Jiang Qi was sent stumbling back by the kick, crashing into the coffee table as he retreated and sending the fruit platter on the table spilling across the floor.
The sound of the plate hitting the ground echoed with a loud crash. Finally, this commotion drew a real scene.
Everyone turned to look in that direction, their eyes immediately taking in Jiang Qi sitting flat on his backside on the floor, while Zhou Yongzhi stood holding a kitchen knife with an expression of absolute fury.
Seeing this and thinking something terrible had happened, Bai Mengqiu was frightened out of her wits when she saw Zhou Yongzhi brandishing a kitchen knife, and she hurriedly told her son to put the blade away.
Feeling deeply aggrieved, Jiang Qi subconsciously looked toward his cousin, hoping he would back him up.
However, his cousin wore an expression of utter speechlessness, couldn’t help rolling his eyes, and went right back to chatting with his other little lovers.
Blocked by his mother, Zhou Yongzhi still refused to filter his words. “Look at whether your cousin is paying you any mind, you little clown! Get the hell out of here right now!”
Jiang Qi’s face turned red, and he couldn’t think of a single retort.
Miserable and humiliated, he didn’t even dare to look back at anyone else, scurrying away along the base of the wall.
Only then did Shi Jing let out a breath, tilting his head to ask, “You know him?”
Wei Qinan gave a hum in response. “Mn, we actually did a project for their company once.”
Shi Jing wasn’t too pleased. “Introduced by an acquaintance?”
Wei Qinan smiled and shook his head. “An outsourcing website recommended by a roommate; I accepted their company’s commission.”
Hearing this, Shi Jing looked up the so-called Jiang family online and discovered that they really were in the internet business, though they were just a small game studio that had put out a few single-player titles.
They had a bit of fame, but not much.
“It was a project for the company, not for him, so what the hell does it have to do with him? How did you two end up crossing paths?” Shi Jing asked.
That project had ended a long time ago, and Wei Qinan took a moment to recall. “Because he was originally in charge of this project, but he couldn’t pull it off.”
The vanity of his minor family background made Jiang Qi unable to resist provoking Wei Qinan when he saw him today, only to end up treating himself like a rat running across the street.
That caused Shi Jing to let out an involuntary chuckle.
“Lacking in skill, yet pulling stunts like this,” Shi Jing reviewed sharply.
Before long, Zhou Yongzhi took a severe verbal beating from his mother in the kitchen and sneaked back out.
“Shi Jing, sorry about that just now. It’s too busy today, I wasn’t paying attention and let that grandson into the front door.”
Shi Jing hadn’t taken Jiang Qi to heart at all. After chatting with Zhou Yongzhi for a moment, he watched him take a phone call on the side, curse out a fuck, and angrily hang up.
Shi Jing raised his gaze. “What’s wrong?”
Looking rather irritable, Zhou Yongzhi scratched his head. “My dad said he’s not coming; he has a meeting. What kind of a damn meeting is this? I even had my secretary reschedule my meetings and social events to other times just to carve out tonight so the family could have dinner together. He definitely has someone else on the outside again.”
Shi Jing’s family was extremely harmonious; his two fathers had met during their university days and welcomed him shortly after marriage.
Faced with this situation, Shi Jing didn’t quite know how to offer comfort, so he simply patted Zhou Yongzhi’s shoulder.
Fortunately, even though Zhou Yongzhi was pissed off, he remained quite optimistic. “Never mind, it’s fine if my dad doesn’t come. Since those little lovers of his didn’t see him, they won’t stay for dinner either. Shi Jing, I’ve already stewed some meat, why don’t you two stay for dinner tonight?”
This time, Shi Jing didn’t refuse. “If it’s convenient.”
Zhou Yongzhi replied, “Convenient, why wouldn’t it be convenient! All of us familiar faces are here.”
Having agreed to Zhou Yongzhi, Shi Jing and Wei Qinan stayed into the evening, even taking advantage of a free moment to go out and buy some fruit.
Dinner was prepared very lavishly, with various vegetables and meats covering an entire table, and a glass of red wine poured in front of everyone.
With those awkward lovers absent, Bai Mengqiu looked a lot more relaxed.
Everyone picked up their chopsticks together, and Shi Jing picked up the stir-fried greens closest to him. The moment he popped them into his mouth, he almost failed to maintain his expression.
A vegetable assassin!
The first thing Zhou Yongzhi ate was also the greens. Looking at Shi Jing, he awkwardly put down his chopsticks. “Well, I’m cooking for the first time today, it seems way too salty.”
Shi Jing wore a mask of pure agony.
At that moment, Wei Qinan handed over a small dish, letting Shi Jing spit out the food in his mouth, and said, “Drink some water.”
