Chapter 35
In the quiet living room, a hot pot simmered on the induction cooker. The spicy steam rose, swirling around the three people’s noses.
But the steaming hot pot didn’t seem to thaw the icy atmosphere.
Cheng Xian watched Song Shuci serve him rice, took the bowl with a forced smile, and said: “Thank you, Xiao Song Ge.” Actually, when he was young, his parents told him to call Song Shuci “Shuci Gege” along with Jian Wu, but he found it too mushy, so he usually called him “Xiao Song Gege.” Now that they were all in their late twenties, approaching thirty, “Xiao Song Gege” seemed inappropriate, so he changed it to “Xiao Song Ge.”
But Song Shuci said: “No need to be so polite.” He pointed at Jian Wu: “He doesn’t call me Gege anymore anyway.”
Cheng Xian forced a chuckle: “That won’t do, I still respect you very much.” Song Shuci took a cup of instant noodles and sat down by the coffee table. He smiled faintly and didn’t say anything.
Cheng Xian watched him open the noodles and asked cautiously: “Xiao Song Ge, aren’t you eating with us?”
Song Shuci looked at him, then at Jian Wu, and said to Cheng Xian: “He said I’m not allowed to eat his cooking.”
“That’s… not good, right?” Cheng Xian wiped the sweat from his forehead and nudged Jian Wu.
Jian Wu: “…” He handed his untouched bowl of rice to Song Shuci, took the instant noodles from his hand, went to the kitchen, and served himself a new bowl of rice.
Song Shuci held the bowl and said sourly: “You listen to Cheng Xian as soon as he says something.”
Jian Wu reached out to take the bowl from Song Shuci: “Give it back if you’re not eating it.”
“I’m eating,” Song Shuci gripped the bowl tightly and smiled at Jian Wu, “Thank you, Teacher Jian.”
The coffee table was filled with various hot pot ingredients. Song Shuci put the chopped ribs into the pot and took out a few slices of cooked beef. It was a bit hot and spicy, fragrant even before entering his mouth. One bite, and his taste buds exploded with flavor.
Song Shuci lowered his eyes, his expression changing slightly.
This was quite unexpected. Jian Wu could actually cook.
He had just witnessed Jian Wu prepare the hot pot base from scratch, without measuring cylinders or beakers, relying solely on intuition, yet the taste was no less than that of popular hot pot restaurants.
He couldn’t help but glance at Jian Wu.
The young man was eating a piece of tripe, his lips stained with chili oil, sweat beading on his nose. Immersed in the delicious food, oblivious to his gaze, he happily praised himself: “So good, my cooking skills are the best.”
Cheng Xian, also enjoying the food, immediately agreed: “Of course, you can’t find this flavor anywhere else in the country. I’ve been craving this so much while I was away, that’s why I rushed over to see you as soon as I got back.”
Jian Wu was initially pleased with the praise, almost humming a tune, until he heard the last sentence. He twitched the corner of his mouth: “Didn’t you say you came to apologize?”
Cheng Xian chose to change the subject: “Xiao Song Ge, what have you been busy with lately?”
“Nothing much,” Song Shuci replied perfunctorily, then looked at Jian Wu, “What is he apologizing for?”
Jian Wu said irritably: “What do you think?”
Song Shuci’s gaze moved between the two, then landed on Cheng Xian’s face.
“Oh, I understand.”
“Aiya — it’s like this,” seeing he couldn’t avoid the topic, Cheng Xian finally gritted his teeth and confessed to Song Shuci, “The reason I gave Jian Xiaowu that… that thing, is because my KTV business hasn’t been doing well recently, so I wanted to expand my business, I wanted to sell… sell…”
Seeing him hesitate, Song Shuci said indifferently: “Sex toys?”
“Yes,” Cheng Xian glanced at Song Shuci’s expression and said hesitantly, “I know Xiao Song Ge, you might not understand, but it’s not actually anything perverted… everyone has desires, it’s very normal, this really isn’t some shady business.”
Song Shuci nodded.
“It’s okay,” Cheng Xian hurriedly continued, “I know you don’t understand, it’s fine, it’s just, selling to those who need it…”
Jian Wu: “Haha.”
Cheng Xian: “What are you laughing at?”
Laughing at someone pretending to be innocent.
Jian Wu thought.
This reaction, as if Song Shuci didn’t know what sex toys were, and had never bought or used them. Then where did all those eye masks, vibrators, and small clamps in their house come from? Did they magically appear out of thin air?
But he still didn’t expose Song Shuci.
He hadn’t expected that his kindness would be repaid with this. Song Shuci suddenly turned and looked at him, then said to Cheng Xian: “So Jian Wu is someone who needs it?”
Jian Wu spat out his sour plum juice.
“No, no, of course not,” Cheng Xian said, “I forced it on him as a gift, mainly because I wanted to ask him to test the product.”
“Oh.” Song Shuci replied and handed Jian Wu two tissues, even patting his back.
Jian Wu’s coughing instantly stopped.
“Let me pour you some more,” Song Shuci took his cup and walked towards the kitchen.
