CH 11

It was the first time Lin Yuyan failed miserably in something he did. He had no experience in cooking and made many mistakes. After Gu Yaoyang finished speaking, the lazy smile he had on his face completely destroyed Lin Yuyan’s self-confidence. 

He thought that the other party knew it was a trap meant for him, but who would’ve thought he actually went right in and jumped into it. He held his chest and admired the other’s naive and ridiculous methods.

Lin Yuyan felt that he was too sure of his success, so he embarrassedly went back into the kitchen and helped him fill a new bowl. 

That night, Lin Yuyan slept in the living room. The small sofa in the room was a curved two-seater with soft cushions,  just enough for one person to lie down on it. Although it was a little narrower, it was much more comfortable than sleeping on the ground. That morning, Lin Yuyan woke up on the bed. He didn’t have to think hard to figure out that it was Gu Yaoyang who had moved him to the bed while he was asleep. 

He already had some guilty conscience from staying over at his place, and he didn’t want to occupy the host’s bed while he was here; that’ll only make him feel more guilty. 

But why did Gu Yaoyang move him to the bed? Was he worried that he wouldn’t sleep well?

But how could that be… Gu Yaoyang only teased him, and wouldn’t care about him. 

The next day, Lin Yuyan got up early and waited around the bedroom door for a long time, but Gu Yaoyang didn’t come out the whole time he was waiting for him. So, he could only go wash up. He even thought about going back home to grab a few clothing pieces.

Ah… Lin Yuyan thought that his imagination was quite baffling, was he planning to live there longer?

At around ten o’clock, Gu Yaoyang woke up once. He didn’t use his phone much and continued to sleep most of the time. He would occasionally glance at Lin Yuyan, but didn’t pay any attention to what he was doing in his house.

There weren’t any noodles inside the refrigerator. Although Lin Yuyan was very active in helping Gu Yaoyang cook, he didn’t have any ingredients, so he couldn’t do that. He wanted to take Gu Yaoyang out to buy some, but the other obviously didn’t want to go. 

“I can only cook noodles.” Gu Yaoyang stated, “How about you?”

Lin Yuyan said, “I’ve… recently learned how to cook noodles.”

“So it isn’t necessary to buy them, it’s also a waste to keep them.”

“But, I also have to eat…” His stomach growled as he said that. Lin Yuyan eagerly looked at him and said, “Just take me there once and I won’t bother you again next time.”

“Next time?” Gu Yaoyang lightly chuckled before asking, “How long do you plan on staying here?”

Lin Yuyan said, “Not long…” 

Gu Yaoyang remained silent, but he put on a thick coat and followed him out of the door.

At four or five o’clock, the sun was still high and there were a little bit more pedestrians around. Only then did Lin Yuyan notice that there were mostly old people and children on the street. Though occasionally some young men dressed like Huang Mao would show up that looked like gangsters.

The place to buy vegetables wasn’t far from the small supermarket. Stalls were lined up there one by one. Lin Yuyan had never bought vegetables before, nor could he choose them. He randomly weighed a few of his favorites and planned to go back and learn how to cook them. He thought that cooking was quite interesting, and was not too much trouble as well. 

Gu Yaoyang didn’t follow him the whole time he was shopping. He mostly told him the location and stood waiting in the distance. When he came back with a few vegetables and planned to go home, Lin Yuyan ran to the butcher shop on the street again and wanted to buy a piece of lean meat. 

Although the difficulty of cooking was a bit big and wasn’t at his level, he still wanted to try and cook it. 

After calling the boss over, a tall and stout, brawny man came out. The boss looked very fierce, especially with the horizontal scar on his forehead. He threw a machete onto the oil-coated chopping board and asked, “How much?”

Lin Yuyan was a little intimidated and turned his head to glance at Gu Yaoyang. Seeing that he wasn’t far away from him, he confidently said, “Enough for two people to eat.”

The boss took out the toothpick in his mouth before slicing some meat with a knife. Without weighing it, he directly threw the meat to Lin Yuyan. 

