I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

"Share our lives with our parents."

“…”

This sentence felt a little ambiguous, as if it were referring to their shared parents. Bai Xiaoqi's heart inexplicably raced. She gave a barely perceptible "hmm" and sent the video to their "Loving Family" group.

An unexpected surprise: [Video at 43 seconds.]

Unexpected: [Look at the big carp I caught! How about it? Over three pounds!] (I'm so proud of myself! *hands on hips emoji*)

Lovers: [Hey, girl, this fish you cooked is really good.]

Blind date: [It's pretty good; just looking at it makes you feel good.]

A pleasant surprise: [Thank you, Uncle and Aunt.]

Chen Shuo looked at the messages in the group chat, remained silent for a moment, and then typed: "[This is what I caught. It weighs over three pounds. I struggled with it for a long time before I finally managed to catch it.]"

Lover: [Daughter, your sweet and sour sauce is a bit too thin. It needs to be thicker. Next time, add more cornstarch or let it simmer for a little longer.]

An unexpected surprise: [Yes, I've remembered Auntie.]

Lovers: [Come over for dinner this weekend if you have time; it's been a while since you guys came.]

"..."

Feeling ignored, Chen Shuo put his phone back in his pocket, picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks and put it into Bai Xiaoqi's bowl. "Eat quickly, stop chatting, it won't taste good if it gets cold."

"Ah."

Bai Xiaoqi responded and chatted for a few more minutes before putting down her phone. Then she said, "Auntie wants us to come to her house for dinner this weekend. We'll bring that half of the rabbit with us."

"Okay, whatever you say. Let's eat."

........

On the other side, Chen Jianwen and his wife had just finished dinner. Wu Yulan opened the video again and watched it. To be honest, the fish was indeed cooked quite well.

She glanced at the two messages Chen Shuo had sent and was about to reply when Chen Jianwen pressed her hand down.

"Didn't I tell you to ignore him? The more you pay attention to him, the more excited he gets. He'll chatter on and on for ages, and he might even call us to tell us in detail how he caught the fish."

"Is it really that exaggerated?" Wu Yulan was a little skeptical. She liked to chatter, but she didn't like listening to others chatter, especially about things she wasn't interested in.

"Would I lie to you?"

Chen Jianwen scoffed and glanced at her sideways, "You don't know, Old Li from our school usually seems like a pretty quiet person."

But every time he catches a few fish, he'll drag us over and brag about it endlessly, showing us pictures and explaining how he caught them. Even with just a few tiny fish the size of a palm, he can talk for ages. Imagine if he caught such a big one—he'd talk about it forever!

Because of this incident, Chen Jianwen had always had a prejudice against anglers. Looking at the messages in the group, he couldn't help but sigh. How did this kid end up with the bad habit of fishing?

He's gone astray.

Chapter 144 Those Are My Memories

It was supposed to be the weekend, but it was actually next weekend. Time always flies by, and then the two of them went to my house for dinner as planned. Of course, they didn't forget to bring half a rabbit.

It had been frozen in the refrigerator for over a week, and it was as hard as a brick, hard enough to be used to hit someone. Chen Shuo hung it on the front of his electric scooter.

The weather is warm, and the meat might thaw a bit by the time you ride over. For frozen goods like this, it's best to let them thaw naturally after taking them out of the freezer, as this will make the meat more tender.

This knowledge was naturally given to her by Bai Xiaoqi; she learned it from Wu Yulan.

Halfway through her ride, Bai Xiaoqi took out her phone and filmed another video, which she then posted on Douyin. In just over a week, she had already posted more than ten videos on Douyin, which was quite prolific, but unfortunately, she only had three followers so far.

One is Chen Shuo, the other is Ya Ya Ya, and as for the third one, no one knows, but the ID is the initial ID, a long string of numbers. Chen Shuo said that it was a robot, a fake fan, but she doesn't believe it.

Of course you can't believe it, otherwise she would only have YaYaYaYa as her only fan, and they would even follow each other.

As for how they followed each other, every time she posted a video, that YaYaYaYa would tirelessly comment in the format of something like "Thank you for this so-and-so boring video, and for wasting so much of my precious time."

Bai Xiaoqi would always argue with the other person, and eventually the two of them followed each other on social media.

.....

Wu Yulan went out early in the morning to buy ingredients, and expressed her confusion about the two people bringing their own ingredients when they came to her door.

"Come on, you brought a rabbit, half of it."

"I found this in the woods when I went fishing last time."

"Found it? A dead rabbit?"

"Mom, don't listen to her nonsense. This is a live rabbit that she caught. She insists that she found it. We ate half of it, and Qiqi said she would bring the other half over for you to try, so we brought it over."

Chen Shuo explained from the side, then changed the subject, "And Mom, let me tell you, not only did she catch a rabbit, I also caught a fish, over three pounds. Fish are incredibly strong in the water; as the saying goes, a pound of fish..."

"Alright, go tell your dad I'm going to cook."

