There's One Now
Happy Chinese New Year! Chapter 1/4 of the week.
Feel free to give me a red envelope! Get up to 14 early chapters while you do that. =P
After going through the investment project with Yang Chen, Rose decided to contact Wang Jie as soon as possible.
However, Rose had to purchase a small-scale entertainment project before she could officially carry out the investment.
Regarding stuff like this, Yang Chen was merely pulling strings. He couldn’t be bothered to understand how the project worked specifically.
Daytime was significantly reduced during winter. Looking at the dark sky, Yang Chen decided to drive back to the bungalow at Dragon Garden.
Upon stepping into the house, Yang Chen got rather surprised. He was expecting to see a table filled with various steaming-hot dishes. However, there wasn’t half a soul in the hall currently.
Shutting the door, Yang Chen walked upstairs to the second floor before knocking on Wang Ma’s room.
The door got opened, revealing Wang Ma who wore a thick coat. Her face looked pale like she was sick. She said, “Young Master, you’re back. What’s the time now?”
Looking at the muddleheaded Wang Ma, Yang Chen knew that she got ill. Worried, he asked, “Wang Ma, are you okay? Why are you sweating so much?”
“Sigh, these problems will arise no matter what, considering my age. I guess I must’ve caught a cold yesterday night. I felt really dizzy this afternoon, so I went to bed after having some antibiotics. My fever almost recovered, but I still overslept,” Wang Ma said. “Young Master, why don’t you eat out together with Miss? I really don’t have the energy to cook anymore.”
“Where’s Ruoxi?” Yang Chen asked.
“Miss must be working in the study room now. Sigh, she won’t remember to eat if no one were to remind her,” Wang Ma lamented. “Young Master, go and ask Miss out. I’ll go back to sleep now.”
“Wang Ma, I’ll bring back some food for you when I return,” Yang Chen said.
“No need, I won’t be able to eat it anyway. I’ll recover after a night’s sleep. I’m really sorry.” Wang Ma forced a smile before closing the door.
Yang Chen sighed. Although Wang Ma maintained her body well, she was over 50 years old after all. It wasn’t considered a small issue should she really catch a cold.
Arriving outside the study room, Yang Chen could see light coming out from the seam of the door.
Knock! Knock!
Yang Chen knocked on the door. After quite a while, the door finally got opened.
Lin Ruoxi wore a pink pyjamas that looked like a robe, with a fluffy belt tied on her waist. Her stray hair was rather messy. As she stayed in the study room for a long time, her cheeks looked rather red due to lack of oxygen. Her reflective and faint eyes looked adorable.
“Is it time to eat already?” Lin Ruoxi asked.
“Yes, it’s time to eat but there’s nothing to eat,” Yang Chen replied.
“What do you mean?” Lin Ruoxi asked as she frowned.
Yang Chen explained the situation about Wang Ma catching a cold. Anxiousness appeared in Lin Ruoxi’s eyes. She wanted to walk over to knock Wang Ma’s room immediately.
Yang Chen pulled her arm. “I don’t think it’s good to disturb Wang Ma. We’ll go out to eat.”
“Go out yourself if you want to eat. I’m not hungry.” Lin Ruoxi directly rejected his request as she struggled to get away from Yang Chen.
Yang Chen smiled bitterly. After he couldn’t restrain himself from kissing this lady back then, she hadn’t shown him good attitude. “Even if you want to resent me, you shouldn’t make your stomach suffer. You’ve been working since you came home, you must be really hungry now,” he said.
“I said that I wasn’t hungry,” Lin Ruoxi said coldly.
“Wang Ma needs medication now. We’ll buy her some when we go out to eat. You wouldn’t want her to suffer any longer, would you?” Yang Chen changed a method to convince her.
Lin Ruoxi looked like she was struggling to make a decision, but still compromised in the end. “Give me five minutes. I have to change.”
