Chapter 42: 42

Li Zhikai and Li Man arrived outside Su Jin’s place slightly after 7pm. Their first thought when they saw the bungalow was that they must have come to the wrong place, so they walked down the road again but couldn’t find a second place with the same address. Eventually, they called Su Jin and confirmed that this huge bungalow was indeed where Su Jin was living.

“What’s going on? Are you some rich man’s son pretending to be poor? Or a government official in plain clothes hoping to get in touch with the underground?” Li Zhikai stared in amazement at Su Jin’s house. He could hardly believe that the young man who used to live in some tiny place in a basement would live in such a place now.

“Oh, this place belongs to my friend. He’s gone overseas so he let me stay here for the time being,” said Su Jin casually.

But Li Zhikai wasn’t going to be fooled so easily. He grinned and said, “Oh please, you can’t fool me. Your friend could have rented this place out for at least 20 or 30 grand a month. You mean your friend isn’t interested in that sort of money?”

“He doesn’t like the idea of someone he doesn’t know staying at his place and he’s not short of money anyway…”

“Okay, okay, no need to explain to me. It’s none of my business anyway. As long as you know what you’re doing.” Li Zhikai shook his head and continued his slow tour of the house, refusing to listen to Su Jin explain his situation.

Meanwhile, Mandy’s eyes were wide as she stared at the house in awe. Her mind had automatically classified Su Jin as some rich man’s son who was just pretending to be an average guy all this time. So that was why he bashed up the mayor’s son without even thinking, she thought.

“Brother Su, er…if you hadn’t helped me out the last time, I would definitely have been taken advantage of, so…thank you very much for doing that!” Li Man no longer spoke to Su Jin haughtily and her voice was even softer than before.

Of course, Su Jin could tell what Li Man was trying to do. He just smiled politely and didn’t say anything. The last thing he wanted was to have anything to do with her.

But just because he didn’t want to have anything to do with her didn’t mean Li Man thought the same. She was one of the few pretty young ladies of Stellar Skies, so she was very picky about who she went out with. She despised all the male colleagues of her rank but couldn’t get any chance to work with higher management. Now that she had assumed that Su Jin was rich, there was no way she was letting go of him so easily.

“Brother Su, since I’m here to thank you, why don’t you let me treat you to dinner? I know of a pretty nice place and I think we can still get seats at this hour.” Li Man looked so imploringly at Su Jin, it was as if she was ready to swallow him whole.

“No need, we can just have dinner here!” Su Jin was creeped out by the way Li Man was staring at him and quickly started making his way towards the kitchen.

Li Man was pleasantly surprised by this offer and said with a smile, “Brother Su, you know how to cook too? My mother always said that men who know how to cook are kind and considerate.”

“Haha! I don’t know how to cook, but I’ve got someone in the house who knows how to,” said Su Jin as he laughed awkwardly before yelling into the kitchen, “Mai, are you almost done?”

“Yup, almost done! You can ask your guests to make themselves comfortable at the dining table.” The sound of Kano Mai’s voice coming from the kitchen made the smile on Li Man’s face freeze instantly.

“There’s another woman in the house? It must be his family nanny1 or someone like that,” Li Man assured herself as she quickly fixed her smile. She had to make sure Su Jin saw her most perfect side all the time.

Li Man was extremely confident in her looks. She came from a low income family, but she was born with naturally pretty features and the perfect figure. Even those women from rich families with access to expensive makeup and skincare products would look lacklustre next to her. She was very certain that if she had hailed from a rich family, she wouldn’t lose to anyone in the looks department, not even to the hottest celebrities.

She was also very sure that Su Jin would eventually fall for her charms. But she also knew that she had to take the initiative when it came to these rich men, so she walked towards the kitchen and called out sweetly, “Brother Su, I can help!”

“No, no, no! How could I let our guest help?” Just then, Kano Mai emerged from the kitchen with a plate of food. She was dressed in a blue dress and a pale yellow apron, while her black lustrous locks were tied into a bun behind her head. A few stray strands had slipped out from the bun and covered her forehead.

Su Jin couldn’t help but go into a daze when he saw Kano Mai dressed like this. Her looks and figure were always so perfect that he felt that she was unattainable and never harboured any ideas about her. But today, he was mesmerized for a moment by her approachable and homely look.

He wasn’t alone. Li Zhikai was blown away by her beauty and even Li Man suddenly felt her confidence collapse. She had been so sure of her looks and figure just seconds ago, only to clearly lose to Kano Mai in both aspects.

“Jin, this young lady is…?” Li Zhikai could tell that Li Man was interested in Su Jin and thought he could help her out. He didn’t expect another woman in the house.

Before Su Jin could say anything, Kano Mai spoke up first, “Hello! My name is Kano Mai and I’m living together with Brother Su!”

“Living together?!” These two words hit Li Man like a brick and Li Zhikai looked like he had trouble processing this new piece of information.

Su Jin was equally speechless. Describing their situation like this without any details would definitely make everyone’s imagination run wild. But he quickly also realized that Kano Mai was actually trying to help him out of this sticky situation with an overly enthusiastic Li Man.

“Er, yeah! That’s right! Sorry I didn’t tell you guys!” Su Jin walked over to Kano Mai and put an arm around her shoulder. But the moment his hand landed on her shoulder, she put her hand around his waist and gave him a good pinch, causing him to nearly double over in pain.

