"Chen Shuo."
Su Xiyan's cold noble lady voice sounded behind him.
Chen Shuo didn't even turn his head: "Why are you calling me?"
Su Xiyan walked up two steps, coming to Chen Shuo's side, and asked: "Where did you just put your hand?"
Chen Shuo turned his back again, with his back facing Su Xiyan: "I just hugged your waist, so what?"
"If I hadn't reacted quickly, the hot oil would have splattered all over you."
"Don't thank me, who told me to be a warm-hearted guy."
Su Xiyan: "..."
In fact, what she wanted to ask was where he had put his hand, thinking Chen Shuo would demonstrate again.
She didn't expect that Chen Shuo would actually dodge her?
"Don't get in the way here, it affects my cooking skills." Chen Shuo shooed Su Xiyan out of the kitchen.
"You just go out and wait to eat."
At this moment, the steaming pot's timer dinged, indicating the time was up.
Chen Shuo picked up his chopsticks, clipped a small piece of fish, and tasted it.
It seems a little bland? But with the steamed fish soy sauce poured over it, it should be just right.
Su Xiyan, who had already been pushed to the kitchen door by Chen Shuo, came back again,
and poked her head in from behind Chen Shuo: "Are you stealing food?"
Chen Shuo: "This is called taste testing, do you even know how to speak properly?"
Su Xiyan: "I want to taste test too."
Chen Shuo resignedly said: "Fine, the steamed fish was made for you to eat anyway, want to try it?"
With clean-cut fingers holding the chopsticks, he deliberately found a piece of fish without bones, dipped it in a little soup, before passing the chopsticks over to Su Xiyan.
Su Xiyan's little head moved forward slightly, her cherry lips parted, and she accepted the fish Chen Shuo handed over.
The fish was very tender and the soup was very tasty too, the taste was not bad.
Chen Shuo asked: "How is it?"
Su Xiyan nodded, though there was some degree of denial: "It's passable! Barely passes."
Chen Shuo: "..."
Oh well, he didn't intend for her to praise him anyway.
"The steamed fish is done, bring it out! I'll make the mushroom soup and we can eat."
Chen Shuo thought Su Xiyan would refuse, but unexpectedly, she brought the fish out without any fuss.
Watching Su Xiyan's departing back, Chen Shuo couldn't help but shake his head, thinking, there wasn't once where this woman acted according to common sense.
But now, Su Xiyan didn't get angry so easily anymore.
If it was like before, just hugging her waist, Chen Shuo estimated he would have been torn apart by her then and there.
Speaking of which, who knows if Su Xiyan is brewing a big move?
This woman plays emotional games expertly.
Su Xiyan carried the steamed fish and placed it on the dining table in the living room.
Flower knife marks decorated the fish, the meat inside looked white and flawless, making it seem very delicious.
Steamed fish soy sauce was poured around it, emanating an extremely tempting aroma.
After eating Chen Shuo’s home-cooked meals for a while,
even the most delicious cuisines of five-star hotels now tasted bland to Su Xiyan.
Her appetite had become quite picky from such down-to-earth flavors.
Her phone rang, it was a WeChat message from her bestie Cheng Xinran.
[Xiyan, the west side of the city detected vampire activity. But the vampires concealed themselves very well, couldn’t detect their exact location.]
[West side? Isn’t that around Wangjing Media College? ]
[Yes yes yes, that's right, how did you know Xiyan?]
[Our Nanli University has a friendly match with Wangjing Media College’s kendo club. Traces of vampires were discovered among their kendo club members.]
[Wow wow wow Xiyan, you had such important information yet didn’t tell me, wuwuwu~~~]
Cheng Xinran pretended to be aggrieved. Su Xiyan only just remembered that being busy training with Chen Shuo recently made her forget to tell Cheng Xinran about this lead.
Her fair fingers slid across the phone screen:
[Have been a bit busy recently, forgot to tell you. Telling you now isn’t late either! The kendo club match hasn’t started yet!]
[Xiyan, how did you know ah?]
[Chen Shuo told me.]
Even through the phone, Su Xiyan could feel Cheng Xinran’s shock. This girl sent over multiple exclamation marks continuously.
[How does he know? Isn’t he just an ordinary insignificant assistant? Xiyan, how many things have you still not told me?]
Su Xiyan didn't know how to explain things to her bestie Cheng Xinran for the moment, so she simply fled.
[Xinran, this can’t be clearly explained in a few words. When there’s time I’ll treat you to a meal and we can talk face-to-face.]
As soon as eating was mentioned, Cheng Xinran immediately perked up.
[Good good, I’ll pick the place.]
Su Xiyan replied with an OK gesture, ending the conversation.
After putting her phone down, Su Xiyan looked back in the direction of the kitchen, listening to the sounds of pots and pans coming from inside. She felt somewhat complicated inside.
She also didn’t know how long Chen Shuo’s vampire identity could be kept hidden.
If his identity was exposed, how would she explain things to the demon-hunting organization?
Su Xiyan clenched her fist, recalling that when she was transferred to Suzhou city, she had already secretly made a resolve—wherever Su Xiyan passed through, she absolutely would not allow the existence of vampires. Hunting down all vampires and becoming a legendary demon-hunter was Su Xiyan’s lifelong dream.
But it seemed everything had an exception.
Chen Shuo was Su Xiyan’s exception.
Chen Shuo’s voice came from the kitchen: “Heat pads are ready, braised pork is coming!”
On the table, Chen Shuo bought quite a few silicone heat pads. Cute cartoon patterns.
Su Xiyan took several and arranged them on the tabletop.
Wearing insulated gloves, Chen Shuo brought the braised pork over.
The sandpot still had residual heat, the braised pork sizzling, aroma overflowing.
Seeing the neat row of heat pads on the table, Chen Shuo was very helpless: “The heat pads are so close together, how to put the bowls down?”
“Spread them out to put down, otherwise the few bowls would be squeezed against each other.”
Chen Shuo put the sandpot on one of the heat pads, and reached out to spread the heat pads apart slightly.
Unexpectedly, Su Xiyan’s fair fingers also reached for the same heat pad.
Chen Shuo still had insulated gloves on, but when his hand touched the back of Su Xiyan’s hand, Su Xiyan still reflexively withdrew her hand.
In that instant, the only sound left in the entire living room was the sizzling from the sandpot.
“Cough cough!” Chen Shuo coughed dryly twice to break the awkwardness. “I’m wearing gloves, didn’t even touch you, could it be you want me to take responsibility for you even with this?”
Su Xiyan looked meaningfully at Chen Shuo for a long time, only asking one sentence: “You still want to take responsibility for me?”
Chen Shuo thought about it and said, “I, Chen Shuo, a righteous man of my word, if I really held your hand, I could consider taking responsibility for you. But I didn’t even touch you! It doesn’t count.”
“How about you let me actually hold your hand...”
Su Xiyan squeezed out a few words from between gritted teeth: “...You try...”
Oh no! She’s angry again? It’s been so long since I last heard this murderous tone.