Chapter 191: Su Peng’s Counterattack
In An Han’s mind, Su Peng was the kind of person who could do anything.
He looked good, had a great body, could run almost as fast as the athletic students who trained every day, always ranked near the top in grades, was good at games, knew a bit about music, and, worst of all, his family was loaded!
But seeing him now, clumsily trying to catch a crab, completely flustered. She finally discovered his weakness.
Because his family was rich, Su Peng had never stepped into a kitchen in his life...
An Han stepped on a big crab that was trying to crawl past her, her small face tightening as she held back her laughter.
“How can washing seafood turn into such a mess?”
Su Peng still looked at her with pleading eyes but insisted stiffly, “Because I have a cold.”
“Alright then, go sit on the bed and rest.”
An Han squatted down and quickly grabbed the crab under her foot.
Although she hadn’t really cooked before either, she had some experience from helping her mother prepare ingredients while watching TV as a kid.
She didn’t expect Su Peng to actually help, so she just cleaned up all the shrimp and crabs scattered on the floor, tossed them into the bucket, grabbed a small stool, and sat beside it with a toothbrush to scrub the dirt off the shells, then dropped each one straight into the pot beside her.
Her movements were a bit clumsy, but she didn’t get poked by the shrimp’s sharp heads or pinched by the crabs. She worked slowly, but without any mistakes.
Her hair fell forward as she lowered her head, the strands covering her face and leaving only her delicate chin and slightly parted red lips visible.
In that quiet moment, she looked calm and gentle, nothing like her usual noisy self. There was even a faint air of a good wife and loving mother around her.
Su Peng stared blankly for a moment, though it wasn’t her looks that held his attention. It was an itchy, restless feeling that made him want to do something.
“Why are you staring at me? Play some music or something, it’s too quiet.”
“Okay.”
As she kept cleaning the seafood, she listened to Su Peng fiddling with his phone. Then she secretly glanced up at him.
He didn’t look angry at all. Even after being dragged into this mess while sick, he’s not mad? How can someone have such a good temper?
She frowned slightly, confused, then heard him cough a few times. Worried, she quickly asked, “Seems like your cough’s a bit better now?”
“Yeah.”
Su Peng hesitated for a moment. He honestly had no idea what kind of songs An Han liked, so he just asked, “What do you want to listen to?”
“Your playlist is fine.”
So Su Peng played a song — “Lose.”
An Han looked up in surprise. She didn’t expect him to like the same song as her.
She didn’t say much after that. A quick glance at the time told her it was almost six, so she started cleaning faster.
She’d grown up near the coast, but since her mother wasn’t very good at cooking seafood, most of the seafood she ate at home was steamed or boiled, only once in a while did she get to eat fried or salted ones. That made her prefer light, simple flavors for seafood dishes.
“Su Peng, what do you want to eat tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow…” Su Peng thought for a moment, then said, “Wensi Tofu.”
“What’s that?”
He suddenly felt a bit mischievous and decided to tease her.
“Don’t worry about what it is. I just want something light since I’m still sick. Wensi Tofu is perfect.”
“Seafood is light too~” An Han muttered under her breath.
The name sounded familiar, but since she never watched cooking videos, she couldn’t remember what kind of dish it was.
She looked up. “So how do you make it?”
“The main part is slicing the tofu into thin shreds.”
“Thin shreds? That’s easy! I’ll make it!”
An Han immediately pictured shredded potatoes in her head and confidently said, “I promise I’ll make it tomorrow! I don’t know if it’ll taste right, but it’ll look right!”
Su Peng saw that she had fallen into his trap, and his smile grew even wider.
“You said it yourself. What if you can’t do it?”
“If I can’t…” An Han hesitated for a long time, then asked carefully, “If I fail, I’ll treat you to this seafood meal, okay?”
“I don’t lack money for that.”
Hearing that, she immediately became alert and leaned back a little, trying to keep some distance.
“Then what do you want? I’m not selling my body! This dish isn’t super hard, right? Why are you smiling so suspiciously?”
Still smiling gently, Su Peng asked in a teasing tone, “How about this, if you fail, you go out and hang out with me for a day?”
Isn’t that basically a date?
For some reason, Su Peng’s request didn’t make her feel uncomfortable. Instead, she felt shy. Her face was already starting to heat up.
But An Han quickly realized that Su Peng was clearly setting a trap for her, and she didn’t want to take back her bold words.
“So if I really manage to make it… Then when you recover, you’ll treat me to a big meal?”
Mission: Make Wensi Tofu.
Reward: A big meal.
Failure: Go on a date with Su Peng for a day.
After dealing with the system for so long, even her bet with Su Peng felt like another mission.
Propping her chin on her hand, she looked at Su Peng’s expectant eyes and nodded hesitantly.
Once she finished cleaning up the seafood, she put the full pot on the induction cooker, covered it with a lid, and turned on the heat. Then she rested her chin in her hands, watching the crabs and shrimp struggle in the steaming pot.
“Oh right, the floor still needs to be cleaned.”
Realizing that, An Han quickly got up to grab a mop. Because of Su Peng’s earlier mistakes, the floor was wet everywhere, and she had to clean it up.
“You really like seafood that much?” Su Peng asked, sitting cross-legged on the bed and watching her move around.
“Not really. I just thought seafood is healthy, so I bought some for you to get better soon,” she replied casually without looking up. “And since it’s your money anyway, I bought some extra crabs and lobsters.”
Su Peng couldn’t help laughing. “You really have no shame.”
“Crabs and lobsters are also nutritious, okay? If we’re splitting the meal half and half, then of course I have the right!” she said loudly, but her tone clearly showed some guilt.
To her, seafood had always been one of the healthiest foods. Before checking online, she never knew that people with colds were not supposed to eat it.
Apparently, it’s “too nutritious” and “hard to absorb,” and might even “cause allergies.” How ridiculous.
By the time she finished mopping the floor, her forehead was slightly sweaty. She took off her jacket and jogged back to the induction cooker, leaning forward to peek into the pot filled with steam.
“Looks like it’s ready to eat.”
“I don’t have much appetite,” Su Peng said. He didn’t like steamed seafood much, and lobsters were something he’d long gotten tired of.
An Han thought for a moment, then asked carefully, “Seafood porridge?”
“You know how to make porridge?”
“I can try. But I’ll have to go downstairs to buy rice. If you don’t want seafood, I can also get some preserved eggs.” She muttered softly, “Or maybe I’ll just order plain porridge from takeout and throw in some seafood to reheat it, same thing.”
Su Peng said seriously, “Order takeout.”
Without a rice cooker, he was almost certain she would mess up the porridge, maybe even leave it half-cooked.
“You really don’t trust me?”
Su Peng shook his head quickly. “No, I just don’t want you to get tired.”
“Tch~” An Han pulled out her phone, ordered takeout, and then opened Bilibili to search for how to make Wensi Tofu.
Without looking up, she reminded him, “Don’t fall asleep yet. Try to go to bed around ten. If I hadn’t woken you up this afternoon, you’d have slept all day and then stayed up all night again.”
“You’ve got a good reason for everything,” Su Peng said with a laugh.
An Han was always quick to find excuses, but when she saw the tutorial for Wensi Tofu, her face suddenly darkened.
As expected, she’d been tricked by Su Peng!
There was no way she could make something like that!