Seeing off the peacock spreading its tail, Zhuang Yuhua carefully entered the room to check on Zhou Ze. Seeing that the man was still looking uncomfortable, he sighed silently in his heart: Quack doctor.
[999, when will the target’s illness get better?]
He couldn’t afford to let this delay his hot spring plan.
999 inserted a short promotional background music snippet: [Love Redemption System 999 is here to escort the Host. We are now launching a nutritional set meal recipe, available for only 44 points. Everyone who eats it says it is wonderful, leaving you radiant, full of spirit and vigor. You deserve it.]
That number… hehe.
Sensing his hesitation, 999 added: [This recipe is different from the regular small-world recipes. Operated by the Host, it will produce magical effects, treating ailments, curing illnesses, disaster relief, strengthening the body, and achieving results all at once.]
[Purchase it.]
999 added a supplementary notice: [This value will be deducted from the protagonist gong’s romance progress. Data will be frozen and transactions can no longer be made. This is hereby notified.]
Zhuang Yuhua flipped through the recipe, the tedious and intricate steps dazzling his eyes. He gave a dry laugh: “This is the most troublesome person I have ever met.”
After wasting his scheming multiple times, the target still remained unresponsive to the protagonist gong.
“Xiao Hua.”
A hoarse and weak call suddenly sounded from behind him. He instantly jolted, turning around to see Zhou Ze leaning against the wall and smiling at him, his complexion still not looking too good.
“Thank you for today. If you’re tired, go rest for a bit. The guest room…” Zhou Ze’s voice was hoarse, and after speaking for too long, he grew a bit short of breath. Pausing to catch his breath for a moment, he slowly continued: “Sorry to trouble you to tidy it up. I don’t come back often.”
The old man ordered him to return to the ancestral home every night, so this place was truly not visited often.
Zhuang Yuhua briefly wondered if Zhou Ze had overheard his complaints, and just as he was about to explain, he swallowed his words back: “You should worry about yourself instead. If you collapse, who is going to make money for me?”
Zhou Ze smiled, and the dry, cracked wounds on his lips split open with a few more drops of blood.
Zhuang Yuhua’s gaze locked onto those few specks of crimson, pinched himself, and forced his gaze away.
He cleared his throat, poured a cup of warm water, and just as he was about to bring it over, he caught himself and stopped.
The water cup was set down on the tabletop with a crisp sound. He sat down on the furthest sofa, began scrolling through his phone unconcernedly, and said nothing.
Zhou Ze licked his lips, his smile growing deeper. Supporting himself against the wall, he stood up, pushed past a wave of dizziness, and slowly approached the water cup.
The open space here had no supporting objects. Groping forward like a blind person, he walked very slowly.
Zhuang Yuhua’s peripheral vision remained fixed on the patient. Seeing his unsteady steps, his heart tightened. When Zhou Ze was on the verge of crashing into a floor lamp, Zhuang Yuhua couldn’t bear it any longer, grabbed him, and roughly tossed him deep onto the sofa.
“You can’t even walk properly. What a nuisance.”
He looked expectantly at the data panel, but waited for a long time without seeing the hostility value rise.
K.
Zhou Ze collapsed onto the soft sofa, lacking the strength to get back up. From this angle, however, he could clearly see Zhuang Yuhua’s guilty little facial expressions.
Feeling uncomfortable under that stare, Zhuang Yuhua pushed the water cup a bit closer to him: “I’ll go make dinner. You rest.”
“I’ll do it.” Zhou Ze struggled to get up, but the moment he propped up his upper body, he fell back down limply, his head buzzing even more severely.
Sticking to harsh words and aiming to drive up the hostility value, Zhuang Yuhua matched them with a mocking and contemptuous look: “You can’t even stand up, so stop making things worse by trying to help.”
Zhou Ze chuckled softly, feeling warm inside, his gaze softening as he watched Zhuang Yuhua’s busy figure in the kitchen.
After being busy for two hours and blowing up the kitchen twice, Zhuang Yuhua scratched his head in frustration while looking at the first page of the recipe. What on earth is this?!
999’s electronic voice sounded lacking in confidence: [Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Persistence is…]
With a sharp beep, Zhuang Yuhua irritably unilaterally blocked the system.
After blowing up the stove one more time, he helplessly dialed the spare tire’s number and kept it concise: “Come up here and make dinner.”
Li Chen arrived unusually fast this time. As soon as he stepped through the door, he instinctively felt Zhou Ze’s forehead, checked his heartbeat, took his pulse, and poked around his hands.
Zhou Ze did not pull away.
