The Road Home

Chapter 17

Lu Yanchen had always been quick and efficient when it came to cooking. In less than twenty minutes, three dishes had come out of the pan.

Smelling the enticing aroma, two young girls from the automobile repair shop's finance department, each carrying a stainless steel lunch box, came over to ask for a couple spoonfuls of food. After tasting some, they were full of praise. "Chen Ge, your cooking skills are so good. How come, then, these last couple of days, if it hasn't been fried rice then it's been instant noodles for you?"

"There was just me. Didn't want to go to the trouble."

Disliking that there was so much airborne grease and smoke, Lu Yanchen turned on the hood fan over the stove. Then he pulled out a cigarette and lit it in the stove's flame.

"We have so many people. Chen Ge, if you're willing to cook, we're totally okay with paying food costs."

Lu Yanchen turned a deaf ear to these remarks.

Inside the pot, the broth, along with the fish meat in it, which had been cooked until soft and falling apart, was boiling and releasing a thick, milky colour. Although the little grass carp that Qin Xiaonan brought back was not enough to eat, it made a pretty good soup. He scooped out some with a soup spoon and, reaching behind his back, grabbed Gui Xiao's wrist and brought her over in front of himself. "Have a try. Is it salty?"

Under the watchful gazes of two pairs of eyes, Gui Xiao blew on the soup for a little bit, then had a taste. "Nope, not salty."

Lu Yanchen enjoyed taking in her appearance when she ate. In the past when he cooked for her, whenever she was happy from eating, she would twitch her nose. Very satisfied and very content, she would lean in and kiss him with her greasy lips, then say, "Paying you for the meal."

Wishing there was more, Gui Xiao finished off the rest of the soup in the spoon. "This soup is so fresh and delicate-tasting."

Lu Yanchen took an inhale from the cigarette in his right hand, his gaze locking with Gui Xiao's. A delicious aroma pervaded everywhere, and the scent of cigarette smoke was also strong.

The light of the sun streamed through those tendrils of gray smoke. It was similar to those movies that she had watched out in the open-air square when she was a kid. The light projecting from the machine had been this same type of light, making visible the dust that drifted and danced in the air. Up close, there clearly were just light and dust, but after that light was projected dozens of metres away onto that large screen, it became the coherent, visual picture of a story. So remarkable.

As he gazed at her in this moment, Gui Xiao actually had a certain feeling—she felt that, in front of all those other eyes, he was going to kiss her...

Lu Yanchen turned his head to the side to blow a cloud of smoke out the window, a trace of a smile showing on his face.

Shortly after, a middle-aged woman, with hair that was piled in a high bun on her head and shiny from all the hair mousse in it, strolled out from the finance office. She first took a glance at the fish soup before carefully scrutinizing Gui Xiao's face. Then, taking a spoon from the hand of one of the girls, she had a taste. "Lu Chen's cooking really is very good. His future wife is certainly going to get to enjoy the good life."

This was Lu Yanchen's biaojiuma[1] [wife of his mother's male cousin].

He did not need to think too deeply to know that his mother's visit here that had "coincidentally" allowed her to see Gui Xiao was undoubtedly thanks to this person.