Chapter 78: Pastries

Chapter 78: Pastries

Since the move was already done, Lu Ran didn't make a fuss and spent the night on the second floor.

After finishing his tasks, he slept soundly, completely relaxed.

However, Shen Hongyuan and Madam Shen, upon learning that he had moved upstairs, were anxious the whole night.

They were afraid that if they closed their eyes, they would hear, "My love, across the boundless horizon..."

The next morning, Lu Ran packed his schoolbag to go to school.

After checking his items, he was about to zip it up when he frowned.

He took out the lunchbox he used to store his nutrition homework from his schoolbag.

Upon opening it, he found it empty.

Lu Ran's expression immediately darkened.

Despite the quirks of the Shen family members, only one person would be capable of such an act as "stealing homework."

Lu Ran stuffed the box into his backpack and headed straight for the third floor, walking down the stairs.

Upon reaching the third-floor corridor, he kicked open Shen Xingran's door and bluntly asked,

"Where's my homework?"

Inside the room, Mrs. Shen was assisting Shen Xingran with his outfit selection.

Upon seeing Lu Ran barge in, she instinctively took a step back. Upon hearing his question, she found it absurd:

"Why are you coming to Ranzhan for your homework when you can't find it yourself? You're already in college; who would still steal your homework?"

Lu Ran paid no attention to her words. He pushed her aside and began rifling through Shen Xingran's room like a bandit.

Shen Xingran had been prepared for this.

Yet now, seeing Lu Ran discard some of his valuable possessions as if they were trash, his face couldn't help but turn a shade greener.

"Brother, what are you doing?" Shen Xingran asked.

Madam Shen also chided, "Has he gone too far this time?"

But it was just words; she didn't dare approach him.

After rummaging for a while, Lu Ran spotted a box of pastries beside Shen Xingran's schoolbag.

He opened the box to reveal rows of pale yellow cakes.

Scanning them carefully, he precisely picked out one with a puppy pattern on it.

"There it is, my homework," he said.

Shen Xingran wore an expression of both amusement and exasperation. He then turned to Madam Shen, "Mom, aren't these my pastries?"

As he spoke, he picked one up, took a bite, and showed it to Lu Ran.

Mrs. Shen was equally baffled. "What's gotten into you? These are the green bean cakes I bought for Ranran yesterday. How can they be your homework?"

She then pouted. "If you want to eat them, just say so. I'll ask the maid to get more for you. Why go through all this trouble?"

"Stop talking nonsense! I told you these are my homework," Lu Ran said.

Seeing him about to leave with the cake, Shen Xingran grew anxious.

He looked at Mrs. Shen pitifully. "Mom... that was something you queued up to buy for me."

Mrs. Shen immediately softened.

She stood up like a protective hen, pointing at Lu Ran. "Stop right there! Give back what belongs to Ranran!"

"Bullshit! This is clearly the nutrition assignment I did in the lab!" Lu Ran argued.

Mrs. Shen instantly felt intimidated.

There was no other reason than the lingering trauma Lu Ran had inflicted on her in the past.

But considering they were currently on the third floor in a room, everything was neat and tidy.

Moreover, Lu Ran hadn't brought his dog along.

With no weapons in sight, what was there for her to fear?

At that moment, sounds came from the corridor.

The group turned to look.

It was Shen Xingyu.

He had come up from the second floor staircase.

His hair was slightly disheveled, and fatigue still lingered beneath his eyes.

His typically meticulously pressed white shirt was now unbuttoned at the collar.

"What's going on?" he asked in a deep voice.

Shen Xingyu had been exhausted lately. Last night, he had been busy moving things around until the wee hours of the morning.

Just when he finally found some leisure time this morning, he was awoken by the commotion upstairs.

The moment she saw Shen Xingyu coming up, Mrs. Shen immediately lost the last trace of panic in her.

She pointed at Lu Ran and said, "He's gone mad early in the morning, snatching away Ranran's pastry and claiming it's his homework!"

Shen Xingyu's brows knitted deeply.

"It's my nutrition assignment due today," Lu Ran explained with his head down.

Shen Xingyu glanced at what Lu Ran was holding, then at Shen Xingran.

His gaze was tranquil, not resembling Madam Shen's, who had shown an odd expression when she noticed Lu Ran holding a pastry.

Under Shen Xingyu's gaze, Shen Xingran couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

At this moment, Shen Xingran wasn't sure which side Shen Xingyu would take.

