Chapter 10: Sacrificing the self for the sake of the kitten

"Sharing a meal?" Su Cheng's eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to understand the meaning behind his words.

Did he think the takeout restaurant she chose suited his taste?

But this Western meal, costing over 200 yuan per person, was just a rare luxury for her. Her usual favorites were spicy hot pot, cold pot skewers, and grilled cold noodles…

She gently bit into the salmon wrapped in avocado, and with each chew, a spicy, stimulating sensation exploded from the tip of her tongue and shot straight into her nasal cavity.

Who in their right mind would mix wasabi into an avocado?!

She instinctively wanted to vomit, but a glimpse of Jiang Muzhou across from her made her reluctant to swallow the "avocado assassin" because of her image.

Jiang Muzhou seemed oblivious to her unusual behavior, slowly wiping the corner of his mouth and saying, "Takeout food isn't very nutritious."

Su Cheng pouted, inwardly feeling indignant for Consort Tang, Consort Chuan, and Consort Mian.

It has vegetables, meat, and staple food; the nutrition is clearly very balanced!

“I cook at home,” the man said, casting an expectant look at her. “It’s hard for one person to control the portion size, but it’s just right for two.”

Su Cheng wanted to politely decline, but suddenly remembered the aroma of pickled bamboo shoots and pork that had captivated her when she passed through the corridor last week. The sweetness of the bamboo shoots mixed with the rich aroma of the salted pork made her mouth water just thinking about it.

I thought a pampered young master like him would never lift a finger, but I never expected him to not only cook, but to cook so deliciously.

The words of refusal lingered on her tongue, but she still succumbed to Jiang Muzhou's charms.

"Let me make this clear in advance, I haven't received many commissions lately." She raised her eyes, smiled with a hint of embarrassment but also a forced ease, "So I can't afford those high-end ingredients, such as grouper, abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin, and fish maw. I don't have any dietary restrictions on ordinary ingredients, I eat chicken, duck, fish, and meat."

"I'll split the cost of groceries with you, but my cooking skills are really not good, so I probably won't be able to help much when you're cooking." She raised her eyes, but unexpectedly met his gentle gaze. She felt a heat rise up her cheeks and hurriedly looked away. "But I can wash the pots and pans."

"Let's forget about it," Jiang Muzhou chuckled and shook his head. "I don't have enough plates at home."

Su Cheng realized that he was implying that she had almost broken his limited edition cat bowl, and gave an embarrassed smile.

On the day she went to feed the cat, she specially recorded a service log of nearly half an hour and sent it to him. She thought he would be too lazy to watch such a long video, but she didn't expect that he would notice even such a fleeting little detail.

A top student is a top student; their observation skills are truly exceptional.

Lost in thought, she put another piece of salmon in her mouth. Although she was prepared this time, she was still choked by the strange spiciness and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Ahem, in exchange, I'll take care of Yuanbao for you!" She coughed twice, deciding to go back to her old ways, "scooping poop, feeding, changing water, plus garbage disposal service."

His amber eyes were bright and sparkling, as if shimmering with water, clear and lively.

She rested her head on her hand, as if she had just thought of something, "By the way, you've been out for almost half an hour. Can Yuanbao manage on his own at home?"

Jiang Muzhou sighed softly, a faint sense of loss welling up in his heart. "Don't even mention it. Before, when I was working, it would lie on my lap and purr. Now, the only thing that can get it to look at me is the sound of opening a can of food."

The sounds around her seemed to come from near and far, and Su Cheng felt her vision suddenly become blurry. She shook her head, but the scene in front of her swayed like a turbulent body of water.

"Sacrificing my own interests for the sake of the kitten, it's all for the physical and mental well-being of Prince Yuanbao." She chuckled, a soft smile escaping her lips.

Su Cheng stood up and, mimicking Yuanbao, approached Jiang Muzhou. She made a fist with her hands and blinked her wet eyes slowly, "You didn't see it, its eyes were so watery that day, looking at me pitifully."

