“How long does it take just to get a bowl?”
Zhou Muyang shouted from the living room.
Yu Huan pulled her lips away from Zhu Heqing’s and patted his cheek.
“I’m hungry.”
There was a faint flush at the corners of Zhu Heqing’s eyes. He closed his eyes, suppressing the emotions surging inside him, and his usually smooth voice sounded slightly hoarse.
“Okay. Let’s go eat.”
The two of them returned to the living room.
Zhu Heqing set Yu Huan down on the sofa, arranged the bowls, and opened the thermos.
Immediately, the fragrant aroma of pork rib and corn soup filled the room.
Both the ribs and corn had been flown in specially. They had been simmered slowly over low heat, and only an appropriate amount of salt had been added at the end, with no other seasonings. This preserved the natural flavors of the ingredients as much as possible.
Zhu Heqing ladled half a bowl of soup, then picked out several of the best ribs along with some corn and placed them in a small bowl.
He was very considerate and didn’t forget about Zhou Muyang.
“Xiao Zhou, help yourself.”
Zhou Muyang really didn’t want to eat. He was just about to use the fact that he’d ordered takeout as an excuse to refuse when his stomach betrayed him with a loud growl.
Zhou Muyang:
“……”
He lowered his head and glared fiercely at his stomach.
Traitor.
His own stomach always had to let him down at the worst possible moment.
“Ahem… thanks.”
The thermos still contained plenty of soup, so Zhou Muyang originally intended to serve himself only half a bowl.
But the pork rib soup was simply too tempting, and he had a big appetite. After finishing one bowl, he had another.
Before he knew it, he’d eaten quite a lot.
Just as he was about to serve himself another bowl, Zhou Muyang noticed that more than half of the thermos was already empty.
His long-lost self-control finally returned.
He stared stiffly at the small pile of rib bones on the coffee table.
“……”
Was he a pig?!
His neck stiff, Zhou Muyang slowly looked toward Yu Huan and Zhu Heqing.
Yu Huan had started another game, her fingers flying across the screen.
Zhu Heqing sat beside her, holding a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other, patiently feeding Yu Huan soup like a servant.
Neither of them had paid any attention to Zhou Muyang.
Zhou Muyang quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Like a thief, he used a tissue to wrap up the bones scattered across the coffee table and threw them into the trash.
Yu Huan’s health bar was almost empty. She retreated beneath the tower and tapped the recall button.
Seeing the piece of rib in the spoon, she turned her head and said with obvious disdain,
“No. I don’t want ribs.”
Compared with ribs, Yu Huan much preferred corn kernels.
Zhu Heqing indulged her completely. He put the rib into his own bowl, replaced it with corn, and continued feeding her.
Once Yu Huan had eaten almost enough and shook her head, refusing another bite, he quickly finished the little bit she had left.
There was still plenty of soup in the thermos.
Zhu Heqing asked Zhou Muyang if he wanted more, but after getting a negative answer, he closed the lid and set it aside.
The doorbell rang again.
This time, it was the food delivery.
Zhou Muyang had ordered beef knife-cut noodles from the Lanzhou noodle shop downstairs.
“Yu Huan, do you want some noodles?”
Zhou Muyang asked as he carried the takeout over.
“Which restaurant?”
“The Lanzhou noodle place downstairs.”
That Lanzhou noodle shop had been open for many years. The food was authentic, the prices were reasonable, and it had remained one of the most popular restaurants in the neighborhood.
Even picky-eating Yu Huan loved it.
She hadn’t eaten there since coming home, so when Zhou Muyang mentioned it, her appetite immediately returned.
She nodded.
“Yeah, I’ll eat.”
Zhu Heqing looked at the takeout.
Apart from the plastic container holding the noodle soup, it was simply wrapped in a plastic bag.
His brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
He wanted to say something, but ultimately restrained himself.
Zhu Heqing took the simple takeout from Zhou Muyang, opened the bag, and removed the noodles before throwing the plastic bag directly into the trash.
