Chapter 17

Out of the shopping mall, Lin Chengxuan got rid of the little boy following behind him.

No sense for reading the room, self-important, full of petty schemes.

Yes, he had looked at Qiao Ning a couple of extra times, but appreciation of beauty was universal. Even if he had any ideas, they could wait until after the breakup.

Lin Chengxuan had heard Qiao Ning’s name before. He’d even scrolled past his photos on the campus forum. His looks did hit Lin Chengxuan’s taste, but Lin Chengxuan could tell Qiao Ning wasn’t the type who’d casually play around with him.

Even rabbits don’t eat the grass at their own burrow. Qiao Ning wasn’t his kind of person, and Lin Chengxuan wasn’t short of boyfriends—he never liked chasing partners who’d be hard to shake off after a breakup.

But today’s first meeting had genuinely left Lin Chengxuan both moved and startled.

Qiao Ning is just too un-photogenic!

The photos didn’t capture even a third of his looks, and somehow made him look shorter than he was.

His aura was unique too—elegant and refined. Standing there without a word, quiet yet impossible to ignore, drawing one’s gaze back over and over.

The expensive fruit purchase wasn’t entirely about Qiao Ning. They were all schoolmates; he knew Zhang Bowen and Lu Zeyu. That bit of money was less than he’d spend treating friends to one meal.

It was that little boyfriend of his—no, ex-boyfriend now—who, whether out of jealousy or just ignorance and self-importance, had made him spend money AND lose face.

Lin Chengxuan hadn’t blown up on the spot. After turning away, he transferred the guy some money as severance and couldn’t be bothered to say anything else.

The boy’s crying and begging went unheeded. Lin Chengxuan started the car and left him behind.

Driving home, as he got out, Lin Chengxuan spotted the plastic bag tossed on the passenger seat. He hesitated, then picked up those boxes of cherry tomatoes after all.

Inside the house, the nanny auntie came to greet him and took his coat. Lin Chengxuan handed her the plastic bag as well. “Put together a fruit plate and bring it over.”

While the nanny went to wash the fruit, Lin Chengxuan walked into the small tea room. His mother and his aunt sat together, murmuring about something, while his sister was curled up on a small sofa, listlessly playing on her phone.

“Mom.”

“Chengxuan’s back.” His aunt greeted him first, and Madam Lin looked up, hurriedly waving her son over.

Then Lin Chengxuan got an earful of complaints. That his father had an illegitimate son was long no secret. This time his mother had urgently summoned him home because his father had planted that illegitimate son inside the family company, and Madam Lin’s sense of crisis had skyrocketed.

“Mom, you’re worrying way too early,” Lin Chengxuan said. “Eldest Brother is there. What’s there to fear?”

Just a mere department manager at a branch company. Eldest Brother was the Lin Family’s true heir. If not for Eldest Brother holding the fort, he himself couldn’t be this carefree.

But Madam Lin wouldn’t let up, grabbing Lin Chengxuan to nag him—stop playing around, find a young lady from a proper family, start dating, build a foundation for marriage.

Then he could shape up and help his eldest brother, so that little bastard couldn’t take advantage.

Right—his mother had always believed that his liking men was just him messing around.

Lin Chengxuan’s head ached at this. Out of the corner of his eye he caught his sister—Lin Jiayi was pressing her lips together to hold back laughter, clearly enjoying the show.

Irritation flared. Just as he was about to pick a fight with her, the auntie came in with the fruit plate.

“What’s this? Cherry tomatoes?” Aunt Lin smoothed things over. “They look quite fresh. Sent over by some new farm?”

Madam Lin glanced over and muttered, “Who bought this stuff…”

“I did,” Lin Chengxuan said quickly. “A classmate of mine has a side gig. Says it’s a new variety. Looks pretty good to me. Mom, Auntie, try some.”

Madam Lin was still sulking and didn’t move, but Aunt Lin, humoring her nephew, picked one of the translucent-red fruits and popped it into her mouth.

“Sister-in-law, am I right or am I right? A-Xuan, he…” Madam Lin kept lecturing about her unmotivated younger son, and when no reply came, she looked up. “Sister-in-law?”

Aunt Lin swallowed the flesh, face full of astonishment. “This is a new variety some private farm developed. It’s really good. A-Zhi, you have to try one.”

Madam Lin was dumbfounded. Why was she suddenly eating? They were just cherry tomatoes—how good could they possibly be?

Aunt Lin pressed one into her hand. Lin Jiayi, on hearing that her second brother had bought them, hadn’t wanted to touch any—her second brother was an idiot; anything he bought being decent was a stretch, and not getting scammed was lucky enough.

But the moment she heard her aunt say they were delicious, she immediately grabbed one and stuffed it in her mouth.

“So good!” Her eyes went round. “Mom, try one. This is really good.”

“Lin Jiayi! Swallow before you speak!” Madam Lin scolded, but her curiosity was piqued too.

Her sister-in-law and daughter weren’t sheltered people—what good fruit hadn’t they eaten? She had to see for herself—

Madam Lin swallowed the fruit and turned her head. “A-Xuan, contact that classmate of yours. Cherry tomatoes of this quality—buy some more. Let’s start with… let’s start with fifty jin. We’ll order more later.”

Aunt Lin: “Get some for me too, dear. I’ll transfer you the money.”

