"Well... he might be a bit of a self-interested person, liking to weigh benefits, being cool-headed, and not easily affected by emotions,"
"How should I put this, if he were to join the military, he would definitely make a good commander,"
"But when it comes to making friends..."
Feng Yuan sighed as he spoke, and Dou Yanlan did not ask why he thought he would make a good commander, as she had a faint idea about the reason. Qi Chen was already fully aware of those matters, for his father had discussed them with him. After a moment of silence, Qi Chen turned to Feng Yuan and said,
"They are actually willing to make sacrifices for their friends. I think they are quite like you, not making friends easily, but once they accept someone as a friend, they will do everything in their power to protect them."
Feng Yuan turned his head to look at Qi Chen and said with a bitter smile,
"What do you think they would do when faced with a dilemma?"
Qi Chen was puzzled. Feng Yuan sighed and explained,
"Take this invasion incident as an example. If the situation required sacrificing you to solve it, what choice do you think I would make?"
As Qi Chen put himself in Feng Yuan’s shoes, he found that he simply could not make a choice. No matter the option he considered, he felt a tightness in his chest.
"So, what’s your answer?"
Dou Yanlan asked calmly, though her hand unconsciously scratched at the cotton on her shoulder. Looking first at Dou Yanlan and then at Qi Chen, Feng Yuan said with a smile,
"Of course, I would choose to give up. What happens to the world really doesn’t matter much to me."
Qi Chen and Dou Yanlan felt a warmth in their hearts, yet it was accompanied by a bittersweet sensation. The specter of Agunas seemed utterly unsurprised as it looked at Feng Yuan. Xiao Ji, oblivious to the significance, voiced her confusion,
"What’s there to choose? Friends, of course~ Someone else will deal with the invasion, why should I worry about it~"
Qi Chen stopped Feng Yuan with a look, preventing him from explaining further, and smilingly steered the conversation toward what delicious food could be found on the mountain.
"So sly, claiming to be inspecting the village but actually off here having a field cookout."
Qi Xiaoshuang followed the scent to find the group engaged in outdoor cooking, protected from the rain by a semi-spherical transparent barrier. Feng Yuan had procured cooking tools from who-knows-where, which were neatly arranged around, and a wooden table grown from vegetation was laden with appetizing food.
Xiao Ji was sneaking small pieces of food when no one was paying attention, sometimes hurriedly grabbing another piece for the Dreaming Dragon Baby when caught.
Hearing Qi Xiaoshuang’s words, everyone turned to look. Feng Yuan, calm as ever, said,
"Do eat, but don’t stuff yourselves too much."
"Who did! Who’s been sneaking food?"
Xiao Ji defensively retorted with a guilty conscience, to which Feng Yuan, without turning back, said,
"Do you think with all of you nibbling away, the dishes being indented, that nobody would notice?"
Seeing the dishes with missing bites and chunks, Xiao Ji whistled guiltily. The Dreaming Dragon Baby pretended to play in the sky, drifting over near Qi Chen. Xiao Ji glanced at Feng Yuan and continued brazenly eating, while Big Cat stood to one side, occasionally with food floating into its mouth as if by magic.
The Dreaming Dragon Baby, envious of Big Cat wielding telekinesis to fetch food, drifted toward Qi Chen. Qi Chen glanced at the Dragon Baby and said,
"He didn’t say you couldn’t eat, just that you shouldn’t overdo it. He’s probably preparing something even more delicious."
At Qi Chen’s words, Xiao Ji and Big Cat, who were in the midst of eating, immediately stopped, behaving obediently near the table, playing around. Qi Chen then addressed Qi Xiaoshuang,
"You might as well eat if you want, since I bet that guy will end up making too much anyway."
"Has he come across some interesting ingredients again?"
Qi Xiaoshuang, somewhat familiar with Feng Yuan, knew that if he made too much food, he must have found something interesting to use as an ingredient.
Qi Chen pointed at the colorful fruits nearby and said,
"Multi-Flavor Fruit, probably transplanted here by some Divine Beast. He’s planning to use up all those fruits now."
"Multi-Flavor Fruit?"