But when his gaze shifted to Madam Shen, Shen Xingyu sighed softly.

The contemplation and pondering in his eyes faded away.

Looking down at Lu Ran, he said, "Put it back. It's just a pastry, no need to fight over it."

Madam Shen immediately wore a triumphant expression.

Shen Xingran also lowered his eyes, suppressing the smile on his lips.

Lu Ran probably didn't know that their eldest brother had never cared about the truth.

While Madam Shen and Shen Xingran expected Lu Ran to be furious,

There, Lu Ran held the pastry with a puppy print in the palm of his hand, gazing at Shen Xingyu with a composed expression, and asked,

"You said this is a pastry?"

"Stop messing around, I'll...,"

Shen Xingyu's words were cut short as the pastry suddenly appeared before his lips, leaving him momentarily stunned.

"Go ahead, take a bite," Lu Ran encouraged.

Shen Xingyu paused.

He lifted his gaze to look at Lu Ran.

Expecting to see a myriad of emotions like grievance or anger on the young man's face, instead, he encountered a pair of dark, composed eyes that seemed to see through everything.

Staring at the university freshman before him, Shen Xingyu spoke with the clarity of a youth, his voice cool and collected as he said:

"You don't care whether it's Shen Xingran's pastry or my homework; you have no intention of delving into it."

"All that occupies your mind is how to swiftly resolve the situation so as not to disrupt your work and rest."

"You believe that dealing with Mrs. Shen would be troublesome and might interfere with your job, whereas I'm easier to appease, and afterwards, you can compensate me in your own way."

"That's why you chose to side with Mrs. Shen and Shen Xingran, asking me to return the item."

"Even though you're aware that what I have is most likely my own assignment."

"Just like at that banquet, you also know that I didn't push Young Master Fang."

The young man spoke at length.

Thoughts are lucid, and reasoning is coherent.

Shen Xingyu was initially taken aback by the young man's address to Madam Shen.

Then, for the first time, his gaze upon Lu Ran turned genuinely serious.

At last, there was no more of that exasperating feeling of looking at a child.

Shen Xingyu's lips trembled slightly as he uttered with great difficulty, "Y...you..."

Yet the moment his lips parted, the "pastry" held delicately in the youth's hand inched even closer.

Shen Xingyu lowered his gaze.

Seeing the once tiny figure, not even as tall as his thigh, now smiling cheekily at him and saying:

"Yet, Vice President Xiao Shen, every action comes with a cost. You can't expect me to comply obediently without doing anything in return, can you?"

"Very well," Lu Ran sighed. "I won't submit this assignment either. Since you insist it's a pastry, take a bite and eat it. I promise I'll leave without a second word."

This time, Shen Xingyu finally lowered his gaze to glance at the pastry held in the youth's hand.

Elegantly crafted, adorned with intricate patterns.

It appeared no different from the peach mountain skin mooncakes sold in pastry shops.

Madam Shen and Shen Xingran also wore puzzled expressions.

Though… due to Lu Ran's past actions, they were somewhat suspicious.

But no matter how they looked at it, that item seemed entirely ordinary.

Shen Xingran shared the same thought.

Last night, when he had seized the opportunity amidst the chaos to take this "homework" from Lu Ran's bag, he had even given it a sniff.

Its exterior seemed to exude the fragrance of a regular baked pastry.

Shen Xingyu paused for a moment before reaching out to take the pastry.

He had hesitated for a brief moment too.

But recalling that Lu Ran had just mentioned it was a nutrition assignment,

it probably wasn't some random bizarre item.

Thus, Young Master Shen slightly furrowed his brow and gently bit down.

The moment Shen Xingyu bit down.

Lu Ran sighed and began to grumble, "That elective course teacher of mine is really inhumane."

"The assignments he gives are absurdly nutritious, like mine which requires an incredibly high protein content."

"Not only that, the lab funding is very limited... I've been busy for almost two weeks, constantly trying out suitable ingredients."

Listening to Lu Ran's words, Shen Xingran found it somewhat amusing.

Why was he saying this now?

Was he really driven mad by Shen Xingyu?

But Lu Ran's tone suddenly turned joyful, "But I finally found it! I can use mealworms and Dubia roaches!"

What kind of insects were those?

What's a Dubia roach?

All three people in the room were momentarily taken aback.

Even Shen Xingyu, who was "eating" the pastry, froze.

