Chapter 98 1/2

Jiang Li crossed his legs and sat next to the liquor cabinet, “You can’t eat, there’s rat poison.”

Cen Lang replied, “I didn’t touch any rat poison—hmm?”

Jiang Li hung his head, “My dad suspected there were rats in the basement, so I sprinkled rat poison to dispel his suspicions.”

In the interstellar era, rat poison had been improved and wasn’t as harmful to humans, but it still shouldn’t be ingested.

Cen Lang found his wife adorable but still refused to enter the tunnel.

He coaxed, “Then put your legs down, I want to hug you.”

Jiang Li turned slightly, sitting on the edge like he was on a wall, and let his legs down.

“What are you doing!” he exclaimed.

Cen Lang took off Jiang Li’s casual shoes and gently massaged his fair feet, cradling Jiang Li’s sole in his palm. “I’m giving you a foot massage.”

Jiang Li said, “…Are you a bit of a pervert?”

Cen Lang replied, “Only for you.”

Jiang Li blushed and curled his toes, looking like a domestic cat threatened by a mouse.

He should have listened to his father and stayed away from places where there were rats.

“I won’t bother you anymore, look at this.”

Cen Lang gave Jiang Li a small pendant, a chubby little bottle about an inch long, crystal clear.

“This is a mineral mined from the P86 star, capable of completely blocking the escape of pheromones.”

The production of this mineral was extremely rare and was currently the best material for radiation protection, known as the interstellar diamond. Most people couldn’t afford it. Traditional diamonds depreciated rapidly in value, and people didn’t even use diamond rings for marriage.

Making a pendant in the shape of a baby bottle from it made it invaluable.

It’s worth noting that this mining planet was conquered by Cen Lang.

Cen Lang infused his own pheromones into this small bottle and gave it to Jiang Li as a backpack pendant.

Jiang Li said, “Shouldn’t it be a pair?”

Like a couple’s pendant.

Cen Lang readily took out another small bottle from his pocket. “Your pheromones will go in here.”

Jiang Li asked, “Why the baby bottle shape?”

Cen Lang replied, “Because the first gift I gave to Jiang Baobao was a baby bottle.”

It was adorable to see little Jiang Li drinking milk from the bottle he had given him, making him his little brother from then on.

Let’s emphasize that although they’ve only been dating for a month, they’ve known each other for twenty years!

Jiang Li was a bit speechless. Going from brothers to boyfriends and starting a new relationship with a baby bottle as a gift, Cen Lang was really weak in the gift-giving department.

But it was mainly Jiang Li’s fault. He didn’t lack anything and didn’t want anything.

Jiang Li accepted the two bottles and said, “I’ll give you something next time.”

“But it won’t be at this place.”

Cen Lang replied, “Tomorrow, I’ll visit openly and honestly.”

Jiang Li nodded, pulled back his red ankle pinched by Cen Lang, closed the liquor cabinet door with a click, and restored the position of the glue trap, lined up in a row next to the cabinet door.

By putting the traps here to catch mice, his father wouldn’t walk by the liquor cabinet.

Smart little Dr. Jiang.

Jiang Li had loved eating fish since he was young. At first, it was because his father said eating fish would make him smarter. Coupled with Cen Lang and Lu Jing’s various flavors of fish, this preference had been preserved into adulthood.

Therefore, there must be fish on the Jiang family’s dinner table. Fish in the traditional sense also symbolized prosperity and abundance.

Lu Jing’s job nature was similar to Cen Lang’s; he had to stay in the space force frequently. In recent years, he had been transferred to Earth, but he still traveled frequently.

When he returned from his trips, he would cook a dish each for Jiang Wanlan and Jiang Li, compensating for what they liked to eat.

Jiang Wanlan liked to eat pork ribs, and Jiang Baobao liked to eat fish.

Early in the morning, there was meat and fish on the table, indicating that Lu Jing had returned to Earth late last night.

“Time for dinner, Jiang Baobao.”

“Okay.”

Jiang Li washed his hands and sat down at the dining table. The steamed pumpkin puree with ribs and dabai fish were all cooked until tender, relatively light, and suitable for breakfast.

As the combined aroma of the two meats wafted to his nose, Jiang Li’s expression suddenly changed slightly, and he tightened his throat with a hint of nausea.

Jiang Wanlan picked out the meat from the fish back and put it on Jiang Li’s small plate.

Jiang Li picked up the vinegar bottle and poured some on top. The vinegar aroma relieved his discomfort, but his appetite did not recover.

Even though he couldn’t eat his father’s breakfast, Jiang Li had to eat it to not waste his father’s love.

“Why are you eating absentmindedly?” Jiang Wanlan was always the first to notice when something was wrong with his son.

“Oh, I’m brainstorming how to write my graduation thesis,” Jiang Li replied.

With just a couple of months left until his undergraduate graduation, his experiments were already done, so all he needed to do was write the paper.

With valuable experimental data and results in hand, writing the thesis was easier than elementary school composition for Jiang Li. He wasn’t worried about it.

Jiang Wanlan smiled, “Baby, in the early morning, you don’t need to think about complicated things. Just eat. If you have any questions, Dad can contact an expert for you…”

“No need, thanks Dad,” Jiang Li said, lowering his head and putting a spoonful of fish meat into his mouth.

“Aren’t you afraid it’s too sour? You poured a lot of vinegar just now,” Jiang Wanlan frowned.

“A little,” Jiang Li admitted.

Knowing that his son was always serious about his experiments, Jiang Wanlan suggested, “Lujing, is Cen Lang also on break?”

“Yeah,” Jiang Li replied.

“Let Cen Lang take you and the baby out to play when he’s free,” Jiang Wanlan proposed.

After experiencing several family outings with Cen Lang included, Jiang Wanlan had to admit that Cen Lang was very good at taking care of his younger brother.

He was so attentive to Jiang Li, who wasn’t even a blood relative. If Cen Lang’s parents had a real younger brother or sister, they would probably spoil them to the sky.

“He said he’ll come over at noon to work on modifying our bikes,” Jiang Li said.

Their graduation trip bikes.

Of course, that was just an excuse.

“Make some extra food for lunch,” Jiang Wanlan said.

Jiang Li’s breakfast had just recovered from the damage caused by the fish meat when Cen Lang arrived at noon with grilled fish.

Jiang Li didn’t want to eat at all. As soon as he touched the fish with his chopsticks, he stood up and said, “I’ll go upstairs to get something for you.”

“Why the rush?” Cen Lang asked.

“Just because,” Jiang Li replied.

Jiang Li went upstairs to get the couple’s pendant, deliberately delaying for a while, hoping to blur everyone’s memory of whether he had eaten the fish.

But when he came back downstairs, his bowl was filled with several pieces of meat.

“…,” Jiang Li didn’t know what to say.

“And did you bring the modification tools?” Jiang Li asked.

“Yeah, I brought them,” Cen Lang replied.