Chapter 190: The Clumsy Su Peng
After buying groceries and taking the bus back, it was already past five when An Han returned to the apartment.
She was carrying several big bags in both hands, full of energy, and hurried up the stairs until she reached Su Peng’s door.
She pressed her ear against the door for a moment to listen, then lightly tapped it twice with her toe.
Soon, the door opened. Su Peng appeared with heavy dark circles under his eyes.
Still holding the seafood bags that had water inside, she couldn’t put them down, so she leaned forward, bringing her face close to his.
Su Peng was startled by her sudden closeness. Since when was An Han this forward?
“Help me put on my mask, I don’t want to catch your cold.”
“Oh, okay.”
Su Peng quickly grabbed the mask hanging nearby, opened it with both hands, and hooked it over her ears. Then he adjusted the top and bottom, shaping the metal strip to fit snugly on her nose.
An Han’s skin was soft and smooth like an egg. Just that brief touch left a faint scent of the girl on his hands, it made him feel oddly happy.
“So many things?” Su Peng asked, trying to hide the small excitement in his heart as he looked down at the red bags she was holding. “Must’ve cost a lot, right?”
An Han shook her head casually. “It’s fine, I can afford it.”
Su Peng knew her financial situation. Those few big bags of groceries must have cost more than a hundred yuan. He felt a bit touched, she had just rented her place and didn’t have much cash left, yet she still spent some on him…
“Transfer me 500 yuan later.”
“……”
An Han handed two of the bags to him. When he didn’t respond, she looked up, puzzled. “I bought groceries, cooked, and even took care of you, do you expect me to pay for the ingredients too?”
Whatever small emotion Su Peng had just felt completely vanished. He nodded helplessly and asked, “So, what did you buy?”
“Seafood!”
An Han’s eyes sparkled with excitement as she proudly listed them. “Big lobsters! I got one that’s one kilogram!"
“Big crabs, about 500 grams each!”
“I also bought a bunch of shrimp, some live abalone, squid, scallops…”
The more she said, the more Su Peng’s head started to hurt. There was no way they could finish all that in one meal.
“Hold on,” he quickly interrupted. “I have a cold. Can I even eat seafood?”
“Put the stuff over there first, the ones with water, put in the bucket.”
After handing everything to Su Peng, An Han pulled out her phone to check online and soon nodded in realization.
“It says people with colds shouldn’t eat seafood.”
“……”
She didn’t seem to care much. “It’s fine. You can eat a little, it won’t kill you.”
Then she added, “Mainly, I want to eat it.”
Su Peng sighed. “Can we even finish this much?”
“If we can’t, I’ll call Brother Long and the others to help.”
“You even know how to cook it?”
An Han looked at him like he’d just said something dumb. “Why wouldn’t I know? I’m from a seaside town, we eat seafood all the time.”
Su Peng finally relaxed a little. Even though, as a sick guy and her unwilling “sponsor,” he shouldn’t eat too much seafood, at least he could still enjoy a few bites.
He squatted by the bucket, picked up a squid, and asked, “Should we grill this one on an iron plate?”
When he didn’t get an answer, he turned around and saw that An Han had already gone back to her room.
He didn’t think much of it. Smiling with quiet excitement, he looked at the bucket full of lively seafood, already planning in his mind how to cook them.
Grilled squid, garlic vermicelli scallops, braised shrimp, braised crabs, butter-fried lobster… maybe even a big charcoal-grilled seafood feast wouldn’t be bad either.
Just thinking about it made Su Peng’s stomach growl, and his lost appetite from the cold seemed to come back.
He heard An Han’s footsteps and turned around. She was already walking in, carrying a pot and an induction cooker.
“Clear off your computer desk!”
He quickly stood up, moved his laptop onto the bed, and reminded her, “I have a cold, I shouldn’t smell cooking oil or smoke.”
“Why would there be oil smoke?” An Han looked at him blankly.
“......”
“Go wash the seafood. We’ll just boil everything together later.” An Han happily plugged in the induction cooker, muttering, “Seafood is best boiled or steamed anyway. The natural taste is the best, no need for those fancy cooking methods.”
“Mostly because I don’t know how to cook those,” she added.
Su Peng froze, coughing weakly into his hand. The little bit of appetite he just had disappeared instantly.
Even though his fatigue had gotten better than earlier, his sneezing and coughing still made him feel awful, and his fever hadn’t completely gone away.
Why am I the one working when I’m the sick one… Is she really here to take care of me or to work me to death while saving money?
“Oh, and be careful,” An Han said suddenly, looking back at him with concern. “I heard someone once got hurt cleaning seafood and died.”
“I’m going to slice some ginger and then run downstairs to buy cooking wine. Hurry up, and just boil everything in one pot later, easier that way.”
“...Sigh~”
“What, you’re not happy about eating seafood?” she tilted her head in confusion, frowning slightly. “Don’t tell me you’re allergic to seafood?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Too bad…”
An Han sighed too, then quickly ran out of the room.
Su Peng rubbed his temples, picked up a bag of seafood, and dumped it into the sink. He looked around, searching for something to clean it with, and finally, with no better choice, grabbed a toothbrush.
Even though An Han’s mischievous attitude was obvious, and her strange behavior always surprised him, Su Peng couldn’t help but smile as he worked. For some reason, he felt lighter and happier than before.
“Feels nice,” he said softly to himself.
He could sense that An Han’s old wariness toward him had slowly faded.
But when he lowered his head again, his smile froze. His face stiffened as he frowned and carefully poked one of the crabs with his finger.
The crab suddenly waved its giant claws, scaring him so much that he jumped back.
“Seriously, I’ve never touched live seafood in my life…”
Leaning back nervously, Su Peng stretched out his arm and pressed down on the crab’s shell with a tube of toothpaste, using the toothbrush to gently scrub it.
But “scrubbing” was too generous a word. His movements were so cautious it looked more like he was giving the crab a massage.
Sweat started forming on his forehead. The crab slipped out of his grasp, and as it struggled harder, it suddenly became even more active, its eight legs flailing as it crawled right out of the sink.
“Damn it!”
Su Peng jumped back and accidentally kicked over the water bucket…
By the time An Han came back with the bottle of cooking wine, she saw absolute chaos. Su Peng holding chopsticks like a weapon, jumping around as he tried to catch the crab.
Shrimp were bouncing all over the floor, and the big lobster was slowly crawling across the tiles.
The whole room looked completely out of control.
“What on earth are you doing?”
An Han stood at the door, totally speechless.
Su Peng turned around, looking at her like she was his savior.