Chapter 376: Preseason

Lu Yizhan was busy in the kitchen for half a day, breathing heavily as he brought out a steaming pot: "Quickly, quickly, quickly! Put it on the induction cooker! It's hot!"

Fang Dian quickly sets up a table and directs Bai Liu to bring the induction cooker over, and finally gets the bottom pan on the ground before Lu Yizhan gets so hot that he sends the pan flying.

A large steaming pot of spicy potage bubbled on the induction cooker, the pungent yet warm smell of spices instantly filled the room, and every available table, chair, and bench was filled with ingredients on saucers, and washed lettuce dripping down.

Lu Yizhan breathed a long sigh of relief, he clapped his hands, rather self-satisfied with the appreciation for a while, elbow up stuck on Bai Liu's shoulder: "Not bad, right? This big bone soup I turn on the fire boiled for more than an hour, to be sent out to buy, plus my handiwork and how to buy a pot of 168 right?"

"Dragon bone more than forty dollars a catty it, this pot of soup is the most expensive thing in this house, if not you bring people, I will not get so expensive bottom pot ......"

Before Lu Yizhan's words left his mouth, Tang Er held up the bottle of wine, which cost more than 60,000 dollars, and looked up at Bai Liu, who was next to Lu Yizhan: "Do you have a corkscrew?"

Mu Ke pulled a lobster with pincers about the size of his head out of the cooler and inclined his head apologetically to Lu Yizhan: "I'm sorry there's still ingredients left to be processed here, can I borrow the kitchen for a moment so my Guan Jia can help me with this?"

The smile on Lu Yizhan's face gradually solidified, "......"

Lu Yizhan slowly withdrew the hand he had placed on Bai Liu's shoulder, stepping aside slightly woodenly, "...... The knife I have here may not be worthy of handling this lobster ...... "

Mu Ke smiled politely, "No, it's not an expensive lobster, just deal with it."

As Mu Ke hands the lobster to Guan Jia, Lu Yizhan glances at the tag hanging from the lobster's tail, and underneath the string of English there is a money sign, with a five-digit number after the dollar.

Mu Ke, with Lu Yizhan's permission, called the four Guan Jia in, then turned to Lu Yizhan and said, "We'll use the kitchen carefully, and we won't cause any damage."

Looking at Mu Ke leading his team of chefs into the narrow kitchen of his house, Lu Yizhan's lax gaze had an unobtrusive sadness in it, "...... don't have to be too careful."

That lobster already cost more than their kitchen, which was only three square meters.

Bai Liu casually pulled a bottle opener from the refrigerator door and handed it to Tang Er to fight, with the faded words [Bravely] printed on it, which looked like it was a gift from a beer purchase: "Can this be opened?"

"Yes." Tang Er hit directly took it and was about to open it, but was stopped by Lu Yizhan next to him who violently raised his voice, "No!"

"That corkscrew has opened cans of Stinky Tofu and Sriracha." Lu Yizhan looked at the label on the wine as he tried to maintain his composed expression, "...... I'll go find you a new corkscrew."

After rummaging through the box for a long time, Lu Yizhan finally found a corkscrew that wasn't a gift, and handed it over to Tang Er with tears in his eyes: "Open it, this should be the most honorable moment in its life."

"Bang," the bottle was opened, along with the doorbell.

Bai Liu turned to open the door, and at the door stood Liu Jiayi wearing a small floral dress with a double ponytail, princess shoes and white lace-trimmed socks, and two pink bow clips relatively silent.

"Your outfit today." Bai Liu commented politely, a little smile coming out of his face, "Fits your age."

Liu Jiayi tugged her skirt down a bit to straighten out her strained expression, and took a deep breath just to taunt Bai Liu when she heard Fang Dian's surprised voice: "What's with the little girl?"

Liu Jiayi revealed a sweet smile for a second, blankly opening her big gray eyes, "Hello sister, the first time I came as a guest I didn't bring anything with me, I bought candy downstairs to come up."

"Sister eat candy?" Liu Jiayi handed her pocket over, winking.

