Chapter 11
Meng Xueyuan took two eggs out of the fridge, planning to fry a bowl. Just as he was about to crack the shells, the doorbell rang.
So early? Wasn’t it supposed to be eight?
He walked to the door and saw through the video doorbell two cameramen—one fat, one thin—and… Lu Xiao?
Did the order change?
Startled, Meng Xueyuan forgot to take off his apron. Not daring to make Lu Xiao wait, he opened the door directly.
The door had only opened a crack when Lu Xiao saw Meng Xueyuan in home clothes, his slim waist outlined by a light-blue floral apron. His gaze darkened.
No one ever said that seeing someone through a door crack made Meng Xueyuan look even more beautiful.
“Teacher Meng isn’t ready yet. You can go to my place and have some tea,” Lu Xiao said.
He slipped inside and bang—closed the door, shutting the two cameramen outside.
No peeking.
He’d originally thought the crew would bring Meng Xueyuan to his place. He’d spent all night tidying up, to the point of reconsidering the orientation of each ornament three times. In the end, the crew messed around, and he didn’t get to open the door and see his wife at first glance.
Being the first to visit his wife’s new home wasn’t bad either!
With unprecedented hunger in his stomach—like he could swallow anything—Lu Xiao said, “Making breakfast? Is there a portion for me?”
Meng Xueyuan, momentarily forgetting the cameramen at the sight of him, said, “Yes—big bowl.”
“Wait,” he added. “The cameramen are still outside.”
Lu Xiao said, “There’s something I should explain—I live right next door to you.”
“It was probably Sister Ke and Lin Mu who recommended this place. The security’s good here.”
Meng Xueyuan’s eyes widened at once, his lashes seeming to grow heavy with moisture as they dipped, then slowly lifted again. “Do you live alone?”
Were Lu Xiao’s family members right next door? Even though they were in a contract marriage, as new neighbors it’d still be polite to say hello.
Lu Xiao hadn’t expected Meng Xueyuan’s focus to be so different. Did that mean Meng Xueyuan believed his whole coincidence explanation?
“Yeah. I live alone. No one to disturb us.”
Lu Xiao was purely trying to avoid letting others see Meng Xueyuan in sleepwear with an apron on, though he still found a reasonable-sounding excuse on the surface. “It’s your first night here. There aren’t many signs of daily life in your place yet. Once the cameras roll, netizens will definitely speculate that we’re living together and that you just moved out temporarily.”
Meng Xueyuan praised him sincerely, “You’ve thought it through very thoroughly.”
Working a CP with Lu Xiao gave a sense of security. He controlled the scale well, repeatedly hopping back and forth along the edge of being officially stamped as ‘in love.’ Fans were probably obsessed with exactly this push-and-pull, scraping for crumbs until they went crazy.
Lu Xiao said, “While the cameras aren’t in yet, let’s do a bit of staging.”
Meng Xueyuan touched his apron. He still hadn’t finished making breakfast—he needed to fry the eggs.
Lu Xiao said, “You do the staging. I’ll cook.”
“Then I’ll trouble you,” Meng Xueyuan said. He untied the apron and went into the bedroom, changed out of his sleepwear, hung the off-white trench coat he’d worn last night on the entryway rack, opened the box of valuables Lin Mu had organized for him, and grabbed two handfuls of car keys, tossing them onto the shoe cabinet.
Then he moved a few boxes into the guest room and placed some commonly used little items on the coffee table.
Without a sound, Lu Xiao seized dominance of the kitchen and decided to show off a bit. To capture his wife’s heart, he had to capture his stomach first.
Few knew that Lu Xiao was actually very good at cooking—whether high-end banquets or humble street fare, nothing was beyond him.
He rolled up the sleeves of his thin sweater and confidently opened the fridge—
—and froze.
A careless mistake: even the cleverest cook can’t make a meal without ingredients.
The fridge was cleaner than his face.
All the food had already been set out: one plate of leafy greens and one plate of eggplant.
My wife’s diet is way too lacking in nutrition! From now on, I’ll be the one cooking!
Lu Xiao was just about to withdraw regretfully from the stage of the “Kitchen King Showdown” when he suddenly caught sight of two eggs that hadn’t been cooked yet.
Did they think he was going to carve flowers on the eggs?
No. With icy indifference, Lu Xiao added water to the pot and tossed the eggs in to boil them. Meng Xueyuan must eat his eggs boiled.
Hearing the gurgling sound of boiling water, Meng Xueyuan inwardly cried “oh no.” How could he forget—once Lu Xiao entered the kitchen, his scrambled eggs would definitely turn into boiled eggs.
From now on, he wasn’t letting Lu Xiao into the kitchen anymore.
