Mi Cai and I walked towards Mr. Ban. I asked, “Mr. Ban, why didn’t you call me? It’s getting really cold tonight. It must be freezing for you to sit here like this!”

“I did call, but your phone was turned off,” Mr. Ban replied, still emotionless.

Upon hearing this, I remembered that I had thrown my phone into the moat in a fit of drunkenness. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret. I hadn’t earned much money, and all I did was waste it.

Mi Cai greeted Mr. Ban, “Uncle, hello!”

“Hello to you too. You two haven’t eaten yet, right? I bought some groceries from the supermarket to cook for you,” Mr. Ban said as he took out a bag from behind him. Inside were fish and some vegetables.

“Uncle, the porridge you made last time was delicious. I’m sure your cooking is great too,” Mi Cai said to Mr. Ban with a smile I had never seen before. It made me realize that I truly was an unlikeable person, and that Mi Cai’s attitude towards me was not unwarranted.

Mr. Ban only smiled in response to Mi Cai’s compliment, then gestured for us to go upstairs.

As we went upstairs, Mi Cai walked ahead while Mr. Ban and I followed behind. I asked Mr. Ban in surprise, “Mr. Ban, have you been staying in Suzhou these past few days?”

“I went to Guangzhou for a trade show and passed by Suzhou on my way back,” Mr. Ban replied concisely.

I thought about it and realized that it was true. It was almost winter, the time when Mr. Ban’s state-owned enterprise received the most orders for heaters. Around this time every year, he would have to go to various places to purchase raw materials.

When we returned to the house, Mr. Ban went straight to the kitchen and started cooking. Mi Cai wanted to help him, but he refused and she went back to her room, busy with something I didn’t know. I sat in the living room, lost in thought. I knew this bitterness would accompany me for a long time, until the day I completely forgot about Jian Wei.

After a while, Mi Cai came out of her room wearing casual clothes. She looked more approachable, but still beautiful. It seemed that beauty was ingrained in her no matter how she dressed.

“Why are you just sitting there like a statue? Can’t you go to the kitchen and help your dad?” Mi Cai seemed displeased that Mr. Ban was busy while I did nothing.

“You don’t understand. He likes cooking alone.”

“Is that so?”

“Because he sees cooking as a pleasure, and having someone help would take away his enjoyment.”

“Oh, so his cooking must be delicious then?”

“You’re not a foodie, why ask so many questions?”

“Do you have to be a foodie to ask? Everyone has the right to be curious,” Mi Cai retorted, still unhappy with me.

“You’ll find out soon enough. It won’t take long.”

Mi Cai didn’t pursue the matter further and went back to her room. She then carried a dirty laundry basket and headed to the bathroom. I was a bit surprised to see that even a goddess like her had to do laundry.

I heard the sound of water flowing from the bathroom, followed by the sound of the washing machine running. Listening to the rhythmic sound, I became even more absent-minded, to the point where I couldn’t feel my own existence.

A scream came from the bathroom, which was naturally Mi Cai’s voice. The sudden loudness of her scream snapped me out of my daze, and Mr. Ban was already ahead of me, running towards the bathroom with a ladle in his hand. I followed suit.

Although Mr. Ban and I made a big fuss, a wolf could still be killed. But at this moment, Mi Cai was only facing off against a cockroach that was crawling on the edge of the bathtub. The cockroach was shaking its antennae fearlessly, while Mi Cai’s face turned pale. It was clearly an asymmetrical confrontation, and it was ridiculous that the weaker side was a human being.

Mi Cai instinctively stepped back and hid behind me when she saw me. It was just like a scene from a cheesy Korean drama at 9 o’clock. I had the opportunity to be a hero, even though my opponent was just a cockroach.

I walked to the edge of the bathtub and picked up the cockroach by its antennae. It struggled violently, and Mi Cai screamed again. I found it amusing that while she could make me feel nauseous every time she choked me, a cockroach hiding in a dark corner could scare her. It was a case of one creature overpowering another.

I lifted the cockroach and said to Mr. Ban, “Let’s add this to the dish. It’s been a while since I had meat. Should we stir-fry it or steam it?”

Mi Cai felt disgusted.

Mr. Ban seemed to be protective of Mi Cai and frowned, saying, “Stop messing around and throw it away.”

I smirked at Mi Cai while holding the cockroach, knowing that she understood I was teasing her for always kicking me out. But she still hadn’t recovered from the cockroach incident and remained silent with a terrified expression. At that moment, a childish and somewhat funny idea came to my mind. If rich people were as afraid of cockroaches as Mi Cai, I could carry a pocketful of cockroaches and extort them easily, and I would definitely become rich.

