Chapter 99: Shredded Eggplant and Minced Meat Noodles
Translated by Yan of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Actually, they hadn’t guessed wrong. Shen Fu’s desires genuinely were not fulfilled.
He and Lin ShuYi could be considered newlyweds, but because of Shen Bro, now they became a married couple living apart.
Shen Fu opposed it completely.
But no matter how much he opposed it, there was nothing he could do. If Brother Shen wanted to be in love, then not even the heavens could stop him, much less Shen Fu.
What’s more, he didn’t want to stop his brother at all. He wished he could just press a fast forward b.u.t.ton and see Brother Shen make rapid progress; after the two of them confirmed their relationship and met the parents, then he could have no qualms about tossing aside his responsibility and go back to S City and do things with Lin ShuYi that wouldn’t leave his desires unsatisfied.
But to tell the truth, Brother Shen hid who he was in love with extremely well. Even though the entire world knew that he was in love, they had never even seen who the person was. Even Mama Shen had noticed and asked Brother Shen if he liked some family’s young maiden, and she had even mentioned going up and asking for the girl’s hand if it were an upstanding young woman worthy of his love. Shen Fu could only shake his head awkwardly and say that he didn’t know.
He wasn’t pretending: he really didn’t know. He had even gone through his brother’s phone, but he still didn’t know who that person that his brother was secretly in love with was.
Never mind the question of which family the young maiden was from – he didn’t even know what the gender was, alright?
In addition, Shen Fu was only curious for a few days before he truly wasn’t in the mood to be considerate of others anymore. He missed Lin ShuYi so much that he was almost going crazy, so how could he still be in the mood to care about who exactly it was that his big brother liked?
It didn’t take long before Shen Fu completely took over everything going on at the company, doing it so well that even Big Brother Shen viewed him in a new light. He looked at him coolly and said, “Since you always refused to take over the Shen conglomerate, I thought it was because you didn’t have the talent.”
Shen Fu rolled his eyes, not wanting to pay attention to the person who started his suffering. Instead he wished that he didn’t have a single drop of talent.
After another busy day of work, Shen Fu loosened the tie around his neck and leaned back against the chair, extremely irritated. He glanced at the calendar; it was actually only Wednesday, or in other words, he still had two days before he could go back to S City?!!
Shen Fu grew very unhappy.
Naturally Brother Shen got to the office late and left early these past few days, and he was long gone by now. The only one still working overtime in the office was Shen Fu.
Actually, it wasn’t that he couldn’t go back, it was just that when he went back and had nothing to do, he would miss Lin ShuYi even more. He would miss his lips that were as soft as cotton candy, he would miss his delicate pale collarbone, he would miss his faint moans when his face was blushing red…
Shen Fu, who felt a certain part of his body begin to harden without the slightest bit of restraint, wanted to burst out swearing.
He basically didn’t even think before he called Lin ShuYi.
The phone rang twice before it was picked up.
“It’s so late, you’re still not asleep yet?” Lin ShuYi’s crisp voice came from the phone, and Shen Fu felt as if all muscles in his body had been ma.s.saged.
“I miss you, so I couldn’t sleep.” Shen Fu’s voice was dyed with a bit of l.u.s.t, so it was a little hoa.r.s.e. Lin ShuYi understood the current situation almost immediately, and he didn’t speak again.
After a long pause, he said, “Where are you right now?”
Shen Fu leaned back against the soft armchair, but his hand couldn’t help but creep downwards.
“The office. I haven’t gone home yet.”
Lin ShuYi said, “Are you alone?”
Shen Fu nodded, but then he remembered that Lin ShuYi couldn’t see him, so he made a noise of a.s.sent. “En, I’m by myself.
“Are Xiao Yu and Tao Tao asleep?” In reality, he had already called them just a little bit before. At that time, Lin ShuYi had said that the little two buns were already getting sleepy, and now it was about two hours later, so they were definitely asleep.
Sure enough, Lin ShuYi said, “They’ve already been asleep for quite a while.”
Shen Fu chuckled lowly. “Then why aren’t you asleep yet?”
Lin ShuYi stopped talking again. He was truly too embarra.s.sed to say that he was in the middle of missing Shen Fu, so much that he tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Even if Lin ShuYi didn’t speak, Shen Fu still understood. He immediately lowered his voice even more. “I want to do it.”
