Chapter 168: The Great Cleaning

Xu Shu did not say a word for a long time after hearing this. Suddenly, she walked over to the sofa with a huff and sat down, her face clouded over like a gloomy, stormy sky. I knew she must be feeling utterly stifled, forced to stay trapped here while daring not to make a fuss anywhere. Therefore, I decided not to provoke her for the time being. Checking my watch, I saw that lunchtime was fast approaching. I walked straight into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and began to ponder what to make for lunch.

I washed the rice, put it into the rice cooker, plugged it in, and then started washing vegetables and slicing meat. Yet, my mind kept drifting to the fact that Xu Shu and I, a lone man and woman, were now going to live under the same roof. How marvelous the world truly was for such a bizarre and fascinating coincidence to occur. A completely ordinary citizen was about to share daily domestic life with an internationally renowned superstar and peerless beauty. This was an opportunity countless men dreamed of yet could never attain! To think it had actually fallen into my lap!

As I sliced the vegetables, joy blossomed in my heart, and I couldn't help but let my imagination wander. What kind of woman was the megastar Xu Shu like in her everyday life? What adorable or quirky habits might she have?

Although I considered myself fairly familiar with Xu Shu, that was merely on the surface. What Xu Shu was truly like in mundane daily life remained entirely a blank slate to me.

Having finished cutting the vegetables and meat, I turned on the gas stove, poured in some cooking oil, and started stir-frying. At that moment, I heard Xu Shu continuously making phone calls in the living room. I knew she had to explain and inform numerous people that she would be disappearing for a while. Many of her work commitments and schedules would have to be postponed or canceled. Whether she told the truth or spun lies, she certainly had a massive headache on her hands.

Yet I also knew that since she had already begun making calls to handle the aftermath, it meant she had resigned herself to her fate. Helpless and angry though she might be, she had no choice but to accept the reality that she would be quarantined in my home for two full weeks.

At this thought, a smug smile tugged at the corners of my lips.

Naturally, I also understood that I neither could nor dared to let anything happen between Xu Shu and me, because I already had Hua Jingjing. I was acutely aware that Xu Shu and Jingjing were best friends, and Xu Shu would never wish for anything to happen between us either.

Even so, an inexplicable joy and excitement bubbled up inside me. I found myself actually filled with eager anticipation for these fourteen days of cohabitation. It felt just like when I was very young and my father promised to buy me a toy handgun for the Lunar New Year. Back then, my young self spent every day dreaming about how happy and blissful I would feel once the New Year arrived and I finally received that coveted toy gun.

In those days, I believed that was the very definition of happiness!

Just as I was secretly reveling in my thoughts, Xu Shu's voice suddenly rang out from behind me: "Hmph! Stir-frying vegetables can make you beam like that—are you an idiot? Don't you realize we are actually in grave danger and stand a very high chance of dying from SARS?"

I turned my head and saw that Xu Shu had appeared behind me at some point. Her expression remained one of reluctance and absolute helplessness. I initially wanted to smile at her, but fearing I might trigger her nerves, I simply turned back to continue cooking without making any response to her remark.

Yet, at the mention of death, a thrill went through my heart. If I could die together with Xu Shu, I would do so willingly, without a single grievance or regret!

No sooner had I reveled in that thought than I immediately began to reproach myself: "Pui! You are a man with a fiancée; a real man must take responsibility and exercise self-control, keeping every word and action worthy of Jingjing far away in America. Harboring such wild fantasies about another woman is irrational and immoral! Tang Qian! You must exercise self-discipline!"

Seeing me remain silent with no one left to argue with, Xu Shu let out a heavy huff from behind me, turned around in a huff, and stomped back to the living room to resume her phone calls.

Soon, I finished stir-frying two dishes and simmering a bowl of soup, carrying them out to the table. I said to Xu Shu, "Hungry? Come and make do with a simple meal; I'm not sure if it will suit your palate."

Xu Shu was still on the phone and merely shot me a sideways glance at my words, continuing her conversation into the mobile phone: "...Just bring me a dozen sets of underwear from my closet, leave the rest, and don't forget my toothpaste, toothbrush, towel, and..." At this point, she suddenly lowered the phone and said to me, "Can you not eavesdrop on someone else's private conversation?"

I shrugged, thinking to myself that I wasn't eavesdropping at all—her voice had simply traveled into my ears of its own accord. However, rather than arguing with her, I turned around and headed back into the kitchen.

After dawdling for a while, I saw that the rice was done, so I scooped out two bowls of white rice, grabbed chopsticks and spoons, and carried them out as well. By then, Xu Shu had finished her call and taken a seat at the dining table.

Setting down the bowls, chopsticks, and spoons, I smiled and said, "I remember tasting a dish and a bowl of soup you personally cooked at your brother's place the year before last. The delicious flavor has stayed with me to this day. I never imagined I'd have the opportunity today to let you taste my cooking as well. Go ahead and try it. Of course, it's incomparable to yours, but as long as you don't find it terrible."

With an expressionless face, Xu Shu reached out, picked up a spoon, scooped up a spoonful of soup, blew gently on it to cool it down, and slowly sipped it. I watched as a smile instantly bloomed on her face. Shifting her gaze toward me, she said, "Hypocrite! You clearly cook better than I do yet you praised mine to the skies, leading me to believe all this time that your culinary skills were inferior to mine! Hmph! I don't care, you've deceived me for so long, and I'm going to punish you!"

