Luo Xiaoxi went back to Su Yicheng’s apartment, depressed.
Those days Su Yicheng was busy and he did not return until 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., while she lived in her home. They only talked to each other on the phone before sleep.
The previous day, Luo Xiaoxi talked about her thoughts of being a model again, but the idea was unexpectedly rejected by Su Yicheng. She decided not to see him in the following three days.
If it were in the past, she would do whatever she decided.
That time, however, she really wanted to be with Su Yicheng. So it could not be better if they solved the problem face to face.
She wanted to continue her career as a model, to which Su Yicheng firmly objected. There would definitely be a debate, and it was not clear who would be persuaded.
As for negotiation, Luo Xiaoxi knew that she wasn’t Su Yicheng’s opponent even if she couldn’t be more confident. She had to find another way—pleasing him.
Su Yicheng used to cook for her. She decided to make a change and cook for the first time. She thought Su Yicheng might be pleased and agree with her!
Just do it!
Luo Xiaoxi went to the dressing room to look for lounge wear clothing, and realized that she only had some clothes for autumn at Su Yicheng’s apartment, which were not suitable in that cold season.
After thinking for a while, she picked and wore something from Su Yicheng’s lounge wear.
They were oversize and smelled like Su Yicheng. With the sleeves and trouser legs rolled up, she appeared with a boyfriend style in fashion!
After dressing, Luo Xiaoxi walked into the kitchen and studied the recipes.
Su Yicheng had cooked all kinds of dishes for her, including those of a complex western style, as well as scrambled eggs with tomatoes of an ordinary style. She decided to cook something special to bribe Su Yicheng.
Finally, Luo Xiaoxi decided to make salt baked chicken, stir fried celery with dried tofu slices, stir fried greens and steamed hairy crabs.
Luo Xiaoxi found the top rated recipes online, had all the ingredients sent to her, and forced herself to put on the apron.
The outcome: the salt baked chicken was too salty and a total failure; the greens were overcooked, even a pig would dislike them; the dried tofu slices ended minced.
In the end, she could only depend on the hairy crabs, of which the pincers were tied up, trapped in the string bag.
According to the recipe, it only needed a few slices of ginger in water, and to steam the hairy crabs over the boiling water.
Luo Xiaoxi thought it was so easy that she could not fail!
Full of confidence, Luo Xiaoxi took all the hairy crabs out of the string bag at one time, washed them carefully one by one, snipped off the strings around their pincers and placed them in the plate.
Luo Xiaoxi felt scratches on her foot when she finished washing all the hairy crabs. She looked down, and found a hairy crab on her foot.
She looked around carefully and found that there weren’t any crabs in the plate at all. Some were on the floor while others were dancing on the kitchen counter, as if the kitchen were a playground.
All of a sudden, Luo Xiaoxi was scared. She picked up the one nearest to her and wanted to throw it to a deeper container, but it pinched her hand with its pincers.
“Hey! Don’t play tricks on me. You’re going to die!”
Luo Xiaoxi swung her arm subconsciously. With a “Bang” sound, the crab hit the cupboard door. She stood there, wondering if it hurt. Abruptly, a few crabs began moving towards her.
She could deal with a crab, but not with so many… she could only wait to be attacked by those pincers.
“Stay there or I’ll step on you!” Luo Xiaoxi threatened and stepped backwards. However, the crabs did not care, moving closer and closer to her.
Eventually, Luo Xiaoxi collapsed and screamed madly, “Ah—!”
Half a minute ago, Su Yicheng had returned. He heard Luo Xiaoxi screaming the moment he entered the living room, and walked toward the kitchen without thinking why Luo Xiaoxi was there. He pushed the door open, while she was rushing out of the kitchen.
“Su Yicheng!” Luo Xiaoxi jumped onto Su Yicheng and hugged him tightly, as if he was there to rescue her. “They want to bite me!”
Su Yicheng held Luo Xiaoxi and looked into the kitchen. He could ignore the crabs all over the kitchen floor, but could not bear the mess.
At last, he saw the dishes on the table, and asked Luo Xiaoxi in surprise, “Did you try to cook?”
Luo Xiaoxi did not want to accept that the dishes were her doing. She jumped off Su Yicheng and stepped behind him. “I want you to deal with those crabs.”
Su Yicheng held the crabs with his thumb and index finger, threw them into the bucket, and covered it. That way, he cleaned up the crab mess that scared Luo Xiaoxi, without getting pinched.
Luo Xiaoxi breathed a sigh of relief, then pointed to the table, and said with a low voice, “I cooked a salty salt baked chicken, stir fried celery with tofu… oh, with minced tofu, and the greens… according to the recipes online. Hey, You can only blame the recipes’ writers if the dishes taste bad!”
“You told me you weren’t interested in cooking.” Su Yicheng stared at Luo Xiaoxi and smiled, but it was more than a smile.
Luo Xiaoxi scratched her hair, realizing that Lu Boyan would not be pleased with those dishes, so she replied without hesitation, “I’m interested in it now.”
