“Some salt, a little MSG, a bit of oyster sauce, and half a spoon of… what was it—steamed fish soy sauce? Seriously, why is there no proper recipe online with actual measurements? I totally got tricked. Aaaaagh this is driving me crazy!”
In Room 520, Lin Wangye sat on the edge of the bed, looking utterly miserable as he ranted, scratching his head like he might pull his hair out. He pouted, clearly frustrated. “I really tried, okay? This is the best I could do. I don’t think it even tastes that good…”
Since he’d promised to bring lunch for Shi Yuan, of course he had to cook it himself. He didn’t mind the hassle one bit—right after school, he borrowed Jiang Bowen’s bike and rode all the way home to make it.
He picked dishes Shi Yuan liked: stir-fried pork with chili and dry pot cauliflower.
The pork was easy enough. That dish was pretty forgiving.
But the cauliflower… not so much. It was one of those dishes that needed serious skill to nail. Timing was everything. The veggie soaked up oil like a sponge, and if the seasoning wasn’t just right, it either tasted like plain cardboard or was salty enough to kill.
All the few dishes Lin Wangye knew how to make, he’d learned from Uncle Shi. This cauliflower thing—Shi Yuan had only taught him half of it before getting called away on a last-minute business trip to Sigwell.
Lin Wangye had waited and waited, hoping he’d come back.
But Shi Yuan never did.
So the dry pot cauliflower remained unfinished business. And today, he still hadn’t figured it out.
To make things worse, the Lu family’s private chef just so happened to be off today.
Desperate to make something decent, Lin Wangye scoured the internet and read at least ten different versions of the recipe. He gave it everything he had. And still, the end result turned out bland.
Not awful, but definitely not tasty either. It wasn’t the kind of food that made you want to keep eating.
Shi Yuan held the lunchbox, listening to him talk while slowly eating, calm and patient.
After Lin Wangye finished his chaotic but heartfelt explanation, Shi Yuan immediately smiled at him and said gently, “It’s not bad at all. I didn’t expect you to know how to cook—you’re amazing.”
Lin Wangye bit his lip and looked at him expectantly. “…You’re just trying to make me feel better. I tasted it myself, y’know.”
“Everyone’s got different tastes. As long as I like it, that’s what matters.” And as if to prove his point, Shi Yuan calmly picked up the biggest piece of cauliflower with his chopsticks and took a big bite, his expression perfectly composed as he followed it up with a mouthful of rice.
Watching him eat so contentedly, Lin Wangye started to doubt his own taste buds. He reached out a hand and said, “Let me try it again.”
“What if I don’t have enough to eat?” Not only did Shi Yuan refuse to give him the chopsticks, he even pulled the lunchbox closer to himself and quickly shoveled more cauliflower into his mouth.
“Hmm?” Lin Wangye scratched his head, then immediately latched onto something else entirely: “Did I not make enough? I usually don’t eat this much, but I added half a scoop more rice just in case you needed more.”
“This is just the right amount. Any less and I’d still be hungry,” Shi Yuan replied.
Lin Wangye nodded quickly, throwing the cauliflower issue out the window, and pumped his fist with renewed confidence: “Then I’ll make this much again for dinner!”
At that, Shi Yuan set down the lunchbox, took a small sip of purified water, and reached out to gently brush aside the piece of hair falling into Lin Wangye’s eyes. “Running back and forth like this is too much. Don’t bring me dinner tonight.”
“It’s fine, really,” Lin Wangye said quickly.
“Lu Chengxuan’s place is super close, about ten minutes by bike. We’ve got two hours for lunch break—it only takes me half an hour to get here and back, and I can even stop by the market. It’s easy.”
Technically, that all made sense.
But if you looked at how the time really added up, nearly all of Lin Wangye’s precious free time during the day was being spent on making and delivering meals.
And they were in senior year of high school. The academic pressure was no joke.
Saying ‘I’ll just cook real quick and drop it off’ sounded easy—but in reality, it meant running nonstop all day long. It drained whatever little rest he was supposed to get.
Right now, Lin Wangye didn’t feel tired. He was still riding the high of wanting to do something nice.
But Shi Yuan couldn’t stand the idea of him going through all that for his sake—especially not in this freezing winter weather, when the wind stung your face and left your bones aching cold after just one ride outside.
Looking at Lin Wangye’s slightly red nose from the cold, Shi Yuan felt an ache in his chest, a kind of stifling discomfort that he couldn’t put into words.
He spoke again, his voice warm and soft: “The hospital food’s not that bad. You don’t need to cook it yourself.”
Lin Wangye hadn’t figured out what was really bothering Shi Yuan. He wiped his nose with a tissue and stubbornly said, “Yeah, but I want to cook for you! You just told me I was amazing, remember?”
“You’re really impressive,” Shi Yuan said, not wanting to come down too hard on him. He gently tried to persuade him, “But the weather’s too cold. Running around outside all the time can give you a cold. You don’t want to end up in the hospital like me, right?”
“Of course I don’t want to!” Lin Wangye’s eyes instantly lit up, and he pointed to the bed behind him. “If I catch a cold, I’ll just take leave and lie here with you as a patient buddy! We can eat the hospital meals together!”
Shi Yuan couldn’t help but laugh at his response, letting out a soft sigh.
“Stop messing around. I don’t want you to get sick.”
“I’m in great health! I’m full of energy; I’m not going to get sick that easily!” Lin Wangye pouted in dissatisfaction, then suddenly paused. His eyes spun in circles, and he awkwardly lowered his head, fiddling with his fingers before quietly asking, “Are… are you just not letting me bring the cauliflower because you don’t like it? I’m not good at making it. I won’t make it next time…”
“Lin Wangye.”
Shi Yuan couldn’t hold back any longer and interrupted him, his tone turning serious.
