Chapter 22

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On Friday night, Liu Cheng called Sun Chen.

“Which supermarket do you usually shop at?” He already knew the answer, but as Lin Dun had suggested, talking about this topic would give him a natural lead-in to say, “I need to do some shopping too; how about we go together?”

Whether or not Sun Chen found Liu Cheng’s question out of the blue, he quickly gave him an answer.

“Are you going to the supermarket this weekend?” Liu Cheng continued. In his mind, these conversations were supposed to flow naturally, but when he actually said the words, they felt a bit awkward and forced.

Luckily, Sun Chen’s logic wasn’t always the most conventional, and he replied nonchalantly, “Yes, I am.”

Liu Cheng was secretly delighted and quickly said, “I’m planning a big shopping trip too. Let’s go together!”

“But that supermarket is quite far from your place, isn’t it?” Sun Chen replied.

Liu Cheng’s heart sank; he hadn’t considered this big flaw in Lin Dun’s advice.

Before he could say anything to salvage the situation, Sun Chen continued, “Let’s find a supermarket that’s midway between our places. That would be more fair.”

Liu Cheng was momentarily speechless, unable to believe his luck. On the other end of the line, Sun Chen must have checked a map, because he soon suggested an address. “Is this location convenient for you?”

“Absolutely!” No matter where it was, Liu Cheng’s answer to Sun Chen would always be that it was convenient.

While Liu Cheng felt like he was in a dream, Sun Chen efficiently moved the conversation forward. “How about we meet at 1 PM at the entrance tomorrow?”

“See you then!”

Sun Chen had a different take: “If we don’t see each other, we should just call.”

“…You’re right.”

After hanging up the phone, Liu Cheng found it hard to believe how smoothly everything had gone.

Speaking of which, that night at the bar with Lin Dun, Liu Cheng wasn’t sure what had come over him—maybe it was because Lin Dun had a friend who was a psychologist? He had often heard He Zai Feng complain about how close Lin Dun was with that friend, so he was aware of the situation. He guessed that Lin Dun must have picked up some tricks from his psychologist friend because, before he knew it, Liu Cheng had spilled all his feelings to him, even though he wasn’t drunk out of his mind. Afterward, Lin Dun had acted like a detective, analyzing the situation. He deduced that Sun Chen probably wasn’t living with Chen Xi, even though the latter might have been staying over temporarily, and that Sun Chen hadn’t thought of it as having “someone at home.”

Encouraged, Liu Cheng felt reinvigorated. He still thought it was necessary to change his name, but he decided to focus on other things first. Previously, Liu Cheng had been bothered by the fact that Sun Chen thought his hairstyle was silly. However, between his worry over his lies and then losing track of Sun Chen, he hadn’t had the energy to think about his years-old hairstyle.

This time, he went for a full image makeover, operating on the principle of preferring to look edgy rather than foolish. After a shower and a change of clothes, he carefully took out his phone… and asked Sun Chen to go grocery shopping with him the next day.

Liu Cheng arrived at the supermarket just after noon the following day. Having never done a grocery run before, he scouted out the store to avoid looking clueless. He even bought a pack of gum to practice the checkout process. After queuing up and completing his purchase, it was already 12:52 PM, and Liu Cheng practically ran back to the supermarket entrance. He stood there for about five minutes before spotting Sun Chen arriving right on time.

Sun Chen took a moment to look him over, then spoke uncertainly, “Liu Cheng?”

Feigning confidence, Liu Cheng asked, “Do I look different today?”

“You do look different; your hairstyle has changed,” Sun Chen pointed out plainly.

Liu Cheng could only bite the bullet and try to keep the mood light, “Do you think my new hairstyle looks good?”

Sun Chen shook his head without hesitation, “Not really. Your old hairstyle just looked silly; this one is scary.”

Liu Cheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and for a moment, he was at a loss for words.

Sun Chen glanced at him reassuringly, “It’s okay. I’m not easily frightened.” With that, he walked into the supermarket first.

Liu Cheng quickly followed him inside. “What do you plan to buy? The household goods are on the third floor, food is on the second, and fresh produce and kitchen supplies are on the first.” He enthusiastically provided the information.

This prompted Sun Chen to turn and study him, “You’ve never been to this supermarket before, right? How do you know the layout?” Before Liu Cheng could come up with a vague excuse, Sun Chen answered his own question, “Did you scout it out earlier?”

It was an awkward situation, and Liu Cheng could only chuckle, “I got here a little early, so I just wandered around a bit.”

“Did you buy anything?” Sun Chen asked casually.

If he admitted that he had bought something just to test the checkout process, it would be too embarrassing, so Liu Cheng instinctively shook his head, “I didn’t have much time; I just took a look around.”

