ATLAS TRANSLATES

It was indeed still early to leave after the meal. It was also because the two of them got up late in the morning.

They were busy until now, yet the first dish had not even been put on the stove.

Looking at the two backs working together in the kitchen for a while, it gave off a “old couple” feeling. Their cooperation was seamless, and the air faintly smelled warm and harmonious.

Leaning his elbows on his knees, Chai Yue bent his waist slightly. His gaze swept past Shao Chongsi and he took out his phone to directly snap a picture, “This Chen Jinyao is pretty capable!”

“Still better than Zhou Xue though.” Attai was always straightforward, but was also straightforward to the point of missing the key point. His disgust towards Zhou Xue had always been written on his face.

Chai Yue edited the caption “This isn’t the Yan Cheng I know” and uploaded the picture to Moments. Then he looked up again, circled his tongue around his teeth, and jokingly said, “You’re still young and don’t understand. Zhou Xue is more exciting.”

After saying that, he got up directly and went to the windowsill. The windowsill was filled with potted plants, lush and vibrant, full of vitality. His hand paused as it felt for his pocket. In an instant he lost the urge to smoke. He turned around, looking into the room like a statue.

It seemed he now understood where Chen Jinyao’s capabilities lied.

It would be too pretentious to say it out loud, but this little nest did indeed have quite a homey feel.

Yan Cheng was still lounging around in the kitchen, making a mess.

“Take the fruit platter out, hear me!” Chen Jinyao shot him a glare. She didn’t want to give him any face at all. Just as she was about to start stir-frying, she finally couldn’t stand it anymore and shoved him forcefully a few times, “You’re seriously getting in my way here!”

This was her emphasizing it again for the second time. The first time she told him to get out was fifteen minutes ago.

Yan Cheng ground his teeth and nimbly side-stepped to avoid Chen Jinyao’s shoves. His peripheral vision swept outside and immediately caught the three musketeers staring intently at the two of them.

After making eye contact for a few seconds, the three people quickly looked away, lowered their heads, stared at the ceiling.

“……” It was obvious Chen Jinyao had achieved the effect she wanted.

“I think we should commit fully.” Yan Cheng licked his lips.

His sudden incomplete words did make Chen Jinyao blank out for a second indeed. After putting the sliced onions onto a plate, she tilted her head slightly, “Hm?”

The next second, Yan Cheng leaned down to approach her.

His lips touched her soft, fluffy cheek.

Their noses also inevitably bumped against each other, and he could faintly smell the milk fragrance on her body.

Regrettably, it was but a brief touch. The numb tingling feeling crawled into his heart, and Yan Cheng’s eyes narrowed slightly. The light in his pupils dimmed a little, still feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

“There we go.” He pretended to calmly say.

Then, under Chen Jinyao’s not so friendly gaze, they awkwardly faced each other for a few seconds. He turned around to swiftly flee the “crime scene” with the fruit platter in hand.

If it was as if seeing a ghost at the very beginning.

Then at that moment just now, it was discovering that the ghost was the childhood trauma demon from Dark Mountain.

It had just been that little time, and from refusing to marry anyone but her to fickle affections changing as frequently as clothes, objectively speaking, it was rather scummy.

Chai Yue replied the comments under his Moment. After comparing what others asked and what he answered in a few sentences, then recalling some of the recent rumors about Yan Cheng and Chen Jinyao from the last few days, his mouth opened into an O shape a few seconds later. He slapped his forehead, having a sudden realization – oh! So openly they invited them home to eat, but implicitly they were using them as guns!

He swallowed, then slowly walked back to the coffee table, bent down to pick a few red dates: “Yan Cheng, nice acting skills!”

Yan Cheng didn’t even lift his eyelids. “What are you talking about?”

“Illicit lovers!” Chai Yue felt exceptionally proud of relying on his wit and intellect to uncover the truth. He clicked into WeChat and flipped to the status he just posted, showing it to Yan Cheng, “Weren’t you and Chen Jinyao putting on an act of a loving couple for us to achieve this goal? How childish!”

“?” Attai’s gaze shifted back and forth between the two of them, still confused about the situation.

Shao Chongsi crossed his long legs elegantly and watched on amusedly from the side.

Yan Cheng also didn’t say anything. He narrowed his eyes with an inscrutable expression as he looked at Chai Yue.

Until Chai Yue doubted his whole life, Chai Yue frowned, “It’s not?”

It’s impossible for it not to be! He scratched his head in frustration.

“Half and half I guess.” Yan Cheng lazily lifted his eyes, hands clasped under his chin. “There was indeed that goal too……”

Before he even finished his sentence, Chai Yue already revealed an “see, I told you!” expression. Then in the next moment, that expression started cracking.

Yan Cheng shamelessly continued, “As for the loving couple part, we originally were anyway.”

“……!!!???” What???

