Proofreader: Jesse
From Midori: Hi guys, I just want to let you know that I usually explain many things in my translator notes, so if you skip them, you might be asking me questions about something I already answered, and I would ask you to read the translator notes again anyway. So do us a favor, read it to save your minutes of typing a question that is already been answered ^^ *peace*
"Why are you here?" Xia Chen opened the door to get out of the car, feeling a bit strange.
"Lao Da..." Jun Zhe wiped his face as he helplessly continued, "There is a question I want to ask you first! Plus, why did you turned off your phone last night, everyone was looking for you!"
"Looking for me?" Xia Chen furrowed his brows.
"Lao Da, Xiao Wu is...a man?"
Xia Chen was a bit surprised that Jun Zhe knew about this, but he did not show much of an expression on his face; he only nodded his head to confirm.
Jun Zhe was irritated because of him, he tried to take in a deep breath, "I really don't know what to say. Lao Da, you're so tight lipped about this. If it wasn't for Xiao Xiao Xiao, I bet everyone would still be in the dark today." He hesitated for a moment and continued, "Then you said you went on a date yesterday...? That means you really do like him?!"
The look on the other man's face was quite weird, Xia Chen could not help but chuckle, "I took him out to buy clothes yesterday." He pointed his chin to the entrance of the building, "I just sent him off to his interview."
At hearing this, Jun Zhe's mouth gaped in surprise, "Xiao Wu wants to work here?!"
Xia Chen frowned while Jun Zhe really did not know what to say, "I heard that this company wants to acquire the shares of the Qi group, obviously this company is a rival in your old man's eyes and yet you let Xiao Wu come here for an interview!? Now everyone knows that Xiao Wu is a man, your old man will soon learn about this as well; are you just going to sit still and watch the show ah, an employee of the rival company. OMG, this world has turned chaotic."
Xia Chen did not say anything, his phone suddenly rang and he clicked on it and saw he had a text message, needless to say, it was from Xiao Wu.
A Text Message 【Xiao Wu】:
It's my turn, going in now ><>
10:05:34
Xia Chen smiled and sent a reply over. He built up a company on his own, yet he hadn't told Jun Zhe and the others about this; although it was not kind of him to not tell them, he really had to do it that way. He wants to buy the shares of the Qi group, if more people were to know about this then it was obvious that his father would know about it as well. Jun Zhe had always looked at this company of his as their rival.
Jun Zhe looked at Xia Chen, he was smiling while he was typing in his reply text, it looked like the other man really did not hear his complaints at all; which made him quite annoyed, "I don't care about your business, since I'm also very busy myself. The old man said to take sister-in-law home for the New Year. Now this is just great, this would only add fuel to the fire."
"I'll take him back home and also make my father accept us." Xia Chen sent out his text message, then opened the door to get in his car.
"Wait for a minute." Jun Zhe stretched out his hand to stop him, "Lao Da, you're not being nice here. Xiao Wu is a man, yet you didn't tell us and now you won't let us meet him. Are you afraid that we will scare him off or something?"
"You've met him." Xia Chen said that sentence before getting in his car.
Jun Zhe was stunned for a moment, I've met him already? When? He did not have any recollections of that at all. The cold weather caused his hands to s.h.i.+ver, he quickly ran back to his car. He was not in a rush to go into the building, he must first see for himself what Xiao Wu looks like. He wanted to see the kind of person who has the ability to make their Lao Da become head over heels.
Since Wu Han Ying did not arrive early, he thought that he would have to wait for an hour or so before he was called. So when he was the second person to go in he was a bit surprised. This caused him to be become a bit tense, his whole body became stiff...
He did not think he would be qualified for an interview even for an intern position, after all this company is quite well-known. He figured they would hire someone with some work experience.
The interview surprisingly went smoothly, the interviewers only asked him a few questions; it was not as terrible as he had imagined. Even though it wasn't bad, when Wu Han Ying left the interview his palms were sweating quite badly.
In his haste to hurry out of the building, he almost got lost due to his excitement. When he got to the door, the cold wind outside caused him to s.h.i.+ver; after making sure the black car was parked in the same spot in the parking lot, he immediately ran over.
"I've returned." said Wu Han Ying as he rushed over. Xia Chen got out of the car to help open the door so the boy could get into the car, which is a lot warmer.
As Xia Chen walked over to the driver side and got in, he deliberately looked over to Jun Zhe's car. Jun Zhe fully understood what the other meant by saying he had met the boy. When he first saw Xiao Wu he didn't get much of an impression, but he suddenly remembered the last time he dropped by the school Xia Chen taught at to pick up some doc.u.ments, a student came out and handed it to him; that student was none other than this Xiao Wu, isn't it?
Jun Zhe smacked his lips together while watching Xia Chen's car drive away. Xiao Wu has a very ordinary look, one can tell right away that the other is a college student; actually the boy looks quite innocent, which is very consistent with the image in the game.
He got out of the car to go upstairs for a business negotiation. Jun Zhe fished out his phone to send over a text message.
