CH 78

Translate by Hua

The wind howled all night, and when he woke up early the next morning, Ji Mingjiang could recall the muffled sound of the wind swirling snowflakes against the window in his sleep.

But like the weather forecast from the local weather bureau, when he opened the curtains, the snowstorm that had been raging all night yesterday had dissipated, leaving only a few bird claw marks in the snow and a clump of snowy red plums outside.

Before he came, he had seen countless messages from the backend of Starnet and live streaming accounts urging him to post daily blogs. Yesterday, he perfunctorily sent four pictures. This morning, seeing the scene in front of him, Ji Mingjiang was stunned. After a while, he took out his light brain to take pictures and post them.

After turning off the buzzing comment and like notifications, he briefly washed himself, then went downstairs and walked into the dining room.

In the morning, it was still Clarice who cooked the food.

Actually, Ji Mingjiang had wanted to fight for it, but because of the late-night tragedy in the kitchen last night, Clarice had decisively rejected his extremely unreliable offer that might put the lives of the two men at stake.

—At about eleven o’clock last night, when the dinner they had eaten at six or seven o’clock was almost digested, he volunteered to get into the kitchen to prepare two bowls of clear soup noodles, and then…successfully burned the pot.

There has never been a moment when Ji Mingjiang was as happy as he was last night when he entered this world as a mermaid. After all, the reasons were all there, and those who didn’t know would only find reasons to excuse him at the first opportunity.

For example, Clarice yesterday.

Ji Mingjiang could still clearly recall the other party’s every move last night, such as the eyes that widened in shock, the eyes that were full of doubt, the hands that helplessly rubbed his eyebrows and signaled him to get out of the way, and the reason that didn’t even come to his mind in the first place: “My fault, you’ve always acted too close to a human being, so I’d almost forgotten that you’d never been exposed to activities such as cooking before.”

After being reminded like this, a picture flashed through Ji Mingjiang’s mind. The experience that he had thrown into the depths of his memory because he was too embarrassed was finally remembered by him.

—So it’s not that he’s never been in the kitchen, but one year when he was cooking dumplings for the Lantern Festival with his assistant, he turned the dumplings into a pot of glutinous rice balls stewed with black sesame paste. It was only after that that his assistant started to guard him from entering the kitchen.

Of course, there’s no need to tell Clarice about this; otherwise, it would be too damaging to his image.

Last night, Ji Mingjiang looked at the somewhat messy kitchen, nodded calmly without blushing, and said in a tone of dawning realization and approval, “You’re right, I almost forgot as well, so I’ll have to leave all the meals for the next few days to you.”

After the brief recollection, looking at the neatly arranged buttered garlic toast, pan-fried codfish, and hot milk on the table in front of him, Ji Mingjiang pulled out his chair, took a sip, and sighed: “I think you should sign up for a food show. You only need to cook a few meals, and I guarantee that the stereotypes about you will be completely washed away within a few days after the show is broadcast.”

“And then I’m afraid Chen Yuanchuan is going to rush straight into the palace, hug my legs, and start crying.”

Leiden didn’t rush to refute Ji Mingjiang’s words but continued to think along with his description with great interest. However, in the end, he still couldn’t quite imagine himself cooking while surrounded by a group of people and cameras. Chen Yuanchuan’s possible reaction after knowing that he participated in such a program in order to restore his image vividly appeared in his mind.

A short chuckle escaped from the depths of his throat. He knocked on the table and skipped the topic. “Eat quickly. I will take you to pray after eating. There are fewer people in the morning, and by noon, I’ll definitely get crowded. There’ll be another wave of trouble if you’re discovered.”

“Got it, soon.”

Taking a bite of the toasted and crumbly bread, Ji Mingjiang responded vaguely.

When they left the house, they had an argument that wasn’t really an argument.

The reason was that as soon as Clarice opened the door, he hadn’t taken a step outside before slamming it shut and forcing Ji Mingjiang, who was only wearing a thin woolen sweater, to add more clothes.

“It really doesn’t matter; I’m not cold!” His palms were obviously still warm!

He slapped his palm hard on Clarice’s hand, which had not yet been retracted. Feeling the cold touch in his hand, Ji Mingjiang raised his eyebrows and said viciously, “You’re still talking about me; you’re the one who needs to add clothes when your own hand is so cold, aren’t you!”

“It’s so cold because it was blown when I opened the door just now. I’m not cold at all.”

Being brought to a sudden drop in wisdom, Leiden somehow explained along with Ji Mingjiang’s words. After he finished speaking, he was stunned for a moment. The temperature of Ji Mingjiang’s palm was constantly coming from the back of his hand, possibly due to the large temperature difference between the two’s palms, which made him feel a bit hot.

His fingers twitched unconsciously. After taking out his hand, he coughed. Just as he was about to say something, he saw Ji Mingjiang take the lead.

He took out the fluffy coat from the space button and put it on his body. Facing Clarice’s surprised look, Ji Mingjiang smiled, and with a swift movement, he took out a hat that matched this piece of clothing and covered Clarice’s head.

