What Are Your Tastes? chapter 65
Could It Be Me?
“To spend 520 with your old-fashioned boyfriend, of course!”
Lu Yunchu was a little dazed: “Tomorrow is 520?”
“Yes,” Zhou Yanchuan pulled up his phone calendar, and it indeed showed the 20th, even though it wasn’t a weekend.
Having been preoccupied with Meng Xiao’s matter, he hadn’t noticed that more than ten days had passed.
“Okay,” he quickly smiled, “Let’s go on a date tomorrow night.”
They weren’t kids anymore and had work the next day, so a dinner at a nice restaurant followed by a stroll was a perfect 520 date to look forward to.
Zhou Yanchuan had his eye on a newly opened private kitchen in the cultural district. Last time he planned to take Lu Yunchu there, but the incident with Meng Xiao had occurred. Having been busy these past few days, they finally decided to go there the night after discussing it.
But the restaurant didn’t take reservations, so on the afternoon of the 20th, Lu Yunchu arrived at the door at 5:15 to get a number. The restaurant officially opened at 5:30, and Zhou Yanchuan also arrived.
The restaurant had a 520 promotion, giving a pair of dolls to any couples dining in. Perhaps seeing both of them were men, the staff didn’t think of them as a couple, so they didn’t receive the dolls. But they didn’t care about that.
The main hall had a semi-open layout, with bead curtains separating the tables, creating privacy without being overly closed off, making it a perfect place for couples to dine. Each table had a checkered cloth, with a candlelit glass and a vase of roses in the center.
The portions weren’t large, so they ordered plum sauce ribs, sticky rice steamed crab, pumpkin balls, and five or six other dishes. Halfway through, Zhou Yanchuan added two servings of sago pudding to the order.
The person who brought up the dessert looked like a manager. After placing their additional dishes on the table, she did not leave immediately but bowed slightly and asked, “Sorry to intrude, but you two aren’t just…ordinary friends, are you?”
Although the question was implicit, the two people at the table understood her meaning.
“No,” Lu Yunchu said with a smile, “we are dating.”
“My apologies,” the woman who looked like a manager immediately said, “for not bringing you a gift earlier. I’ll make it up to you, or if you don’t like plush toys, we can give you an additional dish.”
They already had enough dishes, so they chose the plush toys.
They received a pair of small plush bears, one brown and one white, wrapped in cellophane.
Lu Yunchu played with the bear through the packaging and said, “How do you think they figured out we’re a couple?” It’s usually not that easy to assume such a thing between two men.
“Who knows? Maybe they noticed some small details,” Zhou Yanchuan sipped his sweet sago soup, “or perhaps we just look like a couple.”
Lu Yunchu laughed. Whether it was going out on a date or receiving gifts exclusive to couples, he was in a great mood.
The two of them made an effort to finish all the dishes on the table. It was still early, so they walked to the downtown pedestrian street. This area was busier than the cultural district, filled with young people in groups, and there were seasonal song and dance performances at the entrance of the shopping mall.
Along the pedestrian street were various food stalls. Although they had eaten too much for dinner and didn’t plan to buy more snacks, they eventually couldn’t resist and bought fried meatballs and mochi. If it weren’t for the fullness, Lu Yunchu would have wanted to buy cream puffs too.
After a long walk, they were quite far from where they parked. Walking back didn’t seem practical, and it wasn’t easy to get a car at that time and place. The app showed “waiting in queue,” and there wasn’t an empty car in sight.
“If there are no cars, let’s keep walking.” After turning onto a less crowded path, Lu Yunchu took Zhou Yanchuan’s hand.
“Aren’t you tired?”
“No,” he said, swinging their joined hands as they walked, not bothered at all by the lack of a car, “are you tired?”
“No way, I’m worried you won’t be able to take it.”
“You’re just lazy.” Lu Yunchu raised their joined hands again, “Yanchuan, let’s walk to the parking lot like this.”
“Like this how?”
“Don’t let go.”
Zhou Yanchuan understood and smiled, “Okay.”
