Chapter 1093: After Three Days, You Should See Them with New Eyes

Chapter 1093: Chapter 1093: After Three Days, You Should See Them with New Eyes

Mr. Li and Mrs. Li didn’t ask who made which dish.

Because they could tell at a glance.

They were just very surprised that Li Xiaoyun could cook this well.

Although it wasn’t as good as Ye Fei’s, but she’s a professional, after all.

Compared with the average family’s everyday home‑cooked food, Li Xiaoyun’s dishes actually looked pretty legit.

At least, just judging by looks, they could beat Mrs. Li’s.

"You really made this?" Mrs. Li asked Li Xiaoyun in surprise. "Did Ye Fei give you a hand?"

"No." Ye Fei shook her head with a smile. "We each did our own dishes. I didn’t help her at all. We were both busy with our own stuff."

"Nice, how long has it been since we last saw you, and your cooking’s already this good?" Mrs. Li said in amazement.

Three days apart and you have to look at a man with new eyes, huh.

When did Li Xiaoyun even have time to practice?

Mrs. Li lifted her head, moved her gaze away from the dishes, and looked over at Zhao Dingli.

Did she secretly cook for Zhao Dingli already?

Have to say, a woman’s intuition is pretty terrifying.

Being stared at by Mrs. Li made Zhao Dingli feel guilty, he almost broke out in a cold sweat.

He hurriedly, guiltily avoided Mrs. Li’s gaze.

"Looks like you really know what you’re doing." Mr. Li nodded. "Let’s taste it in a bit and see how it is."

"Didn’t expect our family could actually gather this many people." Mr. Li looked at the table full of people and sighed.

A lot of their relatives were back in their hometown or in other cities.

And most of the elders in the family had already passed away.

Without elders as a kind of glue.

Naturally, everyone gradually found it hard to get together anymore.

They only went back to their hometown every few years to take a look.

The rest of the time, they stayed in City B for the New Year.

Although they didn’t have to travel long distances anymore, the house did feel a bit empty.

It was just the three of them.

Later, after Li Xiaoyun met Ye Fei, whenever they spent New Year’s in City B, Ye Fei would bring Xiao Mo along too.

Now they’d added Zhao Gushen and Zhao Dingli to the mix.

Even though it wasn’t New Year, just a regular get‑together, it was still a rare bustle.

This was the first time for both Zhao Gushen and Zhao Dingli to come over.

Just now, Ye Fei and Li Xiaoyun had been in the kitchen, so they didn’t know what the atmosphere in the living room was like.

But as long as they felt like it, both Zhao Gushen and Zhao Dingli could be very talkative, and could even accurately pick topics the others liked.

So there hadn’t been a single awkward lull.

Zhao Dingli was treating them with the attitude one would have toward future in‑laws, so of course he was doing his utmost to win over Mr. and Mrs. Li.

And Zhao Gushen was grateful for how Mr. and Mrs. Li had taken care of Ye Fei and Xiao Mo in the past, so he genuinely treated them as his own elders.

With both Zhao Gushen and Zhao Dingli putting their hearts into it, the two of them taking turns talking, they coaxed Mr. and Mrs. Li into grinning from ear to ear.

In no time at all, they’d eased away Mr. and Mrs. Li’s nervousness.

They simply saw Zhao Gushen and Zhao Dingli as younger members of the family.

That was the magical thing about Zhao Dingli and Zhao Gushen.

Clearly, Zhao Dingli was Zhao Gushen’s fourth uncle.

If you treated Zhao Gushen as a junior, then there was no way Zhao Dingli could be considered a junior too.

He ought to be of the same generation as Mr. and Mrs. Li at least.

Yet somehow, Zhao Dingli managed to make Mr. and Mrs. Li see him as a younger generation.

If you really tried to sort out the family tree, it was pretty messy.

Mr. Li naturally picked up his glass, briefly expressed how happy he was, and then they started eating.