The Sunday sunshine was a bit stronger than Saturday’s.

Bringing just the right temperature, it shone through the windowsill and landed on the not very quiet living room. The light color wooden floor seemed dyed a different color.

This lunch ended up quite satisfying and joyous for both host and guests by the time it finished.

And Chen Jinyao’s cooking skills were clearly not just her boasting. The full table of delicacies obtained unanimous approval after they tasted it all. On the surface, Chen Jinyao politely acted humble with modest words. But she couldn’t conceal the slight upward quirk of her lips.

At the dining table, Attai cautiously observed Chen Jinyao, seemingly wanting to discover something from her expression. Chen Jinyao met his gaze frankly, letting him look all he wanted. Compared to Attai, Chai Yue was a bit more aggressive and proactive. He probably wanted to prove “the loving couple is real”, so he kept asking meaningless questions in a roundabout way. After getting watertight answers, he started praising Chen Jinyao in various ways, as well as praising what a perfect match they were and such. As he spoke, his eyes darted to Yan Cheng, carefully observing if Yan Cheng would have any reaction. The result was Chen Jinyao, the one being praised, calm as still water regardless of compliments or insults; while the unpraised Yan Cheng hooked his lips lewdly, an expression of “not bad judgment there”.

“……” Chai Yue felt it was too creepy.

Especially when seeing Yan Cheng patiently picking fish bones for Chen Jinyao, he truly opened his eyes wide and gasped.

This Young Master Yan who still had a day where he would pick fish bones for someone?

He really must have been possessed by the old demon from Dark Mountain!

It hadn’t even been that long, how could he have become like this after refusing to marry anyone but her then fickle affections changing frequently as clothes. Objectively speaking, it was rather scummy.

……Now he completely believed it, they were not acting.

But there were still many things he didn’t understand.

Of course, they also knew that even if still unclear, they couldn’t ask outright right now in front of the man’s wife without an ounce of emotional intelligence.

Besides, this was someone else’s emotional life. There was no need to get to the bottom of things.

Forget about Chai Yue and the others feeling creeped out.

Even Chen Jinyao herself couldn’t accept it a bit.

Under the table, she lightly stomped his foot. The moment he looked over, she leaned to his ear and whispered: “Too much!”

“You think so?” He blinked innocently, biting off his words.

Chen Jinyao: “Yes, keep this up and it’ll seem deliberate, subtlety is key.”

“You’re overthinking. If we stop at subtlety they’ll only think we’re acting.” Yan Cheng’s eyes slanted up as he smiled, “When I brought out the fruit platter just now that brat Chai Yue already guessed what was up. Fortunately I salvaged the situation.”

“……” She frowned slightly, staring at him suspiciously.

There was already music playing in the living room, and they deliberately lowered their voices to the minimum. Whispering by the ear was like blowing air, the people around basically couldn’t make out their back and forth.

While the ears may not hear anything, the eyes could see.

They could see the intimate and extremely natural interactions between the husband and wife.

This situation made Shao Chongsi who had been silent the whole time narrow his eyes. Beneath his long eyelashes, it was obvious the probing look in his eyes grew a bit deeper.

He picked up the can of beer to his right and quietly chugged the last mouthful down his stomach.

Then he raised his eyes, brows locked together expressionlessly as he stopped his gaze on Chen Jinyao.

Chen Jinyao had chased Huo Qidong before.

Sensationally.

It’s just it was too long ago.

Gradually, it was also buried deep in the corners of memory by time. If not deliberately touching upon it, perhaps it would never be known there was once such an affair.

Shao Chongsi knew about this after hearing it from others when out drinking at the bars.

Strictly speaking, the love entanglement between Chen Jinyao, Huo Qidong and Zhou Xue happened much earlier than Yan Cheng, Huo Qidong and Zhou Xue’s.

He only heard the general idea. Anyway, back then, the degree Chen Jinyao shamelessly chased Huo Qidong was in no way inferior to Yan Cheng’s overtures towards Zhou Xue before her. As for later, supposedly Chen Jinyao did something to Zhou Xue, leading to Huo Qidong disregarding childhood friendship and scolding Chen Jinyao harshly. That bout of nasty verbal abuse probably hurt Chen Jinyao. After that, Chen Jinyao no longer stuck to Huo Qidong everyday, even seeming to intentionally avoid Huo Qidong. Chen Jinyao, who originally said she would attend the same university as Huo Qidong, also changed her initial choices when filling out aspirations after the college entrance exam ended. She chose medical schools in other provinces and cities instead.

Chen Jinyao was said to be a bad girl in high school, and was said to be a rampaging young miss who relied on money and power to bully the meek.

Perhaps one could still find such vivid information with names attached by looking through the posts on their former high school’s tieba now.

In any case, it was a fact Chen Jinyao liked Huo Qidong before.

As for whether she still liked him now, it was unknown.

