Note: The chapter title is irrelevant to the story and likely to inform the readers of the raw text of a pay-to-read system
Yue Qin was truly happy.
“We aren’t having omurice today. Papa will go out shopping to make Sukiyaki,” Yue Qin announced, kissing his wife after.
*Japanese-styled variant of hotpot
President Kang felt goosebumps rise just by watching.
Yue Qin had always subtly felt that he owed something to his wife. He always knew that she wanted to become a pianist, but he had been stuck between work and their child ever since their kid had come into this world.
He didn’t want his wife to be trapped in the same way, so he was naturally happy that an opportunity arose.
President Kang had never heard of this Suki-something, but he was very confident towards the big guy’s culinary talent. He could make anything taste good.
More importantly, Xia Sheng’s eyes lit up. “Yeah!”
President Kang immediately felt that the Suki-something must be yummy, as Xia Sheng had never been this excited for food.
Yue Qin looked at his son looking at him with curiosity instead of insisting on omurice.
He was finally acting boy-like.
Yue Qin brought home the raw materials. As he was preparing them, two sets of eyes stared at him.
Yue Qin scored the shiitake as he saw two identical stares at him.
The mother and the son had the same eyes, and now they also both shared a gaze of anticipation.
Yue Qin couldn’t help but show off a bit. He carved a flower onto the end of a carrot, immediately hearing his wife exclaim, “Oh my god, you’re so good at this!”
Yue Qin picked up a piece of tofu he had already fried and fed it to his wife. It was stuffed with ground meat, smelling quite appetizing.
Seeing this, the little kid immediately also flattered him. “Papa, you’re so good!”
Yue Qin put another piece of tofu into a small bowl and passed it to his son.
President Kang lowered his head to see his tofu, only to find that it came without filling. He put on a greater smile and spoke with amazement. “Papa, you’re so good!”
Yue Qin laughed. “Repeating it won’t change anything.” Their son had been eating too much meat for the past few days. Fried meat like this wasn't good for him at night, he would need to have it boiled in the Sukiyaki.
President Kang unwillingly swallowed the tofu.
He still didn’t know what to expect from this Suki thing until his father took a pot out from the overhanging cabinet and started to arrange all the materials in the pot.
Bok choy, shungiku leaves, enokitake, fried stuffed tofu, thin sliced beef…
President Kang felt the big man in front of him was a magician. Soon, he began boiling all the contents, filling the kitchen with an aroma.
It was his first time eating such a hotpot where he ate as more things were added to the pot. The hot steam released dotted his forehead with tiny sweat drops.
His heart filled with an indescribable flow of warmth.
During the night, he couldn’t fall asleep. He laid under the quilt, listening to the sounds of the night. There were still unidentifiable bird chirps late into the night.
Soon, he heard a noise in the living room. Curious, he silently crawled off of his bed and opened the door. He saw the little couple sneaking their way to the balcony, both holding things in their hands.
Yue Qin was holding a black alcohol flask. Inside was some leftover rice wine. It had been a long while since the two shared a drink.
Taking advantage of their son sleeping, they finally had a chance to taste their lightly sweet rice wine, re-experiencing their world of two before their son.
President Kang watched the two take little sips of wine while leaning against each other, their mouths mumbling something.
He couldn’t hear a single thing, but something new appeared in his eyes as he watched the two people.
He knew many couples and had dated himself, but only Xia Sheng and Yue Qin could make him feel like there was love flowing between them.
President Kang felt tempted by their wine. He tiptoed back into the kitchen, and as expected, found another black flask in a storage cabinet.
He swallowed and gave another look at the people outside. They were still sitting on the balcony, so he hauled the entire flask back into his room.
President Kang didn’t take a cup, so he could only drink directly from the flask.
The alcohol was unlike any other he had tasted before.
It was sweet and had a weird aroma that didn’t make it seem like wine.
President Kang drank one mouthful after another, thinking about all the gossip he had heard about Mr. Zhang.
Even though they were in the same circle and both bosses of their own companies, they had little contact because one was a first-generation rich, and the other was a second-generation rich.
President Kang only remembered his business marriage, but nothing in particular about them.
Wait, people like those probably have information on the web.
President Kang snuck into the study with his alcohol flask.
Putting it aside, he turned on the computer and started researching President Zhang’s love life.
His prediction was right—he had sold his love life.
There were posts about the two being together since university and President Zhang entrepreneuring and asking his girlfriend to be secretary. There were even sections detailing how he pampered his wife, but overall, it was just the two lovingly building their company.