Li Man felt so frustrated when she saw how intimate Su Jin and Kano Mai were but couldn’t do anything about it. She grabbed her bag and said to Su Jin, “Well, I’m done with my visit then. Bye!”

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She turned around and marched towards the front door, leaving Li Zhikai alone with the couple. He felt equally awkward and grinned sheepishly at Su Jin before turning to say to Kano Mai, “Nice to meet you, Miss Kano. Er…it’s not safe for a young lady to walk around by herself at this hour, so I’m going to send Li Man home.”

“Thanks, Brother Li!” Su Jin smiled at Li Zhikai while enduring the pain in his side. Li Zhikai shook his head and quickly ran after Li Man.

Once the two of them had left the house, Su Jin hurriedly let go of Kano Mai and she let go of him as well. She laughed merrily and said, “Did your pain sensitivity drop after drinking those body strengthening elixirs?”

“You didn’t have to pinch me so hard!!” Su Jin started massaging his sore ribs vigorously.

She rolled her eyes at him and walked back into the kitchen to get the rest of the food. When she walked out again, she burst out laughing when she saw that Su Jin had already taken his seat at the dining table and looked all ready to start eating.

He mumbled awkwardly, “You’ve already cooked all this food, so I wouldn’t want it to go to waste.”

“Seriously though, that girl was rather pretty. Why don’t you like her?” Kano Mai put the food down, then poured Su Jin a glass of red wine, as if she were really a sweet and dutiful wife.

Su Jin started eating the food hungrily and gave her a big thumbs up for the delicious food. “I can’t possibly fall in love with every pretty woman, right? Besides, she’s nowhere as pretty as you are. You’ve raised my standards so high.”

“Aww, how sweet of you! But I didn’t add any honey to the food!” Kano Mai laughed as she happily accepted Su Jin’s compliments. She poured herself a glass of red wine too and they clinked glasses.

“By the way, how did you know I don’t like Li Man?” asked Su Jin curiously. Kano Mai had obviously detected this early on, which was why she had helped him out.

“It was pretty obvious. You looked at her like…she was the most burdensome thing in the world,” replied Kano Mai with a faint smile as she took a sip of red wine.

Su Jin gave her another big thumbs up, then asked curiously while eating, “Mai, I realized you’ve cooked Chinese food today. I didn’t know you knew how to cook Chinese dishes too.”

“I learned during my time in my Personal Hell Domain. It didn’t take me long to pick it up anyway,” said Kano Mai as she stuck her tongue out a little shyly. “I like to eat these dishes too anyway. So I might as well learn how to cook them myself instead of having to go to a restaurant.”

Su Jin was more than happy to hear that Kano Mai had such a wonderful hobby. Suddenly, his phone started ringing. It wasn’t a number he recognized.

“Hello, are you one of Su Qing’s family members? I am Su Qing’s homeroom teacher, Lu Ying,” a middle aged woman’s voice came over the phone.

Su Jin was surprised to hear that this was a call from his younger sister’s homeroom teacher. He quickly responded, “Hello, Ms. Lu. I’m Su Qing’s older brother. Did something happen to Su Qing?”

“Please don’t be alarmed, it’s nothing very serious. I just wanted to inform you that Su Qing’s grades have fallen very badly recently. I know she lives in the school dormitory and rarely goes home, so I was afraid that she might be mixing with the wrong company or there might be some other reason for this sudden drop in her grades. After much consideration, I thought it would be better to check in with her family first.”

“I see…thanks for calling, Ms. Lu. I’ll head over to the school tomorrow and talk to her about what’s going on.” Su Qing had always been an obedient girl and did well in school. He was surprised to hear her teacher say that her grades had fallen badly and wondered if it was because he had given her too much money the last time.

“Yes, I was hoping you could do that. But I also hope that you could be sensitive and listen to her as well, especially since Su Qing is at an age where she might not take advice from her family members very well if you’re too harsh,” said Lu Ying patiently.

“Sure, I’ll take note of that. Thank you so much for letting me know, Ms. Lu.”

“Don’t say that. As Su Qing’s homeroom teacher, I’m just doing what I ought to. Sorry to interrupt your day!” said Lu Ying.

“Thank you! Bye!” Su Jin hung up and started frowning immediately. If Su Qing had really started misbehaving because she suddenly had the money to do so, then he shouldn’t have transferred her so much in the first place.

“What’s wrong?” asked Kano Mai when she saw the deep frown on Su Jin’s face.

He tapped his nose and smiled sadly, “Nothing. My younger sister is now at the height of her teenage years, so I’m going to visit her in school tomorrow to rectify any bad decisions someone her age might make.”

Kano Mai immediately shook her head in response. She would have loved to help, but it wasn’t her place to.

Early the next morning, Su Jin seemed to be in turbo mode as he took the first flight out of S City and made the long journey all the way back to his hometown, finally arriving in the evening. He didn’t tell his sister that he was coming at all. He was going to spring a surprise inspection on her.

It’s common for the rich families to have their own in-house cook who’s usually 1) an older and married female 2) doubles up as a maid or nanny for the family’s children, shuttling between the parents’ and the children’s houses if necessary↩

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