After Being Scummed – Chapter 85
by Little PandaHappy New Year
Yin Bai and Professor Sun played with the two little companions for a while longer. Sun Mingrui finally brought up the steaming hot steamed dumplings: “Come, come, come, the dumplings are here!”
“Wenwen, Tongtong, quickly go get the bowls and chopsticks, prepare to eat breakfast!”
Sun Mingrui placed the steamed dumplings on the table and turned her head to shout at the two children.
“Coming, coming!” Hearing there was food, Comrade Sun Jingwen could no longer care about the game. She reached out, grabbed her younger sister, and trotted to the kitchen to wash her hands, tidying up the bowls and chopsticks along the way.
Yin Bai sighed, got up with her cane, and slowly followed behind the two children to the kitchen to wash her hands. As she moved slowly, she looked at the two children’s backs and said helplessly, “You two, slow down a bit.”
Don’t be like hungry tigers pouncing on their prey1, so tense and eager.
After finishing all the preparations before the meal, everyone sat in a row around the dining table, waiting for the “head of the family,” Sun Mingrui, to lift the lid. The lid of the steamer was opened, and a peculiar fragrance wafted out. After the thick food steam dissipated, Yin Bai craned her neck and saw the rows of translucent crystal dumplings in the steamer, thinking to herself that their appearance was quite good.
They were uniform in size, with fat bellies, somewhat like transparent caterpillars. She just didn’t know how they would taste.
Just as Yin Bai was thinking this, Sun Mingrui began to pick up bowls to distribute the dumplings to everyone. First, she picked out a bowl for Professor Sun, and only after that did she get to Yin Bai and the two children.
Yin Bai lowered her head, looked at the plump “little fat worms” in her bowl, poked one with her chopsticks, and didn’t dare to make a move. She turned her head and glanced discreetly at Professor Sun, who was diagonally opposite, wanting to see her reaction.
Who knew that her elder friend harbored the same mentality as her. When her gaze came over, Professor Sun was also looking at her, her expression self-evident.
Alright, this friend of hers, who is also a picky eater, seems to be full of worry about her eldest daughter’s cooking skills.
The two secretly exchanged a look, then silently moved their gazes to Wenwen. Wenwen, who had finally gotten her dumplings, under the quiet gaze of her younger sister beside her, happily picked up a dumpling, placed it by her lips, blew on it twice hu hu, and took a big bite aowu.
The rich broth flowed in her mouth. At the same time her tongue tasted the delicious flavor, it was also stimulated by the heat of the food. Wenwen quickly raised her hand to fan her mouth, saying hazi hazi, “Good… good…”
With every “good” she said, the expectant gazes that everyone had fixed on her brightened a little.
Yin Bai couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. What on earth was “good good good”? Was it “so hot,” “so heated,” or “so bad-tasting”?
Wenwen completely failed to grasp her companions’ eager mood. After hissing and puffing for a good while and swallowing the dumpling, only then did she say, with tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, “So hot…”
Sun Mingrui sighed and glanced at her helplessly. “Who told you to eat so fast? Didn’t you just eat so many snacks? How come you can’t be fed full?”
Sun Jingwen giggled. “Because the dumplings mama made are delicious!”
Hearing this, Yin Bai breathed a sigh of relief. She, along with the other three people at the table, picked up her chopsticks, put a dumpling in her mouth, and as she bit down, she suddenly heard Wenwen say objectively, “But mama, you seem to have added too much salt. It’s a bit salty.”
As Wenwen said this, Yin Bai’s mouth was soaked in a salty broth, and she tasted a saltiness saltier than salted fish…
Wickedly salty…
Yin Bai’s face changed at once. Spitting it out wasn’t right, and swallowing it wasn’t right either. She could only brace herself and swallow the whole dumpling down gululu.
The slightly hot dumpling slid down her throat as if she had swallowed a fireball. Yin Bai felt a slight burning sensation travel from her esophagus all the way to her stomach.
It’s over! So hot!
Yin Bai was anxious to find water to drink when she heard Sun Jingwen say doubtfully, “Eh, is it very salty? I think it’s alright. What do you guys think?”
