Translated by Serena Love

Edited by Azure

Chapter 96: Fortune Eight Treasure Duck

At less than eight o'clock in the evening, the main hall of the Shen family's house was brightly lit.

A round table was filled with delicacies, all in color, fragrance, and flavor. The morel chicken soup was still bubbling in the white saucepan in the middle.

The Shen family was not complicated. Of the previous generation, only Shen Yue's Grandpa was still alive. However, now he was living with a family's uncle in the south. Madam Shen was now the head of the family, and she was sitting on the main seat. Before he could sit beside her, Shen Yue was pushed aside by Madam Shen.

"This is the first time Qiaoqiao is celebrating the New Year with us. Come and sit next to me." Tang Qiaoqiao had to reject her a few times before finally sitting next to her.

Shen Yong sat on the other side of Madam Shen. Hu Hong curled her lips impatiently and took a seat beside her husband bitterly.

They were both daughters-in-law, but the old lady eccentrically completely favored the other party. Neither of the two men on her left and the right fought for her.

Her husband was a dull gourd and her son...

Forget it. She couldn’t expect Shen Liang to say something for her. His eyes were fixed on the dishes on the table.

Hu Hong gently touched his son's arm under the table and said in a low voice, "Pay attention to your eyes. You look like a starving ghost reborn."

Shen Liang then shifted his gaze but was still wondering when they would start dinner. Tang Qiaoqiao's cooking skills always made him obsessed. But he could not say that he had been waiting for these Chinese New Year dishes made by Tang Qiaoqiao.

Madam Shen looked at her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandson sitting around her. The wrinkles in the corners of her eyes stretched out, and she raised her wine glass.

"It's rare for us to get together as a family like today. Let's toast and bless each other. I wish all of us good health in the next year and all the best."

As the eldest brother, Shen Yong stood up first. Then the others also stood up and raised their cups to toast Madam Shen.

"Us, the younger generations, should toast you first. I wish that all Mother's wishes come true, and you are as good as the East Sea."

Tang Qiaoqiao said with a sweet smile, "Mom has to laugh a lot in the new year. The longer you live, the younger you will become."

Madam Shen was happy and smiled from ear to ear. "Okay, okay. Everyone, sit down."

Hu Hong couldn't help but say strange sarcastic things again.

"Actually, Mom has nothing to worry about now. Shen Yue's legs are recovering well, and the company is developing steadily. There is only one worry left." She glanced at Tang Qiaoqiao slowly, "It's just that my younger siblings have to hurry to have a baby. They have been married for so long, but the stomach hasn't moved. If there is any problem, it is best to see a doctor as soon as possible. Don't shy away from the doctors."

Shen Yong frowned when he heard it and glanced at his brother. Luckily for him, Shen Yue was calm.

He secretly felt bad. He coughed slightly and stepped on Hu Hong's foot secretly to warn her not to talk nonsense.

Not only did Hu Hong ignore him, but she continued to say without fear of death, "If younger brother or younger sister-in-law needs help, I can introduce you to an old Chinese doctor."

Shen Yue was about to speak, but Tang Qiaoqiao pressed the back of his hand and laughed.

"We are young, and we are not in a hurry. But if sister-in-law likes children so much, when do you plan to have a second child? Shouldn't you take advantage of the last time before menopause to have another one, so you can transfer your excess energy, don't you think?"

Turning around and scolding her and Shen Yue for not giving birth to a child was only a secondary thing, but mainly it was the most annoying when the older generation preached about marriage or giving birth.

Hu Hong's face was green and white. Tang Qiaoqiao was blatantly saying that she was old and approaching menopause.

She pressed her anger and was about to make trouble, but at this time, Madam Shen said, "Okay, don't talk about urging marriage and giving birth. We are celebrating the New Year. I know young people nowadays don't like to talk about it. Why are you opening this can of worms?"

Hu Hong said aggrievedly, "Mom, I am just worried about you. I want you to hold your grandson again."

Madam Shen said lightly, "Really? Then you should urge Shen Liang to let me hold my great-grandson earlier. It's good for four generations to live together."

Shen Liang shrank his shoulders. The fire at the city gate hit a pond fish. What could he do? His fans wouldn’t agree for him to marry.

Shen Yong scolded Hu Hong, "Don't speak anymore. Eat."

"Yes, let's have dinner. I'm starving to death." Shen Liang followed his father's words and changed the subject.

