Chapter 66: Pastry
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
During the Spring Festival shift schedule in the Emergency Incident Response Department, Shi Wenze worked the early shift on New Year’s Eve, and Shi Wenze worked the day shifts from the first to the third day of the New Year. Lin Su asked suspiciously, “Are you the only one left in your department?”
“Almost,” Shi Wenze answered truthfully. “Everyone from out of town went back home, visiting their villages. They won’t be back until after the seventh day.”
Lin Su thought for a moment. “Aren’t there two local unmarried young men? They’d be perfect for overtime!”
Shi Wenze said, “But they’re hibernating.” Lin Su was speechless. Zhou Yuansong also felt this arrangement was a bit exploitative, but the unit really didn’t have enough manpower. So they had no choice but to propose letting people take vacation during the twelfth lunar month, and exempting them from the year-end report, while promising a fancy incentive award at the annual meeting.
Shi Wenze said, “You’ve not been too busy lately anyway. How about we hit the Mist Realm?”
The new hotel opened by the Chicken Feet boss had sent over plenty of discount coupons. Lin Su considered it and thought it was a good idea. After all, the last time at the spa left a wonderful impression, and since the new place was couple-themed, it was even more unmissable. He immediately ordered a new dinosaur-themed pajama set, in multiple layers, to coordinate with his boyfriend’s interests. Du Siyue called late at night, bored. “What are you up to?”
Lin Su zipped up his suitcase. “Packing clothes, getting ready to spend a few days in the Mist Realm.”
“Spend a few days in the Mist Realm?” Du Siyue suddenly perked up and insisted on joining. Lin Su mercilessly refused. “We’re staying at that new couple’s hotel Cheng Facai just opened—the kind they don’t show on TV. Please don’t come and ruin the mood.”
Then a low male voice came through the receiver. “What’s the name of the hotel?”
Lin Su was speechless. In the end, Du Siyue joined the Mist Realm trip. And he brought Jiang Yuhao along.
The Chicken Feet boss wanted to save face with Shi Wenze. To thank him for successfully capturing his girlfriend, he prepared a standalone villa with a huge swimming pool and garden, offering top privacy—absolutely no chance of being disturbed by fans. Of course, the three of them didn’t have to worry about that; the only one who needed caution was superstar Jiang.
Lin Su proudly told Shi Wenze, “I think it looks worse than Xia Jiayang.”
Shi Wenze helped hang each piece of clothing from the suitcase. “Yes, yes, you’re right about everything.”
Lin Su said, “You’re just brushing me off.”
Shi Wenze grabbed his waist and pulled him into his arms. “Because you kept repeating yourself the whole way.”
But artists’ tempers are always small—just a tiny bit. Coincidentally, Jiang Yuhao’s temper was about the same, only with a dash of irritability—because he noticed how Du Siyue kept calling this slow-developing little dragon. Was it because he wasn’t rough or strong enough? Du Siyue didn’t want to talk about size issues. “Shut up!”
Jiang Yuhao snorted coldly. That night, they were supposed to eat French food, but Du Siyue wasn’t feeling it. Four silent people sat at the long table under candlelight, holding shiny silver weapons. The scene was eerie no matter how you looked at it. Maybe Lin Su and Jiang Yuhao were glaring at each other. It was suffocating, so they decided to order hot pot instead—lively and festive.
Lin Su and Shi Wenze didn’t mind. The Jincheng style was heavy on oil and spice. But Jiang Yuhao couldn’t handle it. He was from Sucheng, where people put five spoonfuls of sugar on one dish.
There was a photo online of Jiang Yuhao carefully removing chili oil from a bowl of beef, and fans praised him for being disciplined and eating low-fat, low-salt during workouts. But the truth was, he couldn’t eat any spice at all—just looking at a small chili would start hurting his stomach.
Du Siyue specifically ordered a yin-yang hot pot, with sea cucumber and tomato broth—very nourishing. Lin Su immediately ordered double extra spicy for himself.
Jiang Yuhao said, “…” Lin Su gave him a kingly glare. Jiang Yuhao thought, So childish!