The clam and vermicelli casserole that Li Xiaoyun made was something even Zhao Dingli hadn’t tried before.

Li Xiaoyun thought, the first time she ever cooked, Mr. and Mrs. Li hadn’t gotten to taste it.

So now, she definitely had to let them eat something she’d never made for anyone else.

Not even Zhao Dingli got to be the first.

So this time, she specifically had Ye Fei teach her some recipes that she hadn’t taught her before.

Mr. Li picked up a clam.

Inside the opened shell, the clam meat still had a bit of minced garlic sticking to it.

Mr. Li popped the clam meat into his mouth along with the garlic.

The cooked garlic didn’t have that harsh, pungent smell of raw garlic anymore, instead it had a different kind of spicy fragrance.

Plus the heat of the small chili peppers, paired with clam meat that was silky yet springy, the flavor was a bit intense, with a kind of blazing, fiery feel—especially hot and spicy.

The vermicelli and enoki mushrooms hidden underneath were soaking in the savory broth from the clams, carrying the clam’s umami along with the heat from the garlic and chilies.

The vermicelli were soft and smooth, while the enoki mushrooms were crisp to chew and even gave a little squeak.

When you picked up vermicelli, you’d inevitably pick up some enoki mushrooms along with them.

The soft, slippery vermicelli combined with the crunchy bite of the enoki made for a strangely fun texture.

Mr. Li looked at Li Xiaoyun in surprise. "I really didn’t expect your cooking to get this good."

"It’s not worse than a restaurant’s." Mrs. Li nodded.

Especially since it was made personally by Li Xiaoyun, that emotional bonus made it taste even better.

It felt like no matter how you ate it, it was delicious.

The mapo tofu’s numbing spice also carried a faint sweetness.

The foil‑baked beef was part of Li Xiaoyun’s menu, so the beef had been personally picked out at the supermarket by Li Xiaoyun and Zhao Dingli.

They’d specially bought high‑quality wagyu.

The beef’s alternating red‑and‑white marbling looked particularly beautiful, the white flecks of fat spread finely throughout the red meat.

So it didn’t need any special treatment; the quality of the beef itself was enough to guarantee a tender bite.

Take a bite, and it was like the juices exploded.

The fat in the beef burst out all at once; calling it "melts in your mouth" was no exaggeration.

After everyone tasted a bite of each of Li Xiaoyun’s dishes, they moved on to Ye Fei’s.

The steamed fish in particular was drawing everyone’s attention.

Using the communal chopsticks, Zhao Gushen pushed aside the scallion and ginger shreds on the fish’s belly, and let out a "huh?"

"That’s bacon," Ye Fei said.

With perfect tacit understanding, Zhao Gushen said, "You used bacon instead of cured ham?"

"Mm, the flavor’s a bit different, but it has its own charm. Try it." Ye Fei said.

Zhao Gushen picked up a piece of fish; the flesh was firm yet delicate.

The salty, smoky fragrance of the bacon had completely steamed into the fish, making it salty, fragrant, slightly sweet, with just a hint of numbing spice.

All those flavors mingling together made it endlessly memorable; before he even realized it, he was already reaching for a second piece.

Because there were scallion and ginger shreds stuffed in the fish’s belly as well.

So when you picked up the fish, you’d inevitably also catch some of the scallion and ginger.

Eaten together, it carried scallion fragrance and the sharp heat of ginger, forming yet another layer of flavor.

Since there were scallion shreds laid on the bottom of the plate, in the belly, and on top of the fish, the scallion aroma was quite distinct when you ate it.

And within that scallion fragrance, there was another special aroma.

"That’s cilantro," Ye Fei explained.

"Huh? Then how come I don’t see any cilantro?" Mrs. Li said in surprise.

Li Xiaoyun helped explain, "I know this one; I watched Ye Fei make it. When she boiled the sauce, she put cilantro in to cook with it. The sauce has the cilantro flavor, but she took the cooked cilantro out afterward."