Fang Dian stared at Liu Jiayi for a long time, so much so that Liu Jiayi was getting hairy, wondering if her disguise was revealing some kind of flaw.

Fang Dian, while staring with dead eyes at Liu Jiayi in the doorway, who was holding up a small candy pocket and looking at her with a crooked head, clutched Bai Liu's arm with both hands and twisted it with all her might, trying her best to control herself, and hissed in a lowered voice, "...... She's so cute! "

"Do you think her mom minded that she had an extra mom after she came out to dinner?" Fang Dian's mind raced.

Bai Liu looked over at Liu Jiayi, who had been nervous to the point of breathing a sigh of relief, and the smile on her face thickened, "I think her mom should be happy that a big beautiful girl likes her."

Dian Fang quickly turned around and went inside, "Wait for me, I'm going to put on some makeup! Five minutes!"

Just now so many big boys came to Dian Fang as if they were looking at a transparent person, walking around the house in big slippers and hair, laughing so loudly that it could lift the roof, sitting on the sofa with their legs crossed and examining each of the Bai Liu team members, a group of people stood in front of her as if they were minions on military parade.

"You're that little dude from the Wood Group! Wow awesome! How did you meet this poor guy Bai Liu?"

"Famous college students, ah, can can!"

"Wow, those muscles, how did you build them! Teach me!"

In short, they don't care at all about their personal image and don't remember the whole thing about having to wear makeup.

Now there was a little girl, Fang Dian, on the contrary, the long-lost professional ethics of the kindergarten teacher awakened, rushed into the house and began to change clothes and dress up.

Seeing Fang Dian leaving, Bai Liu squatted down and looked at Liu Jiayi, smiling but not laughing: "Xiang Chunhua and I said you hated wearing little pink dresses, why are you wearing such a neat and tidy suit over here today?"

"I suddenly like it today." Liu Jiayi said in a bad mood, "Don't you know that the first time you come to a friend's house as a guest, you should dress formally? Don't know how to be polite."

Bai Liu thoughtfully repeats Liu Jiayi's words in a long drawn out tone, "First time visiting a friend's house, so you're so nervous?"

Liu Jiayi stiffened, but the situation was soon alleviated by Fang Dian, who rushed out of the room.

She squatted in front of Liu Jiayi, neatly made up, sweeping away the previous casual look, wearing a dress, wearing a polka-dot bow on her head, holding a cloth doll, smiling, looking kind and gentle, like a strange aunt to Liu Jiayi, waving her hand to lure the other side: "Little friend, come here, teacher, bah no, sister here is a lovely doll, want to play?"

Liu Jiayi: "......"

She hesitated for a long time, but still cooperated and walked over, Fang Dian carefully and cherishingly hugged Liu Jiayi, and touched Liu Jiayi's fluffy double ponytails, with an expression on her face that looked like she was about to burst into tears, "She lets people hug her eh, so soft and so cute."

Liu Jiayi sat stiffly on Fang Dian's knee, her small hands holding down the hem of her skirt, not daring to move.

Lu Yizhan looked at Fang Dian like this and felt funny while inserting her hands on her apron: "You play with so many children in the kindergarten every day, haven't you had enough hugs?"

"How can you just hug." Fang Dian sighed as she held her chin up, "You can't have physical contact with small children, the kindergarten is equipped with surveillance that connects in real time to the parents' cell phones, so casually hugging a child will be reported if the parents see it."

"Especially with girls, parents are extra careful that I don't get much contact, even if they approach me voluntarily."

"It's not my child after all."

When Fang Dian finished her sentence as if it was a casual one, she didn't have any reaction, but Bai Liu and Lu Yizhan beside her both had their hands in a flurry of motion.

She put Liu Jiayi down, straightened Liu Jiayi's skirt and hair, and squatted down to look at Liu Jiayi tenderly : "It certainly feels different to see a little girl who almost became my daughter now."

Lu Yizhan had previously consulted with Fang Dian about adopting Liu Jiayi, and Fang Dian had seen Liu Jiayi's photographs, but in the end Liu Jiayi did not choose them.

