The rice had already been cooked, and after giving it some thought, Chu Kai still could not bear to leave Yan Chi alone. He helped Yan Chi into the room where he was staying.
He placed a small wooden stool inside the bathroom, hung a clean set of clothes outside the door, and instructed Yan Chi to wait in the room after he finished showering before returning to the kitchen to cook.
Calculating Yan Chi’s tall stature and broader build compared to his own, Chu Kai decided to add a couple more dishes.
A plate of stir-fried tomatoes and eggs, a plate of sweet and sour shredded cabbage, a plate of homestyle tofu, and an extra plate of boiled water chestnuts.
When Chu Kai set the dishes on the wooden table in the small living room between the two rooms, the sound of water was still running in the bathroom, and Yan Chi had not yet come out.
He inverted the bowls over the plates, went to make the bed in the room with the leaky roof, laid down the mattress, bedsheets, mat, and summer quilt, and then sat back in the living room to fiddle with his broken phone until the sound of the shower finally stopped.
“Dinner is ready,” Chu Kai called out toward the inner room while continuing to tinker with his phone.
“Screech!”
Every time the dilapidated wooden door opened and closed, it made a harsh sound.
Chu Kai furrowed his brow slightly, put away his phone, pinched his left ear with one hand, and removed the bowls one by one.
“I’m going to Zili’s place tomorrow to make a new door, so you just stay here by yourself.” When he lifted a bowl to dish out the rice, his gaze toward the bedroom doorway trembled slightly.
Leaning against the doorway with one hand on his hip, Yan Chi was drying his hair with a towel.
His strands of hair brushed gently across his forehead, the dyed purple highlights shimmering faintly under the light, carrying an untouchable nobility.
His sharply contoured facial features, high nose bridge, and slender, tall frame only heightened this air of aristocracy.
Meanwhile, the deep, soulful eyes carved within his profound eye sockets and his naturally closed lips of moderate thickness blended a touch of gentleness and approachability into that nobility.
Just like the finest, most perfect water chestnut picked today, it could satisfy one’s palate no matter how it was cooked.
“Screech.”
The door was pushed open once more, seemingly determined to disturb the dream built upon the quiet night.
Chu Kai placed the porcelain bowl filled with rice across the table and stepped forward to help Yan Chi to his seat. “I’ll ask Brother Zili to help you make a crutch tomorrow.”
Yan Chi twitched his lips imperceptibly, then smiled as he picked up the porcelain bowl and asked, “Brother Zili, is he your real brother?”
“No,” Chu Kai swallowed his mouthful of rice blankly, answering as he picked up food with his chopsticks. “Brother Zili is the most skilled carpenter in our village, and the most popular Alpha.”
After Chu Zili reached adulthood, many families in the village wanted their Omegas to arrange marriages with him.
Yet he remained utterly infatuated, devoting his entire heart and soul to Chu Yi.
“I wonder how Xiao Yi is doing now.” By the time Chu Kai snapped back to reality, the evening’s filming had already concluded, and the guests from each group had hurried back to their respective lodgings.
Walking beside Liao Zhenzhen and clearing the food trays off the long table, Chu Kai glanced toward the doorway.
Chu Zhu was holding a golden pear in both hands, which Yan Chi had won during dinner by playing a children’s song on the guitar.
Yan Chi always managed to make people see the impossible.
Meeting Yan Chi was an immensely lucky stroke of fate.
“What are you looking at?” Liao Zhenzhen gently bumped Chu Kai’s elbow with hers. “Don’t forget to send food to the monitoring room.”
“Yeah,” Chu Kai curved the corners of his eyes and nodded. “I’ll deliver it right after I finish cleaning up.”
Watching Chu Kai’s retreating figure as he headed toward the kitchen, Liao Zhenzhen followed closely behind with a stack of plates.
She was understanding this Beta less and less.
No one had asked him to send food to the monitoring room, yet he insisted on taking on the chore himself.
Carrying the food, Chu Kai hurried to the monitoring room and sat down by the familiar doorstep, his gaze once again fixed on the surveillance feed of House 3.
The day had been fulfilling and lively. Back in House 3, after taking a shower and lying in bed, Chu Zhu was still hugging that golden pear and smiling from ear to ear.
Yan Chi, meanwhile, lay lazily on the outer side of the bed, one leg bent at the knee, one hand resting behind his head, and the other casually flipping through a picture book.
