By the time they finally started their New Year's Eve dinner after all the fuss, some of the dishes had already gone cold. But that didn't matter. Many of the dishes were just for show anyway. The ones they were actually eating were being kept warm on a stove.
Zheng Changhe and Yang Family sat on one side; Juhua and Qingmu sat on the other. Otherwise, with so few people, they would have been sitting too far apart, which wouldn't feel very close.
Zheng Changhe poured himself some wine and sipped it, chatting with Yang Family and the others as he ate. Although there were only four of them, the atmosphere was lively. An oil lamp sat on each side of the table, their small flames dancing and flickering, reflecting on everyone's smiling faces and the steam rising from the clay pot.