Only people who can’t fry eggs like boiled eggs!
Before their debut, they’d gone through a month of intensive training, eating all three meals in the cafeteria. The cafeteria in the Sea Star Building had a wide variety of food, but back then they had to choose dishes strictly according to a nutritionist’s list. Anything not on the list—like fried chicken or sweet soups—was off-limits.
Boiled eggs were on the menu. On the first day, Meng Xueyuan secretly swapped his for a soy-sauce fried egg and was caught on the spot by Lu Xiao.
Without even realizing it, he’d ended up under Lu Xiao’s dietary supervision, being watched while he ate every day. Meng Xueyuan felt a bit guilty—Lu Xiao was rushing toward explosive fame and the top, and he really shouldn’t be holding him back.
What was strange, though, was that while Lu Xiao strictly enforced boiled eggs, he turned a blind eye to Meng Xueyuan drinking sweet soups. Meng Xueyuan had asked him about it, and Lu Xiao said he was afraid that being too strict would provoke rebellion.
The group had already disbanded—why did he still have to eat eggs?
When Meng Xueyuan was little, he followed his parents as they moved from place to place. Once the main crop of one place passed its flowering season, they’d move on to another. He changed schools several times and didn’t retain deep impressions of his classmates.
People who did farm work got up early, especially in summer—if you were even a bit late, the sun would be scorching enough to cause heatstroke. When Papa Meng went to work, he’d drop his child off at school along the way, setting little kindergarten-aged Meng Xueyuan down at the school gate and giving him a bag of breakfast: buns, an egg, and soy milk.
Early in the morning, the school gates weren’t open yet. Other kids were still lazing around in bed at home, while baby Meng Xueyuan squatted under the surveillance camera, obediently taking small bites of his bun and egg.
Across the street was the police station, full of police uncles.
Meng Xueyuan had never liked egg whites even as a child, but he was very well-behaved—he always finished whatever his parents gave him. Later, he briefly befriended another little kid. The two of them would squat together at the school gate and share one egg: the egg white for the other child, the yolk for himself.
When the citrus blossoms near that kindergarten faded, baby Meng Xueyuan transferred schools again with his parents.
After finishing arranging the living room, Meng Xueyuan came out and, sure enough, saw Lu Xiao carrying out boiled eggs, served on the vine-patterned peony saucers he had bought. They looked very pleasing to the eye, but that couldn’t change the bland, tasteless nature of egg whites.
Breakfast was served.
Lu Xiao finally benevolently opened the door and invited the cameramen in. “You’ve already eaten, right? Wait for us to finish breakfast.”
Cameramen: ……
Lu Xiao turned around to serve the porridge, only to find a single bowl.
“……” If he’d known this, he wouldn’t have let the cameramen in. Now the entire internet would know that his wife’s place didn’t even have his bowls and chopsticks.
With his pride acting up, Lu Xiao still wanted to cover it up a bit and didn’t say anything.
Seeing that Lu Xiao wasn’t moving, Meng Xueyuan thought he couldn’t find it. He bent down and squatted beside him, suddenly remembering that he’d originally had three bowls, but two had broken during the move. Thinking no one ever came over to eat, he hadn’t bought new ones.
Meng Xueyuan picked up the only bowl, ladled out a bowl of porridge, set it on the table, and said, “You eat first.”
He stood there awkwardly, his waist slender. If he tied on an apron again, he’d look like a stunningly beautiful manservant dedicated solely to serving Lu Xiao’s meal.
Lu Xiao nearly lost his composure.
He had no habit of eating while leaving his wife off the table. Without hesitation, he pushed the bowl back toward Meng Xueyuan and went into the kitchen to bring out the rice cooker’s metal inner pot.
“Do you want more?” Lu Xiao asked. Meng Xueyuan’s single-person rice cooker was extremely tiny—held in Lu Xiao’s hands, it looked like a large stainless-steel bowl.
“No.” On a sudden whim, Meng Xueyuan asked, “Are you full? Should I give you both eggs?”
Lu Xiao said, “I can’t eat two whole eggs.”
Meng Xueyuan reached out, picked up one egg, tapped it, and slowly peeled the shell. “Alright then—one each.”
Lu Xiao was about to be driven mad by him. He didn’t eat “two whole eggs,” but he could eat two egg whites, or one whole egg and one egg white. He’d hinted this clearly—why hadn’t Meng Xueyuan remembered their childhood agreement to share eggs?!
Forget it. Heartless little thing. They’d agreed to eat eggs together, and then he transferred schools without a word and vanished without a trace.
Serves him right to keep eating egg whites all these years.
Third Young Master Lu doted on his wife—except when it came to eggs.
