The sky gradually darkened. With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the golden osmanthus blossoms began to peek out from among the branches, and around Jihua they stirred up a rich, sweet floral fragrance.
After Yu Sang was promoted to attending physician, he moved to Office No. 2 and now sat next to Jiang Xu. When he came back from doing rounds, he stretched and suddenly noticed that Shen Fangyu’s seat was empty, while Jiang Xu was still there.
He knew that most of the time those two left more or less one after the other. Everyone else hurried to get off work, but those two seemed afraid their working hours would be shorter than the other’s, you won’t leave, so I won’t leave either.
So he asked curiously, offhand, “Bro Xu, why did Shen Fangyu leave so early today?”
When Jiang Xu was focused on work, he usually didn’t hear other people’s small talk. Yet for some reason, something in Yu Sang’s words seemed to hit a nerve today, and he actually replied.
“Went back to blow up the kitchen.”
Yu Sang, who hadn’t expected an answer at all: “Huh?”
Jiang Xu glanced at the clock on his desk. Shen Fangyu had already been gone for an hour and forty-eight minutes.
“How do you know he went back to blow up the kitchen?” Yu Sang pressed.
“Just guessing,” Jiang Xu replied perfunctorily, then glanced at the clock again.
One hour and forty-nine minutes.
“That really is possible,” Yu Sang went along with his train of thought. “He usually eats at the hospital, right? Today he left before dinnertime. Maybe he really did go back to cook.” As he spoke, he made himself hungry. “Want to go eat, Bro Xu? There’s a new Sichuan restaurant by the hospital entrance. Last time Xiaoting recommended it to me and said it was good.”
Jiang Xu’s pen paused. “I…”
“You’ve already eaten?”
“No.”
“Then let’s go! Isn’t Sichuan food your favorite?”
Jiang Xu pressed his lips together. His phone screen was still on the chat window with Shen Fangyu. The last message was Shen Fangyu reminding him to remember to come home for dinner, and he had replied, “I have work.”
How strange. He’d already politely turned Shen Fangyu down, so what was he still hesitating about now?
So he locked his phone, took off his white coat, put on his trench coat, and went with Yu Sang to the restaurant he said was good.
The Sichuan place was newly opened. The menu and décor were all bright red, and the vivid red chilies looked especially appetite-stimulating. Yet Jiang Xu felt like he was eating without much taste, with a vague, inexplicable sense of unease in his chest, as if he couldn’t quite find solid footing.
Watching Yu Sang dig in, his lips red and glossy with oil, Jiang Xu put down his chopsticks, called over the server, and pointed at the single-person set meal on the menu. “Could you please pack one of these to go for me?”
“Why are you taking it home?” Yu Sang was surprised. “You’ve got someone at your place?”
Jiang Xu absentmindedly said, “Mm.” Yu Sang immediately put on a gossiping expression. “Not bad, Bro Xu, hiding a beauty at home, huh?”
“…”
Jiang Xu knew Yu Sang was the type who liked to get to the bottom of things, so he brushed it off directly. “My brother.”
“Aren’t you an only child?”
“A distant cousin from my hometown.”
“Then call him over to eat together. If you take it back, the food will get cold,” Yu Sang said, imagining from that description a simple, honest big brother who worked the fields. He said to Jiang Xu, “He came all this way to rely on you, wouldn’t it be bad to make him eat cold rice and cold dishes?”
Jiang Xu looked at Yu Sang with a complicated expression. Not to mention that there was a microwave at home, even if he really did make Shen Fangyu eat cold food, it would still be better than letting him eat his own lethal cooking.
What he was packing wasn’t a meal, it was a lifeline, a timely help to save Shen Fangyu from disaster.
“He’s shy,” Jiang Xu said. Maybe because he’d spent too much time with Shen Fangyu, he was now lying without batting an eye. “Doesn’t like going out.”
Yu Sang’s expression became even more subtle. An honest, taciturn, wooden big brother who also had a Jiang Xu that didn’t really know how to treat guests, Yu Sang couldn’t help but sigh a bit in his heart, completely unaware that this “big brother” was actually Jihua’s silver-tongued social butterfly.
After parting ways with Yu Sang, Jiang Xu glanced at his phone again. The chat with Shen Fangyu was still stuck on his “not coming back” message. Shen Fangyu hadn’t sent anything else.
He put the takeout box on the passenger seat and drove all the way home. When he took out his keys to open the door, he felt inexplicably a little guilty.
He didn’t even know where this feeling came from. In fact, it had started fermenting in his heart the moment Shen Fangyu left the office.
Jiang Xu touched the takeout box. He’d driven a little faster than usual today, so the food was still hot. He was sure that whatever Shen Fangyu cooked himself would be inedible, that was why he’d packed this meal.
He pushed the door open. The apartment was quiet, and there was no one in the living room. He put the takeout on the dining table, then suddenly heard a sound from the study.
Jiang Xu looked over and saw Shen Fangyu open the study door and walk out. The Doctor Shen who had been stood up checked the time right in front of him, then looked back at Jiang Xu.
Jiang Xu’s heartbeat suddenly sped up a little.
Just as Jiang Xu was about to say something, Shen Fangyu said with a bit of surprise, “You’re back this early? I thought you’d at least dodge me for another hour.”
