"I'm asking you." Zhang Suannai stared at him, growing puzzled. "Why aren't you saying anything?"
"What is there to say?" Chen Shu met her gaze with perfect ease. "By the time I reached the Ninth Tier, you lot were still cycling through your sleep schedules."
"Why do you seem kind of weird...?"
"Weirdly handsome?"
"Yue~~"
"Weirdly missed by you?"
"I missed your Chicken with Taro, more like."
"Chicken with Taro? I've got it!"
"Really?"
Zhang Suannai's eyes lit up at once, and she looked at him expectantly.
Chen Shu glanced at the Buddhist and Daoist duo without giving anything away, secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then turned and pointed at the bus RV. "There's chicken and taro in the freezer. I've also contacted people outside to fly more ingredients in by drone. Leave tonight's New Year's Eve dinner to me."
"Yay!"
"Thank you, Benefactor Greens."
"Amitabha. How wonderful, how wonderful..."
Just then, Zhang Suannai furrowed her brow again. She simply couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. "Why do I still feel like something's not right?"
"What isn't right?"
Chen Shu turned to look at her.
The Buddhist and Daoist duo glanced her way too.
Zhang Suannai scratched her head and looked at Chen Shu, blinking. After a long while, she finally realized what had been bothering her and asked, "You didn't spend all that time you were gone playing around instead of cultivating, did you?"
Chen Shu pressed his lips together. "Do you think that's possible?"
"Entirely possible..."
Zhang Suannai kept scratching her head as she spoke.
"What are you getting at?" Chen Shu's tone turned stern. "I'm here making New Year's Eve dinner for you, and all you can think about is surpassing me in cultivation? Do you still want Chicken with Taro tonight? If not,