Chapter 24

Just Like That

In his son’s room, Li Yanchen laid down on the bed.

“Mr. Li, have you been driven out?” Li Zexin teased.

Li Yanchen did not say anything.

Li Zexuan tugged on his brother’s hand. “Don’t provoke him,” he whispered. “What if he goes back to Ms. Lin’s room?”

“Oh! It’s so rare to share a room with daddy,” said Li Zexin. “Can I sleep with you, daddy?” He squeezed into the small bed.

Li Yanchen turned over and pushed his son out gently. “It’s hot. Go back to your own bed.”

Li Zexin resentfully did as he was told.

Li Zexuan laughed. “Mr. Li is sulking. Don’t provoke him. He’s going to sleep reading a book.”

“What’s so fun about books anyway?” Li Zexin didn’t like reading.

Li Zexin turned his back to his father and fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes.

Lin Wan had just finished making two cups of loquat tea and was about to call her stepson to drink it. She also wanted to thank him for teaching her to play the guitar.

Li Zexuan didn’t understand why Lin Wan was calling him, but he still followed her out. Li Yanchen, who had been tossing and turning, couldn’t fall asleep. When he heard the commotion, he hesitated for a moment before walking out of the room.

Lin Wan handed a cup of tea to Li Zexuan. “Try this,” she said. “I made it myself.”

“Loquat tea?” Although the tea looked good, he did not want to drink it, especially because Lin Wan had made it.

“Are you afraid I will poison you?” asked Lin Wan, jokingly. “Don’t worry. The cameras are still rolling. I am not stupid enough to kill someone on live television.”

“I’m not drinking it!” complained Li Zexuan. “It obviously tastes bad.”

Li Zexuan thought that a cup of fruit tea in this hot weather would be nice but he still resisted because it was made by Lin Wan. He didn’t want to be traumatized by fruit tea in the future because of this.

“You really don’t want to try the loquats you peeled yourself?” Lin Wan understood his worries. She thought he was probably wondering what kind of tea a person would make who fed him compressed biscuits all this while.

“I just made two cups,” she said. “One for me and another for you. I wanted to thank you for teaching me how to play guitar this afternoon.” She drank her cup of tea. “This is absolutely delicious,” she said after downing it in one gulp.

Li Zexuan took the cup and drank a sip from it.

“It’s good, right?” asked Lin Wan, though she didn’t expect any positive response from Li Zxeuan. As a dessert chef in her own world, she had won countless awards for her dishes. People flew in from all over the world to try her dishes. Making fruit tea wasn’t that much trouble for her.

Li Zexuan took another sip and the aroma of the fruit and chamomile spread in his mouth. The tea was refreshing. It made him feel cool and relaxed in this heat. He had tried a lot of different kinds of tea before, but nothing as delicious and refreshing as this.

‘Did Lin Wan actually know how to make tea? This is so good!’

Li Zexuan wasn’t going to admit it out loud though. “It’s so so,” he said indifferently.

In the livestream, the fans finally realized that Lin Wan hadn’t prepared the extra cup of tea for Li Yanchen.

[Xuanxuan, don’t drink it!]

[Look, Lin Wan drank the cup of tea herself. It wasn’t that she felt Li Yanchen was old, she just thought she couldn’t handle him. She was the one who needed it.

[She really wants to serve Li Yanchen well.]

[Was it good? Xuanxuan took a sip, and his expression was so complicated.]

[It must be terrible. It’s not easy to spit it out in a live broadcast so he must have had a hard time swallowing it.]

[Xuanxuan, it’s okay. Just try it. We all know that you have to maintain your figure. You can’t have sweet food at night.]

Li Yanchen stood at a distance and saw the two of them enjoying their fruit tea. So, Lin Wan’s loquats were meant to be used for tea. He guessed Lin Wan had made it herself. It wouldn’t look good if Li Zexuan spat it out in the livestream. Lin Wan would be hurt.

Li Yanchen walked up to them. “Xuanxuan, you shouldn’t eat fruits at night. Let me try it. I am really thirsty.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

[Li Yanchen is here to help out!]

[I’m going to ask again, is he helping Xuanxuan or Lin Wan?]

[What do you guys think? Lin Wan doesn’t know how to do anything. But she made tea at this time. If Xuanxuan doesn’t give her face, she will be humiliated.]

Just as Li Yanchen reached out for the cup, Li Zexuan drank it down in one gulp.

The fans in the livestream were shocked. Lin Wan and Li Yanchen were equally stunned.

[So, does it taste good or not? If it doesn’t taste good, why did Xuanxuan gulp it down like that?]

[It doesn’t taste good, that’s why he drank it in one gulp. It’s like the way we drink Chinese medicine. The Taste is awful so we try to gulp it down at once without tasting it.]

[You’re right. People take time to taste the good things.]

[Xuanxuan definitely knew that no matter how bad it was, his father would say it was good, so he just drank it all himself. Xuanxuan is so sensible.]

[Lin Wan, don’t harm the little kid anymore.]

The live broadcast room was still fighting for justice for Li Zexuan. When it was time to end the broadcast, the camera directly cut to the village entrance.

[F * ck, is it nine already? I still want to see the follow-up.]

[Director, if you want to anger me to death, can’t you do it some other time? We’ll raise funds for this.]

[I don’t even have to watch it to know that Xuanxuan is going to give Lin Wan an earful saying it was terrible and she shouldn’t ever make it again in the future.]

[Lin Wan is trying and we should encourage her.]

[That’s right! You guys criticize her when she does nothing. But now you are criticizing her for trying.]

[I can understand why she only made two cups. If she had made a cup for everyone, Li Zexin would have thrown it in her face.]

[This woman’s brain isn’t working well. Why does she always do things that no one can understand?]

[Good night, everyone. See you tomorrow.]

With the camera gone, Li Yanchen asked his son, “How is it?”

“It tastes unpleasant,” lied Li Zexuan.

...

“Tsk, tsk…” Lin Wan rolled her eyes at Li Zexuan.

“I’m tired. I am going to go sleep,” said Li Zexuan. “I will tell you tomorrow which tunes you played incorrectly. Good night.” Li Zexuan gave her a thumbs up from behind Li Yanchen ‘s back. She gave him a thumbs up too.

Li Yanchen was speechless. He wanted to find out how it had tasted. He looked at the cup in Lin Wan’s hand which was still half-full. It was filled with bits of goji berries. ‘Why does she care so much about her health even at such a young age?’

As though sensing that Li Yanchen was about to snatch her tea away, Lin Wan carried the cup into her room.

Li Yanchen rummaged through the kitchen. There was nothing left.

Even if it didn’t taste good, she had already made it. He wondered why she couldn’t add a bit more water and make him a cup, too. Was he not worthy of drinking a cup of tea she had made herself? Did she think his other sons wouldn’t have drunk it too?

Li Yanchen kept feeling that there was something wrong with Lin Wan. He scratched his head, but he just couldn’t figure it out.

The man poured a glass of water and sat in the kitchen. ‘Am I being left out?’ First, his two sons had wanted to listen to Lin Wan’s stories. Then, Li Zekai wanted to sleep in her room. Now, his eldest sat with Lin Wan talking with her and drinking the tea she made.

He knew Lin Wan didn’t have any feelings for him. Their relationship had nothing to do with romance. But still, he was the head of the family. It was as if his status in the family was in jeopardy.