Yang Chen finally relieved. This little girl wouldn’t back off should she start to go the hard way. He couldn’t confront her head-on, and must deal with her indirectly.
After less than five minutes, Lin Ruoxi came out from her room wearing casual winter clothing before walking downstairs. She wore a light purple tight sweater and a scarf-like tassel outerwear, with light-colored slim-fit pants. Her fluttering hair and her snow-white skin color looked particularly charming.
Smiling, Yang Chen asked, “Won’t you get cold wearing this little?”
“Are we eating out in the open?” Lin Ruoxi asked.
“Nah, that won’t happen,” Yang Chen answered.
Remaining silent, Lin Ruoxi walked to the door and put on a pair of women’s Nike shoes. Since she had a height of 1.7 meters, her posture looked attractive though she was merely wearing sneakers.
Walking to the garage, Lin Ruoxi asked, “Where are we going to eat?”
“What do you want?” Yang Chen would abide by her decision.
Lin Ruoxi shook her head vaguely. She said, “I don’t have anything in mind. I’ll go with anything.”
“Then I’ll drive and fetch you,” Yang Chen said.
Lin Ruoxi hesitated for a while, but still nodded in the end. “Don’t drive too fast.”
Yang Chen didn’t dare to drive too quickly. Since they were currently having a cold war, if he were to annoy Lin Ruoxi further, they would definitely get into a battle.
The white BMW drove to a night market street. Yang Chen didn’t plan to dine at a high-class restaurant. It wasn’t because he wanted to force Lin Ruoxi eat normal foods, he just didn’t like the environment in high-end restaurants.
Lin Ruoxi looked through the window, at the night market bustled with people as she contemplated at the scene. To her, these people who were making a living at the streets were living in a completely different world.
This wasn’t a stuck-up nor an arrogant behaviour. To Lin Ruoxi, it was merely her instinctive feeling.
Yang Chen parked his car at a rather spacious public parking area which was surrounded by various small restaurants. The mouth-watering smell of spicy foods filled the air.
Lin Ruoxi was indeed rather hungry. She asked, “What are we eating?”
Yang Chen pointed at a shop with the signboard ‘Little Lobster’. “Have you tried that before?”
“Little lobster? What is it?” Lin Ruoxi really didn’t know what it was.
“We’ll eat there today then,” Yang Chen said before holding Lin Ruoxi’s hand and walking towards the restaurant.
Lin Ruoxi forcefully tried to pull her hand out from Yang Chen’s palm. “Why are you holding my hand while walking?”
“I’m afraid of you getting kidnapped by bad guys. Look, there are so many people walking around. A beautiful lady like you is really dangerous,” Yang Chen said.
“What nonsense are you talking about? I’m not a three-year-old anymore,” Lin Ruoxi said as she continued tried to get away from Yang Chen but her strength wasn’t enough. Finally, she arrived at the restaurant with him.
There were three small tables in the restaurant. Yang Chen looked for a place beside the window and sat opposite to Lin Ruoxi. A young girl which was responsible for taking orders walked over. Using a foreign accent to speak Mandarin, she asked what the two wanted.
After looking through the menu, Yang Chen ordered two servings of little lobsters and a few other dishes, including a bowl of mixed vegetables soup. He also asked the waitress to quickly serve them up.
Lin Ruoxi heard what Yang Chen ordered and got surprised. She had been secretly learning cooking from Li Jingjing, but she hadn’t heard of any of the dishes ordered by him. Curious, she asked, “Are those dishes tasty?”
“Why would I order them if they didn’t taste good?” Yang Chen asked smilingly.
Lin Ruoxi stayed quiet and started looking around the restaurant. The old tables and chairs, flooring of ceramic tiles filled with rubbish and dirty water were all off-putting to her. She didn’t understand why the fellow didn’t pick a proper restaurant and came to a place like this instead.
After a short moment, two big plates of hot and spicy lobsters got served.
