Chapter 19

After finishing the dumplings that day, the Director kept the two of them behind to take a few group photos with all the children in the institute, saying he would develop them after the New Year and send them to them. Ye Ji’an did not refuse, but Liang Xiao noticed that he left the company’s address, even specifying just the front desk. They did not participate in the afternoon’s celebration activities; Liang Xiao carefully pressed the accelerator on the empty ring road, picking up speed as he drove to the nearest Walmart.

Ye Ji’an leaned against the car window as usual, spreading his fingers to feel the warm air from the air conditioning, then smiled at Liang Xiao in the rearview mirror, “Are you hungry?”

“A bit,” Liang Xiao admitted this time without being stubborn.

“I saw you eat at most five dumplings.”

“Three,” Liang Xiao said as he backed the car into the parking space, “I really can’t handle celery.”

“I know, celery, cilantro, freshwater shrimp, and various mushrooms—you’ve never been willing to touch them since you were little. Hu-ma told me all about it,” Ye Ji’an said as he got out of the car and closed the door, his gaze crossing over the car roof. “She even made a list of the dishes you like and sent it to me.”

Liang Xiao pressed the car key, feeling quite strange inside, which could be summed up as a happy embarrassment. “Did you add each other on WeChat?” he asked.

Ye Ji’an moved closer to him with a mysterious expression, slowly walking toward the mall, “How about green peppers?”

Liang Xiao tucked his hand into his pocket, “Any kind of pepper is fine.”

Ye Ji’an laughed, “Then let’s make a green pepper and meat filling. It sounds like a dark dish, but it’s actually really delicious. We used to make it every year in Nanjing.”

Liang Xiao nodded, holding Ye Ji’an’s hand in his pocket.

The shopping process was very quick, at least at first. Ye Ji’an was like a fish in water in the fresh produce section, clearly someone who often squeezed time to buy groceries. Even on New Year’s Eve, when the supermarket was bustling like a market, he could quickly find what he wanted, select it, and weigh it, squeezing back through the crowd of elderly people with his spoils, arranging them in the shopping cart like trophies.

Liang Xiao stood by, watching as Ye Ji’an made trip after trip, but he didn’t just buy green peppers. He was quite particular about his purchases; he didn’t want pre-packaged meat but insisted on selecting fresh meat and having the vendor grind it. He also bought ribs and bones, beef brisket and lamb tenderloin, two pieces of black pork belly and black pig front cuts, Argentine red shrimp and Dalian yellow croaker, and a variety of vegetables, many of which Liang Xiao, having eaten too much Western food, couldn’t even name. It was clear he was preparing to stock up on fresh ingredients for the remaining days of the holiday.

“Are you planning to cook every day, Senior?” Liang Xiao asked.

“Of course, I love cooking. During the New Year, it’s better than waiting in line at a restaurant, and it’s healthier than ordering takeout,” Ye Ji’an said, stopping by a freezer, tugging at Liang Xiao’s shirt, and adding two boxes of cod and a box of prawns to the small mountain in the shopping cart. “The shopping card from the company has five thousand yuan on it, and I haven’t used it all yet.”

“I don’t have one; my position is too low,” Liang Xiao said, feeling a bit wronged. “I only have cards for Starbucks and Xidan Bookstore.”

“You don’t need one at all!” Ye Ji’an laughed, tugging at his pitiful expression. After spending too long picking out items from the freezer and fresh vegetables, his hand was cold, so Liang Xiao gently placed it on his face, rubbing his skin with his eyelids.

Ye Ji’an blushed; even with the flour from the morning still not cleaned off, the redness was visible. His facial blood circulation had indeed fluctuated a lot recently. He gently pressed Liang Xiao’s eye socket, “…Is my hand really that nice to squeeze?”

Liang Xiao focused on looking at him, “It’s very cold.”

Ye Ji’an couldn’t stand the intense gaze and shifted his attention to the carefully selected marinated items, “We still need to keep shopping.”

“Yeah, it’s warm now,” Liang Xiao said, satisfied as he patted the back of his hand, placing that right hand on the left side of the cart’s handle, intending for Ye Ji’an to push from one side while he pushed from the other. However, after just a few steps, Ye Ji’an used his left hand to push the cart while his right hand moved to cover Liang Xiao’s hand, resting steadily on top.

He kept his head down, “It needs to warm up a bit more.”

Liang Xiao couldn’t see his expression when he said this, only the corners of his mouth curling up and his eyelashes drooping. God knows how much he wanted to kiss him right then.