But men and women were the same. First love was like a mole planted in the heart. It could be buried very deeply, but once revealed, it would be shocking to the eye.

The music in her ears suddenly switched styles.

From smooth and relaxing to rhythmic intensity.

The abrupt change was truly invigorating.

Shao Chongsi regained his senses. He quietly retracted his gaze.

The Chen Jinyao before his eyes and the rampant high school Chen Jinyao from the talks were completely incompatible, or rather like two different people altogether.

Also, at the very least now whenever Chen Jinyao’s name was mentioned, it was all saying she was gentle and tranquil.

And other than the bad words about her alleged high school bad girl days, afterwards no matter who had contact with Chen Jinyao, their impressions of her were not bad.

After eating seventy percent full, he put down his chopsticks and made a bold guess – perhaps the rumors about Chen Jinyao were intentional slander.

“Sister-in-law, I heard you grew up together with Huo Qidong since little?” He thought about it, and still joined the conversation, cheeks faintly smiling.

This was equivalent to stirring up trouble. Everyone knew Yan Cheng and Huo Qidong were like fire and water. Talking about this person was undoubtedly picking a fight. The sounds of speech suddenly vanished as the air froze up in an instant.

Chai Yue slapped Shao Chongsi hard on the back, giving a “can’t believe you really dared say that” look while forcing out laughter. Things were going so nicely, why bring up that person for no reason?

Unexpectedly, Yan Cheng’s expression remained the same.

Even before Chen Jinyao could open her mouth to reply, he already answered on her behalf. Eyes narrowed, he lazily mocked, “You need to still hear about this?”

“……” Serves him right for poking his nose into other’s business!

———

After seeing off the guests, the surroundings suddenly became quiet.

Yan Cheng, embracing Chen Jinyao, lay on the sofa feeling powerless. When he glanced sideways at the mess on the dining table, his expression turned despondent.

Narrowing his eyes slightly and biting his lower lip, he asked, “What do we do with all this?”

“Clean it.” Chen Jinyao gave him a strange look.

As if disdainful of him, disdainful of him for asking such a foolish question.

At this, Yan Cheng sighed and pushed Chen Jinyao away to scrutinize her carefully. Alarm bells rang in his mind, “Who’s going to clean it?”

“You.” Another silence followed.

Endless silence.

Yan, who couldn’t lift a hand or resist, clearly resisted this.

“I can’t.” He was honest.

“I cooked a table full of dishes.” Chen Jinyao remained firm.

In her determination, she also softened herself, found a comfortable position in his arms, and rubbed against him, “Ah, I’m so tired.”

Yan Cheng remained silent for a moment, accepting her coquetry.

But he could still struggle a bit before succumbing, “Or, just throw it all away.”

Chen Jinyao simply closed her eyes, too lazy to engage in his conversation.

“You, go wash.” He kicked Duni at his feet.

Duni got up, found a safer spot, and continued to doze off.

The topic ended there, and no one wanted to bring it up again.

But whether it was mentioned or not, it was inevitable, and what needed to be faced had to be faced.

“How about buying a dishwasher?”

This seemed reasonable, and Yan Cheng raised an eyebrow, “I think that’s a good idea.”

After a pause, he emphasized, “Let’s order now, find a store that can deliver before dinner tonight.”

“… Are you kidding me!”

The winter sun had set early.

With its orange warm light, it turned everything into a picturesque scene.

Yan Cheng was forced to wash dishes and was even photographed by Chen Jinyao.

From every angle, she took a picture, creating a grid of nine.

She softened her gaze, didn’t edit the text, and posted it on her social media, “Look, I’ve ruined your reputation for a lifetime.”

There was still a bit of foam on Yan Cheng’s left cheek. Hearing this, he gave her an extremely cold look, calmly saying, “Wait, I will make you pay an equivalent price.”

Having had enough fun, it was time to return to the main topic.

After the topic of Huo Qidong was brought up by Shao Chongsi, to be honest, Chen Jinyao hadn’t let it go. Not because of Huo Qidong himself, but because she felt she hadn’t been completely honest about something, and there was a knot in her heart.

Although it wasn’t a big deal, a woman’s sixth sense always made her feel it was a hidden danger.

After hesitating for a moment, she blinked, “Hey, I want to tell you something.”

“It’s about that Huo Qidong.” She licked her lips and confessed, “I used to have a crush on him and even pursued him because of my youthful ignorance.”

“…”

The atmosphere seemed to be heading in a strange direction.

Yan Cheng stopped his actions, glanced at her, furrowed his brows after digesting the information, slowly narrowed his black eyes. An indiscernible emotion crawled up his spine, then he moved his cheek slightly, and in a cold and very sarcastic tone, he said, “Oh, please don’t use youthful ignorance to conceal the fact that you were blind.”

Chen Jinyao: “…”