Chapter 255 - Chef Lu
Under her assistant’s insistence, Xiu Mei was forced to rest for another hour. She felt bored then eventually fell asleep while waiting for an hour to pass by.
After snoozing for a little bit, Xiu Mei noticed that she did indeed feel better than before. Even the fever medicine she took seemed to be working good as well since her forehead doesn’t feel as hot as before.
Xiu Mei was more convinced.
Mhm. So it was really just because she pushed herself too hard and lack of rest ah. That’s why she was so under the weather this morning.
So with a lighter heart and body, Xiu Mei jumped back to her work and the pregnancy scare was quickly forgotten as if she never thought of it before.
The stock trade suspension didn’t last very long yesterday, so Xiu Mei was quite busy checking on the impact it caused on their side. She was also wary if there were any hidden complications left by this incident.
She was in the middle of replying to an email when Lu Shao suddenly appeared. Her body tensed as she felt a sweat form on her back.
Is the President with him?!
She tried to act calm and collected, contrary to the panic she was having in her heart. At the corner of her eye, she sneakily took a peek to see if Lu Chen was with him.
It was only after seeing that Lu Shao was alone in the elevator that she breathed out a sigh of relief. She glanced at her assistant and quickly realized that she must’ve lied to her when she said that she told Lu Shao about her being sick.
Because if she really had told Lu Shao about it, then there’s no way Lu Chen wouldn’t come to the office right now. He would’ve surely be dragging her home at the moment instead of working.
"How was your business trip?" She joked as soon as Lu Shao walked over to his table.
"It went well." Lu Shao replied. "I thought you two might drown from all the work because of the incident yesterday so I was planning to be the knight and shining armor for the ladies today."
The two women laughed at his remark and acted magnanimously.
"Then who are we to decline your enticing offer?" Her assistant then stood up, grabbed the stack of folders from Xiu Mei’s table, and fearlessly transferred the work to Lu Shao’s table.
"Our welcome back gift, specially dedicated to our compassionate knight whom we have missed the presence so much especially yesterday."
The three people burst into laughter at their ridiculous play.
With the addition of Lu Shao, their work visibly got lighter. The two women didn’t have to pull another overtime, and Xiu Mei now had someone to split her work with during the meeting.
"What about the president?" Xiu Mei asked in passing to Lu Shao while they were waiting for the elevator.
Lu Shao immediately answered her, "the President went home directly."
"?"
She looked at Lu Shao puzzledly. How come Lu Chen was at home?
She initially thought that the reason why he wasn’t able to come today was that he was probably working on his other job. Like probably in their headquarters or something?
But to think that he went straight home... ah. Maybe he was catching up on his sleep, she guessed.
She was familiar with Lu Chen’s working habits and knew that he usually pulled all-nighters for a few days and went on some business trips without sleep.
Should she cook something for him for dinner?
While Xiu Mei pondered about the dinner menu for tonight, Lu Chen was preparing for his apology and romantic dinner for his wife.
He stood in the kitchen, wearing an apron with a knife in his other hand. He was chopping up the mushrooms at the moment.
The main chef, other helpers, and the butler stood at the side with frightened expressions. They rarely saw their master cook, and madame was always at the master’s side whenever they prepare the food. They had actually never seen the master cook directly, just merely doing the simple preparations like cutting the food and other ingredients.
As soon as Lu Chen finished chopping up the mushroom, he stared at the bowl of shrimp that is still to be deshelled. He frowned, thinking how he was supposed to clean it.
The audience at the side let out a sigh of relief.
Phew... it seems like they had nothing to worry about. And so, they stopped prying on their master’s cooking and spread out to do their job. Since the master told the chef that he can get off early today, he immediately complied and returned to his quarters.
"Ah, I should have cooked the pasta first." Lu Chen murmured under his breath as he picked up a pot, filled it with water, poured a pinch of salt, and waited to let it boil.
Lu Chen stayed in the kitchen for almost two hours cooking creamy shrimp pasta. He did his best to do the plating beautifully and brought it outside where he had someone put a small table and two chairs.
The two pets staying outside smell the scent of food and excitedly ran towards Lu Chen. But before they could jump onto the table to sniff the food out, Lu Chen quickly caught the lion and tiger and stopped them from destroying his work.
The two animals whimpered, complaining at the unfair treatment.
"No." Lu Chen said sternly. He signaled the two to return to their own pet house and so, the two could only stare at the food longingly and walked back to their own space with lowered heads.
Lu Chen finished his preparation for his wife. So he finally moved to the next step which is ordering another set of food.
Of course, it’s not for him and Xiu Mei. It was for Lu Qiang.
Lu Chen sneered. He still hasn’t forgotten how he made some trouble with his laptop before, so the kid would have to eat dinner alone today while he kidnaps his mother for a romantic dinner tonight.
Lu Qiang arrived home early that day. Lu Chen and Xiu Mei had to give up in personally picking him up from school since they would often get off too late and they didn’t want him to wait for them so long in school.
Lu Qiang immediately saw his father’s shoes on the cabinet.
"Did father and mother get home early?" Lu Qiang asked the butler.
"No, Young Master. It’s only the Master who came home. The Madame is still at work." The butler politely answered.
Lu Qiang hummed in reply and shrugged. Since it was just his father... then he doesn’t care so much. Lu Qiang was originally not close with his father in the first place even before he married his mother so he doesn’t usually get that excited when he comes home. It’s a different story though every time he brings him to the private resort for training.
He was about to go back to his room to change when he saw his father in the garden. He saw him doing something on the table, but since he wasn’t tall enough to see what he was doing. Curious, he walked closer while tiptoeing and took a peek.
"You need more practice." Lu Chen suddenly spoke in a serious tone.
Lu Qiang tensed for a second before relaxing.
"I’ll work on it." He admitted. His father was criticizing him when he tried to secretly peek behind him yet he was caught and he clearly revealed his presence.
His father’s subordinate had been training him with this kind of technique, but since he wasn’t fully good at physical training yet, he failed to hide his presence when he tried to sneak on his father.
Since he was already found out, he confidently walked over to where his father was and finally saw the food on the table.
He saw the two plates of pasta on the table and a bottle of wine but as soon as he saw it, a different concern came to his mind.
"Dad, you cooked that?"
"Mhm."
"...."
Lu Qiang remembered her mother’s weird expression before when they stayed over at his mother’s old home. It was an expression that clearly showed that his father failed the egg that morning.
"Did you taste it?"
What he really wanted to ask was, are you trying to poison mom with our food?
But thinking about their relationship, he was still polite and rephrased his question.
Thinking about it.... He completely forgot to taste it ah.
Lu Chen:...
Lu Qiang:...
"I’m home~"
The filial son turned to look behind him in horror.
Oh my god, his mother’s home!!
And his father hasn’t tasted the food yet!!!