Dating

Today, we planned to go to Huanhuan’s maternal grandmother’s house. She had been inviting us to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in Chengguan for a while. Huanhuan’s father went ahead first, while we took our time at home before heading over. We also carried a bag of rice that Huanhuan had received from her workplace. The second aunt was there too and prepared a big table full of delicious dishes for us. We went out to buy some fruit—lychees were particularly expensive at 10 yuan per pound, but they didn’t taste very good. We’ll have to buy fewer next time. We also bought a pineapple (I’ve always thought it was just another name for the same fruit). The vendor’s “Dubai knife skills” turned a whole large pineapple into just a tiny box of fruit. It might have been better to peel the pineapple ourselves during the family gathering—that way, we could have avoided sitting around with nothing to do but play on our phones. ...

Yesterday, I stayed up late playing games with Huanhuan and didn’t sleep until 3 a.m. Today, I’m exhausted. This morning, after getting up, I stir-fried some clams and saved some of them to make clam noodles with the leftover vermicelli from yesterday. The stir-fry turned out pretty good—I’ll definitely make it again in the future. The quality of ingredients is the key to whether a dish tastes good or not. I looked it up online and learned that clams can simply be steamed with a bit of cilantro and sesame oil, and they’ll already be delicious. Next time I get fresh clams, I’ll give that a try. ...

This morning, I made lobster tail pasta, and it turned out pretty good. It’s just not as tasty as live crayfish, but it’s fine to have occasionally. After a short nap in the afternoon, we went to the seafood street and bought some oysters (¥3 each, opened on the spot) and clams (¥7 per pound—the vendor even threw out the bad ones). It was quite a good deal. Then we headed to the supermarket to pick up some side ingredients and seasonings. ...

I haven’t woken up early in a long time, but today I had to because I was attending an interview at the Material Support Center in the morning. Strictly speaking, this was my second structured interview. The first one was when I took the civil service selection exam in Anshun before graduating. Back then, I didn’t prepare seriously—I just watched a few videos to get familiar with the interview process. Naturally, the lack of preparation led to failure, though I was surprised to have made it to the interview stage with a completely unprepared written test. ...

This morning, my mom called and told me to go to the sports center tomorrow morning to eat stewed goose. I really didn’t want to go, but my second aunt and my sister Lian kept nagging nonstop on the other end of the line, making it impossible to refuse. I quickly got up, cooked a bowl of noodles, and shared some with Xiaohuanhuan. Then, I prepared the materials for tomorrow’s qualification review while Huanhuan helped me wash the dishes and tidy up neatly. ...

Today was a very special day. Huanhuan and I played *Split fiction all day long, skipping breakfast. Suddenly, hot dogs appeared in the game, making us crave them so badly that Huanhuan quickly steamed two zongzi for us to eat. As it got dark, we went out for a walk, thinking about buying some delicious grilled sausages. But we couldn’t find any. There was a single dried-out one at a Meiyijia convenience store, but we didn’t buy it. ...

I stayed up late last night just to tinker with my phone’s TTS and text-to-speech functions. Before I knew it, it was past 1 a.m., and I knew most of the morning would be wasted. Around 8 a.m., the Emergency Management Bureau called for a qualification review, so I quickly cleared my throat and answered. After that, I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I got up, took a shower, did the laundry, and made breakfast. ...