There was an ATM next to the hospital. Before they departed, He Chuzhou took Pei Xi there and withdrew two thousand in cash.

“This should be enough to take a taxi for emergencies and such. Any more, and you wouldn’t be able to fit it in your pocket.”

He folded the money and put it into Pei Xi’s pocket with a pat: “Okay, let’s go back and find your phone.”

Pei Xi couldn’t help but touch it, then touch it again.

He Chuzhou laughed: “What are you doing?”

Pei Xi: “It seems I haven’t carried cash with me for a long time. It feels……”

He couldn’t think of a suitable word to describe his current mood, and in the end, he could only give a general summary: “It feels very amazing.”

“Just this is amazing? I’ll take you to experience something even more amazing when I have time.”

He Chuzhou smiled, spun the car key around his finger twice, and walked toward the parking lot.

But after taking a few steps, someone grabbed his sleeve from behind.

He turned around, but the person behind him wasn’t looking at him. Instead, his head was lowered as he moved his hand down to find his palm and hold it.

Pei Xi was not as tall as him, and his build was not bigger than his, so of course his hands were not as big either.

His fingers were slender and well-proportioned, with distinct bones and a slightly cool temperature. That hand would certainly not be mistaken for a girl’s, but holding it now, it gave him a different feeling.

When their palms touched, He Chuzhou’s brain suddenly jammed.

He didn’t know how to describe this feeling. After some thought, he could only use the word he had just laughed at: 

Really……amazing.

It was subtle and indescribable.

Unexpectedly good to hold, unexpectedly a perfect fit, and unexpectedly amazing.

Holding his hand, Pei Xi found that this person was not going anywhere, and wondered: “Chuzhou, what’s wrong?”

“Hm? Oh, nothing.”

He Chuzhou rubbed the tip of his nose with his other hand, looking away from their clasped palms: “I was just thinking about what we should have for lunch later.”

He started to walk forward again, only the presence of that hand was so strong that he couldn’t help but looked sideways at the glass windows of the roadside shops.

Two figures with different body shapes, but equally slim and tall, were reflected in the windows. Holding hands tightly, they walked side by side under the blue sky and white clouds.

*

*

“Have you looked under the bed?”

“In the drawers in the study?”

“What about the cracks in the sofa?”

“There’s nothing here, did you leave it in the kitchen?”

“No, I didn’t do anything last night—”

Pei Xi fell silent mid-sentence, then fell into self-doubt with a frown: “Did I cook for myself last night? Why don’t I remember……”

He tried hard to remember what had happened the night before, repeatedly teetering on the edge of dizziness. A big palm descended from the sky in time to grab the crown of his head, pressing down on it with a bit of force: “Stop!”

Pei Xi was like an old radio with the stop button pressed. Once his thoughts were interrupted, he immediately returned to a blank state.

“Stop thinking about it. The more you think about it, the more confused you’ll become.”

He Chuzhou stopped him from recalling memories that were useless and had a high probability of hurting his head: “First, we’ll search everywhere, and if we can’t find it, I’ll buy you a new one. It’s just that there might be some trouble with the card replacement and data retrieval.”

Pei Xi nodded obediently: “Okay.”

Preparing for the worst, He Chuzhou told Pei Xi to find his ID card and get it ready. Then he made his way to the kitchen and rummaged around in a final attempt.

Unexpectedly, it actually bore fruit.

He took the nearly battery-drained phone down from the top cabinet. Not only was he surprised that Pei Xi had put his phone in such a tricky place, but he was also surprised that—

“You can actually cook?”

Hearing this, Pei Xi was silent for a moment: “Chuzhou, that means you think that all the meals I cooked for you before were actually takeaway, right?”

He Chuzhou: “…….”

Damn. He carelessly didn’t keep his mouth shut.

“No, of course not.”

His mind spun rapidly as he tried to salvage the situation: “What I meant is that…..”

“It’s no use quibbling.”

Pei Xi calmly put the ID card he had just found into his hand, pushed him aside, and said word by word: “We’re having lunch at home today. I’ll cook while you watch.”

He Chuzhou touched his nose angrily and stood in the corner in a well-behaved manner, where he wouldn’t get in the way, and to atone for his “indiscriminate words.”