Jiang Muzhou looked up at the sound, his gaze unexpectedly falling into those watery, clear eyes.

Their hearts skipped a beat; such a direct and passionate gaze was a first in the years they had known each other.

Her fair cheeks flushed red, and a peach-blossom blush rose at the corners of her eyes. Her gaze towards him gradually became hazy.

Jiang Muzhou sensed something was wrong; her current behavior was like someone who had mistakenly eaten undercooked mushrooms.

He immediately got up to check the salmon and avocado sandwich she had just eaten. He couldn't find any mushrooms, but he could smell the aroma of baijiu (Chinese liquor).

Su Cheng, who usually doesn't drink alcohol, was swaying and unsteady on her feet under the influence of alcohol.

"Be careful." Jiang Muzhou quickly used his hand to protect himself from the sharp corner of the table, but she showed no sign of stopping.

A delicate rose fragrance wafted over, and the girl's slender arms suddenly wrapped around his waist.

"It just hugged my waist like that..." she murmured, tilting her flushed face up and her eyes glazed with drunkenness, "as if begging me not to leave."

Her voice carried a hint of coquetry, and her warm breath brushed against his neck, causing his heart to race.

Instead of dodging, he took half a step forward, making the already ambiguous distance even more subtle and difficult to define.

Some emotions churned in his dark eyes. He looked down at her, his gaze deep and intense, as if he wanted to melt her.

She lowered her head, gently resting her forehead against his chest, and murmured sadly, "It's so sad, it thought you didn't want it anymore..."

The raised hand froze in mid-air, the fingertips trembling slightly, before finally clenching into a fist and returning to its side.

He closed his eyes, suppressing his surging emotions. "I'm even more upset."

"I thought it was you who didn't want us anymore."

-

Su Cheng was woken up by the alarm clock. She struggled to open her eyes, feeling sore all over as if she had been beaten up.

She rubbed her throbbing temples, trying to piece together the scattered fragments of memory into a complete storyline.

Jiang Muzhou said he wanted to team up, and then...

And then she remembered nothing at all!

She subconsciously threw back the covers and glanced down at herself. Fortunately, she was still wearing the same oversized T-shirt from yesterday.

Feeling dizzy, Su Cheng sat up and reached for her phone on the bedside table, but instead touched a sticky note.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, illuminating the neat handwriting: [Don't order the baijiu-flavored sandwich next time].

In the bottom right corner of the sticky note was a smiley face, exactly the same one he had drawn in his physics notes.

Su Cheng let out a wail in her heart, grabbed the corner of the blanket and pulled herself up, completely enveloping herself in darkness, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand to escape reality.

At the time, she naively thought the pungent spiciness was wasabi, little did she know it was actually baijiu (Chinese liquor)!

She was known for her poor alcohol tolerance. At her high school graduation party, Xu Zhisui tricked her into drinking a sip of Sprite mixed with baijiu (Chinese liquor). As a result, she sang "Laughing and Forgetting Song" three times into the microphone and insisted on having the whole class sing along.

She scratched her head in frustration, now she could only pray that she hadn't gone on a drunken rampage and talked nonsense in front of Jiang Muzhou last night, otherwise she would have lost face all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Just then, my phone started buzzing on the bedside table, its continuous notifications breaking the moment of tranquility.

Frustrated, she grabbed her phone; the screen displayed a barrage of messages from Chen Siqi.

Chen Siqi: [Miss Su, are you up yet?]

Chen Siqi: [Brother, your happiness for the rest of your life is in your hands, so don't let me down!]

Su Cheng: [Relax, relax, everything is ready]

She crawled out of bed with her hair all messy, and posted a meme of a little white dove nestled tightly against a big white dove's wing, captioned "Very reliable."

