Chapter 376: Promise Me Not To Burn This Bridge

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Due to the effects of the medicine, it never took long for Ruan Danchen to feel tired and so she fell asleep. Upon waking up, she looked at the time, it was already past 4PM.

She felt amazingly better after her nap. Her body felt lighter and her face was flushed with life. Her nose was not too stuffy after waking up, she was, however, a little parched. She reached out to the edge of her bed. Qi Chenglin had apparently placed a glass of water by her bed while she was asleep. She immediately chugged the entire glass down to quench her thirst.

She was completely covered in sweat, so she proceeded to the washroom, soak a towel with some warm water to wipe away the sweat from her face and neck. After freshening herself up, she proceeded downstairs.

However, she noticed it was quiet downstairs, almost seemed like the entire house was empty.

“Chenglin? Youxuan?” Ruan Danchen called out. However, there was no response.

She felt odd, as she got ready to give Chenglin a call, she could hear the front door beep. It was the sound of the fingerprint lock being unlocked, however, before anyone opened the door, she could hear Youxuan’s voice coming from behind that door, “Daddy, it’s your first time cooking anything, are you sure you want to make something so challenging? I saw some delicious roast turkey back at the grocer?”

“Are you done?” Qi Chenglin said to his son as he was being bombarded by his son’s unrelenting brutally honest, discouraging comments the entire journey back. He turned to glare at his son before entering the house.

Ruan Danchen noticed Qi Chenglin was carrying huge loads of ingredients from the local grocer, she rushed to help him carry some bag, however, Qi Chenglin refused to let her help, as he simply placed the bags on the ground to put on his slippers before coming in.

Qi Youxuan held nothing on his hands, he only wanted to accompany his dad to the grocer.

As Ruan Danchen took a nap. Qi Chenglin wanted to buy some ingredients from the local grocer for tonight’s dinner. There were some ingredients left in the fridge, however, after he looked up the recipe, he realized it was not enough. Plus, he wanted to buy a turkey to roast for dinner.

Upon hearing this, Qi Youxuan was excited and wanted to tag along. Since this was his dad and not Ruan Danchen, he was not allowed to buy any snacks.

Feeling annoyed and frustrated, Qi Youxuan never held back despite being his dad by relentlessly destroying his dad’s enthusiasm.

It was a rare opportunity to discover something his dad was not good at, Qi Youxuan seized this opportunity to retaliate against his dad, since he would not have known when another similar occasion like this would arise.

“You went to the local grocer?” Ruan Danchen asked as she carried the bags from the ground to the kitchen. Qi Chenglin could not stop her from helping, thus he went ahead to carry the rest to the kitchen.

“Yep, I would be making dinner tonight.” Qi Chenglin whispered softly from her back.

Ruan Danchen was completely surprised after hearing his bold statement, she had almost dropped the bags on the floor. She swiftly placed everything on the kitchen counter, turned around and gave Qi Chenglin a huge surprised stare. She said, “You? Make Dinner?”

Qi Chenglin said nothing as he stoically turned around to grab the cookbook from one of the bags on the countertop.

“…”Ruan Danchen was completely speechless.

“But you never cooked before?” Ruan Danchen said as she observed Qi Chenglin’s slender fingers turning the pages in the cookbook. Her heart was beating like a drum as she was completely surprised.

“Nope, that’s why I bought this cookbook.” Qi Chenglin replied with a stoic, confident look. His reply was like the usual deep, confident tone he always had.

“Why did you thought about cooking on your on?” Ruan Danchen was confused. She cautiously asked, “What happened to Aunt Zheng?”

“I gave her a break.” Qi Chenglin replied as he was completely focused on the page about roast turkey in the cookbook. He looked up to give Ruan Danchen a glance and said, “Weren’t you jealous that my brother would cook for Song Yu?”

“So you’re cooking for me?” Ruan Danchen replied with a huge smile, her eyes were completely hidden from her beaming smile. She calmly observed her cool looking man standing so stoically, so confidently, however, there was a slight hint of embarrassment in front of her. She could not resist but to get closer and cuddled up with his arm.

Qi Chenglin did not reply to her question directly, only given her a quick glance. He stood tall and almost unnaturally stiff as he simply replied to her, “Just to calm your envious feelings.”