Jiang Xu: “…”
“Alright, no need to explain,” Shen Fangyu said. “Don’t I know you?”
Jiang Xu looked at the empty dining table. “You… have you eaten?”
“No,” Shen Fangyu went around to the kitchen, opened the rice cooker and served two bowls of rice, then reheated the dishes he’d made in the microwave and set them out on the marble table. “I was waiting for you.”
“With a live-in roommate like me, you’re really blessed,” Shen Fangyu said, handing the chopsticks to Jiang Xu.
Jiang Xu hesitated, looking at the chopsticks he was offering. Shen Fangyu realized. “You already ate?”
Jiang Xu paused, then took the chopsticks. “No.”
“Oh…” Shen Fangyu sat down diagonally across from him. “Then try some?”
He’d made three dishes in total. A plate of blistered green peppers sat in the very center. This time it wasn’t black, dark green with yellow-brown mottled patches, topped with chili and ginger sauce. It actually had some color to it.
But with previous experiences as a warning, Jiang Xu still didn’t really dare to start eating. “Are you sure this is edible?”
Shen Fangyu propped his head with one hand and looked at him lazily. “I practiced this dish more than ten times while I was sick at home these past two days before I finally figured it out. For the sake of me being starving and waiting for you all night, won’t you give it a try?”
Jiang Xu was still hesitating when Shen Fangyu simply picked up a piece and brought it to his lips, coaxing him like a pediatrician soothing a child. “Ah—”
The warm sauce brushed against Jiang Xu’s lips. He hesitated for a moment, then finally, as if marching bravely to his doom, opened his mouth and took a bite.
The sauce was rich and layered in flavor. Combined with the texture of the green pepper and its natural hint of spice, it created a perfectly balanced taste. Jiang Xu looked up in surprise.
“Is it good?” Shen Fangyu popped the half Jiang Xu had bitten into his own mouth and looked at him with a smile. His eyes were beautiful, especially when he smiled. The small fullness beneath his eyes paired with the slightly upturned corners gave him a warm, affectionate look.
Jiang Xu felt a sudden warmth in his chest. Lowering his gaze to the plate of blistered green peppers, fragrant, colorful, and appetizing, he asked, “You really made this?” He suspected Shen Fangyu had either hired someone or ordered takeout.
“If you don’t believe me, come back earlier next time and watch me cook it yourself,” Shen Fangyu said. “Don’t make me wait alone.”
Jiang Xu glanced at him. “Are you mad?”
“Doctor Jiang is a very busy man. I wouldn’t dare be mad,” Shen Fangyu said with a smile, leaning closer, closing the distance between them. “Last time I really didn’t do well. It’s understandable you didn’t trust me. But this time I pulled out all the stops.” He raised an eyebrow. “So? Will you come back for dinner from now on?”
The dining room’s warm yellow lighting had been designed to make food look more vibrant and appetizing. Now it reflected in Shen Fangyu’s smiling eyes, making them shine.
Jiang Xu felt the anxiety that had been hanging in his chest all evening suddenly settle.
He was almost startled by the realization that he actually cared about Shen Fangyu’s mood.
When he saw that Shen Fangyu wasn’t upset about being stood up and was still smiling and teasing him like before, all the unease and guilt in Jiang Xu’s heart seemed to dissolve.
His eyes drifted to the takeout box on the table, and he felt that perhaps today he really had overdone it.
Shen Fangyu followed his gaze. But the smile that had just been on his face froze the moment he realized what was in the box.
“Jiang Xu… that’s just cruel,” he said in disbelief. “You thought my cooking was bad, so you specifically packed something from a restaurant to let me feel the gap in skill?”
Jiang Xu didn’t explain that he’d meant well. He simply picked up another piece of blistered green pepper, ate it with rice, and said calmly, “The restaurant’s isn’t as good as yours.”
Hearing an answer completely outside his expectations, Shen Fangyu, who had just been preparing to launch a protest, suddenly froze.
His brain short-circuited on the spot. It took a long moment, and a twitch of his eyelid, before his thoughts slowly returned.
Jiang Xu had just praised his cooking.
That was Jiang Xu. The real, genuine Jiang Xu. Praising him.
Shen Fangyu suddenly felt as if his feet were stepping on cotton, light, floating, intoxicating.
“What else do you want to eat?” Shen Fangyu immediately rolled up his sleeves, energized as if injected with adrenaline. “I can learn anything.”
Jiang Xu glanced at him, and the corners of his lips couldn’t help but curve upward slightly. He quickly lowered his head and shoveled rice into his mouth, trying to hide that faint smile.
Strange, really. His pregnancy reactions had lasted so long that he’d had no appetite for almost anything. Yet this simple plate of blistered green peppers had actually given him one. The nausea didn’t appear, and he ended up eating half the plate in one go.
But that hint of a smile didn’t escape Shen Fangyu’s notice.
“Jiang Xu,” Shen Fangyu said, staring at the small mole beneath his eye that seemed to come alive when he smiled, “you really look good when you smile.”
Jiang Xu decided not to hide it anymore. He raised his head, letting the smile reach his eyes and brows, and replied with rare playfulness, “And when I’m not smiling, I don’t look good?”