After the unexpected incident, Mr. Ban continued to be busy in the kitchen, while Mi Cai didn’t allow me to leave the bathroom. She wanted me to accompany her until she finished washing her clothes, afraid that another cockroach would jump out from somewhere, or maybe even a group of them. In any case, it was definitely the relatives of the cockroach from earlier.

After a while, we finally finished washing. Mi Cai took the clothes out of the drum, and I sat on the edge of the bathtub watching her.

After a moment of silence, I said to her, “I’m moving out tomorrow.”

“I know.”

“You must feel lonely by yourself, right?”

“Why should I feel lonely?”

I pretended to be very disappointed and said, “Oh, right. Why would you feel lonely? You have cockroaches to keep you company here. You can play hide-and-seek with them whenever you want. It’s so lively!”

Mi Cai froze for a moment, then looked at me with anger. I remained calm and said, “Go hang the clothes. We’ll be eating soon.”

…

At the dining table, the three of us, Mr. Ban, Mi Cai, and I, sat on different sides. Mr. Ban, who was usually quiet, surprisingly took the initiative to ask Mi Cai, “Is the food to your liking, young lady?”

Mi Cai nodded and said, “Uncle, the food you cooked is delicious!”

I knew this was not just flattery. Mr. Ban’s cooking was really amazing, especially his sweet and sour fish, which was exceptional. Mi Cai also had good taste, as she only picked the sweet and sour fish to eat.After Mi Cai’s praise, Mr. Ban nodded and smiled, then looked at me as if to say, “Son, your dad can only help you this far, the rest is up to you!”

I would rather misinterpret the meaning expressed in Mr. Ban’s eyes, because there was absolutely no chance for Mi Cai and I to develop into a couple. Firstly, she was extremely disgusted with me; secondly, I hadn’t yet emerged from the shadow cast by Jian Wei and Xiang Chen; and thirdly, the most important point, I was not worthy of her. Who has ever seen a beautiful girl driving a luxury car fall in love with a worthless scumbag!

Our meeting was not a wonderful arrangement, but a way for the heavens to show me the vast gap between people, and then let me die in unbearable shame. Damn the heartless heavens!

Lost in thought, Mr. Ban spoke to me again, “Zhao Yang, after dinner, fix the water pipe. There’s a bit of a leak at the joint. If it gets colder, it might burst.”

“Understood,” I replied.

Mr. Ban nodded, and after a while, he said to me, “Next time I come, I’ll bring more rice and flour from home. You should come home early after work and cook. Eating out is wasteful and unsanitary.” After a pause, he added, “You two are living together, you should take more care of the girl. You can cook, so do more chores.”

According to the agreement between Mi Cai and me, I should move out tomorrow. Mr. Ban was still binding my future life with Mi Cai with his imagination. I felt helpless, but I couldn’t say anything. If I told him about moving out, he would probably be disappointed.

I nodded again, then looked at Mi Cai. Her expression didn’t change, she was just focused on eating.

Finally, Mr. Ban’s attention shifted from me to Mi Cai. He asked her, “Girl, has our Zhao Yang caused you any trouble living together?”

I was afraid that Mi Cai would expose my various crimes, so I kicked her under the table to signal her not to speak out of turn. Unexpectedly, she took the opportunity to step heavily on my toes, causing me to almost drop the chopsticks in my hand.

“Uncle, he’s quite good… just that he always likes to smoke in the room and doesn’t change even when told.” Mi Cai revealed my crime to Mr. Ban with a mix of praise and criticism.

Mr. Ban looked at me sternly. I pretended not to see, but Mr. Ban’s gaze was still sharp, staring at me relentlessly. Mi Cai had a look of schadenfreude.

“I’ll change, I’ll change.” I compromised in helplessness, but felt that such a compromise was meaningless. Mi Cai was also quite boring. I was about to move out, was it still worth arguing about whether I smoked in the room or not?

After this little episode, Mr. Ban seemed to be in a good mood. He asked me to fetch the glutinous rice wine he had brought last time. I poured a glass for Mr. Ban, and then asked Mi Cai, “Do you want some?”

Mi Cai pushed her empty glass forward and said, “A little.”

I poured a little for Mi Cai and myself. So the three of us sat around a not-so-large table, in this night of thousands of lights, and had a dinner with a family atmosphere.

Don’t get me wrong, when I say family atmosphere, I simply mean it’s different from eating out. Because Mi Cai is not part of our family, I’m afraid that after I move out, it will be hard to even run into her in this vast city!