As she spoke, Wu Yulan picked up the rabbit and turned to go into the kitchen, and Bai Xiaoqi naturally followed her in.

Seeing this, Chen Shuo could only turn his attention to Chen Jianwen, stepping onto the sofa in the living room and sitting down. "Dad, I'm going fishing..."

Before he could even open his mouth, Chen Jianwen picked up his teacup and stood up, saying, "I have something else to attend to."

After watching the old man enter the study, followed by the sound of the door being locked twice, Chen Shuo was very puzzled. What was going on with all of this?

Sitting on the sofa was boring, so Chen Shuo took out his phone to look at it, then put it back in his pocket. He turned on the TV, but there was nothing to watch.

He stepped into the kitchen, but didn't go all the way in; he just leaned against the door frame and watched the two of them.

The rabbit was left to thaw naturally. The fish was prepared first. No carp was bought; Wu Yulan bought crucian carp to make soup.

The two worked together and chatted, appearing to get along very well.

Compared to Chen Jianwen, Bai Xiaoqi was clearly more familiar with Wu Yulan. She felt that when she got married in the future and needed to change how she addressed her husband, she would naturally change "Auntie" to "Mom," but it would be more difficult to change "Uncle" to "Dad."

What kind of oil do you usually use to fry fish at home?

"It's just regular peanut oil and rapeseed oil."

"The best oil to fry crucian carp is lard, so that the soup will turn white."

As she spoke, Wu Yulan picked up an orange-yellow enamel jar with pink flowers printed on it, and scooped a few spoonfuls of solidified lard into the pot.

"Because lard is white, the soup made from it will also be white, right?" Chen Shuo interjected.

“The soup made from frying fish in regular oil is also white,” Bai Xiaoqi explained, turning around. “Auntie meant that using lard would make it even whiter.”

"Ignore him, he's just here to cause trouble."

"Mom, I'm already twenty-three this year, what are you doing causing trouble?"

"Even if you're not going to cause trouble, you should go outside. Don't just stand there."

As she was talking, Wu Yulan stopped paying attention to him, put the fish into the pot, and started adding hot water when both sides were slightly golden brown.

"Make sure to add enough water at once. If you add water halfway through cooking, the taste will be worse."

"What's the reason?" Chen Shuo interjected again.

"There's no reason, that's just how your grandma taught me."

Wu Yulan never understood things like proteins or temperature when cooking. She only knew the steps to cooking, and that's how it should be done. It was cooking experience passed down from generation to generation.

"If you don't have anything else to do, go to sleep and stop asking questions here."

"I do want to sleep, but you've turned my room into a storage room."

Chen Shuo wanted to complain about this. He hadn't stayed at home during the Chinese New Year this year, and now his room was gone, with large cardboard boxes on the floor and his bed piled with all sorts of messy things.

It feels like I no longer have a place to call home.

"You can sleep on the sofa, or if that doesn't work, you can sleep in my and your dad's room."

"I'm not sleepy."

"..."

Wu Yulan reached out and pushed him out, then closed the kitchen door.

"Is he like this with you at home?" she asked, turning her head.

Faced with this problem, Bai Xiaoqi thought about it carefully and felt that he only did this occasionally, while she was the one who did it often, and most of the time she was the one pestering him with some trivial questions.

If he tries to get her to sleep or do something else, she'll pout and snuggle into his arms, saying, "No, no."

"Pretty much." After hesitating for a moment, she decided to switch their identities.

"That kid is just annoying."

"..."

Bai Xiaoqi wisely didn't respond to that sentence. Just as she was about to change the subject, the kitchen door was suddenly opened, and she couldn't help but turn her head.

Wu Yulan also turned her head and saw Chen Shuo leaning halfway in. She couldn't help but frown and ask, "What are you doing here again?"

"Mom, I just wanted to ask you, I can't find any of my things. Did you throw them away?"

Chen Shuo just went into his bedroom and looked around. The furnishings hadn't changed much; the bed, desk, cabinets, and so on were all in their original places. There were just a lot more miscellaneous things, but he had far fewer of his own belongings.

"What's missing?"

"That big bag of cards under my bed, along with pinballs, racing cars, and spinning tops—all of those things are gone. Oh, and my Ultraman Tiga and Father of Ultra are gone too, as well as my Optimus Prime."

Why would you still need those children's toys?

Chen Shuo really didn't like hearing this. What did he mean by "children's toys"? Putting everything else aside, how mature was Father of Ultra? He even had a beard.

"What do you mean by 'children's toys'? Those are my childhood memories. No, Mom, you really threw them away?"

"No, I found a box for you, it's somewhere in your room, you can find it yourself..."

At this point, Wu Yulan stopped and said, "I'll help you look for it after we finish eating. Don't rummage around and mess it up again."

"My room is a complete mess, it's full of junk..."

"go out!"

"Oh."

Chapter 145 Now It's Mine

After dinner, at Chen Shuo's urging, Wu Yulan helped him find his childhood memories.