Lin Su shot back, “If you’re a man, you’ll take it up a notch!”
Jiang Yuhao didn’t order extra spice mainly because Du Siyue had already ordered the millet sea cucumber tomato broth, creating a sort of couple’s hot pot effect.
Shi Wenze was the only victim of this silent showdown. Originally, he wanted to order the pork tripe chicken broth, but to avoid losing to Lin Su over the “couple’s hot pot,” he reluctantly also ordered a double-spicy red broth. Round one ended in a reluctant draw.
The second round came quickly. When ordering drinks, Jiang Yuhao casually asked for fruit juice, while the other three all ordered soy milk. Lin Su shot Jiang Yuhao a look that said, “The standard drink with hot pot in Jincheng is soy milk. See? You really don’t get it—we’re the true locals.”
Jiang Yuhao thought this was absurd. His love would never be vetoed by a bottle of soy milk. He immediately messaged his manager, telling her he wanted to sign a soy milk endorsement deal within half an hour, officially announce it, and buy the trending spot to top the charts. His manager thought this sounded like a fairy tale and asked him to calm down.
Du Siyue decided to stay out of the dispute and focused on cooking the beef tripe. Jiang Yuhao didn’t eat offal and innards at all—a man with many quirks—but it seemed Lin Su really liked it, picking up half a plate at a time with his chopsticks. Lin Su’s shocked expression was priceless, and Jiang Yuhao was pleased, freely swirling the tripe 360 degrees in the pot like a blue whale swimming in the ocean.
Lin Su said, “Can’t I keep ordering?”
Jiang Yuhao replied, “Then order.”
The eager tone made Lin Su deeply suspect Jiang Yuhao was just there to mooch off the tripe. Du Siyue continued ignoring the argument, drinking soy milk in his usual calm way, while Shi Wenze helped Lin Su cook some fatty beef, thinking his wife’s battle for the tripe was probably the cutest thing in the world—like a childish little dragon from a fairy tale—and wanted to watch a little longer.
Lin Su didn’t order more tripe but switched tactics and ordered duck intestines and beef aorta. The aorta was good, but when the duck intestines arrived hanging like branches in a waterfall, Jiang Yuhao’s expression inevitably changed slightly.
Lin Su, as the victor, picked up some duck intestines and cooked them, while Jiang Yuhao, with a conflicted look like morning sickness, took a big bite. Jiang Yuhao said, “…”
Du Siyue didn’t cook the duck intestines since there was no spicy red broth, and intestines don’t taste good without it. Lin Su’s own pot had spicy broth, though. Jiang Yuhao had a new idea and said, “I can do this.”
Lin Su replied, “But you don’t have spicy broth.”
No spicy broth, no qualifications. The spicy broth was king in this game—it was the king of spades in a deck of cards, the king at Burger King. What qualifications did the millet sea cucumber pot have to cook tripe? Around here, people don’t eat that pot until their eightieth birthday. Lin Su pressed the advantage and ordered four servings of pig brain. Jiang Yuhao found the flavor unimaginable. This guy must be a weirdo—like playing Plants vs. Zombies or something.
But Du Siyue also wanted pig brain and ate two servings, using Lin Su’s spicy broth base, adding sesame oil, vinegar, and chili, mashing it in the bowl, then sprinkling peanuts, cilantro, and minced garlic. Faced with this devilish pile of brains, Jiang Yuhao’s face turned pale and cold as he thought, “Fine, my love really is real.”
Shi Wenze’s taste was basically the same as Lin Su’s and didn’t have the blue-beauty-related drama like Du Siyue’s, so he was relaxed and casual, sharp as a knife, and a handsome eater. Jiang Yuhao didn’t mind Shi Wenze at all, even though last time this guy easily broke his newly replaced security door, but the police understood.
