CH 11

Chapter 11 – Feeding Noodles

As soon as lunchtime came, Yuan Zhan immediately went upstairs to find Yan Jingxi. Although there were fixed routines in the plot, the other party was a big living person after all. He was afraid that the variable Bai Yueguang would appear in the middle so he had to stop Yan Jingxi from agreeing to Bai Yueguang’s friend Hou ge’s proposal.

Unfortunately, Yuan Zhan was not as fast as the changes in the storyline and he could not match Bai Yueguang’s protagonist halo. When he arrived, Yan Jingxi had just hung up Hou Mushen’s phone call and promised to have lunch with his friend tomorrow.

Yuan Zhan has only been in the company for two days, and there has already been a lot of gossip about the number of times he entered and exited the president’s office.

However, he didn’t care since the relationship between Yan Jingxi and him was written on the marriage certificate, and he couldn’t erase it even if he wanted to.

Assistant Chen placed two servings of lunch on the tea table and was about to help open the lunch boxes, but Yuan Zhan stopped him.

Yuan Zhan: “Assistant Chen, thank you for your hard work. You should also go eat.”

Assistant Chen raised his eyes and looked at Yan Jingxi who was walking over. The latter nodded so he smiled at Yuan Zhan, “I wish you two have a nice meal.”

Yuan Zhan pretended to not see his little movements.

The cutleries were in the lunch boxes. Yuan Zhan placed one box to the side and the other in front of him, and opened the lid of the lunch boxes one by one. The aroma of the food wafted throughout the room.

Yan Jingxi’s stomach began to express its opinion when he smelled the aroma. After having meetings for the entire morning, he was both mentally and physically exhausted.

Yuan Zhan didn’t say a word, Yan Jingxi thought it might be because of his depression that he was relatively taciturn, so he spoke first.

Yan Jingxi: “I’m going to have a meal with a friend tomorrow at noon.”

Yuan Zhan concentrated, but his attitude was still somewhat casual: “What is your friend’s last name?”

Yan Jingxi: “His last name is Hou.”

He was a little displeased because he thought Yuan Zhan would continue to speculate his suspicions. However, the other party just bowed his head to eat. He began to consider his reply, but Yuan Zhan, too, was not playing the cards according to the rules1.

1Not behaving as expected

He can only blame that he can’t control a patient’s way of thinking.

Yan Jingxi waited for a while to find that Yuan Zhanqi really did not respond to his answer, and added: “I will be on a business trip the day after tomorrow, for three days.”

A business trip? This is quite interesting. Yuan Zhan has seen the game’s branch line for Yan Jingxi. When the protagonist Bai Yueguang attacked Yan Jingxi, it wasn’t just the original owner alone that he needs to get through. There are still one, two, three, four, five other supporting roles and their roles are equally important. Crossing five passes and slaying six generals2 is the only way for the protagonist to obtain Yan Jingxi, even if Yan Jingxi was already fond of Bai Yueguang. However, one, two, three, four, five supporting roles would still continue to come out to interfere, causing an endless amount of misunderstandings to arise. On one hand, it would reflect the stability of their feelings, and on the other, they would hate and slap these villains in the face. With the multiple branching storyline, the game requires you to play these branches to be able to get to the different endings.

2Overcoming all difficulties

Without a second thought, Yuan Zhan: “I’m going with you.”

He must drive away those supporting characters who are dangling in front of Yan Jingxi for the time being.

Yan Jingxi was about to object when Yuan Zhan reminded him: “One-month deadline. Besides, I won’t disturb your work, I just want to relax.” He found the words that Yan Jingxi could actually catch the meaning of.

Sure enough, Yan Jingxi understood that patients with depression cannot be stimulated, and relaxation can help them achieve their goals.

In that case, then let’s go.

Yan Jingxi’s tone softened: “All right.”

Yuan Zhan: “Which city?”

Yan Jingxi: “Xia City.”

Yuan Zhan nodded: “It’s a good tourist city.”

Yan Jingxi: “I will have Assistant Chen look up a good guide for you, you can go wherever you want to play.”

