“I want to eat zhajiangmian and dumplings, can we?”
“Of course.” The man’s black eyes were full of doting.
Wen Yuan turned to the mixed-race youth. “Huaite, are you going back to the hotel? Or are you coming to dinner with us”?
Zhang Huaite curled his lips. “Why, you want to get rid of me again? Of course I want to go with you.”
Zhang Huaite was about to walk forward when a laughing voice suddenly sounded behind him.
“Huaite, you all won the championship, why didn’t you invite me to a meal?”
It was Chen Xingyu’s voice. He walked out of the arena, followed by his assistant.
Zhang Huaite’s face stiffened when he saw him appear. “Why are you here? Are you here to laugh at me? Do you think I wouldn’t be able to win the championship without your help?”
“I don’t mean that, Huaite. I believe in your strength.”
“Then don’t come here and pretend to compliment me, I can’t stand it.” Zhang Huaite’s face was full of disgust.
The assistant next to Chen Xingyu couldn’t stand it any longer. “Mr. Zhang, how can you say that to Brother Chen? The reason why Brother Chen came all the way to City B to participate in the finals, and spent so much effort, is all for the sake of —”
“Xiaoguan, no need.” Chen Xingyu interrupted him, looking unhappy.
Seeing this scene, Wen Yuan quickly interrupted. “Mr. Chen, if you don’t mind, come and have a meal with us. It will be more lively with more people.” He looked at the assistant next to him, “Your name is Xiaoguan? Come with us.”
“No, my girlfriend is still waiting for me outside. You guys have fun.” Xiaoguan greeted Chen Xingyu and left.
Although he disliked Chen Xinyu following, because of Wen Yuan’s face, Zhang Huaite was too embarrassed to speak up, and got into the car with the three of them.
Qi Jinran settled on a restaurant with very authentic zhajiangmian. Sitting down at the dining table, Wen Yuan first handed the menu to Chen Xingyu.
“Mr. Chen, what do you want to eat?”
Chen Xingyu smiled at him kindly, turned his eyes over the menu, ordered two fried noodles1same as zhajiangmian / anglicizing for what’s to come and two side dishes, and returned the menu to Wen Yuan.
“Mr. Chen, can you eat two servings of zhajiangmian by yourself?” Wen Yuan was a little surprised to see his order.
“I can’t. One of them is for Huaite.”
No wonder. Wen Yuan remembered that Zhang Huaite’s favorite food was beef brisket noodles.
“It seems that you know Huaite’s preferences very well.”
Zhang Huaite was unhappy, and grabbed the menu. Glancing at what Chen Xingyu ordered, it happened to be the beef brisket fried noodles he wanted to eat most after coming to B City. He had nothing to say, and returned the menu to Wen Yuan.
“Who told you to meddle in my business?” He glanced at Chen Xingyu.
“Why so nosy? I’m one year older than you, so I should take care of you.” Chen Xingyu smiled.
“It’s already good if you don’t bully me, let alone take care of me!” Zhang Huaite said coldly. He still remembered that when the two of them went to elementary school together, because he was a mixed-race child, there were always people in the school who gave him bad nicknames. Chen Xingyu also laughed at him with those children.
“I bullied you, but I also helped you out.” Chen Xingyu probably knew what he was thinking of. He did laugh at Zhang Huaite in elementary school, but later, he often beat up those boys who commented on or called on Zhang Huaite, and they didn’t dare make fun of Zhang Huaite again.
Wen Yuan was afraid that the two would quarrel, so he asked Chen Xingyu, “Mr. Chen, I heard that you graduated from Oxford and studied finance, right?”
“Yes, I used to work in an investment bank on Wall Street, and later I felt bored and went to learn baking.”
“Wall Street investment bank? Isn’t it a pity to give up such a glamorous career?” Wen Yuan was really puzzled.
“It’s okay, because there are people in the country who are more important to me, so I came back.” When he said this, Chen Xingyu glanced at Zhang Huaite meaningfully.
Zhang Huaite snorted coldly, ignored him, and immersed himself in the fried noodles.
Chen Xingyu couldn’t speak to him, so he could only chat with Wen Yuan and Qi Jinran. Qi Jinran also had a double degree in finance and had a lot of common topics with him, so the two quickly dove into discussing the international market.
After dinner, the four of them walked out of the restaurant together.
“Mr. Chen, where do you live? Shall we take you back to the hotel?” Wen Yuan asked him.
“I was staying at the Holiday Inn, and the car was driven away by Xiaoguan. It would be great if you could send me.”
The three of them got into the car, only Zhang Huaite was still standing outside. Wen Yuan was a little puzzled, so he lowered the car window and looked at the tall and handsome young mixed-race man.
“Huaite, aren’t you coming back to the hotel with us?”
“No, I want to walk around, I’ll take a taxi back later.” Zhang Huaite was uninterested.
Chen Xingyu quickly got out of the car after hearing this.
“I’ll walk with you.”
“So annoying, who wants you to accompany me?” Zhang Huaite strode forward.