After finishing the pig brains, Lin Su felt victorious and even tossed aside his usual melancholic pale persona, thinking of striking an Arnold Schwarzenegger pose. Jiang Yuhao was an irritable silver dragon who lost the competition because he couldn’t eat spicy food. He once thought his spicy diced chicken skills were good enough to be a head chef at a Jincheng restaurant, but it turned out Boss Du was really hard to satisfy with just a little dried chili. So Jiang Yuhao switched tactics and fed him from a different angle. This directly led to the next morning when Du Siyue lay on the bed sore and stiff, not wanting to move.
Jiang Yuhao temporarily escaped the shadow of the spicy broth and, leaning nearby on the phone, declared with the air of a winner, “We’re not going out today.”
Lin Su put his phone back in his pocket and said to Shi Wenze, “We’re not going out. It must be because they’re afraid of hot pot.” Shi Wenze nodded in agreement. “I think you’re right.”
Lin Su ordered two cocktails and some small desserts, planning to enjoy a winner’s afternoon tea by the pool. The little cakes and drinks were excellent. Lin Su floated on the pool, swirling his glass while admiring his boyfriend’s good figure—broad on top and slim below—and thought maybe the dinosaur swim trunks were a bit conservative. Next time, he’d buy shorter ones.
Shi Wenze flicked a splash of water at him. “What are you staring at?”
Lin Su said, “I saw you sneaking my macarons.”
“They’re not good anyway,” Shi Wenze replied. “Too sweet and a little sour.”
Lin Su didn’t believe it—how could macarons be sour? To verify, he leaned in and kissed seriously for a long time, his tongue curling around Shi Wenze’s teeth. After about five minutes, he finally concluded, “Okay, they really are a bit sour.” Maybe it was a creative twist by the pastry chef.
Shi Wenze asked, “You just kiss me and then ignore it?”
Lin Su’s eyes drifted down along Shi Wenze’s abs. The beach shorts couldn’t block the awakening of a fierce, big dinosaur. Lin Su thought, maybe that deserved a little attention. By the time Jiang Yuhao and Du Siyue arrived, the pool was left with only some leftover afternoon tea. Du Siyue wondered, “Weren’t we supposed to swim together? Where did you two run off to again?”
Jiang Yuhao wasn’t in the mood for swimming and said, “I’ll take you to sunbathe.”
As he spoke, his tail gently coiled around him. Jiang Yuhao had no issues with slow development; he was a healthy, strong young dragon capable of easily carrying Boss Du through the clouds.
Du Siyue was very familiar with riding dragons and noticed that in the sky, almost all monsters avoided the silver dragon. It gave a feeling of invincibility—a wonderfully silly, childish satisfaction. He was quite pleased with it.
The silver dragon found the fluffiest cloud to use as a sofa, letting Du Siyue lie down and rest while it curled up nearby, its shiny scales sparkling under the sunlight. A true superstar was indeed a superstar.
At the hotel, Lin Su slept from noon until dusk, then messaged Du Siyue, asking where they were. After a while, Du Siyue sent a video of burning clouds dyed silver and red by the dragon’s fire.
Lin Su felt a pang of jealousy.
Shi Wenze comforted him, “I think the photo isn’t that great anyway.”
But Lin Su’s jealousy wasn’t about the photo—it was the undeniable aesthetic appeal that Jiang Yuhao had, no matter what form he took. The jealousy came from the size.
According to Queshan Hospital records, the little white dragon had grown from two meters to two point one meters and gained some weight. But carrying a boyfriend nearly 1.9 meters long through the clouds while lying on a dragon wasn’t very realistic. Shi Wenze wrapped an arm around Lin Su’s shoulder. “I can wait.”
Lin Su sulked, “Hmm.”
Shi Wenze added, “I think slender is cuter—and feels better.”
Lin Su said, “I’m not a dragon now, so don’t ‘touch’ me randomly.”
“Anyway, those two aren’t coming back for dinner tonight.” Shi Wenze pressed his forehead against Lin Su’s. “Be good.”
His voice was low and hoarse, almost impossible to resist. Lin Su shyly replied, “Alright then.” So, reluctantly, he would listen to him once more.
This Title is available for faster chapter releases through paid Patreon membership. Any proceeds go to keeping the website running. Check it out HERE.
