On the morning of New Year’s Eve, Li Xiang once again rode his three-wheeler to the county town to buy New Year’s supplies.

Yesterday, he had gone to the nearby town for things like wine, calligraphy brushes, couplets, firecrackers, and fireworks, since they were all available there. But today, he needed to buy some ingredients for his family that they didn’t eat often, which meant a trip to the county town was necessary.

After all, the county town had a much richer variety of goods. In some of the larger seafood shops, you could find things like king crab and Boston lobster. There were plenty of wealthy people in the county town, too. Normally, sales for these ingredients weren’t great, but as soon as the New Year rolled around, demand would outstrip supply, and the prices would start to climb.

Perhaps for people in coastal cities, they were tired of eating seafood all the time and wanted some inland specialties for the New Year. But Sichuan Province is inland, so for the New Year, they had to get some seafood.

Besides king crab and Boston lobster, Li Xiang also bought salmon, sea cucumber, scallops, oysters, turbot, swimming crab, abalone, and razor clams.

After he got back, just preparing all these ingredients was going to take a ton of effort. His grandmother was getting on in years, and besides, she’d never cooked these kinds of dishes and didn’t know how to handle them. Fortunately, his Little Aunt and cousin arrived early.

Little Aunt knew Li Xiang probably couldn’t manage it all alone, and she didn’t want to just show up and eat a ready-made meal. So at ten in the morning, she and his cousin arrived on their electric scooter. Little Aunt didn’t come empty-handed, either; she had specially brought two bottles of good wine.

Someone had gifted them to her, and she had never been able to bring herself to drink them. Today, she brought them over to share.

In truth, Little Aunt quite enjoyed drinking and had a high tolerance for it. After all, she’d always worked in sales, which sometimes involved a lot of schmoozing.

The hardships a woman faced in sales were too numerous to mention. But there was no other way. As a widow with a son to raise, these past years had been anything but easy.

Little Aunt’s culinary skills were superb, and she knew how to work with these ingredients, so she became the main person in charge of prepping the food.

As for his cousin, he wasn’t much help. He kept their grandmother company, chatting with her and lending a hand with small chores. The cousin had a head of bleached-blond hair and was a smooth talker, but he seemed to maintain a certain "distance" from Li Xiang.

Li Xiang laughed. "I’m not going to hit you. What are you afraid of?"

His cousin replied, "My mom said you might try to teach me a lesson."

Little Aunt honked with laughter. "I was just joking, and you actually believed me! This kid... It’s New Year’s! Even if your cousin wanted to teach you a lesson, he’d have to wait until after the holiday!"

Li Xiang thought for a moment, then said seriously, "Everyone walks their own path in life, and everyone has their own destiny. You’re a grown man now; you should be thinking about your future. If you ever need help with anything, just ask. We’re family, not strangers."

Little Aunt prompted him, "What are you standing there stunned for? Hurry up and thank your cousin!"

His cousin quickly said, "Thanks, thank you, cousin!" Then he went to the kitchen to keep his grandma company.

Little Aunt watched her son’s retreating back for a moment, then said quietly to Li Xiang, "He usually doesn’t listen to what other people say, not even me. But I have a feeling he really took your words to heart this time, Xiaoxiang."

"It’s good that he listened. But it’s the New Year, let’s not talk about all that. Little Aunt, how do you get this black gunk off the abalone?"

It wouldn’t hurt you to eat the black grime, but if you don’t clean it off, it affects the texture and the dish’s appearance, which in turn ruins your appetite.

"Soak it in warm salt water and scrub hard, or rub a little cornstarch on it before scrubbing. Just get it clean. If something really won’t come off, just cut it away with scissors," Little Aunt instructed.

’Truthfully, there were a lot of ingredients Li Xiang didn’t know how to prepare. In his past life during the Apocalypse, everything was radioactively contaminated, and the seas were full of terrifying Demon Beasts, so basically no one ate seafood. And before the Apocalypse, he’d never been particularly well-off, so he’d never had it then, either.’

’It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford it. Small abalones were pretty cheap, and a small, live Boston lobster weighing about a pound was only a hundred or two yuan. He just never had the mindset to deal with that stuff. When you’re young and drifting around on your own, you just make do with whatever for meals. A lot of the time, he was too lazy to cook, so he’d just eat Chinese fast food or grab a bowl of fried noodles from a street vendor.’

’When he did cook for himself, it was always just simple, home-style dishes.’

’Maybe it was because the pressure was too great?’

’In modern society, especially in big cities, the pace of life is so fast. Every day is just a cycle of going to work and coming home. It’s like everyone has an invisible shackle hanging over their head. This is especially true for men, who are expected to get ahead and strive for success. Who has the leisure time to enjoy little rituals?’

’That’s why some people suggest spending a little money on cheap, useless things that bring you joy, as a way to prevent depression.’

’While you’re working hard and striving, it’s incredibly important to slow down, relax, and do things that make you happy. That’s true now and in the future, at any time—even if the sky is falling.’

At noon, his grandmother cooked some noodles, and everyone had a simple meal. This included the kittens, the fox, and the dog—they all ate noodles too.

Of course, they weren’t plain noodles. The kittens got dried fish mixed in, while the dog and the fox got large chunks of meat that had been stewed until tender.

Little Aunt and his grandmother were busy in the kitchen, so Li Xiang took his cousin and used the time to put up all the couplets, ’Fu’ characters, and door god posters. There was a whole large bucket of homemade paste in the kitchen.

There was paste left over when they were done, so Li Xiang took it to Third Granny’s house and helped her put up her couplets and door gods as well.

"Third Granny, why don’t you come to our place for New Year’s Eve dinner later?" Li Xiang offered.

"Thank you, thank you," Third Granny politely declined, a happy look on her face. "My youngest daughter said she’s coming to pick me up to spend the New Year at her house."

"That’s wonderful," Li Xiang said, giving her a thumbs-up.