Who are you trying to impress with that sour face?

Jiang Songhe was stunned by Jonathan's string of "damn it" and unconsciously thought of the scene when the two of them were trapped in the elevator in Man'er.

At that time, he was still able to frankly say "I'm sorry" decisively and sincerely, even when he was unaware of Jonathan's childhood trauma and made hurtful remarks. Their relationship was still shrouded in uncertainty.

Now that they're even closer, what's wrong with him, who always adheres to the principle of "standing at attention even when being beaten"? It's just three words, upper lip to lower lip, why can't he say them?

Fearing that if Jonathan were to press him for answers, those feelings of inferiority, hypocrisy, inability to stand up to pressure, wavering, suspicion, and lack of composure would no longer remain only in the dark corners of his heart, but would become an inescapable pretext for rebuttal.

He's becoming less and less like himself.

“F*ck! I’m talking to you!” Jonathan noticed that Jiang Songhe was distracted, grabbed his jacket collar with both hands, violently pulled him in front of him, and glared at him angrily.

Jonathan's sudden outburst of English means he's in an extremely bad mood.

Jiang Songhe's expression was still frozen on the look of pain and anger she had just experienced before being stunned by the explosion. Her brows furrowed as she thought about all sorts of random things, and she looked no more gentle than Jonathan.

Realizing that his attempts to appease his brother had only escalated the conflict, and with no relationship-related strategies in mind, he had no choice but to resort to unconventional methods, drawing on his past experiences interacting with his temperamental younger brother.

So he stared intently at Jonathan, reached out and grabbed the two white wrists on his collar, slowly pulling them down, trying to get them into a position where they could have a proper face-to-face conversation.

However, they underestimated Jonathan's strength as an adult male and didn't manage to break him down much.

"Who are you giving that sour look to? Me?" Jonathan twisted his wrist, grabbing more of the jacket fabric in his hand and pulling harder, then yanked hard, yelling aggressively, "Or do you want to fight me, huh?!"

A sour face? A fight? Huh?

"..." Jiang Songhe was so shocked that he almost vomited blood. His gaze swept over Jonathan's face from inside his collar, as if he could see through his skin to understand his thought process.

"You didn't react when I said I'd go to Bincheng with you, and you still didn't react when I said I'd fight with you. Looks like the problem isn't with the events, but with me! You never intended to be with me properly, did you?!"

It's both right and wrong, but it's not that I "have no intention" but rather that I "don't know how".

Jiang Songhe was surprised that Jonathan had revealed half of her secret thoughts. She couldn't help but drift off into thought again, her eyes widening slightly, looking like she was trying to hide something.

Seeing this, Jonah was so angry that his cheeks bulged, his upper white teeth clenched against his lower lip, and he gathered his strength: "Fu—"

"Hey!" Jiang Songhe was still in the role of "parent" and naturally couldn't stand Jonathan's repeated rudeness and vulgarity in front of him. He reflexively released one hand to cover Jonathan's mouth, interrupting the "spell".

A single hand wouldn't produce a very effective restraining effect. Jonathan tilted his head back and easily escaped from Jiang Songhe's palm.

Then he lowered his head and took a bite with precision and force.

"Hiss!" Jiang Songhe pulled his hand away as if he had been electrocuted, shook it, and stopped beside his cheek, staring at the two rows of teeth marks on his tiger's mouth.

Blood beads have already seeped from the two sharp dents on the upper side!

This little madman is probably a snake reincarnated!

Jiang Songhe lifted her eyelids and glared at Jonathan. Jonathan's expression was somewhat indescribable. His chin was stubbornly raised, and he was very resentful. His nostrils twitched, and he was clearly still angry. However, his eyes kept glancing to the side, and his eyes kept jumping between surprise and regret and secret pleasure.

眸色最终固定在暗爽模式，乔纳昔吐出信子擦拭武器似的，从左至右舔了舔两颗尖牙，嗤笑一声，挑衅道：“终于忍不住想出手揍我了？呵，来啊……呜……唔！”

Jiang Songhe glanced at him, reached out, and lifted Jonathan's chin. He hooked his index finger around Jonathan's vicious fangs, suddenly pulled him close, and kissed him with a fierce look.

He only kissed half of her mouth, while the other half was lifted up by Jiang Songhe's thumb, the fingertip lightly rubbing against her teeth, as if testing the sharpness of the weapon and whether she had truly been injured in that spot.

Neither gentle nor dignified, Jonathan was kissed awkwardly, pushing Jiang Songhe's neck away in disgust while trying to dodge with his head tilted back. Jiang Songhe was already prepared, releasing his other hand from the white wrist and placing it on the back of the silver-haired man's head, cutting off his escape route.

After a while, Jonathan behaved a little better.

Jiang Songhe cupped Jonathan's face with both hands, and positioned his lips to signal a truce. Jonathan responded with his eyes closed, and he closed his eyes as well, focusing on giving her the belated tenderness and dignity.

“Bincheng… Jinyao Bay…” Jonathan softened somewhat, wanting to bring up the topic that started the conflict again. Jiang Songhe didn’t have time to give a detailed plan at the moment, and was afraid that her answer would be unacceptable, so she interrupted Jonathan’s rambling words, “Hmm… beautiful… don’t want it…”

After a moment of treacherous blocking, Jiang Songhe's mind finally caught on.

Boo.

Why is Jonathan so fixated on the "conch shell that looks like an orange rose"?

And this time when I came back, it seems I suddenly stopped being curious about what was going on in the next room?

...!

Jiang Songhe gasped for breath as the other person spoke, then stepped back slightly and asked, "Orange... Orange Rose...you, are you...?"

