Zhou Shuren was satisfied, "Let's eat, these are the noodles I cooked."
Zhulan handed the flowers in her hand to Grandma Song, asking her to put them all in a vase so they wouldn't wilt later.
In the past two years, the longevity noodles she ate on her birthday had always been personally cooked by Zhou Shuren. The noodle was a single strand, not very large in quantity, as it was the symbolism that mattered.
They had breakfast separately; Zhou Shuren did not take time off to celebrate her birthday with her. There were too many people during the day, so they celebrated by themselves in the morning.
After Zhou Shuren left, the members of each household came over. The gifts from each household didn't have any particular novelty to them, prepared according to the previous years' gifts. This year there was the addition of Xue Mei, making it the most united birthday celebration of these recent years.