The entire relationship marketing was reeking with love, supported by seas of comments yelling true love.
President Kang didn’t think highly of them marrying only after listing their company.
He continued to scroll down, suddenly coming across something that made him frown.
The next morning, Yue Qin walked into his son’s room just like any other day, but the bed was empty.
“Son?” Yue Qin was startled, rushing out of the room.
“What?”
“Our son is gone!” He had past cases when he ran out of their apartment in the middle of the night. Yue Qin was quite scared.
In contrast, Xia Sheng was calm, since every time their son was missing, they found him on the balcony or study room.
Her first instinct was to search the study.
Opening the door, there wasn’t anyone.
Now Xia Sheng was also unsettled. “There’s no one here.”
As she finished, an alcohol flask rolled to her feet.
The two walked in the room and saw the child sleeping under the computer desk.
It was obvious that the alcohol flask came from there.
The kid’s face was a fiery red. Yue Qin jumped at the sight, carrying his son out. Xia Sheng picked up the alcohol flask, unable to decide whether to laugh or cry. “He finished an entire flask of rice wine.”
President Kang felt as if he returned to his past life, his head dizzy from a hangover.
“Housekeeper?” President Kang called.
He was then lifted up. President Kang frowned, thinking how audacious the person must be.
Yue Qin looked at the infusion needle on his hand, his emotions also mixed.
“You’re awake?”
President Kang opened his eyes to see who it was in front of him, finally realizing his current situation.
What happened? President Kang tried his hardest to recall.
Last night, the little couple was drinking, so he couldn’t help himself to a flask. It wasn’t actually alcohol, instead just a sugary drink.
He then went into the study to research President Zhang on the computer——
Wait, did he find something? He vaguely remembered he had. President Kang smacked his head with his little hand, but he couldn’t remember anything.
All his efforts went to waste.
Seeing his son start to smack his head, Yue Qin stopped his hand. “Don’t do that. What if you break your smart little head? Come, tell papa how it feels to drink alcohol.”
The kid raised his head, as if he didn’t understand anything. “Alcohol? What’s that?”
Yue Qin just realized that his son had no idea what alcohol was as a four year old. He might’ve seen them last night and got a drink too out of curiosity.
“Alcohol is bad. People go crazy after drinking alcohol,” Yue Qin explained.
Xia Sheng had just come in, smiling. “Whatever, save it for when he grows older. It’ll hurt his self esteem if you show him now.”
“What? I want to see,” President Kang said naively.
Yue Qin took out his phone. “Your choice. You’re a big boy now, so you have to be responsible for yourself.”
The more the hunky father spoke, the more President Kang was curious. He stretched his neck as high as he could. “I know.”
“Then Papa will show you the bad effects.”
President Kang was actually too naive. He expected his father to search up the cons of alcohol and read it to him. He was even ready to stare at him with contempt.
The hunky father turned on the camera and opened a video.
In the video, the father went to lift the son off the ground when he suddenly opened his eyes and started crying while he hugged his arm.
“Why aren’t you my father!”
“All the children in kindergarten laugh at me for not having parents.”
“It’s not even that I don’t want my parents, but that they don’t want me.”
The kid was crying his guts out, his face and nose red, looking very pitiful. The hunky father didn’t even have time to comfort him.
The next second, the kid started again, as if he moved onto the second act.
“Big hunky Papa, you have to be good with Mama. You can’t divorce.”
“What will happen to me if you guys divorce? I’ll become an orphan again. The other childish children will talk about me with words I don’t understand again.”
“What’s so great about parents’ compliments! Everyone listens to me in my family!”
President Kang was facing a societal death situation. More importantly, he carefully looked towards the couple, afraid that they’ll realize something.
“Did you watch some TV show during the day?” Yue Qin commented.
Fortunately, they just thought that he was spitting out jumbles from being drunk.
“See? Alcohol’s no good. You act this way if you drink too much, so don’t drink in the future, okay?”
“It’s fine, only Papa and Mama saw it. We won’t tell anyone and keep it a secret for you.”
President Kang felt disheartened. Yeah, you won’t tell anyone. You just recorded the entire thing.
Isn’t this a cue for them replaying it in the future?
However, at this time, the video was still continuing. President Kang heard himself howling and changing the script again.
“President Zhang is definitely a complete trash of a man. He always uses the same strategy to seduce women.”
As he heard this, President Kang suddenly remembered what he found about President Zhang online.