“I wasn’t envious, the truth is, you can’t cook. Having your heart alone would make anyone envious and jealous of my life already. If I was still envious, then I would’ve been unappreciative already.” Ruan Danchen said with a smile, as she was completely infatuated by this man’s willingness to cook for her despite his inexperience.

This act alone was much better than those who were naturally talented in cooking. She was touched by what Qi Chenglin was willing to do for her.

“So you’re saying that you wouldn’t eat anything I cooked?” Qi Chenglin playfully teased.

“I didn’t say that.” Ruan Danchen replied as she stared at him, “Now I’m very intrigued. I’ll definitely need to try a bite.” Ruan Danchen said with a smile.

Qi Chenglin smirked.

Ruan Danchen stood on her toes as she could only reach Qi Chenglin’s chin, and so, she gave him a soft kiss on his prickly, fuzzy chin. She said, ” Would you like my help?”

Ruan Danchen was a little worried as she took a quick glance at the cookbook’s recipe. This is his first time cooking anything in his life, and he would attempt something so challenging for his first time. That was quite outrageous.

He had grown and progressed so much since day one!

“You’re sick, don’t even think about helping out, go outside and take a break, you can watch some TV or go online. Just wait for dinner alright.” Qi Chenglin said while hugging her shoulder with one arm as he pushed her outside and proceeded to sit her down on a couch. Only after that, he returned to the kitchen.

Ruan Danchen wanted to say that she was worried that he might be overwhelmed, since this was his first time cooking after all. She was uncertain when dinner would actually be served.

Seeing that Qi Chenglin had made his way back to the kitchen, Ruan Danchen was unsure if she should ask Qi Youxuan if he had a hidden stash of snacks somewhere in this house.

However in the end, she decided to return to the kitchen to watch Qi Chenglin being overwhelmed by everything as she sat by the counter.

Qi Chenglin knew exactly how bad his cooking skills was, so he had bought pre-sliced vegetables and other pre-made ingredients from the local grocer. Everything was wrapped tightly with saran wrap. All he needs to do, was only to wash the ingredients as he would not even need to slice anything.

However, the only thing that overwhelmed him the most was the turkey. The turkey he had bought was already cleaned up and stuffed, but Qi Chenglin was frustrated as he frowned while holding onto the turkey’s butt. It was completely filled with stuffing, this made his hands to feel greasy and sticky.

He was already wearing gloves, however the stuffing got onto his untrained hands, making it extremely messy and uncomfortable.

He suddenly heard a sound coming from behind him. He turned around to see Ruan Danchen sitting by the counter, with her head propped up by both her arms on the countertop. She was fascinated as she just sat there silently observing him minding his own business

Upon seeing her, Qi Chenglin blushed in embarrassment, while keeping his messy hands away as he stood completely still and unnaturally stiff, he said, “What are you doing here for?”

“I’m just here to observe! I was told that when a man cooks anything, they would look hot, so I had to see for myself.” Ruan Danchen said while her head was cupped in her hands. She was smiling as she observed Qi Chenglin’s distraught state.

Qi Chenglin pouted and said, “A man looks hot when he’s focussed on his work, doing the dishes and even cooking. A man looks hot doing women’s chores.”

“…” Ruan Danchen said nothing as she glared at Qi Chenglin. She replied, “Focussing on work has nothing to do with women’s chores!”

Qi Chenglin continued stuffing the turkey, he simply thought to himself, if she wanted to observe so much, so be it then. He smirked and said, “A man’s hard work is only to make his wife’s life better.”

What he said was exactly as she meant just now.

However, Ruan Danchen was not his wife yet!

Ruan Danchen blushed, she could no longer observe. She felt as if any longer would scald her butt from sitting on the chair.

“I’ll be looking for Youxuan now.” She was blushing so hard that even her neck was blushed. She stood up while keeping her head down as she proceeded to leave the kitchen.

Qi Chenglin smiled as he resumed violating the turkey. However, after only a couple seconds, Ruan Danchen peeked in from the corner and asked, “You really don’t need my help?”

“…” Qi Chenglin felt as if Ruan Danchen took joy in watching him suffer. How despicable he thought to himself. However,he was finally at ease since Ruan Danchen looked much better than earlier today. He replied while raising his eyebrows, “Nope, I’m serious.”