But he had already bitten down. Out of habit, his teeth came together.

In that instant of biting down.

He felt a slight resistance from his teeth, followed by a crisp "crack."

Then, a burst of sweet and bloody fluid exploded in his mouth.

Lu Ran was still brooding over the situation:

"But when I looked it up, Dubia roaches are really expensive! But that didn't stop me because their close relative, the American cockroach, is very cheap and abundant everywhere."

"So I caught a whole net full."

Cockroach from the Americas?

Frankly, at that moment, Shen Xingyu was utterly bewildered.

He pondered slowly, wondering what "Cockroach from the Americas" referred to as a specialized term.

Slowly... he lowered his head very gradually.

Taking a glance at the "pastry" that had been bitten in his hand.

The delicate and pale yellow exterior, seemingly cute and exquisite, proved deceptive as it concealed not the filling of green bean paste within.

From the bitten gap, half of a cockroach's carcass was spurting its contents grotesquely.

Next to this semi-devoured remains, another cockroach, barely clinging to life, emerged from its hiding place, its antennae wavering as if it had finally found an exit.

Surrounding these two cockroaches were countless red mealworms, wriggling frenziedly with their bodies.

With a profound gaze, Shen Xingyu stared at the dead cockroach in his hand and the intact one before him.

It was not until the intact cockroach slowly broke free from the pastry shell and crawled onto his finger that Shen Xingyu, nearly petrified, abruptly threw the object away as if awakening from a nightmare!

Lu Ran, who had been prepared, caught it swiftly.

He spoke with excitement about his experiment, "Due to severe protein loss at high temperatures, I used a low-temperature light roasting technique. Look, Uncle Cockroach is still alive inside!"

Realizing the taste in his mouth, Shen Xingyu's face turned pale green.

He bent down to spit out the "pastry" in his mouth.

But Lu Ran raised his hand, pressing the pastry against Shen Xingyu's lips, and sternly said, "Spit what? Who told you to spit! Do you know how much effort I put into researching this recipe for two weeks?"

"Become a pastry with just one of your words?"

"Pastry, my ancestor? Eat it now, damn it!"

Shen Xingyu was smothered by this "pastry."

As the outer layer crumbled,

Grain weevils and two cockroaches spilled onto the floor.

One landed on the ground,

Vibrantly crawling about wildly.

The other straight into Shen Xingyu's shirt collar.

Madam Shen let out a scream on the spot.

Shen Xingran's expression also turned grim.

He actually put this inside his pastry box?

He even took one out and ate it just now?

The two of them immediately attempted to escape upon realizing the situation.

But Lu Ran wiped his hand on Shen Xingyu's white shirt and slammed the door shut with a kick.

"No way you're running! Not a chance!"

As he spoke, Mrs. Shen and Shen Xingran witnessed Lu Ran pull out two identical pastries as if by magic from his pocket.

He sneered at them coldly and said, "How could we enjoy a treat without you two? Here's your share!"

Without any mercy, Lu Ran crushed the pastry's outer shell with his hand and stuffed it into Mrs. Shen's mouth.

Then, he swiftly turned around and grabbed Shen Xingran's hair.

"Want the pastry your mom bought for you? It's been waiting for you!"

"Knowing that I'm trying to earn credits, it wouldn't be you, Shen Xingran, if you didn't cause some trouble!"

Shen Xingran was taken aback. "Y-You actually knew...?"

"Fool! Do you really think I spent all that time in the lab just to make one and wait for you to steal it?"

Lu Ran's eyes crinkled into a smile. "By the way, let me tell you, the protein content of the pastry's outer layer can't be too low either. But I've run out of budget, so I had to figure out a way to extract bacteria from animal feces, dry them into powder, and use that as the coating."

Before he could finish his sentence, a retching sound was heard.

Next to him, Shen Xingyu vomited.

Now, in this room that belonged solely to Shen Xingran, mealworms crawled all over the floor.

Cockroaches flew around wildly.

Some even laid large egg cases mid-flight.

At the door.

After finally returning home and hearing some commotion on the third floor, Shen Xingzhuo came to investigate only to find himself speechless.

Upon opening the door, he was greeted with a scene of utter chaos within the room.

His outstanding older brother, not only disheveled in appearance, was even shaking two cockroaches out of his shirt.

Shen Xingzhuo quietly closed the door again.

Rushing down the stairs at a speed unparalleled in his entire life, he flew out of the Shen family residence.