To Liang Xiao’s surprise, as they passed the noodle section, Ye Ji’an picked up noodles instead of dumpling wrappers. “I’ll cook you a bowl to fill your stomach first. We need to make at least six dishes for the New Year’s Eve dinner, and it won’t be ready until at least seven or eight,” he said.

Liang Xiao expressed his desire to eat two bowls first and picked up a bag of dumpling wrappers to put in the cart. He thought Ye Ji’an had forgotten, but Ye Ji’an put the bag back, “Making the dough and rolling the wrappers is tastier.”

“They’re all the same, right?”

“Hey, I’m saying, Liang the Young Master, you usually act like a gourmet, so why are you settling now? Rolling wrappers doesn’t take long,” Ye Ji’an frowned at him, paused for two seconds, then touched his mouth and lowered his head, “You can’t be treated worse than the little kids.”

Liang Xiao was taken aback.

“Senior, is there anything else you need to buy?” he asked.

“Nothing else, I still have plenty of disinfectant and shampoo, and I stocked up on shower gel and laundry detergent. I bought a ton of paper during the Double Eleven sale, so just take some from my house,” Ye Ji’an counted seriously.

Liang Xiao then led him to the adult products section, moving quickly with a kind of recklessness that was rare for him. This area was near the checkout, and as they stood in front of the shelves, many people walked back and forth behind them. Liang Xiao quietly observed Ye Ji’an’s reaction while scanning the two rows of lubricants.

There weren’t many brands, and indeed, there was none of the kind he liked. Between water-based and silicone-based, Liang Xiao chose the former, the colorless and odorless one. After carefully checking that it didn’t contain the harmful preservative N-9 that disrupts intestinal flora, he placed it in the cart. Although it was prone to evaporation during use and needed frequent reapplication to avoid drying out, water-based lubricants were the least irritating and easiest to clean among similar products, so Liang Xiao was willing to use it on Ye Ji’an.

As for condoms, Liang Xiao was more casual; he only cared about the size. He picked one out and tossed it into the shopping cart, ready to queue up to check out.

But Ye Ji’an stopped him, waking from his awkwardness, his face even redder than before, his lips also flushed, “Are you only buying one box?”

Liang Xiao smiled, “This box has ten pieces.”

Ye Ji’an shot him a glare, suddenly grabbing five boxes of Okamoto 001, the red-packaged kind, and six boxes of the 003 platinum version, tossing them all in. They obediently lay among the lamb chops and large rainbow trout. That added up to 68 pieces, and with the box he just picked, it totaled 78, leaving Liang Xiao dumbfounded.

He didn’t feel there was anything wrong with it himself, but buying so many made him wonder if Ye Ji’an planned to go back to work in five days.

“The money on the card will expire in spring if I don’t spend it.”

Ye Ji’an muttered, turning his back to push the cart to the checkout.

Liang Xiao felt a bit more awake; Ye Ji’an was the kind of person who stocked up on toilet paper, so it was normal to stock up on condoms too. But how long would it take to use them all? Until spring or summer? They would be together all the time. It was enough to make one’s imagination run wild as he followed Ye Ji’an, staring unblinkingly at the dark hair at the back of his head. What would the skin on the back of his neck, covered by the turtleneck, be like? Would it be flushed, glistening with a fine layer of sweat?

Despite the noise of the crowd and Andy Lau’s “Congratulations and Prosperity” playing in the background, Liang Xiao could still vividly recall the enchanting touch of that skin and the feeling of biting into it.

It must be said that Ye Ji’an had a keen sense of numbers; there was still over two thousand six hundred yuan left on the card, and the final bill was just over two thousand five hundred. It took some effort to get all the items into the trunk, and by the time they returned to the traffic light outside the community, it was almost four o’clock. There was a stall selling fireworks outside the gate, and Liang Xiao pulled over, “What kind do you want to set off, Senior?”

“None,” Ye Ji’an thought for a moment and said, “I don’t have time; I need to hurry back to cook.”

He really meant it; by four-thirty, a pot of steaming seafood noodles was ready, rich in broth, with half a lobster and squid tentacles, along with fragrant garlic and blanched baby bok choy. He served two bowls, sat at the dining table, and watched Liang Xiao eat for a while before returning to the kitchen to busy himself. When Liang Xiao brought his empty bowl to the kitchen, the dough had already been cut, and the task of rolling the wrappers was left to him. Ye Ji’an was busy applying marinade to a pinkish-white pork knuckle, “Tonight, let’s try German crispy roasted pork knuckle, with roasted broccoli and roasted Chinese kale underneath,” he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, “and then have some beer with it.”

Liang Xiao helped him tie the apron strings that hung down his back, “I’ll take pictures to post on WeChat.”

