82 New Years Eve Dinner (1/2)

After meandering around for a good few hours, Xue'er returned to the embroidery shop by three, to see there were two bowls and two pairs of chopsticks out on the set table. The bowls and chopsticks were decorated with an auspicious pattern that had hints of red, on top of a red tablecloth.

Xue'er sat herself down and picked up a bowl to carefully inspect, slowly running her hands over the simple glaze.

After some time, there was the smell of mincemeat with vegetables and oils. Xue'er saw the dumplings as Huo momo brought the dish into the room.

There was a gentle steam that rose from the freshly made dumplings and it smelled really good.

Huo momo seemed to have caught the sight of Xue'er sniffing the air and gave a gentle smile, placing the dish on the table.

Xue'er silently looked at the dish, but she did not feel the urge to take some instead, she waited for Huo momo to sit and pick up the chopsticks.

Although there was no rice, the dumplings were still very good, there was a piping hot sensation as she bit into the dumplings, letting all the sweet juices from the dumpling splatter inside her mouth. The smell was simply heavenly.

As she ate, she realized that there was something that had not yet been done, so she placed her chopsticks down on the table and asked in a slightly confused tone: ”Huo momo, are we not suppose to pray to the heavens for a lucky and prosperous year?”

Huo momo gently tapped Xue'er on her head and said: ”Silly girl, we have the entire duration of the festival to do it. Tonight is the night that we will have a good new year's dinner, then we can pray tomorrow, there's no need to rush.”

Xue'er thought about the words for a minute before nodding her head and eating up.

Her actions were adorable, as she showed the etiquette of a well-bred young lady of a great household. So much so that Huo momo started to ponder whether she had accidentally hired the runaway wealthy young miss of a noble family to do embroidery for the women of the Hundred Flower Hall.

The more she thought of it, the more her thoughts went down the path of no return. It went on, until she was done with the dumpling, and mindlessly chewed on the chopsticks without noticing.

”Huo momo…?” The slightly confused girls' voice sounded.

”What?” Huo momo snapped from her strange thoughts, facing Xue'er. She looked at the child's well proportioned delicate face, although the skin was as perfectly white as porcelain, the girl seemingly never worked a day in her life under the sun, but there was also a sickly shade to it as well. Not to mention that this was the north, there weren't many days where the sun would show itself either.

”Are you okay?”

”I'm fine.” Huo momo picked up another dumpling with her chopsticks taking a bite of it before placing it into her bowl, she was in deep thought for a while on how to approach this until she finally asked: ”Xue'er, having known you for a while, you never told me about where you're from…”

Xue'er munched on a dumpling and answered: ”I'm not sure.”

”What do you mean, surely you must have some family around here.”

”I don't.” She flatly answered, beginning to wonder why Huo momo was very curious about her.

”Any adults you live with?”