The coffee table was too small, so the pot of sour plum juice was kept in the kitchen. Cheng Xian, seeing Song Shuci enter the kitchen, leaned close to Jian Wu’s ear and whispered: “Growing up together is really different, huh? Not even awkward after breaking up.”
Jian Wu crumpled the tissues and threw them into the trash can: “Where do you see any lack of awkwardness?”
“You’re awkward, yet you let him live at your place?”
“I didn’t volunteer, okay?” Jian Wu retorted.
“But isn’t this your apartment? If you didn’t want to rent it to him, did someone force you at gunpoint?”
“It’s a long story…” Jian Wu reflected fairly, “Mainly because I didn’t read the contract carefully.”
Cheng Xian, the shrewd businessman, suddenly became agitated: “You didn’t read the contract carefully again! Haven’t you learned your lesson from last time, Jian Xiaowu? I don’t even want to talk about you, you’re so lazy!”
“What contract?” Song Shuci, coming out of the kitchen with the sour plum juice, just happened to hear this, “Who got scammed?”
Cheng Xian immediately played the role of a good brother, sitting up straight and claiming: “Of course it was me, we businessmen often get scammed by contracts.”
Jian Wu silently ate his food, pretending to be invisible.
Song Shuci looked at Cheng Xian with a scrutinizing gaze, a hint of pressure in his eyes, and repeated: “Who got scammed?”
Cheng Xian quickly changed his words, pointing at Jian Wu: “Okay, it was him.”
Sure enough, brotherly affection doesn’t last more than three seconds.
But Jian Wu didn’t blame Cheng Xian. He knew Cheng Xian was terrified of Song Shuci, like a mouse seeing a cat.
As for why, Jian Wu wasn’t entirely sure, he could only understand it as Song Shuci’s aloofness during his adolescence having left a deep psychological scar on Cheng Xian.
When they were young, since they lived in the same building, he and Cheng Xian were in the same grade, same class. Before Cheng Xian moved in, Song Shuci helped Jian Wu with his homework, both after school and during summer and winter vacations. After Cheng Xian moved in, Song Shuci tutored both of them. Cheng Xian always said Song Shuci had a strong aura and looked at him with disdain, leaving a deep psychological scar. He refused to study with Jian Wu at Song Shuci’s place.
“What contract scammed you?” Song Shuci turned to ask Jian Wu.
Jian Wu picked up some food for himself: “Eat your food, why do you care so much?”
Song Shuci said: “What if I insist on caring?”
Jian Wu glared at him: “An organ donation contract, satisfied?”
Cheng Xian silently gave him a thumbs-up.
Among the children who grew up with Song Shuci, perhaps only Jian Wu could suppress his aura. As expected, Song Shuci opened his mouth, then gave up and stopped asking.
The tense hot pot dinner lasted until nine o’clock. Jian Wu, full and satisfied, leaned back, adopting a chef’s demeanor: “You two clean up, I’m done.”
Song Shuci and Cheng Xian looked at each other, and Song Shuci took the initiative to carry the empty plates into the kitchen.
Cheng Xian stood there like a statue. After Song Shuci’s figure disappeared, he grabbed Jian Wu’s sleeve and whispered: “Are you really making me go to the kitchen alone with him?”
“Isn’t this a good opportunity for you two to mend your relationship?” Jian Wu peeled an apple.
Cheng Xian’s voice was almost squeezed through his teeth: “Song Shuci’s jealousy is as ingrained as a dog’s habit of eating shit, don’t you know that?”
Although the analogy wasn’t entirely wrong, it was still a bit crude. Jian Wu comforted him: “It’s okay, Xian’er, he won’t do anything to you.”
Cheng Xian’s voice trembled: “But there are knives in the kitchen.”
Jian Wu tossed the perfectly peeled apple peel into the trash can, took a large bite of the apple, and showed him the fruit knife in his hand: “I have one too.”
Cheng Xian: “…”
He knew this vengeful ex-couple wouldn’t let him off the hook.
“Seriously, I just asked you to test a product for me,” Cheng Xian tried to negotiate, “Jian Xiaowu, how can you be so heartless?”
Song Shuci’s voice came from the kitchen: “Cheng Xian—”
Jian Wu called him “Xian’er,” Song Shuci called him “Cheng Xian.” Just from the way they addressed him, one could tell the latter wasn’t to be trifled with.
Cheng Xian, who had been on the verge of tears, immediately stood up and jogged to the kitchen with the dirty dishes: “Xiao Song Ge, what can I do for you?”
“Bring all the dirty dishes over first, let’s wash them together,” Song Shuci said.
After they brought all the dishes to the kitchen, Song Shuci looked at Cheng Xian’s red hair and suddenly smiled at him.
Cheng Xian: “?”
He nervously glanced at the cleaver not far from them, calculating the nearest escape route. Just as he was about to make a run for it, Song Shuci rolled up his sleeves and closed the kitchen door.
…Blocking his last escape route.
“Xiao Song Ge,” he rubbed his hands and chuckled nervously, “What are you… doing?”
Song Shuci smiled back, but it was more like a grimace.
“As soon as I’m not here,” he said, “You dare to bully him again, don’t you?”
