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SVMBB Chapter 67.2

= New Year's Eve = "Jiang-ge, Happy New Year!"

After the Xi Yang incident was settled, the filming of “Chasing the Light” proceeded smoothly.

Duan Jingyuan took over Xi Yang’s role as the lead, making his debut as a lead actor. He was extremely nervous at first, and his performance was a bit rough around the edges. But with Ye Zhou and Geng Bochuan’s guidance and assistance, he quickly found his footing.

In mid-February, a week before the Spring Festival, Ye Zhou announced the crew’s official holiday break. He gave every staff member a red envelope. The amount was not much but a heartfelt gesture.

Initially, Ye Zhou was delighted not to have to rush to the filming site every day. He slept in for a few lazy days, unwilling to leave his bed and blanket, and he was able to laze around all day doing nothing.

But this state only lasted two days before Ye Zhou grew restless.

Since Jingzhe and Jiang Corporation had yet to take their holidays, Ye Zhou was alone at home during the day. Bored, he took advantage of Boss Jiang’s absence to start preparing for the New Year.

First, following an online tutorial, he fried a batch of meatballs. Fresh out of the pot, the meatballs were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Biting into the crispy outer layer released a burst of delicious, fragrant juices in the mouth. The taste was an absolute delight.

Emboldened by his initial success, Ye Zhou extended his claws to the hairtail he had bought with Boss Jiang at the market. After cleaning and cutting the hairtail into appropriate lengths, he divided them into two batches – one for frying and the other for braising to be eaten that day.

With the right control of the heat, the fried hairtail pieces were coated in a golden crisp. Sprinkled with Ye Zhou’s improved chili-salt seasoning, the taste was simply divine.

The braised hairtail was no less impressive. The fish meat was tender, its freshness complemented by the thick, savory gravy, which was a feast for the senses.

Ye Zhou then tried making small crispy pork bowls and other classic New Year dishes he used to have growing up. Initially, he was not expecting much success, but he was pleasantly surprised by his outstanding results.

Having spent the past couple of days tinkering in the kitchen, the resident chef Wang was nearly out of a job. Ye Zhou enthusiastically prepared all sorts of dishes – meat, vegetarian, fried, steamed, boiled, and stir-fried.

Unable to finish it all himself yet unwilling to waste food, he bought a thermal lunch box from the nearby supermarket. Three meals a day, he would take the lunch box to Jingzhe or Jiang Corporation whenever free, sending his sincerest regards to the hard-working Boss Jiang.

Boss Jiang’s face forever remained inscrutable, making it impossible for Ye Zhou to gauge his culinary skills from his expression alone.

Seeking some feedback from Boss Jiang, Ye Zhou intentionally added extra salt one time. Although not unpalatable, for someone with Boss Jiang’s relatively light palate, there should have been some reaction.

Unexpectedly, Ye Zhou miscalculated again. At lunchtime, Boss Jiang maintained his usual calm demeanor while eating. Had Ye Zhou not been certain about adding two extra spoonfuls of salt, he would have doubted his own memory.

Noticing Ye Zhou’s persistent stare, Jiang Tingyuan finished his last bite of rice and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Er, how’s the taste today?” Ye Zhou asked hesitantly, then added, “I mean, is it too salty or bland?”

Jiang Tingyuan calmly wiped his long fingers with a napkin, his tone even. “It’s good.”

Had Ye Zhou not tasted it himself upon serving, he might have believed Boss Jiang’s lie.

From this incident, Ye Zhou realized that although Boss Jiang appeared aloof and unapproachable, he was quite easy to feed. At least, he was not picky about food.

Considering Boss Jiang’s sensitive stomach, Ye Zhou didn’t dare make such heavy meat and fish dishes frequently. He only indulged occasionally, mostly preparing the nutritious recipes he learned from Chef Wang.

As Ye Zhou packed up the lunch box, he tilted his head up. “Jiang-ge, head home early today. I’ll make some dough. Want to watch me wrap dumplings? I’m a pro wrapper.”

Initially, Ye Zhou intended to invite Boss Jiang to wrap dumplings together since it was New Year’s Eve the next day. Wrapping dumplings together helps foster a festive mood and sense of happiness. But the image of Boss Jiang in an apron wrapping dumplings was so jarring that Ye Zhou quickly changed his mind. There was no need to trouble Boss Jiang with manual work when he could handle it alone.

Though he backpedaled swiftly, Boss Jiang, knowing him too well, immediately caught his implication. Without much hesitation, he nodded. “Sure.”

As for what exactly Boss Jiang meant by “sure”, that would only become clear later when they wrapped dumplings together.

After saying goodbye to Boss Jiang, Ye Zhou returned home and continued his kitchen endeavors. Not only did he cook himself, but he also called Chef Wang over since, considering Boss Jiang’s sensitive stomach, Ye Zhou didn’t dare regularly make such heavy meat and seafood dishes. With some free time recently, he was learning to prepare nutritious recipes from Master Wang.

Boss Jiang arrived home promptly after work around 6 PM, skipping a relatively unimportant but tedious meeting to get home early. When he arrived, Ye Zhou was watching the news. After dinner together, Ye Zhou brought out the prepped dough to the dining room and began wrapping dumplings on a cutting board.

In his past life, Ye Zhou rarely wrapped dumplings himself as it was such a hassle, and he was always too busy working. If he craved them, he’d simply buy some rather than go through the trouble. But this time was different – it was his and Boss Jiang’s first New Year together, which felt quite meaningful to Ye Zhou. There had to be some sense of ceremony.

