Seeing Chu Lian enter the kitchen, Li Fugui felt somewhat embarrassed. After all, the difference between his current and past self was too great, "Brother Chu, why don’t you wait in my room for a bit? Once the meal is ready, then come out to eat?"
"..." Chu Lian furrowed his brows even tighter upon hearing this. How come when the troublesome girl entered the kitchen, there was no problem, but when he entered the kitchen, he had to be shooed away? Were their relationships that good?
He was displeased inside, but his face remained amiable, "It’s alright, you go ahead with your work."
Hearing Chu Lian say this, Li Fugui had no choice but to ignore him and continue with his tasks.
As soon as Wang Xiangxiang entered the kitchen, she saw the food prepared on the chopping board and was surprised. Did Li Fugui make all these? The Eldest Young Master had actually managed to do so much.
It made her contemplate whether she should also learn to cook. Xiaoxiao said that to catch a man’s heart, one must first catch his stomach. Perhaps she would be able to use this skill in the future.
If even Li Fugui could do it, perhaps she could as well. Thus, her heart leaped with excitement, "Li Fugui, let me help you."
Li Fugui had some understanding of Wang Xiangxiang’s character. She was interested in everything and wanted to try everything, like the last time when they went to till the land; she left after just a few tries. Hence, he just went along with her this time, "Sure."
But Chu Lian didn’t know this. He didn’t expect those two to start cooking in front of him, completely ignoring him.
"Li Fugui, what can I help you with?" Wang Xiangxiang asked earnestly.
Li Fugui thought for a moment. Wang Xiangxiang was probably like him in the past: she didn’t know how to do anything, so he could only assign her a simple task.
"Well, you could tend the fire. The fire is already lit, you just need to keep adding firewood to it later."
"Sure, leave it to me," Wang Xiangxiang promised confidently, thinking that adding firewood was a simple task.
But the reality was that she couldn’t even manage the firewood properly. She added too much, smothering the flames and causing thick smoke to billow out from the stove hole, immediately turning her into a black-faced figure, "Cough! Cough!"
Wang Xiangxiang coughed vehemently, tears coming to her eyes from the smoke.
Chu Lian, seeing the black-faced, troublesome girl, felt his mood lift and, without any attempt to hide his amusement, pointed at her and laughed out loud, "Haha, look at your face."
"..." She had been smoked to tears, and yet this shameless man took delight in her misfortune. She found him ever so disagreeable and therefore reached out to smear her hand across his face.
Chu Lian’s face was instantly marked with a black streak from Wang Xiangxiang’s dirty hand.
Realizing that his face had been smudged too, Chu Lian took out his handkerchief and scrubbed fiercely. Then, in a fit of anger, he pointed at Wang Xiangxiang, "You! How can you be so dirty!"
Wang Xiangxiang didn’t take offense, just turned her head away with a "Hmph."
Seeing Wang Xiangxiang smoked up, Li Fugui quickly fixed the fire in the stove and fetched a basin of water for her, "Wash your face quickly."
"Thanks, ah." Wang Xiangxiang’s eyes had been stung, and she wanted to clean them as quickly as possible, so she took the basin and began to wash up right there.
Afterward, Li Fugui handed her a face towel, saying apologetically, "Please make do with this for now."
After washing her face, Wang Xiangxiang took the face towel handed to her by Li Fugui and wiped her face without a second thought.
Chu Lian, on the other hand, was turning green. How could the troublesome girl be so shameless? Didn’t she have her own handkerchief? Why was she using someone else’s face towel?