Passing through a low passageway, the smell of bread always remained in Pei Qingyuan’s nose as he returned home.
During the precious 40 minutes in the evening, Ji Tong spent almost half an hour with the basketball team. Another ten minutes was to go home with him.
Once the countdown reached two minutes, it wasn’t enough time for them to reach home. Therefore, Ji Tong simply ordered him to stop at the door of a bakery that was about to close.
The bakery at night was the most fragrant. The soft baking aroma wafted out. Ji Tong lay down against the glass window, looking longingly at the beautifully shaped pastries inside.
After eating a large bag of fried chicken, he couldn’t eat anything else. Now he just wanted to receive more of the aroma of bread, so that he could be wrapped in the sweet feeling of food after returning to the consciousness space.
Pei Qingyuan felt it was funny but still agreed. He stood quietly behind Ji Tong and waited.
The moon shone softly.
Two minutes later, the magic disappeared and the child in the creamy white shirt and blue uniform pants disappeared. The small school bag also disappeared, but the snacks enthusiastically contributed by the members of the basketball team were still present. Ji Tong couldn’t bring them back to the consciousness space.
Thus, Pei Qingyuan carried a school bag containing textbooks and another containing snacks on his shoulders. He also held several packets of potato chips and cookies in his arms as he walked into the house.
Luo Xiuyun was watching TV in the living room. She instantly saw the snacks in his arms and asked with surprise, “Why did you buy so much junk food?”
The little robot, walking on the soft grass while watching the stars, retorted angrily, “The breakfast she made is junk food!”
Pei Qingyuan obviously agreed with his words and said in a cold tone, “I bought it for breakfast.”
After being told these words, Luo Xiuyun remembered the white porridge, pickles and bean curd she made for breakfast every morning and finally felt that it was inappropriate.
“Oh, just tell your mother what you want to eat in the morning,” Luo Xiuyun said in an embarrassed manner, “What do you want to eat tomorrow morning? Is it okay to give you dumplings? There is cabbage stuffing in the fridge…”
Pei Qingyuan interrupted her. “No need.”
He no longer expected his mother to make breakfast.
The sudden vacancy in his life had gradually been filled with another special existence.
Luo Xiuyun failed to understand what he meant and raised her eyebrow in a dissatisfied manner. “How can you skip breakfast? Do you really want to eat all these junk foods? Don’t be stubborn. Just stop eating porridge from now on.”
Pei Qingyuan ignored her and walked into the room.
It was because in his mind, Ji Tong was holding a loudspeaker and shouting, “Tomorrow morning, we will eat baked cold noodles, add two eggs and two sausages!”
Before Luo Xiuyun could react, he saw Pei Qingyuan close the door. She couldn’t help touching her nose.
“This child—!”
She looked angry as she raised her hand and knocked heavily on the door. “I haven’t finished speaking to you. How can you enter the room? Come out. How can you have this attitude toward your mother?”
After a moment, Pei Qingyuan replied coldly, “I’m doing homework. I’m very busy.”
The door didn’t move. Luo Xiuyun stood stupidly at the door for a while. Then she was forced to sit back on the sofa in anger.
She deliberately turned up the voice of the TV, wanting Pei Qingyuan to take the initiative to come out. However, the door didn’t move and she instead heard another carefree voice.
“Sister, I heard the sound of the TV from far away in the corridor. What are you doing?”
Luo Zhichang came back from work. He wore a brand new security uniform and actually looked human-like.
Luo Zhichang understood the moment he saw Luo Xiuyun’s angry face. “Hey, are you angry with my eldest nephew? What did he do again?”
Luo Xiuyun restrained her expression a bit and habitually asked her younger brother, “Are you hungry? Do you want to eat?”
The moment she stood up, Luo Zhichang sat down on the sofa and took her place with peace of mind. “I’m hungry. Sister, cook me a bowl of noodles.”