Professor Sun, who had just swallowed a dumpling, nodded and gave an objective evaluation, “It is a bit salty…”
Professor Sun’s palate leaned towards the bland side, so Sun Jingwen decided not to adopt her opinion. She looked at Tongtong and asked with a smile, “What does Tongtong think? Is Auntie’s dumplings salty or not?”
Tongtong smiled sweetly. “Not salty. The dumplings Auntie made are so good, just as good as mama’s.”
Sun Mingrui breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that her “appropriate amount” probably wasn’t wrong. But just as she sighed in relief, Tongtong jumped down from her chair and ran da da towards the tea room on the side. “I want to drink a cup of water.”
Sun Mingrui’s expression instantly stiffened.
With Tongtong taking the lead, Yin Bai also spoke up, “Tongtong, help me pour a cup too.”
“Okay!”
With Tongtong taking the lead, everyone moved away from the table one by one to get water from the tea room.
Sun Mingrui watched everyone’s reaction and understood at once: the dumplings were really salty. But she didn’t believe in heresy and had to take a bite herself, muttering softly, “Is it that salty…”
As a result, when she took a bite and the broth ravaged her mouth with its wickedly salty flavor, the expression on her face became even more spectacular.
Alright, it was really salty.
Sun Mingrui felt rather bad. After everyone returned, she said with great embarrassment, “I didn’t expect to add too much salt. Why don’t we not eat this? How about we eat something else?”
Professor Sun used her chopsticks to poke a dumpling open, soaked it in warm water for a bit, and comforted her, “It’s alright, don’t be so wasteful. We can still eat it after rinsing it in water.”
Yin Bai and the two children followed suit. “That’s right, we can eat it after rinsing. Don’t waste food.”
Everyone began to comfort Sun Mingrui, saying things like, “You don’t cook often, so this is already good. You used to just help Xiao You as an assistant, and the presentation was always very good. Cooking is like doing an experiment; it’s inevitable to fail when trying new things. It’ll be fine after a few more practices.”
Sun Mingrui, having been comforted, felt very touched and so decided to properly control the amount of various seasonings tonight and prepare a great feast for everyone.
Hearing her say this so confidently, everyone couldn’t help but feel like they had lifted a rock only to drop it on their own foot2…
Even Yin Bai, who “didn’t understand people’s hearts,” couldn’t bring herself to strike the other down with more words, so she could only pinch her nose3 and agree to it.
However, to give Sun Mingrui a special understanding of the words “appropriate amount,” everyone decided to have her try her hand with a few green vegetables first, to do an experiment and find a general concept.
Therefore, for the entire afternoon, everyone stopped playing games and crowded into the kitchen, hurriedly assisting Sun Mingrui, looking up recipes, and watching her add seasonings.
Everyone worked together with one heart and made a pretty good dinner.
At a little past six in the evening, everyone placed the dinner they had made together on the dining table and boisterously prepared to eat New Year’s Eve dinner. While eating dinner, Yin Bai had Tongtong bring out the tablet, made a video call, and let everyone video chat with Zuo Jingyou.
In contrast to everyone’s liveliness, Zuo Jingyou, who was at that moment sitting in a car on the way to the venue, seemed lonely. She lowered her eyes and said with great envy, “I want to eat too. I want to go home for the New Year too.”
She doesn’t want to work. Although the Spring Festival Gala is an excellent opportunity to increase her fame, if she were truly given a choice, she would only want to be by her lover’s side during the time of reunion!
Seeing the envy in her eyes, everyone chattered and told her to come back, and also talked about Sun Mingrui’s salty dumplings from that morning. The children clamored about how much they had helped today and other such things, and received Zuo Jingyou’s gentle praise.
Soon, the car arrived at the gala venue, and Zuo Jingyou temporarily hung up the video. After eating dinner with Zuo Jingyou who was cloud eating4, Professor Sun, as was customary, took out red envelopes and gave one to everyone.
Yin Bai also followed her family’s tradition and gave red envelopes to the two children.
After all the traditional items of New Year’s Eve were done, the two children wanted to pull Yin Bai to play games with them. But at this moment, Yin Bai received a phone call. In a short while, she got up and said goodbye to Professor Sun and Sun Mingrui.
Professor Sun was a little curious. “You have other plans for the evening? Are you going to hang out with friends?”
