A man who always had to win

Fu Yunxi was fuming. He untied his apron and slammed it onto the stove.

"Eat it or don't!"

Yue Lan ignored him, took a fresh pair of chopsticks, and put a bite in her mouth-

Her expression froze instantly.

Less than half a second later, she spat it onto the ground with a retch, her face turning green.

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! Water-"

Yu Zhiwei blanched and hurriedly unscrewed a bottle of water to hand to her.

Yue Lan rinsed her mouth furiously, then gulped down an entire bottle before collapsing into a chair as though she had finally come back to life.

"Fuck, I nearly died a hero. What the hell was that taste?"

Fu Yunxi looked incredulous.

"How is that possible? Every last one of you is deliberately trying to make me look bad!"

"Then why don't you taste it yourself?"

Fu Yunxi stiffened, then petulantly picked up a bite and put it in his mouth.

The next second, he spat it onto the ground, even faster than Yue Lan had.

"What happened? I followed the steps exactly. How did it turn out like this..."

Xie Lin squatted on the ground, laughing his head off.

Lu Ye helped him up and snorted.

"You can't even tell salt, sugar, and MSG apart. Of course it's inedible!"

Looking utterly crushed, Fu Yunxi stood off to the side with his lips pursed and his neck stiff.

"If you're so good, do it yourself!"

"And what will you say if I can?"

The man at the helm of the mighty Lu conglomerate could cook? Not a soul would believe it!

Before he could speak, Lu Ye added casually.

"If I can, you have to call Xie Lin Dad!"

Xie Lin: "???"

How had he gotten dragged into this?

Then he frowned, looking thoroughly disgusted.

"I don't want a great big son."

Lu Ye chuckled, his tone obnoxiously smug.

"Then he won't dare have any improper thoughts about you. Otherwise, that'd be incest!"

The director: "..."

Only after two bottles of water did the taste in Yue Lan's mouth fade. She added fuel to the fire.

She cast Fu Yunxi a sidelong look.

"What, Film Emperor Fu? Don't dare? Afraid you'll lose?"

Provoked, Fu Yunxi tossed his brain aside.

"Hah, you think I'm scared? You're on!"

One corner of Lu Ye's mouth lifted into a harmless smile.

Fu Yunxi immediately had a bad feeling.

Lu Ye took out four tomatoes, brought his knife down, quartered them, put them on a plate, and sprinkled them with sugar.

Done!

He even kindly invited Fu Yunxi over for a taste.

"Want to try some? Guaranteed to taste good!"

"??? You call that a dish?"

"You dare say tomatoes with sugar aren't a dish?"

Fu Yunxi felt his intelligence had been insulted. His chest heaved with anger.

The director delivered the final verdict.

"Tomatoes with sugar count as a dish."

Lu Ye chuckled.

"A bet's a bet, Film Emperor Fu. I didn't force you to play. You're not going back on your word, are you?"

Fu Yunxi's face flushed crimson. Deeply unwilling, he nevertheless faced Xie Lin and forced a word through gritted teeth:

"...Dad!"

Xie Lin picked at his ear.

"Didn't hear you!"

With nothing left to lose, Fu Yunxi raised his voice several times over.

"Dad!"

"Right here-"

The reply came without the slightest hesitation.

Fu Yunxi hadn't expected him to actually answer. Nearly exploding with rage, he turned and ran over to bang his head against a big tree.

[Whatever else you say, our Film Emperor Fu is a man of his word.]

[Tao Miaomiao suddenly has a son older than himself. Wonder how he feels...]

[Feels, my ass. Does Xie Lin have no shame?]

[??? Was Xie Lin the one who made the bet?]

[How the fuck do tomatoes with sugar count as a dish?]

[You dare look down on tomatoes with sugar?]

[Tomatoes with sugar are my favorite! Sweet and tangy, refreshing and cuts through the grease. A summer essential! Meow~]

[Be good now. Kitties can't eat tomatoes.]

He Jianing slowly raised his hand and looked blankly at the director.

"Then this dish counts as something our team made, right?"

"That's right!"

At the affirmative answer, a sweet smile immediately blossomed on his face.

"You're so amazing, President Lu. I never would've thought to make this dish."

Lu Ye ignored him and turned to Xie Lin, who was laughing so hard he was almost in tears.