He casually picked up the remote control and changed to the sports channel. The volume didn’t decrease and the passionate voice of the commentator instantly spread throughout the small room.
“I nearly missed this game.” Luo Zhichang threw off his slippers and dangled his feet off the coffee table. “My nephew is too much. He should wait for me to go home together. Isn’t he riding a bicycle? I’m tired from working all day. How good is it to give me a ride? I had to take my coworker’s little electric bike back.”
Luo Xiuyun took green vegetables and meat from the refrigerator and complained casually, “He went to the supermarket and bought a lot of junk food.”
“Going to the supermarket?” Luo Zhichang clicked his tongue. “Where did he get so much pocket money? He doesn’t know how to honor the elders in his family?”
Luo Xiuyun wasn’t able to vent her anger in her heart and was provoked again. She suddenly said, “He remembers his other elders!”
He had this attitude when he came back. He didn’t treat her as a mother at all!
She walked into the kitchen with her slippers and she could still hear Luo Zhichang’s nagging complaints.
“If you say this, it is indeed true. I met him several times at school in the past two days and he didn’t greet me at all. Does he look down on me, an uncle who is a security guard? He is still thinking about his good life in the Pei family…”
“Having said that, I am also blessed by him. This job is very comfortable. Everyone knows I entered through a connection so they are polite to me. Some people wanted to ask whose connection I relied on. Hehe, Sister, you should be patient with my nephew. He is useful…”
Gossip echoed along with the noisy cheers of the game. They didn’t think that Pei Qingyuan could hear these words or they didn’t think it mattered if he heard them.
Luo Xiuyun was cutting vegetables vigorously and the kitchen knife hit the cutting board with a thumping sound. The water in the pot boiled and she threw the noodles in. Then she stood in front of the stove and stared at the boiling water in a daze.
How could her son have such a personality?
If it was Lin Yan…
Perhaps there was a tacit connection. Luo Xiuyun’s phone rang at this moment. Her mind returned and she took it out to see that it was a message from Lin Yan.
No, it was Pei Yan. Luo Xiuyun quietly corrected the habit that had lasted for many years.
[How have you been lately?]
After Pei Yan returned to the Pei house, he often contacted her. Luo Xiuyun read through the previous chat record and the anger in her heart was gradually smoothed out.
[Mom, I tried hard to persuade my parents. They won’t embarrass you any longer.]
[Mom, you should pay more attention to your body. Let Uncle help you out more.]
[Mom, the family held a welcome party for me. Many people are coming. Unfortunately, it isn’t suitable to invite you. I will take photos for you later.]
……
She was full of warmth and ignored the difference in the message Pei Yan sent her tonight.
He didn’t call her Mom any longer.
She was satisfied and slid to the bottom of the chat interface. Then she hurriedly wiped the water stains on her hands onto her apron and started to reply to the message.
[Mom is very good. I just made taro stew tonight. It was your favorite food before. Has anyone over there made it for you?]
[It is Qingyuan. He still doesn’t listen to me very much… he isn’t as sensible as you, alas.]
She forgot the boiling noodles in the pot and devoted herself to expressing her bitterness to her once closest son.
This was her only comfort now.
In the days that followed, Pei Qingyuan never had breakfast at home again.
He got up on time at 6 o’clock every morning without needing anyone to urge him. He didn’t even stay in bed like Pei Yan did occasionally. He quickly washed up and went out.
When Pei Qingyuan left to go to school, Luo Zhichang was still snoring on the living room floor. It was late at night when Pei Qingyuan came home and he would occasionally carry a bag of junk food. Then he went into his room to read until Luo Xiuyun could no longer stay awake. He always came out to take a shower and brush his teeth after that. The timing was right every time, as if a surveillance camera had been installed in the living room.
Luo Xiuyun always felt that this son just treated their home as a hotel. He simply came back to sleep and the two of them could only meet briefly every time. Pei Qingyuan rarely took the initiative to talk to her.