Chu Zhu touched the pear as if contemplating a bite, then crawled over to Yan Chi’s side, carefully placing the pear right against his knee, which was curved like a little hill. “Yan Daddy, pear.”
“Good,” Yan Chi replied in a rather perfunctory tone. “You eat it. Finish eating, wash up, and go to sleep.”
Chu Zhu could sense the shift in Yan Chi’s tone. Silently, he retrieved the pear and set it on the bedside table.
Then he lay down properly, pulled up his small blanket, and muttered to himself, “Daddy said babies can’t eat after brushing their teeth. Baby is being obedient.”
“You can brush your teeth again after eating.”
Yan Chi’s casual retort shattered the perception that had just begun to form in Chu Zhu’s little mind.
Was that actually allowed?
He fluttered his long eyelashes as he looked at Yan Chi, as if seeking confirmation once more.
“Eat if you want to eat,” Yan Chi said, turning his head and raising the picture book in his hand as he countered, “Have you heard all the stories in this picture book already?”
“Yeah,” Chu Zhu burrowed closer to Yan Chi, nodding like pounding garlic. “Daddy told me all of them. Every story has a checkmark next to it, you see.”
No wonder Yan Chi had always felt those checkmarks represented something while browsing the picture book.
“Then do you want to hear a new story?” Yan Chi closed the book and tossed it casually onto the bedside table.
“Yes.” Chu Zhu clutched the blanket tightly with both hands, waiting with a mix of tension and curiosity for Yan Chi to tell a new story.
Yan Chi wasn’t telling a picture book story at all; it sounded more like a lecture as he rattled on for a dozen minutes about the evolutionary history of musical theory.
For the first few minutes, Chu Zhu was fascinated, listening with rapt attention and racking his brain to figure out what Yan Chi was talking about. Soon enough, his eyelids grew heavy, yawns overtook him, and he rolled over and fell fast asleep.
The next morning, Yan Chi wasn’t woken up by the blinding sunlight, but rather by the sound of sobbing right next to his ear.
Dressed in dinosaur pajamas, Chu Zhu sat atop his pillow, wiping away tears with the dinosaur’s tail, his hoarse voice sounding utterly pitiful. “Daddy, baby wants Daddy. Where is Daddy.”
Squinting his eyes, Yan Chi glanced at the little creature curled into a round ball before him and shoved him back down onto the bed to lie flat.
Frowning, he gave a couple of light coughs, his voice even hoarser than before. “Stop crying.”
The tip of his nose brushed against the golden pear left by the pillow the night before, and Chu Zhuo caught a whiff of its rich, fruity fragrance, instantly soothing his longing emotions.
Clutching the golden pear tightly in his arms, he sniffled and took a bite.
Yan Chi stretched lazily as his vision gradually cleared, and he couldn’t help but chuckle upon seeing Chu Zhuo’s antics.
That morning, the production team had arranged a trip to the school to study theoretical knowledge, and breakfast had to be sorted out independently.
Reluctantly, Yan Chi climbed out of bed, changed his clothes, mixed a bottle of formula for Chu Zhuo, and whipped up a plate of stir-fried tomatoes and eggs for breakfast.
Dressed in a frog onesie, Chu Zhuo held his milk bottle and tilted his head to stare at Yan Chi.
Paying him no mind, Yan Chi ate a couple of bites on his own and set down his chopsticks.
Holding the handle of the milk bottle in one hand, Chu Zhuo pushed the golden pear, whose skin he had bitten through that morning, over to Yan Chi. “You eat.”
Seeing the oxidized fruit flesh where the skin of the golden pear was broken, Yan Chi decisively pushed it back. “I gave it to you, you eat it.”
Chu Zhuo remained silent, kicking his little legs.
A few seconds later, he set down his half-finished milk bottle and used all his strength to push the entire plate of stir-fried tomatoes and eggs over to Yan Chi. “Yan Daddy, you eat. My daddy makes bear-shaped heart breakfasts with eggs, bread, veggies, and strawberries. I’ll bring some for you next time.”
Yan Chi froze. Did this little fellow think he only knew how to make stir-fried tomatoes and eggs?
What a fickle little fellow. Just yesterday noon, he had given him a kiss because the stir-fried tomatoes and eggs tasted good, and today he already found the dish monotonous.