Chapter 52

Chapter 52

◎Lunch Together.◎

Ren Suiyi, blocked at the doorway by Meng Qi, raised an eyebrow and asked, "What's wrong?"

Coming back to himself, Meng Qi shook his head and quickly stepped aside to clear the entrance, his answer all over the place. "Oh, no... it's not... well, I was just dazzled by your luxurious turtle tank and didn't react in time."

He actually wanted to ask how much the tank cost but held back. After all, he was still playing the role of an ultra-wealthy scion and couldn't appear too unsophisticated.

"A friend of a friend who runs an aquarium gave it to me. They're just small diamonds, nothing too valuable," Ren Suiyi said, glancing down at the luxurious turtle tank in his arms. As if just realizing something, he looked up at Meng Qi and asked, "Should I get one for Meng Lingzhi as well?"

"No, no, no, that's not necessary. Our Meng Lingzhi is a male turtle; keeping it simple for him is fine."

"Huh?" Ren Suiyi clearly didn't follow Meng Qi's logic. After hearing Meng Qi's explanation, he tilted his head, his face a mask of confusion.

Meng Qi immediately clarified, "It's an old saying: raise boys tough, raise girls pampered. If everyone says it, there must be some truth to it."

Ren Suiyi immediately shook his head in disagreement, clearly not accepting Meng Qi's viewpoint. "If I had a child, whether it's a boy or a girl, I would give them the best of everything. I wouldn't let them suffer even a tiny bit."

Meng Qi thought to himself that his idea of "raising tough" didn't mean making the child suffer. A bag of turtle food costs over a hundred yuan—Meng Lingzhi wasn't suffering at all.

But he didn't argue with Ren Suiyi. After all, he hadn't bought Meng Lingzhi a diamond-studded tank, so he couldn't really argue on this point.

The newly purchased tank was luxurious, but it couldn't be used right away. It also had to be disinfected first. Meng Qi stood in front of the sink, carefully scrubbing the inside of the tank several times and rinsing each of the colorful uncut gemstones. As he washed the small diamonds on the outside of the tank, he honestly started to feel frustrated.

The veterinarian had said that the turtle container needed to be cleaned and disinfected two to three times a week, and the water had to be changed regularly. Sunning the water was also a big task.

Meng Lingzhi's simple glass tank was manageable. Despite its large volume, it had few items inside, and the tank itself wasn't expensive, so Meng Qi could clean it easily in just a few minutes. But Ren Baizhi's diamond-studded tank and the gems inside, though small, were valuable and a huge hassle to clean. He kept worrying whether the diamonds would fall off, and if they did, whether he could pick them up in time before they washed down the drain. Plus, they scratched his hands...

Seriously, could he just give up? Could he let Ren Suiyi take the tank and the turtle away together?

Ren Suiyi was leisurely leaning against the doorframe, watching with great interest as Meng Qi scrubbed the turtle tank. Which only frustrated Meng Qi more. The tank was Ren Suiyi's, the turtle was Ren Suiyi's, and it even shared Ren Suiyi's surname. So why was he scrubbing the tank and raising the turtle for Ren Suiyi... Was he just born to be a nanny?

"Why don't you let the housekeeper do this?" Ren Suiyi suddenly asked, hitting a sore spot.

Meng Qi replied gloomily, "I let her go."

"Why? Did you hire a new one?"

Meng Qi paused and replied calmly, "No, and I don't plan to. I think I can manage on my own."

Hearing this, Ren Suiyi took a step forward, wrapped his large hand around Meng Qi's head, and ruffled his hair a few times. He said with a sigh, full of emotion, "You've grown up. Much more sensible than before."

Of course he was sensible. In this unfamiliar situation, he was doing everything he could to survive. Not dying in childbirth didn't guarantee he wouldn't die from other causes. The closer he got to that day, the more difficult the path became, and the more cautiously he had to tread.

