After Running Away With a Cub, I Became Everyone’s Favourite

 

Chapter 78

 

When Xia Qing Shu returned home, he told them about Chen Zhi Yu’s offer to become a son-in-law.

Chen Qixi was shocked. She was just bluffing Chen Rao, but she didn’t expect Chen Zhiyu to take the plunge and want to immediately join the Xia family with all his belongings.

The Xia family didn’t dare to take Chen Zhiyu the big Buddha lightly, so they left the decision to Xia Qing Shu.

Xia Qing Shu’s head was in a tangled mess.

Although his belly was not very obvious, the baby had been making a lot of noise recently and he was not sleeping very well at night, and his was always worried during pregnancy, so he was sullen during the day.

Wen Sheng had asked him out several times, but he refused. On this day, he had just woke up from a nap, when Wen Sheng came to visit in person.

Since he had promised Chen Zhiyu, he had to make it clear to Wen Sheng, and since the man had come in person, Xia Qing Shu was prepared to speak up.

Wen Sheng brought a bouquet of perfumed lilies, always so polite and courteous, and when he saw Xia Qing Shu, he put a smile on his face, placing the lilies in his arms.

Xia Qing Shu guided him to the parlour and prepared a simple tea.

“I’m sorry to have intruded.” Wen Sheng smiled gently, “I heard that you have not been feeling well recently, are you feeling better now?”

“Yes, I’m better.” Xia Qing Shu poured a cup of hot tea and put it in front of the other party.

Wen Sheng thanked him and took out two movie tickets, handing them over with both hands, “Qingshu, do you want to go out to relax, this is a new movie from our company, and it has a good reputation.”

Xia Qing Shu took a look at the movie tickets and didn’t accept them, “Sorry, Brother Sheng, I can’t go.”

Wen Sheng frowned lightly, “Is your body still not recovered?”

Xia Qing Shu raised his head and said in a small voice, “No. I’m sorry Brother Sheng, there’s something I should have told you earlier.”

Wen Sheng held the hot cup of tea, his fingers gently rubbing against the wall of the cup, “Qing Shu, take your time and tell me, I won’t be angry.”

He always had a spring-like smile on his face, Xia Qingshu was completely unprepared for such a person, and without a bit of foreshadowing, he said bluntly, “Brother Sheng, I’m pregnant.”

When Wen Sheng heard such news, the expression on his face didn’t change for a single minute, still smiling and laughing, just like hearing a commonplace thing.

“Pregnant?” Wen Sheng laughed, “It’s nothing, I can accept it, as long as you’re not married.”

The other party’s calm acceptance surprised Xia Qing Shu a little, and he pinched his fingers as he whispered, “The baby is Brother Zhiyu’s.”

Wen Sheng put down his teacup, only to find that his finger had been scalded red, but he didn’t care and didn’t even give it a second glance, “Is that so, I don’t mind.”

The other party’s calm attitude made Xia Qing Shu sit up a little, he vaguely felt that Wen Sheng was even harder to deal with than Chen Zhiyu.

Wen Sheng curved the corners of his mouth, “Qing Shu, it’s not your fault that you’re pregnant, I know you’re a good boy, as long as you’re not with Zhiyu, I’ll have a chance, right?”

Xia Qing Shu squeezed his fingers and spoke in a small but firm voice, “I promised him, I’m sorry Brother Sheng.”

Although his heart was in a mess, he hadn’t rejected Chen Zhiyu, then he should make it clear to Wen Sheng instead of continuing to be vague and ambiguous.

After these words were said, the smile on Wen Sheng’s face froze for a moment.

The large room was very quiet.

Xia Qing Shu lowered his head, his face a little red. After a few minutes, Wen Sheng stood up and said softly, “Qing Shu, I understand what you mean.”

Seeing that the other party had the intention to leave, Xia Qing Shu also followed and stood up, “Brother Sheng, do you want to sit down again, you haven’t even had your tea yet.”

Wen Sheng picked up his cup of tea, still smiling gently, “Qing Shu, thank you for the tea, I like it very much.”

After saying this, he drank it all in one go, despite the tea being piping hot.

Wen Sheng was a gentle-looking man with a graceful air, even when he was drinking hot tea and in such a hurry, his posture was still elegant.

The green tea in the white porcelain cup, was hot. Xia Qing Shu pinched the rim of the cup,  feeling the heat. But the other party had drank it up like this without leaving a single drop.

“It’s a bit of a pity.” Wen Sheng put down the tea cup,  a pair of deep eyes with a lot of hidden emotions and a little misty, “I really like you Qing Shu.”

Xia Qingshu lowered his head and kept squeezing his fingers. He was the worst at dealing with this kind of situation. In the past, when the other party hadn’t made it clear, it was fine that he didn’t know, but once he knew, he always felt that he had let down the other party’s feelings.

