Chapter 26: Cooking
Translator: Xena
I was very very sleepy while tl-ing this, my apologies if there will be any problems thank you
“What’s up? Where does it hurt?” Seeing Cheng Yinian emerge from the bathroom in a change of clothes, Chen Xiangsui hurried over, practically wanting to hold him in his hands and examine him from head to toe. “Did you catch a cold from the chill?”
Before Cheng Yinian could say anything, Chen Xiangsui immediately took the contents of the packaging bag.
All the winter gear was piled onto Cheng Yinian, wrapping him up like a giant rice dumpling.
“…It’s not because of that.” Cheng Yinian unburdened himself of the weight he carried. If he hadn’t repeatedly emphasized that he was much better, Chen Xiangsui probably would have hidden him under the covers and wouldn’t have let him out.
Every morning, the first thing Chen Xiangsui did was ask him how he was feeling. Whenever he had free time, he would stay by his side. Come the weekend, he even took him to the hospital for a physical examination.
“No need to exaggerate like that. I’m doing just fine.” Despite Cheng Yinian’s repeated refusals, Chen Xiangsui insisted on pushing him into the car. His driver used the same line over and over: ‘If you can afford it, it can’t hurt to get checked.’ After much deliberation, Cheng Yinian found no counterargument and reluctantly gave in.
The car pulled up quickly at the hospital entrance. The line wasn’t too long, so Cheng Yinian didn’t have to wait long before going inside for his physical. The process wrapped up in about two hours, and he’d get the results in a couple of days.
Cheng Yinian had just stepped out when he spotted Chen Xiangsui sitting on a bench, his gaze fixed on two boys walking side by side not far away. The shorter of the two addressed the other as Gege.
“The doctor said we’ll have to wait a few more days for the results. Let’s head back for now.” No sooner had Cheng Yinian finished speaking than Chen Xiangsui gave a soft hum while looking at his face, then unexpectedly changed the subject. “You call me ‘Gege’ online too.”
“…That was online, and I’m actually older than you.”
Chen Xiangsui paused for a moment. “Then I’ll call you Gege.”
“There’s no need for that,” Cheng Yinian casually replied, but before he could finish gathering his things from the bench, Chen Xiangsui spoke again, “But I still want to hear you call me that.”
“You’re younger than me. It’s not appropriate.” Cheng Yinian flatly refused.
Chen Xiangsui seemed to be searching for words in his mind, and after a long pause, he finally managed to say, “But I’m the one taking care of you, so I’m the one who seems like the older one.”
“Whatever you say, I won’t call you that.” After speaking, Cheng Yinian pretended to put on a sulky expression and walked directly towards the hospital entrance.
Chen Xiangsui hurried to catch up, grabbing the wrist of the person in front of him. “I was wrong.”
Very well, Cheng Yinian thought. To err is human, to forgive divine.
But it was clear that forgetting that one word hasn’t been well reflected in Chen Xiangsui.
……
“Is there a live stream tomorrow on Sunday?” Chen Xiangsui asked while waiting at the traffic light. “I’ll go to the rental place with you.”
“Mm.” Cheng Yinian replied indifferently. It had indeed been a while since he’d streamed with Chen Xiangsui. CP fans who’d appeared in the livestream chat at some point now frequently howled in his comments: “What are you gonna play?”
“You decide. Send me the game later, I’ll buy and install it in advance,” Chen Xiangsui replied.
Cheng Yinian finally decided to stream TT on Sunday. Coincidentally, a new mode was released, which is a multiplayer online adventure where there is no competition between teams, only cooperation between teammates.
On Sunday, Chen Xiangsui brought his own laptop, and Cheng Yinian prepared another set of desk and chair for him, placing it right beside his own. He specifically bought a new headset so he wouldn’t have to worry about the microphone picking up too much ambient sound.
[You’re here! Did you just drop your child off at school?]
[Don’t go spreading rumors, they just had lunch together]
[Ngl, I saw them. They just took a nap together and rolled around on the bed three times]
[LOL, even though there’s no proof the other guy is Age, they just keep spreading rumors]
Cheng Yinian and Chen Xiangsui logged into their accounts almost simultaneously, and immediately entered the new two-player co-op mode with a random map The map they drew had an unexpectedly relaxed atmosphere upon entry. According to the instructions, it was a forest where day and night alternated. Players could gather clues during daylight hours, but certain areas only opened at night. To accommodate players seeking to challenge themselves with completion times, an option existed to advance to nighttime earlier.
Thus, their first task during daylight hours was to familiarize themselves with the map. If the didn’t, they risked being unable to distinguish which branches had been added on the map once night fell.
Cheng Yinian sprinted through the entire map, minimizing blind spots at his fastest possible speed and rarely retracing his steps. He finally arrived at Chen Xiangsui’s location marked on the map, only to find that the other party was acting as if on vacation, putting ingredients into a pot set up in the wild.
“This is…” Cheng Yinian couldn’t help but ask.
Chen Xiangsui replied with a straight face. “I’m looking for clues.”
[Hahaha, bullshit you’re just hungry!]
[Yeah yeah, just looking for clues on how to feed the wife]
[Step 1: Add more ingredients to get them pregnant]
[I’ve played this game before—the daytime sections really feel like those free-roaming exploration games, with tons of interactive items. My friends and I loved pretending to play house in there…]
Before long, Chen Xiangsui had indeed prepared a bowl of soup and handed it to Cheng Yinian’s character. “Give it a try.”
Cheng Yinian couldn’t refuse, so he controlled his character to gulp down the soup. The next second, Chen Xiangsui immediately asked, “So, any leads?”
[Hahaha, big boss is so stupid, all the clues had been drunk!]
