BTMDY Extra 3

“You saying that just shows you still don’t get Brother Lu,” Lin Wangye said.

Hearing that, Lin Shen laughed right away, his face full of that smug confidence he loved to flaunt. He spread his hands. “No matter what I do, he’ll never divorce me.”

Of course Lin Wangye knew that as well as anyone. He snorted, turned toward the big balcony, and leaned on the railing to drink in the view, taking a deep, satisfied breath of the homeland air.

“Then fine — stop causing trouble.”

Lin Shen stood beside him, propping his chin on his hand and whining, “If I didn’t stir things up, life would be so boring. That Lu guy is just dull as dust, no fun at all.”

“Plain and steady isn’t bad,” Lin Wangye shot him a look and puckered his lips. “You ask for too much. When I was abroad with Shi Yuan for school, I had to stay alone in the rented room while he was in class — even more dull than you. But being with him made me happy; when I felt bored, I’d find ways to kill the time.”

“My way of killing time is messing with Lu Chengxuan!” Lin Shen protested, adamant. “What makes you any nobler than me, telling your old man how to live? I want to tease him. I want to watch him lost for words, fidgeting like he’s sitting on pins and needles, helpless and yet not daring to strike me — that makes me feel great!”

“Alright, alright. Do what you want, deal with the consequences. I don’t want to argue.” These two had been like this for years; even Lin Wangye had run out of things to say. He nodded and let it drop. Then he glanced away and noticed a row of standalone villas across the lake, and an idea suddenly lit up.

“Hey, when we get back home we could buy a big house and live together. Wouldn’t that keep things from being boring?”

“You know, I actually thought about that.” Lin Shen said, “I even talked it over with Lu Chengxuan before, but then I changed my mind.”

Lin Wangye looked puzzled. “Why?”

“Under the same roof, no matter how big the house, it’s awkward. No privacy at all.” Lin Shen was blunt here, even teasing his son on purpose as he laid it out: “My voice’s kind of loud. I can’t keep it down.”

Lin Wangye blinked a couple of times and got it in a second. “Oh.”

That cool, short reply disappointed Lin Shen. He stared at Lin Wangye’s calm face and wondered, “Just ‘oh’?”

“It’s fine, no need to explain.” Lin Wangye pulled his eyes back from the villas and looked at Lin Shen with a sincere, earnest gaze. “I get it — my voice is loud, too, and I make a mess. Living next door to each other would be perfect.”

At that, Lin Shen’s eyes grew wide as if someone had turned up the volume on them. He reached out, grabbed the back of Lin Wangye’s neck, half angry, half laughing. “You little rascal — you really said that to me?”

“What, I can’t even talk about it now?” Lin Wangye instinctively hunched his shoulders, clamping down on Lin Shen’s hand, totally confused by his dad’s overreaction. Within seconds, he was already lecturing him, “You’re my dad—what can’t I say? It’s the modern age, why are you still acting like sex is a forbidden word? You never gave me any sex ed when I was a kid; it was Uncle Shi who taught me!”

“Hold up—wait a damn second.”

That one line hit all the wrong nerves. Lin Shen’s scalp went numb, and his grip suddenly tightened around Lin Wangye’s neck. His voice rose, full of outrage: “You’d better explain that clearly. How did he teach you? What kind of teaching are we talking about here? In your last life he was nineteen years older than you—nineteen! Every time I think about it I feel like punching him! You tell me the truth right now, or I’m going next door to chop him into pieces!”

“Hey—hey, calm down!”

Lin Wangye’s voice came out strained as Lin Shen’s hand pressed harder against his throat. He grabbed his dad’s wrist, panicking. “It was over the phone! He’d already gone abroad when I was a kid—he never even came back! You know that! Oh wait… actually, no, you don’t know that—ugh, let go already, Dad, you’re killing me here!”

Realizing he might actually be hurting him, Lin Shen loosened his grip in a hurry and instead grabbed Lin Wangye’s hoodie collar. “I never asked you before, and Lu Chengxuan didn’t tell me either. So let’s be honest, father to son. Tell me the truth—were you two actually together in your past life?”

“No!” Lin Wangye blinked innocently. “Didn’t I tell you already? I liked him, but he didn’t feel the same way.”

Lin Shen finally released him and turned his head away, grumbling, “Good. At least he had some sense.”

Lin Wangye awkwardly fixed his hoodie, sneaking a glance at his dad’s face. He nudged him with his elbow and asked in a low voice, “So… if, in that situation, I had gotten together with him, would you really have beaten him up?”

“Obviously,” Lin Shen snapped instantly. “Not only would I have beaten him, I’d have called the cops too!”

“Would you have hit me?” Lin Wangye asked again.

“…”

Lin Shen stayed silent for a long while, staring out at the distance like a man carrying the weight of the world.

Whenever he got that fake serious look, he always ended up saying something ridiculous, so Lin Wangye didn’t really expect much.

But after a few seconds, Lin Shen suddenly said, “You’re my son. If anything went wrong, that’d be my fault for not teaching you right. I’d discipline you, sure—but I wouldn’t hit you.”

Lin Wangye froze, dazed, like he was seeing a ghost from his past life—his father’s shadow flickering through that calm voice.