"Shall I make your team's dishes for you?"

"...How would that work..."

They couldn't serve four plates of tomatoes with sugar!

Lu Ye curved his lips and lifted a finger to brush the tip of Xie Lin's nose.

"Let your husband show you what he can do!"

"..."

Before he could blow up, Lu Ye had already tied on an apron while humming a tune and turned back to the stove.

He fished a lively, thrashing grass carp out of the basin and pinned it to the cutting board.

[No way. Doggy Lu can actually cook? Fish is so hard to make. One wrong move and it tastes horribly fishy!]

[What's he making?]

[I'll give him this, he looks the part, but after Film Emperor Fu's fish-eye disaster, let's wait and see.]

Lu Ye bent slightly, pinning the fish with one hand and holding the knife in the other. The blade slid along the bones as he sliced the flesh and removed the pin bones.

Before long, the whole grass carp had become a plate of fresh fish slices. He added cooking wine, salt, egg white, and starch in turn, then mixed everything evenly with a few motions of his hand.

He heated the wok, poured in oil, and added dried chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger, and garlic. With a sizzle, the fragrant red oil rolled with waves of heat...

Xie Lin's eyes grew wider and wider. His nostrils fluttered, and he stood up at the aroma, almost drooling onto the ground.

"Uh...put in extra bean sprouts and tofu skin. I like those."

"Sure~"

Lu Ye looked up at him with a chuckle, his spatula flying without pause.

A faint blush immediately spread across Xie Lin's face, burning all the way to the tips of his ears.

[Oh my god, who could resist a handsome man who can cook?]

[Confirmed. President Lu really can cook. That Sichuan boiled fish technique is seriously authentic.]

[So the tomatoes with sugar earlier were just to piss Fu Yunxi off, huh?]

[Haha, a man who always has to win!]

In under forty minutes, there was Sichuan boiled fish, stir-fried beef, blanched choy sum, cold shredded potato salad, sweet-and-sour ribs, loofah with scrambled eggs, fish-fragrant shredded pork, plus the tomatoes with sugar.

All eight dishes were brought to the table one after another, their aroma almost enough to steal everyone's souls.

Lu Ye was about to untie his apron when he seemed to remember something. He walked over to Xie Lin and turned around.

"Wifey, help me untie it!"

Xie Lin was still thinking, How could Lu Ye possibly know how to cook? His hands reached out unconsciously.

[Aaah, this is so sweet. Tao Miaomiao has such a married-wife vibe.]

[I can't take it. President Lu is so alpha, and he even cooks for his wife. What an absolute gem of a man. Love him, love him.]

[I'm a fan now. This couple needs to be locked together forever. I've swallowed the key.]

Seeing the four of them seated at the table, Lu Ye took half a piece of whole-wheat bread out from inside his clothes and wandered toward the shade of a tree, nibbling as he went.

Xie Lin stared at his retreating figure and fell silent for a moment.

"Lu Ye, come eat!"

Then he looked at the director.

"The rules didn't say we couldn't invite other guests to share lunch, right?"

The director smiled, his eyes narrowing.

"That's right!"

Lu Ye stopped in his tracks, then his eyes lit up. He carefully wrapped up the bread he had taken a bite of, tucked it back inside his clothes, and rushed over in a few strides to sit beside Xie Lin.

He grinned, showing a mouthful of bright white teeth.

"I knew my wife cared about me!"

Sitting on the other side, Fu Yunxi jabbed hard at the white rice in his bowl with his chopsticks and blew two blasts of air through his nose.

"Hmph, hmph!"

"Huh?"

Lu Ye looked around with an exaggerated expression.

"Whose pig is grunting?"

Fu Yunxi's hand paused. Since Lu Ye had made all the food, he couldn't very well lash out. He could only swallow his anger and bury his head in his bowl, shoveling rice into his mouth.

[Is Fu Yunxi sick in the head? Hurry up and invite our Ningbao! He's practically crying, okay?]

[Everyone's at the table except Ningbao, standing all alone to the side. Sob, sob, he's so pitiful.]

[Honestly, Film Emperor Fu really does have issues. Their pairing was just publicity, right? Have they fallen out now?]

[Unlike our Lu Lin. The boys themselves are feeding us sweet moments. One look and you know it's real!]