Ruan Danchen finally left after he assured her completely.

This Christmas feast Qi Chenglin promised was not an easy one to wait. They had patiently waited from 4pm until 7pm and it was not even close to being done. Not a single hint of a scent had left the kitchen. Ruan Danchen was completely famished at this point. She wanted to go into the kitchen to help him out, but was afraid of stressing him out.

Qi Youxuan was also afraid of walking in the kitchen. He was afraid of stressing his dad out to the point of unleashing his dad’s fury on him.

Ruan Danchen was starving. She felt a soft pat from her back.

She turned around to find no one behind her, she could only hear a soft and faint whisper from nowhere, “Aunty, I’m here.Right here.”

Ruan Danchen knelt on the couch to look behind the couch, only to see that Qi Youxuan hiding behind the couch whisper to her. She asked curiously.”What are you doing Youxuan?”

“Aunty Ruan, are you hungry?” that little kid asked cautiously while staring at her huge, black beady eyes.

“…” Ruan Danchen remained silent as she would not want to crush Qi Chenglin’s warrior spirit. However, the truth was, she was indeed starving. She rubbed her belly and silently nodded, admitting her hunger.

Qi Youxuan childishly looked left and right with full caution, he had come to a huge decision. He cautiously asked again, “Do you want to eat something? Who knows how much longer my dad would take to get dinner ready?”

“I do.”Ruan Danchen answered as she actually wanted to eat something.

“I had hidden a couple packs of chips and some cookies in my room. Oh and few packs of seaweed, you…” Before Qi Youxuan could finish, Ruan Danchen jumped off the couch, came around and grabbed his hand.

“Don’t say anything yet, I’ll follow you.” Ruan Danchen said hastily with a soft whisper. She took Qi Youxuan by the hand and brought him upstairs.

In Qi Youxuan’s room, Ruan Danchen Qi Youxuan took out a couple stacks of clothing from his closet. Hidden at the corner of his closet was a box slightly bigger than a shoebox. He then proceeded to take that box out his closet.

Upon opening the box, it was filled to the brim with all sorts of snacks.

“…” Ruan Danchen was completely speechless.

So this was the reason why his diet plan failed and his arduous journey to lose weight was so difficult.

Qi Youxuan took out a pack of chips from the box and as he handed over to Ruan Danchen, he changed his mind and pulled back, hugging that pack of chips tightly. He said, “Aunty Ruan, you can’t tell my daddy okay, I’m only doing this because I can’t stand watching you starve so you have to promise me to not burn this bridge okay? Keep this between us alright?”

The term burning one’s bridge was picked up by Qi Youxuan when he was at the temple the other day. It was amazing for a child to apply what he had learned in his day to day life.

“I promise to not say a word.”Ruan Danchen assured him, as Qi Youxuan handed her the bag of chips.

He then took out another bag of chips and before he could open it, Ruan Danchen stopped him and said, “Let’s just share a pack together, or else, we’ll be full and won’t be able to eat whatever your father so painfully made for us.”

After hearing this, Qi Youxuan pouted and frowned. He had originally intended to be full before he was forced to consume his dad’s concoction of hell. Since Ruan Danchen had spoken, he could only sigh in despair as he placed that bag of chips back into the box unwillingly. He thought to himself, he was just being way too thoughtful and loyal, he could not bear to watch his Aunty Ruan starve, instead, he too was forced to starve as well.

And so, the both of them sat on his little rug and proceeded to merrily devour that pack of chips in no time as they chatted while they ate.

Ruan Danchen dusted her hands, crumpled the wrapper into a small ball and threw it in the trash. Only after that, Ruan Danchen out the room with Qi Youxuan.

As they went down to the living room, Ruan Danchen hastily wiped her mouth to erase any evidence of their sinful snacking. She was worried that Qi Chenglin would be hurt if he knew they were snacking away.

However, after only a moment in the living room, they heard the doorbell rang.

Ruan Danchen grunted and said, “Who is it?”

She proceeded to walk toward the door only to be surprised as she looked at a man dressed in the Dynasty restaurant chain’s uniform holding a cooler box.

Ruan Danchen opened the door while she asked Qi Chenglin loudly, “Did you order takeout?”

