“Does your house know you’re slandering it like this…?”
After learning that my house only had one guest room and it was already reserved for Jiang Rui, Lin Yusen’s house very, fortunately, escaped a water leakage crisis…
For Saturday’s housewarming party, I didn’t invite many people. Besides Lin Yusen, there was just Boss Xiao Feng and Jiang Rui. But Boss couldn’t make it due to some business, so there were only four of us for dinner.
With such a small group, everyone unanimously voted to cook for themselves, with each person preparing one or two dishes. Lin Yusen and Jiang Rui had afternoon commitments and would arrive later, while Xiao Feng was free and came early to help me prepare.
Then she made one dish of smashed cucumber and happily ran off.
Me: “…”
I had never seen someone slack off quite like this before.
Though she felt somewhat guilty, after wandering around the house for a while, she returned to stand by the kitchen door with some snacks. “Xigua, what dishes are you planning to make?”
“Sweet and sour ribs and stir-fried greens with wheat gluten, Wuxi specialties.”
“Amazing, you’re even making meat!”
“What else did you expect? That I’d just boil some vegetables? I wonder who suggested cooking for ourselves in the first place,” I criticized her.
“Hehe, well, I discovered it was more challenging than expected.” Xiao Feng cleverly changed the subject, “By the way, didn’t you invite Boss Si Rong and the others?”
“I invited Boss, but she couldn’t make it, didn’t I tell you? I didn’t invite Rong Rong and Si Rong.”
Xiao Feng’s question reminded me that I had promised to treat them to a meal before. One should keep their promises, so I paused my work and thought for a moment before saying, “Let’s have lunch together outside tomorrow. Since you’re free now, help me arrange it with them. But neither you nor Boss should mention today’s house party.”
Besides, I wanted to check how Rong Rong was doing now.
Although I had barely cooked before, following recipes didn’t seem too difficult – just slower and messier. By the time I finished my masterpieces, Jiang Rui finally arrived, and I immediately pushed him into the kitchen.
Jiang Rui strongly objected to this, “At least let me see my room first.”
“Hurry up and cook, you can see the room together with Lin Yusen when he arrives.”
“What?” His face fell, “Don’t I even have the right to a private tour anymore?”
Me: “…Stop making up these weird rights.”
Just when I wanted to take a break after being busy for over an hour, Jiang Rui wouldn’t let me leave, insisting I help him as his assistant.
He seemed determined to challenge himself, starting with the highly difficult salted egg yolk chicken wings. Since it required deep-frying, the whole process was quite nerve-wracking. I stood beside him, handing him this and that while dodging splashing oil, making it even more chaotic than when I was cooking myself.
Just as we were almost finished, Lin Yusen called. I freed one hand to put him on speaker. Lin Yusen’s steady voice came through: “I’m downstairs, can you come down to get me?”
He’s getting quite demanding, actually expecting me to go down when I’m so busy. “You can use the password to come up in the elevator. First, enter my apartment number, then the password… guess it, it’s four digits.”
I didn’t hang up, and neither did he, so I heard a series of keypad tones followed by a mechanical female voice: “Password incorrect, please try again.”
“…You don’t remember my birthday.” I immediately accused him.
Lin Yusen sounded even more wronged than me: “I thought you wanted me to guess something special.”
“So what did you enter?”
“My birthday.”
“…”
Jiang Rui, who was turning off the stove nearby, burst out laughing.
I wordlessly wiped my hands, hung up, and went to open the door. Jiang Rui plated the chicken wings and followed behind me with great interest, commenting: “This guy seems quite interesting.”
He matched my pace step by step, “What should we do? I’m a bit nervous about meeting him for the first time. What if he doesn’t pass my assessment?”
I responded irritably: “Stand aside, who gave you the right to assess anyone?”
“Fine, fine, no need to get angry.” He muttered under his breath, “But sis, using your birthday as the password is too lazy, isn’t it? Doesn’t that mean anyone who knows your birthday can come up?”
“Who here even knows me?”
“That’s true.”
Xiao Feng noticed our movement and enthusiastically ran over from the living room, “What’s going on, are we forming a welcoming committee?”
So when the fashionably late Lin Yusen stepped out of the elevator, he saw the main door wide open with three people eyeing him expectantly.
His steps faltered for a moment, and he asked me: “What’s wrong, can’t your front door use a password? I can open it myself, and I won’t use my birthday this time.”
Everyone burst out laughing, and the atmosphere immediately lightened.
I introduced them one by one: “Let me introduce you – this is Lin Yusen, my boyfriend. Xiao Feng, my university classmate, you met at Boss’s wedding banquet. And this is my silly brother Jiang Rui, currently studying at F University.”
“I’ve heard about Jiangsu’s difficult college entrance exams. Getting into F University means you’re one in ten thousand – how could you be silly?”
Lin Yusen had always been good with words, and just one sentence made Jiang Rui’s tail rise proudly. “Haha, I’m just average, got lucky.”
After the introductions, I finally noticed Lin Yusen was carrying two large plastic bags with what looked like a restaurant’s name printed on them. My eyes lit up, “What’s this? You brought takeout?”
“I passed by a famous Cantonese restaurant and got some of their specialties packed.”
I knew Lin Yusen was always thoughtful – now it wouldn’t matter if our home-cooked dishes weren’t great, we had a backup!