Madam Lin hurriedly said, “Sister-in-law, what are you saying? A little fruit like this—no way we’d let you pay. I was thinking, out of the fifty jin, I’ll send you twenty or thirty. You can gift some to friends and clients or whatnot.”

Their own family obviously couldn’t eat dozens of jin. Fruit was best eaten fresh—going forward, they could set up regular deliveries.

“Right, fruit of this quality is rare. Perfect for entertaining clients, too,” Aunt Lin said with a smile. Thinking more thoroughly, she reminded her nephew, “New varieties aren’t always consistent. Sorry to trouble you with this, Chengxuan. As long as the quality holds, we can keep ordering long-term.”

Neither of them asked the price. There was no need to—fruit in their household had never been cheap.

Lin Chengxuan was still a bit dazed. He’d brought the cherry tomatoes back purely on autopilot.

If he’d gone back to school today, he probably would have dumped them on his roommates or classmates.

How had his mom and aunt suddenly been won over? Were they really that good?

And Lin Jiayi—Lin Chengxuan really wanted to mock her. Just like a pig, only knew how to bury her head and eat.

While he stood there blank, Madam Lin noticed he wasn’t moving. After a moment’s thought, she took out her phone and transferred him money. “Blew through your allowance again, huh? Mom’ll transfer it first. Is a hundred thousand enough?”

At two thousand yuan a jin, that was enough for fifty jin.

Lin Chengxuan’s phone chimed—two hundred thousand received. The extra hundred thousand was clearly allowance from Mom.

“Wait, Mom. These Ruby cherry tomatoes—my classmate sold them to me at a hundred eighty-eight a jin.”

He could have hidden the price and played middleman, but there was no need. Skimming a little from his own mom was one thing, but if he took Auntie’s money too and his mom found out, he’d be dead.

“A hundred eighty-eight?” Madam Lin didn’t even dare eat the fruit in her hand. “That’s way too cheap. Is something wrong with them? Jiayi, stop eating for now. I’m sending these off to be tested.”

Lin Chengxuan: “…”

And he’d actually thought that was expensive.

Lu Zeyu had called other people lacking in taste—turns out he was one too.

He hurriedly explained, “Apparently it’s a newly released variety. They’re doing a promotion, so the price hasn’t gone up yet.”

Aunt Lin said, “Probably developed by some small farm without connections.”

Plenty of private farms were bankrolled by wealthy people for themselves—not for profit, just to eat with peace of mind.

Even as she said it, Aunt Lin had already arranged for someone to contact a testing agency and have the cherry tomatoes sent for inspection.

Too delicious—they hadn’t even been able to resist eating several, and it was this cheap. It did feel unsettling.

Under his mother’s urging, Lin Chengxuan contacted Qiao Ning. He knew it was Qiao Ning selling the tomatoes, so naturally he contacted him.

Before long, Qiao Ning replied.

Lin Chengxuan: “Mom, he says there’s none left.”

Madam Lin: “None? Not even fifty jin? Buy whatever he has, then.”

“Not a single jin,” Lin Chengxuan said. “Those last few boxes were it—he had me buy them. I asked when he’d restock. He says the new variety’s yield is unstable and there’s nothing for now, but there might be blueberries of the same quality in a couple of days. I’ve already ordered some.”

Madam Lin and Aunt Lin exchanged a look, unsurprised.

A new variety, after all. Something this delicious was bound to have flaws—low yield was a minor issue.

With the money unspent, Lin Chengxuan got curious instead. He’d been busy contacting Qiao Ning and hadn’t tried one yet.

He picked up a cherry tomato and ate it. A few seconds later, Lin Chengxuan snatched the fruit plate out of Lin Jiayi’s arms. “Why are you still eating? You’ve had so much—you’ll get fat!”

He’d only eaten ONE!

She’d practically finished the whole plate!

“Mom, look at him!”

“What did they say?” Qin Hao craned his neck to ask.

“Nothing much. Just that I’ll contact him when the blueberries come in—he wants to buy.”

Qiao Ning put his phone away and went back to the grilled meat.

The cumin-marinated pork belly sizzled and spat oil on the grill, the fragrance of cumin fully fused into the meaty aroma, creating that classic, mouthwatering flavor.

The fat kept the lean parts from drying out. The heat was just right—tender and springy, with that burst of savory oil aroma, a solid, satisfying mouthful.

The fruit was delicious, no question, but the joy of tearing into meat was something fruit couldn’t replace.

Qiao Ning thought of the fish he’d eaten. Fish and shrimp raised in Spirit Spring Water were that delicious—other meat probably wouldn’t be far behind.

Once he got back to his hometown… that was still far off. The meat in front of him was more reliable.

He ate pork belly, then chicken; after the chicken, grilled ribs; after the ribs, steak, chuck flap, grilled shrimp, grilled wings—eat, eat, eat.

This place was hotpot plus barbecue. Once they’d had their fill of grilled meat, they switched over to hotpot.

Four grown men equaled eight rice buckets, and who knew how many plates of meat they demolished.

“Buffet really is the way,” Qin Hao said, belching, patting his belly with a satisfied look.

The per-person price wasn’t cheap, but eating without restraint was genuinely satisfying.

Fed and watered, the group took the subway back to Qiao Ning’s place to first pick up the fruit he’d set aside for his roommates at his rental.