AM Chapter 11

It was already past eight in the evening when Liang Jingren returned. He didn’t seem surprised that the Villa was lit, but he was a bit surprised to see Chen Mo sitting on the living room sofa watching TV.

“You’re back.” The person who had just placed his keys down said to the person in the room watching TV.

The program was interrupted, and an advertisement happened to be playing on TV. Chen Mo turned his head to look at him, his face showing dissatisfaction, and said, “Why isn’t anyone cooking?”

He hadn’t eaten anything from noon until now, and his stomach was almost flat with hunger.

Hearing this, Liang Jingren was momentarily speechless. He silently walked to the sofa and put down his briefcase. “Can’t you cook for yourself?”

Chen Mo leaned back and said, “Why should I cook for myself? Do you usually cook for yourself?”

Liang Jingren looked down at him while loosening his tie and said, “I ate before coming back.”

“Hmph.” Chen Mo was even more dissatisfied.

The red and blue striped tie was casually tossed on the back of the sofa, and Liang Jingren turned and walked towards the kitchen. Seeing this, Chen Mo straightened up and poked his head out from the side of the sofa to ask, “Are you going to cook?”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t you eat? Why are you still cooking?” Chen Mo asked two questions, feigning ignorance.

Liang Jingren turned his head to look at him and answered with two questions of his own, “Aren’t you hungry? Can’t you cook?”

Chen Mo turned around, knelt on the sofa, and blinked his eyes with a pure and innocent look, saying, “I can cook, but why not order takeout? I heard that the delivery speed in the country seems to be very fast.”

Liang Jingren finally showed impatience and clicked his tongue, saying, “Are you a hundred thousand whys?”

Chen Mo smiled at him and asked, “Why did you ask that?”

This time, Liang Jingren ignored him and muttered to himself, “Fast as it may be, it’s not as fast as me cooking.” Then he went into the kitchen.

Ten minutes later, Chen Mo, who was sitting at the dining table waiting for the food, got a bowl of egg noodles.

“That’s it?” Chen Mo looked at the steaming noodles in front of him and tapped it with empty chopsticks, and said.

Liang Jingren pulled out a chair and sat down opposite him, saying, “Isn’t your roommate Lucas a second-generation chef? You lived with him for four years, didn’t you learn how to make something delicious?”

“I can cook.” Chen Mo bit his chopsticks and said, “I’m just too lazy to cook.”

“Fine, you have your reasons. Eat quickly,” Liang Jingren urged.

Chen Mo stirred the noodles several times, mixing the half-cooked egg yolk into the noodle soup, and then picked up a chopstick of noodles and paused, not eating. He looked up at Liang Jingren and suddenly asked, “What is our relationship now?”

Liang Jingren on the opposite side was stunned. After a while, his expression softened. “I treat you like my own child.”

He seemed to have heard something similar when Chen Daxiang came to pick him up—”I will treat you as my own child.” Chen Daxiang did it. As for Liang Jingren?… Forget it.

But I’m not that naive young man who would fly into a rage and do something stupid when the “father-son relationship” with Liang Jingren was mentioned. Chen Mo thought to himself, I’m mature now.

Chen Mo lowered his head and blew on the steaming noodles. His long and dense eyelashes also drooped down to cover his eyes, and he said in a flat tone: “You had a child when you were eleven years old.”

Liang Jingren was stunned again, and then suddenly laughed, “Hahahaha!”

Chen Mo suddenly raised his head, his brow furrowed slightly, and asked him, “What are you laughing at?”

Liang Jingren said with a smile: “I can’t have a baby. I can’t have one not only at the age of eleven, but also at the age of thirty-three.” After speaking, he kindly added the reason: “I don’t have a uterus, so I can’t give birth.”

This was speechless enough. Chen Mo didn’t hold the noodles in his chopsticks steady, and he rolled his eyes bluntly and said, “Then get one installed.”

Seeing that Chen Mo hadn’t even taken a bite of noodles and was just talking nonsense with him, Liang Jingren smiled helplessly, pushed his chair back, and stood up. “I’m not going to waste time chatting with you. I’m going to work.”

“What work do you still have? It’s already dark,” Chen Mo said, supporting the bowl and raising his head.

“It’s all because you suddenly returned to the country today that I postponed all the meetings.” Liang Jingren pushed the chair he had been sitting on to the side of the dining table.

Chen Mo lowered his eyes slightly. “No one asked you to pick me up.”

“Yeah, I won’t pick you up next time.” As he said this, Liang Jingren prepared to go upstairs. His private office was on the second floor—he had only renovated Chen Daxiang’s master bedroom in this villa.

Chen Mo raised his head, looked towards the stairs, and called out, “Hey, you…” This distance was just right to be able to observe Liang Jingren’s whole body from head to toe.

Liang Jingren turned his head in confusion.

Chen Mo opened his mouth and said, “You didn’t have a car accident… right.”

–So abrupt.

–Asking now…

–So redundant.