I froze for a moment and said, "Your cooking really is better than mine though? I wasn't lying to you!"

To my surprise, Xu Shu puffed out her cheeks and declared, "I say your cooking is better than mine, so it's better than mine. It's useless to argue! My punishment is that for these fourteen days, you have to do all the cooking and meal preparation for me. Otherwise, I won't eat and will just starve myself!"

Good grief... I was utterly defeated!

So after all that talk, this was what she was getting at. Truly... sigh! Fortunately, I hadn't expected her to cook anyway. No matter what, I would never let a megastar cook for me!

Sighing, I nodded and said, "Of course. You're a guest in my home, and it's only right for the host to entertain guests. Even if you hadn't punished me, I would have done it anyway."

Delighted, Xu Shu picked up her chopsticks and began to eat. Whether genuine or feigned, she showered praise on my cooking between bites, savoring the two dishes and one soup with such radiant enthusiasm that it completely swept away her earlier gloomy mood.

Though I suspected she might be exaggerating a bit, seeing her stop-angry made me secretly happy, so I continually urged her to eat more. True to form, Xu Shu completely polished off the dishes and polished off a full bowl of rice to boot. Once she finished, she began to lament with remorse: "It's over, it's over, my weight-loss plan is completely ruined. What should I do now?"

Looking at her slender waist, I chuckled, thinking to myself: You're already this skinny and you still want to lose weight? If you lost any more, you'd snap right under the weight of your upper body. Then, glancing down at her ample bosom, I thought: Well... the weight of your upper body really doesn't seem light at all!

Naturally, Xu Shu didn't notice my lingering gaze. Seeing that I had also finished eating, she began to clear the bowls and chopsticks from the table. I quickly said, "I'll do it. You go rest."

Refusing, Xu Shu insisted, "I can't rest right after eating; I need to exercise to burn fat, but since you don't have any equipment at home, doing the dishes will have to substitute. Besides, you're the one doing all the cooking and food preparation, so if I don't even help with the dishes, it hardly seems right!"

Though I still objected, I was no match for her persistence. Xu Shu enthusiastically wiped the table clean, scooped up the bowls and chopsticks, and as she walked into the kitchen, she called out to me, "Tang Qian! Where are the rubber dishwashing gloves and the apron?"

Standing at the kitchen doorway, I offered a wry smile and replied, "Gloves and apron? We don't have any! I never use them normally. I think I'd better wash them myself."

"No need, no need! Just stay over there!"

Rolling up her sleeves, Xu Shu placed the dishes into the sink, turned on the faucet, poured in some dish soap, picked up the dishcloth, and started scrubbing. Standing behind her, a sudden wave of wash-over emotion stirred within me. This megastar might look delicate, but she wasn't precious at all. She was beautiful, well-read, and knew how to manage a household. Devoid of the unreasonable temper typical of young ladies from wealthy families, she was also kind and lovable. If one could take such a woman as a wife, what regrets could life possibly hold?

Not only did Xu Shu wash the dishes and put them back into the sterilizing cabinet, but she also took the opportunity to tidy up the kitchen. Ever since my parents moved into their new home, the kitchen had never looked this clean.

Emerging from the kitchen after finishing her chores, Xu Shu surveyed her surroundings, let out a sigh, and muttered to herself, "This is the classic flaw of a single man's apartment! How can anyone live in such a mess? Staying here for two weeks without catching SARS would be a miracle! Tang Qian! This afternoon we are doing a deep clean, scrubbing this pigsty inside and out, top to bottom, until everything is spotless!"

I groaned in agony and pleaded, "Is that really necessary? I think it looks pretty good? I clean up quite often..."

Ignoring my defense, Xu Shu pulled out her phone, dialed a number, and said, "Hello? Sister Shi, have you arrived yet? Excellent. Here's what you do: go to the supermarket and buy me a pair of dishwashing gloves, an apron, several more cleaning rags, and a mop... What for? I'm doing a deep clean! Oh, right, you'd better buy me a casual tracksuit as well; what I'm wearing right now isn't suitable for doing chores. All right, that's it, hurry up!"

Helplessly eyeing Xu Shu, I managed a wry smile and said, "Judging by your actions, you've really started treating this place like home! But couldn't you be a little more perfunctory? It's only two weeks anyway, we could just wing it and get through it!"

Glowering at me with her large eyes, Xu Shu snapped, "No way! Are you kidding me? We can't leave this place for fourteen days. This isn't staying at a hotel, this is living life—do you understand what living life means? How can anyone just wing that?"

With a chuckle, I asked, "Living life... is it? That encompasses a lot of things, you know. Have you thought of them all?"

Tilting her head in thought for a moment, Xu Shu suddenly asked, "That's right! Where am I going to sleep these fourteen days? You have to arrange a place for me!"

I nearly fainted! I had no choice but to point toward the bedroom and say, "When my parents moved out, they took the beds and everything else with them. The only bed left in the house is in my room. If you don't mind the grievance, you can just sleep in my bed?"

Blinking her eyes, Xu Shu asked with a deadpan expression, "Then... what about you?"