48

As soon as Du Xun saw the crab, he was reminded of his childhood. Back then, the family’s conditions weren’t great, but life in the countryside had its own joys. He often went out at night with a few friends to catch crabs and cicadas, and sometimes they even caught scorpions. The dried scorpions could be sold to herbal medicine farmers for a good price.

River crabs generally didn’t grow very large, but they could catch a whole bucket of medium-sized crabs in one night. After bringing them home, they would be kept in the water tank in the yard, and the next day, they’d be cut open, coated in flour, and fried in oil.

The crispy little crabs, golden and crunchy, were a rare treat in his childhood.

Du Xun’s face lit up with excitement, and Fei Ru didn’t want to spoil her husband’s enthusiasm.

“Okay, let’s do it.”

The principal walked over to explain the rules. Catching crabs was the first activity of the day and also one of the parent-child activities at the kindergarten. Families participated by catching river delicacies, including crabs, shrimp, fish, and snails, each with a point value. Families with the most points would move up in the next round of activities.

Du Xun was relieved he wasn’t wearing a suit today. He and Fei Ru put on rubber shoes and stepped into the water.

Xingxing stood dumbfounded by the riverbank, not knowing what his parents were doing. Du Xun shouted to his son, “Xingxing, watch daddy catch a big crab!”

A little girl with a sky-high braid shouted from the side, “My dad caught the biggest one!”

Xingxing was instantly motivated by a sense of competition. “My dad is the best! Go, daddy!”

A group of little kids started shouting back and forth, egging each other on, which made the parents on the shore nervous too.

The chubby man next to Du Xun muttered, “This little girl just keeps boasting.”

But even as he spoke, his hands worked faster.

Parents clutched small nets, and occasionally, one would slip and fall into the water, causing an eruption of laughter from the others on the shore.

The embarrassed parent got up, and seeing their son laughing at them, couldn’t help but laugh and scold, “Little rascal, you’re enjoying watching your dad make a fool of himself?”

All the parents were giving it their all, and Du Xun wasn’t about to fall behind.

He held his breath and focused on the water plants in front of him. This section of the riverbank was wide, shallow, and the water was clear. Most of the crabs hid under the stones or rested on the water plants on the other side.

Du Xun directed his wife, “Come on, let’s lift these vines over here.”

On the other side of the riverbank were mountain rocks, and under them, there was an unknown vine spreading across a large area. While other parents walked around it, Du Xun had a feeling there might be something hidden beneath.

Fei Ru was a little scared. “What if there’s a snake?”

Du Xun reassured her, “With so many people around, even if there is one, it’s already scared off.”

The two of them behaved unusually, not flipping stones or using the nets, but instead, they vigorously searched through the vines.

On the shore, Xingxing was becoming anxious, and the little girl next to him had already jumped into the water, because her dad had caught a lot of snails.

“Dad! Mom! You guys hurry up!”

He was getting worried too, and with his short legs, he was struggling to get to his parents to help.

Du Xun’s mother quickly picked up her grandson. It wasn’t that she was particularly strict about not letting the child go into the water, but the area where Du Xun and Fei Ru were standing was a bit deeper, up to their thighs. Wouldn’t the child get submerged?

Xingxing, unable to move because he was being held by his grandmother, could only wait anxiously for his parents.

Du Xun and Fei Ru lived up to expectations. As soon as they lifted the patch of water plants, Fei Ru let out a surprised exclamation.

“So many!”

The water beneath the water plants was still murky, but there were plenty of crabs clinging to the vines!

Du Xun wanted to show off in front of his wife, but Fei Ru didn’t care. She grabbed the bucket and urged him, “Hurry up and catch them!”

Taking advantage of the crabs not reacting yet, Du Xun held one crab in each hand by their backs and tossed them into the bucket, the sound of crabs scrambling to climb out echoing as they fell in.

Du Xun was quite strategic. He quietly filled up most of the bucket before holding up the largest crab and showing it to his son in the distance.

Xingxing jumped up and down with excitement, shouting loudly, “My dad caught the biggest crab!”

Fei Ru’s voice called out, “What about me?”

“…My mom caught the second biggest crab!”

The kids cheered loudly, and other parents saw Du Xun’s big catch. They all rushed over.

“Go, Dad!”

“Mom, hurry! I want to be first!”

The kids’ shouts and the adults scrambling for crabs pushed the crab-catching activity to its peak.