“No, you’re not.” Su Yicheng stared at Luo Xiaoxi with his torch-like eyes, as if he already saw through her.
Depressed, Luo Xiaoxi hung her head and said, “…I intended to please you so that you would agree with me about my work. However, the plan failed from the beginning…”
Su Yicheng smiled, placed his hands against the wall behind Luo Xiaoxi, leaned in and stepped closer to her. “What I want is not the dishes, they can’t attract me.”
“Then what do you want?” Luo Xiaoxi said idly, “I tried my best to cook the stir fried celery with tofu… minced tofu. Don’t ask for too much…”
Before her voice died down, Luo Xiaoxi suddenly felt her feet off the floor—Su Yicheng held her in his arms and lifted her up.
She cried out, slapped Su Yicheng hard on his shoulders. “What are you doing?”
Su Yicheng covered Luo Xiaoxi’s lips with his and gave her a deep kiss. With a low voice, he replied, “Let’s go to the bedroom, I’ll tell you what I want.”
Luo Xiaoxi was dazzled. She was carried into the bedroom by the time she knew what happened.
…
The next day, Luo Xiaoxi woke up and felt hungry.
She opened her eyes in the dim bedroom, into which the lights of the morning sun were shining through the curtains. She kicked Su Yicheng and said, “Wake up.”
Su Yicheng had woken up. He hugged Luo Xiaoxi immediately. “It’s still early.”
Luo Xiaoxi muttered, “But I’m hungry…”
Su Yicheng opened his eyes at once and was about to get up. “What do you want?”
Luo Xiaoxi thought for a while and said, “I want the crabs steamed!”
She only wanted to steam them; she did not care if it was good to have crabs for breakfast.
Su Yicheng said nothing and put on his clothes. Before he got out of the bed, Luo Xiaoxi kissed him on the cheek, which was to comfort him for being woken up that early.
They had stayed in the bedroom all night. The lights of the morning sun made the kitchen look more disordered. Su Yicheng quickly cleaned it up, simmered the rice porridge, and began to deal with the crabs.
Luo Xiaoxi knew nothing about cooking, but she was a good assistant. She washed and cleaned the crabs all over, so Su Yicheng only needed to boil the water and steam the crabs directly. He also prepared a few dishes of pickles.
The scent from the kitchen woke the half-awake Luo Xiaoxi. With her stomach rumbling, she threw back the covers, got up, walked out of the bedroom. She saw the rice porridge, the pickles, as well as the shiny red steamed crabs on the table.
She was about to grab a crab, but was stopped by Su Yicheng. He said, “Have the porridge first.”
“Oh” Luo Xiaoxi replied reluctantly and began having the porridge, knowing that crabs could not be eaten on an empty stomach.
After having the porridge, Luo Xiaoxi had a crab and broke into a smile, as if she had avenged herself after the crab mess.
Su Yicheng did not have to go to his company that early; he took Luo Xiaoxi to the living room and said, “Tell me what you wanted to say yesterday.”
Luo Xiaoxi smiled, put her arms around his neck, and asked, “Will you agree with me?”
Su Yicheng responded with a meaningful smile, while his lips were close to Luo Xiaoxi’s ear. “Considering you behaved well last night, maybe I will if you discuss it with me.”
What he called “behaving well” could either be her cooking or her behavior in the bedroom.
Luo Xiaoxi was not the sort of weak person who could be easily confused by ambiguous words. She pushed Su Yicheng away and asked seriously, “Why do you disagree with me on being a model?”
“Don’t you know the reasons at all?”
“No, but I guessed,” Luo Xiaoxi said seriously and firmly, “You know I’ll be famous, and I’ll meet superbly built handsome male models, as well as all kinds of fashionistas. So you’re jealous!”
Su Yicheng: “…”
“I promise you,” Luo Xiaoxi swore, with her index finger and middle finger pointing to the ceiling, “I won’t step out on you even if I meet Gabriel Aubry! I’ll only be crazy about him for some time.”
Su Yicheng kneaded his temples, picked up the iPad on the side table, then picked a late news report which said that Su Jianan was likely to be unfaithful, and showed the judgments to Luo Xiaoxi.
Those were from the crowd who knew nothing about the facts. They wantonly cursed Su Jianan in all the dirty words they could come up with, as if she had committed a heinous crime.
Just a glance at those judgments made Luo Xiaoxi mad. Meanwhile, she got Su Yicheng’s point.
If she continued being a model, or became a public figure one day, she would bear all the judgments from the public. She had to speak and act cautiously, otherwise she would be reviled or cursed.
It was impossible for her to do that or be a fair lady, since she had been speaking and acting as she wished for over 20 years.
What worried Su Yicheng was that she would be criticized or cursed once she did something improper, and she would not hesitate to strike back.
That would only lead to more criticism of her, and her depression in the end.
Therefore, he preferred that she gave up her modeling career.