Liu Jiayi, now also remembering this incident, pursed her lips tightly, seemingly unsure of what to say.

...... Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian, really good parents, so good that not choosing them makes you feel guilty about failing them.

"Now it looks like we had a really good eye." Fang Dian smiled as she reached up and pushed her hand through Liu Jiayi's hair at her temples, "What a sweet little girl, no wonder we're not the only ones who want to be your family."

"But it's nice to be friends!"

Fang Dian half-kneeled on the carpet, her line of sight at the same height as Liu Jiayi, she solemnly extended her palm to Liu Jiayi: "Hello, Jiayi little friend, my name is Fang Dian, I'm 25 years old this year, may I ask if you have any recent intention of making a new oblivious friend lately?"

Liu Jiayi was quiet for a while, the corners of her pursed lips began to resist upturning, and two small dimples appeared on the side of her face.

She raised her jaw slightly, putting on a condescending air to go along with Fang Dian's performance, "It wasn't meant to be."

"But an exception can be made for you." Liu Jiayi puts her hand into Fang Dian's.

Fang Dian exaggeratedly made a look of being flattered, she laughed loudly and picked up Liu Jiayi and put him at the dining table, "I can't repay you for such a big exception, so I have to treat you to hot pot! Let's eat!"

Bright wine was poured into glasses and everyone except Liu Jiayi raised their glasses to celebrate, but just halfway through the toast, the power went out.

All: "......"

Du Sanying covers his mouth and chokes, "I'm sorry, it's all my fault ......"

"It's fine." Lu Yizhan doesn't think so, "The circuits over here are aging and the power often goes out, so I'll get the solid alcohol and we'll take the pot to the balcony to eat."

Dian Fang wowed, "Wouldn't that be a lobster candlelight dinner, so romantic!"

Bai Liu calmly poured cold water, "Romance is for two people, there are seven of us here besides Liu Jiayi, even if two and two are grouped together romantically, there is still one more person."

"Well, Bai Liu, it's true that you've become a social person after working, right?" Fang Dian rolled up her sleeves, "How dare you talk back to me?"

Tang Er hit quickly brought into the ditch by Bai Liu, he frowned seriously thinking about Bai Liu [two by two grouping] this sentence: "Then who am I going to group with? Bai Liu, simply you and I ......"

Mu Sicheng, who was eating from his bowl, retorted loudly, "No, Bai Liu is on my team!"

The lenses on Mu Ke's eyes flashed, but his tone was warm when he opened his mouth, "Bai Liu, sit over here, I'll fish lobster chips for you."

"......" Lu Yizhan was head over heels and crying again, "Okay, okay, stop it, just sit down, I'll get the alcohol."

In the darkness of the night, in the midst of all the lights, a family unlucky enough to have a power outage squatted on their balcony with dishes and chopsticks for a humble yet lively meal, with a price tag that was approaching six figures, of hot pot.

Until years later, when asked what was the best meal he had ever eaten in his life, Du Sanying, whose memory is still not that good, would answer in a second--

--The first time Bai Liu took me to his friend's house for a hot pot dinner during a power outage.

At ten o'clock in the evening, Du Sanying, who had taken a bath, was lying at Bai Liu's home, swiping his cell phone.

Du Sanying just added a lot of people today, and now there is a lot of content in his circle of friends, and he is looking at them carefully one by one, and the corners of his mouth can't help but rise as he looks at them.

He swiped down the page and found a friend circle that Fang Dian had just posted, a hand-drawn picture of the scene where they ate hot pot today.

Fang Dian used the cluckers to pinch Bai Liu's head, chopsticks reached into his bowl to grab food, Lu Yizhan hands and feet to stop, Mu Ke pulling the fight, next to Mu Sicheng in a good show of bad laughs, Tang Er fight is drinking, Liu Jiayi hiding in the corner, actually taking pictures, and he was dumbly holding up the wine glass, blushing and giggling, looks like He was already drunk.

Everybody's there, everybody's laughing.

Fang Dian's friend circle caption for this painting is - "Family Portrait".