Chapter 39: White Ballâs Peerless Beauty
White Ball watched with relish. Even though he had just eaten rich broth rice yesterday, he wanted it again now.
“Awooo?” Papa, can we eat rich broth rice today? White Ball pressed pause, hopped lightly off the counter, and found Lin Xia, who was organizing items on the shelves.
“Rich broth rice? Didn’t we eat that yesterday? Or does Baby just want to play with Brother Xiao Bao?” Lin Xia bent down to pick White Ball up, asking softly.
“Awooo!” No, An An just saw a video of rich broth rice being made and now I want to eat it!
“Is that so?” Lin Xia didn’t particularly want to eat rich broth rice; no matter how good it was, you couldn’t eat it every day.
“How about this? Papa will order one portion of rich broth rice and one portion of stir-fry. How does that sound?” Lin Xia couldn’t refuse when White Ball wanted to eat something, but he could order other takeout dishes for himself. One broth rice and one stir-fryâa perfect combination.
“Awooo!” Okay! White Ball nodded happily.
Just like that, the father and son were stuck together again. After Lin Xia finished organizing the shelves, he took White Ball to sit at the counter.
“Awooo!” Itâs meatballs and meat! White Ball continued watching the video, letting out an excited yip when he saw the meatballs and meat chunks.
White Ball had a special fondness for carnivore delights; his eyes would literally shine whenever he saw meat.
“It’s not like you get to eat it, look how happy you are.” Lin Xia gently tugged on White Ball’s little whiskers, laughing.
“Awooo!” Having his whiskers pulled triggered a conditioned reflex in White Ball; he shook his head wildly and then planted his face into Lin Xia’s embrace.
Awooo, I’m a little dizzy!
Lin Xia laughed unkindly. Feeling embarrassed, White Ball rubbed his head vigorously against Lin Xiaâs chest, trying to make him stop laughing.
“Okay, okay, I won’t laugh.” Lin Xia cradled White Ball in his arms and gently patted his back. White Ball let out whiny, coquettish grunts in his arms.
White Ballâs reaction to whisker-pulling stemmed entirely from when he was very small. Chen Mingjie used to love pulling his whiskers. White Ball didn’t want them pulled, so he would turn his head away. Chen Mingjie would pull again, and White Ball would turn his head again… As White Ball grew a bit bigger and his movements became more agile, the moment Chen Mingjie looked like he was going to pull a whisker, White Ball would immediately shake his head to prevent Chen Mingjie from succeeding.
“Vegetables go in last, but I like to add some tomatoes. Back then, my appetite wasn’t very good, and he said adding tomatoes to the soup would boost my appetite.” One Person’s Food Diary V sliced a tomato and dumped it into the boiling broth.
Hearing this, Lin Xia found it familiar. He Chen seemed to have said something similar. Once, when Wang Ziyu had a poor appetite, He Chen said adding some tomato to the soup would help. What a coincidence; perhaps all great chefs think alike.
“He didn’t like meat, whereas I love meat. We ate different things, yet we always pretended to like what the other ate. He liked spicy food, and I didn’t eat any spice at all, but to keep him company, I ate at every hotpot restaurant in the city.” The man’s voice carried a sense of nostalgia, but also a heavy sense of loss. “After we separated, I didn’t have to force myself to eat anything anymore, but his habits had already been branded into my bones. The me of today eats only the things he liked.”
I thought that after leaving you, I would return to square one, but I was changed by you completely. I went from someone who hated vegetables and spice to becoming a semi-vegetarian who can’t enjoy a meal without chili. In the time since we parted, I have lived my life becoming you.
“Why am I talking about this again?” The man gave a bitter laugh. “Alright, the greens are done. Time to eat.” The man turned off the stove and used a wet towel to lift the clay pot.
Next, the man began to eat. He picked up a piece of mushroom, dipped it in sauce, blew on it to cool it down, and placed it in his mouth to savor. The taste must have satisfied him, as his chinâthe only part of his face visible in the shotânodded slightly.
towards the end of the video, the camera focus slowly shifted from the broth rice, blurring until it transitioned into the Weibo nickname: One Person’s Food Diary V.
