Chapter 135 - 135 – Queen Bee Ren

So, Fang and the others ended up doing the cooking under Ren's expert supervision, and Ren hung around like an emperor while issuing orders, enjoying this more than what he had expected. For the first few minutes, he was a little antsy and wanted to do things himself, but after that, he got comfortable with the role of ordering other people about – and started enjoying it very much. After all, it wasn't all that different from what he did at Sirocco, was it? He didn't do everything himself – he delegated the right stuff to the right people, and made sure that the work was done properly and by people who were suitable for it. Talent acquisition and talent management was part of his work at the end of the day, wasn't it?

And thus, Ren happily ordered people about, and the kitchen staff scurried around him, looking as busy as worker bees, and Ren sat in the centre like the queen bee. Fang had the impression of Ren dressed up as a queen bee and every one in the kitchen buzzing around him like worker bees, and Fang would be a special one, may be a wasp with nefarious designs on the beautiful queen bee…

"Fang! The pasta is boiling over!" Ren called, grabbing Fang's hand and pulling him back from the boiling pot. Chef Jules quickly and expertly stepped in to take charge of the pasta and recued it from its almost certain fate of being overcooked.

Fang, who had been happily immersed in a day dream about a dressed up Ren queen bee, flushed and lowered his eyes, unable to look at Ren in the face right now.

"Why are you in a daze?" Ren demanded angrily.

Fang shook his head guiltily, too embarrassed to tell Ren about it right now – but then, perhaps, on a special occasion, he could make a request? May be on Fang's next birthday, he could ask Ren to dress up for him instead of buying him some super expensive gift…? Fang would definitely enjoy that a lot more…

Fang couldn't help the silly smile that was blooming on his face as he thought about this.

Ren, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes at his young fiancé and wondered what was suddenly wrong with him.

Fang shook his head and then looked up at Ren. "Sorry," he murmured. "I was distracted for a bit. Should I boil another pot of pasta?"

"No, no, this one is fine," Chef Jules spoke up. "Master Ren noticed it at the right time."

"Oh, good," Fang said, relieved.

Ren pulled Fang to sit down with him.

"You sit here next to me," Ren said firmly. "Clearly you are too tired and are getting distracted – and we don't want you to injure yourself as well. The babies would be upset."

Fang didn't object. He sat down next to Ren obediently and leaned against his fiancé with a contented expression on his face.

Ren stroked Fang's hair absently with his uninjured hand, his gentle fingers carding through the short, dark and fine hair in a familiar, almost involuntary motion by now. Fang let out a soft hum of satisfaction, and Ren continued to stroke the younger man's hair as he resumed giving orders to the kitchen to finish up the rest of the dishes properly.

Fang simply enjoyed the special treatment from Ren just like a lazy cat (and looking remarkably like Snow at the moment).

Soon enough, all the dishes were done and ready to be tabled.

"Pax and Wolf should be arriving any minute now," Ren said softly, getting up from his seat and pushing Fang away gently. "I'll go and meet Pax and Wolf, and you get the babies, all right?" he suggested.

Fang nodded. It was best to avoid the babies catching a glimpse of Ren's bandaged fingers as much as possible. And if Ren went to pick up the babies, they would surely notice and then they would be upset. Now, Fang had already surreptitiously healed Ren's injury with magic, so he knew that under the bandages, there was only clear, unbroken skin now – but then, they couldn't get rid of the bandage at this moment because all the kitchen staff had already seen it – and it would be completely unreasonable for Ren to have a completely healed hand so quickly. So, they would have to keep up the bandages for a few days as a show – and Fang thought that it would also be beneficial for Ren to go to SIMS like this – everyone at SIMS adored Ren, and when they saw that he was injured, they would send him back home earlier to rest – and that meant Ren would be able to get some proper rest for a few days, too. That would definitely be very good.

So, Fang obediently went off to wake up the babies and bring them out (and also make sure to send off Sylvia unobtrusively to Pax and Wolf so that the human baby Sylvia could turn up with them.

"Young Lady Sylvia has spent the entire day with Mr. Pax and Mr. Wolf, hasn't she?" a kitchen staff member asked Ren. "Do you think she would be all right? She would not have created trouble for them, right?" she asked worriedly.

Ren shook his head. "Sylvia adores her Uncle Pax and Uncle Wolf, and they adore her as well," he replied. "You know how those two buy more toys and treats for all the little ones than Fang or I do…"

Well, that was true enough, the staff member thought. Especially for Pax, who always seemed to have an endless supply of treats and toys in his pockets for all the little ones – the human one as well as the other ones of different species. Initially, the household staff members had been quite astonished by how Ren, Fang, Pax and Wolf treated the three baby furballs and the baby snake at par with the human baby they had, and every single baby was pampered to the same extent, regardless of species. But by now, everyone was completely used to it and all of them also did the same. So, all the little ones were extremely pampered – and the staff only wished that the little snake would appear more often, because she was the shyest one and they didn't see her as often as they wanted to.

Of course, no one would bring it up before Ren directly, but they often pestered Steward Paul and Chef Jules about it, and Chef Jules had actually been flooded with data on what snakes liked to eat and even recipe books for different kinds of snakes for quite some time now, with the expectation that he would make such irresistibly delicious dishes for the pretty little snake that she would be lured into showing herself more often just to get a bite of these delicious dishes!

Unfortunately for them, the trick only worked a couple of times and even then, only the little snake appeared and the human baby crawled off to heaven knows where, and all the people who had been wanting to see the human baby and the little snake together were extremely disappointed. But there was nothing else to be done.

And the baby snake got bored after a few times – clearly the food Ren fed her was much superior to what was being cooked by other people. S

Sylvia actually didn't like snake food at all. After all, she was not an ordinary snake at all! She was a magnificent magical familiar and she had been brought up on a steady diet of gourmet food in the other world – and even though she had faced a lot of hardships when she had come to this world and was separated from Ren and was completely lost – once she had found Ren, and he had even become her father instead of just her master, she had been a luxurious life just like in the previous world – of course, with the additional affection of Fang. And also, Fang was the stricter parent, and wouldn't let Ren indulge the babies as much as he wanted to – so Sylvia wasn't as much of a spoilt brat in this life as she had been her previous life, thanks to Fang.

But even then, she was much happier in this life, with her sweet family and her cute siblings, and she could also see how happy Ren was with Fang. And Sylvia was quite satisfied with this other parent of hers as well. She could see that Fang truly cared for Ren, and that the two of them made a wonderful couple and complemented each other very well, except when they fought over stupid things. Thankfully, they didn't fight very often. And Papa had become much more sensible now as well, especially in the last few days.. That was probably Uncle Pax's influence, Sylvia decided. Sylvia had immense respect for her beloved Uncle Pax, who was the most reasonable person around!