Chapter 42: He Ate Alone Again!
Little Li, who had witnessed the entire sequence from the side, was utterly amazed.
Good heavens above, long johns and winter coats—capitalists really did have first-rate brains.
It was like that episode of Empresses in the Palace with the blood test to prove paternity. Every step led perfectly into the next.
First, he probed indirectly to gather information. Then he lured the tiger away from the mountain and laid a trap. Finally, he took advantage of the chaos to seize the spoils.
His logic was denser than her hair.
Beside the sofa, Qin Zelin frowned as he chewed the sickeningly sweet chocolates. He closed the empty box and returned it to the coffee table, only to turn his head and see Little Li standing at the corner, staring at him in stunned disbelief.
“…”
After a moment of wordless eye contact, Qin Zelin spoke.
“I was… too busy to eat lunch, so my blood sugar dropped just now.”
Little Li: “…Huh?”
“Low blood sugar… can be quite dangerous. Young Master, you should take care of yourself…”
Qin Zelin: “…Mm.”
Little Li: Hahaha! A man whose diet and exercise routine were as regular as a machine suddenly had low! Blood! Sugar!
This particular kind of hypoglycemia probably could only be treated by eating the heart-shaped chocolates from the heart-shaped box given by a romantic rival.
In the dining room, Cen Miao gnawed on a rib while scrolling through his phone. A video of a piglet shaking its bottom made him giggle, but he suddenly choked and coughed several times.
After drinking the water Little Li handed him and calming down, he immediately lowered his head and resumed watching short videos.
Across from him, Qin Zelin saw that Cen Miao hadn’t learned his lesson despite choking. He frowned and was about to tell him to focus on eating instead of constantly using his phone when Cen Miao held the screen up toward him.
In the video, a group of piglets nudged one another with their snouts, their round bottoms wiggling as they fought over food.
“…”
“Hubby! Piglets are so cute! Can we raise one too?”
Cen Miao’s eyes sparkled as he looked hopefully at the person across from him.
“?”
The sheep had been an accident, but now he wanted to raise a pig too?
Qin Zelin lifted his gaze and looked at Cen Miao’s oily little mouth and cheeks bulging with food.
His eyes paused.
He suddenly realized something.
In only a short time, the little monster had eaten his face noticeably rounder. He no longer looked like he had when he first arrived, with a tiny face thinner than Qin Zelin’s palm and a frail body that seemed as though a gust of wind could blow him away.
Suppressing a smile, Qin Zelin said, “No. One pig in the house is enough.”
(¯?¯)
“Hubby…” Cen Miao chewed. “There’s only one little lamb at home…” He chewed again. “Where is the piglet?”
His mouth was stuffed full, and his expression was blank, confusion filling his eyes.
“The piglet is only visible to me. Eat properly and stop watching your phone, or you’ll choke again.”
Qin Zelin deliberately adopted a stern expression.
“O-Okay.”
After dinner, Cen Miao checked the time.
His tutor would arrive at eight, so he could still watch television for a while and eat the dessert he had been looking forward to all day!
Beside the sofa, Cen Miao pressed the television remote, then eagerly picked up the small box from the coffee table.
The moment he pried it open, the two small dimples at the corners of his mouth vanished.
“???”
Something! Terrible! Had! Happened!
The chocolates were gone!
He scratched his head and anxiously bent down to check beneath the coffee table. Finding nothing, he stuck out his bottom and lay on the carpet to look under the sofa.
“Cen Miao, why are you lying on the floor?” Qin Zelin asked as he was about to head upstairs to the study.
“Hubby, the chocolates are missing.”
Qin Zelin coughed awkwardly.
“Mm… When I came home earlier, my blood sugar was a little low because I hadn’t eaten lunch, so I ate them.”
Cen Miao stared at him in disbelief.
What kind of candy was “low blood sugar”?
It was bad enough that this human had candy and secretly ate it alone without sharing. He had even eaten Cen Miao’s chocolates!
A human might tolerate it, but a zombie could not!
Hmph!
He had originally planned to give the human eight cookies as a present. But now that the human had eaten his four chocolates, Cen Miao would deduct four cookies and give him only four!
“It was my fault. I ate your chocolates without asking first. I’ll replace them with a large box tomorrow, all right?”
Cen Miao: “? A-A large box?”
“Mm.” Qin Zelin nodded.
Forget it.
He was a generous zombie.
Although the human had eaten his chocolates without asking and hadn’t shared any low blood sugar with him, he was going to give Cen Miao an even bigger box of chocolates.
So Cen Miao would deduct only two cookies and give him six instead.
“Mm. A-All right.”
Cen Miao was reluctantly satisfied.
At nine o’clock, after finishing his tutoring session, Cen Miao entered the bedroom and headed straight for the backpack beside the sofa.
He opened the bag of cookies meant for Qin Zelin and ate two of them.
After wiping the crumbs from his lips, he found a fluffy sock in the walk-in closet, stuffed the cookies inside, and placed it beneath Qin Zelin’s pillow.
Early the next morning, the first thing Cen Miao did after waking was lift his pillow.
“?”
Why was there a box instead of a sock?
Could it be chocolate?
Cen Miao opened the box expectantly, then froze when he saw what was inside.
“…”
His caretaker daddy had always filled his stocking with lots of candy and canned beef.
Why had this human given him only a rabbit with a chain attached?
Was it because Cen Miao hadn’t given him a muah yesterday?
The people on television said muahs made others happy.
Cen Miao’s delicate brows furrowed. He lifted Qin Zelin’s pillow and saw that the sock was still there.
He opened it, deducted another cookie, then stuffed the sock back beneath the pillow.
After finishing his workout, Qin Zelin returned to the bedroom and was about to shower when he saw that Cen Miao had found the gift.
He raised a brow and walked over.
“Do you like it?”
Cen Miao thought for a moment.
He still needed to remember what his caretaker daddy had taught him: he must be polite and couldn’t show dislike just because a gift wasn’t good.
He nodded.
“Mm.”
“Come here. I’ll put it on for you.”
Qin Zelin beckoned to the person on the bed.
A moment later, Cen Miao—who happened to be wearing his fluffy pink rabbit pajamas—was wearing the pink-diamond rabbit necklace.
Qin Zelin examined him for a while.
Just as he had expected, they looked remarkably alike.
“Mm. It looks quite good—”
“Muah!”
Cen Miao stood up on the bed and pressed his lips against Qin Zelin’s.
Crack!
As though struck by lightning, Qin Zelin’s breathing instantly became chaotic, while countless thoughts collided inside his mind.
The little monster had misunderstood his care again!
What should he do?
Should he push him away?
If he did, Cen Miao would definitely hide somewhere and cry.
And he still had PTSD.
“Hubby, can you buy me a little cake tonight?”
“Hubby?”
“Mm?”
The warm, soft sensation disappeared from his lips, and Qin Zelin snapped back to his senses.
“Yes.”
Humans really did like muahs!
Cen Miao’s heart blossomed with joy.
“Muah!”
“I also want to eat Baby’s spicy leg. Can I, Hubby?”
Qin Zelin: “…Yes.”
“Thank you, Hubby. There’s a present for you under your pillow too. I’m going to brush my teeth!”
Still dazed, Qin Zelin lifted his pillow and took out a bag containing five piles…
Five cookies from a house sock patterned with little strawberries.
