Chapter 38: Feeding

Inside the Koi Club, two pairs of people were occupied with their own activities. Xu Nian and Li Yu were engaged in a one-on-one game of Royal Dice, with Li Yu currently being soundly thrashed.

Xu Nian grasped the five dice and rolled them casually. "Five of a kind. Looks like I can trigger a major move again."

Li Yu had already gone numb. Every turn he triggered a major move, while she was basically stuck with basic attacks, and her defensive rolls were consistently atrocious.

"Can you go easy on me? Is this even fun for you?"

"That's not happening." Xu Nian found the token corresponding to his ultimate move and placed it on Li Yu's character board. Her health was now like a candle in the wind, precarious and fading. "Your turn."

"I give up. How are you so lucky every single round? Did you use some kind of magic?" Li Yu couldn't help but ask.

Xu Nian replied innocently, "Are you going to blame your own bad luck on me?"

"I'm folding this round. Let's start the next one. I refuse to believe I can't win even once. I'm swapping to a different character to play against you." Li Yu pulled another set of characters from the box.

"Ha, bring it on!"

Meanwhile, Lu You was kneading dough while Tang Wan sat on a chair, holding Xiao Bao in her arms and feeding it small freeze-dried treats.

"I feel like he’s gotten a bit fatter," Tang Wan said, stroking Xiao Bao’s soft belly with one hand.

Lu You thought about how, when he returned home from evening self-study, he would occasionally catch Xiao Bao munching on dried fish. "It’s probably because my mom feeds him too many treats."

Tang Wan looked into the kitten’s round eyes, dying to give it a few kisses, but with Lu You right there, she had to act with a bit more reserve.

"How often does he usually get a bath?"

"About once a month. My mom often takes him out to play, and since his fur gets dirty easily, we wash him quite frequently."

"Is once a month considered frequent?" Tang Wan asked, puzzled.

"Very frequent," Lu You explained. "Kittens are usually quite afraid of water, and they groom themselves often. If they stay indoors, people usually only bathe them every two or three months, or even half a year."

"Don't you help him wash at home? Why go to a pet store?" Tang Wan asked again.

"One word: lazy. The pet shop handles the whole package, plus they do grooming, clean the ears and eyes—it’s so much easier."

The dough was quickly kneaded into shape. Lu You divided it into four equal portions, flattened them out with a rolling pin, and placed them onto four plates. He spread a layer of diced gelatinized stock over the wrappers, added the crab paste he had just sautéed from crab roe and meat, and finally folded the wrappers to encase the filling. Four soup dumplings the size of plates were ready.

He placed the dumplings into the steaming basket, and the main work was done. After this, he just needed to make some scallion noodles, and lunch would be finished. Seeing that a little bit of crab paste remained and it was still warm, Lu You thought for a moment, picked up a plate and a spoon, and walked toward the girl and the cat.

Tang Wan had essentially petted Xiao Bao all over, fulfilling all her fantasies about kittens.

"Tang Wan."

A voice came from above her head.

Tang Wan looked up in response, her hands still busy pampering Xiao Bao. "What's up? Is it time to eat?"

"Almost. Come on, open your mouth."

"Huh?" Tang Wan was a bit confused, but she did as she was told.

Lu You fed her a spoonful of crab paste and asked, "How does it taste?"

Tang Wan stared blankly at Lu You, her cheeks flushing pink. Her heart was beating like a drum, thumping wildly. As for what it tasted like, she hadn't paid any attention at all and simply swallowed it down.

Seeing that she didn't reply, Lu You asked again, "Is it not good?"

"I... I don't know."

Hearing this, Lu You filled the spoon again, held it to her lips, and asked with a smile, "Then how about one more?"

Tang Wan was now truly shy and flustered. With a reddened face, she whispered, "You could have let me do it myself."

"Hmm? What did you say?" Lu You pretended not to hear.

