Chapter 8: Since The Former Su Jian Did All The Cooking, He Couldn’t Change Too Much In Order To Not Reveal Himself

The next day was a Saturday.

Because of having gone to bed so earlier, Su Jian woke up earlier than had before. But when he came out he discovered that An Yize wasn’t at home anymore.

Could it be that this person went to the office to put in some overtime?

Su Jian was just wondering around on his own when he heard the door open, and then she saw An Yize come in dressed in his athletic clothing.

Su Jian scratched his hair, then uneasily greeted him, “You went for a run?”

An Yize made an “en” sound. He placed the bag in his hands onto the dining table, and then turned back and called out to Su Jian, “Breakfast.”

Hmm? Su Jian hopped over and opened the bag to look through it. It looked pretty sumptuous.

That An-surnamed guy was pretty considerate. Su Jian was quite pleased with this.

The two of them sat facing each other and started eating their breakfast. The clear sunlight shone in, carpeting the area in a gentle light.

Both of them ate, but they didn’t speak much. Su Jian felt he didn’t have much to say. As for An Yize, Su Jian felt that this guy must have been born with a poker face and was naturally a man of few words.

In the end, it just happened that poker-face-An was the first to open his mouth. “Does your leg still hurt?”

“Huh?” Su Jian stared blankly. “It stopped hurting a long time ago.”

An Yize said, “I’m talking about your right leg.”

“Right leg?” Su Jian was dazed, then realized that he was actually asking about the leg that had been injured in the fall last night. He lightly said, “Oh, that one’s even better. Isn’t it just a fall? It’s not a big deal.”

An Yize: “But right now you only have one leg in good condition; you can’t afford an injury.”

Su Jian, “……”

After finishing his breakfast in a single sweep, Su Jian contentedly rubbed his stomach. He looked up at An Yize; who still hadn’t finished. Su Jian lazily leaned back in the chair and looked at the person across from him. Say, An Yize has pretty refined table manners. What was the word? Right, elegant. This person displays elegance while eating. He looks so easy on the eyes–Yeah, right! Your mother! It’s only eating breakfast. An Yize, do you have to work so hard? You’re eating as orderly as if you were eating a steak in a western-style restaurant!

After Su Jian silently looked down on An Yize for a while, he said, “Ahem! Yi… um, that… Ze. I have a question for you.”

An Yize looked up at him, “Speak.”

Su Jian earnestly asked, “What are we eating for lunch?”

An Yize, “……”

Su Jian frowned, “Takeout again?”

An Yize: “You don’t like it?”

Su Jian: “How can take out be better than homemade?

“That’s true. An Yize nodded. He looked at him and evenly said, “I don’t like eating takeout either. In the past, you did all the cooking.”

Su Jian: “……”

………..

The end result was that Su Jian responded that he’d take care of lunch.

Since the former Su Jian had done all of the cooking, he couldn’t change too much to keep from being revealed.

Thus, after finishing breakfast, he gave the neighborhood grocer a call to order the relevant foodstuffs then asked that they deliver the goods.

At lunchtime, he pushed open the study door.

An Yize, who was in the study reading a book, looked up at him.

Su Jian looked at the book in his hands, deduced it wasn’t in Chinese, then blurted, “Oh! Reading in English!”

An Yize calmly closed the book. “French.”

Su Jian: “…….”

An Yize stood. “Is it time to eat?”

Su Jian nodded. “Yes, come out and eat.”

The two of them walked one in front of the other to the dining room. When he saw the lunch on the table, An Yize couldn’t help but stiffen.

He saw two neatly arranged, steeped bowls of Master Kang’s braised beef instant noodles on the wide dining table. [1]

Su Jian said, “Eat quickly. They’re pretty much done steeping.” After he saw An Yize stiff form, Su Jian added, “This type is the classic flavor that every Chinese citizen likes!”

An Yize: “……”

………

Finally, An Yize sat down and ate up the classic flavored instant noodles bite after bite.

