My name is Chang An, your name is Gu Li

At night, Chang An and Gu Li's hair was almost dry, so they blew out the candles and went to bed while playing.

But tonight, Gu Li seemed to be very clingy. As soon as she got into bed, she snuggled into Chang An's arms, and Chang An naturally cooperated and took her into his arms. Gu Li's little head rested on Chang An's chest, hummed with satisfaction, and then shouted:

"Chang Lang."

"what happened?"

"Chang Lang, please don't sleep in tomorrow, okay?" Gu Li asked weakly.

"Why?" Chang An reached out and stroked her hair.

"Because... because I don't like Chang Lang sleeping in." Gu Li said, and his body shrank towards Chang An again.

"Well, since Mrs. Gu doesn't like it, Chang Lang won't sleep in from now on, how about that?" Chang An's hand slid along Gu Li's hair to her face and pinched it gently.

"Chang Lang, you pinched me." Gu Li puffed up his little face like a little goldfish.

"I didn't pinch Gu Niang," Chang An teased her, "Did something dirty get into the house?"

"Ah!" Gu Li knew that Chang An was trying to scare her, but she still pretended to be scared and snuggled into Chang An's arms again, "Chang Lang, I'm scared..."

"Don't be afraid, my dear Mother Gu. Chang Lang is here. Go to sleep. When you sleep, it will be dawn, and you won't be afraid when it's dawn." Chang An lowered his head and kissed Gu Li's hair, saying.

"Okay." Gu Li closed his eyes obediently and soon fell asleep leaning on Chang An's chest.

When Gu Li opened her eyes again, it was already daybreak. She rubbed her head again in a daze, then sat up from the bed. At this time, she could also feel that the person beside her also sat up.

She dazedly moved closer to the man beside her, fumbled around and kissed him on the face, then smiled foolishly.

Chang An quickly regained consciousness after waking up, and just as he sat up, he was "molested" by Gu Li. He smiled, got out of bed and put on his shoes, and said lovingly: "I molested your Chang Lang as soon as I got up."

Then Chang An turned around and saw Gu Li still sitting on the bed, blinking in confusion. Chang An raised his eyebrows, and reached out to carry Gu Li to the bed. He sat on the floor in front of the bed and reached out to pull her little feet. However, the little feet in Chang An's palms seemed to be shaking slightly restlessly.

Chang An looked at the jade-like little feet moving mischievously in his hands, and threatened: "Mother Gu, if you don't behave, I will punish you by not letting you be held in my arms today."

"No!" Gu Li immediately calmed down his feet upon hearing this, and said nervously, "I'm behaving well now, Chang Lang, please stop scaring me."

Seeing that Gu Li's feet had settled down, Chang An quickly put shoes and socks on her, and then took the clothes and put them on Gu Li.

After getting dressed and washing up, Chang An and his wife first followed Chang Wenmeng to the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors, and then came to the kitchen.

Chang An and Gu Li came to the kitchen. In addition to instructing the servants to boil medicine, Chang An would start preparing dumplings today.

But just as he clapped his hands to call the servants over and ordered them to take out the meat and flour he had bought in advance, he heard his father's voice behind him: "Yonghe, Li'er? What are you doing in the kitchen?"

"Father." Chang An and Gu Li both bowed and greeted Chang Wenmeng.

"What is this pile of meat and flour for?" Chang Wenmeng asked, looking at the flour and a lot of pork on the table.

"Father, today is the winter solstice, so I wanted to make some dumplings," Chang An explained.

"Dumplings? What new food have you developed?" Chang Wenmeng became interested at this time. After all, the glutinous rice balls from two days ago were made by his son.

"Don't worry, Dad. It will definitely be delicious!" Chang An assured, patting his chest.

"But..." Chang Wenmeng looked at the table full of ingredients. In addition to pork and flour, there were also green onions, leeks and cabbage. "With so many ingredients, could it be that they are all used to make dumplings?"

"Yes, father." Chang An said, "Let's have dumplings for lunch. They will definitely fill us up."

Chang Wenmeng twirled his beard, nodded, and said, "Then Yonghe must hurry up, because I have to go to the palace to pay homage at 5 p.m."

"Yes, father."

After hearing this, Chang Wenmeng turned around and left with satisfaction. At this time, Chang An also turned around and asked the servants, "How many servants do we have in Chang's house?"

The servants in the kitchen were in charge of the mouths of everyone in the family every day. When it came to the family population, they were the most familiar with it. So, the servants simply exchanged glances, did a quick count, and the leading servant said:

"Sir, there are about forty servants in the house, including us."

Chang An nodded, then did a simple calculation in his mind, and after he had figured out the number, he said, "Today at noon, all of us in the Chang Mansion will eat dumplings! And everyone will be full!"

"Thank you, sir!" The servants were delighted and expressed their gratitude one after another.

"What are you thanking me for? Hurry up and get to work." Chang An scolded with a smile.

"You two go and knead the dough, and make a bag first; you three go and wash the pork, chop it into stuffing, and put it in three bowls for me; you two go and wash all the vegetables, and then chop them into stuffing, and put different vegetables in different bowls. Then you, go and look after Gu Niang's medicine; you two go and prepare the bowls, chopsticks and pots, and then tidy up the stove, and get a few steamers."

After giving an order, Chang An ordered all the servants in the kitchen to prepare to cook dumplings.

