88 Crazy for Noodles (1/2)
When Yao Zhixing and Ye Shuang arrived at Han Chu's rented apartment, the man who opened the door greeted them with a disgruntled frown.
Then again, he had suddenly been betrayed by his old friend for the sake of someone he had only known for days, so Han Chu's bad mood was understandable. Yao Zhixing's obvious loyalty toward Ye Shuang and the way he happily screwed Han Chu over on the phone only made things worse.
”Don't worry, Xiao Han is not one to hold onto grudges, and he is a man of his word.” Yao Zhixing walked into the room first, and instead of consoling Han Chu, he added this comment to rub it in. There were plenty of benefits to being around good friends—everyone knew each other well and would not create a big issue out of a small conflict. Then again, this also meant that they knew where each other's bottom line was and would do anything in their power to challenge it again and again just to get a reaction out of each other.
Han Chu's face darkened immediately. He dropped two pairs of slippers on the floor with a cold harrumph before turning back into his house. ”Come in. I've also called the workshop that handles An Zining's case. We'll make use of this opportunity to inform them about An Zining's situation. Ye Shuang, you'd better observe closely because you'll be handling things like this very often in the future.”
Yao Zhixing put on the slippers and wandered into the room like it was his own home. He looked into the kitchen and asked, ”What's for dinner?”
”Get the phone and call for take-out yourself!” Han Chu glanced coldly at him. ”There's a box of change underneath the shoe rack; use the money in there to pay the take-out when it's here. What? You expect me to cook for you?”
”Take-out? Not for me!” Yao Zhixing sat down and placed his two legs on the coffee table. ”Aren't you calling people? I remember you've assigned a private chef at that tigress' place, right? Call her to get some ingredients before coming over and have her cook for us!”
”She cooks for An Zining because that is her job—why would she cook for you? Are you going to pay her‽” Han Chu gave him a side-eye.
Yao Zhixing smiled and pointed at Ye Shuang. ”To bond with the future agent‽”
He added after some thought, ”To bond with you who scouted her?”
The two men went back and forth. Han Chu was at his own home, so he probably wasn't hungry; Yao Zhixing had already eaten quite a bit while he was staking out his car at the barbeque shop. However, Ye Shuang was really hungry. Even though she had finished work earlier than usual, she had discovered that Brother An was trying to shuttle his sister overseas, then was asked by Yao Zhixing to meet him to get the letter of recommendation, and finally beat up a gang of car thieves before being dragged to this place. The time for dinner had already passed, and what about those extra physical activities?
She would have died if they had to wait for Miss Chef to come cook for them, so Ye Shuang could not help herself from chiming in. ”If Brother Han doesn't mind, do you have a pack of instant noodles for me to stave off the hunger for now?”
”You want to eat instant noodle at my place?” Han Chu turned to look at Ye Shuang. ”There's nothing like that, and even if I did have some, I won't bring that out to serve my guest. Go look inside the fridge to see whether there's things like cake or not.”
Who store cakes inside their home‽ The short preservation period aside, can cake even be considered a meal‽ Ye Shuang thought to herself before walking into the kitchen to peer inside the fridge. There was nothing like a cake, but there was an empty cake box, some fruits, a box of eggs, and various drinks.
Ye Shuang picked out several eggs, closed the fridge and wandered about the kitchen. She found some noodles in the cupboard and a rack of wonderful spices. There were not enough ingredients to cook anything else, and it would take too much them, so Ye Shuang poked her head out of the kitchen to ask, ”Brother Han, I'm cooking some noodles, do you guys want some?”
Why does this person only have noodles on her mind‽
Han Chu pressed his lips and was about to say something when Yao Zhixing cheered happily. ”Wonderful, I'll have one.”
”…I'm not hungry.”
Then, Han Chu turned to make a call to inquire after Brother Wong and the rest's location. The answer he got was that they were stuck in afternoon traffic and would require another half an hour before they reached his place. Han Chu was not satisfied with this answer, but he could not control the traffic situation. In the end, he sighed and told the gang to buy some dishes on the way to his place before hanging up.
By then, a delicious smell had started to waft out of the kitchen. Ye Shuang placed the noodles inside the wok to let them simmer and turned on another stove to cook the sauce. The base of the sauce was ground beef, and she added soy sauce, black bean sauce, and some chili. When she thickened the sauce with roux, the noodles were almost ready.
She dried the noodles with a sieve and then poured them into two ready bowls. She fried two eggs sunny side up and placed them delicately on top of the noodles before applying the sauce. She carried the bowls of finished product into the living room with several bottles of seasoning.
”Here's some soy sauce, pepper, and salt. Please free to add if you think the taste is not heavy enough. I wanted to add some vegetables, but there weren't enough ingredients…” Ye Shuang picked up her own bowl and used the chopsticks to mix the noodles together. Then she started to slurp happily.