Chu Yilan glanced at the clock on the wall. Ten at night.
"You haven't eaten?" he asked.
Shen Lian nodded. "No. You haven't either, right? I'll order takeout."
"No need." Chu Yilan thought for a moment. "I'll cook, but it might not taste that great. Want to try?"
Shen Lian didn't hesitate. "Sure."
As Shen Lian watched Chu Yilan walk toward the kitchen, his eyes held both wariness and scrutiny.
His willingness to go along with things wasn't just because he couldn't muster any hostility toward Chu Yilan. He was also testing him.
Everything the man had shown him hit all of Shen Lian's turn-ons, true, but this was their first meeting. Yet Chu Yilan's easy, familiar tenderness made it feel as though they were passionately in love and had lived together for years.
Before long, Chu Yilan brought out a bowl of noodles.
There had been a few times when Aunt Fen wasn't home and Shen Lian came back from work at eleven or twelve, craving a bowl of homemade noodles in hot broth. So Chu Yilan had promptly learned how to make them from Aunt Fen.
As it turned out, Chu Yilan had been modest. These noodles weren't "not that great." They were delicious, and he had clearly put care into making them.
"Who have you made these for?" Shen Lian asked indistinctly, lowering his head to sip the broth.
"You," Chu Yilan said.
Shen Lian chuckled but didn't call him out.
What he didn't know was that Chu Yilan wasn't lying.
Since Chu Yilan wasn't interested in sex, Shen Lian wouldn't push him. As for starting with dating... ahem, they could discuss that later.
Keeping him around, though, would be no problem.
The thought was very tempting. After all, finding someone who suited both his tastes and