So What If the Beautiful Campus Belle Loves Money? (44)

Shi Zheng raised her hand and gently rested it on the back of his head.

Again and again, she stroked his messy red hair.

A long time passed before Hua Jinchen spoke in a muffled voice. "...I'm hungry."

Shi Zheng's hand paused.

Then she chuckled softly. "So?"

Hua Jinchen raised his head, a shameless note in his voice. "So you have to take responsibility for filling me up."

"What kind of filling you up?"

Hua Jinchen froze.

Then, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, he sprang up from her shoulder. His face reddened visibly, the flush spreading from his neck all the way to the tips of his ears.

"Y-you... What are you thinking?!"

His voice shot up as he glared at Shi Zheng. "I-I meant food! Food! What on earth goes on in that head of yours all day?!"

"I wasn't thinking anything." Her voice was utterly innocent, and she even blinked. "You're the one whose mind went somewhere dirty, aren't you?"

"I...!" Hua Jinchen was lost for words.

He opened his mouth to argue, only to realize he had no argument at all.

His own mind had wandered in that direction all on its own!

His face grew even redder.

So red it was almost dripping blood.

Shi Zheng raised her hand and gently brushed aside the stray locks of hair in front of his forehead.

The pad of her finger grazed the burning tip of his ear.

Hua Jinchen shuddered all over.

The touch was so light that it sent a tingling numbness through him from head to toe.

"...You're blushing," Shi Zheng said softly.

Hua Jinchen's breathing fell completely out of rhythm.

He wanted to argue, to say "I'm not," to defend what little dignity he had left.

But he couldn't get the words out.

Meeting her clear eyes as she looked at him with a hint of a smile, he felt as though he were being roasted over a fire.

The tips of his ears turned even redder.

As if they were about to catch fire.

Fuck!

He cursed himself inwardly.

She only has to say one little thing, and you turn into this.

Could you be any more hopeless?

Hua Jinchen gritted his teeth. "...Fine, you win."

Then he turned and strode toward the kitchen as though a ghost were chasing him.

After two steps, he stopped. Without looking back, he said in a muffled voice, "...I'm going to cook."

Shi Zheng leaned against the kitchen counter, watching Hua Jinchen's back as he busied himself at the stove.

He had rolled his shirt sleeves up to his elbows, exposing his forearms.

"You can cook?" Shi Zheng asked in surprise.

"Is that so strange?"

Hua Jinchen didn't turn around. He simply took ingredients out of the refrigerator, his movements unexpectedly practiced.

"A little," Shi Zheng said. "I thought a young master like you had never even set foot in a kitchen, let alone cooked."

Hua Jinchen put the chopped vegetables into the pan, and the hot oil sizzled.

Steam rose from the pan, blurring the outline of his profile.

After a few seconds of silence, he finally spoke. "The Hua Family's marriage was a typical marriage of convenience. Ever since I was little, I knew the lights in their rooms were never on at the same time at night."

Shi Zheng said nothing.

He turned down the heat, and the sizzling in the pan quieted with it.

"No one looked after me when I was little, so I cooked for myself when I got hungry." His tone was flat, as if he were talking about someone else. "Later, we got a nanny, but I couldn't break the habit."

"If I hadn't learned to cook, I probably wouldn't have lived long enough to meet you," he joked.

Hua Jinchen scooped the cooked noodles into bowls.

He turned around, carried the two bowls to the table, and sat down across from her.

"Eat." He picked up his chopsticks and slurped a mouthful of noodles.

Shi Zheng said nothing.

"What are you looking at?" Hua Jinchen grew a little uncomfortable under her gaze and asked, sticking out his neck, "You think it won't taste good?"

Shi Zheng chuckled softly. "I haven't tried it yet. How would I know?"

She picked up her chopsticks, put a mouthful in her mouth, and chewed carefully.

Hua Jinchen watched her, a trace of nervousness in his eyes that even he hadn't noticed.

Shi Zheng swallowed and said, "It's delicious."

"...Of course it is," Hua Jinchen said in a muffled voice, adding as if to cover it up, "Who do you think made it?"

"Baby." After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly spoke again.

"Hmm?"

"Could you..." He paused, apparently weighing his words. "Could you stop going back to your dorm at night from now on?"

Shi Zheng raised her eyes and looked at him.

Her gaze made Hua Jinchen feel uneasy, but he pressed on. "I don't mean it like that... It's just... This place is too big, and it's too quiet when I'm here alone."

"I know it's too much to ask, but after what happened today... I..."

Hua Jinchen couldn't go on.

He lowered his eyes, his red fringe hiding his face and making his expression impossible to see.

Shi Zheng was silent for a long time.

So long that Hua Jinchen thought she wasn't going to answer.

"Forget it. Pretend I never said anything."

Then she spoke. "Okay."

Hua Jinchen jerked his head up.

Shi Zheng said, "But I have conditions."

"What conditions?"

"You cook, you wash the dishes, you do the laundry, and you mop the floors." She looked at him, the corners of her lips curving slightly. "Can you be the perfect twenty-four-filial-exemplars boyfriend?"

Hua Jinchen froze for a second.

Then he smiled.

His smile spread from his eyes to his lips, radiant in an almost foolish way.

"I can," he said decisively. "I absolutely can."

Over the next few days, Hua Jinchen kept his word.

Every morning when Shi Zheng woke up, a warm breakfast was already waiting on the table.

At night, when she came out after her shower, he had already collected the clothes she had taken off.

Like a tireless spinning top, he revolved around her, taking every little chore upon himself.

[Hua Jinchen's current affection: 90.]