In the kitchen, Grandma Shen opened the small jar that Chen Yan had brought over and picked up a cucumber strip with chopsticks to taste it. She immediately praised her son-in-law's culinary skills.

"This cucumber is really crunchy and delicious, and the soy sauce flavor is strong."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yan immediately leaned over and took a bite of the cucumber strip Grandma Shen was holding. CRUNCH, CRUNCH, she chewed as she spoke, "It is quite crunchy, but why is it so salty?"

Grandma Shen gently patted her granddaughter. "Silly girl, this is meant to be eaten with porridge. It has to be a bit salty, right? Besides, when you taste something like this, you're supposed to take a small nibble. Who bites off half of it in one go like you do?"

Chen Yan pouted, feeling slighted again!

But she had to admit, these cucumber strips were indeed tasty.

Lately, her brother-in-law had become obsessed with cucumbers. First, it was Jade Soup, and now these soy-pickled cucumbers. He'd taken a simple cucumber and worked wonders with it.

Unlike her, who, when she got her hands on a cucumber, either gnawed on it raw or used it for a facial.

She was no match for her brother-in-law at all!

To avoid being scorned by Grandma again, Chen Yan, CRUNCH, CRUNCH, munched on her cucumber and left the kitchen, planning to find a quiet corner in the living room to wait for dinner.

After she had left, Lin Xu put the tomatoes to soak, then took the rice Grandma Shen was about to wash and said, "Grandma, you rest. I can handle these chores."

"Okay, okay, then I'll just wait to eat... Turn up the air conditioning in the kitchen, don't let my grandson-in-law get too hot."

"Got it, Grandma."

After rinsing the rice twice, he set it to steam. Then, he lifted the beef brisket out of the water and began to cut it up.

Beef brisket is meat from the cow's belly. This cut has a lot of fascia and sinew, making it particularly suitable for stewing. He sliced the beef into long strips, then chopped them into chunks slightly larger than mahjong tiles. This made them easier to stew thoroughly and convenient to eat, one piece at a time.

Once the beef was cut, he brought a pot of water to a boil, added all the beef chunks, and then put in Scallion and Ginger to blanch them. Ideally, beef brisket should be soaked in cold water for several hours before cooking to draw out the blood, which makes the stew tastier. But since there wasn't enough time today, he opted for blanching instead.

Once the water boiled and he had skimmed off the scum, he rinsed the meat chunks and placed them in a pressure cooker. He then added several slices of ginger, a few sections of scallion, two pieces of Star Anise, several bay leaves, and a whole onion, sliced. The onion not only imparts a rich, savory aroma to the beef but also makes it more tender. Adding some onion when cooking beef can have surprisingly good results. Lastly, he added a washed green chili to the pot to enhance the beef's bright, fresh flavor.

With everything in, he added enough water to cover the beef, put the lid on the pot, and set it on the stove to stew.

Tomato Stew Beef Brisket is a very common home-style dish. The basic method is to stew beef brisket with tomatoes. However, restaurants often prepare the components separately to enhance the dish's appearance and texture. This was exactly what Lin Xu was doing now: first, he stewed the beef in a pressure cooker without any seasonings. Then, he would simmer it in a sauce made from stir-fried tomatoes until the beef was thoroughly tender. This method resulted in incredibly soft and tender beef, and the tomatoes retained their flavor instead of becoming bland from overcooking.

After the pressure cooker came up to pressure, Lin Xu didn't rush to deal with the tomatoes but instead strolled to the living room. The beef needed to be pressure-cooked for at least half an hour to become tender. He had to wait for this step to finish before stir-frying the tomatoes, because he needed to add some of the original beef cooking liquid to the pan.

In the living room, Dundun was lying calmly in Grandma Shen's arms like a well-behaved baby. Shen Baobao, in her self-styled role as Dundun's teasing 'stepmother', hovered nearby, itching to tease Dundun. But every time she reached out, either Grandma Shen would stop her, or her own mother would slap her hand away.

When Lin Xu entered, Shen Baobao immediately went over to him. "Come on, come on, let me show you my room over here."

Lin Xu picked up a mango from the table and started peeling it as Shen Baobao pulled him out of the living room and towards a room on the west side.

Chen Yan, left alone in a corner, saw that she was the only young person remaining. She was about to follow when she suddenly remembered the several times she had inadvertently walked in on those two playfully nipping at each other like seals. The thought immediately made her dismiss the idea of joining them.

Forget it. Instead of being subjected to their PDA, I might as well stay here and hold court.

"These are Water Margin cards I collected as a kid; I always wanted to complete the set... This is a 'Lao Fu Zi' comic I bought with five yuan I stole from Grandma. Dad beat me hard for it. After he was done, he cried even more heartbrokenly than I did, kept saying how useless he felt..."

「In the room next door.」

The scene their 'sister-in-law' (Chen Yan) had imagined—the two of them playfully nipping at each other like seals—did not materialize.

Shen Baobao sat on the floor, opening a Huanghuali wood box, taking out items one by one to share with Lin Xu.

Lin Xu sat beside her, listening attentively, having even forgotten to eat the mango in his hand.

This box held Shen Baobao's entire childhood.

No wonder she cherished it like a priceless treasure.

"When I was little, I wanted a cloth doll, but my mom's salary was too low to buy one, so she sewed one herself. But it was so ugly, she only let me play with it at home and never let me take it outside."

Lin Xu, holding the awkwardly cute cloth doll, said, "From a post-modern art perspective, this little elephant is quite creative."

Shen Baobao opened her mouth. "But... this is supposed to be a kitten!"

Lin Xu was speechless.

I take back what I just said.

After they had looked through all the collectibles, the beef stewing on the stove was almost ready. The two of them put the collectibles back into the box, locked it again, and left the room.

「Back in the kitchen.」

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