Hu Hong was about to die of anger because of Shen Yong and her son.

Madam Shen laughed, "It's too quiet to eat like this. It's not lively at all. It's better to have music."

Shen Yue looked at his watch. "It's more than seven o'clock. The Spring Festival Gala is about to begin."

Madam Shen shook her head. "The time hasn’t come yet. Let's listen to something else."

"Put Shen Liang's song. He recently released a new song, which is number one in the major charts." Hu Hong's mood turned fast, and she now became proud again.

"I don't like to listen to that type of slurred, sappy love songs." The old lady said honestly.

Tang Qiaoqiao wanted to give her a thumbs up. She said the truth.

After Madam Shen finished talking, she walked to the TV and tinkered a few times. Then a piece of familiar music fluttered in the living room.

When Tang Qiaoqiao heard this, Shen Yue also reacted. A smile flashed across his eyes.

When Madam Shen turned and walked away, Tang Qiaoqiao appeared on the TV screen.

Madam Shen played the song "Happy New Year" that Tang Qiaoqiao sang at the New Year's Eve concert.

Madam Shen smiled and said, "I like the song "Happy New Year" sung by Qiaoqiao. It is good and suitable for today.

So they cycled "Happy New Year" more than ten times before the Spring Festival Gala began.

No one wanted to mention this "Happy New Year" song anymore after this New Year's Eve dinner.

Madam Shen looked at a table of delicious food and exclaimed, "Qiaoqiao's cooking skills are even better than those of a five-star hotel. She is even capable of carving flowers. I don't know which dish to taste first."

Tang Qiaoqiao smiled and said, "Mom, eat this eight treasure duck for good fortune."

On a white porcelain plate, lying on its back, was a fat and plump duck. The duck was ruddy in color, with a rope tied in the middle, like a gourd, topped with a layer of shrimp and green bean sauce, which was as bright as a crystal.

Most of the bones had been removed from this eight-treasure duck, but the flesh was still intact.

Tang Qiaoqiao gently cut the duck's abdominal cavity with the knife she had prepared long ago, and suddenly the eight treasures stuffing in the abdominal cavity overflowed. The "eight-treasure" filling was made of glutinous rice, chestnut, chicken gizzards, winter mushrooms, ham, diced bamboo shoots, ginkgo, lotus seeds, and scallops. The ingredients had been steamed to perfection. The scent of glutinous rice blended with duck meat's savory taste to penetrate their nasal cavity and make their index finger move.

The duck had thin skin. Tang Qiaoqiao gently picked up a piece with chopsticks, then scooped a spoonful of eight-treasure rice and handed it to Madam Shen.

Madam Shen smiled and tasted the duck. The duck was tender and crispy, the juice was thick and delicious, and there was no special fishy smell of duck meat. When she tasted it carefully, there was a hint of sweetness under the thick oil red sauce. The eight treasure rice was full of the savory taste of duck meat. It was salty, delicious, and mellow.

"It's so delicious. It's the best eight-treasure duck I have ever eaten in my life." Madam Shen scooped herself a large spoonful of eight-treasure rice with duck meat.

Tang Qiaoqiao said with a sweet smile, "It's good that you like it."

After Madam Shen moved her chopsticks, the others moved as well. Shen Liang was already impatient a long time ago. As soon as the duck entered his mouth, his eyes widened. The meat was tender and smooth, full of juice. The eight-treasure rice was fragrant and soft, and the taste was rich. It was simply heaven on earth.

Shen Yong didn't have much contact with Tang Qiaoqiao and he had never eaten her cooking. But seeing Madam Shen and his son addicted, he curiously stretched out his chopsticks to take a piece of the coral fish placed in front of him.

For the coral fish, the whole fish was deboned to take the fish fillets, and then the boneless half of the fish fillets were obliquely cut to uniformly space while still keeping the fish skin connected.

The sliced ​​fish fillet was then turned over and cut into threads so that the cut "coral" hung on the fish skin and made a beautiful shape.

After the "coral" was cut, it was marinated in seasoning, wrapped in starch, and fried. The deep-fried coral fish had a distinct flavor and golden color. They were clustered together like coral on the bottom of the sea, then filled with the fine sauce. The aroma was overflowing.

The coral fish was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The sweet and sour sauce wrapped the tender fish, which was very appetizing.

Shen Yong liked the sweet and sour taste, and he couldn't stop eating.

