The landlord has multiple personalities and wants everyone to pay him.

Today's dumplings are a welcome dinner for Qin Lili.

An Jianxing and Shen Jingwan valued Qin Lili highly because she was the only person who dared to approach Xiaoxue during her darkest period.

For a while, Xiaoxue was even afraid of her parents, hiding in her room and not daring to open the door no matter who called her. Only when Qin Lili came could she go in and keep her company, and she would stay with her for an entire afternoon.

Although no one knows for sure whether it was actually light snow at that time, it did exist for a short period of time.

Qin Lili has long been treated like a daughter by An Jianxing and Shen Jingwan. Coming here is no different from coming home. There is even a pair of her own slippers in the shoe cabinet by the door.

To put it another way, if Qin Lili were a man, Ye Shu probably wouldn't stand a chance.

Of course, this was a joke, but the love that An Jianxing and Shen Jingwan have for Qin Lili can be seen from the dumpling filling.

I made four or five different kinds of dumpling fillings alone.

Nancheng is located by the sea, so naturally, seafood is its main attraction.

There are all sorts of kinds, such as shrimp, scallops, and fish.

Worried that Ye Guoqiang wouldn't be used to seafood dumplings, they specially made some pork dumplings, shaping them into plump, white ones that looked very appealing.

When Ye Shu and Xiao Xue came out of the room hand in hand, the dumplings were already cooked, and four people were pouring them out at the dining table.

Ye Shu sat at the dining table, looking at the dumplings on the table, and to be honest, she had little appetite.

His feelings towards dumplings are actually quite complex and tortuous; talking about them even casts a shadow over his past.

He loved eating dumplings when he was a child, especially the ones his grandmother made by hand, which had thin wrappers and lots of filling.

But gradually, he stopped liking it.

Because Grandma Ye loves making dumplings so much, she makes them not only during holidays but also on ordinary weekends.

At its worst, when Grandma Ye Shu didn't know what to eat, she would make dumplings every few days.

This caused Ye Shu to experience acid reflux whenever she came home from school and saw dumplings waiting to be cooked in the kitchen.

Once it's on the table, he eats one at a time, like he's taking medicine. He only eats about ten at a time before stopping.

At this time, Ye Shu's father would take a sip of baijiu (Chinese liquor) and then say to Ye Shu:

"You're only mildly hungry; you won't even eat dumplings. If you starve yourself for two days, you'll eat anything."

Even if it's delicious, you can't eat it every day. This led to Ye Shu coming to Nancheng for university. Except for winter and summer vacations when he went home, he never ate dumplings, and he didn't crave them.

Although Ye Shu didn't like dumplings, these were the result of someone's hard work all afternoon. Besides, this wasn't her own home. Even if she didn't like them, she couldn't just eat two and then put down her chopsticks. That would seem like something was wrong.

He first put a few dumplings on Xiaoxue's plate to cool, then picked up his own bowl and ate them in big mouthfuls, silently chanting, "I love dumplings the most!"

This is a method that Ye Shu came up with. He used to be quite a picky eater, but he was poor when he went to school. Where would he get the money to eat what he liked every day?

So he created his own method, self-hypnosis. When he encountered a dish he didn't like, he would repeatedly say to himself, "I love this dish the most!" and then boast about it. As long as he ate fast enough, he could enjoy whatever he ate.

"Xiao Shu loves shrimp, Mom will make you more next time."

Seeing Ye Shu eating so heartily, Shen Jingwan smiled and put a few more pieces on Ye Shu's plate.

But Xiaoxue next to her wasn't as good; her acting skills weren't as strong as Ye Shu's.

Although that piece of glutinous rice cake was small, it was sticky and hard to digest. Xiaoxue is already half full.

Now, facing this table full of dumplings, eating was incredibly difficult for her; it felt like she was taking medicine.

She ate the five dumplings slowly and deliberately for more than ten minutes, staring blankly at the dumplings on the plate.

Seeing that Xiaoxue was eating slowly, Shen Jingwan thought she wasn't eating enough, so she smiled and transferred some of her own food to Xiaoxue.

"Xiaoxue, eat more, the filling is especially delicious today."

"Um……"

Xiaoxue looked at the plate that was full again, her face full of trouble. She really couldn't eat anymore, but she was too embarrassed to say she didn't want to eat anymore, so she could only pick up another one and nibble on it in small bites, while her eyes secretly glanced to the side, sending a distress signal to Ye Shu.

Ye Shu ate very quickly, finishing off a small plate of dumplings in no time, eating like a tornado destroying a parking lot.

Looking at Xiaoxue, she ate a dumpling for two minutes, but the dumpling didn't even have any damage to the skin, and she couldn't see the filling inside.

Seeing that An Jianxing and Ye Guoqiang had both put down their wine glasses and started picking their teeth, Xiaoxue finally couldn't stand it anymore. She secretly reached out her finger and poked Ye Shu's elbow, then leaned close to him and whimpered pitifully in his ear:

"Ye Shu... I... I really can't eat anymore, could you secretly eat it for me..."

"If you can't eat, then don't eat?"

Ye Shu didn't understand why she was being forced to eat even though she couldn't eat anymore.

Seeing Xiaoxue's pleading eyes, he still managed to sneak a bite of Xiaoxue's plate of dumplings when no one was looking.

What if Xiaoxue gets hungry later?

We'll figure something out later. At worst, we can give her some extra help. There's always a way.

Thinking of this, Ye Shu suddenly sighed inwardly.

No, I can't do this. When I have children in the future, I can't spoil them like this.

He has to play the role of a strict father, he has to be authoritative! He has to be like his own father, so that the children are afraid of him.

If children are spoiled like Guan Xiaoxue, how can they possibly have a good life? They'll just become unruly and demanding!

But when he imagined himself standing with his hands on his hips, a stern face, and yelling at the child, "Eat if you can, go hungry if you can't," he felt like he couldn't do that.

After all, he had experienced this himself when he was a child, and he knew in his heart that it was a very unpleasant feeling.

The story of the dragon-slaying hero who ends up becoming the dragon himself raises doubts about whether he could bring himself to do it.

After swallowing the dumpling in his mouth, he looked down and saw that Xiaoxue had deliberately left half a dumpling in her bowl, waiting for him to finish before pretending to eat the last bite herself. Then she patted her little tummy and deliberately told her mother:

"I'm full."

After saying that, she turned to look at Ye Shu with a slightly guilty expression, only to find Ye Shu staring at her. Her face flushed, and she quickly lowered her head and remained silent.

Ye Shu's carefully constructed image of a strict father ultimately crumbled. A strict father is supposed to be strict with his children, but what does that have to do with his wife? Xiaoxue is meant to be pampered!

Bah! You hypocrite! —A curse from Ye Shu, a single man, several years ago.