By six or seven o’clock, the house was already filled with the aroma of all sorts of food.

The scents of meat and seafood were the most prominent.

Jiang Qiuqiu had already finished making the braised pork belly, pig ears, and eight-treasure duck. She had made a large batch, setting one portion aside for their dinner and sealing the rest to upload to the virtual restaurant later.

The two of them were having dinner in the living room. In the kitchen, the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall was still simmering softly. Mo Si asked, "Does this dish take that long to make?"

"Yep, the longer it cooks, the better it tastes. I’m just letting it simmer on low heat, and I’ll store it before we go to bed. What’s wrong, does Black Hole want some now?"

"No, I was just asking."

"Haha, it’s okay if you want to eat it," Jiang Qiuqiu said with a smile. "You worked hard today! Make sure you eat a lot tonight."

In addition to the braised pork belly, pig ears, and eight-treasure duck, Jiang Qiuqiu also took out some greens from her temperature-controlled container. A balanced diet of meat and vegetables makes for light work!

Jiang Qiuqiu placed a few helpings of food on Mo Si’s plate with her chopsticks.

The two gradually fell into casual conversation. Jiang Qiuqiu asked Mo Si, "Do your family members know you came to Starry Sky Wander?"

"They know."

"They know and they’re not mad? You didn’t go home for the reunion, and they’re not mad that you went somewhere else?"

"They won’t be," Mo Si said. "The elders know that everyone is sensible. They don’t get angry easily."

Meanwhile, the Mo Family was also having their reunion dinner.

Mo Si had only told Mo Chengyu that he was leaving. He didn’t want too many of the elders to know, because... he hadn’t succeeded yet, and it would be strange to talk about it.

As a result, there was one empty seat at the Mo Family’s reunion dinner table. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

When Uncle Mo saw the empty seat, his first reaction was to complain, "What’s gotten into the Military Department lately? If they had something for him to do, they shouldn’t have let him come back in the first place. Why call him away again after just two days? Aren’t they just running him ragged for no reason?" As he spoke, he was about to call a councilor to see what was so important that it couldn’t even wait until after the New Year.

Mo Chengyu quickly stopped him.

"Uncle, don’t call. It’s not a Military Department matter."

"If not the Military Department, then what other business could that Mo kid have?" he said, as if it were the only possibility.

Mo Chengyu giggled.

It had to be said, Mo Si asking his sister to keep a secret with him was an absolutely terrible decision.

He could keep his mouth shut, but Mo Chengyu’s was a megaphone.

"Take a guess, everyone! This time it’s not official business, it’s personal business!"

"It’s the kind of personal business that has you rushing off, worried that a certain someone might be lonely over the New Year."

Grandpa Mo, who was still eating, looked up.

Grandma Mo, who was drinking her soup, looked up.

The distracted Father Mo looked up.

Uncle Mo, who had just been about to call the councilor, also looked up.

Auntie Mo and a whole crowd of cousins all looked up in unison.

All eyes converged on her, and everyone asked in unison, "Really?"

"Would I lie to you about something like this?"

Grandpa Mo: "Little Si has finally seen the light?"

Grandma Mo: "An iron tree is blooming?"

Father Mo: "Your brother finally gets it?"

Uncle Mo: "This year is full of surprises."

The younger generation also started chattering excitedly: "No wonder our cousin has been glued to his terminal this year! I thought it was because the situation at the front lines was tense, but it wasn’t! Was he chatting with our future sister-in-law?"

"No wonder he was staring out the window every day! I thought he was worried this year’s snowfall wasn’t heavy enough and that the Insect Race would reawaken sooner next year."

The somber atmosphere in the Mo Mansion, initially dampened by the missing person at their small reunion dinner, instantly became cheerful upon hearing this was the reason for Mo Si’s absence.

Everyone excitedly grilled Mo Chengyu for all the details, and they unanimously agreed: Mo Si’s decision to go showed he had the most guts.

If Jiang Qiuqiu could have been a fly on the wall, she would have known that not only were his family’s elders not angry, they were cheering him on with both hands and feet.