“…” Zhuang Yuhua thought: The spare tire turning into the main lead is just around the corner.
The fancy peacock showed off his skills in the kitchen, and Zhuang Yuhua secretly learned from the side, almost taking notes, raising his hand like an eager student from time to time to ask questions: “Is it okay not to put ginger in this? I don’t eat it.”
“Who’s feeding it to you?” Li Chen rolled his eyes, suddenly remembering that Zhou Ze had been watching the kitchen the entire time, and immediately turned around to give him a smile.
But a moment later, his smile faded.
Zhou Ze didn’t respond to him, not even lifting his eyelids.
Following Zhou Ze’s gaze… it was Zhuang Yuhua, who was flustered and tangled up in a battle with a cucumber.
After a long and chaotic ordeal of making dinner, Li Chen artfully plated the nutritional meal in front of Zhou Ze: “If Xiao Hua hadn’t insisted that I follow the recipe, I could have performed even better.”
Zhou Ze: “Don’t call him that. He won’t like it.”
Li Chen glanced at the struggling person in the kitchen with an evaluating gaze, and tentatively asked: “A-ze, since when did you care so much about this younger brother? This doesn’t look like you.”
“None of your business.” Zhou Ze’s tone was icy.
“Fine, fine, fine, I’ll mind my own patient then.” Li Chen shoved the chopsticks into Zhou Ze’s hand with a flippant tone: “If you aren’t going to eat, I’ll feed you.”
The moment Zhuang Yuhua turned around, he saw their hands touching, their faces extremely close, locked in direct eye contact! He could already picture the pink, ambiguous bubbles filling the room.
Good job, spare tire!
Noticing his gaze, Zhou Ze kicked Li Chen away, flung his hand aside, sending the chopsticks flying along with it, and anxiously explained: “Xiao Hua, don’t misunderstand.”
“No misunderstanding.” Lowering his profile, Zhuang Yuhua deliberately hugged the edge of the room and slithered to the very corner of the dining table, beginning to calculate how to make his escape.
No misunderstanding at all, you guys carry on.
But what was with the big boss’s trailing gaze?
Li Chen’s eyes drifted between the two brothers, picking up on something extraordinary. He let out a silent hum, pulled a chair up right beside Zhou Ze, and nudged the chair leg closer still.
The battle had only just begun.
He picked up the fish soup, scooped a spoonful, blew on it to cool it at his lips, and fed it to Zhou Ze’s mouth: “A-ze, open up. The temperature is just right.”
Zhou Ze shot him a sideways glare. Li Chen’s heart fluttered, knowing this was the precursor to the other’s anger, but he still refused to back down out of spite, forcing a smile and saying: “Stop fooling around, eat first. It’s getting cold.”
With icy coldness in his eyes, Zhou Ze raised his hand to swat away the soup bowl. Zhuang Yuhua couldn’t watch anymore: “If you don’t like it, you can just say so. Is it necessary to trample on other people’s hard work?”
Zhou Ze blinked, pressed his lips together like a child reflecting on a mistake, accepted the soup bowl, and drank it down to the bottom in one breath.
“A-ze, slow down.” Li Chen smiled on the outside while mentally slicing Zhuang Yuhua into pieces: An out-of-nowhere wild younger brother, why is A-ze listening to him so much?!
Zhuang Yuhua paused, finding it a bit strange. In that split second, he actually felt like Zhou Ze looked a little aggrieved?
Huh?
The big boss? Aggrieved?
Confused, he pulled up the system interface. Before he could voice his question, 999 erupted with a headful of exclamation points like a malfunctioning machine: [The nutritional set meal is bound to the Host. If operated by someone else, it will have the reverse effect!]
Damn it!
Zhuang Yuhua jumped up in shock. Before he could finish cursing, he saw Zhou Ze’s facial features twist in agony. Clutching his stomach, Zhou Ze violently shoved Li Chen away, covered his mouth, and fled miserably into the restroom!
[Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!]
[…] 999’s voice dropped to the absolute limit: [You muted me just now…]
Li Chen followed him to the restroom door and found it bolted from the inside, hearing only dry heaving and heart-wrenching coughs from within.
With his heart in his throat, he pounded heavily on the door: “A-ze, I’m a doctor, let me in to help you!”
“Help, help, help what help, hurry up and teach me how to cook!” Zhuang Yuhua dragged him toward the kitchen.
Only the nutritional set meal made with his own hands would work!
“Are you insane?! A-ze is suffering like this, and you have the mood to cook? I don’t have time to play games with you either!” Relying on his height advantage, Li Chen shook him off, turned around, and kicked out at Zhuang Yuhua’s abdomen.
