there, and everyone was smiling.
Fang Dian captioned this drawing on her Moments as— [Family Photo].
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Spades: So the family photo doesn't include me?