Gu Li then asked, "How many dumplings do we want to make, Chang Lang?"

"Well, about five or six hundred," Chang An said, "It should take a while to cook, so we should start preparing now."

Gu Li nodded in understanding at this time.

After waiting for a long time, Gu Li’s medicine and the ingredients for making dumplings were prepared. While Gu Li was taking the medicine, Chang An began to "process" the prepared raw materials.

He first came to the dough with the sesame oil bottle and poured a little sesame oil on it, then asked the servant to sprinkle some flour into it, stir it and roll it into dough; then he came to the meat filling, which was divided into three bowls. Chang An asked people to put green onions, leeks and cabbage - that is, cabbage - into the bowls respectively, then poured some sesame oil and light soy sauce, and asked the servant to stir it.

After taking the medicine, Gu Li looked at the ingredients and asked, "Chang Lang, do we need to make these dumplings in the same way as glutinous rice balls?"

"Yes." Chang An nodded. "Can Chang Lang make the dumplings for Gu Niang himself?"

"Okay!" Gu Li suddenly became a little frustrated, pouted and said, "But I don't know how to make dumplings, so I can't make them for Chang Lang."

Chang An patted her head lovingly and said, "You don't have to ask Gu Niang to pack it. Just make sure you're full."

As he said this, he secretly glanced at the servants behind him, and when he found that no one noticed the two of them, he quickly kissed Gu Li on the face. Gu Li was so surprised that her cheeks turned red. She quickly looked around, and after confirming that no one noticed her, she breathed a sigh of relief, then reached out and gently patted Chang An.

After the dough and dumpling fillings were prepared, Chang An picked up a pair of chopsticks and began to demonstrate how to make dumplings: he spread a piece of dumpling wrapper flat on the palm of his hand, and then picked up a chopstick full of fillings. Then he applied a little water on one half of the dough, folded the dough in half, and completely wrapped the fillings in the wrapper; he put down the chopsticks at this time and folded the joints of the dumpling wrapper into folds little by little.

After finishing, Chang An placed the dumpling that looked like a gold ingot in front of Gu Li and said, "This is a dumpling, it's much more delicious than the prison ball."

Gu Li smiled, stretched out his little hand to take the dumpling, and put it on a plate beside him.

Afterwards, Chang An made fourteen more dumplings in a row, making a total of fifteen dumplings including the first one, and placed them neatly on the plate, five each of pork and cabbage, pork and leek, and pork and green onion.

After doing all this, Chang An arranged for all the servants to make dumplings. After using up all the dough and fillings, he left only one servant to follow him and learn how to cook.

As usual, they set up a pot and lit a fire, poured water into the pot, and added some oil. After the water boiled, Chang An asked the servant to light a fire on another stove and set up a steamer.

He put all the fifteen dumplings he had made into the pot and cooked them until the dumplings floated to the surface and the red meat filling inside the dumpling skin could even show through. Then Chang An took all the dumplings out of the pot, put them in a bowl that he had prepared in advance, and poured some soup into the bowl.

At this time, Chang An subconsciously turned his head to look at Gu Li behind him, then picked up a dumpling with chopsticks, blew it gently, and put it into Gu Li's mouth. Gu Li didn't say much, and directly put the dumpling into her mouth. After chewing it for a while, she clapped her little palms and said:

"Chang Lang, these dumplings are delicious."

Seeing this, Chang An's eyebrows curved and he said, "Yeah, save this bowl for lunch."

Gu Li nodded, and Chang An put the bowl of dumplings in the steamer to keep them warm. After giving a few simple instructions, he took Gu Li out of the kitchen.

Back in the room, the two of them snuggled together again, sat at the desk, and started reading books respectively.

At noon, after eating dumplings, Gu Li continued to snuggle in Chang An's arms, stroking Chang An's face with his hands, and Chang An just let Gu Li touch him.

Suddenly Gu Li yawned, and Chang An asked:

"Mother Gu, do you want to sleep for a while?"

"Why?" Gu Li leaned on Chang An's shoulder, not knowing why Chang An asked that.

"I have to keep watch tonight. I'm afraid that Gu Niang will fall asleep tonight." Chang An replied, "And I think Gu Niang is a little sleepy too."

"Then Chang Lang, are you sleeping?"

"I'm not sleeping. I'm watching Mother Gu sleep." Chang An said.

"I won't sleep unless Chang Lang sleeps. I can't sleep without Chang Lang by my side." Gu Li smiled sweetly.

"Before she married Chang Lang, did Gu Niang have trouble sleeping every day?" Chang An began to tease Gu Li again.

"Well... yes!" Gu Li rolled his eyes and said, "Before I married Chang Lang, I never slept."

Chang An also rubbed Gu Li's face lovingly at this time and said, "So pitiful, then Chang Lang will sleep with Gu Niang in the future, okay? Make it up to my Gu Niang."

"Chang Lang, what are you talking about again... shameful."

Gu Li's face started to turn red again, and she immediately huddled her face into Chang An's arms. Chang An also stroked her head, carried her to the bed, put her on the bed, took off her shoes and socks, and untied her hair, and then said:

"If you are sleepy, just take a nap. Chang Lang will be here the whole time."

"Okay." Gu Li smiled, watched Chang An pull the quilt over her, and closed her eyes obediently.