Can't Possibly Fall for My Wife Again After Rebirth, Right? - Chapter 55

The commercial district on weekends was still very crowded. After wandering around, the two of them finally chose a revolving mini hot pot restaurant.

When the waiter came over to ask for the soup base, Xu Yingran said, “Two spicy red oil pots.”

“Alright.”

“I don’t want a red oil pot,” Fu Qiao, sitting next to her, suddenly interjected. “I don’t feel like eating spicy food today. I’ll have a tomato pot.”

Xu Yingran froze for a moment before saying to the waiter, “Then one red oil and one tomato.”

“Understood.” The waiter noted it down and went to prepare the bases.

Xu Yingran looked at Fu Qiao, curious. “Don’t you usually love the spicy soup bases the most? Why did you order tomato today?”

Fu Qiao gave a muffled snort. “I just don’t want to eat spicy today.”

Xu Yingran didn’t argue. After all, there are always those few days when one wants a change of pace; she understood. “Should I mix the dipping sauce for you? Extra sesame paste and extra chili?”

“No sesame paste.”

Fu Qiao originally wanted to say no chili either, but then she thought that since she had already ordered a tomato pot, if she didn’t have at least some spice, she probably wouldn’t be able to swallow it. She pursed her lips and stood up. “I’ll mix it myself.”

Xu Yingran was baffled. She watched as Fu Qiao stood by the sauce station and mixed a sauce that looked completely different from what she usually ate. Not only was there no sesame paste, but she had even added vinegar and millet peppers.

It wasn’t that those ingredients were bad, it was just that Fu Qiao had disliked them both since she was a child. Now, she had prepared a full bowl of them.

Xu Yingran glanced at her and asked, “Want a bottle of Sprite?”

“No Sprite,” Fu Qiao said, tilting her small nose up. “A bottle of mineral water is fine.”

Fine. Xu Yingran could see it now—Fu Qiao was doing this on purpose just to contradict her.

As it turned out, what Fu Qiao didn’t like before, she still didn’t like now. Between the tomato pot and the sauce she didn’t enjoy, Fu Qiao’s face turned green as she ate. By the time they went to pay the bill, she had eaten less than half of her usual amount.

Don’t ask—if you ask, she’s “just not hungry.”

Xu Yingran sighed in her heart. How can my wife be so stubborn?

After finishing the hot pot, Fu Qiao paid for her own share, so Xu Yingran had to pay for hers. As they walked out of the store together, Xu Yingran asked, “Want some milk tea?”

Fu Qiao was certain to say no.

“No.” Fu Qiao said, “I don’t like drinking milk tea.”

Xu Yingran was helpless. “Then let’s have some lemonade. Don’t you feel your throat is uncomfortable?”

Fu Qiao thought about it; her throat did indeed feel a bit odd after the hot pot. She pondered for a long time before saying, “Then… then let’s get one cup.”

They went to the milk tea shop and ordered two cups of lemonade.

“Two cups of room-temperature lemonade, full sugar,” Xu Yingran said.

“I don’t want full sugar,” Fu Qiao said, standing beside her.

Xu Yingran turned to look at her. “Then half sugar?”

Fu Qiao twitched her nose and said to the staff, “No sugar.”

Both Xu Yingran and the employee fell silent.

“It won’t taste good without sugar,” the girl behind the counter told Fu Qiao. “Are you sure you want no sugar?”

Fu Qiao nodded.

“Alright. One room-temperature full-sugar lemonade, and one room-temperature sugar-free lemonade.” The employee looked at Fu Qiao again and added, “We don’t support returns, exchanges, or complaints for sugar-free orders.”

Fu Qiao froze for a moment but still nodded firmly.

Why would I complain? Is it really going to be that bad?

Fu Qiao’s heart was drumming as she took the sugar-free lemonade. She simply didn’t want to go along with Xu Yingran’s wishes, but she truly had no idea what sugar-free lemonade actually tasted like.

She inserted the straw and took the first sip.

The sourness of the lemon hit her brain immediately. The sourness was so intense that her facial expression collapsed instantly, and she kept sticking her tongue out.

“So sour…” Fu Qiao looked at her drink in shock. “Why is it this sour without sugar?”

Xu Yingran looked at her and said amusingly, “They told you it would be sour without sugar. What can you do if you don’t listen?”

Fu Qiao didn’t believe in the “evil” of it and took another sip, and the sourness hit her brain again. Seeing her like this, Xu Yingran had no choice but to snatch her lemonade away and hand over her own sugar-added cup. “Drink mine.”

Fu Qiao wanted to say “No,” but as she opened her mouth, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse. After all, that cup of lemonade was far too sour; it made her shrink back.

“…Thanks.” Fu Qiao awkwardly took Xu Yingran’s cup and began drinking through the straw.

Now this is the right taste!

Seeing Fu Qiao’s expression improve instantly, Xu Yingran shook her head helplessly and took a sip from Fu Qiao’s cup. It was indeed sour, but not unbearable.

After a bit of fussing, Fu Qiao felt there wasn’t much point in it anymore. Why be difficult with Xu Yingran? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Feelings couldn’t be forced; Fu Qiao was still quite open-minded about it.

The two walked along the snack street holding their drinks. Fu Qiao wasn’t full, so she ordered two starch sausages and a portion of grilled cold noodles, even mercifully giving one starch sausage to Xu Yingran.

Watching Fu Qiao eat her fill with a face full of satisfaction, Xu Yingran felt like she was looking at a little kitten that had just finished its meal and was licking its fur.