Seeing that none of the people at the table tried her dish, Hu Hong took the initiative to say to Madam Shen, "Mom, you can try the beef and tomato stew I made."

Madam Shen felt that she had to give the eldest wife some face, so she took a bite. When she chewed on a piece of beef, she frowned. After a long time swallowing, she smiled faintly. "Uh, it's not bad."

Then the next second, she turned to Tang Qiaoqiao's braised pork.

Hu Hong was angry and annoyed, so she turned to her son, who was eating happily.

"This is the beef that I made. Eat this." Her ferocious eyes conveyed: if you didn't eat it, you would be unfilial.

Shen Liang reluctantly took a bite of beef. His five senses were entangled, and he said very inconspicuously, "Mom, the beef stew is overcooked, and it can't be chewed."

Hu Hong was dumbfounded. Her own son pointed out that her dishes were not good and unpalatable. It made her face hot. Impossible, she made this dish based on Baidu's step-by-step instruction.

She didn’t believe it. She had to eat it herself.

So Hu Hong picked up a large piece of beef, put it in her mouth, and chewed it. It was awful. It was not delicious at all...

Gradually, Hu Hong couldn't lie to herself. The beef was overcooked and woody, and it was stuck between her teeth.

She had to consciously prevent herself from spitting it out. When she looked at the eight-treasure duck and coral fish made by Tang Qiaoqiao, the family had already eaten most of them.

'Is it really that delicious?'

Hu Hong had originally thought that she would never eat a bite of Tang Qiaoqiao's dishes this New Year's Eve dinner, but now she was entangled again and again. She couldn't resist and took advantage of everyone's focus on eating, she secretly stretched her chopsticks towards the Eight Treasure Duck.

Then, she was silent.

She knew that the other two dishes she made didn't need to be recommended. Compared with those made by Tang Qiaoqiao, they were simply pig food.

Tang Qiaoqiao glanced at Hu Hong from the corner of her eye and saw that she finally did not resist the temptation of her delicious food and ate happily. The corners of her mouth could not be suppressed.

Shen Yue looked at her smiling triumphantly. He also smiled and put a de-shelled prawn in her bowl.

Tang Qiaoqiao swallowed the sweet shrimp in one bite and gave him a piece of sweet and soft red bean paste rice cake.

"Now, after eating it, your career will definitely reach the next level in the new year."

Shen Yue hooked his fingers, and Tang Qiaoqiao obediently leaned over.

He attached his lips to her ear, and his voice was clear and smooth when he whispered, "I just want to be together like this every year and every day in the future."

Shen Yue's sudden love words made her face hot.

The love words spoken by that face are really too damn sultry.

Madam Shen couldn't help smiling when she saw that Shen Yue and Tang Qiaoqiao were so affectionate.

In the second half of the meal, Tang Qiaoqiao went to the kitchen to cook the dumplings that she had folded. How could there be no dumplings for the New Year's Eve dinner?

Tang Qiaoqiao wrapped three types of stuffing: winter bamboo shoots and mushroom stuffing, meat stuffing, and vegetable stuffing.

The New Year's Eve dinner was not over until the three large plates of dumplings were eaten cleanly.

At this time, it was not midnight yet. Madam Shen and Shen Yong sat down in the living room to watch the Spring Festival Gala.

Tang Qiaoqiao suddenly felt something and ran to the corridor to look up to the sky. She saw white and crystal snow falling from the sky. Accompanied by the dim yellow street lamp in the yard, it looked like catkins flying in the wind.

"It's snowing. It's the first snow of this year."

Tang Qiaoqiao excitedly ran into the yard and circled around. She stretched out the palm of her hand to catch the snowflakes and was excited even if it melted immediately.

Standing under the corridor, Shen Yue said loudly, "Don't tell me you haven't seen snow?" 'How could you be so excited?'

Tang Qiaoqiao said, "It's really the first time I’ve seen snow with my own eyes."

Shen Yue was speechless and reminded her, "Be careful, the ground is very slippery. Don't fall when you jump like this."

"I'm not afraid..."

Tang Qiaoqiao just finished speaking, but her heels slipped, and she fell to the ground. There was a sharp pain in her tail bone.

Shen Yue was overwhelmed but immediately took out his phone to take a picture of this scene.

Tang Qiaoqiao stood up while rubbing her spine and rushed towards Shen Yue angrily. "You still said that you love me. I fell down. Shouldn't you rush over to be my human cushion regardless of the danger?"