To ensure that things would not go wrong this time, Ye Zhou consulted Chef Wang for a long time before seasoning the fillings and conducted several trials to perfect the flavors. Only then did he decide to showcase his skills to Boss Jiang. He prepared four fillings: meat, vegetable, triple delight, and egg tomato. After mixing, he picked up a small piece with chopsticks and extended it towards Boss Jiang’s mouth.

Under Boss Jiang’s puzzled gaze, Ye Zhou explained, “Try it, how’s the sweet and savory balance?”

Boss Jiang hesitated before tasting the filling from the chopsticks and evaluated, “Just right.”

Distrusting Boss Jiang’s palate after that morning’s performance, Ye Zhou sampled the filling himself and agreed it was indeed well-balanced before moving on.

To prevent the dough from sticking to his hands, Ye Zhou lightly dusted them with flour from a bowl. Just as he was about to start wrapping, the previously quiet Boss Jiang suddenly reached into the flour bowl too, coating his slender, fair hands with a layer of white powder.

Ye Zhou was briefly stunned before realizing and asking uncertainly, “Wrapping together?”

“Of course,” Boss Jiang affirmed his guess.

Ye Zhou tried teaching the pampered Boss Jiang how to wrap dumplings. Despite his precise, technically perfect movements, the end products looked awkwardly misshapen, far from intelligent-looking dumplings. He tried several attempts in succession but it yielded no improvement, leaving Ye Zhou quite stumped.

But where there’s a will, there’s a way. After a wordless five-minute stare-off with Boss Jiang, Ye Zhou suddenly stood up, put on his coat, and dashed outside. About twenty minutes later, he hurried back, panting, placing a box before Boss Jiang.

Boss Jiang silently stared at the words ‘Dumpling Wrapping Device’ emblazoned on the box, rendered speechless for a long while.

Assuming Boss Jiang was unfamiliar with the gadget, Ye Zhou quickly tore open the package, took out the tool, placed a ready-made dumpling wrapper on top, scooped half a spoonful of filling into the indented center, then folded the tool shut. An admittedly emotionless but impressively plump dumpling appeared in Ye Zhou’s hands.

Boss Jiang stared at the dumpling in Ye Zhou’s hand, pausing silently as if attempting to maintain his dignity, then said, “I think I can try again.”

Though not holding much hope, since Boss Jiang had offered, Ye Zhou couldn’t dampen his enthusiasm and agreed.

Despite Ye Zhou’s efforts to preserve Boss Jiang’s dignity, the lopsided, gaping dumplings silently mocked Boss Jiang. After staring for a while, Boss Jiang ultimately conceded, picking up the rather silly-looking dumpling maker on the table.

With the device in hand, Boss Jiang finally regained his usual composure after his kitchen blunder1This is actually 厨房白痴 (chú fáng bái chī) which means kitchen idiot.. Once accustomed, his movements became faster than Ye Zhou’s. In addition to the filling, he inserted coins into some dumplings per tradition. Soon, a neat row of plump dumplings lay before Boss Jiang.

The next day was New Year’s Eve. Boss Jiang finally got a rare day off, spending the morning working in the study while Ye Zhou slept in. In the afternoon, at Ye Zhou’s suggestion, they leisurely watched movies in the home theater.

In the evening, Ye Zhou turned on the TV for the New Year’s Eve gala background noise as they boiled the dumplings wrapped the previous night. Yes, together, as in Boss Jiang was responsible for watching while Ye Zhou was responsible for cooking.

As Ye Zhou brought the boiled dumplings to the table, his eyes sparkled under the warm orange lights. Clasping his hands, he excitedly said, “They say the more coins you get, the more smooth-sailing, prosperous and blessed the new year will be. Jiang-ge, let’s see who gets more coins!”

Jiang Tingyuan felt a warmth spread through him and readily agreed to the suggestion.

They began eating together. Whether by sheer luck or not, the very first dumpling Ye Zhou picked up and bit into crunched on a shiny coin that fell onto his plate.

Ye Zhou’s eyes crinkled with delight as he gazed at the coin, smugly gesturing, “Look! An auspicious start!”

Seeing Ye Zhou’s exhilarated expression, the excitement radiating from his eyes and smile under the warm lighting, Jiang Tingyuan’s gaze softened with indulgence nearly spilling from his eyes.

That first coin seemed just the beginning. Afterwards, Ye Zhou kept finding coins one after another, not in every single dumpling but still an outrageous eight out of the fifteen total, simply unbelievable luck!

In contrast, Boss Jiang remained oddly coinless, clearing two entire plates yet with only a pitiful three coins, starkly contrasted against Ye Zhou’s plate full of coins.

Ye Zhou finished the last dumpling on his second plate, unsurprisingly ending with one final coin. Rubbing his stuffed belly, he glanced from his plate to Boss Jiang’s, inexplicably cracking up while clutching his stomach.

Jiang Tingyuan’s expression was one of helpless resignation as he ruffled Ye Zhou’s hair, stating seriously, “Don’t laugh so much right after eating or you’ll get a stomachache.”

Ye Zhou laughed for several minutes until his stomach really did ache before finally catching his breath with an occasional hiccup. After a moment, he suddenly pushed his overflowing plate towards Boss Jiang’s empty one, sweeping all his coins onto Boss Jiang’s plate with a smile, “See, all these are my blessings for the new year, but now I’m giving them all to you. I wish you get everything you desire in the coming year, that everything you go on will be smooth, and that you will have much joy and peace.”

“Jiang-ge, Happy New Year!”

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  • 1
    This is actually 厨房白痴 (chú fáng bái chī) which means kitchen idiot.

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