Pei Xi easily found a bright blue apron in the bottom cabinet. He arranged the cooking table, then turned and took the ingredients he needed from the refrigerator.

Everything proceeded in an orderly and convincing manner.

He Chuzhou watched for a while, lamenting his mistake.

But he couldn’t be blamed entirely. After all, Pei Xi seemed like someone who was above the material attractions of the world, and was incompatible with the mundane workings of the kitchen and daily life.

In order to prove himself, Pei Xi did not allow him to step in and help. He Chuzhou had nothing to do, so he took advantage of his penalty period to secretly look at the two revised plans in his email box.

When he was finished reading, he took a look at the ID card Pei Xi had just thrust into his hand—

Twenty-six?

He was actually two years younger than He Chuzhou!

His eyebrows jumped, and his guilty conscience from coaxing a certain someone to call him ‘gege’ also immediately vanished without a trace.

He was only twenty-six, so it was natural for him to call him ‘gege.’

The ID card was valid for ten years, and the photo was still from when Pei Xi was a teenager. His appearance was not much different from now. He was already good-looking enough to leave others in the dust, only at that time, he was more immature and boyish.

……Seventeen-year-old Pei Xi.

He chewed these words over, and the corners of his mouth turned up uncontrollably.

At seventeen, he would have been in high school.

The best high school in Wancheng was the high school affiliated with Wan University. It had capable teachers and a superior teaching environment. Even the school uniforms were famously good-looking.

Pei-calico’s beautiful and refined face, paired with a youthful school uniform. There was no telling what kind of stir he caused at school back then.

It was a pity.

Such a pity that he had already gone abroad at that time.

He took a few more regretful glances, then finally put his phone back into his pocket and looked up—

The person who had caused a stir on campus was calmly throwing two pitted tomatoes he had failed to peel into the trash can.

“?”

His smile paused, and he shifted his gaze to the right.

There were a lot of things on the previously empty cooking table: 

Potatoes cut into various shapes; pieces of broccoli in disarray; green onions chopped into thin pieces; Wagyu beef that had been blanched in boiling water but was still not yet thawed inside…..

“……?”

He was about to say something, but Pei Xi suddenly turned around and stretched out his hand: “Chuzhou, give me my cell phone.”

He reflexively handed over the phone: “What do you need it for?”

Pei Xi’s expression remained unchanged: “I forgot how to do it, so I’m going to look it up.”

“…….”

He hesitated to speak several times, and in the end, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Pei Xi cooked at his own pace.

Even though he kept making mistakes, and even though he failed to follow the step-by-step tutorial, he still showed extraordinary calmness.

The original plan was to make scrambled eggs with tomato first, but because he failed to peel the tomatoes, the Baidu recipe became egg and three delicacy soup.

But after beating the eggs into the hot water along with their broken eggshells, he discovered that the eggs in three delicacy soup must be stirred and fried first.

Thus, the website page changed from three delicacy soup to boiled poached eggs.

As a result, there were more eggs than water. In addition, he felt uneasy seeing the white foam floating on the water’s surface, so he kept fishing and fishing it out…..

In the end, his query turned from boiled poached eggs to pan-fried poached eggs.

Disregarding the taste, boiled-then-fried eggs were not very elegant or attractive in appearance.

Pei Xi cared about this very much, so after brief consideration, he turned to take a bag of bread from the refrigerator, then put the eggs on the bread along with some greens that he mistook for lettuce leaves.

When a sandwich with a ridiculous production process and an outrageous shape was handed to him, He Chuzhou felt that his brain had shrunk.

He had made a mistake, and spoken too early.

Pei Xi: “Okay, try it.”

He Chuzhou silently adjusted his breathing.

Bear with it. Children needed encouragement when they tried something for the first time.

With this idea in mind, he grabbed the sandwich and took a cautious bite.

Pei Xi tilted his head: “How is it?”

He Chuzhou: “……The taste is very rich.”

Soft yet crispy, charred yet fragrant, with some eggshells for good measure.

Pei Xi was very satisfied. He took the other half and put it into his mouth.

He Chuzhou: “ ! ”

He grabbed it with quick reflexes and took two more hasty bites to show that it was indeed delicious. Then he set his piece aside and took this person straight out of the kitchen.

Pei Xi didn’t understand: “What’s wrong?”

