Chapter 84 – A Family of Three

Darkness is coming earlier and earlier.

Shen Yu has retrofitted Xiaomeng I with on/off sensors for many of the appliances in the house, so that the lights in the house come on automatically as it gets dark.

The city lights up one by one, and if you look down from above, you can see golden rivers of vehicle lights below, as well as window after window with lights on.

“Finally, we’re done!”

Su Zhifu cheered, her little hands were covered in flour crumbs and she had just wiped her face, so there was a white line on her face too.

Among the three, Shen Yu was the slowest to wrap the dumplings. He estimated that he had only wrapped about ten dumplings, Asaba Rika had wrapped about thirty, and even Su Zhifu had wrapped about twenty.

“Hee hee, Brother Shen Yu you’ve wrapped the least, so you’re the dumbest!”

Su Zhifu is very proud of herself and her small hands, but her family owns a small noodle shop, so she often has to make dumplings with her aunt Wang, and sometimes she helps out.

“I let you have one finger and you’re proud of winning.”

“Ah, you cheat!”

“If I use ten fingers, I’ll wrap more than all of you put together.”

“I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it!”

Asaba Rika found it very interesting to watch Shen Yu and Su Zhifu fighting and the more he watched, the more he thought Shen Yu was a good father.

She wiped her hands on her apron, took a disposable preserving box out of the cupboard and filled it with twenty fresh dumplings.

“Shen Yu, we made seventy dumplings this time and I’m going to send twenty home with Puffs to eat.”

“Add a few more, we can’t eat them all.”

“Mmmmmm!”

Shen Yu watched her actions and suddenly felt a little bit of a sense of connection. He was about to remind Rika to pack one out, after all, Auntie Wang’s family had been sending him a lot of things during the New Year and festivals, and they would often ask Puffs to bring him some of their own dumplings, patties and snacks.

After all, many of the neighbours no longer live in the old alleyway and have bought new houses, while the old houses are rented out to young people who come to Sunan to work, so the faces change from time to time.

When Shen Yu was a child, she was able to walk around the streets and play with her friends, but in Su Zhifu’s childhood, she was left with her own big brother.

Asaba Rika has packed 30 fresh dumplings, all raw, which can be fried, steamed or boiled when you want to eat them.

When she goes to the kitchen to make the dumplings, Shen Yu takes the box she has packed, finds a clean plastic bag and puts it on the side of the table, reminding Puffs to take it back when she gets home.

The two men are in perfect silence.

Su Zhifu is now lying in front of the fish tank, watching the goldfish with Bai Xiaomeng.

“They’ve grown so much!”

Su Zhifu remembers, of course, that this was her gift to Shen Yu last year.

It’s not right to say it was a gift, because the three little goldfish she had fished out of the playground at the time, one black and two red, were silly looking.

Shen Yu also did not have a fish tank, so he kept them in the bathtub until Asaba Rika came to live with us, and then he remembered to buy a big fish tank for the three little goldfish and move them to a new villa.

“And they can eat, and they can shit, and they’re silly looking.” Shen Yu said in disgust.

“It’s not silly at all!”

Su Zhifu’s little face is pressed against the wall of the fish tank and three little goldfish swim over to look at this silly child curiously through the glass.

She twirls a few pieces of feed and sprinkles them on the surface, and the little goldfish swim over to lap them up. She giggles as she stirs her little fingers on the surface and they are not afraid of her, licking her fingers in the process.

……

As the saying goes, you can’t beat a good dumpling.

Dumplings originated in the Spring and Autumn period and are called somewhat differently in each place, for example, they are called baozi, water baozi, lumpzi, flat food and so on, and are eaten in a variety of ways.

After gyoza was introduced to Japan, it became even more popular, and in Japan you can order a gyoza from any restaurant, ramen shop, izakaya, etc. It is also a super popular cuisine.

In terms of how they are eaten, they prefer to be pan-fried. In China, dumplings are mostly used as a staple food, while in Japan they are used as a dish, a food to be eaten as a meal.

Of course, the dumplings were not cooked at home today, and the dumplings did not have such a strong flavour, so Asaba Rika planned to divide them into three ways, namely pan-fried, boiled and steamed.

As Master Rika went about his business, a tantalising aroma came from the kitchen.

Shen Yu is standing in the kitchen doorway, looking at her in her apron as she picks up the dumplings one by one with chopsticks and fries them in the pan.

When she cooks, she always ties her hair up, so you can see her slender white neck, and at the edge of her hair, there is a small, insignificant mole, which Shen Yu never notices when her hair is down.

Rika, who was cooking very carefully, seemed to notice Shen Yu’s gaze and glanced back at him.

