Chapter 527 - 361: Dinner Comparable to War

Chapter 527: Chapter 361: Dinner Comparable to War

Just as he’d expected.

About ten minutes later, the familiar sound of crashing waves echoed from the living room.

He swallowed hard, his palms growing clammy without him realizing it. His eyes kept darting toward the sofa as he mentally rehearsed what he would say to face Erica’s imminent questioning.

Time seemed to crawl by. He felt like more than ten minutes had passed, but when he glanced at the clock in the corner of his laptop screen, it had only been about two.

The agonizing wait felt just like those few minutes before giving a presentation in college.

As he was running through countless possible scenarios in his head, a message suddenly popped up on his phone.

[Oppa, by my calculations, Erica Oppa should be watching the first night’s footage by now. Want me to help explain?]

The corner of his mouth twitched when he saw the message.

’As expected of a professional blogger,’ he thought. ’She can estimate the timing so accurately just by staying in her room.’

He quickly picked up his phone and replied.

[It’s fine, no need. I was just teaching you how to dive, nothing happened. Besides, didn’t she wear her underwear as a swimsuit on the show before? If she gets angry over something like this, she has a really bad temper.]

Seeing Lin Chen’s message, Jin Meiyan, who was sitting up in bed, chewed on her thumbnail in consternation. A strange sense of hope flickered within her—the hope of hearing an argument break out beyond her door.

Then she shook her head, silently scolding herself for having such dark thoughts.

While time crawled by agonizingly for the two of them, one inside her room and one out, the minutes were silently ticking away.

By the time Lin Chen finished his call with the captain—whose number Zhao Pengfei had provided—and settled the arrangements, he realized that over half an hour had passed.

He instinctively glanced toward the sofa and saw that the scene on Erica’s laptop screen had brightened.

’Wait, is it the second day already?’

’Hold on, where’s the reaction?’

’Why isn’t she reacting at all?’

A thousand questions popped into his confused mind, but he couldn’t just go and ask. That would make him look guilty.

Now that his other task was handled, he decided to start making dinner.

After three days of eating seafood in the wild with hardly any oil, their first meal back to normal life had to be a nutritious one.

He planned to make some of Great Xia’s signature home-cooked dishes: braised pork belly, sweet and sour spare ribs, eggplant with minced pork, twice-cooked pork with green peppers, and a side of garlic lettuce.

As he got busy in the kitchen, the rich, savory aroma of meat slowly filled the living room.

The fragrance became especially intense when, after simmering for over an hour, the braised pork belly was put on high heat to reduce the sauce. The potent aroma slipped right under the cracks of Jin Meiyan’s door.

CLICK.

Having not eaten all day, Jin Meiyan couldn’t resist the temptation of the aroma any longer. Her stomach rumbling incessantly, she quietly opened her door and peeked her head out.

Seeing Lin Chen’s back as he worked in the kitchen, and Erica, who was still sitting on the sofa, completely absorbed in the computer screen, she tiptoed over to the kitchen.

"Hungry?"

Despite the noise from the range hood, Lin Chen caught her movement immediately. "Almost ready," he said without turning around. "Dinner will be served in ten minutes."

"Oppa, Oppa... she..."

Lin Chen shook his head and shrugged, feigning ignorance.

Jin Meiyan’s delicate brows furrowed, a flicker of disappointment in her eyes.

’I can’t believe Erica is so composed. She didn’t react at all.’

’Does she really not care, or does she just think it’s no big deal?’

’If I’d known her tolerance was this high, I would have been more physical with Oppa.’

As soon as the thought popped into her head, she suddenly remembered that Erica was of mixed European descent. When it came to these things, her mindset was a world apart from that of Asians.

Attitudes in some European countries were so liberal they were almost unbelievable. Every year, they held bizarre events like naked bike rides or marathons through the streets.

Then there were the famous nude beaches and so on. Compared to all that, what was swimming in your underwear? Kindergarten level?

When it was time for dinner, Erica finally peeled herself away from the sofa where she had been sitting for nearly the entire day.

"Oh my god, my eyes are so sore and dry from watching all that. Editing footage is really not a job for humans. Am I going to go blind if I keep this up?"

She pulled out a chair and sat down, her eyes bloodshot. After a quick glance at the sumptuous feast on the table, she eagerly raised her arms.

"This looks amazing! A huge bowl of rice for me, please and thank you. I’m starving!"

Lin Chen and Jin Meiyan exchanged a look, both clearly bewildered by Erica’s complete lack of reaction.

Since she didn’t ask, they both tacitly pretended that nothing had happened.

"You guys have to try this. It’s braised pork belly, one of the most famous home-cooked dishes in Great Xia, right up there with scrambled eggs and tomatoes. ’Hong shao,’ or braising, is our national flavor. The main seasoning is soy sauce, though some regions add sugar."

The large chunks of pork belly were cut into perfect cubes, each coated in a thick, rich, reddish-brown sauce.