This was One Person’s Food Diary V‘s consistent ending style. No matter what, even if he occasionally had guests, he always preferred to end with the food and his Weibo name. This unchanging style led some netizens to tease that he had OCD, a comment that was even upvoted to the top of the comment section. One Person’s Food Diary V simply laughed it off.
After watching this video, Lin Xia understood a little better. One Person’s Food Diary V was a lonely individual, longing for someone else.
Lin Xia scrolled through the comments. There were people whose hearts ached for him, people who were curious, people saying he was sentimental, and others advising him to move on from the past… But this time, One Person’s Food Diary V didn’t reply to anyone. The “One Person’s Food Diary” was exactly thatâa diary of a solitary diet. He used food to record his bachelor life, reminiscing about a past relationship while living in loneliness.
Lin Xia remembered a popular saying: “Isn’t a person’s life just about seeking something to eat? Isn’t working hard just to eat better?” Although this sentence narrowed the meaning of life, it wasn’t without reason. As long as people are alive, they can never bypass the need to eat.
Watching One Person’s Food Diary V‘s video, Lin Xia suddenly felt the sentence should be changed to: “Isn’t a person’s life just about seeking someone to eat with? Isn’t working hard just so two people can eat better?”
A table with one bowl and one pair of chopsticks is lonely; having someone to eat with is happiness.
Lin Xia thought of Tang Yinlang. He thought of the person who ate with them, who put food in their bowls and peeled shrimp for them. Suddenly, the coming days without Tang Yinlang felt dull and tasteless.
Once you get used to someone’s existence, when they aren’t by your side, even the air seems to change. You can clearly still breathe, yet it feels like something is missing.
“Awooo!” White Ball didn’t understand Lin Xiaâs complex thoughts; he was just a little tiger watching a food video to decide if it looked tasty or not. After the video ended, White Ball skillfully opened the camera app to take selfies.
White Ball had learned to take selfies from Meng Zheng. Meng Zheng was one of the part-time students at the pet shop, currently home for winter break and not yet back at school. Meng Zheng loved taking selfies, and White Ball was very interested whenever he saw him doing it. When Meng Zheng took photos, White Ball would lean in, opening his big eyes wide, completely stealing the spotlight.
White Ball was quite vain. Not only did he want to take selfies, but he also wanted to use camera apps to add cute stickers to himself, aiming for that “Internet Influencer” style with eyes as big as his temples and a chin sharp enough to poke a hole in the floor. It could be said with certainty that one-third of Lin Xiaâs phone memory was occupied by White Ballâs selfies.
White Ball liked to shoot “no makeup” photos first. His paws weren’t good at holding the phone, so he would lay the phone flat and lean over it to shoot from above. White Ball looked beautiful in the lens. He wasn’t a traditional white tiger; his fur was flawlessly white, soft, and smooth without a single stray hair, looking exactly like a little white cloud. Unlike the white tigers in the zoo, he didn’t have stripes, so while his tiger identity was obvious to those who knew, ordinary people would just mistake him for a large cat.
White Ball looked at the lens, widened his eyes, and pressed the shutter. Click. One photo got.
Keeping Meng Zhengâs teachings in mind, for the second photo, he not only had to widen his eyes but also put on a confused, innocent expression. White Ball was experienced and quickly snapped another one. The more White Ball looked, the more he felt he was good-lookingâno wonder Papa liked him so much. White Ball was happy and flashed a big smile at the camera.
White Ball took many photos, then selected a few to send to Tang Yinlang.
“Awooo?” Uncle Tang, did An An take good photos?
When Tang Yinlang saw the photos, his heart melted. The little tiger cub was overwhelmingly cute, especially in the photo where he was smiling; it was as sweet as eating honey.
Tang Yinlang set one of the photos as his wallpaper. In this particular shot, not only was White Ball smiling, but Lin Xia had also accidentally entered the frame in the background.
Back at the shop, Lin Xia picked up his phone to flip through the results of White Ballâs selfie session.
Mn, this one turned out nice. Looks like itâs time to change my profile picture again…
Author’s Note: This is a little tiger who knows how to take selfies… Thank you to An Ke An for the landmine~
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