Chapter 18: Two Slaps for Him

Jian Ruo Ci looked at the table full of delicious food and gave him a thumbs-up. “Uncle Pei, you’re amazing.”

She had thought that the abstinent CEO, who never touched a pot, wouldn’t even know how to wash vegetables, let alone cook. But he had actually cooked a table full of delicious food.

Pei Yan Zhou’s thin lips parted, and he uttered two words. “Eat.”

Jian Ruo Ci sat down. Pei Yan Zhou served her a bowl of soup. She felt something was off, as if she were the guest.

Looking at the soup in her bowl, she looked up at him. “Thank you.”

Jian Ruo Ci scooped up a spoonful of soup and took a sip. Her brows furrowed.

It wasn’t that the soup wasn’t good, it was just that the taste…

So familiar…

She asked, “Did you put mung beans in this carp soup?”

“Hmm.” Pei Yan Zhou: “Not good?”

“It’s good.” So good that it made her nostalgic. After she was eight years old, she never had it again. “But why did you put mung beans in it?”

Too much had happened when she was eight years old.

“It makes the flavor richer.” He paused and then said, “Is there a problem?”

“No.” Jian Ruo Ci lowered her head and looked at the soup in her bowl. “It’s just that it’s similar to how an elder used to make it. I’m a little nostalgic.”

“Family?”

Jian Ruo Ci shook her head. “Not family, but like family. My grandfather’s old friend.”

“They were also the previous owners of this villa.”

“You’ve met them. The woman in the photo on the coffee table.”

When she was little, they had taken good care of her. But fate was unfair. Her heart was bitter, and her eyes were moist. It was a good meal, but the atmosphere suddenly became sad.

She forced a smile and said, “When I was little, Grandpa told me to call them Grandpa and Grandma, and their son Little Uncle.”

“I wasn’t happy about it because I wanted to be their daughter-in-law back then.”

“It wasn’t because they were good to me, it was because their son was handsome.”

“The boy in the photo.”

She had to admit that she had always been a face-value person.

Grandpa Pei and Grandma Pei had a son late in life. He was the only son of the Pei family. After Grandpa Pei and Grandma Pei passed away, he also left this world.

Pei Yan Zhou didn’t show any emotion. “What about him?”

“Him?” Jian Ruo Ci’s eyes were clearly filled with bitterness. “He became a star.”

“The plane he was taking abroad crashed, and there were no remains.”

At that time, in the space of three months, the three of them had accidents one after another. His parents’ car brakes failed, and they fell into the sea. Their bodies were recovered by the police and buried.

The thirteen-year-old boy didn’t even have a body to find after he died.

The truth was too cruel. She had always refused to believe it. All these years, she had lied to herself, saying that he wasn’t on that plane, that he had safely gone abroad and was living a good life.

But so many years had passed. If he was still alive, why didn’t he contact her?

This was just her self-comfort.

Before he went abroad, he had said that he would call her when he arrived. Fifteen years had passed, and she wouldn’t be able to wait for that call.

Jian Ruo Ci sniffed and laughed. “Why are you mentioning that heartless guy? He left before he fulfilled his promise to me.”

She pretended to be relaxed. “When I die, I’ll definitely find him and give him two slaps. I’ll ask him where he’s been all these years. He promised to come back to find me.”

Pei Yan Zhou’s lips curved slightly. “Go easy on him then.”

Jian Ruo Ci raised her chin. “Impossible. He broke his promise. I’ll give him two more slaps, no more, no less.”

He retracted the curve of his lips. “Never mind.”

“He was really good to me.” She poked the rice in her bowl with her chopsticks, her expression dim. “I wish he was alive.”

Pei Yan Zhou looked at her with pursed lips, his expression unclear. He picked up the serving chopsticks and put some food in her bowl. “Eat.”

“Hmm.” Jian Ruo Ci looked up. “Sorry, I made you listen to me talk so much.”

“It’s okay.”

She wouldn’t usually talk so much. Yan Xi and Jian Xu knew, but they never brought it up, afraid of upsetting her.

She didn’t know why she had told him so much today.

It must be because of the rainy day, making her sentimental. She was feeling nostalgic, and he was just there, so she told him.

Pei Yan Zhou used the serving chopsticks to pick up a piece of fish and put it on the plate in front of him. He patiently deboned it. Jian Ruo Ci wanted to try the fish he had cooked, so she reached out with her chopsticks to grab some.

At that moment, Pei Yan Zhou placed the plate in front of her. It was deboned fish. “Eat.”

Looking at the fish in the plate in front of her, Jian Ruo Ci suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Back in the kitchen, she had been retaliating against him, saying he was gay…

Although it was just a joke, saying he had a hidden illness might be a bit too much…

A man wouldn’t be happy to be told he had a hidden illness, would he?

And she had laughed so… wildly…

“Pei Yan Zhou…” she said. “I just said you were gay… that you had a hidden illness. You’re not angry?”

“As long as you’re happy.”

Pei Yan Zhou continued. “If I were angry, it would prove that I’m guilty.”

He was so magnanimous, while she was being petty.

“No matter what, I apologize.”

“I’m sorry.”

To show her sincerity, she picked up a piece of fish and put it on the plate. She learned from him and deboned it, pushing the plate towards him. “Courtesy demands reciprocity. Eat.”

Pei Yan smiled. “Guilty?”

Jian Ruo Ci ate the deboned fish. “Mr. Pei, don’t expose me, okay? It’s embarrassing.”

Pei Yan Zhou: “Okay.”

The food he cooked was really delicious. She ate a lot without realizing it. She leaned back on the sofa, rubbing her stomach, and burped.

She was a little uncomfortable from being full.

“Full?” Pei Yan Zhou stood in front of her, looking down at her.

Jian Ruo Ci nodded. “It was so good, I overate.”

“It’s okay. It’ll digest soon.”

She probably wouldn’t need to eat dinner tonight.

Jian Ruo Ci blinked at him and asked, “Do you think I’m pathetic?”

“Probably.” As soon as he finished speaking, Pei Yan Zhou left, heading outside.

Was he going home?

It made sense. He had eaten, and there was no reason to stay. Good, she had finally gotten rid of this big Buddha.

“Mr. Pei, be careful on the road!”

Pei Yan Zhou ignored her.

She leaned back on the sofa. She was sleepy after eating. She was too full and didn’t want to move, so she just lay down on the sofa and prepared to take a nap.

A few minutes later, she was off to dreamland.

She didn’t know how long she had been asleep, but she vaguely felt someone holding her. Then, a blanket was put over her. She thought she was dreaming, but when she woke up at three in the afternoon and saw the digestive tablets on the bedside table, she realized it wasn’t.

There was a sticky note on the digestive tablets. The handwriting on the sticky note was thin and elegant: Remember to take them.

It was Pei Yan Zhou. After dinner, he hadn’t left. He had gone to buy digestive tablets, and he was the one who had carried her back to the room.

She was easily startled, but she had actually let her guard down around him. It was unbelievable.

Besides the two people closest to her now, she would only let her guard down around one person, put away her spines, and show her softest side. But that person was gone.

She shouldn’t have let her guard down around Pei Yan Zhou. They had only known each other for about two weeks, but she had to admit that she felt strangely at ease around him.

At first, she thought he was a dangerous person. After the banquet, she had a feeling that even if he was dangerous, he wouldn’t hurt her.

After having that thought, she had laughed at herself, wondering where she got that confidence.