American TV series: Starting with exploiting young Sheldon

Before long, the secret-recipe roasted meat was served at the outdoor table.

The freshly grilled beef has a unique aroma.

"Thank God for the food! Amen!"

After the prayers, everyone raised their beers or juices, clinked glasses, and celebrated the rugby team's victory.

Then, everyone began to enjoy the delicious barbecue.

George quickly finished his barbecue, and in his good mood, he said to Grandma Connie, "Connie, can you tell me the secret recipe for this barbecue? I'll make it for you next time."

“Hmm, I’m not too old to move yet. I’ll do this myself.” Grandma Connie declined her son-in-law’s suggestion. She thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of preparing barbecue for her family.

“Please, tell me. I’m your son-in-law…” George played the emotional card, recounting all the hardships he had endured over the years and all the sacrifices he had made for the family.

Seeing George's eager look, Grandma Connie seemed to relent: "Alright, get me some paper and pen, I'll write down the secret recipe."

"Great!" George jumped up excitedly and ran back to the house, returning shortly with paper and pen.

Grandma Connie smiled and wrote a few strokes on the paper before handing it to anxious George.

"Keep dreaming, little fatty!!!"

As he looked at the contents of the paper, George's smile slowly froze.

"Why? I'm your son-in-law, you'll have to give it to me sooner or later..." George was both angry and aggrieved.

Although he wanted the secret recipe, he wanted even more to get Connie's attitude from this matter, an attitude of approval from her.

Grandma Connie, however, didn't think so. She still harbored some resentment about George getting Mary pregnant before they were even married.

Clearly, Connie's grandmother applied double standards to her family.

So she deliberately provoked George, saying, "That's not necessarily true. Maybe I'll end up giving the secret formula to Mike."

"This..." George was really angry. He sat down on the stool in disappointment and started drinking in silence.

Mary, seeing her husband's distress, pleaded, "Mom, please stop teasing George and give him the recipe. Please!"

"Alright, alright." Grandma Connie, with an expression of 'I really can't do anything with you guys,' picked up the pen and paper again.

Under George's expectant gaze once again, Grandma Connie wrote down a long list of ingredients on a piece of paper.

"You're not lying to me this time, are you?" George asked uncertainly, holding the paper covered in dense writing.

"Silly child, why would I lie to you?" Grandma Connie said with a smile.

"Thank you so much." George looked at the recipe carefully and noticed that many of the ingredients were not available locally and had to be purchased from other places.

However, this did not dampen his enthusiasm. He muttered to himself, "This weekend I can go buy the ingredients and make you guys a nice barbecue."

At that moment, George felt valued by his mother-in-law and was filled with enthusiasm.

"Keep up the good work," Grandma Connie encouraged George, then stood up and said, "I'm done eating, you guys take your time."

After saying that, she quickly left the Cooper family's small yard.

Actually, the recipe Connie's grandma gave George was still a fake one. She was afraid that if she stayed any longer, she wouldn't be able to help but laugh at George's silly antics.

Mike sensed something was amiss, and after Connie's grandmother left, he said to Coach George, "Could I see the secret recipe?"

George thought for a moment and finally handed over the precious secret recipe.

“Hmm, tea powder… famous coffee powder… witch’s holy root…” Mike looked at the outrageous recipe and asked, “Didn’t you notice anything wrong with this?”

"No way!" George snapped out of his smugness and sensed a deep malice.

Chapter 48 The crisis is beginning to appear

George was too excited to notice before, but when he got the recipe again, he saw that it said: the beef should be selected from veal that is less than one year old, born in September, and slaughtered in May.

Of course, there are some other outrageous requests on the menu.

As George looked at the recipe, his face grew increasingly grim. Finally, he angrily crumpled the paper into a ball, threw it into the trash, and muttered, "Shit, I knew she looked down on me. She's never treated me like family."

As the saying goes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

This time, George was clearly heartbroken.

