Before the Dragon Boat Festival, the old house was filled with the aroma of zongzi leaves. Su Qing stood on tiptoe in the kitchen to reach the wall cabinet. The slit of her cheongsam revealed the band-aid that was burned when she baked cookies yesterday. "Aotian!" She shouted while holding up the crooked dragon boat zongzi mold, "Come and help me see if this zongzi should be steamed or boiled! Zhou Mingxuan said that boba milk tea should be added to boiled zongzi. Is this edible?" Lin Aotian rushed over from the clan meeting hall, and the collar of his suit was still stained with the broken leaves of the mugwort sachet that Su Qing had stuffed in during the morning meeting. He stared at the shapeless zongzi on the chopping board, with glutinous rice leaking out from the gaps in the zongzi leaves, looking like a wounded freesia: "Never mind the milk tea, are you sure the dragon head of this dragon boat zongzi is not carved from a carrot?"
"That's the finishing touch!" Su Qing put her hands on her hips, and the glutinous rice grains on her apron fell down, "Old Chen said that when your mother was on the ship, she always wrapped the zongzi into a seahorse shape. Mine is an improved version!" She suddenly saw the broken jade bracelet on his wrist stained with zongzi juice, "Oh, you put on the wrong cufflinks again, this pair is for the celadon bowl!"
In the clan meeting room, the third elder was frowning at the "Navigation School Site Selection Report": "Chief Aotian, building the school at the site of the old dock will cost 30% more than the commercial area." His eyes behind the lens swept over the glutinous rice stains on Lin Aotian's cuffs, "It's not cost-effective financially."
"But this is the closest to the sea," Lin Aotian took out the shell pendant given by Old Chen, which was engraved with his mother's name. "Old sailors say that the sea breeze can blow stories further." He suddenly remembered the sailing tune that Su Qing hummed in the kitchen this morning. The off-tune melody made Old Chen's eyes red. "Besides, didn't you spend 20% more on the milk tea supply chain of Zhou Group because of sentiment?"
The atmosphere in the conference room eased, and the elder suddenly pointed at the mugwort sachet on Lin Aotian's chest: "Miss Su's craftsmanship reminds me of the Dragon Boat Race on the Dragon Boat Festival." He looked out the window and saw Su Qing chasing Zhou Mingxuan, who was holding up a mobile phone and shouting "Live broadcast of Chef Su's car overturning scene", "Perhaps, this year's dragon boat race can be organized by young people?"
At noon in the Zhou Group cafeteria, Zhou Mingxuan held up his mobile phone and pointed it at the "Dragon Boat Zong" in the middle of the table. Glutinous rice flowed out from the gaps between the zong leaves and piled up into a small mountain on the porcelain plate. "Who in the family understands?" He made a "V" sign to the camera, "This is the latest masterpiece of Huading CEO's wife - Titanic Zongzi!"
Su Qing picked up the rice spoon and pretended to hit her, but was stopped by the Southeast Asian consortium representative: "Don't hit her!" The other party held up a screenshot of the live broadcast, "We want to invite Miss Su to be the group's public welfare ambassador, just because of your courage to overturn the car." He suddenly lowered his voice, "In fact, my mother always made zongzi look weird. After she passed away, I never ate such humane zongzi again."
In the afternoon at the old dock, Lin Aotian squatted beside the rusty anchor, listening to Old Chen telling the story of his mother saving a sailor who fell into the water. The setting sun stretched his shadow very long, overlapping with Su Qing's busy figure in the kitchen. The phone vibrated, Chen Mo sent a message: "The clan finance department discovered that you privately embezzled 3 million to give to the old sailor to repair the ship, and the third elder wants to impeach you." He looked at the old freighter being painted in the distance, the newly painted freesia pattern on the hull looming in the twilight, and suddenly chuckled: "Tell them that I made up with my personal account." His fingertips ran over the shipbuilding sketch in his mother's diary, which was marked "The first ship for Aotian", "Besides, isn't the private money of the Dragon King used to repair the regrets of the world?"
In the bedroom of the old house late at night, Su Qing was taking off her hair in front of the mirror, and the broken pieces of rice dumplings fell on the documents that Lin Aotian was reviewing. "Are you really going to paddle in the dragon boat race tomorrow?" She touched the sunburn on the back of his neck, which was caused by the old sailors cleaning the boat today. "The elder said that the clan leader should sit on the viewing platform."
"But Zhou Mingxuan said that if I didn't participate, he would name the fleet 'Boba Milk Tea'." Lin Aotian closed the file, which contained the scorched dragon boat rice dumpling wrapping paper of Su Qing. "Besides," he suddenly pointed to the jade bracelet on her wrist, "In my mother's logbook, the champion of the dragon boat race can draw a freesia on the family tree - I want to win one for you." Su Qing's eyes lit up, and she suddenly remembered that when he was in college, he played the pirate ship ten times in a row in the amusement park to win a plush toy for her and vomited until he was dehydrated. "Then you have to learn to paddle first," she chuckled, "I saw you almost throw the paddle into the sea this morning." The pier was filled with gongs and drums in the early morning of Dragon Boat Festival. Su Qing was wearing a modified dragon boat suit and a ball of cotton thread for baking rice dumplings was pinned around her waist.
Lin Aotian stood at the bow of the "Dragon Eye", holding a paddle with Su Qing's name engraved on it, but he almost tripped when the starting gun sounded - he forgot to take off his suit cufflinks.
"Aotian, be careful!" Su Qing hurriedly supported him, and the smell of zong leaves mixed with the smell of sea water hit her face. Old Chen's cheering mixed with Zhou Mingxuan's live commentary: "The leader now is 'Boba Milk Tea', oh no! 'Dragon Eye' has overtaken! Lin Aotian actually used roasted zongzi as a hidden weapon to interfere with his opponent?"
In the end, the "Dragon Eye" crossed the finish line with a lead of half a bow. Lin Aotian ran towards Su Qing with the championship medal, but was blocked by the towel she handed him: "Wipe your sweat first!" The towel was embroidered with a crooked dragon boat pattern, which was the result of her overnight work.
At the award ceremony, the elder looked at the improved version of the dragon boat rice dumpling handed by Su Qing, and suddenly said: "I have decided to add a 'life journal' to the family tree to record Miss Su's baking process." He looked at the rice dumpling leaves still stuck to Lin Aotian's torn tie, "After all, the future of the clan should not only have cold trade routes, but also warm fireworks."
At the old dock in the twilight, the newly painted cargo ship sounded the whistle and set sail, and the freesia pattern on the bow was particularly eye-catching in the sunset. Su Qing leaned on Lin Aotian's shoulder and looked at the competition video saved in his mobile phone - the shot of him almost falling into the water while paddling was edited into a ghost video by Zhou Mingxuan, but it received countless "real and cute" comments in the barrage.
"Aotian," Su Qing suddenly pointed at the taillight of the freighter, "Do you think the Dragon King would feel ashamed to see us like this?"
"How could he?" Lin Aotian looked at the broken bamboo leaves in her hair and suddenly chuckled, "He would only think that the fireworks in the world are more dazzling than the pearls in the deep sea." He suddenly took out a small box, which contained a freesia pendant made of a championship medal, "This is a mark of your family tree, more precious than any family emblem."
The phone vibrated, and Chen Mo sent a message: "The third elder withdrew the impeachment, saying that he was moved by your story of repairing the ship, and wanted to learn to bake bamboo dumplings from Miss Su." Su Qing laughed at the message, and suddenly remembered that there were still unwashed bamboo leaves hanging in the kitchen: "Teach the elders to make seahorse bamboo dumplings tomorrow? Just like your mother did in the past."