Tis The Season (WangXian RomCom, SEASONAL)

3

The two story house was located near the kindergarten and still within the school district. When Lan Wangji stepped out of his car with Xiao Yuan, he noticed that there were few other children and their parents also entering the house through the front door.

He followed the crowd, and was met by an open space with a professional kitchen inside – and there were also rows of tables with cooking utensils and a sink.

Everything was clean and tidy, and the set up reminded him of the famous cooking show competition on TV, and he liked what he saw.

But the highlight of the feature was that there were customized child-sized set ups right beside the adult size, so they could do stuff together with their parents.

Lan Wangji took a look around while he held Xiao Yuan’s hand, and noticed that most of the children were the same age as Xiao Yuan and they were talking and laughing together at the corner where there were toys and dolls.

He noticed that Xiao Yuan waa looking at them, but he did not leave Lan Wangji’s side.

“Do you want to play with your friends, Xiao Yuan?” Lan Wangji asked him, and Xiao Yuan nodded after he thought about it for a moment. 

“Hello there, you must be new here.” 

Suddenly, someone approached Lan Wangji and spoke to him. 

Lan Wangji turned around to see a man wearing a red apron and his longish hair was tied back in a half-bun. The man was good looking and Lan Wangji could see that he had gray eyes that twinkled under the sun.

“Yes. My name is Lan Wangji, and I was told by Teacher Wen to come here and learn to cook with my nephew.” He cleared his throat.

“Oh? Your nephew is a student at Yiling Kindergarten? My son attends there too, maybe they knew each other!” He looked around to find his son. “Ah well, they probably play together somewhere around here. By the way my name is Wei Wuxian, and I’m the teacher here.” 

The man then rummaged through his apron and took out a form and a pen.

“Please fill this form first, and let me know if your nephew has any allergy or anything else that I should know beforehand and I’ll be back to collect it later before we start the lesson.”

“Thank you, Teacher Wei.” Lan Wangji took the form and started to fill the basic information and the questionnaire on it. But then he remembered that he didn’t really know about Xiao Yuan’s likes or dislikes, let alone any allergy that he might have. So he decided to ask the boy directly.

He approached Xiao Yuan – who was playing with a very talkative boy – and got to his eye level.

“Xiao Yuan, do you have any allergy to food?”

Before Xiao Yuan could answer though, the boy with him looked at Lan Wangji and exclaimed loudly.

“I know! Yuanyuan here is allergic to peanuts but he likes meatloaf! Today we’re going to make meatloaf, Yuanyuan, your favorite!” The boy jumped up and down and twirled around before he finally sat down beside Xiao Yuan – who giggled at his antics.

“Uncle, this is Jingyi, my best friend.” Xiao Yuan introduced Jingyi to Lan Wangji with a smile on his face, and Lan Wangji was surprised to see the boy could smile that easily with his friend.

“You’re Yuanyuan uncle? Hello uncle, my name is Jingyi and I’m Yuanyuan’s best friend!” He hugged Xiao Yuan tight and both of them giggled happily.

“I see you’ve met my son.” 

Lan Wangji heard the now familiar voice from his back and turned around to see Wei Wuxian smiling.

Both kids then screamed and jumped him – even the shy Xiao Yuan – and he pretended to fall down while tickling the boys until they screamed some more and giggled.

“Okay boys, we need to get ready for the lesson now.” Wei Wuxian put down the boys and took a bag before he gave it to Lan Wangji.

“What’s this?” Lan Wangji looked at the content and frowned.

“These are aprons for parents and kids. For boys we chose blue and for girls we chose pink. I know it’s cliche but…” Wei Wuxian shrugged then laughed. “Anyway, you can pick any place that suits you, Mr. Lan, the cooking lesson will begin now.”