Back home, after a shower and lying on the bed, Lu Yunchu still felt his calves aching, but he didn’t mind much and took out the plush bears they got from the restaurant to play with.
There was just enough space on the bedside tables on either side to place one bear each, so he put the white one on his side and the brown one on Zhou Yanchuan’s side. Then he noticed a small stack of advertisements for new apartments or villa districts on Zhou Yanchuan’s bedside table.
Why would Zhou Yanchuan look at these ads? Lu Yunchu had just flipped through two of them when Zhou Yanchuan came out of the shower and approached the bed.
“You saw them, huh?” He didn’t let Lu Yunchu put the ads down, “I was just about to ask if you’re interested in any of them.”
Interested in what? Lu Yunchu paused for a moment, then exclaimed, “Are you planning to buy a house?”
“Yes,” Zhou Yanchuan said in an unusually calm tone, as if he were talking about buying a piece of clothing, “I bought this place considering it was just for me. Now that there are two of us…we should get a bigger one.”
“This place isn’t small.” After living here for a month, Lu Yunchu didn’t feel uncomfortable.
“For long-term living, we should have a couple more rooms. You still have a lot of things that haven’t been brought over.”
He thought about the many things in his apartment and the possibility of adding more in the future. He would also need a study and a room for his crafts. More rooms would make it more convenient. Blue Bay had larger houses, but this complex was relatively old. If they were going to move, it would be better to look for newer, better options.
Lu Yunchu remained silent, lost in thought. Zhou Yanchuan continued to fan the flames: “Another thing, don’t you think the soundproofing here isn’t great?”
“Really?” Lu Yunchu snapped out of it. Occasionally, he could hear some faint noises from upstairs, but he didn’t pay much attention, “It doesn’t affect much, does it?”
“Normally, no,” Zhou Yanchuan blushed and smiled, “but do you know how loud you get sometimes?”
“When do I—” He paused, could it be at those times when they do it?
Zhou Yanchuan gave him a knowing look.
They could probably be heard by other families.
“How come it’s just me? Your voice isn’t exactly quiet either!”
“Yeah,” he admitted straightforwardly, “we’re both loud.”
“So we need to move because of that…” Lu Yunchu muttered. The places Zhou Yanchuan chose had high prices. Although it was a small matter for the Lu family, after living alone, seeing such numbers made him gasp.
“You don’t need to worry about money,” Zhou Yanchuan understood his thoughts, “I’m not short on money.”
“I thought you were quite thrifty,” Lu Yunchu said half-jokingly, “your tone now sounds more like a rich boss.”
“As long as it’s not wasteful,” he said casually, “it needs to be used when necessary. After all, money is made to be spent by the family.”
The term “family” touched a chord in Lu Yunchu’s heart, like it activated a long-forgotten switch. He intentionally asked, “Does that mean I now have plenty of spare cash and can dabble in art as a hobby, doing whatever I want?”
“Of course,” Zhou Yanchuan found the words familiar but couldn’t remember he had said them before. He assumed Lu Yunchu was stressed at work, “We can set up a workshop in the new house. If you don’t want to go out to work, you can do your favorite things at home. This way, you won’t have to deal with a picky boss with low taste…”
He trailed off, realizing how familiar this sounded.
As expected, Lu Yunchu gave him a meaningful look, “I’ve only encountered one picky boss.”
Feeling guilty, Zhou Yanchuan asked, “Would that be me?”
“What do you think?”
“That was so long ago,” he complained, “you still hold a grudge?”
“The big boss,” Lu Yunchu squinted and said, “can I put that ‘pile of steel pipes’ in your company now?”
“Huh?” Zhou Yanchuan looked extremely troubled, “Do you have to put them under my building?”
Lu Yunchu finally couldn’t help but laugh until he twitched, “I’m just teasing you, look how scared you are.”
Knowing it was a joke, they let it go. Checking the time, it was past eleven. The two lay shoulder to shoulder, and just as Lu Yunchu was about to fall asleep, he heard Zhou Yanchuan’s voice again.
“Yunchu, let’s go look at the houses this weekend.”
“Okay,” he didn’t open his eyes, “we’ll go together.”