Wen Yuan couldn’t help laughing when he saw the two people acting like they were a happy couple.2the term here is 喜冤家, which means a couple who acts resentful/hateful but actually loves each other
“Jinran, what do you think is the relationship between Chen Xingyu and Huaite?”
Qi Jinran pressed his eyebrows. “Obviously, Chen Xingyu is chasing Zhang Huaite, and returning to China is also for him.”
“But I don’t think Huaite likes Chen Xingyu very much.”
“Liking, this kind of thing, is hard to say. People’s feelings will also change. After all, the two of them have been in a relationship for so many years, and old feelings are still there.”
Wen Yuan felt that what Qi Jinran said was very reasonable.
“By the way, didn’t Zhang Huaite want to open a dessert shop? Chen Xingyu won the runner-up, which shows that his strength is not inferior to Zhang Huaite. Why not let Zhang Huaite invite him to be a chef.”
“No, Huaite certainly wouldn’t want to.”
“It’s a joint venture, so you have the right to speak. You can try to persuade him.” Wen Yuan always felt that there seemed to be something else in Qi Jinran’s words. He took a closer look at the man’s expression.
“Jinran, you mean to match Huaite and Chen Xingyu?”
Qi Jinran raised his eyebrows slightly, “What? Can’t you?”
Wen Yuan couldn’t help smiling. “It’s not impossible, I just didn’t think you were someone who could do this kind of thing before. After all, you didn’t like Huaite very much before.”
Qi Jinran smiled faintly, but didn’t speak. If he didn’t match Zhang Huaite and Chen Xingyu, was he still waiting for Zhang Huaite to be a light bulb beside them all the time?
Moreover, he couldn’t bear the way Zhang Huaite sometimes looked at Wen Yuan.
After the competition, the two played in City B for two more days. They visited all the attractions, large and small, and various well-known gourmet and Internet celebrity shops, and had a great time.
On the last day, Wen Yuan received a call from a high school classmate, Liu Ping. Liu Ping lives in City C next door. When Wen Yuan was in high school, his parents stayed in City C for a while, so he also studied in City C for two years, and had a bunch of classmates there. At that time, the best player in the class with him was Liu Ping, who was also a member of the school basketball team with him.
Liu Ping was very excited to hear he was coming to City B. He said that City C and City B were bordering, and wasn’t too far away, only half an hour’s drive. He warmly invited him to come over for dinner, and also called a few classmates from their high school over.
Qi Jinran originally wanted to accompany him to see the old classmates, but the company had an urgent video conference meeting, so Wen Yuan had to go to the alumni reunion alone.
“Don’t worry and have the meeting well. No need to pick me up, and remember to eat on time.” Before leaving the hotel, Wen Yuan told him worriedly.
“En, I’ll finish my business as soon as possible.”
When he arrived at the hotel in City C, Liu Ping saw Wen Yuan was alone, and couldn’t help wondering. “Wen Yuan, didn’t you say your husband accompanied you to City B to participate? Why didn’t he come?”
“It’s like this, his company has an emergency meeting that needs him to attend, so he can’t come.”
“Ah, that’s a pity, I wanted to see what the handsome guy who fascinated our class idol looks like.” Liu Ping said with a smile.
“Okay, don’t complain, where’s your wife? Why didn’t she come?” Liu Ping’s wife was Liu Ping’s tablemate from back then. The two had a crush on each other for a year, and they were still matched by Wen Yuan. “My wife’s pregnant, and her belly is more than eight months old. It’s inconvenient for her to go out, so I let her stay at home and not come over.”
Wen Yuan smiled. “You’re great, hugging your son right after graduation. Are you ready?”
Wen Yuan repeated his second year of high school due to textbook problems after returning to Wancheng, so his high school classmates all graduated a year earlier than him.
“Okay, let’s not talk about me. Let’s hurry in, the classmates are waiting.” Liu Ping was the class monitor back then, so he naturally organized this alumni reunion.
WY and Huaite, 2 emotionally dense people. Least one is in a dedicated relationship, and the other one is slow.
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SaltedFish On PTS Chapter 12
Thanks for the update
The problem must be that he tries to demonstrate instead of declare, With the dense type, you can only start with an aggressive attack! So soft attacks will have a x2 effect
Thank You for the new chapter (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤
Huaite is a bit of a tsundere😆
Agreed
I think it’s not as simple as ZH being dense. I mean, everything he showed an interest in, CX had to do it too. Not only that, but he wanted to show off to the person he liked, so he made sure to do it as excellently as possible, so that ZH could only see him being the best with ease.
But for ZH’s side, he doesn’t know that CX had that sort of motivation; so to him it’s like CX is following him around, taunting him, “No matter what you do or how hard you work, you’ll never be as good as me! Ha!” Especially since ZH decided to just throw himself into a career doing something he was good at and passionate about – then just when he feels like he can be excellent in his own way, CX suddenly shows up doing just as well as him and talking about how he’s just doing it casually. ZH loves it and is doing it with all his strength, and CX comes to compete with him on an equal level and just talks about how it’s no big deal; just a whim. Isn’t that like slapping ZH in the face directly?
