Eleventh Meow

Drunken shrimp… Fisherman’s style shrimp… Fisherman’s style shrimp with salted egg yolk…^[1]Pictures below.

Few words quickly flew through Li Yu’s mind, making him involuntarily let out a cry.

Although it was just a few scattered messages, the indescribable warm home atmosphere still pounced on Li Yu’s face through the screen that has become pitch black.

“Wow—have you changed your taste recently and liked a wife?” Li Yu whistled frivolously.

This is indeed much better than those weirdly-shaped wild bees and butterflies with different minds.

“No wonder you’ve been so patched up so smoothly recently… You can indeed stay with this partner for a while longer ah.” Li Yu teased, raised his hand intended to pat Huo Zheng’s shoulder but was keenly dodged by his friend.

Not only that, without waiting for Li Yu to ask more about Huo Zheng’s new bed partner, Huo Zheng quickly turned the topic back to work. And not long after finishing work, Li Yu was in a dizzy state before Huo Zheng kicked him out of the office.

“Wah. Don’t be like this Boss Huo. How can you be as sensitive as a schoolboy in love ah…” Li Yu muttered as he stood at the door of Huo Zheng’s office, staring dumbfoundedly at the cold office door.

However, thinking of Huo Zheng’s performance just now, Li Yu couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows.

I could generally feel that Huo Zheng’s attitude towards his bed partner this time is a little too serious.

Is it an illusion?

……

What Li Yu doesn’t know was that after he left, Huo Zheng quickly reopened his mobile phone again, then stared at the messages He Yunzhou sent him and continued to dwell with a tangled expression on his face.

Huo Zheng actually felt that during this recent period, his interaction with He Yunzhou was somewhat beyond his original expectation.

Scrolling up the WeChat messages about what to eat for dinner, He Yunzhou’s messages were arranged on the screen in a regular manner during this time.

The WeChat from three days ago was— 

[If you don’t mind, we’ll have salmon head cooked in casserole tonight.^[2]Pictures below

If you have time, you can come down for a meal.]

Going further, He Yunzhou’s messages were basically like this: 

[Today, the owner of the vegetable store bought a batch of locally produced luffa. Although it was made in the greenhouse, it’s also very sweet. Tonight, I’ll make luffa fish noodles with garlic paste and white meat. Would you like to have a meal?]^[3]Pictures below

…… 

[The sausage I dried on the roof is ready la. I don’t know if you like glutinous rice serve with bacon sausage and winter bamboo shoots?]^[4]Pictures below

[The other day, I saw that you didn’t look very good, so I stewed some pork bone soup with lion’s mane mushrooms and Angelica sinensis ginseng. If you have time, you can come down and have a bowl of soup…]^[5]Pictures below

……

Huo Zheng narrowed his eyes and thoroughly studied He Yunzhou’s messages over and over again. He would never mistake He Yunzhou’s gentle feelings. No one can be so caring and so meticulous to another stranger for no reason.

By the way, the bottle of Italian Barolo that wasn’t drunk at the first dinner was soon drunk at the second dinner between He Yunzhou and Huo Zheng.

For that dinner, He Yunzhou cooked Schweinshaxe

for Huo Zheng.

Honestly, Huo Zheng originally wouldn’t have ate a bite from this part of the meat. However, the pork knuckles made by the helpless He Yunzhou were really delicious. It’s a thick, less fatty skin, native pig foot especially ordered from the countryside. After being pierced by a needle and soaked in thick brine for two or three days, then taken out and brushed with a sauce made of lemon juice and honey, it was roasted over low heat.

The pork knuckles tasted delicious, fragrant, crispy, soft, glutinous, dripping… The unimaginable taste lingered on the tip of Huo Zheng’s tongue, and it contrasted with the expensive bottle of Barolo, like a serenade that flows swiftly in the mouth.

At the later dinner, Huo Zheng chose a bottle of Jacques Selosse’s wine farmer champagne.

He didn’t tell He Yunzhou the price and source of that bottle, but when he saw He Yunzhou sipping the liquor and letting out a small mutter, his heart actually felt slightly tipsy.

Moreover, that bottle of liquor was paired by He Yunzhou with small yellow croaker smoked with black tea and crystal meat jelly.

The side dish was a thick-cut king oyster mushroom fried in olive oil.

In the eyes of those knowledgeable people, this pairing is a bit unconventional. But Huo Zheng is certain that whether it’s dinner or champagne that night, it’s delicious enough to make people head over heels. 

The thin-skinned alpine small potatoes

that are common on the market, each one is only the size of an egg. After being steamed soft and sautéed in an iron skillet with lard, it is then sprinkled with diced onion and ham, and stir-fried. It’s used to match the sweet rice wine brewed by the farmers. It unexpectedly turned out to be good…

……

However, He Yunzhou has invited Huo Zheng for dinner so many times—in the end, it’s just dinner and nothing more.

Huo Zheng has released his signals to the greatest extent possible, but He Yunzhou never crossed the boundary by half a step. 

There were a few times when Huo Zheng even couldn’t help but scrutinize himself in front of the mirror for a long time, doubting his attractiveness to other people. 

He didn’t understand why he had already made it this far and He Yunzhou still didn’t dare to really get started with him.

“Just how timid are you ah…” Huo Zheng couldn’t help rubbing his temples, muttering to himself bitterly. 

He did hear that people like He Yunzhou, who works from home and barely make ends meet by drawing some illustrations, are mostly a bit timid and socially afraid. Although Huo Zheng certainly has a bad character and narcissistic in other aspects, he has a kind of thoughtfulness and tenderness that even he cannot explain when he deals with He Yunzhou. 

If an ordinary bed partner dares to play ambiguity with him like this, he would’ve been impatiently kicked out of the circle and never to meet again for a clean slate.

However, the person he has to face now is He Yunzhou.

The clumsy, timid, gentle, and shy person.

And Huo Zheng really doesn’t know how to deal with this kind of person.

“Damn it! I shouldn’t have eaten your stuff*&%￥%…”

Huo Zheng stared at the picture of fresh shrimp sent by He Yunzhou and cursed an expletive through gritted teeth.

---

T/N: Happy New Year to everyone! May you all be blessed with fortunes this 2022! ??

Drunken Shrimp:

Firherman’s Style Shrimp:

Salmon Head Cooked in Casserole:

Luffa Fish Noodles with Garlic Paste and White Meat: (Imagine w/ fish lol)

Glutinous Rice served with Bacon Sausage and Winter Bamboo Shoots:

LiLion’s mane – Hericium erinaceus is an edible mushroom:

Angelica sinsneis ginseng:

Pork bone soup dish:

Schweinshaxe:

Small yellow croaker smoked with black tea and crystal meat jelly:

Thick-cut king oyster mushroom fried in olive oil:

Thin-skinned alpine small potatoes:

Apologies for the tons of footnotes (along with the next chapter).