CH 94

Only Rong Heng, standing on the side, looked at the two bags of rice on the ground, wanting to look up at the sky and let out a long sigh.

Song Yuan used to hit the supermarket with no goal or plan. Maybe she’d just want to buy a couple drinks and end up unknowingly buying a cartful of snacks. But ever since Rong Ting came, she’d gradually begun to have rules and plans. Every time they came to the supermarket, she would write down the things she needed on her phone memo. This would make her more efficient and prevent her from buying things they didn’t need.

But Rong Heng was unknowingly, silently wrecking her plans.

She would pick up any snacks she saw, and because the calories exceed her daily intake limits, she’d put it back on the shelf. Then he would quietly pick it up and throw it into the shopping cart…

When she gave a second glance at a bag of potato chips, it’d be placed in the shopping cart. When she finally got ready to check out, she found that there were many snacks and miscellaneous things in the cart.

She gave a sidelong look at the father and son following her.

Rong Ting quivered, and he immediately denied, “It wasn’t me, it was Emperor Father, I saw it!”

Not his fault, no one could throw the blame on him.

Rong Heng remained silent, basically admitting that the things had been placed there by him.

Song Yuan was speechless. “You want to eat these snacks?”

In her memory, Rong Heng didn’t like to eat snacks at all and even rarely ate fruit. It was impossible that coming to modern times had changed all his habits.

Rong Heng couldn’t play dead anymore and could only explain helplessly, “I saw you pick them up and look at them for a long time. If you want to eat it then buy it, no need to hesitate.”

“I was looking at the calories,” Song Yuan patiently explained. “I thought they were too high in calories, and eating them would make me fat, so I put them back.”

Something having calories or not, ancient people wouldn’t understand it.

Rong Heng picked up the bag of potato chips, protesting quietly, “I think it’s quite light, not much.”

“Calories aren’t calculated like that. Did you think there were no calories if you ate ice cream…” Song Yuan wanted to laugh. The omnipotent and all-capable emperor was dumbfounded at this moment; it was indeed a rare sight. “I was just looking. It doesn’t mean I want to eat it.”

“If you don’t want to eat it, why would you pick it up.”

Rong Ting also perplexedly joined in, unconsciously standing on his Emperor Father’s side. “Yes, if Empress Mother did not wish to eat it, why did you want to look?”

Song Yuan: “…”

This time, they didn’t go through the regular checkout. There were too many people, and every cashier had a long queue. Ever since she could self checkout, Song Yuan had never checked out through the traditional checkout process. There was also a line at self checkout, but it ran quickly, and in a short while it was their turn.

Rong Heng and Rong Ting stood to the side, watching.

Song Yuan scanned each item in the shopping cart.

Rong Ting glanced at the long line in front of the cashiers and couldn’t help but feel fortunate. Luckily, this time they went to the supermarket with Empress Mother. If he had gone with just Emperor Father, would they have had to wait until the year of the monkey1?

As Song Yuan paid the bill, Rong Heng had already taken out his wallet from his pocket, ready to pay–

The next second, he saw Song Yuan walking away with the bags, and the supermarket employees didn’t stop her?

She already finished paying? When did she pay?

Song Yuan calculated the bill. The money she spent this time was just enough to play the lottery once. The three of them arrived at the crowded lottery draw, where Song Yuan handed Rong Ting the ticket, looking at him encouragingly. “My luck’s not too good. Ever since I was young I’ve never even won another bottle2. Gugu, you go and draw it, get the big prize!”

Rong Ting clutched the ticket, both delighted and excited. He looked up at Song Yuan and shouted over the noise, “Mom, what do you want, I’ll get it for you!”

This voice… overflowing with confidence.

Song Yuan stood on tiptoe and looked at the prizes displayed at the lottery counter. She pointed to the yellow mini suitcase and declared, “I want that one. If we go out traveling, you can use it.”

“Okay!” Rong Ting solemnly nodded, a look of confidence in his victory on his face.

