Cheng Che opened his eyes, held his breath, and focused his gaze on the source of the sound.
Bedroom orientation.
The doorknob turned slightly.
He clenched his right hand slightly, the power of [ Born with Divine Strength ] gathering between his knuckles, ready to be unleashed.
Then the door opened.
Su Miaoyin came out wearing pajamas, her hair was messy, and she kept yawning and rubbing her eyes as she walked.
Halfway there, she put down her hand and saw Cheng Che sitting on the sofa. Her eyes lit up immediately.
She pounced on him like a kitten, crashing into his arms, burying her face in his chest, and letting out a satisfied hum.
Cheng Che paused for a moment, then loosened his fist and couldn't help but laugh.
"I thought it was a thief."
Su Miaoyin lifted her head from his embrace, rested her chin on his chest, looked at him without saying a word, but the adoration in her eyes was almost overflowing.
Being stared at like that by her felt like Cheng Che had swallowed a mouthful of ice-cold cola, a refreshing sensation running from his throat to his stomach.
He reached out and touched her head.
Are you hungry? I'll cook for you.
Upon hearing this, Su Miaoyin tilted her head back, her expression brightening instantly, her tone carrying a smug "You didn't expect that, did you?"
"I've already made it for you!"
Cheng Che's expression froze for a moment.
Su Miaoyin's cooking skills... Several images flashed through his mind, then he coughed and said, "Let me see."
Su Miaoyin jumped up from his arms, grabbed his hand, and walked briskly towards the dining room.
Several plates were placed on the table in the dining room, each covered with a stainless steel dish.
She let go of his hand, stood beside the table, placed her hands on the cover, glanced back at him, and looked at him with an expectant light in her eyes.
"Ta-da!"
She lifted the first cover.
Cheng Che glanced at it, then his expression froze.
The plate contained a bunch of translucent things, fried until curled and twisted, coated with a layer of reddish-brown sauce. In the sauce, you could see undissolved chili powder and a few dark peppercorn shells. The whole dish smelled very spicy, mixed with an indescribable fishy odor.
"What kind of dish is this?" Cheng Che forced a smile.
Su Miaoyin proudly raised her chin. "Spicy fish scales!"
She then lifted the second cover.
There were four dark, charred things on the plate. Their shapes were barely recognizable as pig's trotters, but their surfaces were charred black, with one spot even showing a charred sheen.
"Charcoal-grilled sow's trotters!"
The third dish contains a bowl of soup. The color of the soup is hard to describe, somewhere between gray and brown, with a few unidentified objects floating on the surface, which look like some kind of food that has been cooked and then solidified again.
"This is..." Su Miaoyin thought for a moment, "Braised... never mind, you'll know once you try it."
Cheng Che sat down in the chair, looked at the table full of dishes, and took a deep breath.
He picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of spicy fish scale, and put it in his mouth.
A strange taste and texture exploded in my mouth.
The spiciness was intense, but it couldn't mask the fishy smell of the fish scales underneath. The texture was hard and chewy; after a couple of chews, it felt like biting into some kind of plastic.
He chewed for the third time and felt his eyes getting a little hot.
Su Miaoyin sat opposite him, resting her chin on her hands, her eyes shining as she looked at him.
Cheng Che forced himself to swallow the mouthful, then picked up a piece of food with his chopsticks and held it to her lips. "Have you tried it?"
Su Miaoyin shook her head. "I didn't have time. I was too tired after I finished, so I went to sleep for a while."
Cheng Che moved the chopsticks forward a little more. "Try it."
Su Miaoyin glanced at him, then opened her mouth to take it.
I chewed it twice.
Then her expression changed from expectation to confusion, then to pain. She bent over, spat all the fish scales into her hand, raised her head, her eyes were red, her mouth was pursed, and her voice was trembling with sobs.
"Did I cook it that badly?"
Cheng Che didn't hold back, laughing, "You think you can mess with me? Do you think I'm too young to have never seen 'My Own Swordsman '?"
Su Miaoyin pouted, threw the vomit into the trash can, slumped onto the table, and muttered, "I clearly followed the recipe."
Cheng Che stood up, ruffled her hair, and walked towards the kitchen. "I'll do it."
Su Miaoyin lay on the table, watching his back as he moved around in the kitchen, washing vegetables, chopping vegetables, cooking, and heating oil.
The movements were very practiced, as if they had done it many times before.
The firelight from the stove illuminated his profile, flickering between light and shadow, but his overall features remained steady.
As she looked at it, her eyes lit up again, the corners of her mouth turned up, and she rested her chin on the back of her hand, remaining motionless.
Cheng Che turned around and glanced at her. "What are you looking at?"
Su Miaoyin didn't speak, but smiled and muttered softly, "Beautiful."
Cheng Che shook his head and turned back to continue cooking.
The two sat at the dining table, eating the meal Cheng Che had prepared again: scrambled eggs with tomatoes, shredded pork with green peppers, and a bowl of seaweed and egg drop soup. Su Miaoyin ate quickly, her chopsticks moving back and forth between the plate and bowl, muttering, "What you made is a hundred times better than what I made."
Cheng Che glanced at her. "I'll remember that spicy fish scale dish of yours for the rest of my life."
Su Miaoyin glared at him, but the corners of her mouth were turned up.
After they finished eating, Cheng Che cleared the table, and Su Miaoyin followed him into the kitchen, insisting on helping to wash the dishes. Cheng Che let her wash them while he leaned against the counter and watched. She washed the dishes very carefully, rinsing each bowl three times, rubbing her fingers in circles along the rims, as if she were doing something very important.
After washing, she shook the water off her hands, turned around, and naturally leaned into his arms, pressing her face against his chest without saying a word.
Cheng Che reached out and hugged her, resting his chin on the top of her head.
The kitchen was quiet, with only the refrigerator humming. The night view of Capital City filtered through the gaps in the blinds, casting thin lines on the floor.
After a while, Su Miaoyin spoke up in a muffled voice.
" Cheche."
"Um."
I'm graduating next year.
Cheng Che hummed in response but didn't reply.
"I still don't know what to do." Her voice lowered a little. "I studied economics for four years, but I didn't learn anything. I'm okay at playing the piano, and I've learned some arrangement, but if I had to say what to do, I don't really have a direction. Some of my classmates from the department became teachers, some went to music stores, and some changed careers. I thought about it, and it doesn't seem like any of them are suitable for me."
Cheng Che looked down at her. Her face was buried in his chest, so he couldn't see her expression, but there was a faint sense of confusion in her voice.
He thought for a moment.
Su Miaoyin had mentioned once before that she wanted to be his assistant.
He took it as a joke at the time and didn't take it seriously.
But now that she's talking about the confusion she feels after graduation, that thought has resurfaced.
Try to tease her.
Anyway, she's from a wealthy family, so she's not worried about finding a job.
"How about..." he began, his tone casual, as if he were just mentioning it offhand, "You try being my assistant for a while?"
Su Miaoyin lifted her head from his embrace, her eyes lighting up instantly.
"Real?"
"Why don't you give it a try?" Cheng Che said mischievously. "Anyway, Chen Wei can't handle it all by herself. Why don't you go along and see if it suits you?"
He felt that Su Miaoyin probably wouldn't agree.
Before he could finish speaking, Su Miaoyin had already jumped up and down in his arms.
"I'll take it! I'll take it!"
Cheng Che's expression froze.
He looked at Su Miaoyin's excited, glowing face, his mind racing through what he had just said, and then inwardly cursed himself, "Idiot."