“Let me take that, let me!” I eagerly took one plastic bag, peeked inside, and saw three large boxes. With two bags, that meant six boxes! I immediately compromised my principles and said: “Auntie Huang from property management set up the elevator password, but considering all this delicious food, I suppose we could change it to your birthday.”
Jiang Rui rolled his eyes heavenward, “Sis, didn’t you say we’d tour the house together when Lin Ge arrived? Quick, quick!”
So after toiling in the kitchen for half a day, Jiang Rui finally saw his room.
“Not bad, not bad.” He looked relieved.
I was proud: “Pretty good, right? This is the result of several discussions with the designer.”
Jiang Rui looked traumatized: “Seeing the outside, I was worried I’d have to become a cream-colored pink warrior.”
“The outside isn’t that pink, is it?” I hesitantly asked Lin Yusen, “Is it?”
Lin Yusen considered carefully before answering: “I only saw that the trash can was pink, but it’s very pretty.”
“It’s grey-pink, grey-pink doesn’t count as pink.”
“Oh.”
The two men simultaneously acknowledged the lesson.
Lin Yusen was more initiative than Jiang Rui, heading straight to the kitchen after touring the house.
“Do you know how to cook?” I followed behind, somewhat worried, considering how neither Xiao Feng nor Jiang Rui had seemed very skillful.
“Of course, I used to perform surgery, cooking is nothing in comparison,” Lin Yusen said confidently.
Me: “…”
How should I put this…
Lin Yusen’s kitchen presence certainly looked more confident and composed than Jiang Rui’s, and his knife skills could be described as flowing like water and pleasing to the eye, but if he was just making scrambled eggs with tomatoes and pineapple shrimp, it really didn’t warrant bringing up his surgical background as a guarantee…
After this messy afternoon of taking turns cooking, we finally started dinner right at six o’clock. Our home-cooked dishes and Lin Yusen’s takeout filled the table.
Xiao Feng gripped her chopsticks ready to attack, while Jiang Rui looked at the table and sighed, “It’s hard to believe we spent so long making such simple dishes.”
“How are they simple?” I picked up one of my ribs, ate it, and was very satisfied. “Try these sweet and sour ribs, they’re very authentic.”
Everyone followed suit and took some. Immediately, Xiao Feng and Jiang Rui’s faces showed indescribable expressions.
What did those expressions mean? Was there something wrong with their pieces? I suspiciously took another piece – it was fine, delicious even.
Jiang Rui said with a pained expression: “Sis, did you pour in half a jar of sugar?”
“No,” I answered very seriously, “Four or five spoonfuls.”
Jiang Rui pushed the ribs toward me: “You eat them yourself. We Nanjing people really can’t handle this much sweetness. You Wuxi people are terrifying.”
Xiao Feng agreed: “My hometown’s taste is also more savory. Nanjing was fine, but when I came to Shanghai, I thought Shanghai cuisine was sweet. I never expected Wuxi would be even sweeter – it’s abnormally sweet.”
She looked at Lin Yusen, who was eating his second piece, with awe. “Is your boyfriend sacrificing himself for love?”
I immediately looked at Lin Yusen too.
He unhurriedly finished his second rib and gave me a strong affirmation. “Of course not, I genuinely like it.”
I immediately felt proud.
See, Lin Yusen understands food! How can food without sugar be edible? Even stir-fried vegetables need a little sugar to enhance the flavor. Although I didn’t cook before, I instinctively knew to add it – this is called genetic sugar transmission!
Jiang Rui silently turned his gaze to the two dishes Lin Yusen made: “You didn’t also add four or five spoonfuls of sugar, did you?”
“Of course not,” Lin Yusen firmly denied, “I strictly followed the recipe for seasonings.”
Jiang Rui’s chopsticks were about to reach over.
Lin Yusen finished his sentence: “Though when I searched for recipes, I searched for ‘sweet dishes’.”
Jiang Rui painfully put down his chopsticks and dramatically covered his eyes with his palm, wailing: “I finally understand why Lin Ge brought takeout – it wasn’t takeout, it was our last hope of conscience!”
Everyone burst out laughing, and I raised my glass: “Alright, alright, if I invite you for dinner next time, I’ll remember to use less sugar. Shall we have a toast? To my happy house-moving.”
Jiang Rui raised his glass: “And to my happy freeloading!”
Everyone laughed and raised their glasses, four cups making a crisp sound above the dining table.
With Lin Yusen’s dishes saving Xiao Feng and Jiang Rui’s lives, everyone enjoyed the meal thoroughly.
Xiao Feng had a curfew at school, so she left early after dinner. Jiang Rui planned to stay over, even declaring he would come every weekend, which I naturally welcomed. As for Lin Yusen, he definitely had to leave at the appointed time, but as the host, I certainly had to see him off, and then he would escort me back~
So, despite our buildings being just across the street from each other, it took me over an hour to return after seeing him off.
When I got home and entered the door, I saw Jiang Rui sitting in the living room as if waiting for me, which made me feel a bit guilty.
Jiang Rui indeed asked: “Why did it take so long?”
“Um… avoiding security cameras.”
“Oh.”
Just “oh”? He’s not going to ask why I was avoiding security cameras.
“What’s wrong with you?” I curiously moved closer to him.
Jiang Rui had a strange expression: “Sis, when you went downstairs, you forgot to take out the garbage, so I went down to throw it away.”
“Oh.” Is that something to criticize? “Thanks for the trouble?”
“Then, downstairs, I saw Brother Zhuang.”