Yin Bai shook her head and said to Professor Sun with a grin, “I’m going to the Capital5 to pick up Teacher Zuo and bring her home.”
Professor Sun looked at her helplessly, her eyes filled with nothing but loving affection. “You young people, you really go to great lengths. Go on, be careful on the road…”
“Okay.”
Yin Bai nodded. Sun Mingrui got up and saw her to the door.
Zhang Yu, who had been arranged with long ago, after eating her New Year’s Eve dinner, drove to the entrance of Zuo Jingyou’s house to pick up Yin Bai for the airport. After Sun Mingrui saw Yin Bai into the car, she watched her depart before heading back home.
As she walked back, she thought: This lover of my younger sister’s really loves her.
After spending the New Year with their family at home, she immediately went to find her without stopping. Family-oriented and romantic… This time, her eye for picking people is really good.
Yin Bai took Zhang Yu with her on a private plane and flew to the Capital two and a half hours later. On the way to the venue, it happened to be Zuo Jingyou’s turn to perform.
Because Zuo Jingyou had filmed 《Dawa》 this year, for this Spring Festival Gala, Zuo Jingyou performed a dance program with girls from the Tibetan region.
She had professional dance training, and when she danced, she was extremely chic6, exceedingly beautiful. Yin Bai watched the program with a look of appreciation. After switching back to Weibo to give a ‘like’ to all the posts praising Zuo Jingyou’s performance, she timed it to when Zuo Jingyou would have time to look at her phone and sent a message over: “Come to the backstage waiting area at 11. I sent you a New Year’s gift. Come get it quickly.”
Around ten-thirty, Yin Bai was led into the backstage waiting area. After the person in charge found her a quiet place to sit, Yin Bai opened her phone, only to discover that Zuo Jingyou had not replied to her at all.
So she waited and waited, tapping her cane tok tok tok in the waiting room. When she really couldn’t wait any longer, she had someone go call Zuo Jingyou, who was watching the Spring Festival Gala program in the front hall.
As it neared eleven-thirty, the sound of Zuo Jingyou’s footsteps finally rang out from outside the room. Hearing the familiar footsteps, Yin Bai instantly stood up with her cane, straightened her new scarf and new overcoat, then leaned on her new cane and looked towards the door. When Zuo Jingyou appeared, she said in a loud voice, “surprise!”
“Zuo Jingyou, Happy New Year’s Eve!”
Zuo Jingyou, wearing a vibrant red Tibetan costume and a head full of jewelry decorations, stood at the door, looking at Yin Bai with eyes full of surprise.
Her eyes quickly filled with the light of joy, the corners of her mouth lifted slightly, and she said with a light laugh, “Looks like I have to return my ticket tonight.”
Eh? Return a ticket? What did that mean?
Before Yin Bai could react, Zuo Jingyou took a few steps forward, threw her arms around Yin Bai, and clasped her slender waist, saying with immense joy, “My dear Xiao Bai, Happy New Year’s Eve!”
“To be able to embrace you before the New Year arrives is really too wonderful!”
LP: Re-translated on August 27, 2025
Footnotes
- 餓虎撲食 | è hǔ pū shí | An idiom that literally means “a hungry tiger pounces on its food.” It is used to describe someone acting with fierce, desperate urgency, especially when eating or seizing an opportunity.
- 搬起石頭砸自己腳 | bān qǐ shítou zá zìjǐ jiǎo | An idiom that literally means “to lift a rock only to drop it on one’s own foot.” It describes an action that is intended to harm others but ends up harming oneself.
- 捏着鼻子 | niēzhe bízi | Literally “to pinch one’s nose.” An idiom meaning to reluctantly accept or endure something unpleasant.
- 雲吃飯 | yún chīfàn | Literally “cloud eating.” A modern slang term derived from “cloud computing,” referring to the experience of watching someone else eat (usually via video or livestream) and vicariously enjoying the meal.
- 首都 | Shǒudū | Literally “capital city.” In a modern Chinese context, this almost always refers to Beijing.
- 飒爽 | sàshuǎng | An adjective describing someone as being valiant, heroic, and having a bright and brave bearing. When used for women, it often implies a cool, chic, and dashing handsomeness.
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