He then propped his neck up and looked over Jonathan at the other side of the bed, at the bedside table in the drawer containing the key to his parents' memorial room.

"I don't understand!" Jonathan exclaimed, his temper flaring. He immediately turned Jiang Songhe's face towards him, his tongue slit in her throat, and launched a fierce attack.

Jiang Songhe's neck was quickly wrapped around and pulled down, and the two instantly switched control.

The atmosphere grew increasingly thick and sticky. Jiang Songhe, who was feeling parched, breathless, and dazed, was suddenly pushed away.

"Didn't you say you were going to cook for me? I'm hungry."

After Jonathan uttered those words, he jumped out of bed with lightning speed and scurried out of the bedroom.

Jiang Songhe maintained the posture of tilting her head and embracing, and it took her a while to realize the situation. She straightened up awkwardly, glanced down at the ground, and then, trying to cover her ears, shifted her gaze a few inches to the side.

He bent down, grabbed Jonathan's favorite plush slippers from the floor beside the bed, and strode after him.

"Tsk, put on your shoes!"

-

Because Jiang Songhe forgot to buy sea bass, the amount of tofu prepared was excessive.

He leaned against the edge of the island counter, which was full of ingredients, and rearranged them for a while. Finally, he decided to combine the tofu and sea bass stew and minced meat tofu that he originally planned to make into one extra-large salted egg yolk version of crab roe and minced meat tofu.

Jiang Songhe made up his mind, only then realizing he hadn't taken off his coat or changed his shoes. After changing and returning to the kitchen from the entryway, he found Jonathan already sitting across from him on the island, waiting for him.

He originally planned to work behind closed doors, waiting until all the food was ready before having someone come to the restaurant to eat. Just as he was about to send Jonathan away, his left and right hemispheres started fighting each other: with seven dishes in total, wouldn't the person be starving by the time all the dishes were prepared?

We should just make the same thing and eat the same thing, after all, food is essential for life.

After Jiang Songhe finished making sense of herself, she took off the apron from the cabinet door handle, tied it around her neck, washed her hands carefully, and then went to prepare the yam, corn and pork rib soup and the rock sugar pear stew, which took the longest time to prepare.

With the casserole on the stove and the oven running, he continued processing the meat.

After being left in the warm room for a long time, a layer of blood seeped from the bottom of the bag containing pork ribs and lamb belly.

Jiang Songhe recalled how Jonathan had gagged and choked when Man'er first cooked home-cooked meals for him, and silently put the two bags of meat, which might make him uncomfortable, into the sink.

"If you're getting bored while waiting," Jiang Songhe pulled out the splash guard from the outside of the sink, separating the work area from the viewing area, turned on the tap to rinse the meat, and asked casually, "Why don't you go watch some TV in the living room first?"

“I don’t like watching TV.” Jonathan had already regained his sly demeanor, winking mischievously. “I like watching you.”

"..." Jiang Songhe pursed his lips, put the meat into two deep stainless steel basins, drained it in the sink, blanched it in boiling water to remove the foam and fishy smell, and then put the much whiter ribs and lamb belly on the table.

Some of the ribs were too big and long, so they needed to be chopped up a bit more, otherwise they wouldn't fit in the casserole dish and wouldn't absorb the flavor well.

Jiang Songhe took the cleaver from the knife rack, imagined the violent scene that would follow, paused, laid the knife flat on the cutting board, and asked, "Why don't you go upstairs and get some sleep first?"

“I don’t like sleeping.” Jonathan leaned forward, tapping his cheek with his fingers. “I like sleeping—”

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Jiang Songhe quickly chopped the ribs with his knife and finished the job in no time.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk..." Jonathan squinted his eyes, smacked his lips and made several smacking noises. Far from being frightened, he teased Jiang Songhe and asked, "What? Are you shy because I'm sitting here watching?"

The smudges from last night's underground horse training unexpectedly flashed into Jiang Songhe's mind: "If you're shy... I can... not look..."

Jiang Songhe blushed and slammed the moderately sized rib down with a loud thud.

...

After three hours, the seven dishes were finally prepared and served.

By the time everything was served, Jonathan and Jiang Songhe were already full.

The first dish to come out of the oven is baked pumpkin with salted egg yolk. It's easy to make, keeps well, and isn't cold. Its sweetness makes it a great snack for Jonathan's.

Seeing that Jonathan liked it, and worried that he might eat too much and not have room for anything else, Jiang Songhe took the plate and put a small portion of it into a small bowl for him. The remaining untouched portion was served half on the table for Vasin to eat together when he came to the restaurant, and the other half was kept in the refrigerator.

The remaining dishes are handled in the same way.

As Jonathan ate, he started to get restless, eagerly trying to pick up food with his chopsticks and shakily stuff it into Jiang Songhe's mouth, who was busy serving him.

Jiang Songhe was not used to being fed, so she tactically retreated and dodged, saying indirectly, "I'm not hungry, I'll eat at the table later."

"in spite of!"

"Tsk, I'm really not hungry!"

Jonathan was relentless, and since he wasn't very good with chopsticks, Jiang Songhe dodged again, and the food he was holding on his chopsticks fell to the ground with a thud. Then, his narrow eyes darted up and down, and it looked like he was about to explode again.

The two stared at each other for a while, their expressions contrasting. Jiang Songhe then turned around with the spatula, stirred the food in the pan, and took the opportunity to mentally prepare herself. Afterward, she tore off two sheets of kitchen paper, picked up the fallen vegetables from the ground, and threw them into the trash can.

After a series of feints, he pulled a pair of disposable gloves from a cabinet drawer, sighed, and vaguely compromised.

“Wear this… uh (hey).”