Rebirth: He Decides to Lie Flat
Chapter 249 - 249 246 New Year Celebration (Three More)

Chapter 249: Chapter 246 New Year Celebration (Three More) Chapter 249: Chapter 246 New Year Celebration (Three More) Mu Chenyan and the three Yu brothers were sitting in the living room watching TV when suddenly a shadow whisked by in front of them. By the time they reacted, the front door had already been opened, letting in the cold wind, and everyone shivered in unison.

“Quick, go see what your sister is up to? She didn’t even put on a coat….”

Mu Chenyan hurriedly got up to grab her daughter’s down jacket from the rack, but before she had a chance to leave, Yu Ci, standing on the balcony, shouted to everyone, “Don’t go, she’ll be back inside shortly.”

Everyone walked over to look outside.

Mu Jiawen was wearing slippers and a blue loungewear, running out quickly and throwing herself into Jiang Yan’s arms.

Jiang Yan opened his arms to catch her, looking down at her with a smile in his eyes.

Mu Jiawen looked up at him, tiptoed, and gave a “pop” on his lips with a kiss.

Jiang Yan tightened his arms around her, pressing his forehead against hers. He caught a glimpse of several figures standing on the front porch, and not daring to be too presumptuous, he opened his down jacket to wrap her inside and carried her back home, as if holding a child.

The Yu brothers on the balcony couldn’t help but hiss.

Yu Ci said, “How could she be so forward? Mom, that’s not good, you should talk to her.”

“Right, girls need to be reserved, Mom, you really should talk to her about the way she behaves,” Yu Heng added.

Only Yu Feng, with his hands crossed, stood silently to the side.

Mu Chenyan didn’t engage with their talk, suddenly asking them, “This afternoon your dad called and asked for two of you three to go back to Jade City with him for the New Year. Have you decided who’s going?”

The three brothers looked at each other.

Yu Feng was the first to speak, “I have to work on the second day of the new year, I don’t have time.”

Yu Heng followed quickly, “I have to meet Luo Xiao’s parents on the second day, can’t go back.”

Yu Ci glared, “What’s the meaning of this? So you both have things to do in Beijing, and I’m the only one without plans?”

Mu Chenyan swept a cold glance over the three of them and walked towards the main entrance.

Jiang Yan came in holding Mu Jiawen just as she approached. After putting Jiawen down, he greeted Chen Yan.

“Go upstairs, take a bath, change your clothes, and come down for dinner. Auntie has made lamb soup, do you want to make something else?”

He must not have eaten since he returned at this hour. Mu Chenyan didn’t even ask about his dad’s situation—after all, he wasn’t dead. As for whether he would become a burden to Jiang Yan in the future, she believed Jiang Yan could handle it.

Jiang Yan went upstairs, and Mu Jiawen also started to follow, but Yu Feng, who was closer, pulled her back, “The Spring Festival Gala is about to start, didn’t you say you want to watch the comedy sketches?”

“I’ll watch them later.”

“Jiang Yan will be down soon, why are you following him upstairs while he’s taking a shower?”

Jiang Yan turned back and looked at Yu Feng with a half-smile, then addressed Jiajia, “Watch the Spring Festival Gala first, I’ll be down soon.” Having so many brothers really isn’t all that great.

After a comfortable hot shower and changing into soft loungewear, Jiang Yan saw Mu Jiawen leaning absent-mindedly on the sofa, her face towards the TV, yet her eyes occasionally darted towards the staircase.

At the sound of footsteps coming downstairs, she whirled her head around to look.

He went to the kitchen to heat up the food, and Mu Jiawen followed him, chattering nonstop for the first time, “You’re back and didn’t even tell me in advance. Were you trying to surprise me? Just be careful not to scare me instead. If we weren’t all at home, I wonder where you would have stayed in the middle of winter… Oh, right, Xu Qian got in touch with me; after the new year, she plans to come to Beijing to see me.”