“Okay, let’s each take a step back; that’s it.” Looking at Clarice, who was wearing a snow-white fluffy hat that was incompatible with his aura, Ji Mingjiang nodded with satisfaction.

Whether he wore the jacket or not really didn’t matter to him. He was immune to all debuffs and wouldn’t feel the cold. At the same time, he will naturally not be heated. He didn’t want to wear it because it would make him look stiff.

But all these dissatisfactions disappeared instantly, like floating snow blown up by the wind, when he saw Clarice like this.

Learning from Vincent Lurleena’s exaggerated expression and etiquette, he took a step forward, pushed open the door, bent down, and stretched out his hand. “Let’s go; there will be more people soon.”

The path leading to the outside of the fence at the door was covered with snow. When the door was opened again, a handful of light snowflakes were blown to their feet by the wind caused by repeatedly opening and closing the door.

Leiden touched the soft hat on his head with his fingers, his expression a little stiff. Under Ji Mingjiang’s narrow eyes, he straightened the hat very calmly. After tapping the snow cleaning button beside the door frame, he said without changing his expression, “Let’s go.”

“Zizi.” Probably because there was a heating device installed underneath, the snow on the path outside quickly turned into puddles of water. Watching Clarice stride forward in a black coat, black boots, and a hat that didn’t fit his style, Ji Mingjiang smacked his lips, took out his light brain openly, and snapped the second photo of the day.

“Ding dong—”

On the busy road leading to the cafeteria after class, the light brains on the wrists of Lin Nan and Zhuang Zhiye simultaneously emitted familiar notification sounds.

“?”

The two synchronized their clicks on Starnet, and there were quite a few other people in the vicinity who took the same action as them.

“What’s going on? Big Boss, why are you posting on Starnet so frequently in the past two days? Is this the joy of traveling?”

After another exam, Lin Nan, who was exhausted physically and mentally, muttered angrily, and then after clicking on Ji Mingjiang’s account, there was no sound at all. His whole person seemed to be petrified on the spot. If it weren’t for Zhuang Zhiye’s quick hands and eyes, Lin Nan, who was always nimble, was probably going to be hit by a classmate walking behind him with his head down.

“Fuck%￥#*, I…he…His Majesty…??!”

After being pulled aside, Lin Nan pointed at the photo on the light brain, speaking incoherently and indistinctly.

To be fair, this photo is very artistic. The man with broad shoulders and long legs was standing tall and straight when he was photographed. He was walking forward with his legs raised, and there were splashes of water on his heels when they landed on the ground. Although he noticed the movement of the people behind him taking pictures, he didn’t take any precautions. He just turned his head slightly and glanced back.

A gust of wind must have happened to blow at this time. The rare, gentle golden pupils and the hem of the coat that fluttered up were looming behind the fine, fluttering snowflakes.

Coupled with the special identity of the person who was photographed, if this photo was taken and sold, even if 60% of the people in the entire empire speak of Clarice with awe and fear, the people who rush to buy this photo will definitely account for 90% of the national population.

Of course, the premise of everything is… putting aside the white plush hat that looks very soft and easy to touch.

“Did His Majesty finally lose control of his mental state?!” Lin Nan took a few breaths and tried to organize his words, but in the end, he just pointed at the photo in horror.

There were many people around him who had the same reaction as him. Lin Nan even heard someone in the distance falling to the ground – at the military academy.

“…Why don’t you take a good look at Ji Mingjiang’s caption? He should have done this on purpose. His Majesty’s hat and his clothes look like the same set.” Similarly shocked by this photo, whose sense of conflict was about to overflow the screen, Zhuang Zhiye was silent for a moment before turning his attention away from the photo and speaking with difficulty.

“A caption? What caption? What clothes? What pair?”

“I said it’s the same set!”

While Lin Nan was in a daze, Zhuang Zhiye waved Ji Mingjiang’s post in front of him.

@Jimingjiang: I took a candid photo openly, but the effect still looks a bit poor. I’ll open a live stream to show you guys later. [Clarice stares at people.jpg]

At Zhuang Zhiye’s reminder, Lin Nan looked back at the photo again and then discovered that Ji Mingjiang’s sleeves were captured in the corner of the photo. Although it was a little blurry due to the focus, he could still tell that it was a garment with long fur.

“…Their relationship is really good. Those viewers who have been worried about him can rest assured, haha.”

Not knowing what to say, Lin Nan laughed dryly twice, and then, after noticing the situation of the people around him, his eyes gradually regained their brightness.

“Let’s go eat first, and then watch after we finish eating!”

Taking advantage of the fact that everyone now had a cracked expression on their faces as they tapped away on their light brains, Lin Nan touched his face, and his hungry stomach, which was making constant protests, prompted him to pull up Zhuang Zhiye’s arm and run forward.

“Eh? Ji Mingjiang has started a live broadcast!”

“Let’s watch after we finish our meal—”