If he wanted to use baking to get close to ZH, he should have asked him to teach him. That way he could spend plenty of time with ZH and cultivate their feelings, and no matter how good he became at it afterwards, ZH could still feel the pride and sense of accomplishment from knowing he was the one who taught him. But because CX is so determined to only ever allow ZH see him being successful and perfect, he made it look like all he wanted to do was show ZH up and make a mockery of him. Especially since they grew up together and CX always did better at everything – you know that in ZH’s house, CX would have been that “someone else’s child” he was constantly compared to.
The real dense one is CX – ZH’s reaction is very normal!!! Either CX is super dense, or his pride is more important to him than his feelings for ZH. As long as he’s determined to never let ZH see him being less than perfect in front of him, ZH will never return his feelings. To him, CX isn’t even a real person – because nobody’s perfect; everyone has flaws, but CX makes sure to never expose any to ZH, so it feels like he doesn’t have any. Which makes him feel like a fake person. If he was just a celebrity or someone ZH didn’t know, it would be normal for him to have that kind of image in front of ZH, and ZH wouldn’t be so unwilling and resentful. But because they grew up together yet CX is always careful to never expose any flaws in front of ZH, he doesn’t feel genuine. If he had allowed ZH to go ahead and shine by himself in baking, and simply tried to get close to him outside of it; asking him for advice or recommendations for things, and let him feel respected and admired in his own profession, he could have succeeded. Because even if CX had always been better than him in the past, he was able to be outstanding in his own way now.
Instead, CX followed him into a completely different career path, which made it obvious he was only doing it because ZH did it first. Then, he made sure not to let ZH see him having any difficulties, only showing off how great he was, as though he could succeed in surpassing ZH in his own field without any effort. All while being dismissive of it as something he just happened to casually be interested in trying.
I feel bad for ZH, and wish CX would grow some EQ!
You said everything I wanted to say and beautifully too. Love this take and I agree!
👏👏👏Thank god somebody had sense to say this !! I have experienced the feeling of being second in everything and its never nice. It makes you feel worthless , when the thing you try so hard for is someone else’s blink of an eye( no hate meant to geniuses ) . And the character setting of CX as a know it all is kind of irritating.
Exactly what I was thinking!
Thank you so very much for saying this. From ZH’s perspective, this is not romantic AT ALL, and all CX did was only making ZH develop a psychological shadow and inferiority complex.
I also don’t like how Qi Jinran leaned towards matching them together just to get rid of the ‘pest’. Even at this point I still dislike him. He still hadn’t grown at all. This character of ‘people’s feelings other than my person’s are irrelevant’ is really unpleasant.
I hope ZH and CX have no romantic development until ZH’s emotional problem is resolved first and CX to grow an EQ.
I think ZH treats Wen Yuan kindly and closely is also bc Wen Yuan is genuine and frank, with no hint of irony or ulterior motive. Even though he’s also talented, he didn’t have the superior air of ‘other people’s child’. This surely would feel like a breath of fresh air after being suffocated by CX since childhood. (Even Wen Yuan could be counted as being in the same boat with ZH bec he’s always been compared to Qi Jinran by his own parets 🙃)
Anyways, ZH and CX could lead to a very complex and interesting love story, but as always, I’ll lower my expectations bc this novel has too many cliches… 🤌
Clearly ZH is uncomfortable with CX, so as a friend of ZH, why would WY invite CH out to dinner together? Please consider your friend’s feelings, especially a friend who treats you well, encourages you, and believes in you. WY seems to not have any EQ sometimes.
lol you’re right. i think his EQ deteriorates when QJ is near him hahaha. but i guess it’s more of WY likes to be match maker to everyone he sees having some sort of relationship (whether they even love or hate each other)
I’m loving the long comment about CX and ZH
theyre right about that. and also wtf
i know WY is kind and all but for him to “see something” and invite the CX in their celebration is so rude to me for some reason. and for QJ to persuade WY to match up the two people… it’s so iffy! so sus hahha
i feel sad and frustrated that maybe no emotional fix will be done for whatever CX did to ZH if they ever get together in the future chapters
This chapter pissed me off for a number of reasons. WY is dense, rude and mean for inviting CX to hang out with them. A true friend doesn’t do that. He’s reasoning behind inviting CX is because CX likes ZH and they have history, but that’s dumb. How would WY feel if Ji Hong (his BFF) invited ZY (his ex) to hang out with him just because his ex still likes him and they have history? That’s pretty much how I see what he did and it’s so insensitive.
Also, I don’t like anything about CX. That’s a very stupid way of paying someone if you like them. If someone did that to me, I’d quit even things I loved just to avoid the person. I’m that petty and can spite myself just to get away from people. And CX is even more disgusting or daft because he has to be so many levels of stupid or blind to not see that his “strategy” is having the complete opposite effect and simply making ZH hate him.
And finally QJR needs some serious character development. He’s infuriating at times.