“Did anything catch your eye?”

“The toilet paper is really cheap,” Liu Cheng replied, racking his brain to answer Sun Chen’s question better. To his surprise, this thoughtful answer made Sun Chen laugh.

Liu Cheng was stunned.

It was the first time Sun Chen had shown such a bright expression in front of him. Liu Cheng, who had once thought Sun Chen smiled too little, suddenly understood why heaven was so stingy with smiles—because just one smile was enough to fill the world with too much sunshine and other good things.

“Tell me what I did that was funny just now, and I’ll make sure to be funny more often.”

Sun Chen thought for a moment, “It’s hard to explain in words. For example, if I told you someone dressed in a grand, fancy outfit fell hard on the street, it wouldn’t sound that funny. But if you saw it happen, you’d find it amusing.”

“…Actually, just hearing about it, I already know how ridiculous I must have looked.” Liu Cheng still didn’t quite understand what had made Sun Chen laugh, but he knew he must have looked as pitiful as someone tripping in their best clothes.

“Let’s get on with our shopping. I have twenty-seven items on my list, so we should make good use of our time,” Sun Chen said.

The sudden number startled Liu Cheng. “Twenty-seven items? Even if I listed every essential household item, I don’t think I’d come up with twenty-seven! What are you buying?”

“Toothpaste, shampoo, and some seasonings like soy sauce, chicken powder, cornstarch, sesame oil…” Sun Chen paused, realizing he hadn’t been thorough in his explanation, “Do you know what cornstarch is?” he asked.

Liu Cheng guessed, “Flour?”

“No, cornstarch is mainly made from potato starch or corn flour. It’s used for thickening when cooking…” He continued, “Do you know what thickening is?”

Liu Cheng stared blankly for a while before finally admitting defeat with a sigh, “You must think I’m a complete idiot.”

“That’s no big deal; I didn’t know what it was before either.”

Liu Cheng remembered how bad Sun Chen had been in the kitchen. The time he had managed to make burnt milk was still fresh in his memory. But Liu Cheng also recalled how quickly Sun Chen had improved, eventually cooking at least edible food. Sun Chen wasn’t entirely untalented in this area; he had just lacked experience. And now, less than two years later, Sun Chen was already buying all these seasonings during a grocery run.

“Do you cook for yourself now?”

“I not only cook but also heat milk.”

Liu Cheng was filled with mixed emotions. “…I guess I’ll never get the chance to help you put out a grease fire again, huh?”

Sun Chen had explained it before, but he patiently reiterated, “That wasn’t a fire; it was just the oil reaching its flash point. The flame would have gone out in less than five seconds. And besides, I didn’t scream.”

Liu Cheng had only mentioned once that Sun Chen had screamed, but Sun Chen had denied it at least five times.

“I know, you were very calm the whole time,” Liu Cheng reassured him for the fifth time.

They moved efficiently through Sun Chen’s list, making their way from the third floor to the first, filling up the shopping cart. When the last item was placed in the cart, Sun Chen turned to Liu Cheng, “Aren’t you buying anything?”

Liu Cheng froze in surprise. He usually wasn’t this slow, but he had never been so engrossed in something before—especially something as mundane as grocery shopping. He couldn’t understand the chemistry that had made him so content just walking alongside Sun Chen through the aisles. By the time he snapped out of it, they were nearly at the checkout, and his cart was empty.

Even though Sun Chen could easily see through his excuse to go shopping together, it still wouldn’t look good to say he had planned to buy something but ended up buying nothing. Liu Cheng quickly pointed toward the checkout area, “What I want is over there.”

Earlier, Liu Cheng had bought gum there… he hadn’t expected that by the time he returned, it would only be stocked with products like Durex.

“I swear I bought gum here earlier.” Liu Cheng was so flustered that even the potential misunderstanding of him needing those products seemed less important. He felt like the world wasn’t real, like it existed just to frustrate him.

Sun Chen, hearing this, glanced over at the other checkout aisle, “Looks like the gum is over there.”

Liu Cheng was exasperated by his own intelligence.

Sun Chen turned to him seriously, “You said earlier that you hadn’t bought anything. It turns out you lied to me.”

Liu Cheng could only stand there in a daze.

Sun Chen’s expression softened, “But if you share some gum with me, I’ll forgive you.”

…If Sun Chen could really forgive him, really give him another chance, how wonderful would that be?

A surge of emotion swelled in Liu Cheng’s chest. He began to think that maybe he should stay away from Sun Chen.

Sun Chen was too good, too perfect. So perfect that Liu Cheng felt he didn’t deserve even the lightest of Sun Chen’s smiles, the simplest words he said, or the casual glances he cast in his direction.

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