Yuan Zhan suddenly put down his chopsticks and looked at Yan Jingxi: “Will you be with me?”

Yan Jingxi paused for a moment: “I may not be free.”

Disappointment flashed across Yuan Zhan’s eyes: “Then forget it, I’ll go by myself.” He lifted the chopsticks and continued to eat.

The guilt in Yan Jingxi’s heart seemed to have increased again. An idea suddenly flashed through his mind, If there is nothing else to do after the meetings, I will take him out to play.

Neither of them continued the topic of business trips.

After lunch ended, Yuan Zhan was about to leave, Yan Jingxi wanted to say something but then hesitated.

Yuan Zhanqi’s eyes were quite sharp: “What’s the matter?”

Yan Jingxi took a deep breath: “It’s nothing.”

Yuan Zhan leaned closer to him until the distance between the two was only thirty centimeters: “You seem to be troubled.”

In Yan Jingxi’s memory, there aren’t any moments of the two of them ever being so close. The sudden enlarged facial features made him a little uncomfortable, but there was no feeling of disgust.

He forcibly explained: “I have things on my mind every day since work is very busy.” Yuan Zhanqi probably didn’t know that he knew about his depression.

Yuan Zhan backed up and sat upright, then got up to leave: “Remember the stir-fried crab with rice cakes at night.”

The departing back view looked very confident and at ease, Yan Jingxi believed that Yuan Zhan was forcibly pretending to be so.

Speaking of cooking, Yan Jingxi sighed at the distant back of Yuan Zhanqi’s white shirt, why is he so obsessed with dinner?

Despite the refusal in his heart, Yan Jingxi still checked for the ingredients and preparation steps of the dish on the search engine.

Yuan Zhan, who left the thirty-ninth floor, couldn’t stop Yan Jingxi in time from accepting the invitation of the friend surnamed Hou. But listening to the conversation between the other party and Bai Yueguang, he didn’t have much of a favorable opinion for the surnamed Hou either. He couldn’t sabotage their appointment, but nevertheless, there can be other ways.

Since he can’t block Yan Jingxi, then he can only start from Bai Yueguang.

The excuse of having the department’s communal luncheon has already been used and cannot be used anymore. The same routine is very likely to get seen through. Bai Yueguang is hypocritical, but he is the protagonist after all. Who knows if he will have a moment of enlightenment, Yuan Zhan can’t afford to gamble, he has only one life after all.

With Bai Yueguang’s temperament, Yuan Zhan didn’t want to get along with him however, he already had an idea.

Sitting in front of the computer, Yuan Zhan evoked an evil smile.

Just wait for tomorrow.

In the evening, Yan Jingxi left work early and took Yuan Zhan with him. He remembered that the other party did not drive this morning.

After work, he obediently went to prepare dinner while Yuan Zhan sits in front of the TV, nibbling on snacks and watching entertainment shows. He brought out his previous habit.

By the time Yan Jingxi came out to shout for dinner, the trash can in front of Yuan Zhan was filled with snack packagings.

Sitting at the dinner table, Yuan Zhan touched his stomach: “It seems that I have eaten too many snacks, I can’t eat anymore.”

Yan Jingxi looked at him hard: “Yuan Zhanqi, are you playing with me?”

Yuan Zhan blinked innocently: “I’m really too full.”

In the blink of an eye, Yan Jingxi turned around and took the pile of snacks on the tea table back to his room and locked it.

Patients with depression seem to eat and drink unreasonably, and he can’t let Yuan Zhanqi become a fat person.

Yuan Zhan was a little dumbfounded, isn’t Yan Jingxi making progress quite fast?　　

Yuan Zhan realized that his snacks had disappeared, and quickly exclaimed: “Wait, don’t take my snacks!”

Yan Jingxi simply ignored him.

When he came back, Yan Jingxi ate silently.

Yuan Zhan still took a few bites symbolically. Yan Jingxi’s cooking improved again, probably with a feeling of “guilt” added into it. In the future, he would not eat snacks before meals.

