Zeng Jingrong put down his cup with satisfaction and reached for his chopsticks after Mr. Shen took the first bite.
As a dish entered his mouth, his brow furrowed. "Where is the cook?"
Sister Yuan nervously approached. "It's me."
Zeng Jingrong sized her up. "Who is Yuan Jinzhang to you?"
"He is my great-grandfather."
Great-grandfather? Zeng Jingrong's brow furrowed tighter. "How old are you?"
"Thirty-two."
Seeing that Zeng Jingrong's brow had not relaxed, Sister Yuan removed the wooden hairpin from the back of her bun, letting her long hair cascade down.
Instantly, she transformed from a woman in her forties to one in her thirties.
Zeng Jingrong stared at her. "Everything belonging to the Yuan family was donated. Didn't you know?"
Sister Yuan nodded. "I did."
Zeng Jingrong narrowed his eyes. "Knowing that, you can still be so comfortably cooking for the Yu family?"
Sister Yuan looked at Mr. Shen. "I had planned to find an opportunity to ask Mr. Shen to help me find the whereabouts of the person who donated the Yuan family's possessions."
"But Mr. Shen would leave in a hurry after each meal."
"And because I concealed my surname and background from Madam, this opportunity became even harder to find."
Zeng Jingrong also looked at Mr. Shen. "Did you investigate?"
Mr. Shen nodded. "I did."
Zeng Jingrong waved his hand. "Stay at ease. I will call the person who donated the items and ask if she wants to meet you."
Sister Yuan's excitement was evident. "Thank you, thank you, Captain Zeng, thank you, Captain Tian."
It was Captain Tian who had asked Captain Zeng to stay for dinner.
Captain Tian must also know the person who donated the items, and had tasted the dishes made by that person.
"You're welcome." Zeng Jingrong waved his hand. "Go back and eat."
With Zeng Jingrong present, the Shen family's meal did not devolve into a food grab, but the speed of serving dishes was still not slow.
Every dish Zeng Jingrong ate, he would comment, "It's from the库山 (Kushan)."
Shen Jianhui, unable to discern the origin of the ingredients, was very curious.
Mr. Shen nudged his second son. "Use your brain more."
Shen Jianhui became even more confused. Eating relies on the tongue, what does it have to do with the brain?
Zhao Qilan smoothed things over for her husband. "Captain Zeng must have eaten dishes better than Sister Yuan, uh, better than Xiao Yuan, so he can tell the difference in ingredients."
"Second Madam is incorrect," Xiao Yuan said, standing up from the sofa.
"Captain Zeng is criticizing my cooking for not being authentic enough and wasting ingredients."
"He must have tasted authentic Yuan family cuisine made with ingredients from 库山 (Kushan) by the Yuan family."
Zeng Jingrong nodded. "Xiao Yuan is very clever. Your cooking has other influences. You can wait for the Yuan family to critique you. I am not qualified."
"Yes." Xiao Yuan sat down to continue eating, the corners of her mouth turning up higher.
After the meal, Zeng Jingrong left with Li Weibo.
Ma Xingxiang helped clear the table.
Shen Jianhui kicked his wife's foot.
Zhao Qilan reluctantly went to help. This Ma Xingxiang, she had changed, so why act like this?
Mr. Shen called his granddaughter and grandsons to his side and lectured them.
He stated that the next time such an incident occurred where they interfered in their maternal family's affairs and treated their wives as outsiders, he would disown them all from the Shen family.
The six of them nodded in unison.
It was a joke; the Shen family's status would gradually rise in the future, and if they were disowned, they would be laughed to death by their peers.
Shen Jianfang pulled her two daughters to sit beside her niece.
"Ziyu, I didn't expect your father to secretly find such a good marriage for you."
"In the future, you must help pull along Wanting and Wanzhen."
"Auntie." Yu Ziyu was speechless. "Don't you remember that Sister Wanting is about to go in? She has her own capital."
"Oh, I am truly muddled." Shen Jianfang slapped her forehead. "I didn't express myself well."
"I mean, everywhere has its hierarchy. Wanting will be a clerk inside, which is the lowest rank."
"Your boyfriend's status is relatively high. Pay more attention to your Sister Wanting. She's a muddlehead, doesn't say anything, and we don't know if she's wronged."
"Don't worry, Auntie." Yu Ziyu nodded. "If I hear any news about Sister Wanting, I will tell you."
"You can also call home after you go in, as long as you don't discuss confidential matters."
She lowered her voice. "I heard that phones are being monitored. Hehe, we can't even text too sweetly, for fear of being laughed at."
Li Wanting tapped her cousin's head. "The more you say, the more you make mistakes."
"Sister Wanting, I'll tell you." Yu Ziyu whispered into Li Wanting's ear, telling her what she knew.
"Captain Zeng mentioned that Li Weixin is the younger brother, lively and cheerful, with a wolf by his side."
"There is also an elder brother named Li Weihao, mature and steady, and even more handsome than Xiaobo. Why don't you try?"
Li Wanting shook her head repeatedly. "No."
"What's not good?" Yu Ziyu felt sympathetic towards her elder cousin who was oppressed by her family. "Is it that you are not good? Or that I am not good? Or that the other party is not good? Or..."
"I am not good," Li Wanting interrupted her. To prevent her cousin from guessing further, she tried hard to express herself.
"I don't want to. Entering is my highest honor. I am willing to stay there forever."
Yu Ziyu put her arm around her elder cousin's shoulder. "Okay, okay. This time, you've brought great honor to Auntie, Uncle, and the Li family. You should be happy."
"That wolf is very fun, get closer to it."
Li Wanting nodded.
Shen Jianfang, seeing that the two cousins had finished their whispered conversation, pulled her second daughter over.
"Ziyu, your cousin is going in, I can't control it. Your younger cousin doesn't have a boyfriend yet, you help connect her."
Yu Ziyu shook her head. "Auntie, you know everyone I know. You..."
Shen Jianfang waved her hand. "I'm talking about people from there, preferably from the Li family."
"Mom." Li Wanzhen wriggled out of her mother's grasp. "Sister Ziyu hasn't even entered the Li family yet, aren't you forcing her?"
Yu Ziyu's eyes lit up. "Auntie, don't worry, wait for me."
"I'll go get a phone number for my cousin. Whether it works out depends on my cousin's own luck."
Shen Jianfang quickly grabbed her niece. "Li family?"
Yu Ziyu whispered in her aunt's ear. "The eldest son of Uncle Li's family, I heard he is also inside. The ancestral martial arts from Grandpa's family."
"Good! Good!" Shen Jianfang's eyes lit up. Uncle Li's family was also good. 库山 (Kushan) in their circle represented wealth. She let go of her hand. "Hurry up."
Watching her cousin go upstairs, Li Wanzhen glared at her mother. "You're causing trouble for my cousin."
Shen Jianfang patted her second daughter's shoulder. "These years, even with your eldest sister taking the lead, your life in the Li family hasn't been easy."
"A woman, when she has no capital herself, must rely on her husband's family having capital to be looked up to in her maiden family."
"Ziyu has a candidate, so try it. If it doesn't work out, we'll look within the circle."
Look within the circle?
"Tsk." Li Wanzhen smiled self-deprecatingly. It was rumored in the circle that the Shen family produced too many girls. Who would dare marry a Shen daughter?
It was fine. If Sister Ziyu introduced someone from the special skills team, regardless of height, weight, age, or health, she would try to cling to them.
With her and her sister's status, her brother and parents' lives would become easier.