Lin ShuYi felt as if his face was about to burst into flames from that sentence. The electricity turned what Shen Fu said on that end into sound voices that were then carried over to his end, and even though it was clearly only one sentence, Lin ShuYi felt his stimulated body tingle.
“There’s just two more days before you can come back.”
Even separated by two cities, Shen Fu could still imagine how Lin ShuYi’s earlobes were completely red right now even though they hadn’t even done anything. Simultaneously while torturing Lin ShuYi, he was also being tortured greatly himself. His hand movements involuntarily sped up a little, and he imagined how Lin ShuYi looked beneath him as he listened to his breathing.
“I can’t wait any longer.”
Over the phone, they both grew quiet, leaving only the sound of breathing growing rougher and rougher, intermingling with the sound of Lin ShuYi’s endlessly jumping heartbeat. He knew what Shen Fu was doing, and this kind of thing basically happened every one or two days. The first time it happened, he had wanted to hang up the phone, his face and ears red, but he couldn’t even move, as if he had been trapped. Even now, one rough breath of Shen Fu’s dragged him along entirely to the point that even his own breathing sped up involuntarily.
After a very long time, he finally heard Shen Fu let out a light cry from the other end.
“Ah Yi.”
Shen Fu would only call him that in bed. Lin ShuYi felt as if his ears were about to ignite, and desire flooded his entire body. He thought, he had definitely been poisoned by Shen Fu.
“Shen Fu…”
Lin ShuYi’s voice was low and husky, and the last syllable lilted upwards slightly, swishing across Shen Fu’s heart like a delicate feather provoking him, not too heavy, not too light. He slightly opened his eyes, which had been completely engulfed by l.u.s.t, and he laughed softly. “Call me husband.”
Lin ShuYi had never called him such before, and Shen Fu was just teasing him a bit out of a momentary interest. He didn’t expect Lin ShuYi to actually call him that, soft and quiet, in a voice that only he could hear: “Husband.”
Shen Fu’s pupils shrank, and splendid tide overtook him. When he came back to himself a little, he found that damp stickiness was covering his entire hand.
“What did you just say? Say it one more time?”
The call cut off with a beep.
Shen Fu laughed gently. This was the first time he felt as if the separation wasn’t completely terrible.
He wiped himself clean with a tissue before he finally started to tidy up and get ready to go home. Even though he was far from satisfied in his body and heart, for better or worse he had gotten to have some appetizers. It could pad his stomach a little and tide the hunger over.
On the other end, Lin ShuYi’s entire body was heating up. He had no choice but to go to the bathroom to take another shower. By the time he got out, the blush on his face still hadn’t receded, and he saw Xiao Yu standing in his doorway, rubbing his eyes.
Lin ShuYi instantly felt awkward.
And then Xiao Yu even asked him, “Papa, are you not feeling well?”
Why did he seem to have heard his father crying in the bathroom? Was it because he missed Papa Shen too much? Xiao Yu also missed Papa Shen a lot too.
The blush on Lin ShuYi’s face darkened even more, but it wasn’t because of what happened before. He could only avert his gaze, not looking at Xiao Yu’s watery eyes. “It’s nothing. Does Xiao Yu need something?”
Only then did Xiao Yu rub his eyes before he rubbed his stomach. “Papa, I’m a little hungry.”
He ate too much at the kindergarten that afternoon, so he had only eaten a little bit of what Lin ShuYi cooked for dinner. Now it was almost eleven at night, and when he got up to use the restroom, he felt very hungry.
Lin ShuYi wrapped himself up tightly in his bathrobe before he carried Xiao Yu to the bed. “Hungry? I’ll go make something for you. First lie down for a bit on the bed.”
Xiao Yu nodded. He lifted his head, wanting to kiss Lin ShuYi on the cheek, but he stopped after thinking over it again. He mumbled as if to himself, “Papa Shen said not to kiss Papa.”
Lin ShuYi found it amusing. “Isn’t Papa Shen not here right now?”
Xiao Yu’s eyes lit up. That was true! So then he smacked a kiss on Lin ShuYi’s cheek. “Thanks, Papa.”
Lin ShuYi smiled at he rubbed his head, before he went downstairs to go make him a midnight snack.