“George, don’t be like that. Mom isn’t that kind of person. She was just joking with you…” Mary reassured her husband, “I’ll talk to her again and ask her to give you the secret recipe.”

“No, I don’t care.” George was still angry and continued to grumble, “You’re the family, you don’t need to care about my feelings as an outsider.”

“Please, don’t say that, George…” Mary tried to continue comforting her husband.

Just then, a red Mini sports car pulled up outside Cooper's yard.

"Hello, Mary, George~" Reverend Jeff, sitting in the passenger seat, leaned out halfway and greeted them with a smile: "What are you eating? I can smell the aroma from ten kilometers away."

Mary, a Christian, became a little reserved upon seeing Pastor Jeff. She smiled and replied, "We're having a picnic, and there's some barbecue here. Would you like to try some?"

Christians have very lenient rules; they can eat meat, drink alcohol in moderation, and even smoke.

However, in some Christian communities, because "smoking is harmful to health," the church mandates that believers are not allowed to smoke.

Of course, the local church, because Pastor Jeff is mild-mannered, does not have that rule.

“Thank you, but no need. We just ate at the restaurant,” Pastor Jeff declined the invitation.

“Oh, really?” Mary said. “That’s such a shame.”

Although the Coopers and Reverend Jeff were neighbors, out of respect for the Reverend, Mary rarely bothered Jeff in private, so the two families didn't have much interaction.

At this moment, even if Mary wanted to chat with Pastor Jeff a little longer, she couldn't find a topic to talk about.

The scene immediately fell silent.

Judging from the situation, Pastor Jeff should have wisely left at this point.

However, he maintained a smile on his face as he watched the Cooper family eat.

Just as the atmosphere was about to reach an awkward threshold, Reverend Jeff tried to make conversation: "George, the football game was great today. And Mike and little George, you guys were awesome..."

"Thank you," George replied listlessly.

He's still thinking about the secret recipe for barbecue.

Mike nodded in response, his attention shifting from Pastor Jeff to the woman in the red dress beside him.

This was the first time Mike had met Pastor Jeff's newlywed wife.

The woman was wearing a red low-cut dress, and her skin was so white it looked bloodless.

Moreover, this woman's alluring and voluptuous figure was definitely no less than Amy's. However, compared to her physique, the aura she exuded gave off a very "cold" feeling.

The woman smiled perfectly as Mike looked at her.

Beneath her exquisite makeup, her captivating eyes were truly mesmerizing.

In every respect, this woman was outstanding. However, at this moment, she gave Mike a very bad impression.

Mike's sixth sense told him that the last time he felt this "danger" was with Jennifer.

To avoid showing any abnormality, Mike continued eating with his head down, but a faint, unpleasant odor wafted into his nose, causing him to frown.

The stench was hard to describe; it was like the rotting smell of a long-dead, stinking rat in a sewer.

……

On the other side, Pastor Jeff chatted awkwardly for a few more minutes, but still showed no sign of leaving.

Seeing this, Mary took the initiative to ask, "Pastor Jeff, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Ahem..." Pastor Jeff, his thoughts read, awkwardly straightened his tie and said, "Here's the thing, the church is planning a picnic for parishioners this weekend. However, Aunt Susan, who's in charge of logistics, hasn't been feeling well lately and might not be able to go. So..."

To put it nicely, Aunt Susan was Pastor Jeff's secretary. In reality, she was essentially a church handyman.

The religious group was having a picnic, and she was needed to take on the role of cook.

Mary understood what Pastor Jeff meant, and she said with interest, "If Susan is really unable to go, I can help her."

“That’s wonderful.” Pastor Jeff had been waiting for this. He smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Mary. All you need to do that day is prepare some food. The job is very simple.”

“No problem.” Mary assured, “I’ll call my mother; her secret-recipe roast meat is delicious and I guarantee everyone will be satisfied.”

Mary didn't notice that George's expression darkened further when she mentioned Grandma Connie and the roast meat.