For now, he had successfully defused a potential landmine, taking a small step toward success and boosting his odds of survival just a little. So he definitely wouldn't backtrack and bring another landmine into his life.

After cleaning Ren Baizhi's luxurious turtle tank, Meng Qi first placed Ren Baizhi inside to let it adjust to its new environment. He planned to add water later, once the tap water on the balcony had sat in the sun a bit longer, strictly following the veterinarian's instructions for raising turtles.

True to form, Ren Suiyi had only bought the turtle tank, not the turtle food. Meng Qi hesitated for a moment before asking Ren Suiyi, "Can I feed it Meng Lingzhi's turtle food? Or do you have a specific brand in mind?"

"Let it eat the same. Judging by its dopey look, it probably isn't picky."

Meng Qi was speechless.

What kind of logic was that? Was there a necessary connection between being slow-witted and being picky about food?

He was too lazy to ask and didn't dare argue. Meng Qi silently took out Meng Lingzhi's turtle food and fed Ren Baizhi a few pellets. Despite its small size, the little turtle made quite a commotion while eating, jumping around and chasing the tweezers in Meng Qi's hand endlessly. It was clearly a lot more playful than Meng Lingzhi.

They say little kids are full of energy. Maybe Meng Lingzhi was like this when he was young too, but now that he was grown up, he always put on a calm front when showing happiness, unlike Ren Baizhi, who was extremely energetic, as if making sure the whole world knew just how happy it was.

After feeding Meng Lingzhi and Ren Baizhi, it was time to feed the humans, because Meng Qi was hungry and wanted to eat.

But Ren Suiyi was here. Whether to cook for himself or go out to eat was a real headache, which instantly stumped Meng Qi. He glanced at the blazing sun outside the window, then at the kitchen right in front of him, and finally fixed his gaze on Ren Suiyi. He asked hesitantly, "Would you think it strange if I said I wanted to cook for myself?"

Ren Suiyi rubbed his chin in thought for a couple of seconds before replying leisurely, "Yes," he paused, and just as Meng Qi was about to sigh in disappointment, he added, "but it wouldn't be strange if you invited me to join you."

"Alright," Meng Qi took a deep breath, steeled himself, and asked in turn, playing along, "I plan to cook for myself. Would you like to stay and eat together?"

"Can I order?"

"Nothing too complicated."

"Kung Pao Chicken? Is that okay?"

"I can... try, but give me five minutes to look it up online."

He had eaten stewed chicken, stir-fried chicken, and fried chicken, but he had never tried Kung Pao Chicken. He didn't even know if it was salty or sweet, braised or stewed in sauce, which part of the chicken was the main ingredient, or what side dishes were needed. He really had no idea and needed to look it up first. He meant it.

But Ren Suiyi laughed and explained that the idea of ordering was just a joke. He wasn't picky and told Meng Qi to cook however he wanted, not to worry about him.

With that, Meng Qi really stopped worrying about him and went to the kitchen to prepare the ingredients according to the menu he had planned earlier.

Meng Qi had already used the excuse of "looking it up online" to give Ren Suiyi a heads-up. He had made it clear to Ren Suiyi that his ability to cook might be due to his skill at searching online, while also subtly hinting that his cooking might disappoint Ren Suiyi, as he had no real culinary skills—he was just following online steps mechanically...

If the food happened to suit Ren Suiyi's taste, he wouldn't panic. It would just mean he had a talent for cooking, able to learn at a glance and get it right on the first try. That was all.

With over ten years of cooking experience, skilled in both knife work and wok tossing, Meng Qi began to play dumb under Ren Suiyi's watchful eyes. Once in the kitchen, he "carefully" cut the potato shreds into finger-thick strips, successfully turning the sour and spicy potato shreds into sour and spicy potato sticks;

He intentionally let the eggs in the tomato and egg stir-fry burn a little;

The shredded pork in the green pepper and shredded pork stir-fry was cooked until it was tough as nails;

When cooking the rice, he added half a bowl too much water, "clumsily" turning the rice into porridge.