A New Message 【Xiao Yan】:
!! You've met Sao Zi?! How is he, good-looking?
10:30:12
Jun Zhe smiled, he wondered if he should feel fortunate that Xiao Yan had nothing against Lao Da liking a man.
---Uh, he's ok. Of course, not as good-looking as you; Xiao Yan is the most beautiful
Jun Zhe walked into the building as he imagined Xia Yan's annoyed expression after reading his text, he let out a smile.
Wu Han Ying was still very excited and he got really talkative, he started to tell Xia Chen about the interview.
Xia Chen drove the car with a smile lingering on his lips, "You pa.s.sed?"
"Uh..." Wu Han Ying's words got stuck in his throat as he blinked his eyes, "...I don't know."
Xia Chen smiled, "Um, don't be too nervous, just wait for their call. When do you plan on heading back to school?"
"This afternoon." Wu Han Ying was suddenly reminded by the other's question that today was Sunday, he still had to head back to school.
"Um, let's have lunch first, then we will head back together in the afternoon."
"Thank you." Wu Han Ying touched the bridge of his nose, these past two days he had been troubling Xia Chen, but then again he couldn't help but admit that he had become lazy recently and it felt good to have a free chauffeur.
"Where do you want to have lunch?"
"I think it's still too early." Wu Han Ying looked at the time, it was only 10:30. He was certain not one single store would be opened for lunch now. However, he knew Xia Chen had been waiting for him during his interview and hadn't even had breakfast yet, so the other man must be hungry.
"How about we buy groceries to cook at home?" Xia Chen said while looking at him, "What do you want to eat?"
Xia Chen's cooking seems very delicious, Wu Han Ying was a bit tempted, but it was very troublesome to buy things to cook at home, "Or we can eat out, it's too troublesome to cook."
"There's a supermarket in front of us." Xia Chen saw his hesitation, so he understood the other's reason for reluctance, "I'll go park the car, stay here and wait for me."
"Oh...okay."
In fact, two grown men shopping together in a supermarket looks quite ambiguous in other people's eyes, but Wu Han Ying, who does not have such a complex way of thinking about human nature in his head, naturally did not think much of it. He just pushed the cart while following Xia Chen.
Right now he did not have time to think about how ambiguous they looked, since nine out of the ten sentences he said was,"Professor Xia, this is way too much!"
Although he does not cook, he sometimes goes out to help buy groceries. Looking at the way Xia Chen buys things, his eyes really could not help but twitch; the man was buying so many ingredients, they will go bad if they don't use them today.
"Then we will buy other stuff, what do you want to eat?" asked Xia Chen as he calmly put the items into the cart.
"This is enough." The cart was piled up with lot of raw meat and fresh vegetables, it was way more than enough. He should've been firm on getting less but they were all his favorites.
"That's about it, let's go."
After they had checked out, a few red* notes were handed over. Wu Han Ying felt a little distressed, even though it was not his money, this had become way more expensive than eating out.
{Translator Input: red notes - the 100 yuan note}
By the time they got back to Xia Chen's house, it was past 11:30, it was...not early...
The two people were getting busy inside the small kitchen. Wu Han Ying only helped out with some simple tasks like was.h.i.+ng vegetables and cutting the meat.
"What do you want to make with the tenderloins?" Xia Chen turned sideway asking him.
Wu Han Ying looked at Xia Chen in his suit s.h.i.+rt and pants; he was standing in the kitchen holding up a bag of tenderloins; he really wanted to laugh out loud.
"Professor Xia, do you like sweet dishes? We can make sweet and sour pork, is that good?"
"Um." Xia Chen nodded and cut the tenderloin into ridge pieces. After he was finished he left the kitchen, but after a few moments he returned.
Wu Han Ying thought that he went to change his clothes, he did not expect to see him still wearing his suit s.h.i.+rt and pants when he returned; it is safe to say he didn't leave the room to go change. If that is the case, when they started to cook the ingredients, his s.h.i.+rt would definitely get dirty.
"Professor Xia, do you have an ap.r.o.n?"
"You want to wear one?" asked Xia Chen as he furrowed his brows.
"..." Wu Han Ying became silent...
Xia Chen saw that he did not say anything and continued to ask, "What about pork belly?"
"Pork belly wrapped with enoki mushroom?" Wu Han Ying said after he gave it some thought.
"Okay." Xia Chen nodded and then walked out. A moment later, he came back.
Wu Han Ying looked at him strangely, why does Professor Xia keep going in and out of the kitchen? Is he going out to use the restroom...does he need to go urinate that much....
"We will make a green lettuce salad with oil dressing. What about this?" asked Xia Chen as he held up a big gourd.
Wu Han Ying laughed out loud, gourd is his favorite and it is rarely sold at the supermarket, so when he saw it today he immediately bought two, "Stir fry them with garlic."
"These chicken legs? How about we coat them with honey and roast them wrapped in foil?" Xia Chen took out a thin sheet of foil from the cabinet.
"Professor Xia, that is a lot of food already." Wu Han Ying quickly stopped him as the man was preparing the ingredient for the stir fried vegetables on the side. He didn't want to have a meal of 8 dishes of meat and 8 dishes of vegetables.