Ye Ji’an turned his face to smile at him, “You don’t have anything on your WeChat.”

Liang Xiao wrapped his arms around his waist and squeezed him tightly, “There will be from now on.”

Ye Ji’an generously kissed him on the lips, saying, “Hurry up and roll the dumpling wrappers.”

After a morning of practice, Liang Xiao’s rolling skills, though still basic, had improved tremendously. By the time he rolled out more than fifty wrappers and laid them out with flour, Ye Ji’an had just finished cutting up various vegetables and meats, the oven was preheating, and the pork knuckle hadn’t gone in yet. Liang Xiao stayed in the kitchen to help for a while, but what he could do was limited to mixing eggs and peeling garlic, and soon Ye Ji’an sent him out to rest.

After putting away the purchased items like condoms and making a few phone calls, Liang Xiao used tweezers to feed Marx some South American cockroaches, his mind wandering as he pondered the scene in the kitchen. He had a premonition that the pork knuckle would definitely not be the star of the night.

Sure enough, at seven-forty, with some time before the Spring Festival Gala started, Ye Ji’an brought out a table full of dishes—six dishes and one soup in total: black pepper glaze roasted pork knuckle, boiled prawns, crispy egg rolls, lemon pan-fried cod, garlic snow peas, stir-fried Chinese kale, and a pot of lotus root stewed with pork bones, along with two plates of intact dumplings.

“You don’t have to finish it; don’t stuff yourself,” he said, popping open a beer and pouring some for himself and Liang Xiao, “Just for the celebration.”

Liang Xiao put down his phone after taking pictures and raised his glass to clink with his, “Stuffing myself is fine, because it’s too delicious.”

Ye Ji’an had gotten used to his sweet talk, propping up his chin and blinking, “So which dish do you want to try first?”

Liang Xiao placed his chopsticks on the roasted pork knuckle, the crunch echoing as he bit into it. He looked at him, “It’s better than what I had in the restaurant.”

Ye Ji’an took another sip of beer, “You’re just flattering me.”

Liang Xiao feigned innocence, “Which dish do you want to try first, Senior?”

“I’ll see if the dumplings are salty,” Ye Ji’an said, picking up a dumpling without dipping it in vinegar and putting it straight into his mouth, “Not bad, better than I expected.”

But then his brows furrowed again, “The seasoning is still a bit heavy; it’s been a while since I made them. Before, I would just boil some frozen ones by myself.”

The television a few meters away suddenly erupted with noise; it was the lively opening music of the Spring Festival Gala. Liang Xiao also tried the dumpling and couldn’t help but exclaim in his heart. If the celery from the morning had left him with a psychological shadow about dumplings, that one bite erased all of it.

“Senior, when you were in Nanjing, were you the one responsible for making dumplings?” he asked softly.

“Pretty much; my mom would prepare the filling, and I would roll the wrappers and pack them with her,” Ye Ji’an began peeling shrimp quickly and neatly, placing them into Liang Xiao’s bowl. He pulled out a smile, “My dad and my brother… aren’t the type to step into the kitchen.”

“Are they still together for the New Year?” Liang Xiao focused intently on him, his gaze openly revealing concern. Although he was asking about someone else, it still felt too warm.

So Ye Ji’an lowered his head, “They should be. My brother works in Shanghai, and he brings his wife and kids back to see our parents for the New Year. It’s just a short trip on the high-speed train, and they usually eat the New Year’s Eve dinner out. He’ll give me a call.”

As the fourth shrimp landed in the bowl, Liang Xiao held onto the hand that had stopped at the edge of the bowl, not yet able to retract it, “If talking about them makes you unhappy, we won’t mention it in the future.”

Ye Ji’an’s wrist stiffened noticeably, and his gaze was still evasive, “Not really. Why would I be unhappy?”

“Mm.” Liang Xiao didn’t answer, just nodded and released that hand. He began peeling shrimp as well, placing them into Ye Ji’an’s bowl.

Ye Ji’an seemed a bit at a loss, pulling out a tissue to wipe his hands. He picked up a knife and fork, ready to eat the cod while it was still hot, when his phone rang, lying on the table with a prominent name on the screen: Ye Zhihong.

Speak of the devil.

“Sorry,” Ye Ji’an instinctively said, “It’s my brother.”

Liang Xiao didn’t understand why he needed to apologize. He put down his chopsticks, “Should I step away?”

“No, no,” unexpectedly, Ye Ji’an panicked, standing up and pinning the phone to the table, his eyes on Liang Xiao, the light in them flickering, “…Can I sit next to you? I just want to lean against you.”