"Yue Niang, you're asking Jingwei to cook for us?" Tai Cheng asked, frowning as he couldn't help turning his head to look in the direction of the kitchen. "Isn't this too tough for him?"
"Exactly. I want it to be tough for him." Yue Niang said, shrugging. "What? Does he think I'll be easily satisfied by his half-baked efforts?"
"You do realise he's a wealthy heir, not a professional chef." Tai Cheng argued. "What if he gets injured? What if our daughter gets injured?"
"Tai Cheng, listen to what you're saying. Stop coddling them! Look at how old they are already!" Yue Niang exclaimed. "If they added up their ages together, they'd be older than me. If you're telling me that these two grownups can't cook a nice bowl of noodles for the family to eat for dinner, then how can I approve of their relationship? They'll die of vitamin deficiency and starvation!"
Tai Cheng could only fall silent, seeing her point.
"As long as you're not expecting Michelin-star worthy meals," he said, sighing in acceptance. "Just don't be too disappointed when it comes out perfectly ordinary. Remember, our refrigerator doesn't have that many ingredients to begin with."
Tai Cheng had zero expectations regarding Sun Jingwei's culinary abilities. After all, when would he possibly need to cook? He had servants at his beck and call! Practice and experience were both important in making a delicious, home cooked meal - both were elements Sun Jingwei did not have.
And even if his daughter praised him, it honestly, tragically, didn't mean much - his daughter's palette when it came to food was unrefined at best. Xue Ning would eat anything if it was cheap enough, and if it was freely made for her she would automatically find it delicious!
"Him making ordinary food would already exceed my expectations." Yue Niang muttered. "I'm just expecting him to throw a packet of noodles into a pot of boiling water, mixed in the powdered seasoning, and call it a day."
"That sounds more like our daughter. Maybe Jingwei will actually know how to use spices!"
"I doubt it. If he's dating her, that's how he'll cook! It's not as though Xue Ning is a picky eater!"
The said daughter in question sneezed. Clearly someone was talking about her behind her back! She had pulled Jingwei into the kitchen hurriedly, the back of her ears still burning red at her mother's words. She couldn't believe her mother expected Jingwei and her to be making out in the darkened kitchen like horny teenagers!
(Not that she hadn't thought about it, but still, there was a time and place for everything!)
"Here we are," Xue Ning announced, rubbing her nose with one hand as she hurriedly flicked the light switch with the other, bathing the kitchen in bright light. She took a good look at the kitchen. Thankfully, it had escaped the carnage that befell the rest of the restaurant.
She could still hear the comforting hum of the refrigerator, and there was no food waste lying around so Xue Ning didn't have to introduce Jingwei to Hubei's impressive cockroaches, rats and other pests just yet.
"The kitchen is…small," Jingwei said, looking around. "I'm surprised it's enough to cook for the entire restaurant. How many people work here?"
"Four people. Literally everyone in my family works here," Xue Ning replied, shrugging. "It's a family business. I think they hired part-timers to wait tables before, but they don't trust strangers to cook in the kitchen."
"But your mom's letting me cook in the kitchen now." Jingwei commented, then realisation dawned in his eyes, and he beamed, hugging Xue Ning delightedly.
"Ah! So I'm considered family! I passed her first test!"
Xue Ning blinked, even as she enjoyed the hug. "Er, let's not get too ahead of ourselves. My mother is expecting you to fuck it up, so you have to do your best!" she said seriously.
Once her mother set Jingwei this cooking task, Xue Ning already knew that her mother was deliberately setting Jingwei up for failure - after all, they lived and breathed in this restaurant, cooking noodles delicious enough to entice people to try even with all the nasty rumours floating around them.
"Got it, I definitely won't let you or your family down!" Jingwei promised, a hand thumping his own chest. "This is just like Masterchef - if I don't do well, I'll get eliminated!"
"...Right." Xue Ning nodded, despite having no clue what he was referring to.
"But do you believe I can cook well? I know you said you liked my noodles then, but were you just being polite?"
"Since when was I polite to you?" Xue Ning retorted with a raised eyebrow. "Even if I was, I wouldn't lie to spare your feelings if your food sucked. I liked your noodles. Go and cook something like that for them!"
"Yes Madam, I'll get right on it." Jingwei said, bowing in such a pretentious manner that Xue Ning wanted to plant her foot in his ass. Was this a normal emotion girlfriends felt? She had no one to ask.
"Now let's see," Jingwei thought out loud to himself as he opened the fridge to peer inside. "We have you and I, your parents, your brother and his wife, Ming Guang and Wei Yan…a meal for eight people… that's going to be tough."
Jingwei had only made enough meals for two, because he ate double portions! Cooking for so many people was a new challenge for him! Perhaps he had to scale the proportions accordingly… He then took a careful look at the ingredients in the fridge and despaired.
Why was it so empty?! He wasn't expecting Xue Ning's family to have any wagyu beef lying around, but there were hardly any dumplings, vegetables and pork, at least not enough for 8 people!
"Crap… okay Jingwei, just think, you've got eggs at least…let's see what I do have…" Jingwei continued to mutter to himself, focused on his task.
Meanwhile, Xue Ning just took the chance to blatantly ogle at the curve of Jingwei's ass and his strong thighs while he bent over to rummage in the fridge. After such a long trying day, this was what she deserved!
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