"No... nothing." Tang Wan ate the food held to her lips.

Following this, just as Tang Wan had fed Xiao Bao earlier, Lu You fed the remainder of the crab paste to Tang Wan.

"There, that’s all of it. Since you managed to finish it all, I assume it tasted pretty good." As he spoke, Lu You showed her the empty plate.

Tang Wan wished she could find a hole to crawl into; her face was as red and bright as a ripe apple.

"Do you... often feed people like this?"

"Yeah," Lu You said as he turned to the sink to wash the plate. "My younger sister is not even two years old; she basically needs to be fed at every meal."

"Are you treating me like your sister?" Tang Wan’s tone was not very pleasant.

"Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Your movements were so natural. Aren't you even a little bit embarrassed?" Tang Wan asked, pouting.

Lu You smiled happily, though his back was turned to Tang Wan, so no one could see. Feeding food to the girl he liked was something Lu You had never tried before, and it brought a sense of indescribable happiness.

"Maybe it's because I really wanted to do it."

"You're not allowed to feed me in the future! I can eat by myself!" Tang Wan warned him sternly. Her heart had nearly jumped out of her chest, and her face was red and burning, yet he acted like it was nothing—it was infuriating.

Lu You took the water chestnut cake and red date cake he had made the day before out of the refrigerator, placed them on a clean plate, and stuck a few mooncake forks into them.

He knelt in front of Tang Wan and held a piece of red date cake to her lips, saying softly, "Don't be angry anymore. Come on, have a piece of the red date cake I made."

Tang Wan’s heart melted into a puddle; she couldn't refuse his feeding. She could only say stubbornly, "This is the last time," before opening her mouth to eat the cake he offered.

Once Tang Wan had swallowed it completely, Lu You held out a piece of water chestnut cake. "Try this one, too."

"It really is the last time," Tang Wan said, her words contradicting her actions as she opened her mouth to eat again.

Xiao Bao, caught in the middle, watched the two of them going back and forth while he got nothing to eat. He couldn't take it anymore and let out a protesting "meow," signaling that he wanted some too.

Only then did Lu You turn his attention to the cat. "No complaining. You already had your treats earlier."

"Don't scold him. I've had enough with these two pieces. Take the rest out to Xu Nian and the others."

"Alright then." Lu You stood up, walked to the living room, and called out, "Time to eat!"

Tang Wan watched his back, then lowered her head to rub Xiao Bao’s belly, saying, "Your owner is really bold, you know."

...

A little past twelve o'clock, the four of them sat on the sofa resting after the meal.

"Ah~" Li Yu let out a long sigh and said, "Lu You, your cooking is truly top-notch."

"It's just average, plenty of room for improvement," Lu You replied modestly.

"How about the two of us brothers just pair up and get by? We don't need women or anything like that."

Before Lu You could respond, Tang Wan had already cast a murderous glare at Li Yu.

Xu Nian went a step further and punched him, scolding, "You dog, how dare you try to steal a man from us girls!"

"Hey?" Li Yu wasn't about to back down. He punched her back and retorted, "Don't you know that philosophy is the only true love?"

"No way! Are you serious? Is there really someone out there who's into 'buddies'?"

"Don't get worked up yet. You hate 'buddies' so much—could it be that the person you like is gay?"

"Die, you jerk!" Xu Nian grabbed a throw pillow and smashed it at him.

Li Yu dodged nimbly, threw it back, and continued with his snarky tone, "Look at you getting all flustered. Did I hit the nail on the head?"

"Ha! What a joke. I’m irresistible—who could possibly steal him from me?" Xu Nian threw another pillow at him.

"Hah, irresistible? How many bottles have you had? Are you that delusional?"

...

Watching the two of them bickering, Lu You couldn't help but smile. He said to Tang Wan, "They get along pretty well, don't they? Is it like this in class too?"