Over there, Pastor Jeff, having achieved his goal, smiled and said goodbye to the Cooper family.

Then he said to his wife, "Serena, let's go."

“Okay,” Serena replied, then glanced greedily at Mike, who had his head down, before driving away.

After the car drove away, little George excitedly said to Mike, "Did you see that? That woman was so beautiful. I think she's much more attractive than the girls at school. Reverend Jeff is so lucky..."

Compared to Pastor Jeff's ordinary appearance, Serena is indeed considered "stunningly beautiful".

Moreover, the older sister with wifely qualities is incredibly attractive to a boy like George.

“Little George, don’t talk about others behind their backs. It’s very impolite.” Mary, a Christian, was engrossed in her upcoming church work when she heard her eldest son’s words and immediately spoke up to stop him.

Seeing his mother's stern expression, little George pouted and dared not say another word.

Then, while still having a family dinner, Mary began to dream about her work at the church. A little while later, she hurriedly went back to her room to start preparing for her weekend help-out.

Clearly, she took this temporary church job very seriously.

With Mary's departure, the family dinner came to an end.

As the children left, only George remained in the small yard, staring at the grill, drinking and lost in thought.

On his way back, Mike was still thinking about the woman in the red dress. Experience told him that this woman was not simple.

However, after careful consideration, he decided to observe for a while longer. If the other party posed no threat to him, Mike wouldn't interfere.

He knew very well that he was still in his developmental stage and had a bright future, so there was no need to get involved in dangerous things so early.

After putting those thoughts aside, Mike pushed open the door to Connie's grandmother's house.

In the living room, Grandma Connie was reclining on the sofa. As soon as Mike returned, she came over and gossiped, "So, was George feeling down after I left? Tell me about it..."

So it seems that Connie's grandmother was indeed deliberately trying to trick her son-in-law, George.

Chapter 49 Betting Training

Mike had originally planned to tell George the secret recipe for roast meat when the family gathering ended.

However, realizing that the conflict between Grandma Connie and Coach George was not as simple as a recipe was a secret.

So Mike decided to come back and ask Grandma Connie for her opinion first.

“George is indeed a little angry with you,” Mike stated the facts and then advised, “You and George are family, I don’t think you need to target him like that.”

Judging from her previous actions, Connie's grandmother's behavior this time was indeed a bit excessive.

As a member of the family, George has worked hard and shouldered the burden of the entire family over the years.

He also took good care of the three children. From this point of view, he deserves credit for his hard work, even if he didn't achieve great things.

It's really unnecessary to cause family discord over a barbecue recipe.

"I knew that idiot would get angry," Grandma Connie said with a smile, unaware of the seriousness of the situation.

Then she continued, "More than a decade ago, I discovered he was very interested in my barbecue recipe. But I wanted him to understand one thing: he could only have my things with my permission..."

Clearly, Connie's grandmother still minded George's behavior back then, when he was a petty hoodlum, of getting on the bus first and buying the ticket later.

When George got Mary pregnant, their marriage also failed to receive Connie's blessing.

"George already asked you about the secret recipe, didn't he? I think he's very sincere this time." Mike didn't dwell on Cooper's family affairs; he continued his persuasion.

“No, it’s not about a secret recipe. You don’t understand, George is a thief.” Grandma Connie shook her head, then suggested, “How about we make a bet?”

"How do we bet?" Mike asked.

"Let's bet... this week, will George try to steal the recipe without my permission?" Grandma Connie said with a sly expression. "If George behaves normally this week, I'll personally give him the barbecue recipe and apologize to him. How about it, are you in for the bet?"

It's clear that Connie's playful grandmother is very enthusiastic about betting.

Mike thought for a moment, considering that if it were a week, his chances of winning were quite high. So he said, "Okay, I'll bet with you..."

"It's a deal!" Grandma Connie said with a smile, "If you lose, tell Grandma how many girlfriends you've had."

As she spoke, Connie's grandmother reverted to her usual unserious manner.