She was so angry that she also competed with her son. She was unwilling to take the initiative to give into him. However, she would go into his room after he went out to check for snacks. She thought of putting them away and preventing him from eating these messy things.
As a result, Luo Xiuyun couldn’t figure out where Pei Qingyuan hid the snacks he brought back the night before. It was as if there was a black hole in his room that could swallow all the food.
In the small room, the bed was neatly made and the table was clean. Many books that Luo Xiuyun couldn’t understand were arranged in order in the cardboard boxes. It was completely different from the sloppy and lazy appearance of many of his peers.
Luo Xiuyun saw the appearance of this room and her anger slowly dissipated. She couldn’t find fault at all. Apart from Pei Qingyuan’s attitude toward her not being close enough, he was clearly a perfect child in other respects.
She didn’t know how this child’s grades were. She wondered if he could be as good as Pei Yan and be admitted to a good college.
She had the impression that the children of rich families were always free and didn’t focus on studying. She was worried that Pei Yan would be spoiled after returning home.
Luo Xiuyun barely knew about Pei Qingyuan’s life in the Pei family. It was because everyone was worried about Pei Yan’s mood at that time and didn’t want to mention Pei Qingyuan’s affairs too much in front of him. In addition, there was later transfer of schools arranged by Pei Minghong and his wife. Luo Xiuyun didn’t quite understand the specific situation.
She stood beside Pei Qingyuan’s bed and sighed silently, comforting herself that Pei Qingyuan just hadn’t adapted. The relationship between the two of them would always slowly get better in the future.
After all, after Pei Qingyuan returned to the Luo family, she was his only relative.
Beside her, who else could he rely on?
On the side of the road with autumn leaves falling, Pei Qingyuan ate a breakfast that wasn’t repeated for a week. As he ate a fried bun that he had never eaten before under the guidance of Ji Tong on the eighth morning, he finally couldn’t help asking, “How do you know so many delicious foods?”
Ji Tong ate a whole bag of fried buns and felt like his childish body was going to burst. He could only stand up and walk around Pei Qingyuan in a circle, honestly saying, “Part of it is Gao… Ah no, I collected some of it from Fu Chengze and his friends. The other part was summed up by me by researching various food and social networking sites for information about the food near the 2nd High School through keywords.”
“According to my expectations, we can continue to eat a variety of foods for 12 days. Host, if you are willing to try some changes in taste, such as changing from chestnut filling to stuffed chicken legs, we should be able to eat until the host graduates from high school.”
At this moment, Ji Tong showed his true colors as an AI. He put his short hands in front of him and bowed politely. “I hope the host can be satisfied with my service and remember to give me a good review.”
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Thank you for the update~
It’s sad the the mother doesn’t even bother to reflect on her own attitude toward her biological son, but rather always compares him to her “fake” son whom she cares deeply about all the time. It’s a shame that she just assumes their biological relation will allow their relationship to naturally form when relationships are formed through efforts that go both ways. It’s surprising that she initially switched them at birth for the sake of her son, yet now that he’s actually with her, she doesn’t appreciate nor treat him like her actual son. I’m just glad the Pei Qingyuan has Ji Tong now!
Thanks for the chapter! 😀
I’ve noticed a weird trend in translated Chinese novels… they almost always seem to have a obsessive fixation on food. I could understand if a few authors had this obsession, since there are people who have a compulsive desire to eat all the time, but with it being a predominant trend I suppose it must be a cultural fixation. I never would have thought of a culture being so heavily driven by gluttony, but reading it does seem to have an interesting side effect – reading about people gorging themselves so much leaves me with a strong disgust for food in general.
I think you might need to re-evaluate your relationship with food if minor food descriptions disgust you. To water down a culture to being ‘driven by gluttony’, when the actual culture in question is heavily driven by interconnectedness…you’re funny.
Is the host’s mother, the one giving him allowance?