He Chuzhou: “Be good, let’s go out to eat.”

Pei Xi: “Why? Isn’t everything already done?”

He Chuzhou: “I remembered that I made a restaurant reservation this morning. If I don’t go and get my deposit back, I’ll lose money.”

Pei Xi was mystified: “What kind of restaurant requires a deposit?”

He Chuzhou skewed his eyes: “I don’t know, I’ll take you to see and experience it. Let’s go~”

*

*

The restaurant was located in a shopping mall in the city center. It had a nice environment, and the taste was pretty good.

But Pei Xi wasn’t very hungry yet, so he put his fork down without eating much. His attention flickered, falling on the young couple at the table in front of them.

The young couple were taking photos. Wearing clothes of the same style and in similar colors, they made faces and smiled broadly, appearing very intimate.

He watched them thoughtfully for a while, then quickly looked at the person opposite him: “Chuzhou, want to go clothes shopping?”

He Chuzhou didn’t know where this sudden idea had come from, but it happened to be convenient that they were at a shopping mall. After dinner, he took this person to the men’s clothing area on the fourth floor.

Like a lot of men, He Chuzhou had never been interested in shopping.

He always stuck to the same brands aside from custom-made suits, and the rest was all due to Ms. Chu picking up a couple of pieces for him when she went shopping for new clothes.

In the words of Ms. Chu, when it came to food and clothing, He Chuzhou was as easy to handle as his father.

But today was different.

He seemed to have discovered something he had never known before, the fun of shopping that Ms. Chu and He Aiyue were so passionate about.

“This one, this one, this one.”

“This one isn’t bad either.”

“You haven’t tried this color yet, have you? How about you try this one on?”

He turned to pick out a bunch, and Pei Xi didn’t object. He accepted them all and returned to the fitting room to try them on one by one.

“My Pei-calico looks good no matter what he wears.”

He Chuzhou happily paid outside and asked the clerk to pack up all of the things he had just tried on, leaving nothing behind.

Pei Xi quickly changed into the last set and came out.

The inner layer was white, and the casual jacket was light blue with white lines. The light color scheme went with his cool, neither arrogant nor impetuous look, lending a pure, clean aura to his face.

This was very different from his usual suit-and-tie appearance. If he was thrown into a crowd of students at the gate after school, he would definitely not seem out of place.

He Chuzhou’s eyes flickered, and his smile widened.

Every outfit had looked good.

But this was the best one today.

There were quite a few girls choosing men’s clothing in the store. Holding clothes in their hands, they couldn’t stop looking in this direction with bright eyes, and whispered to the clerk accompanying them to ask if he had more in the same style.

He Chuzhou went over to help Pei Xi adjust his collar, and suddenly asked: “Have the uniforms of the university-affiliated high school changed over the years?” 

Pei Xi thought for a moment, then shook his head: “I don’t know, I haven’t been there in a long time.”

Sure enough, it was that secondary school.

Success flashed through He Chuzhou’s eyes, and he retracted his hand: “Just wear this for now. It will be a hassle to change.”

Pei Xi had no objections: “Okay.”

The clerk packed Pei Xi’s original clothes with the others, and while He Chuzhou was leaving his address and delivery time, Pei Xi asked the clerk: “Can you help me pack another set of these same styles?”

The clerk was taken aback: “You mean you want two sets of each style?”

Pei Xi nodded: “The size should be two sizes larger.”

Noticing the confused look from He Chuzhou’s side, he turned around and asked naturally: “Aren’t you going to wear one?”

He Chuzhou looked at these clothes that clearly did not match his style……

It wasn’t impossible.

Thus, he took out his phone and payed the bill again, in good spirits: “Do what he said, please.”

“You brothers have such a good relationship.”

The clerk said with a smile: “The last time someone bought the same style in our store, it was a pair of twins who had just graduated and were inseparable.”

“Brothers?”

When Pei Xi heard this, he frowned and corrected him firmly: “We’re not brothers, we’re husb—mmph!”

He Chuzhou covered his mouth with a quick hand.

Facing the clerk with a question mark on his face, He Chuzhou smiled and explained: “What he means is that we are such good friends it’s like we’re related, but we’re not brothers.”

“En, he is not good with words and occasionally has a bit of an accent.”

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Chapter 16 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 18