Although the presentation of each dish was a mess and the cooking process could only be described as "chaotic," the flavors after they were done were still decent. This was Meng Qi's bottom line for taking the risk of cooking himself.

He had originally wanted to shoo Ren Suiyi into the living room, but after glancing at Ren Suiyi while washing the vegetables, he didn't dare. Instead, he had to improvise and put on a little act.

When the food was served, Ren Suiyi frowned and gave his evaluation: "Next time, just order takeout."

But after taking a couple of tentative bites, Ren Suiyi's expression relaxed, and he gave Meng Qi a thumbs-up with a smile: "Not bad. You have talent."

Meng Qi smiled without saying anything, thinking to himself that this talent of his was built on countless experiences, so of course it couldn't be wrong.

When he was little, his grandparents would travel farther to collect scrap metal to earn a few extra yuan. Most of the time, they would be gone the whole day.

Before he started school, his grandparents would take him with them every time they went out. After he started school and they couldn't take him anymore, they would thread the house key onto a string and hang it around his neck, letting him go home alone to eat after school at noon.

When it was cold, his grandparents would prepare the meals in advance so he could eat as soon as he got home. But when it got hot, this method no longer worked because they didn't have a refrigerator, and the yard was piled high with all kinds of scrap metal, which attracted bugs easily. So his grandparents would give him one yuan every day to buy instant noodles from the village store. He ate so many that his lips were covered in blisters and his tongue was full of sores...

Finally, with no other choice, Meng Qi started learning to cook.

That year, he was seven years old, only a little taller than the stove.

To cook properly, he had to stand on four bricks, then reduce them to three, two, one, until he no longer needed bricks at all. In fact, he even had to bend over.

And the food he cooked evolved from finger-thick potato shreds, burnt tomato and eggs, and tough shredded pork into evenly cut potato shreds only slightly thicker than hair, golden and fragrant eggs, and tender, perfectly cooked shredded pork.

Besides that, he can make a lot of other dishes, but they're all just home-cooked meals. As for those with weird names that neither he nor his grandparents have ever eaten, he simply doesn't know how to make them—like the Kung Pao chicken Ren Suiyi wanted, which he genuinely couldn't prepare.

Today's spread were all his signature dishes, ones he'd cooked often before and rarely messed up. But to avoid drawing Ren Suiyi's attention, he had to intentionally make the same mistakes he'd made when he first started cooking.

That was tough for him.

Luckily, the taste turned out okay. He wasn't overjoyed, but he wasn't bummed out either.

When Ren Suiyi gave him a thumbs-up and praised him, Meng Qi felt a little burst of pride inside, thinking he had even better skills—someday, he'd conquer the world with his cooking!

Of course not. It was just a moment of excitement and boasting. His cooking was just okay, nothing special, and definitely couldn't compare to a real chef's. Anyone who compared would see—and get totally discouraged.

But Ren Suiyi ate with great satisfaction. While he was really enjoying it, he even asked, "Will you cook a lot in the future? Can I come over for meals often?"

Meng Qi: …

If only you'd said "once in a while" instead of "often," I wouldn't have struggled so long…

The word "no" twisted on the tip of Meng Qi's tongue before he swallowed it back. The next second, he forced a smile, mustered his courage, and made a request—one that was also a subtle way to put Ren Suiyi off. "It's not impossible, but whoever doesn't cook has to do the dishes."

As expected, Ren Suiyi's expression froze for a moment. But he was clever. Since he'd hardly ever done dishes growing up except at mealtimes, he quickly thought of a solution. "Let's buy a dishwasher. I'll pay."

Meng Qi: …

"Author's Note"

I've found that waking up early, keeping to an elderly person's schedule, saves a lot of time I'd otherwise spend spacing out. I'll try to get up early from now on, maybe around four in the morning.