That night, Yuan Zhan was stared at by Yan Jingxi.

In order to “cultivate feelings,” Yuan Zhan sat in the living room after dinner and watched the news broadcast with Yan Jingxi.

The two people remained silent, only the light breathing and the sound of the TV in the living room.

Until about ten o’clock in the evening, Yuan Zhan, who had not taken many bites of the food, was hungry.

He glanced at Yan Jingxi: “Hey, Yan Jingxi, I’m hungry.”

Yan Jingxi understood what he meant from his eyes: “Want me to make you a late-night snack?”

Yuan Zhanqi looked at him with full sincerity: “You’re really smart.” Then he added, “Remember to meet my requirements.”

Yan Jingxi got up aggressively and rolled up his sleeves. Yuan Zhan thought he wanted to beat himself, but unexpectedly he said, “Okay!” 

The patient is the biggest!

Yuan Zhan thought to himself: The inner quality of the president is still relatively high, so he doesn’t move easily.

If he could move without being told, how refreshing it would be.

Ten minutes later, Yuan Zhan was eating a bowl of tomato egg noodles cooked by Yan Jingxi.

Eating noodles as a late-night snack is relatively easy to digest.

Yan Jingxi listened to Yuan Zhan’s slurping and wanted to remind him to pay attention to table manners, but when Yuan Zhan quickly ate half a bowl of noodles, he swallowed his words.

“You also fried an egg at the bottom of the bowl, my mother. . .” also used to like to put a fried egg on the bottom of the bowl when making tomato egg noodles.

Yuan Zhan thought of his gray-haired mother. He didn’t know how his mother has been after his death, and for ten years consistently, whether she was still quarreling with the old man, calling for “divorce”, “returning to her mother’s house”, and “leaving home.” Previously, he would get headaches whenever he returned home and would hear them quarrel, but now that he could no longer hear them anymore, he feel that it was especially amicable.

Listening to Yuan Zhan’s words, Yan Jingxi suddenly stopped when he said “my mother”, wondering if he missed his mother, that is, his mother-in-law.

He doesn’t know how long they haven’t contacted one another, at least Yan Jingxi doesn’t like Yuan Zhan’s mother.

Yuan Zhan didn’t utter a word, only eating the noodles quietly. Yan Jingxi thought he might be thinking of his mother.

However, stopping in the middle of the story really scratch at people’s heart.

The excessive silence was stifling.

Yan Jingxi broke the silence: “Mother-in-law would make egg noodles for you before?”

Yuan Zhan retracted his train of thought, the original owner’s mother wouldn’t cook noodles for him, and shook his head: “No”

He was not in high spirits so after eating the noodles, Yuan Zhan voluntarily put away his bowl as he needed to do something to sort out his overflowing emotions.

Coming out to the living room once again, Yan Jingxi has already returned to the bedroom.

Yuan Zhan breathed a sigh of relief. The original owner’s condition was quite useful since all the emotional changes can entirely be blamed on depression. 

Who would have known that Yan Jingxi, who went upstairs, was just contacting his friends in the medical field to see if he could find a more reliable and well-known doctor. He wanted to cure Yuan Zhanqi’s disease.

The night passed silently.

At noon the next day, Yan Jingxi happily went to the invitation of his friend surnamed Hou.

Yuan Zhan, who slept for a night and was resurrected full of blood, was in the office at eleven o’clock in the morning. He pointed at someone “at random” and said, “Hey, that classmate, wait a minute. Go out with me to do some errands later, I need a temporary assistant.” 

It was already known from the gossiping colleagues that Yuan Zhan is in the position of Madam Yan so they all envy the appointed colleague: Bai Yueguang.　

As for Bai Yueguang, his heart collapsed!

Will he be back in time for lunch with Jingxi?

Madam Yan asked him with a smile, “Are you unwell?”

Bai Yueguang was a little embarrassed by him. He wanted to say that his stomach was uncomfortable, but in the end, he said, “Well, it’s all right.” 

He couldn’t lose his momentum in front of the big room.