When the principal whistled from the shore, all the parents were soaking wet, but once they got back on land, the kids quickly ran to their parents. The principal asked everyone to cover their buckets, so no one knew who had caught how many. Some kids peeked through a small gap in the lid, their joy evident as they didn’t know what to do with themselves.

“Dad (Mom), you’re awesome!”

The principal wrote down the scores for each family in a notebook, and since Du Xun’s success had significantly increased the number of crabs caught, the original point-based system was changed to a weight-based one after a discussion.

“Now we’ll hand over our catch to the chef, and at lunch, everyone will get to eat the crabs and small fish they caught.”

Everyone laughed as they handed over their buckets, and regardless of the scores, eating the catch they had gathered was a rare experience.

Xingxing hugged his wet dad, his eyes full of admiration, “Dad, we’re first, right?”

Du Xun, having sneakily checked the buckets of the others around him, confidently thumped his chest and guaranteed they were first.

Xingxing cheered, “Great!”

The morning was mostly spent on the crab-catching activity. The parents rested a bit before changing into dry clothes. Then, the principal called everyone to get the grills and prepare skewers.

Each family was supposed to have one grill, but usually, three or four families shared one.

With more tourists, there were now two more families renting out grills and utensils in the town, and the grill they rented this time had been improved. The middle was for hot pot, while the outer circle was for grilling.

A combination of hot pot and barbecue.

The principal held a megaphone and said, “Today’s main dishes and desserts, along with the ingredients everyone gathered, will be prepared by our chef. You can choose your own ingredients and cook them on the grill or in the hot pot yourself.”

At their feet were several baskets of already washed and prepared vegetables, as well as various meatballs and sausages. There was lamb, pork, beef, and chicken, all pre-sliced and portioned, with one plate per table for the parents to skewer.

Fei Ru felt a little embarrassed. “Should we not participate in this?”

Earlier, they could just join in for fun, but now everyone was eating, and how could they fit into the group of four?

Du Xun, seeing his son so excited, said, “What’s there to worry about? I’ll go pay for it.”

When they asked the principal, the principal directly invited them to sit down.

“Anyway, one or two kids’ parents didn’t show up.”

This was inevitable, as some of the children in the town were left behind with their grandparents, who weren’t willing to come to the event.

Du Xun didn’t expect such an opportunity, but Fei Ru had already started to think about something and began to observe the principal and the teachers.

Skewering lamb with onions and bell peppers in between, the colors looked great. Potatoes and slices of pork belly were skewered together, the thin slices of meat would stick to the potatoes once they were heated. The eggplant was split open, with three skewers stuck inside…

“Mom, I’ve peeled one!”

While the adults were working, the kids helped pick and skewer the ingredients, and some were peeling garlic.

Xingxing had never done this at home. His little hands struggled for a while before managing to peel a garlic clove and proudly held it up to show off.

Fei Ru kissed him. “Xingxing, you’re amazing!”

Children couldn’t resist praise, and once they were praised, they got even more excited. Fei Ru took the opportunity to teach him how to run errands. Originally a bit shy in the city, Xingxing soon became familiar with the other kids at the table.

Holding hands, they went to ask the adults for more ingredients. “Teacher, my mom wants some more potatoes.”

After getting the ingredients, they hopped over to see how other tables were doing. Before long, a group of children couldn’t sit still and rushed to surround the kindergarten chef, Yao Yun, who was cooking.

“Teacher Yao, when will the food be ready?”

Yao Yun was very busy but still took time to answer them, “It’ll be ready soon.”

Since the parents were grilling according to their own tastes, her task today wasn’t too heavy.

The main dishes included fried rice, buns, fried dough sticks, steamed buns, and pies. There were also a few specialties, such as the braised pork made with local pork, served with sesame cakes on the side. Those who wanted meat could eat it, or they could chop it up and mix it with some green peppers to make a “roujiamo” (a type of meat sandwich), which was also delicious. The scrambled eggs with tomatoes were made with tomatoes picked that morning from the village and eggs from Red Grandma’s farm. There were also crispy fried fish pieces, which were caught in the river, for those who didn’t catch any, Yao Yun had bought them from local fishermen downstream.

As for the crabs the parents had caught, they were halved and fried in oil—half made into spicy crab and the other half made into “Feng Tong” (a type of fried crab). There weren’t many freshwater snails, so Yao Yun set them aside to purge the sand and planned to stir-fry them later in the afternoon for each parent to have a small bowl.