” Shen Yu …… why are you looking at me like that ……” she asked in a small voice, her eyes on the dumplings in the pot, flipping them with her chopsticks every now and then in a gentle motion.

“Oh …… I was going to ask if there was anything I could help you with, you’re not handy, so I’ll just ask.” Shen Yu said, playing vaguely.

“No, my hand is fine, Shen Yu’s hand has just been cut and only needs more attention ……”

“Hmm.”

Shen Yu stopped being an eyesore at the kitchen door and wanted to go down to the ground floor to work, but for some reason, he was getting a bit lazy and didn’t want to move.

‘I think I hurt my finger and it’s not easy to hit the keyboard’

Shen Yu settles down, returns to the living room and turns on the TV.

Su Zhifu immediately ran over.

” Brother Shen Yu, when did the TV in your house get fixed?”

“It’s good to be struck by lightning.”

“I want to see Animal World!”

Shen Yu went to look for a film and found a documentary showing the Blue Planet, so Su Zhifu sat down in front of the TV with Bai Xiaomeng in his arms and watched it carefully.

“Don’t get so close, or your eyes will spoil my TV.”

Shen Yu then went over and put her on the sofa and watched TV with her.

Su Zhifu is very much like Shen Yu when he was a child, he likes to watch the animal world more than the cartoons, it is very new and interesting.

” Brother Shen Yu, is this a horse? Can horses swim in water too?”

“This is the Grass Sea Dragon.”

“And are those red ones its eggs?”

“He’s a Grass Sea Dragon dad, and the red ones are the eggs that the Grass Sea Dragon mum laid on him, and he’ll turn into a milk daddy and keep dragging these baby eggs around until they hatch.”

“Wow ……”

Hearing the sound of the TV in the living room, Asaba Rika, who was cooking in the kitchen, couldn’t help but look back and saw the two figures on the sofa, Puffs with a head full of questions asking Shen Yu and Shen Yu patiently answering them.

I don’t know what came to mind, but Rika watched the scene for a long time.

……

“Let’s eat~”

When dinner was ready, she brought out the dumplings and Shen Yu turned off the TV, dragged Su Zhifu to wash her hands and then sat down to eat together.

The dumplings were delicious, the most aromatic being the pan-fried dumpling, with a crispy golden skin but still a fresh filling inside.

The prawns were chopped together with the pork, and wrapped in the dumpling skin with ingredients such as diced corn and shiitake mushrooms, which was super satisfying in the mouth.

“I thought you said you didn’t eat prawns?”

“I don’t see any prawns. ……”

The dumplings were quite large, and Su Zhifu ate eight of them without seeing any prawns.

Su Zhifu’s hands, face and collar were covered in grease due to her messy eating, so Asaba Rika ate while wiping her off with a tissue, in a gentle and thoughtful manner.

Shen Yu looked at them both, equally lost in thought, and didn’t say a word, eating his dumplings in silence.

After the meal, Asaba Rika collects the dishes and puts on his gloves to wash them, while Shen Yu carries the dumpling box and sends Su Zhifu home.

The alleyways are much livelier at night than they are during the day, with young people returning from work and grabbing a quick meal at various fast food outlets.

” Brother Shen Yu, will you marry Sister Rika in the future?”

In an unexpected way, Su Zhifu asked him this.

Shen Yu almost choked on his own saliva, rolled his eyes and looked down at her, “Why would you ask such a silly question?”

” Mum said that Sister Rika is suitable for a wife and told me to learn more about her.”

“…… So what did you say?”

“I said I’d marry you when I grew up too, and then Mum, all they did was laugh!”

“Oh, I don’t eat rice with mud and leaves.”

Shen Yu took the Puffs home.

On the way back, I got a call from my mum that today is Monday and Thursday is Mid-Autumn Festival, and both holidays are together for a week.

In addition to the daily phone calls, this time Mum specifically asked him to come home for two days for Mid-Autumn, otherwise she and Dad would come up to stay with him for two days.

He was also told to bring Rika with him.

“It’s such a long holiday, she should be back in Japan, and besides, we’re a family, how awkward is this, there’s no way she’d say yes.”

“Just ask, you can’t come back and leave someone’s girl alone in the house for Mid-Autumn, right? Your father said that business is particularly difficult this year and you have to take care of her more ……”

When Shen Yu returns home, the kitchen has been cleaned up and Asaba Rika is drawing in his room.

The door to her room was open and Shen Yu did not enter, knocking on the door.

“Eh! Shen Yu, you’re back! There’s a cut orange on the table!”

“Hmm.”

Shen Yu organised his language and asked, “So, are you going home for Mid-Autumn?”

“Back to your house or to mine?”

“?”