[Feels like watching a cooking mini-game]
[I wonder what kind of soup that was . Can you actually hunt and fish here?]
“Some grass and some fruit, but no meat.” Chen Xiangsui replied, “If you really made soup with that, the taste would probably be pretty weird.”
“What kind of grass was that?” Cheng Yinian couldn’t help but ask, only to see Chen Xiangsui point to the remaining ingredients in the upper-right corner of his inventory, “Look at my screen, it’s right here.”
[……Look at my screen? Here is the evidence, your honor]
[That last voice was Age, right? So you two were secretly dating online and then met in real life, huh?]
[You two actually got together in secret!!!]
[Is my CP really true? Waaah please share more details like the marriage certificate. This is really important to me]
[I don’t believe it, but let me see! Waaah, what’s going on with you two? Are you really getting married? Waaah!]
A wave of comments immediately flooded the screen. Having experienced this before, Cheng Yinian remained unfazed, but he deliberately muted his own microphone and urged Chen Xiangsui not to reveal too much. Chen Xiangsui nodded blankly. “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”
[Keep what in mind? What are you going to keep in mind? Tell me everything.]
[+I’ll read the Streamer’s Obedient Husband]
[Hurry up and publish the book soon. I love reading those!]
[Oh my god oh my god oh my god just have a baby already]
Cheng Yinian watched as Chen Xiangsui’s mouse hovered over the soup herb. The box displayed a detailed explanation of the ingredients, even noting that forest rabbits were said to be particularly fond of it. The moment his gaze left the screen, he noticed a group of rabbits had gathered around his character, they’d even started scratching at him. He tried to move, only to find his speed had noticeably slowed.
“The rabbits are cute.” Chen Xiangui turned his head and fixed his gaze directly on Cheng Yinian, his expression seemingly implying something. Hearing this, Cheng Yinian couldn’t help but frown.
[It’s indeed cumbersome1A homonym. The word for very cute is 很可爱, while the other one means a real hindrance 很可碍 . Both are hen ke ai, differs only in intonation., even Nian Gao can’t keep up]
[Hahaha, lmfao teammate pk]
[Nian Gao’s Map Run x Nian Gao’s Map Crawl]
The game couldn’t have gone more poorly. Due to the rabbits’ interference, Cheng Yinian could only shoot down the jungle monsters whenever he encountered them. Chen Xiangsui deliberately passed all the healing items to Cheng Yinian, which was how Cheng Yinian managed to survive before the rabbits’ effects wore off.
Visibility was poor at night, and the number of monsters was higher than during the day, making the challenge more difficult. Due to the rabbit’s earlier impact, Cheng Yinian’s treatment medication was nearly depleted, and there was virtually no remaining stock in the map. He could only prioritize hiding, narrowly escaping death multiple times when confronting the monsters head-on. Finally, with only a sliver of health remaining, he used the clues held by the two of them to unlock the secret passage out of the forest.
[Oh my gosh, that was close! I thought Nian Gao was going to fail]
[It’s literally a matter of life and death if you’re even a step too slow… But clearing it on the first try during the first night was pretty fast, huh? Maybe it’d be even quicker without the rabbit.]
[That’s Nian Gao for you . I played for five or six nights straight before finally beating it, and on the first night, I got hopelessly lost. It hasn’t even been a full night yet, there’s still twenty minutes left on the countdown.]
Cheng Yinian and Chen Xiangsui played a few more games and finally logged off around dinnertime. Cheng Yinian lifted his hands from the keyboard, his gaze inadvertently catching Chen Xiangsui’s phone resting on the desk. The screen lit up with a notification, revealing a lock screen image that was clearly a photo of him wearing a white rabbit dress.
“Chen Xiangsui.” Cheng Yinian sighed almost imperceptibly. “Someone might see this.”
Chen Xiangsui quickly grabbed the phone. “I’m sorry. And sorry as well, about what happened in the game earlier.”
So, Cheng Yinian watched as Chen Xiangsui changed his lock screen photo and make it his desktop background.
Cheng Yinian: …
He deeply felt that Chen Xiangsui, who was so obsessed with his cross-dressing photos, was a complete and utter pervert.
“As compensation, I’ll make you something to eat.” Chen Xiangsui rose from the table and said that on his way over, he’d spotted a vegetable market not far from here. He’d decided to stop by and pick up some ingredients to cook a proper meal for Cheng Yinian
Cheng Yinian was slightly taken aback. “You can cook?”
“Yeah, back when Mom and Dad worked late, I was the one who cooked at home.” After saying this, Chen Xiangsui said goodbye to Cheng Yinian and stepped out the door. Before long, he returned to the rental apartment carrying several bags of groceries. “I bought your favorite beef balls.”
Chen Xiangsui entered the kitchen, and soon several fragrant dishes were served, their aroma wafting straight to Cheng Yinian’s nose.
Cheng Yinian had barely picked up his chopsticks when he couldn’t resist reaching straight for the beef balls, which happened to be placed closest to him. Chen Xiangsui’s lips turned up in an almost imperceptible smile. “I’m still better at taking care of you.”
For some reason, Cheng Yinian’s mind automatically linked this sentence to a scene he had witnessed earlier at the hospital. “Don’t even think about it. I won’t call for help.”
“But you said this would make me feel closer to you.” Chen Xiangsui spoke cautiously, “Do you mind that I’m younger than you?”
“…How could you possibly think that?” Cheng Yinian paused his chopsticks.
“You got upset after I said yesterday that I’m more like the older one.”
Cheng Yinian gave a wry smile. “Not at all. We’re actually about the same age, so I really don’t mind either way.”
“Then why won’t you call me?” When Cheng Yinian met Chen Xiangsui’s genuinely bewildered eyes, he had a premonition that he was about to be led astray once again.