The dessert was milk pudding, a new skill Yao Yun had learned.

There were also two large barrels of sour plum soup, which had no ice because the children needed to drink it too.

Next to the sour plum soup were dozens of large watermelons.

As the parents continued skewering, the delicious aromas from Yao Yun’s cooking wafted through the air.

The fried rice was made with leftover rice, mixed with diced vegetables from the village—peas, corn kernels, carrots, and potatoes—along with some sausage crumbles. The colors were vibrant, and the fragrance was irresistible. The scrambled eggs with tomatoes gave off a tangy-sweet smell from afar, opening up the appetite. As for the fried items, the aroma of the oil filled the air everywhere.

“Ah, no wonder my son says the food at kindergarten is so good, and he doesn’t want to eat the meals I make at home. It’s not just the ‘filter effect,’ it really is delicious!”

“My family is the same. This year, Sunflower Kindergarten really did a great job. I’ve only had the steamed buns, and they tasted so good.”

“Wait, how did you get the buns? Doesn’t the kindergarten only serve them during extra snacks?”

“My kid brought them home hidden in her schoolbag. They were almost squashed by the time we got home! If she hadn’t been looking at me so expectantly, I wouldn’t have eaten them. But after heating them up, they actually tasted fine.”

As the parents chatted, their relationships with each other grew closer, and they were all quite satisfied with the kindergarten’s event.

“Originally, I was thinking about whether I should send my child to a school in the county. Our town’s elementary and middle schools are so bad, but now that I think about it, we’d have twelve more years of suffering. If kindergarten starts pushing academic pressure, that’s too harsh. Moreover, Sunflower’s cafeteria is really good. I think I’ll let my kid stay in the town for three more years.”

“I think the same. Health should be the top priority. And looking at it today, the Sunflower teachers are really responsible.”

In such a chaotic event, the teachers still managed to look after all the children. For those kids whose parents didn’t come, the teachers even specifically took care of them, and the child looked quite happy earlier.

“Our town is in such a good place now. I bet that child’s parents will probably come back soon.”

The parent who was speaking had just returned from the south. After working away for years, separated from her child, now that the situation in her hometown was improving, she hurriedly returned.

Du Xun was flipping through the skewers in her hand, listening to the parents’ conversation and occasionally chiming in. Meanwhile, Fei Ru was very talkative, constantly asking about the kindergarten’s situation.

The skewers were almost done, and the parents started calling their children to come back and eat.

The sizzling skewers, paired with the freshly fried rice, made Du Xun forget everything.

Then, they went to grab some crabs. The deep-fried crabs, drenched in red oil, were spicy, crispy, and had a flavor both familiar and unfamiliar to Du Xun from childhood. Her mother, now older and usually unable to eat much, ended up having two bowls of rice topped with scrambled eggs and tomatoes.

The grilled skewers were also delicious. The children, having worked for it, held steamed buns in one hand and skewers in the other.

If they got a little too spicy, they’d drink some sour plum soup.

“Wow, the cooking really is good.”

“Delicious!”

“It’s so good, I almost want to enroll in kindergarten myself.”

The parents at the table all laughed. Who wouldn’t feel that way?

By the time they had eaten enough and couldn’t move from being so full, there were still some food and skewers left on some tables. The parents insisted on taking them home. It was rare for the kids to help out, so how could they let the food go to waste?

The principal asked Yao Yun to cut open the watermelons, and whoever wanted some could go and get it.

“I’m not eating anymore. Oh, I’m going to burst!”

Most of the parents said they didn’t want any more, while holding their stomachs, and they couldn’t help but wonder how children had such good appetites, eating so much and still running to get watermelon.

But when the juicy, pink watermelon was cut open, the glistening fruit juice flowing out, the children’s faces covered in juice, someone broke the silence first.

“Hmm, I think I can still eat another piece. How about you guys?”

“…I guess I can manage.”

“Then let’s take a bit more, don’t leave it all behind.”

“Yeah, let’s not make the teacher carry that heavy watermelon back.”

After taking a bite of watermelon, the parents fell silent.

Soon, they started talking about unrelated matters.

“Tomorrow, I’ll sign my child up for the after-school program.”

“I’ll do that tomorrow too.”

“I have something to do tomorrow. I think I’ll sign up later today.”