Lin ShuYi usually never cooked at home, so he typically didn’t have anything except milk, eggs, and a bag of baby noodles in the fridge. Auntie Chen was the one who told Lin ShuYi to buy Tao Tao the baby noodles. There were all sorts of flavors like eggplant juice, egg, and shiitake mushrooms. However, since Xiao Yu went to a friend’s house to play today, Lin ShuYi had brought back some of the dish using a food storage container. Now, he could just sprinkle some noodles on top and nestle an egg in; it was both simple and very convenient.
Lin ShuYi ate noodles for lunch too, but it was the hand-made noodles that he himself had cooked. Even though there were lots of dishes with generous amounts of meat and fish in the restaurant, anyone would get sick of eating too much meat, especially after the new year. Instead, these kinds of small noodle dishes with clear broth were exceptionally popular. When he ate it at lunch, quite a few customers also wanted a bowl.
The veggies came from shredded eggplant in oyster sauce, sliced thinly. There was ground meat that was like fragmented rice, and you couldn’t really taste it, but it was very aromatic when added in. There was a bit of saucy red broth at the bottom of the container, and the dish was still warm. Lin ShuYi covered it up before he started to boil the noodles.
The baby noodles that Tao Tao ate were very fine and short, about as long as a finger. The eggplant sauce was pink, and the mushrooms were dark, the egg a faint yellow. Lin ShuYi scooped out a large spoonful of eggplant juice, before he nestled an egg in the water when it began to bubble but hadn’t boiled yet. The egg placed in at this time wouldn’t break or stick to the pot. After the white of the egg congealed, Lin ShuYi put the noodles in.
The process of making baby noodles was fairly complicated. There weren’t any other food additives either. Besides noodles and salt, it only contained all sorts of vegetable juice, so it had a short expiration date and had to be eaten in a short amount of time. Tao Tao liked this stuff a lot, and he could eat a big bowl every time someone boiled it for him and put some egg and veggies in.
It didn’t take very long to boil, and it was just about ready as soon as the water boiled again. Lin ShuYi scooped up the noodles before he added some broth and mixed in the dish from the food storage container.
A bit of oil floated to the surface of the broth, and the egg poked out a little from the surface as the broth slowly became a shallow soy paste color. Just looking at it was enough to awaken an appet.i.te.
Lin ShuYi selected a pair of Xiao Yu’s chopsticks before he took the noodles up.
Xiao Yu was still lying on his bed, waiting for him with big eyes. When he saw him come in, his eyes lit up, looking no different from when Lin ShuYi himself saw delicious food.
“Come and eat.”
Xiao Yu tossed aside the blanket before he thump-thump-thumped over to Lin ShuYi’s side without even putting on his slippers. Luckily, the temperature was constant in the house, and Lin ShuYi only gave him a helpless look without really saying anything.
“Papa eat too.”
Xiao Yu gathered up some of the noodles, stained with sauce, before his eyes curved and he revealed his sharp little canines as he looked at Lin ShuYi.
Lin ShuYi shook his head. “You eat, I’m not hungry.”
Xiao Yu lowered his head and wolfed down the rest of the noodles. Not even the soup was spared, and there was oil next to his little mouth after he was done.
“Are you full?” Even the soup was gone; it looked like he really had been starving.
Xiao Yu nodded before he patted his own rotund stomach. “Full.”
Lin ShuYi laughed. “Then go rinse out your mouth and go to sleep.”
Xiao Yu stood up obediently and walked over to the door, wearing his soft little bear pajamas. “Good night, Papa.”
“Good night.”
Xiao Yu turned and walked towards his own room. Halfway there, he stopped and looked back at Lin ShuYi.
“Is there something else?”
Xiao Yu spoke softly. “If Papa misses Shen Papa, then you should just call him. I also miss him a lot. Don’t hide away secretly and be sad, okay?”
Lin ShuYi was startled. He knew what Xiao Yu had misunderstood, and he didn’t even know how to begin explaining.
He did miss Shen Fu, correct, but he wasn’t feeling sad in the bathroom in the slightest.
Lin ShuYi felt like his face was a bit red. “En… I will till Papa Shen you miss him a lot.”
Xiao Yu’s eyes curved. “There’s still two more days. Let’s secretly go and visit Papa Shen, and then we can give grandma and grandpa a pleasant surprise along the way too.”
Lin ShuYi was stunned before he finally smiled himself and said, “Okay.”
If he stealthily appeared in front of Shen Fu, who knew what kind of expression Shen Fu would have?