He then went to the kitchen, washed his hands, and dried them with a tissue before finally opening the container.
The restaurant had provided disposable utensils, and Zhu Heqing only used the disposable chopsticks.
As for the flimsy black plastic spoon, he couldn’t figure out how anyone was supposed to use it, so he simply left it aside.
“Beef.”
Yu Huan naturally ordered him around.
“I want beef.”
Zhu Heqing picked up the somewhat flimsy disposable chopsticks and lifted a small slice of beef.
He fell silent.
Rarely at a loss for words.
Yu Huan was still sitting there waiting to be fed. Seeing Zhu Heqing stop after picking up a piece of beef, she kicked him lightly.
“What are you looking at? I want to eat.”
He had clearly been stunned by the beef slices, which were as thin as a cicada’s wing.
Zhou Muyang had a large appetite. Even after drinking several bowls of soup, eating another bowl of beef noodles was nothing to him.
As he slurped his noodles, he casually joined the conversation.
“President Zhu probably hasn’t eaten beef this thin before.”
Zhou Muyang was right.
Zhu Heqing did like noodles, but whether it was Chinese-style or Western-style cuisine, the ingredients used were always substantial.
This was genuinely the first time he’d ever seen beef sliced this thin.
Zhu Heqing fed the piece of beef to Yu Huan and put it more tactfully.
“I was just thinking that the chef who sliced the beef must have incredible knife skills.”
“Pfft—cough, cough!”
Zhou Muyang choked and immediately broke into earth-shaking coughing.
Yu Huan leaned away from him, looking disgusted.
“Zhou Muyang, you’re so stupid. How can you choke just eating noodles?”
Zhou Muyang coughed until tears came to his eyes.
He felt more wronged than Dou E.
If Yu Huan’s boyfriend hadn’t said something so bizarre, would he have choked in the first place?
Yu Huan ate only half of the noodles before refusing to eat anymore.
The rest was handed over to Zhu Heqing.
This was Zhu Heqing’s first time eating Lanzhou noodles from an outside restaurant.
He had assumed there would be quite a gap compared with the food prepared by the professional chefs hired by his family.
But after tasting it, he realized there was a reason Yu Huan liked it.
Putting aside the relatively small amount of beef, the flavor was actually quite good.
After finishing the meal, Zhu Heqing cleared the table and went to the kitchen to wash his hands again.
Zhou Muyang silently counted how many times Zhu Heqing had washed his hands.
He couldn’t help thinking that this man was being ridiculously pretentious.
Did he really have to wash his hands that many times?
Didn’t he care about wasting water?
That was what Zhou Muyang thought.
Yet after throwing his empty takeout container into the trash, he went to the kitchen and washed his own hands too.
In Beijing, August temperatures were almost always above 35°C.
Except for people who had no choice but to go outside for work, most people preferred to stay home with the air conditioner running.
And if they did go out, they would go shopping at a mall.
Nobody wanted to spend time outdoors.
Yu Huan sprawled across the sofa, looking at Zhu Heqing and Zhou Muyang.
Then an idea suddenly popped into her head.
“Zhou Muyang, go bring your computer over. Let’s play a computer game.”
Zhou Muyang looked at her suspiciously.
“You usually only play single-player games on your computer. Since when did you start playing online games?”
“I play everything. Hurry up and get it.”
Zhou Muyang became even more suspicious.
“Tell me the name of the game first.”
Yu Huan was currently ordering Zhu Heqing to go to her room and bring her gaming laptop.
She casually named a game.
Zhu Heqing didn’t pay much attention to this kind of thing. When he heard the name, he only thought it sounded a little strange.
Zhou Muyang, however, knew exactly what it was.
The moment he heard the title, he understood why Yu Huan wanted him to join.
“I knew it!”
He shouted.
“If it’s not some creepy game, you would never think of asking someone else to play with you!”
The game Yu Huan had mentioned was none other than a horror game that had recently been released.