However, he knew that he had to be crisp when refusing, not to tease someone’s feelings.

“I’m sorry, Brother Sheng.”

“No need to be sorry, it’s not your fault.” Wen Sheng graciously turned around and left. His back was straight, not a hint of defeat at all, and even when he was rejected by someone he liked, he still maintained a refined stance.

The sunlight fell on top of his head with a light golden shimmer, and Wen Sheng’s whole body was bathed in the sunlight, looking as noble and dazzling as the way he appeared on the big screen.

Xia Qing Shu thought, ” Brother Sheng is such a good person, he will definitely find his better half.”

Wen Sheng sat in the car, looking through the rear-view mirror at the gradually distant figure, and couldn’t help but sigh, “Zhiyu’s life is better than mine.”

In a trance, he seemed to recall his high school days when he had stayed up all night studying, but still failed to beat Chen Zhiyu and had to settle for second place, and his mother was furious and scolded him for being a loser. Chen Zhiyu’s parents had never put any pressure on him in terms of studying. Chen Zhiyu has always studied happily and stress-free.

How envious.

With one hand on the steering wheel and the other on a brown pill bottle from the glove box, he unscrewed the cap and poured a few white pills into his mouth.

He chewed twice and dry swallowed.

Opening the mirror in front of him, Wen Sheng glanced at his expression-managed face , rubbed his scarlet eyes, and smiled very softly.

“What to do, I don’t want to give up yet.”

 

~

When he found out that Wen Sheng had come out of Xia’s house, Chen Zhiyu was a bit flustered.

After taking care of a few important matters at hand and asking Secretary Li to buy a few things, Chen Zhiyu rushed to the Xia house.

Chen Qixi was walking her dog in the garden and was a little surprised to see Chen Zhiyu.

Chen Zhiyu was wearing a camel-coloured trench coat with a great design. The trench coat had a great drape and an elegant texture, and was worn by him like a catwalk model. But he was carrying several gift boxes in one hand and several large bags of vegetables in the other, like a housewife who had just returned from the vegetable market, which looked very out of place.

“Zhiyu, you ……what are you doing?”

“Auntie, I got off work early today, so I bought some vegetables and will make a meal of dumplings for everyone.”

“Zhiyu, do you know how to make dumplings?”

“How hard can that be, once you learn it, you’ll know it.” In his life, Chen Zhiyu never thought that he would be a door to door son-in-law, and for this reason, he went online to study online literature about door to door son-in-laws.

The series “The Crooked Mouth Dragon King” had the most hits on the internet, and the video, although crudely filmed, was very impressive. After watching it, Chen Zhiyu briefly analysed that his actual situation didn’t quite match up with The Crooked Mouth Dragon King, but his own identity was comparable with that of the Dragon King. Just when he was at a loss, Secretary Li appeared in time and recommended to him a lot of girl-frequency farming literature, and after studying it carefully, he came up with two words: be diligent.

To gain the approval of Xia’s family, diligence is the most important thing, and a man who is diligent and can cook is even more attractive. So to begin his plan of winning the Xia’s family’s affection, he came over today to cook a meal of dumplings for them to try.

Chen Zhiyu carried the bags into the kitchen.

Chen Qixi was dressed casually, but her aura was also that of a noblewoman. She was holding her dog and looking at Chen Zhiyu with a wary face as he tied his apron and banged around in the kitchen. She looked like a malicious mother-in-law who treated her son-in-law harshly.

Forget it, let’s call Qing Shu to come.

When Xia Qingshu came over, Chen Zhiyu had just smashed a bowl.

Wearing a white shirt with his sleeves pulled up to his elbows, he watched as the white porcelain bowl slipped from his hands and fell to the ground, shattering it to pieces.

As a door to door son-in-law, he felt that cooking a decent meal was a basic  exercise, and between preparing a full-course meal and a dumpling, he chose the latter, although he always thought that a full-course meal would not be difficult for him. The dumplings were more of a ritual than a banquet, a family sitting together, reuniting and eating a dumpling in a lively manner, as an acceptance of his status.

He never imagined that he, the CEO of a hundred billion dollar conglomerate, who is capable of making complex multinational mergers and acquisitions, would fall victim to a bowl.

The dumpling filling was too difficult to mix.

Chen Zhiyu had always been very conscious of his image, and it was the first time Xia Qing Shu saw him at his wits’ end, his hands covered in oil, his nose was covered in flour, and his clothes were stained with egg liquid.

Xia Qingshu found such a scene very monumental and took a picture of it. Seeing that the other party was still chagrined, he smiled and persuaded, “Brother Zhiyu, don’t have a psychological burden, this bowl is just the usual Jingdezhen production, not Yuan Qing Hua.”