Rong Heng was unaccustomed to this sort of noisy, tightly crowded situation, especially when he was pushed by an auntie again…

When it was their turn to draw, Rong Ting almost used all his strength3 to spin the wheel. Next was the moment of anticipation.

The hand of the wheel spun and spun, successfully avoiding the first prize 2,000 yuan shopping card, the second prize refrigerator, the third prize electric car, and finally landed on the space for two bags of rice.

The sales staff brought up the microphone and announced excitedly, “Congratulations to this little friend, you’ve won two bags of jasmine rice, a total of forty catties4!”

…

……

Rong Ting was still quite happy. Although he didn’t draw the luggage bag that Empress Mother wanted, he drew two bags of rice! As the saying went, food is the God of the people5. With his own luck, he drew two bags of rice. At the very least, he and Empress Mother did not need to buy rice for a long time.

Song Yuan was also in a good mood. Participation was the main point of something like lotteries; she’d be happy even if she got a paper towel. Seeing her son so happy, her mood was even better.

Only Rong Heng, standing on the side, looked at the two bags of rice on the ground, wanting to look up at the sky and let out a long sigh.

Winning two bags of rice was naturally good, but the key point was how to bring it back? He couldn’t let his son, who was officially turning six in a few weeks, carry it, right? With Rong Ting’s total body weight of 50 catties6, how was he supposed to pick up 40 catties of rice?

Rong Heng had always been cunning. Song Yuan hadn’t even pondered the issue of how to bring back the two bags or rice when he conscientiously stepped forward and picked up a bag of rice in each hand.

One 20-catty bag of rice in each hand wasn’t considered light, and Rong Heng had liked reading over practicing martial arts in ancient times. Just look at his image, and you would know that he was a scholarly person. But at this moment, he didn’t show the slightest bit of hardship, as though he wasn’t picking up 40 catties of rice, but 2-3 catties of cotton7.

“Let’s go.” Rong Heng said calmly.

Surprised, Song Yuan hurriedly offered, “Wait, let me carry one, it’s too heavy.”

Rong Heng smiled and shook his head. “You said yourself that it’s very heavy. Let me carry it. I don’t think it’s heavy; it’s very light.”

Song Yuan was really surprised now. “You really think it’s light? It looks like you really worked out during those five years. I remember you used to…”

At this point, she halted, swallowing the words she didn’t let out.

When she had yet to know of his identity, how happy they’d been. Once, they were going up the mountain to visit the temple. She couldn’t climb anymore and begged him to carry her. When he heard her request, he’d looked at her with a face of incredulity.

He had carried her on his back in the end, but before they’d gone halfway up the mountain, he was so exhausted his breaths came out in pants.

His mouth had been quite poisonous at that time, and he’d said that it wasn’t him who was weak, it was her who was heavier than him. She’d gotten so angry that she wanted to bite him to death.

That was before!

Rong Heng’s gaze was still calm and gentle. Compared to when he’d just transmigrated, he’d really settled down.

He didn’t question her, didn’t coax her into recalling the past, just silently walking out of the supermarket with the rice in hand, walking in front of her.

The road from the supermarket to the apartment complex seemed to become very long.

When they arrived at the ground floor, although Rong Heng was doing his best to put on a facade, his breaths had gotten heavier.

He delivered the two bags of rice to her home and just placed them at the entrance hall, not planning to come in. There was a slight pant in his voice. “I still have some things to do, so I won’t be going in.”

Song Yuan gave an ‘en.’ “Wait a moment.”

She ran into the house, grabbed a bottle of spring water, and handed it to him. “I don’t have any of that sparkling water you drink at home, but this isn’t too bad either.”

Rong Heng accepted the bottle of water, saying okay in a low voice.

Lunch for the mother and son was very simple. Song Yuan looked up an online tutorial to make braised pork ribs8. Rong Ting liked it very much and ate two bowls of rice in one go.

After Rong Heng returned to the hotel, he inexplicably recalled the way she happily ate durian in the supermarket.