Shen Yue lowered his head to check her tail bone. "I don't have a fever. Did you watch too many brain-dead TV dramas? In the future, you should dismiss this kind of script at first sight. I don't want to watch your brain-dead dramas on TV in the future."

Tang Qiaoqiao narrowed her eyes. "Yes? Who hid and watched my vixen TV show secretly?"

Shen Yue didn't change his face, nor did his heart beat faster when he said, "I told you, that was accidentally clicked on a garbage advertisement."

"Yeah, sure." 'To save your face.'

Tang Qiaoqiao was standing in the corridor, and Shen Yue was afraid that she would fall again. As he held her waist and looked at her blushing face after running, his heart softened.

At this time, gorgeous fireworks burst into the sky suddenly. The midnight had passed, and the new year is here.

"Happy New Year." The two spoke at the same time, and they tacitly smiled.

It snowed all night, and a thick layer of snow accumulated on the ground early the next morning.

---

Tang Qiaoqiao strolled around and rushed to the window to watch the white snow outside. Even though Madam Shen was playing her "Happy New Year" early in the morning, she was happy.

She put on a red down jacket, put on a red hat, picked up a shovel, rushed into the snow, and began to build a snowman. She had planned it all night.

Tang Qiaoqiao was strong and motivated, and she soon piled up the snow into a big snowman.

Shen Liang wanted to sleep in, but he was woken up by Tang Qiaoqiao's singing early in the morning.

He ran downstairs, trying to make his grandma turn off the music, but found that the yard was full of excitement.

He walked over, and saw that Tang Qiaoqiao was building a snowman.

Tang Qiaoqiao was so enthusiastic next to the snow, as ignorant and blissful as a child.

Shen Liang murmured silently in his heart, then raised his eyelids inadvertently.

‘Child, is this a snowman? This is a Snow Giant.'

Generally speaking, everyone would build a snowman as tall as half a person, or at most one person tall.

But the body of the snowman that Tang Qiaoqiao had built was already taller than him, a 1.8-meter tall man. This had not even considered the snowman's head.

Shen Liang was lost. 'How did she do it?'

Tang Qiaoqiao was still rolling the snowman's head. With such a tall body, of course, he deserved a big head.

For such a snowman, Tang Qiaoqiao had wiped out the snow in the entire yard. He believed the maid who would clean up later would be very grateful to her.

Shen Yue was in a wheelchair and was giving guidance beside her.

Shen Liang had never bothered to play this kind of game before. As people say, you will become black if you are near the ink. Tang Qiaoqiao had taken Shen Yue off the track.

He stood trembling in the corridor. He wanted to see how Tang Qiaoqiao would put such a heavy snowman's head on its body.

Just as he thought that Tang Qiaoqiao would definitely fail, he saw that she lifted the snowman's head with one hand and used another hand to drag a small ladder behind the snowman's body. Then she climbed to the ladder and set the snowman's head firmly.

Shen Liang: ...

He forgot. He forgot that Tang Qiaoqiao was a woman who could lift a big fat pig. A snowman's head was a ball of wool for her.

Also stunned in place were Shen Yong and Hu Hong, who had just come out.

Suddenly, Hu Hong was secretly relieved that she hadn't got a chance to create a deep conflict with Tang Qiaoqiao. Otherwise, Tang Qiaoqiao would be able to kill her with a single punch. It was not a joke.

"Is the head upright?" Tang Qiaoqiao came down to the floor and asked Shen Yue.

Shen Yue took a photo with his mobile phone and said, "Yes."

Tang Qiaoqiao climbed down and admired her handiwork with both hands on her chest.

Shen Yue reminded her, "You haven't added the eyes or nose yet."

"I know." Tang Qiaoqiao hurried to the house to find something.

Shen Yue yelled at her back, "Look for better-looking things. Find something for a tall nose and a darker eye."

Shen Yue thought that Tang Qiaoqiao made such a tall and mighty snowman. Obviously, she would make it look like him. Of course, all the five senses had to look good. Otherwise, it would not be fair to his handsome face.

Soon, Tang Qiaoqiao came back with a bunch of gadgets.

She climbed up the ladder happily and began to decorate the snowman's facial features and body.

Shen Yue looked up, but the more he looked at it, the more he felt something was off.

---

[T/N: Recipes for Eight Treasure Duck and Coral Fish below.]

Eight Treasure Duck - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BNLrvWQIDM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GF3Di-WCv0

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