On the cab, Yu Qinghuan asked Huo Qu, “What would you like to eat? Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, or Southeast Asian cuisine? I’m OK with all these. You can pick one you like.”
Huo Qu sat stiff there, with his black eyes looking ahead. No one knew what he was thinking. He had no response to Yu Qinghuan’s words at all.
So Yu Qinghuan couldn’t help but poke his arm with his finger, “Hey, I was talking to you.”
Huo Qu reacted like a startled rabbit. His stiff body trembled. With his thick eyelashes moved a bit, Huo Qu stammered, “Qing…Qinghuan…”
“Are you OK?” Yu Qinghuan leaned closer to him and tried to look at the direction he was staring at but didn’t find anything unusual. He then raised his head and looked at Huo Qu, “Why do you look so nervous?”
It was in the midwinter. The weather was overcast and cold moist, while Yu Qinghuan was like a small sun around. Even his breaths were warm, which were blown gently on the side of Huo Qu’s face, like a small downy hand itching his heart.
Noticing Yu Qinghuan was staring at him, confused, he immediately got blushed, and stammered, “I…I’m not nervous.”
Oh lord! What was wrong with him? His heart started to beat fast. He felt like his whole body was burning hot even with a peep at Qinghuan. Had…had he got the “I-can’t-look-at-Qinghuan” disease?
But Qinghuan was his best friend. How could he not look at him?
Huo Qu pursed his lips anxiously and was nearly crying.
“Are you sick?” Looking at his burning red face, Yu Qinghuan was afraid that he even had no idea he got sick. So he leaned forward and put his hand against Huo Qu’s forehead. And he immediately got startled after feeling his temperature, “You got a fever!”
“Ah? Oh…” Huo Qu nodded muddleheaded, thinking, “So it turned out I got sick. No wonder I would have those strange reactions.”
“Let’s take you to hospital.” Speaking of which, Yu Qinghuan already clicked open the mobile map, trying to search the nearest hospital. At this time, Huo Qu pressed his hand.
Once having intimate contacts with Yu Qinghuan, Huo Qu felt like his heart was beating in his throat, like a bouncy rabbit jumping in his chest, which made him nearly out of his breath. After taking a few deep breaths, he then plucked up some courage and said, “But…you said we’re…having dinner.”
Yu Qinghuan got dumbfounded, “Are you hungry? I’m gonna buy you some food later. But we have to go to the hospital first.”
With his whole body burning like fire, he still hadn’t forgotten about the dinner thing. Oh man! He was an absolute foodie!
“No!” said Huo Qu anxiously. He firmly shook his head and insisted, “Have dinner first.”
He had agreed to have dinner with Qinghuan. He couldn’t stand him up.
Yu Qinghuan, “…”
He tried to persuade Huo Qu out of it, “You’re sick now and has no appetite. You wouldn’t eat much even if we have dinner now. So…”
Before Yu Qinghuan said “go to hospital first”, Huo Qu already cut in decidedly, “I have the appetite. I can eat a lot.”
Yu Qinghuan, “…’
Since he couldn’t convince him, he could only say, “OK, OK. You can eat a lot. Let’s go eat now.”
On hearing what he said, Huo Qu finally felt happy, wearing a shy smile with the eyelashes fluttering slightly.
Actually Yu Qinghuan liked Sichuan cuisine, spicy enough. But since Huo Qu fell ill, he dare not take him to have food with strong flavor. So he chose a marmite gruel restaurant.
He ordered pigeon gruel and some specialties the waiter recommended. After thinking for sec, he ordered a portion of roasted razor clams.
After ordering the dishes, he warned Huo Qu, looking quite serious, “You can’t have this dish, you heard me?” A sick one could not have seafood. He meant to share weal and woe with Huo Qu, but at last he couldn’t resist the temptation of the seafood and gave up…
“I know.” Although Huo Qu didn’t know why, he firmly believed that any word Qinghuan said made sense.
His too much obedience made Yu Qinghua a little guilty. Sometimes a kid who was too well behaved was also a kind of burden.
It was workday today, so there weren’t many guests here. And dishes were served quite fast. In his precious life, Yu Qinghuan liked the marmite gruel of this shop. Pity that he was way too popular, so every time he went out for dinner, he had to be extremely careful, even the restaurants were carefully selected. So even he wanted to, he never had a chance to come again.
At that time, he had fame, money and status, but he couldn’t even eat the marmite gruel he loved. So in this life, he would never live such a pathetic life.
With a full spoon of fragrant gruel sent into the mouth, Yu Qinghuan felt quite satisfied with his eyes narrowed, enjoying it. Living a freewheeling life was the biggest present he got gifted after his rebirth.
Pity that not long before he had tasted the flavor of freedom, he got interrupted by some kind strange sound. After he followed the sound and saw the scene, Yu Qinghuan got totally stoned.
Huo Qu was trying to clamp the broiled eggplant. Pity his fingers were stiff. He was acting like a foreigner using chopsticks for the very first time. Forget about clamping it. He nearly poked it into a sifter. And the clashing of his ironwood chopsticks and the porcelain dish made kind of tinkling sound.
Huo Qu’s face was aflame with blushes. Qinghuan had no idea whether he was too sick or too anxious. Huo Qu pursed his lips, staring at the eggplant like it was the class enemy. Looked like he would never give up before putting it into his mouth.
Yu Qinghuan, “…”
So how did this dude grow to this big safe and sound?
He rolled his eyes secretly and then put a strip of the eggplant in Huo Qu’s bowl, “Eat.”
Watching Huo Qu eat the eggplant so seriously, Yu Qinghuan couldn’t help but ask, “How do you usually eat at home?”
It seemed Huo Qu didn’t even know how to use chopsticks. So did his family hire someone who specially fed him?
“?” Huo Qu raised his head, confused, with all questions marks in his black eyes, thinking,
“What does Qinghuan mean? I always eat this way.”
Yu Qinghuan rubbed his forehead and changed an easier way for Huo Qu to understand, “I mean, suppose you are home having the eggplant, how are you gonna pick it?”
Huo Qu carefully thought about his question. But he really could not remember how he ate eggplant at home before. So he could only look at him like an innocent little puppy, “I just eat it this way.’
“Forget it.” Yu Qinghuan gave him another pair of chopsticks for the roasted duck, completely giving up talking with him on this, “Eat.”
Only if they ate their fill could they go to the hospital.
“Hm!”After receiving Yu Qinghuan dish-serving service again, Huo Qu smiled happily, and nodded his head hard.