And then, with the same tone and expression, Lin Shen added, “Though… you could show me a few of your tricks. Teach your old man how wild you two got.”

“…”

Compared to that father-son duo, who could talk nonsense all day, Shi Yuan and Lu Chengxuan’s side of things was way more peaceful.

Roujiamo came in two kinds: one made with soft white flatbread, and another—the kind Lin Wangye liked—made with crispy layered pastry. The crispy kind took more work: you had to let the dough rest, roll it long and thin, brush it with oil, slice half of it into strips, roll it up, cut it into evenly sized dough balls, flatten them, and bake them until golden.

At the roujiamo shop, there’s a special tool for cutting the strips, so it’s not that hard.

But at home, without that tool, cutting by hand is a real hassle. And this step is crucial—it’s what makes the pastry crispy on the outside, so it can’t be rushed.

After letting the dough rest, Lu Chengxuan spent almost all his time on this part.

He usually cooks simple home dishes; stir-frying sugar-colored meat is easy, no special skill needed. But trying the layered pastry for the first time naturally left him a bit inexperienced.

Shi Yuan, on the other hand, had helped his grandparents run a breakfast stall and make hand-grabbed pancakes before, and he cooks fairly often. So in this area, he was more confident and capable.

With him helping, progress picked up noticeably.

The two of them worked in the kitchen, and even without speaking much, everything ran smoothly. Each step was carried out calmly and steadily.

Shi Yuan knew Lu Chengxuan didn’t talk much, so he didn’t try to force a conversation. He found something to do as soon as he stepped into the kitchen, quietly rolling out the dough.

Unexpectedly, Lu Chengxuan spoke first, in a tone so casual it seemed effortless:

“How’s it going with Xiao Lin abroad?”

Shi Yuan glanced up, a bit surprised that he initiated a conversation, then smiled lightly.

“Pretty good. The place you helped us find is really close to school, so getting around is convenient. There are two Chinese restaurants nearby. They aren’t exactly authentic, but they help Xiao Lin satisfy cravings once in a while.”

“One of those restaurants is run by someone we know, though the chef is a local,” Lu Chengxuan paused, then continued, “I’ll send a chef from home over sometime.”

Hearing that, Shi Yuan instinctively responded politely. But knowing it wasn’t a big deal for Lu Chengxuan and that Xiao Lin would benefit, he accepted graciously, smiling:

“Thanks. Xiao Lin’s adjusting fine over there, though he does get cravings a lot. I can cook for him, but the food culture is so different and the ingredients limited.”

Lu Chengxuan pressed the dough Shi Yuan handed him into a flat shape and placed it on the baking tray:

“I thought about sending over some ingredients that aren’t available abroad, but the distance, customs, and travel make it tricky. By the time it arrives, it wouldn’t be fresh.”

“Yeah,” Shi Yuan nodded, pushing his glasses back up after they slid down from looking down at the dough. His tone was relaxed: “But it won’t be long before we go back—fastest in a year and a half, slowest maybe two years.”

“Mm, you can move across the hall when you get back. Lin Shen always complains about being bored after work, so Xiao Lin can play games with him.”

Just as Shi Yuan was about to reply, the doorbell rang.

Both of them had sticky hands. Shi Yuan, standing a bit closer to the sink, quickly rinsed his hands, wiped them with a paper towel, and hurried out to open the door. What he saw outside caught him completely off guard.

Kids grow fast. In just four short years, Xu Suihe, who had fully recovered and returned to normal life, had shot up noticeably. She had already blossomed into a teenage girl, just at the age when she was about to move up to middle school.

Because she had spent a long time recovering from illness and hadn’t attended school normally, fourteen-year-old Xu Suihe was just starting seventh grade this year. Considering her health, the family never pushed her to catch up—taking things slowly was perfectly fine.

When Shi Yuan opened the door, he saw his long-unseen little sister standing outside with her arms crossed, clearly annoyed. Next to her stood a much shorter little boy, his face perfectly round and delicate, holding a tiny suitcase.

Knowing that their older brother would be back today, Xu Suihe wasn’t surprised to see Shi Yuan. She grabbed the little boy and pushed him into the house, hands on her hips.

“Uncle Lu!”

Lu Chengxuan hurried out. Seeing the two at the door, he looked momentarily stunned. He went back into the kitchen, washed his hands thoroughly, then returned. When his eyes met the little boy’s, there was an unusual flicker of confusion.

The little boy set down his suitcase and blinked up at him, big eyes fixed on Lu Chengxuan, but didn’t say a word.

Xu Suihe stepped inside and jabbed the back of the little boy’s head with her index finger.

“Lu Guoguo ran away from home again! Isn’t there anyone who can control him? How many times has this been?”

Hearing this, Lu Chengxuan lowered his head and stared at the boy.

“You ran away again?”

“Yes,” eight-year-old Lu Guoguo nodded firmly, expression calm and collected, hands tucked into his pockets like a tiny adult. “I can’t get along with the old man at home. I can’t stay a single day in the Lu family.”

*

He’s never shown up before—the little rebel Lu Guoguo, already a troublemaker, the one Lu family had somehow managed to spoil rotten.

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