Qi Xiaoshuang, curious, walked over and picked up a blue, speckled one with yellow dots, and after examining it, she took a curious bite and immediately spat it out, frowning and gasping,
"Sour? That could come in handy."
Feng Yuan turned, glanced at the fruit in Qi Xiaoshuang’s hand, quickly selected several identical fruits from the pile, and went back to cooking.
"It’s definitely someone having a cookout, right? Eh? It’s you guys?"
Yang Hongzhi emerged from the bushes and, upon seeing Qi Chen and others, had an epiphany.
"I should’ve thought of this earlier, you’re probably the only ones who would go up the mountain to cook out at this time."
Without turning his head, Feng Yuan said, glancing at Najia on his shoulder. Seeing Yang Hongzhi look towards him, Najia nodded with a smile. Feeling his stomach growling, Yang Hongzhi said,
"Sure, need any help?"
"Forget it, I still have many dishes to prepare and no time to teach you."
Qi Chen’s face darkened with dissatisfaction as he glared at Feng Yuan. Dou Yanlan covered her mouth and chuckled, then glanced at Qi Chen. Qi Xiaoshuang sized up Yang Hongzhi and said,
"Who would’ve thought you’re just like my brother, not skilled in cooking either~"
Embarrassed, Yang Hongzhi scratched his head, while Dou Yanlan said calmly,
"It’s alright if Ah Chen can’t cook, as long as I can."
Hearing Dou Yanlan’s words, Qi Chen scratched his head with embarrassment. Qi Xiaoshuang glanced at Qi Chen and said,
"Really, can’t you learn it yourself? Look at how delicious the food he cooks is."
Qi Chen sighed and looked at Feng Yuan, who was humming a tune while cooking, and said,
"Easy for you to say, why don’t you try?"
"Hmph, I will definitely find a boyfriend who can cook, I don’t need to bother learning cooking. I’ve heard that cooking is bad for the skin."
"Like that little boyfriend of yours can cook up a storm?"
Hearing Feng Yuan’s words, Qi Xiaoshuang said proudly,
"Right~ Xiao Zheng’s cooking might not be as good as yours, but it’s much better than my brother’s~"
"You’re throwing me under the bus!"
Just as Qi Xiaoshuang finished speaking, she realized Qi Chen was staring at her with a grim face. She couldn’t help but yelp and glared at Feng Yuan. Qi Chen said fiercely,
"You can explain that to Mom and Dad yourself when you get back!"
Dou Yanlan, holding Cotton, sat on a huge mushroom and watched amusedly as Qi Chen and Qi Xiaoshuang argued. Xiao Yu sneakily slipped away, occasionally returning with a hand full of Multi-Flavor Fruits and other ingredients, quietly adding them to the food pile.
Having brought out the last dish, Feng Yuan said proudly. Xiao Yu pointed at the pile of ingredients and said,
"There’s still some of that left unused!"
Feng Yuan glanced at Xiao Yu and, while wiping his hands, said,
"You think I wouldn’t recognize it? Those haven’t been prepped, probably sneaked in by someone."
"This... maybe you just forgot to prepare them, right~"
With Feng Yuan staring at him, Xiao Yu defended weakly before giving up, and with a bratty attitude said,
"I put them there! What’s wrong with making you cook a little more? Make some more~"
Shrugging off Xiao Yu’s grasp on his arm, Feng Yuan looked at the layered plant table laden with food and said,
"Finish all of this first, then say that."
Seeing Xiao Ji regretfully huddle aside, Feng Yuan walked over and gently pressed Xiao Ji’s belly, speechless, and said to Xiao Ji,
"Didn’t I tell you to save some room? How are you going to eat the rest if you’re already full?"
Xiao Ji turned away unhappily with his back to Feng Yuan. Noticing that Dreaming Dragon Baby kept saving a little bit of every food, Najia picked up a pair of chopsticks and firmly hit Dreaming Dragon Baby’s paw, scolding it as though reprimanding the Dreaming Dragon Baby.
With a look of resignation, Qi Chen looked at the food on the table and said,
"I guess we won’t be able to finish all of this."
"Eat first, I have a way to deal with it."
Saying this, Feng Yuan began to put food onto his own plate.