He hesitated for a moment before instructing Sun Qiming, “Go and buy me some… durian.”

In fact, he had no other thoughts; it was just that it was rare for him to come to the place where she had lived since childhood, and he wanted to try everything she liked. It was as though this way he could understand her thoughts and get closer to her.

Sun Qiming’s work efficiency was high, and very soon he bought two large boxes of durian. “I looked through several fruit shops. One shop had Musang King durian9, so I bought it. I heard from the shop clerk that it’s especially delicious.”

Rong Heng still felt a bit overwhelmed by the smell and subconsciously turned his head away.

He waited until Sun Qiming left before pinching his nose. With an expression of bravely facing death, he took an experimental bite, picked up the mineral water on the table, and drank half the bottle in one go before barely suppressing the smell.

As expected, when it came to matters of eating, he and she could not get along.

He held his breath and placed the two boxes of durian into a bag. After some thought, he wrote a note and inserted it. Then he went over to Sun Qiming’s room and asked Sun Qiming to send her the durians.

After Sun Qiming left, he returned to his room. Still feeling that the smell lingered in the room, he turned on the ventilation and opened the windows. He brushed his teeth and took a bath before feeling much more comfortable.

When Sun Qiming brought over the durians, Rong Ting was taking an afternoon nap. Song Yuan quietly opened the door and, seeing it was Sun Qiming, looked puzzled. “Is there something wrong?”

Sun Qiming smiled and handed her the paper bag. “The boss asked me to deliver these to you.”

“Oh?” Song Yuan didn’t need to take a look; she knew it was durian just by the smell.

Sun Qiming seemed to be afraid she would reject it. After handing her the paper bag, he turned and left, not giving her the chance to speak.

Song Yuan brought the paper bag inside. Fortunately, Gugu was taking a nap right now and his door was closed. She took out the two boxes of durian from the bag and spotted the note.

The note was folded in half. When opened up, what came into view was that familiar handwriting.

He really was quite amazing, and his calligraphy was very good looking. There was a bootlicker once who flattered him, saying his painting and calligraphy was unparalleled in the world. And now after arriving in modern times, he’d unexpectedly gotten used to writing with a pen? Even his writing was pretty good…

What he wrote was a poem.

She hadn’t seen it before; it must have been one he’d written himself. In ancient times, she was not proficient in the four arts. At that time, he often wrote poems to her. She didn’t understand them, and she didn’t know how to respond to his poems, so she could only paint chibi drawings for him. Fortunately, though she wasn’t good at anything else, her chibi drawings and manhua comics weren’t bad.

At that time, he said her drawings were baffling, confusing and without the least bit of aesthetic sense.

But he only said that without meaning it. When she didn’t paint for him, he returned to the General’s manor to ask her why…

That was then. Now, she still couldn’t understand his poems. She just read them and smiled, then inexplicably sank into a sense of disappointment and loss.

In the years that followed, it seemed she’d never told him, told the emperor, that in truth, she missed Ziheng.

[1] 猴年马月: refers to a time that will never come, though there is a monkey in the zodiac

[2] Like a lottery for drinks. If you win, you get another drink for free!

[3] 吃奶的力气: lit. breastfeeding strength LOL it just means to use all of your strength

[4] 20 kg, or ~44 lbs. That’s a lot of rice.

[5] 民以食为天: people view food as the primary need; food first, ethical niceties second

[6] 25 kg, or ~55 lbs.

[7] Saying it’s a bag of cotton and not rice is really unnecessary because it’s still 2-3 catties, no matter what he’s holding LMAO but I’m sure you all get the idea

Sorry, I just had to make this reference.

[8] 排骨焖饭

[9] 猫山王榴莲: a cultivar of durian that’s apparently pricier than other varieties. In China, it’s been called the “Hermes of durian” (the luxury good brand, not the Greek god).

Cheese: when you wanna make romantic gestures and pay for your wife’s food but you’re from out of town and don’t know how payment works