Jiang Yan, while turning on the stove to heat the soup, said, “I went to see your brother-in-law. The identity of that lady still hasn’t been uncovered, and her bones are still in the police station. However, if her name and hometown are still unknown after two more months, the bones will be handed over to Xu Qian for handling.”

It was an unavoidable predicament. With so much time having passed and no computers back then, trying to identify a person who had been dead for over a decade and was without a name was no different than looking for a needle in a haystack.

The topic was rather grim, so Jiang Yan, not wanting Mu Jiawen to dwell on it, changed the subject, “What did you all eat tonight?”

“Chicken leg rice, mutton soup.”

Jiang Yan: …

Alright, that topic wasn’t much good either.

After the mutton soup began to boil, he tossed in a handful of noodles and said, “I’ll make dumplings for you tomorrow morning.”

Mu Jiawen nodded, “My mom prepared the dumpling filling last night and put it in the fridge.”

“Okay, then I’ll use that to make them tomorrow morning.”

Mu Jiawen coughed lightly, leaned in close, and whispered, “What I mean is, tomorrow you should mix a new batch, don’t use that one.”

Jiang Yan: …

…

The next day, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Mu Jiawen opened her eyes while it was still dark outside and everything was silent, utterly peaceful.

The city was different from the countryside after all. Back in Jianglin Village, firecrackers would fill the air starting at midnight. She was a light sleeper and often got woken up by the noise, unable to sleep well all night, and by the time she got up the next morning, Xie Jingying and Song Laosan would have already finished eating and gone out.

There would indeed be dumplings left for her in the pot, but soaked in soup and long gone cold.

This year, she had finally freed herself from those two and would never go back there to celebrate the new year again.

In the morning, Jiang Yan wrapped the dumplings while Mu Jiawen, by his side, filled dumpling skins with a variety of fillings: white sugar, brown sugar, coins, chili powder, and pepper powder. To make up the six, she even wrapped one with ketchup filling.

Jiang Yan went along with her antics and when it was time to cook them, discreetly distributed those six special dumplings evenly among the bowls of the three brothers.

Tang Meng’s family was hosting a lunch, and Ning Ping’s family would be going as well.

But before eleven o’clock, Jiang Yan and Mu Jiawen had disappeared. They called to say they were going to watch a movie instead, and that Jiawen would be skipping the meal. After all, she didn’t like meeting strangers, and the mere thought of having to smile frequently made her face hurt.

Mu Chenyan thought it was just as well that Xiaosi wouldn’t be attending. She understood Tang Meng’s hint, but to be honest, she didn’t think much of He Yitang.

It wasn’t because she had Jiang Yan that she looked down on him; even without Jiang Yan, she wouldn’t want her daughter to end up with someone like that.

The kid was fine in almost every aspect, except for one: he was lazy and ignorant about basic household tasks.

At over twenty years old, his mother still had to tidy up his bedroom, and when it came to cooking, apart from boiling noodles, he was clueless about everything else.

Having seen Jiang Yan’s cooking skills, Mu Chenyan long ago put culinary ability at the top of her list of criteria.

No matter how good the other conditions were, if he couldn’t cook, it was a deal-breaker!

….

At noon, Jiang Yan and Mu Jiawen didn’t actually go to a movie; the two of them went to Xinyu instead.

This year, the second son had been taking care of Elder Lou throughout the new year. They drank quite a bit during the new year’s eve dinner, and Elder Lou gave him a red envelope, thick and bulging, obviously containing a substantial amount.

The second son was initially reluctant to accept it. If it had been a hundred or two hundred, he might have taken it, but such a large sum made him apprehensive that people would accuse him of taking advantage of the elderly man.

Thanks to Lou Jin, there was already a small group of people in the community who called the second son a swindler, claiming he had conned Elder Lou out of his house and was now after his money.

Due to these baseless rumors and gossip, the business at the computer shop had taken a nosedive before the new year and was exceptionally quiet. Of course, the main reason for the drop was the university holiday, not the community rumors.

But it had inevitably impacted their reputation, at least to the extent that nearby residents now pointed and whispered whenever they saw the two.