She never heard a reply from Qi Chenglin. She proceeded to open the door allowing the man to come in. After greeting Ruan Danchen, the man entered the house politely as he made his way to the kitchen. He opened the cooler box and neatly placed the takeout on the table.

At this moment, Qi Chenglin walked out looking completely devastated.

After the man had left, Ruan Danchen hesitantly looked at Qi Chenglin. He let out an awkward cough and said, “Let’s… just have these for dinner tonight.”

“…” Ruan Danchen was speechless.

“…” Qi Youxuan too was speechless.

Qi Youxuan felt extremely unfair and offended, as his dad had kept both of them starving for so long, and he planned to feed them only with takeout!

Don’t think for a second that takeout from Dynasty would make it up for it. Takeout was still takeout!

Ruan Danchen felt awful since Qi Chenglin had worked so hard to make this feast happen. She felt the need to at least try a bite no matter the taste.

Failing to cook up a feast, the obvious thing to do would be to throw the food away. All of the failed experimental concoction would be for nothing.

Ruan Danchen went around the dinner table and proceeded to hug Qi Chenglin’s shoulder and said, “Where’s the food you made?”

Qi Chenglin had worked really on the meal for literally a couple of hours.

“…” Qi Chenglin was not too willing to admit defeat. He was blushing a little due to the embarrassment he felt. It was quite ironic that Qi Youxuan was right about his horrible cooking skills. He blushingly replied, “It’s inedible.”

Ruan Danchen had never seen Qi Chenglin looked so devastated before. Her heart ached for his current emotional state. Even though, she was not as strong willed as him, however, she could not bear seeing him so devastated and distraught right now.

“How could be completely inedible? Just let me take a look.” Ruan Danchen hugged Qi Chenglin by the shoulder while leading him to the kitchen, “I was really excited when you said, you would be cooking up a feast today. I don’t care how bad it looked. I just want to taste a bite. Since it was made by your own two hands.” Ruan Danchen added.

Qi Youxuan was shocked as he covered his face with his hands. He thought to himself if he too would be forced to eat that concoction of hell. Qi Youxuan remained in the living room.

As both of them entered the kitchen, Qi Youxuan swiftly took a few bites from the takeout.

The moment Ruan Danchen walked into the kitchen, she was shocked at what she saw. The entire kitchen looked like a crime scene. The once clean kitchen was now in complete chaos. Everything was a complete mess. The originally spacious kitchen looked cramped and narrow from all the chaos.

The pre-processed and sliced ingredients that Qi Chenglin had bought earlier, was now a charred mess. It was completely unrecognizable from that burned mess that was once a perfectly fine ingredient.

The truth was, Qi Chenglin poured his heart and soul into trying to cook up whatever he was making. He never expected to completely burn the dish that he was trying to make. Refused to be discouraged, he told himself that it was simply a practice dish, since he had bought extra ingredients anyway.

However, who would have guessed that every dish he attempted to make, was ruined by his touch. Hence the current state of the kitchen.

SInce the entire kitchen was completely masked by the strong charred, smokey scent, Ruan Danchen had a difficult time telling exactly what she was tasting.

She walked around the kitchen and she noticed that the oven light was on. Thus, she opened up the oven door revealing a completely burned, dark lump that was once a perfectly fine turkey. She guessed that Qi Chenglin hid it in the oven in order to get rid of the evidence when he got the opportunity to do so.

Ruan Danchen put on some mittens to retrieve the turkey from the oven.

Upon closer inspection, the turkey was not that bad. There were some parts that were not fully burned.

Ruan Danchen proceeded to grab a knife to slice into the turkey. She realized the stuffing and turkey was cooked perfectly fine. On top of that, it smelled really good as well. The only parts that were charred and burned was the outer skin of the Turkey, the meat was a little dry, but Ruan Danchen was not bothered by it.

The only dishes that gone to waste was the complete ruined ones. Thus, Ruan Danchen took the turkey out and placed it in the middle of the table. Qi Chenglin followed behind while blushing slightly as he awkwardly walked out the kitchen.

Ruan Danchen sat Qi Chenglin down on his seat and said, “Isn’t the turkey fine? Cooking requires practice, you’ll need to keep practicing in future alright!”