As soon as he asked, Chen Mo wanted to slap himself.

Down the steps, Liang Jingren’s eyes flickered with consideration. He pursed his lips and said, “I’m fine.”

The portion of this bowl of noodles was just right. After finishing the noodles, Chen Mo consciously took the dishes to the kitchen to wash.

The water flowed down the drain with foam, and Chen Mo stared blankly at the dripping ceramic basin in his hand.

…It’s really amazing. After not seeing each other for three years, he and Liang Jingren could actually sit at the same table to eat and chat so much without saying a single swear word.

Although, to be precise, he was the only one eating. Liang Jingren had already eaten.

After putting the washed dishes into the disinfection cabinet, Chen Mo walked to the refrigerator and opened it, thinking: Should I try to make something myself…

Only a row of eggs looked the freshest in the refrigerator. Other than that, let alone meat, there weren’t even any fruits or vegetables. Except for the two layers filled with drinks, the entire refrigerator looked very empty. Obviously, Liang Jingren definitely didn’t often eat at home. It was estimated that even breakfast was taken care of casually outside.

Chen Mo looked at the upper layer of the refrigerator, which was three-fifths empty, and stroked his chin, thinking: I’ll just make breakfast. It’s simpler, and I don’t have to guess or wait for the other person’s uncertain time of coming home.

The next morning, Chen Mo tried to order groceries through a mobile delivery app. The speed in the country was indeed fast. The things he wanted were delivered to the entrance of the villa in just over ten minutes.

Perhaps the sound of the delivery guy ringing the doorbell startled Liang Jingren, who ran downstairs in his pajamas.

Discovering that it was Chen Mo carrying big and small bags into the kitchen, Liang Jingren was curious about what he was going to do, so he followed him.

“So early, adjusting to the time difference?” Liang Jingren immediately saw that Chen Mo was preparing breakfast, and the ingredients were very rich and high-end—anyway, they were more high-end than the ten yuan a bowl of meat sauce noodles he usually ate outside.

“Yeah.” Chen Mo responded casually, turning the olive oil bottle to check the origin of the raw materials.

Liang Jingren paused for a while. Seeing that Chen Mo had washed the cutting board and was about to start cutting vegetables, he didn’t intend to continue interfering with the other party with his gaze. “Then eat, drink, and sleep well, and adjust to the time difference as soon as possible. I’m going to the company in a while. Go out and take a walk if you have nothing to do.”

After speaking, Liang Jingren scratched his head and was about to go back to the second floor to wash up and change. Chen Mo turned his head and called out to the kitchen entrance, “Aren’t you eating breakfast?”

“I’ll eat outside,” Liang Jingren said.

“I made a portion for you,” Chen Mo said.

Liang Jingren was stunned for a moment, then scratched his head again and said, “That’s okay, I guess.”

In the week that followed, Chen Mo made breakfast at home every morning, and not only made his own portion, but also made Liang Jingren’s portion.

His physiological time difference was adjusted very quickly. Since deciding to make breakfast, he had been getting up early and going to bed early every day. Just by relying on this alone, he had defeated 90% of his peers in terms of health.

However, apart from eating a rich and healthy breakfast, he chose to order takeout for his lunch and dinner, just like most wage slaves who didn’t have much time.

Liang Jingren took a lunch break at the company at noon, and often had social engagements in the evening. Or he could call Shen Qing and a group of brothers to get together at any time. In short, he didn’t often appear at home from 8:30 in the morning to 8:00 or 9:00 in the evening.

Chen Mo didn’t lie flat and waste his time during the day. Every day, he replied to emails and followed up on unfinished projects, and at the same time, he was investigating how to apply for an online master’s degree program across countries.

One morning, Chen Mo changed into a new piece of clothing he had just bought online. While eating breakfast, Liang Jingren noticed that the clothes he was wearing weren’t the few pieces he had brought back and washed repeatedly, and asked him if he had a date.

Chen Mo said yes without thinking.

Liang Jingren smiled and shook the octopus sausage on his fork, and said, “If you have time, go find Jiang Jinhao to play. He opened a modified car shop. It’s quite something. You can go take a look if you have nothing to do.”

“That idiot became a boss?” Chen Mo said in surprise.

“Tsk, how did Jiang Jinhao end up with someone like you as a friend?” Liang Jingren shook his head.

“What’s wrong? I wouldn’t call him stupid to his face,” Chen Mo blinked his eyes wide.

“Say less,” Liang Jingren put the fork in his hand in front of him, trying to block his mouth with the red little octopus.

Practice produces truth. It did block it. Chen Mo happily ate his little octopus sausage, chewing with his cheeks puffed out.

However, the person with a date this day was not Chen Mo.

In the evening, Chen Mo skillfully opened the takeout app. After casually swiping through it, he had basically eaten at all the highly-rated restaurants nearby. There was one that suited his taste quite well, and he was ready to order from it again, but when he entered the store’s page, it showed that the store’s takeout service was temporarily suspended. It seemed that the store had temporarily suspended taking orders from the takeout platform because it was too busy during meal times.