Whether it was because Xu Zhisui accidentally discovered the proposal plan and Shen Siqi acted ahead of schedule, or because today was the day he originally planned, she received a call from Shen Siqi right after she left Moment Cafe yesterday, telling her that she had to bring Xu Zhisui to Linhai No.1 Middle School today no matter what.

She casually made up a lie, asking Xu Zhisui to accompany her back to her high school to relive her youthful memories. Xu Zhisui thought she had finally come to her senses and wanted to revisit old haunts to find common ground with Jiang Muzhou, so she agreed without hesitation.

At 12 o'clock, Su Cheng finished getting ready and prepared to go out.

As she passed the restaurant, she glanced at the table. The clean surface was completely empty, without even a drop of oil. For a moment, she wondered if the scene of having dinner with Jiang Muzhou last night was just her hallucination.

She pushed open the door to her room, and at the same time, the security door next door opened, revealing that familiar figure.

"What a coincidence, are you going out too?" She greeted him casually, then touched her nose sheepishly. "I didn't know there was liquor in that sandwich. I don't think I did anything strange yesterday, did I?"

She glanced at Jiang Muzhou without making a sound, trying to find some clues from the subtle changes in his expression.

"Is it strange that you fell asleep as soon as you lay down?" Jiang Muzhou's tone was as gentle as ever, showing no sign of anything amiss.

Su Cheng finally breathed a sigh of relief and followed Jiang Muzhou into the elevator, her previously curled fingers quietly relaxing.

"Where are you going? I'll take you." Jiang Muzhou pressed the B2 button and turned to look at Su Cheng.

She looked different today; her lightly made-up face was more refined than usual, her eyelashes were slightly curled, and her lips were more rosy than usual.

Thinking of the scorching sun outside, Su Cheng didn't refuse directly, but politely asked, "I'm going back to Linhai No. 1 High School to take a look. Is it on my way?"

Jiang Muzhou's eyes flickered slightly, and he hummed in agreement.

The elevator arrived at the underground parking lot. Jiang Muzhou stepped out, found a safe area for Su Cheng to wait for him there, and then walked deeper into the parking lot to drive the car out.

Su Cheng watched his retreating figure, thinking that she had never seen him drive before.

What kind of car would a prodigy like him drive?

She remembered that when he was in his first and second years of high school, a luxurious black sedan came to pick him up from school. Its unique logo gleamed with a metallic sheen in the sunlight, much like the Transformers logo, making it stand out among the ordinary private cars.

But by his senior year of high school, the black sedan was gone, and he started taking the bus home alone. Every day after school, she would keep a perfect distance behind him until they reached the bus stop. This brief journey together became the most precious moment of her day.

She later learned that the car logo, which resembled a Transformer, was a symbol of Maybach, representing the pinnacle of luxury.

Will he choose the understated luxury of a Maybach now? Or will he drive an eye-catching, flamboyant red Ferrari like the male lead in an urban idol drama?

Unexpectedly, a black Land Rover slowly pulled up in front of her.

The car window rolled down, and Jiang Muzhou rested one hand on the steering wheel. "Get in."

Her hand hovered above the car door handle, caught in a delicate social dilemma.

Would sitting in the front passenger seat be too intimate? But sitting in the back seat would seem too distant, as if you were treating the other person as a personal driver.

Seeing her hesitant expression, Jiang Muzhou smiled faintly. "Sit in the front. The equipment is in the back."

Su Cheng's ears were flushed slightly as she lowered her head and climbed into the passenger seat.

The cool touch of the leather seats seeped through her clothes. She pulled on the seatbelt, but because the light was too dim, she couldn't align it with the buckle several times.

"What were you thinking about just now?" His gaze swept over her sideways, lingering for a moment on her reddened earlobe, and he reached out as if to help.

"It's nothing." She finally inserted the metal buckle precisely into the slot, and a crisp click sounded in the quiet carriage.

Jiang Muzhou stared at her. "Are you thinking about whether I should leave the passenger seat for my girlfriend?"