Ruan Danchen gently patted Qi Chenglin’s shoulders as she observes his very elegant, cool demeanor, as his physical presentation was completely unfit to be anywhere near the kitchen. Ruan Danchen’s quick thinking and her comment was seemingly encouraging him to keep cooking for her.

She felt sorry for Qi Chenglin as his tedious battle scene in the kitchen was replaying in her head.

However, it was too late to go back on her own words now. She was afraid that Qi Chenglin would assume that Ruan Danchen was criticizing his horrible cooking and would not want to carry eating. She did not know what to say in this very moment and thus the only thing she did was to pat his shoulder all while giving him an encouraging look. This brighten up Qi Chenglin a little as he was seemingly smiling as his mood grew better.

Ruan Danchen placed some stuffing from the turkey on Qi Youxuan’s plate and carved away the burned spots from the turkey and placed the edible parts on his plate.

“Your father made this, come on and give it a taste.” Ruan Danchen said to Youxuan as she carved out a piece for herself. After taking a bite from the turkey, Ruan Danchen closed her eyes to enjoy and savor the taste of that turkey. Seemingly signaling to everyone that turkey was delicious. As she chewed on the turkey meat, she said “Mmm” and she added, “This is extremely delicious.”

After that, her eyes lit up and looked at Qi Youxuan.

“…” Qi Youxuan hesitated and took a bite, he looked as if he was about to cry.

It was not delicious at all. The meat was dry and there was not a single drop of gravy in the meat, on top of that, it tasted extremely bland. Qi Youxuan thought to himself.

He never expected Aunty Ruan was one to forget about loyalty when she was infatuated by love!

Qi Chenglin knew exactly where his skills stood in terms of cooking. He was not fully bought by Ruan Danchen’s acting and thus he too tried a piece. It was not horrible, but certainly not good.

However seeing how Ruan Danchen was enjoying herself and had not even touched the Dynasty take out, Qi Chenglin was worried that she was only doing that to not hurt his feelings. He stopped her hands and said, “Stop eating it.”

“It’s seriously amazing.” Ruan Danchen replied as she ate the turkey with the stuffing.

“You’re sick, you’ll need to eat better food.” Qi Chenglin said, “I know my cooking is horrible, you don’t have to care about my feelings.”

“It’s not like it was poisoned or it could kill me anyway.” Ruan Danchen said as she took a bite.

“…” Qi Chenglin was speechless.

This comment was a hard pill to swallow indeed!

“Since this is way better than Dynasty take out anyway.” Ruan Danchen said. As her plate was empty, she helped herself to another serving of turkey with some stuffing. She served Qi Youxuan another serving as well as the poor boy was traumatized.

Qi Chenglin chuckled a little as he too completely ignored the takeout from Dynasty and proceeded to serve himself a plate of his own turkey as well.

He looked at the food on his plate and turned to face Ruan Danchen with the warmest and most compassionate gaze he had and said, “Well, it looks like I’ll need to work harder and cook for you more often. I will make sure my cooking will progressively get better.”

“…” Qi Youxuan was speechless from his father’s comment.

He thought to himself just how these two grown adults could just ignore his presence?

At the end, the three of them managed to clear half of the whole turkey. Qi Youxuan ate the least. Seeing a huge piece of meat on his plate in front of him, he only took a couple nibbles of meat off his own plate.

_________

Extra Mini Scene

The Aftermath of the Christmas Feast

The following was the personal opinion of the couple of them

Qi Chenglin :[Since I have the full encouragement of my family, I will have to keep practicing my cooking skills, I will make sure my cooking will ultimately get better, since I felt like I have some sort of hidden natural talents in the field of culinary arts.]

Ruan Danchen: [As long as it was made by Qi Chenglin, it doesn’t matter how awful the taste was, I will love it. Of course it would be an occasional thing, I can’t eat this everyday.”

Qi Youxuan: [Next time I see daddy in the kitchen, I am so going to grandma’s house!]

Grampa: “Would you like to know what your dad would make next time and when he would be making it”

Qi Youxuan: “Yes yes yes yes yes.”

Grampa: “Just sell your cuteness, help me gather some more monthly tickets then I’ll tell you.”

Qi Youxuan: ” I am already naturally cute, why would I still need to sell it?”

Grampa: “…”

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