10. You worked hard last night

  10. You worked hard last night

  Chu Xueran walked into his bedroom, opened the closet that didn't belong to him, then crawled inside and closed his eyes, quietly smelling the scent that belonged only to Yanse.

  "How wonderful it would be if you were still by my side. How could you bear to leave me like this?"

  Chu Xueyan took off the watch on his left wrist, stroking the scars on his wrist caused by himself. "I should have accompanied you two years ago, but now I don't even have the courage to commit suicide like I did back then."

  "I think of you every day, especially today. Every time I see Yan Jing, I think of you, but don't worry, you are you and he is him, I'm not confusing them. Yan Jing is a person who has suffered a lot, he often smiles, but I feel like he's not really happy. Sometimes, I even feel like he looks at me with hatred in his eyes from behind my back, although I don't know why..."

  Chu Xueran kept talking to herself and slowly fell asleep in the closet.

  It wasn't until there was a knock at the bedroom door that Chu Xueran woke up from his dream.

  Yan Jing said outside the door, "Uncle, dinner is ready."

  "Alright, you go ahead and eat first, no need to wait for me."

  The sky had already darkened, and the closet was also pitch black. Chu Xueran fumbled to put her watch back on her wrist, came out of the closet, washed up briefly, and walked out of the bedroom.

  At the sight of the dishes on the table, Chu Xueyan's mouth corners began to twitch and his forehead also added two more black lines. Was Yan Jing taking revenge on himself?

  Yan Jing listened to Chu Xueren's words and indeed made four dishes and one soup: sugar vinegar flat beans, braised flat beans, clear stewed flat beans, dry stir-fried flat beans, and a soup - flat bean ball soup.

  Seeing such a dinner, Chu Xueyan couldn't help but smile bitterly.

  "How's it? Is Uncle satisfied with the dinner I made?" Yan Jing walked into the dining room carrying two bowls of rice.

  "Satisfied." Chu Xueyan muttered to herself, dare I say otherwise?

  Yan Jing's face was adorned with a sly smile of satisfaction, "Since you're pleased, Uncle must have some more."

  "You've worked hard today, you should eat a bit more." Chu Xueran came out of the bedroom to find that Yan Jing had already cleaned up the entire house.

  "Uncle must have had a hard time, I'm sure he didn't sleep well last night because of me." Yan Jing added many flat beans to Zhu Xueran's bowl, "Quickly try it and see if it tastes good?"

  Yan Jing's previous sentence was ambiguous, making Chu Xueran's face slightly hot; the next sentence made Chu Xueran's heart cry out in distress, and broad beans were probably at the top of Chu Xueran's list of disgusting foods.

  Chu Xueran always wondered, who was the first person to discover that something as ugly and unpalatable as broad beans could be eaten? Was it the same person who discovered that milk could be drunk?

  "Uncle, why aren't you eating?" Yan Jing ladled another bowl of flat bean soup for Chu Xueran - there were only flat beans, no meatballs, and not even any soup.

  Chu Xueyan reluctantly picked up her chopsticks, "I'll eat now."

  He picked up the flat bean from the bowl and put it to his mouth, but Chu Xueyan really couldn't bear to open his mouth and swallow it.

  Yan Jing also ladled himself a bowl of soup, took a sip, and then stared straight at Chu Xueran, waiting for his next move.

  This is a bean horn, this is a bean horn, this is a bean horn. Chu Xueran closed his eyes and hypnotized himself, then suddenly opened his mouth and swallowed the flat bean he had pinched.

  "Uncle, did you know that broad beans are toxic?" Seeing Chu Xueran's flustered expression, Yan Jing vowed that he had deliberately chosen the right moment to say this to Chu Xueran.

  The flat bean that had just been eaten was stuck in Chu Xueran's throat, and it was difficult to get up or down. Chu Xueran could only stretch out his thumb to Yan Jing, praising him for being awesome, and to retaliate, he couldn't believe he could come up with such a brilliant idea.

  "Alright, I was just scaring you." Yan Jing also started eating the broad beans, "As long as the broad beans are cooked, their toxicity disappears. Although we're now eating out-of-season food, its nutritional value is still high, Uncle, please don't waste it. This was all bought with your money, oh, and Uncle, remember to pay the vegetable bill to the supermarket downstairs tomorrow."

  Chu Xueyan really wants to ask Yan Jing now, are you sent by heaven to torment me?

  However, the only redeeming quality of this dinner was that the flat beans, which were so unpalatable in Chu Xueran's memory, turned out to be quite edible after being cooked by Yan Jing.

  After dinner, it surprisingly started snowing outside again, what a beautiful night.

  "Why don't we go out for a walk and get some fresh air?" Chu Xueran suggested.

  Yan Jing's eyes sparkled with expectation, but only for a moment before extinguishing. "No, tomorrow is my first day of work, I don't want to be late, so I'd better get some rest early."

  Chu Xueyan naturally didn't miss that glimmer of light, "You obviously want to go out with me for a walk, why did you refuse?"

  "Uh...” Yan Jing scratched the back of his head, hesitating for a long time before finally saying it out loud, “I don't have any thick clothes to wear. When I was kicked out, all the clothes that Fang gave me were cut up by Lan Jiyuan with scissors. Now, I also don't have money to buy clothes.”

  Chu Xueran found it unbelievable, "What about the penalty you've been saving up all these years?"

  Yan Jing said straightforwardly, "In the two years I've been with Lu Fang, no matter if it's Chinese Valentine's Day, Western Valentine's Day or Christmas, Lu Fang and I would always exchange gifts. He's so rich that my gifts are too low-end for him to look at, so the money I saved was all spent on buying gifts."

  "Alas, won't you even consider your own future? " Chu Xueran helplessly pulled Yan Jing's hand to her bedroom, opening the wardrobe she had just slept in. "You choose yourself, these clothes will all be yours from now on. When we have time in the future, I'll take you shopping for more."

  "No need, after all that's happened, I've figured it out. Only the things I earn and buy myself can I confidently acknowledge as mine."

  Suddenly, Yan Jing pulled out a light gray scarf from the corner, "I only want this scarf, I don't want anything else."

  Chu Xianran remembered that the first time he saw Yan Se was in the summer, and Yan Se's clothes were all dirty and messy, but around his neck was a brand new scarf. On such a hot day, sweat dripped down Yan Se's neck into his clothes, yet from start to finish, Yan Se never took off that scarf.

  Chu Xueyan saw Yan Jing wrap the scarf around his own neck, and suddenly took two steps forward uncontrollably, hugging Yan Jing, but shouting "Yan Se..."

  Yan Jing calmly pushed away Chu Xueran with an icy expression he had never shown before, "Uncle, you've mistaken me for someone else again."