Chen Zhiyu, with a handsome face, looked purposefully towards the kitchen door, when he saw no one else, he pulled Qinshu into the kitchen, closed the door and rubbed his nose, “Fine, you laugh at me.”

Xia Qingshu dodged away and hurriedly shook his head to explain, “No.”

“Be careful of getting stabbed by broken glass.” Chen Zhiyu brought a broom and swept up the broken bowl.

Chen Rao liked to show off, he had long been used to it, whether it was Yuan Qing Hua or a ten yuan porcelain bowl from the roadside, in his eyes there was no difference, and he didn’t feel offended by Qing Shu’s remark, he just found it amusing.

Qing Shu’s little mouth, was particularly eloquent, always stabbing people in the heart from different angles, but when he relaxed and savoured it, he found such language particularly amusing.

This is also the reason why he was always choked by Qingshu at the beginning and still persevered to find his way up.

“Brother Zhiyu, why don’t I ask the aunties to help.” Xia Qingshu felt that if he let Chen Zhiyu run the show, he might go hungry today.

“No need.” Chen Zhiyu washed his hands, took out a new bowl, put the beaten minced meat in it, and added an egg to it, “Qing Shu, you just help me.”

“I… I won’t.”

Chen Zhiyu stretched out his finger and tapped open to his mobile phone on the streaming channel, which was playing a video of dumpling making, “Let’s learn together.”

Xia Qingshu: “……”

No wonder it was clumsy, it turned out that he was learning it now.

Although both of them were beginners, the operations of mixing the dough and stirring the meat filling could be completely left to the automatic food processor, rolling the dough and wrapping the dumplings were the biggest challenge.

Chen Zhiyu pulled out a mass of grey dough and pressed it against the rolling pin in a frenzy of output.

Xia Qingshu gave him a look, “Brother Zhiyu, your skin is… isn’t it a bit too big?”

Chen Zhiyu stopped the rolling pin in his hand, picked up a piece of dough the size of a washbasin and examined it up and down, “Indeed.”

He was only thinking of rolling out the skin a little thin, and accidentally came up with such a big one.

Xia Qingshu laughed, “Those who didn’t know, would have thought you were making a face mask.”

Chen Zhiyu threw down the mask in his hand and turned his head to look at the crust Qing Shu had rolled out; it was thick, but quite satisfactory and medium-sized.

He unhurriedly went up from behind and leaned his chin into the nook of the other man’s shoulder, “Qing Shu, you’re so good, teach me.”

Xia Qingshu accidentally became the most powerful dumpling maker, he had some small dejection so he pursed his lips and said a few words of modesty, using chopsticks to put the meat filling into the dough.

“Watch this, then.”

Just as he was about to wrap it, he felt a blast of hot air blowing between his neck.

The warm exhalation seemed to have grown eyes and deliberately went for the most tender place, teasing the entire neck with a tingling itch.

Pregnant people are very sensitive and he couldn’t stand this.

Xia Qing Shu’s body trembled, the meat filling in his hand fell to the ground and the chopsticks poked a hole in the dough.

“Hmph, look what you’ve done.” Xia Qing Shu turned back and glanced at the other party.

Chen Zhiyu held up his hands and played innocent with a red face, “I didn’t do anything.”

Xia Qingshu’s shapely eyebrows wrinkled, the small face bulging like a small seal whose fish had been snatched away.

Looking at Qing Shu’s angry look, Chen Zhiyu only felt that his heart rate was unstable and even his breath was tinged with heat. He almost went crazy with the cuteness of his look and, not caring that it was the kitchen, kissed him on the cheek.

Seeing that Qing Shu was about to get annoyed again, Chen Zhiyu pretended to urge, “Let’s hurry up, or else father and mother-in-law will be hungry.”

Xia Qingshu re-kneaded the dough in his hands into a ball, “Our family is definitely going to be hungry today.”

Chen Zhiyu spread the ‘mask’ onto the counter, and a few waves were raised in his words, “You’re starting to dislike me before you even enter the house?”

Xia Qingshu did not say anything, which was considered as default agreement.

Chen Zhiyu, the dignified president, how could he show weakness in front of his wife. He took out a small bowl, pressed it on the “mask”, and instantly harvested four pieces of thin crusts of moderate size.

“Look, it’s done.”

The dough was finally done, and the two of them finally started to wrap the dumplings.

Xia Qing Shu was studying how to make the dumplings look good when the man next to him asked, “By the way, what was Wen Sheng doing at our house?”

“I’m just asking casually, it’s okay if you don’t answer.”

His tone sounded careless, but the sentence he added later revealed how much he cared.