Winter Solstice Dinner

Guangba Middle School, as a key high school, was surprisingly considerate.

For example, tonight, except for the boarding students who had to attend evening self-study, day students were allowed to go home for the Winter Solstice.

Of course, boarding students could also apply to go home for dinner.

After all, the school was truly thoughtful— as long as there was a parent's phone call, students could go home.

So after school in the afternoon, everyone was busy packing up.

Many boarding students who lived in Goat City had their families call in to request leave.

Lin Mo was packing up too.

Jiang Yunlu looked at Lin Mo, asking knowingly, “Are you having dinner with Chu Miaomiao and Xie Yuling tonight?”

“Yeah, I heard the dinner is quite sumptuous,” Lin Mo replied.

Just then, Lin Mo looked up and saw Xie Yuling standing outside the door.

Chu Miaomiao had already packed and was heading out.

“All right, have a great weekend,” Lin Mo said, slinging on his backpack and heading out.

At this moment, Jiang Yunlu also wished she could eat with them.

But her dad had already booked a banquet outside tonight.

Besides, she didn’t dare mention Lin Mo’s name in front of her dad. Her aunt had repeatedly warned her not to bring up Lin Mo, or else her dad might lose his mind.

So all she could do was watch Xie Yuling and Chu Miaomiao with envy.

The two being envied were walking arm in arm on their way home.

Lin Mo followed behind, feeling bored.

Some classmates passed by, greeting Lin Mo, and he responded to each one.

Tonight, everyone’s steps away from school were a bit lighter—probably because they knew there would be delicious food waiting at home.

The three of them arrived home, and the kitchen was already filled with enticing aromas.

“We’re back!”

The two girls, shedding their usual shyness from outside, tossed their bags onto the sofa and headed straight to the kitchen.

“Hello, Aunt Zheng.”

“Hello, Sister Chu.”

Hearing her daughter call Chu Lintian “Sister Chu,” Zheng Yuan immediately put on a stern face.

“How do you address people? So disrespectful!”

Chu Lintian loved being called “Sister Chu,” so she quickly came to Xie Yuling’s defense.

“No, it’s actually quite youthful. I like it better this way.”

She glanced toward the kitchen doorway.

“Where’s Lin Mo?”

“Lin Mo’s outside,” Xie Yuling answered, looking back.

Lin Mo had already sat down and poured himself a glass of water.

“We’ve been simmering soup—dried vegetables with southern apricot kernels and pork bone broth.”

In eastern Guangdong, making soup was first about the taste, and second about its effects.

Whether it was a placebo or genuinely effective, at least it tasted good.

Zheng Yuan came out carrying a large pot of soup.

Lin Mo stood up and went over to take it.

“Be careful, that’s heavy.”

“Don’t worry, Mom, Lin Mo is pretty strong.”

“Oh, how strong can a kid be?” Zheng Yuan put the soup down and went back to the kitchen to get bowls and chopsticks.

Lin Mo stirred the ingredients in the soup with a spoon.

He casually asked, “Do you know what this dried vegetable with southern apricot kernel and pork bone soup is good for?”

Chu Miaomiao shook her head vigorously.

“I know! It’s for moisturizing the lungs and stopping coughs!” Xie Yuling raised her hand like she was answering a question.

At home, among familiar faces, she was always a bit more lively.

And of course, she wasn’t wrong.

As autumn turned to winter, the air grew dry. Every prudent mother in eastern Guangdong knew just how to make a nourishing, slow-simmered soup to keep the family healthy.

“Do you know what benefits each of these ingredients has?” someone asked.

Xie Yuling shook her head. She didn’t know much about these things, and she had never asked her mother before.

Lin Mo casually scooped up some dried vegetables.

“Dried vegetables are just dried Chinese cabbage. They have many effects, but mainly they nourish the heart, regulate the blood, clear heat, and relieve irritability.