Chen Mo looked at the restaurant’s address. It was less than two kilometers from the villa. It would only take ten minutes to walk there, or he could steal, cough, drive Liang Jingren’s motorcycle, which would definitely be faster.

Later, Chen Mo thought about it. He hadn’t been out of the house for many days since he came back, so he decided to walk there for a stroll and made his way to the restaurant.

The review section said that the restaurant had a more diverse and better-tasting selection of dishes that could be ordered at the store, and the plating was also very exquisite. He was really looking forward to it.

But Chen Mo didn’t expect that he would see Liang Jingren across the street from his destination—sitting in a seat by the window, chatting happily with a woman.

This was completely outside of his expectations.

A man and a woman were sitting face to face in an elegantly decorated restaurant, and the table was also decorated with flowers. No matter how you looked at it, the two had a very ordinary relationship between a man and a woman.

Yes, nothing could be more ordinary. How could a diamond bachelor who had lost his spouse, inherited a large amount of property, and even the company, lack a lover?

Chen Mo silently took out his cell phone, opened his address book, and found the phone number that still had call records from four years ago.

He raised his head, looked across the street at the restaurant’s glass window, and dialed the phone.

“Hello? Chen Mo? What’s wrong?” A familiar voice came from the phone. In the window, Liang Jingren answered the phone. He really hadn’t mistaken the person.

Chen Mo stared at Liang Jingren from afar and asked, “Where are you? Who are you eating with?”

For the first question, Liang Jingren said the correct location and restaurant name. For the second question, Liang Jingren lied to him again: “I’m eating with your Shen Qing bro.”

“I should be going back after dinner. It won’t be too late today. By the way, have you eaten? Do you want me to pack you a portion? This restaurant tastes pretty good. Huh?… Chen Mo? Hello? Why is there no sound?”

Chen Mo left the phone on mute for a while before hanging up.

He pocketed his phone, looked left and right at the oncoming cars, raised his foot, and was about to walk across the street.

Just then, he saw someone suddenly walk into the window on the opposite side. That person walked to the table, asked Liang Jingren, who was holding his phone with a complicated expression on his face, something, and then sat down in the seat next to the woman.

—It was Shen Qing.

Liang Jingren hadn’t lied to him.

That’s right, he seemed to have heard Lucas say last year that Shen Qing bro was getting married. So that strange woman was Shen Qing’s wife.

Chen Mo remembered that he had also seen their wedding photos in Lucas’s chat history.

Realizing that he had almost made a big deal out of nothing, Chen Mo bit his lip tightly. His stomach seemed to be full for some reason, and he turned around and left, feeling extremely ashamed and annoyed.

The next morning, Chen Mo got up even earlier than usual. He referred to an internet-famous recipe and made a colorful and exquisitely plated court-style breakfast, with everything from staples to meat, vegetables, eggs, milk, and fruit.

Liang Jingren was directly frightened by the full table of breakfast when he came down from upstairs. He asked Chen Mo, “Did you invite people to come to the house for a breakfast party?”

Chen Mo shook his head and said with a smile, “No, it’s all for you~”

Seeing this, Liang Jingren didn’t dare to sit down. He was afraid that Chen Mo had poisoned the breakfast.

Chen Mo bit his lip slightly, and explained with indignation as if he was holding back a breath: “Didn’t you say before that I can’t cook? Today, I’ll prove to you how well I can cook!”

“Ah… oh…” Liang Jingren sat down on the chair that Chen Mo had pulled out for him with a slight hesitation. He still couldn’t believe the Chen Mo in front of him.

–Because he didn’t look like Chen Mo at all!

Seeing Liang Jingren sit down, Chen Mo smiled very diligently and took the teapot to pour him tea. “Seeing that I can make breakfast so rich, would you consider letting me make dinner in the future? Let’s set a time, how about 7:00 in the evening? I’ll make dinner at home and wait for you to come back and eat together~”

Liang Jingren cautiously picked up a piece of crispy toast wrapped in egg, cheese, and smoked sausage and said bluntly, “There’s no need.”

Unexpectedly, Chen Mo, who had undergone a great change in temperament, actually ran to the other side of the dining table, leaned over, propped his elbows on the table, supported his head with his hands crossed, looked at him with an expectant and flattering face, and asked in an extremely innocent tone, “Eh? Why? Isn’t it good to have someone cook for you?”

Liang Jingren hammered his chest—he was about to choke to death.

After the tea went down, Liang Jingren finally regained his breath. He had finally thought about what to say to this strange Chen Mo:

“Chen Mo, are you very idle?”

Chen Mo responded ambiguously with a modulated “hmm.” He winked at the person across the dining table, thinking that he had made breakfast so well, Liang Jingren couldn’t possibly eat his food and then scold him.

Liang Jingren didn’t scold him. He just put down his cup, sighed, and said, “If you have nothing to do, go find a job.”

Chen Mo:……