He quickly filtered through the dishes to find those within an acceptable range of saltiness, using serving chopsticks to place them onto Shi Jing’s plate.
Shi Jing’s mouth tasted bitterly salty. After rinsing his mouth, he tasted a piece of red-braised pork that had been stewed until it fell apart at the mere touch of chopsticks, and took a spoonful of fish.
Before he had even taken a few bites, his eyes snapped wide open, and his chewing stopped entirely.
Wei Qinan was still helping him pick food and asked in a low voice upon seeing this, “What’s wrong, don’t you like this flavor?”
Shi Jing tried reverse-gagging himself in an attempt to dislodge the fish bone. However, the bone had slid back a bit further, sticking right into the tissue of his mouth.
Without speaking, Shi Jing made a hand gesture and went to the bathroom by himself to check the mirror and pull out the fish bone. After multiple failed attempts, he emerged in despair, patted Wei Qinan’s shoulder, and signaled him to come over.
Returning to the bathroom and closing the door, Shi Jing muttered, “There’s a fish bone stuck in my mouth.”
Wei Qinan turned on his phone’s flashlight and told Shi Jing to open his mouth. “Where?”
“Should be right here. Can you see it?”
“Yeah, I see it. It’s stuck in the flesh.” Holding up the phone to look for a moment, Wei Qinan asked, “Do you want me to pull it out for you, or should we go to the hospital?”
The location wasn’t too deep, but the bone was far too thin, and Shi Jing couldn’t quite pinpoint its exact spot.
Shi Jing was too lazy to run to the hospital for something this small. “Just pull it out for me.”
“Alright, then open your mouth a bit wider.”
Uncomfortable all over from the thorn, Shi Jing obediently tilted his head back, only realizing something was off when his tongue brushed against Wei Qinan’s finger.
The fish bone was wedged in a rather delicate spot, and it could indeed be pinched out with a finger.
However, having his mouth open made him feel a bit nauseous, and the fish bone was exceptionally thin and slippery, refusing to cooperate after several tries. Shi Jing’s eye rims turned slightly red, and he chose to endure a bit longer.
When the fish bone was finally pulled out, Shi Jing let out a long sigh of relief.
A lingering foreign sensation of being lightly stroked by a finger remained in his mouth. Turning his head away to wash his face, he mumbled indistinctly, “Thanks.”
Pinching the slender fish bone, Wei Qinan tossed it into the trash can. “My fault, I didn’t pick all the bones clean.” If it had been any deeper, they really would have had to go to the hospital to get it removed.
As Wei Qinan washed his hands under the running water, he recalled the sensation of bumping against teeth and a tongue.
Pressing his lips tightly together, he forced himself to shift his focus elsewhere.
The two of them returned to the dining table one after the other.
With a suggestive look in his eyes, Zhou Yongzhi remarked, “Took you two so long in the bathroom.”
Gu Wan was currently taking photos of the meal to send to her wife, wildly venting about the sheer toxicity of the cook’s skill level. Hearing this, she looked up and said, “What business is it of yours what a couple does? You’re single, you wouldn’t understand.”
The warmth finally fading from his eyes, Shi Jing turned red in the ears all over again from being teased. “What are you talking about? I just got a fish bone stuck.”
Without filtering his thoughts at all, Zhou Yongzhi blurted out, “Huh? Your throat is so delicate? Even such a soft little bone can get you stuck.”
Shi Jing didn’t reply.
Bai Mengqiu placed a piece of red-braised pork into her son’s bowl. “Eat your food.”
After the meal, Shi Jing and Wei Qinan helped clean up the table, and by the time they stepped outside, it was already dark.
Once the gathering broke up, the two of them stopped maintaining their sticky, affectionate fake relationship. Walking in front, Shi Jing turned around and said, “I called a designated driver, we have to wait a bit.”
Both of them had drunk a little alcohol, having been coaxed into a few extra glasses by Zhou Yongzhi near the end. While Shi Jing held his liquor very well and could still ask calmly if they wanted another round even while Zhou Yongzhi was already dizzy, Wei Qinan obediently followed behind like a little attendant. “Okay.”
Their car was parked in a stall along the community driveway. Approaching the vehicle under the streetlights, Shi Jing sharply noticed a furry lump resting on his car’s hood.
Using his phone’s flashlight to illuminate it, he realized it was a stray cat.
Startled by the light, the kitten cringed slightly and let out a few meows.
Shi Jing was a hopeless softie when it came to cute little animals, completely unable to resist a kitten that delivered itself right to his doorstep.
Subconsciously mimicking the tone of the calico cat, he meowed right back.