Sniffing the pungent smell, Lin Ruoxi looked at the dish as she felt clueless.The little lobster got burnt by different kinds of sauces and looked bright-red, not to mention its odd shape. She usually ate huge European lobsters which were cut into meat pieces and naturally hadn’t seen such a complete lobster before.
Yang Chen minded his own business as he peeled off the shell of the lobster before retrieving the flesh within using his hands. Enjoying the meat, he looked at Lin Ruoxi who hesitated to eat. She was just looking at him as she frowned. “What is it? Is it that you dislike lobsters?” he asked.
“This… How do I eat this?”
Yang Chen got shocked. “Look at how I eat and follow along. Isn’t it simple?”
“Don’t you feel dirty eating using your hands directly?” Lin Ruoxi couldn’t accept the way he ate.
“Then tell me how I should eat. If I’m not supposed to peel using my hands, is it better if I use my feet?” Yang Chen asked with a smile as he felt helpless.
“You should at least use sterile gloves,” Lin Ruoxi said.
“This isn’t a star-rated restaurant. Eat however you want and don’t be too picky. Our formidable Boss Lin, do you possibly not know how to peel a lobster?”
Lin Ruoxi got extremely irritated. If it wasn’t for this fellow who brought her here, she wouldn’t have to stare at her food and do nothing.
Feeling challenged, Lin Ruoxi used her hands to pick up a lobster and started imitating Yang Chen’s actions.
However, the shell wasn’t flat and smooth. A relatively sharp portion of the shell poked a hole in her soft finger like a needle.
Lin Ruoxi quickly put the lobster down before grabbing her finger to take a look. It started bleeding!
Since there was hot sauce on her wound as well, the intense pain almost made her cry.
Witnessing the situation, Yang Chen quickly took a few tissue papers over. “What are you rushing for? Do it slowly,” he said.
Lin Ruoxi felt wronged. How much evil did I do in my past lives to deserve such a treatment, to meet this man? Is having a regular dinner at a proper restaurant that difficult? Why should I be tortured at such a place? she thought.
As she thought, her eyes reddened as tears almost dripped.
Yang Chen took pity on her, but felt it was funny at the same time. At this moment, Lin Ruoxi looked really cute as she felt angry and stayed quiet.
“Alright, alright. Stop peeling. Wash your wound at the washroom and wipe the oil away,” Yang Chen said.
Wrapping her finger with the tissue paper, Lin Ruoxi stood up and walked towards the washroom at the corner silently.
Around three minutes later, Lin Ruoxi finished cleaning her wound. Since it was a minor injury, her finger stopped bleeding.
Walking back to her place, Lin Ruoxi who looked displeased got surprised. She saw her previously empty plate filled with a small pile of peeled lobster meat.
Appearing white and deshelled, the lobster meat stained with sauces got shone upon the light, looking particularly appetizing.
Yang Chen saw that she returned, and put yet another peeled lobster flesh onto Lin Ruoxi’s plate. Smiling, he said, “I avoided touching the meats when I peeled them. They should be considered rather clean already. Try eating some, you can give them to me if you dislike the taste. You can eat the other dishes when they get served later.”
Lin Ruoxi looked at her plate full of lobster meat, and the big pile of shells in front of Yang Chen. The dissatisfaction earlier and even the estrangement she felt all this while, suddenly vanished in the air.
Yang Chen who hadn’t felt the slightest change in the situation got perturbed. He asked, “Why aren’t you eating yet? Do you really dislike them? They actually taste rather decent.”
“Yang Chen,” Lin Ruoxi said as she looked at Yang Chen as complexity appeared in her eyes. “Has anyone told you that, you’re stupid?”
Shocked, Yang Chen shook his head. He said, “No.”
“Well, there’s one now, you’re stupid…”
Lin Ruoxi sat down after speaking. Being stared by Yang Chen’s confused eyes, she quickly wiped out the pieces of lobster meat in her plate.
Yang Chen continued looking at her as he felt fascinated. He then shook his head as he smiled.