Su Jian was fully content, and his mood lifted. After eating, he didn’t return to his room right away, and instead sat in the living room while he dragged An Yize into a conversation.

Su Jian asked An Yize, “Do you know any information about my family?”

An Yize said, “I only know that you’re from a single parent household; and that you’ve been brought up by your mom.”

No wonder Su-girly preferred getting fake-married in exchange for money to treat her mother’s illness. Familial love has always been hard to just abandon, especially for Su-girly who had been brought up single-handedly by her mother. Mother Su probably hasn’t had it very easy in these past few years, and now that I’ve taken control of her daughter’s body, I should help Su-girly be a good daughter to the max. Su Jian secretly promised to himself.

“Then, is my mother alone at home? Is no one taking care of her?”

An Yize thought for a moment then said, “She seems to be taken care of by an uncle.”[2]

“Uncle?” Su Jian doubted. “Are you sure? Not my other uncle?”[3]

An Yize said, “You’ve told me this uncle will likely become your stepfather.”

After Su Jian got over the shock, he felt relieved. This was good. After all, mother Su had a serious illness and needed someone nearby to take care of her. He had intended to be filial in place of Su-girly, but in reality, mother Su and he were really strangers. It was probably impossible for him to meticulously take care of her like he would his own parents. Now that there was someone beside her properly taking care of her; it couldn’t be better!

Su Jian found Su-girly’s cell phone in a drawer in the room. After flipping through the address book, it was easy to find a number under “Mom.” After preparing himself mentally, he dialed mother Su’s number.

“Hello! Ah! Jian Jian!” The voice on the other end was very warm and happy, but… it sounded very male.

Su Jian guessed that this was his stepfather-to-be. However, what did the former Su-girly call him? Right now he couldn’t use ‘amnesia’ as an excuse because he had no intention of telling mother Su about it. After all, she, her respected elder, was still seriously ill and wouldn’t be able to handle the shock.

Su Jian’s eyes spun in thought. He came up with a desperate plan and purposefully lowered his voice, “Who are you?”

“I’m you Uncle Li!” The other person chuckled, “Girl, can’t you tell?”

“Ah! It’s Uncle Li! I’m sorry, I couldn’t tell.” The corners of Su Jian’s mouth turned up. “My phone’s sound quality isn’t that good over here.”

On the other side, Uncle Li’s voice was very gentle, “It’s not surprising that you couldn’t tell. I’ve had a cold the past two days and my throat is a little hoarse.”

“A cold? Have you taken any medicine? Uncle Li, you need to take care of your body!”

Uncle Li was clearly very happy. “It’s not a big deal, just a cough. I’m taking medicine now. I’ll be better soon. Do you still not know about Uncle Li’s body? It’s very sturdy! Ah, Jian Jian, you shouldn’t worry so much!”

“OK.” Su Jian obediently responded then asked, “Uncle Li, what about my mom?”

“You mom went to Mrs. Wang’s house. I’ll go call her right now……”

“Ay! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!” Su Jian chortled, “You don’t have to go out of your way. I don’t have anything else; I just wanted to know how my mom’s health has been doing.”

“Pretty good. She’s been continuously on dialysis! Speaking of which, this is all thanks to Little An! If it weren’t for Little An, where would we ever get so much money? So your mom tends to say she is very lucky that her daughter has found her a good son-in-law!”

Su Jian was a bit unhappy from hearing Uncle Li enthusiastically praise An Yize over the phone. He thought: You, respected elder, don’t know that your good son-in-law is actually a fake! If your daughter wasn’t being used, there’s no way he could ever be so generous!”

Finally, Uncle Li eagerly said, “Ah! Jian Jian! When you have time bring Little An home with you. Your mom misses you very much!”

Su Jian could only brazenly nod, “Yes. We will come over when we have the time.”

Footnotes:

[1]Master Kang’s instant noodles are well known

[2]The uncle here refers to a parent’s friend

[3]In Chinese, uncles can be paternal, maternal, or men of your parents’ generation. The uncle mentioned first is usually referring to someone of the parents’ generation. The second uncle is referring to mother’s brother