Lin Yuyan quietly said, “Yes, this is… a little too much.” 

The boss fiercely said to him, “What’s too much? This is enough.”

“Oh…” Lin Yuyan was instantly relieved, he didn’t dare to refute the butcher so he directly asked for the price, “Then, how much does this cost?”

The boss glanced at him before throwing his knife aside and harshly said, “I’ll give it to you for free.” 

Give, give it to me? For free? 

Lin Yuyan hurriedly waved his hand, feeling that it was inappropriate, but the boss slightly frowned. The scar on his face contorted as it followed. Lin Yuyan became frightened, so he didn’t dare to forcibly give the other party his money. He quickly rushed to Gu Yaoyang, handed the meat to him, and said, “The, the boss doesn’t want the money.”

Gu Yaoyang was happy as he replied, “Since he doesn’t want the money, then we won’t pay him.”

Lin Yuyan worriedly said, “But wouldn’t that be bad?”

“Then you can return this to him.”

Lin Yuyan carefully looked back and saw the boss was still there, standing by the door. He hurriedly took Gu Yaoyang’s wrist as he walked, “Well, that’s fine then. He has my thanks.”  

Gu Yaoyang glanced at the back of Lin Yuyan’s fair hand. He smiled imperceptibly as he said, ” Didn’t you feel powerful when you poisoned me earlier? Why are you afraid now?”

Lin Yuyan muttered in a low voice, “I’m not afraid.” and continued to say, “And don’t wrong a good person, just when did I poison you?”

“Adding more salt is also poisoning.”

“You’re talking nonsense, it’s your fault for dragging me to run all over the streets, it made my legs hurt.”

Gu Yaoyang replied, “Have you ever taken a PE class? It wasn’t even 800 meters in total.”

Lin Yuyan said, “Isn’t 800 meters far? I was practically running out of breath.”

Gu Yaoyang mocked him, “Squeamish sack.” 

“I…” Lin Yuyan retorted with no confidence, “I’m not.”

With the ingredients now available, Lin Yuyan searched for the recipe on his phone. He placed his phone on the cupboard and followed it step by step. Gu Yaoyang had no plans of helping him. When Lin Yuyan clumsily finished chopping the vegetables, Gu Yaoyang answered a phone call and left. He should be on the balcony as he could vaguely hear his voice from there. 

Lin Yuyan wanted to secretly eavesdrop, but Gu Yaoyang didn’t say anything except for, “En,” and, “Ah.” After a few minutes, he hung up and went to his bedroom. 

Even when he was at his home, they didn’t spend much time together. 

If this was the case, then even if he lived here for half a year, he wouldn’t necessarily find out much about Gu Yaoyang. After he thought about it, Lin Yuyan became a little distracted. During this period, he forgot whether he followed the steps written in the recipe. When he regained his senses, he had already served the dish. Seeing how it didn’t look bad, he nodded in satisfaction and resumed cooking the next dish. 

After busying himself for 40 minutes, he only cooked two plates of vegetables. He didn’t dare to cook the meat he had gotten for free. He wanted to test the waters first and planned to cook it tomorrow. 

Today’s Lin Yuyan was much more sincere. He handed the chopsticks to Gu Yaoyang, a look of anticipation and nervousness was plastered on his face. It was as if he was waiting for the final judgment. 

Gu Yaoyang was very cooperative and tried both dishes. He chewed slowly, making Lin Yuyan unable to wait any longer before finally nodding and saying, “Good, it’s very delicious.”

“Really?” Lin Yuyan immediately became pleased with his review. He placed a green vegetable in his mouth and chewed on it twice. A “Click.” sounded as his chopsticks mercilessly fell onto the table.

Lin Yuyan was stunned, his tears were practically forced out by the salty taste in his mouth as he blankly said, “You… Didn’t you say it was delicious?” 

Gu Yaoyang leaned on the back of his chair, took a cup of warm water, and took a sip before sincerely saying, “I think it’s delicious.”