Meng Xueyuan had long forgotten their promise at age five. Bringing it up now would be far too petty, childish, and stupid—completely unworthy of Third Young Master Lu’s persona.
In truth, Lu Xiao hadn’t been dwelling on it all this time. Kids usually stop holding grudges after a year or two. But the two red moles beside Meng Xueyuan’s nose were just too distinctive. The moment he saw him in the Sea Star Building, the memory came rushing back.
He recognized Meng Xueyuan; Meng Xueyuan didn’t recognize him—first mistake. Meng Xueyuan made one mistake, he made zero—second mistake. Meng Xueyuan made two mistakes, he made zero—third mistake…
Unaware that he was compounding mistakes day after day, Meng Xueyuan obediently ate his egg. He’d kept his childhood habit: pinching off a piece of egg white with his fingers, popping it into his mouth as if testing for poison, and only then bringing the whole egg to his lips, taking small bites.
When dealing with things he was good at, Meng Xueyuan often wore a frosty expression. When faced with bad-tasting food, however, he looked intensely focused, long lashes lowered, too foolish to even find some electronic “side dish” to help him eat.
The way he ate eggs was very, very well-behaved—nothing like the aloof, unattainable flower people usually saw.
Lu Xiao softened again.
If he didn’t want to eat during work time, he could just give it to him.
He’d had a “business license” for two years and still hadn’t learned how to “do business.” If marriage were a corner shop, Meng Xueyuan wasn’t suited to standing behind the counter. He should be sitting in a luxurious executive office, listening to subordinates report and coolly nodding.
How do you turn a corner shop into a Fortune 500 company?
As Lu Xiao was pondering this, a smooth, pale, freshly peeled egg appeared in front of him.
Seeing him mechanically drinking porridge, Meng Xueyuan had peeled the shell for him. With a pinch of his fingers, the boiled egg clunked into the rice cooker’s inner pot, nearly splashing porridge all over Lu Xiao’s face.
Lu Xiao dodged slightly. “……”
It was just an egg—bad memory and still likes to mess with him.
Fine, Meng Xueyuan… so cute.
After finishing his food, Meng Xueyuan lifted his eyes and met two cameras. Only then did he remember there were still people on site.
Such low-presence cameramen—already having reached the highest realm of reality-show filming.
That pot of rice Lu Xiao had made was originally meant for the cameramen. Only now did Meng Xueyuan feel embarrassed. “Are you two hungry? Should I order you some takeout?”
Cameramen: …We’re already full.
Strange—those two were just sitting there eating, yet dog food was raining down from all directions. They’d filmed so many couples before, even ones who fed each other during meals, but aside from feeling greasy, they’d had no other thoughts.
This pair, though… it was too everyday and cozy. An innocent wife who could cook and peel eggs, and a brooding husband thinking hard about creating a better life—such a good match.
The skinny cameraman had already pinched together a whole CP persona in his own head.
“So shippable.”
The chubby cameraman commented, “A bit uncanny.”
Skinny cameraman: ? What’s uncanny about it?
Chubby cameraman said, “I’m not saying the CP is uncanny. It’s your look… just wait and see how the internet ships them.”
That very night, Harmony of Marriage released a short teaser. The director was rather sly—he’d adjust filming strategies later based on netizens’ feedback, after gathering a round of anticipated highlights.
Every guest pair had buzz, but Meng Xueyuan’s pair was unquestionably leagues ahead in traffic.
[Stop pretending—asking where Teacher Meng lives? You’ve probably worn down his doorstep already.]
[Ahhhh cohabitation! I knew they wouldn’t be able to resist doing it—how could two faces blessed by the gods possibly hold back?]
[Given that Yuanyuan just came back from the mountains, a short separation makes the reunion sweeter—Brother Lu was too excited last night and got kicked next door to sleep.]
[Suffering of owning too many houses—even the study won’t let him sleep.]
[Thought the wife was knocking, huh? His face went dark the moment he saw the cameramen.]
[Hey, why keep the cameramen locked outside for so long? Was it because the hickey on the wife’s collarbone hadn’t been covered yet?]
[Look at Lu Xiao’s gloomy expression—feels like he didn’t get his fill last night.]
[They’re filming today, so of course he won’t be allowed to get full. Don’t forget, these two are the kind who can do it all night and miss the PR golden window.]
[So the eggs were real eggs… I also like watching Yuanyuan eat eggs—so well-behaved. A side of him I’ve never seen before. Thanks, President Lu, for sharing.]
[My aloof wife is indeed still angry—using an egg to splash Lu Xiao with porridge!]
[Didn’t hit him—wife’s heart is soft.]
Skinny cameraman: ?
Netizens’ minds were all yellow, but he honestly thought it was very pure love.