The moment a piece was placed on the rice, the pristine white grains were instantly stained red, a sight that looked incredibly appetizing on its own.

The pigs here were also raised according to a standardized process, so the weight and fat ratio of each pig were nearly identical. In other words, for any given cut, the composition was basically the same.

This was especially true for a distinctly layered cut like pork belly: skin, fat, lean, fat, lean. It was mostly lean meat, with only a chopstick-thin layer of fat, unlike the free-range pork popular back home, which was often full of white fat.

As for Koreans, pork belly was also a meat they consumed in large quantities in their daily lives.

Jin Meiyan didn’t hesitate for a second. She picked up the piece of braised pork belly from her bowl and eagerly stuffed it into her mouth.

But her head, like that of many entertainers, was a size smaller than average, and her whole face was only about the size of a palm.

She had to open her mouth as wide as possible, working her jaw a few times, just to barely fit the entire piece of pork belly inside.

Watching her cute, chipmunk-cheeked expression as she chewed, her pink lips glistening with sauce, Erica couldn’t help but remark.

"Oh my gosh, Meiyan, you were born to be a star. Even as a foreigner, I think you’re stunningly beautiful. And just now, watching the footage, your body proportions are perfect too. And your skin! It’s so smooth it looks like you don’t even have pores. I’m so envious."

"If I were a man, I would have fallen for you at first sight!"

?!

The moment she said that, both Lin Chen and Jin Meiyan froze, their hands and mouths halting mid-motion.

Lin Chen wondered internally, ’What does she mean by suddenly saying that? Is she testing my reaction?’

Fortunately, Erica’s eyes were fixed on Jin Meiyan’s face, so she didn’t notice the fleeting stiffness in Lin Chen beside her.

"Thank you, Oppa, for the compliment." Thankfully, Jin Meiyan had countless hours of experience in front of the camera and broke into a natural smile. "You’re very beautiful too. At least, among all the Westerners I’ve seen in person, you’re the prettiest. You have a face that perfectly fits the Asian standard of beauty. No wonder Oppa is so captivated by you."

"Him? Captivated by me? Haha, I don’t have that kind of power."

Erica waved her hands dismissively, casting a plaintive glance at the man who was busy burying his face in his food. "If he were that easily captivated by me, we’d be sleeping in the same bed by now."

"Really? That’s strange. With your looks and figure, Oppa, all you’d have to do is crook your finger and countless men would be falling over themselves for you. You even actively showed your interest in him on the show. How on earth did he resist?"

"Who knows? I’d like to ask that question myself. I even suspected for a while that he might like men, but after spending time with him, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Besides, watching the footage just now, he seemed pretty calm about you being in your underwear, too."

Lin Chen silently buried his head deeper into his bowl. The two women’s conversation kept drilling into his ears, the content so thrillingly perilous that it made him want to turn and run.

At this point, he couldn’t tell if they were just chatting normally or taking jabs at each other.

Judging by their expressions, they looked like two best friends having a great chat. But listening to the meaning behind their words, it felt like they were secretly firing potshots.

He decided it was best to just focus on his food.

As he was eating, Erica suddenly turned to him.

"Lin."

His chewing froze.

"Huh?"

"Aesthetically speaking, who do you think is prettier, Meiyan or me?"

!!!!!

Cold sweat instantly beaded on Lin Chen’s back. He blurted out, "You two have different styles. You each have your own charm. You can’t compare."

"Is that so?" Erica tilted her head, thinking for a moment. "Then Meiyan would be considered pretty among Asian women, right?"

"That’s true. She almost became an idol, so her looks are definitely above average."

"So you think she’s pretty?"

"...Why are you suddenly asking this?"

"We were on the topic, so I’m just asking. I want to see if your aesthetic sense is normal. Otherwise, why would you be completely unmoved when faced with two beautiful women of different styles?"

’Who’s unmoved? Who? Who is it??’

"Didn’t I just say? She’s pretty, and you’re pretty. You can tell just by looking at your fan counts, can’t you? It’s obvious."

"Then if she and I confessed to you at the same time, who would you choose?"

The moment she asked this, even Jin Meiyan’s jaw dropped in shock. She clearly hadn’t expected Erica to be so direct and ask such a question right in front of her.

Nevertheless, a woman’s instinct compelled her to turn her gaze to Lin Chen, a hint of secret anticipation hidden in her eyes.

"I can’t choose."

Lin Chen shrugged decisively and took the opportunity to scoop up a spoonful of rice drenched in meat sauce and stuff it in his mouth.

"Don’t make things difficult for me. Any man with a normal level of emotional intelligence wouldn’t give a clear answer to a no-win question like that, unless he’s already set his heart on one person."

Erica glanced at Jin Meiyan across the table. Seeing her still-calm expression, she was suddenly overcome with an impulse.

"Since you can’t choose, it must mean you think we’re about equally pretty. In that case, what if you were given the chance to have both of us at the same time..."