Tang Wan recalled the scene in class and replied, "Pretty much. They sit in front of and behind each other. They talk quite a bit, but it feels like they’ve gotten even closer today."

"And us? Are we considered close?"

Tang Wan tapped him lightly and whispered, "Don't talk nonsense."

Ten minutes later, the two of them quieted down, both leaning back on the sofa, panting.

Seeing they had stopped bickering, Lu You said, "I'm going to take Xiao Bao to the pet store for a bath with Tang Wan later. Do you guys want to come along?"

"No thanks," Li Yu shook his head. "I'm taking Xu Nian downstairs to see my collection this afternoon."

"Alright then. Call me if anything comes up."

...

One-thirty in the afternoon.

The two arrived in front of a pet store not far from the Koi Club. Xiao Bao was perched on Tang Wan’s shoulder, and Lu You was carrying an airline crate.

Tang Wan looked over the storefront and said, "This place looks quite large."

Lu You explained, "It’s a chain store, one of the more famous pet shops, so the storefront is naturally quite nice."

The two walked inside, greeted by a dazzling array of pet supplies and food.

Just then, a girl with a round face and a cute appearance, slightly shorter than Lu You, walked over. Seeing it was Lu You, she said happily, "Oh, it's little Lu! Why are you the one coming in this month? Where's Mrs. Lu?"

Lu You replied politely, "It's me. My mom went back to my grandfather's place."

The round-faced girl turned her head, squinted, and looked at Tang Wan. She asked, "And who is this? She's so pretty, she could rival sister-in-law Yu Yin. I've never seen you with a girl before—is this your girlfriend?"

Tang Wan felt a bit awkward, not knowing how to answer the barrage of questions.

Lu You moved slightly closer to her naturally, coming to her rescue. "Her name is Tang Wan—'Tang' as in the Great Tang, 'Wan' as in gentle and graceful. As for whether she's my girlfriend, I can only say that for now, she isn't."

"'For now,'" the girl teased. "You're certainly confident."

Tang Wan felt even shyer and subconsciously leaned toward Lu You; the two were almost touching.

Seeing her embarrassment, the girl stopped teasing and said, "Alright, stop the lovey-dovey stuff here. You two go up to the third floor, and I'll come over in a bit to bathe Xiao Bao."

As they went upstairs, Tang Wan couldn't help but ask, "Who was that girl? Are you two very close?"

"I don't know her full name, but I know her surname is Chen. She's the person one of my cousins has been chasing for a long time."

"Is there a story behind that?"

"There is," Lu You said, beginning to recount the story he had heard. "My cousin was originally a total playboy. He flirted with many girls but never actually dated anyone, always surrounded by admirers.

"Some of our elders warned him not to do that, saying that if he ever met the person he wanted to spend his life with, these past actions would become the part he hated most about himself.

"But he didn't listen, even saying he would never get married. However, reality slapped him in the face soon enough. He became instantly captivated by Sister Chen and began shamelessly chasing after her.

"Back then, you could say Sister Chen absolutely hated my cousin—his playboy nature, his slickness, his immaturity—she scoffed at his confessions."

"And now? Are they together?"

Lu You remembered seeing Sister Chen at their hometown during the Chinese New Year and said, "I don't know the specifics, but there should have been significant progress."

Tang Wan couldn't quite understand. "Could Sister Chen accept your cousin's playboy past?"

"Of course not. So, my cousin spent ten years keeping himself pure and pursuing her relentlessly to prove he had turned over a new leaf."

"Ten years?" Tang Wan was shocked. That long?

"Yes. I heard it from the elders when we went back to our hometown. He started changing at eighteen, and it wasn't until this year, at twenty-eight, that he finally brought Sister Chen home to meet the family."

"Most marriages these days don't even last ten years, do they? Just the pursuit itself took ten years—how did he manage that?" Tang Wan couldn't even imagine that kind of devotion.

"You can ask her when she comes to bathe Xiao Bao later."

"Mm."