"Oh, okay, then this should do." Xia Chen kept on cutting the foil as he nodded his head.
Wu Han Ying felt extremely 囧 as he wrinkled his nose, the other person's att.i.tude of agreeing is no different than not listening to him at all...
When all the ingredients were prepared and ready, Xia Chen stayed in the kitchen to cook while Wu Han Ying went out to set the table.
Professor Xia's laptop was sitting on the table, its screen was dark. When Wu Han Ying was moving the laptop to the coffee table he accidentally touched the keyboard, so the screen suddenly lit up; when he looked at the screen he saw---Sweet and Sour Pork Recipe...
Wu Han Ying was surprised for a moment, needless to say there were several tabs open such as "how to make enoki mushrooms wrapped in pork belly", "honey chicken legs roasted in foil paper". Now he knew that Professor Xia actually went out to look up the recipes on the laptop.
"Professor Xia?" Wu Han Ying leaned on the gla.s.s door separating the kitchen and the dining room.
"Hm?" Xia Chen was cooking the stir fried vegetables and peanuts, he turned around with his brows knit together, "What is it? If you're bored, then you can go to the study and surf the net." After he finished frying the peanuts and the potatoes, he wrapped something around the tenderloin pieces for sweet and sour pork and placed them in the pot.
"Okay." Wu Han Ying replied but did not leave, he continued to lean on the gla.s.s door and watched Xia Chen cook; as he was watching the older man cook he couldn't help feeling pity for the suit s.h.i.+rt he was wearing.
Xia Chen turned back again and saw that he was still standing there, he only knocked on the gla.s.s door, "Come and taste the soup to see if it's good enough."
Wu Han Ying pushed the door to enter, the sweet and sour pork is the one that is made without tomato sauce, so the color looks very appetizing. He took a piece with a pair of chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth, it was so hot that tears almost came out.
"It's still hot." Xia Chen had wanted to remind him but he was too slow for Wu Han Ying's actions.
"Hot, hot, hot, so hot. Ah, so yummy." Wu Han Ying took a bite and it was so good that it made him almost drool, he completely forgot about the fact that it almost burned his mouth earlier, "Professor Xia is so amazing, is it really your first time cooking these dishes?"
"Uh, you can bring it out now." Xia Chen continued to make other dishes, "I don't eat sweet food, so I rarely cook these dishes."
Wu Han Ying got to the door, but stopped in his tracks. He likes to eat sweet flavor dishes like sweet and sour pork or squirrel mandarin fish and the like. He really did not know Xia Chen doesn't like sweet food. He turned to look at the rest of the ingredients that were getting prepared to be cooked. The chicken legs coated with honey that will be roasted in foil wrap is no doubt a sweet dish...enoki mushroom wrapped in pork belly, where he deliberately told Xia Chen to dip them in barbecue sauce for a long time and wouldn't you know that that barbecue sauce is also very sweet...everything is nothing but sweet...
Squirrel Mandarin Fish
"Professor Xia, the chicken legs, let's simmer-fry them." Wu Han Ying quickly ran back to look through the gla.s.s door and breathed a sigh of relief, luck was on his side because the chicken legs were untouched.
"Hm?" Xia Chen pointed at the stir fried vegetable that had just finished, of course he knew exactly what the boy was thinking, "You can take this out. I'm not a picky eater and it's not that I can't eat sweet dishes."
By the time they started eating lunch it was already 12:30, Wu Han Ying's stomach had been making gurgling noises for quite some time. Once he was facing a table covered with his favorite dishes, his eyes quickly lit up.
Honestly speaking, even though it was Xia Chen's first time cooking the dishes, he had to say natural talent is the most useful skill to have because every dish he cooked tasted very good. He watched as Wu Han Ying was busy stuffing himself with the delicious food.
After they finished the meal, Wu Han Ying of course volunteered to wash the dishes. He had been bargaining with the other man for this responsibility the whole day. When he was halfway done was.h.i.+ng the dishes, his phone suddenly rang; he was able to answer the phone even though it was quite difficult because his hand still had some foam on it.
It was a call from the company he interviewed with earlier that morning; they said he has pa.s.sed the interview.
Wu Han Ying got so excited that he almost dropped the dishes and started to tell Xia Chen about it.
"I'm glad that you pa.s.sed it." Xia Chen of course wasn't surprised. He would be surprised if the boy did not pa.s.s. Even though he did not personally come to the interview, he believed in his subordinate's working ability.
"It's an a.s.sistant post, I can start next week after I finish with all of my exams." said Wu Han Ying excitedly.
Xia Chen nodded his head, an a.s.sistant, of course he must bind the person next to him at all times.
Translator's Notes:
[1] Xiao Yan = Xia Yan = Xiang Zuo Kan = Xia Chen's little brother = Xiao Shang's Little Uncle~
[2] Jun Zhe = Xiao Yan's boyfriend = Qian Qian Junzi~
Does anyone get this right? XDDD