As for the southern and northern apricot kernels, they’re two different kinds—southern apricot kernels are sweet, and northern ones are bitter. The sweet ones help moisten the lungs and stop coughing, while the bitter ones relieve asthma and also stop coughing.

In the end, both work to relieve coughs.”

Chu Miaomiao immediately raised her hand.

“What about pork bones? What do pork bones do?”

Lin Mo pretended to be profound. “Pork bones? That’s simple—pork bones are just added to make the soup taste better.”

Without pork bones, the soup really wouldn’t be as delicious.

Zheng Yuan handed Lin Mo a bowl.

Lin Mo took the bowl and ladled a serving of soup, but just as he did, two girls reached out their hands at the same time.

Seeing this, Chu Miaomiao quickly withdrew her hand.

Noticing the scene, Lin Mo put the soup down on the table.

“Help yourselves.”

After setting the bowl down, he continued ladling soup.

He scooped five bowls in total and placed them on the table.

There were only five people from the three families gathered, which was a bit cramped.

But Lin Mo didn’t care.

As one dish after another arrived, the large round table quickly filled up.

Xie Yuling looked at the abundance of food and couldn’t help but ask, “Can we finish all this?”

Chu Miaomiao smiled and said, “Lin Mo can eat a lot. I think he can finish it all.”

“Better finish it all,” Lin Mo added. “Leftover food doesn’t taste as good, and it’s not as healthy either.”

Braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens, stuffed peppers, salt-baked chicken...

These were all traditional Hakka dishes.

Lin Mo had long known that Aunt Zheng was Hakka, so he wasn’t surprised by the menu tonight.

The highlight was the braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens. Made with pork belly, it had perfectly balanced layers of fat and lean meat.

It was tender enough to melt in your mouth without feeling greasy.

But this dish was labor-intensive and time-consuming to prepare.

Since Lin Mo’s rebirth, he had never had the chance to eat it, and the versions he’d tried elsewhere never compared to Aunt Zheng’s.

“Wow, braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens—I can tell this is Aunt Zheng’s cooking just by looking at it. This dish is really hard to make.”

Hearing this, Zheng Yuan laughed.

“Lin Mo knows his food! She started preparing this dish early this morning. To get the pork belly soft but not greasy, the steaming time can’t be too short.”

Xie Yuling added, “My mom rarely makes this dish because it’s too much trouble.”

Chu Lintian came out holding freshly steamed lobster.

“Everyone, sit down and get ready to eat. We didn’t cook much rice tonight, so we’re all about the dishes!”

She then looked at Xie Yuling.

“Miaomiao told me you like shrimp, so today I bought lobster and other big shrimp to make sure you get your fill.”

Xie Yuling cheered.

“Thank you, Sister Chu!”

“Everyone, dig in before it gets cold. It won’t taste as good then.”

Staring at the lobster in front of her, Xie Yuling hesitated slightly. It wasn’t that she had never eaten lobster before.

She’d had plenty of lobster with noodles at banquets, but she had never tried eating a whole lobster like this.

Lin Mo picked up a lobster and demonstrated without hesitation.

He just ate the meat straight up, as if it were a bowl of rice.

Before long, the dishes were only half finished, but everyone else was already full.

The rice hadn’t even been touched, yet everyone was full just from the dishes.

Lin Mo sat in the middle of the table and said to the four of them, “Next up, please enjoy the all-you-can-eat show by Lin Mo, the Big Eater.”

Then Lin Mo got up and went to serve himself some rice.

In front of everyone’s stunned eyes, he cleared every last bit of food on the table, little by little.

Including the lobster that Xie Yuling hadn’t finished.

However, Xie Yuling’s pitiful gaze seemed to say, “Can’t you save that lobster for me to eat tomorrow?”

Lin Mo met her eyes and said, “No way. Leftover lobster isn’t fresh. I’ll reluctantly eat it for you.”

System: What about me? Am I not getting any?

Lin Mo: You eat a jellybean. Go find your gourmet system.

System: Hmph!