“If you were me, lying here, and I had to deal with the risk of getting sick, still going out in the freezing cold to make and deliver food to you every day, would you be okay with that?”
After his words fell, Lin Wangye suddenly looked up, blinking rapidly as he met Shi Yuan’s gaze.
In that moment, he immediately went silent.
Shi Yuan could almost imagine Lin Wangye’s imaginary little ears drooping in defeat.
He gently brushed his fingertip across Lin Wangye’s nose, his attitude softening instantly, his voice so gentle it could almost melt: “Alright, sorry. I shouldn’t have been harsh. I’m not angry at you. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I just don’t want you to overwork yourself.”
“I know you weren’t angry.” Lin Wangye shook his head first, then obediently nodded. “Well, forget about it. After you get out of the hospital, how about I make you a sandwich and bring it to school? That’s really simple, not tiring at all.”
“Alright.” Shi Yuan smiled faintly, “It’s better to save time and chat with me, isn’t it?”
Lin Wangye’s eyes lit up. “Oh, right!”
This reminded him of something that had just happened today. He moved the bench closer to the bed, lowered his voice, and said mysteriously to Shi Yuan, “I found a secret about Lu Chengxuan today, it’s so surprising. You’d never guess!”
It was normal to make discoveries when living under the same roof.
Lin Wangye’s serious expression made Shi Yuan curious as well, but then he hesitated.
“A secret? Is it something you can talk about?”
“Hey, it’s not anything shameful.”
Lin Wangye glanced at the door of the room and spoke in a sneaky tone, “When I was cooking today, I was looking for shrimp in the fridge, and I accidentally found a small box hidden in the compartments…”
“I didn’t know what was inside, so I opened it to take a look. Guess what was in there?”
“The box in the fridge…”
Shi Yuan thought for a moment and then smiled softly. “Could it be that he hid some food in there?”
“Half right! He really hid something, but it wasn’t food!” Lin Wangye slapped his thigh. “There were two snowmen in the box—little snowballs, the size of a palm, with branches for arms and bottle caps for hats. Some of them had started to melt, and the outer layer had frozen into a layer of ice.”
Shi Yuan really hadn’t expected that.
It had been snowing heavily these past few days, so if Lu Chengxuan had secretly made two snowmen and hidden them in the fridge, it was indeed a huge surprise.
That was completely out of character for Lu Chengxuan.
It seemed more like something Lin Wangye would do.
Seeing the look of surprise on Shi Yuan’s face, Lin Wangye continued: “I was really curious, and since his mom was there, I asked her about it. She said Lu Chengxuan brought them home one day after school when he was in elementary school. He’d always treasured them and had kept them in the fridge for ten years.”
At the end, Lin Wangye held up his finger to show a ‘ten,’ emphasizing the point.
“Ten whole years!”
“That’s hard to believe,” Shi Yuan said, stroking his chin, then laughing at the thought that popped into his head. “If he hid a C4 bomb in the fridge, I wouldn’t find that as strange.”
Lin Wangye burst out laughing, too.
“Exactly! You think so too, right? I find it so weird. Aunt Lu even said he was worried the snowmen would melt, so he hooked the fridge up to a generator to make sure it could still cool even if the power went out.”
Shi Yuan pondered for a moment, then said, “Those little snowmen must be really important to him.”
“Of course!” Lin Wangye said. “Ten years ago, he was only eight. He was just a kid. There must be some attachment or obsession tied to them. I’ll have to ask him about it later.”
“Everyone has something that’s really important to them,” Shi Yuan said, gazing at him before asking, “What about you? Do you have something like that?”
Lin Wangye blinked, then lifted a corner of his lips into a meaningful smile. He reached up behind his neck, took off a necklace, and held it out in front of Shi Yuan, opening his hand.
The platinum necklace lay quietly in his palm, small diamonds sparkling brilliantly, catching the light and flashing countless tiny cross-shaped glimmers. Without glasses, it was hard to even tell what shape the stones were.
Shi Yuan took out his glasses, put them on, and stared at the necklace for a while before slowly speaking.
“It’s really pretty. Doesn’t look like something you’d find in stores—where’d you get it?”
“You gave it to me,” Lin Wangye replied instantly.
Shi Yuan paused, a little surprised, then smiled lightly. “I don’t remember giving you something that expensive.”
Lin Wangye took the necklace back, put it on again, letting it hang bright and bold over his clothes. He lifted his chin with a bratty little smirk.
“Doesn’t matter. If the happy puppy says it’s from you, then it is!”
With him acting like that, Shi Yuan couldn’t really tell if Lin Wangye had been messing with him from the start. But seeing him so pleased, he didn’t bother digging for the truth—just smiled gently, eyes full of warmth.
After chatting a while, Shi Yuan packed up the empty lunchbox and set it aside, grabbing a napkin to wipe his mouth.
Lin Wangye stared at the now-empty container, and suddenly something hit him. He jolted upright and turned to look at another lunchbox on the nightstand.
At that exact moment, his phone buzzed in his pocket.
Feeling a little guilty, he picked up.
“Hello?”
“Where are you? Where’s my food?” Lin Shen’s voice came through the speaker.
“I’m, uh, at 520…”
Silence on the other end. A full twenty seconds passed before a long, soul-crushed sigh drifted through.
“Mix my ashes with baby formula. Shake well. Scatter into the Atlantic.”
“And then forget me.”
*
Lin Wangye: Why baby formula though? O_o
Lin Shen: So I won’t go hungry on the road to the afterlife.
Xu Suinian: Don’t scare him.
Lin Shen: I swear @#￥%&@￥%&*… Next life ^#@&*&@!%… I’ll haunt you both in your dreams every night @#{}%!@#￥#&*…
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
