Step by step, a gentle breeze leads to a smooth path

Summer nights always fall slowly.

Song Tingnan was a bit too full for dinner, mainly because there were too many people feeding her. She walked around the yard to digest, and her older brother, Zheng Xiangqian, said he would take her to the fields to catch loaches when it got dark.

The eldest sister, Zheng Zhibei, is very good at cooking. When she saw her mother stewing chicken, she made braised fish.

Considering that Tingnan couldn't handle spicy food, no chili peppers were added. The whole flatfish was fried until it didn't stick to the pan or break apart. It was bright red, the fish meat was tender and had no fishy smell, and the meat on the belly was boneless. Zheng Xiangqian gave it all to Tingnan.

He often dives into the water empty-handed, and when he comes out, he has a fish in his hand. This is his special skill, and he almost never misses.

Therefore, Zheng Zhibei mastered various ways of cooking fish, while Zheng Ruidong stayed far away from fish. Although fish is a meat dish, the fishy smell is hard to remove... Now, with plenty of oil and salt, as well as soy sauce, MSG, and perilla leaves, and his sister is also familiar with cooking it, he used to really vomit from eating fish, and sometimes he would rather go hungry.

Zheng Zhibei fried the tofu until it was golden brown on both sides, and each bite was tender, juicy, and irresistible... Then, his mother, Song Xiuying, forced two chicken drumsticks and a bowl of chicken soup on him, and Zhibei and Ruidong ate the chicken wings... Uh... Ting Nan let out another burp. After walking around for half an hour, she finally felt a little better...

Zheng Ruidong was asking Tingnan what was going on with the foreign language program, since his school didn't have it.

A dark-skinned, muscular man walked into the courtyard. "What brings you here?" Zheng Zhibei had just brought in two cucumbers from the vegetable garden.

"I came over to see! Is this my little sister Tingnan? She's so cute!"

“Yes!” Zheng Zhibei turned to Tingnan and said, “Tingnan, this is your brother-in-law, Yang Qingzhou.”

"Brother-in-law, hello! Your name is so nice!" Ting Nan sized up the man in front of her. Although he was a bit dark-skinned, he exuded a healthy and energetic aura. Of course, few people who work in the fields are fair-skinned.

"Does my name sound nice? My parents said they just picked it out as best they could." Yang Qingzhou was surprised that his sister actually said his name sounded nice. He quickly sat down next to Tingnan, wanting to hear her explanation.

"Of course, 'Departing from Baidi City amidst colorful clouds at dawn, I return to Jiangling a thousand miles away in a single day. The cries of monkeys on both banks never cease, yet my light boat has already passed countless mountains.' Li Bai's poem is truly poetic."

"Did I misunderstand my parents?"

"How to say?"

“My parents had a very good relationship. My father said that on the day I was born, he was rowing his boat to the ferry to pick up passengers and couldn’t be with my mother during childbirth. He felt very guilty, so he gave me this name.”

"Hahaha... Brother-in-law, you actually believe that?"

"Why wouldn't you believe me? They always look down on me."

“Brother-in-law, you didn’t just appear out of nowhere. You were carried for ten months. A name carries the hopes of elders for their descendants. I bet most people have their names chosen while they are still in their mother’s womb.”

"That's true, but my dad used to be a boatman, so it's possible he just took it randomly."

"What's wrong with the boatman? Many poets express their feelings through scenery and objects. 'The light boat has passed ten thousand mountains' is usually used to describe the joy and relief of finally reaching the destination after overcoming many difficulties. First, it emphasizes the hardship of the process, which is to express gratitude to your mother. Then it expresses the joy of your safe delivery and the hope for the future."

"Little sister, I suspect you're over-glorifying my father. Does he really have so many thoughts?" Although Yang Qingzhou expressed deep doubt, the poem was quite beautiful, and even the name sounded elegant, so she was quite happy. The little sister of the Song family is very talented.

"The road ahead may be long, but it is bright; now is the time to set sail." Your family must be very harmonious.

"That's right. Apart from being like a son-in-law who married into the Yang family, everything else is great," Yang Qingzhou said self-deprecatingly.

"Hahaha..." Zheng Zhibei burst out laughing. She felt it most deeply; it really was true.