Dodge nimbly, Zhuang Yuhua grabbed a handful of the other’s long hair and dragged him back toward the kitchen: “I can’t explain it to you right now, hurry up!”
“You’re sick in the head!” Li Chen couldn’t break free. His impeccably tailored three-piece suit was crumpled and his delicately styled long hair was now a total mess. All his elegance completely collapsed: “Are you out of your mind?!”
Zhuang Yuhua bowed mentally to the guy. No choice, no choice, it’s all for the big boss’s own good. If he keeps hurting this badly, he’ll end up in the hospital again.
After another lengthy struggle, he finally whipped up a bowl of thick white congee, grabbed it with excitement, and sprinted toward the bedroom.
Li Chen rubbed his bruised arm, aggressively shoved his glasses back up, rolled his eyes, and threw a flurry of phantom punches and kicks at the retreating back: “Crazy! Lunatic!”
Seeing the curled-up figure on the bed, Zhuang Yuhua’s heart ached with guilt: Sorry, sorry. I’ll hook you up with a sweet romance later.
He propped the man up, scooped up a spoonful, and anxiously tried to feed it to him. But the semi-conscious person refused to cooperate at all, teeth tightly clenched as he struggled intermittently.
“Don’t move, don’t move.” Zhuang Yuhua felt his head spinning, so he helplessly pulled the man into his arms, wrapping his arm around his shoulders and pressing his chin against the other’s head: “Just eat a little, and it won’t hurt anymore.”
“Xiao Hua?” Zhou Ze gradually quieted down, letting out a few low, uncomfortable coughs. He wanted to look up to see who had come, but he was trapped tightly and couldn’t move an inch. Everything in the room looked distorted and blurry through a layer of mist.
This feeling was the absolute worst.
Zhuang Yuhua patted his shoulder reassuringly and hurriedly brought the food back to his lips: “It’s me, it’s me. Big brother, good brother, eat a little.”
Watching the man take small bites of food, his pounding heart finally settled back into place. Suddenly, Zhou Ze’s eyes snapped shut, and he collapsed headfirst into Zhuang Yuhua’s arms!
Before his heart rate could settle down, it skyrocketed all over again: “Zhou Ze! Can you hear me?!”
The spoon clattered to the floor. He shook the passed-out man frantically and pinched hard on that porcelain-like face: “Wake up!”
999 raised its volume and repeated: [Host, do not panic. The nutritional set meal is taking effect; the target requires a quiet environment to rest.]
[Heart rate detected as too high, emotions are too agitated. It is advised to calm down and release the target first.]
Hearing pieces of the message through the chaos, Zhuang Yuhua carefully laid the man back down and tucked the blanket around him. Glancing up, he spotted a red mark on the side of Zhou Ze’s face and felt a pang of awkwardness.
I’ll arrange a sweet romance for you later as compensation. Big boss, please don’t hold a grudge.
Retreating from the room, he curiously eyed the remaining half-bowl of congee: Is the effect really that good?
He took a taste and nearly threw up, a sudden shock hitting his brain: How on earth did Zhou Ze manage to swallow that?!
Li Chen was squatting by the door waiting for him, his tone unfriendly: “Is A-ze alright?”
“He fell asleep, he should be… fine.” Feeling guilty, Zhuang Yuhua sidestepped away, trying to shrink his presence.
“This younger brother is truly impressive. I feel quite ashamed as a doctor.” Li Chen forced a smile. Wherever Zhuang Yuhua moved, Li Chen followed. Unable to bear it any longer, Zhuang Yuhua asked: “What is your relationship with A-ze?”
“Huh? Just brothers…” Zhuang Yuhua continued to bluff, breaking out in a cold sweat under that piercing, scrutinizing gaze.
“You like him?” A cold glint flashed behind Li Chen’s lenses.
“You’re the one who likes him!” Zhuang Yuhua immediately retorted. He was just a matchmaker cannon fodder; he couldn’t let rumors fly around or the big boss would die of embarrassment.
“Right, I like him.” Li Chen pushed forward step-by-step, leveraging a two-centimeter height advantage to build up his momentum: “A-ze is mine.”
Zhuang Yuhua’s mind raced like a million stampeding horses: This spare tire is on the right track! Not bad, not bad. The hot spring plan can lean in his direction a bit more.
Throwing an arm around the other’s shoulder, he whispered quickly: “He’s yours, he’s yours. But you have a rival in love, and I can help you.”
“?! ” Amidst his shock, Li Chen pushed up his glasses, slapped away Zhuang Yuhua’s paw, still unable to believe it: “What did you say?”