“Full now?” Xu Yingran sat beside her and said with a smile. “There are no plans for later, so I’ll take you home.”

Fu Qiao glanced at her. “Did you borrow Auntie’s electric scooter again?”

“That’s my family’s scooter to begin with. How can it be called borrowing when I use it?” Xu Yingran corrected her.

Fu Qiao couldn’t be bothered with her. Drinking the last few sips of her lemonade, she said, “I can just take the bus back myself. You go do whatever you need to do.”

“I’m taking you back,” Xu Yingran insisted. “If you take the bus, you have to transfer, and it takes over an hour to get home. If I take you, it only takes 40 minutes.”

“It’s such a long way. How will you get back if you take me?”

“I brought the charger!” Xu Yingran said with a beaming smile. “I even brought my homework. After I take you home, I’ll charge the scooter at your shop. By the time I finish my homework, I can just ride home.”

Fu Qiao bit her straw and frowned. “Don’t you find it a hassle?”

Xu Yingran replied, “How could it be a hassle? I don’t find it a hassle at all.”

To be with my wife, what does a little hassle matter? Besides, this wasn’t even the real hassle—there were more troublesome things she hadn’t mentioned yet.

Fu Qiao originally intended to refuse, but she couldn’t withstand Xu Yingran’s acting spoiled and persistent pestering. Finally, she sat on the back seat of the scooter, braving the cold November wind as they headed toward her home.

The weather wasn’t particularly cold in the middle of the day, and with Xu Yingran blocking the wind in front, Fu Qiao wasn’t cold at all. As soon as she sat down, Xu Yingran had her tuck her hands into her pockets, making it warm the whole way.

Holding Xu Yingran, Fu Qiao couldn’t help but wonder: Will she be like this with her future girlfriend too? Actually, sitting on the back of an electric scooter was nothing. Fu Qiao believed that as long as you were with the person you liked, it didn’t matter where you sat.

The 40-minute journey was a bit long, yet it felt like it wasn’t long enough. Soon, they arrived at the front of Fu Qiao’s family shop, where the renovation was still going on with clinking and clanking sounds.

Fu Qiao hopped off the back seat reluctantly and asked curiously, “How much battery is left?”

Xu Yingran pointed it out to her. “About 25%.”

Fu Qiao gave an “Oh.” Realizing she couldn’t ride back with that amount and would have to charge here anyway, she said helplessly, “Then wait here, I’ll go tell my parents.”

When Xu Yingran parked the scooter in a spot that wasn’t in the way, Fu Qiao came over with an extension cord. The two crouched together to figure it out. It was Xu Yingran’s first time charging the family scooter, and she had to circle the “little electric donkey” several times before finding the charging port.

Once everything was set up, Hu Mei walked out. She was covered in paint and looked a bit messy, but her face was overflowing with a smile. She handed the key to Fu Qiao and said, “You two go home and do your homework. Things aren’t finished here yet.”

Fu Qiao took the key and asked, “Have you eaten yet?”

“We have. We ate with the workers.”

“Okay, then Xu Yingran and I will go home to do homework first.”

“Go on, go on. There are drinks in the fridge at home; help yourselves if you’re thirsty.”

“Got it.”

Holding the key, Fu Qiao said to Xu Yingran, “Let’s go, back home to do homework.”

Xu Yingran smiled, said goodbye to Hu Mei, and went back home with Fu Qiao.

The new home still had the old furniture. Last time she came at night, she didn’t think much of it, but seeing it in the daylight made it look a bit sparse. But there was no helping it; the money for the new house and the shop was a large sum. The renovation for the house would have to wait; as long as it was livable for now.

The two sat around the dining table in the living room. Although the house was a bit bare, the natural light was excellent—much better than the old apartment building.

Xu Yingran thought to herself that when she had the chance to make money, she would have to change to a larger house so she could bring both sets of parents to live together.

Thinking about this, Xu Yingran’s mind wandered while she was doing her homework. By the time Fu Qiao had finished a whole practice paper, Xu Yingran was still looking at a multiple-choice question she had already read several times.

Fu Qiao glanced at her and said helplessly, “Why don’t you go see if your little electric donkey is charged yet?”

Xu Yingran was puzzled. “Why check it?”

“I see your mind isn’t on studying anyway, so you might as well go home and rest.”

Heaven and Earth as my witness! She had just accidentally let her mind wander for a moment. Why was she suddenly being chased away?

Xu Yingran hurriedly said to her, “The battery isn’t full yet. I was just thinking about something just now and let my mind wander a bit.”

Fu Qiao looked at her and pulled out a new practice paper. “What could you possibly be thinking about?”

“Um…”

Hearing Fu Qiao’s tone, Xu Yingran hesitated for a long time before saying, “I’ll come to see you every Tuesday and Thursday.”

Fu Qiao looked up, surprised. “What?”

“I’ve thought it through,” Xu Yingran said to her. “Running over here every day isn’t realistic. So I was thinking, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, after my evening self-study ends, I’ll take the fast bus that has fewer stops. I should get here around 10:10, which is just after you finish school. I can still catch the last bus back to the city before 10:30.”

Fu Qiao said in shock, “Are you crazy? It’s so far from your house. If you take the last bus at 10:30, you won’t get home until after 11:00.”

“What does it matter? It’s not like I’m coming every day.” Xu Yingran said to Fu Qiao with a beaming smile. “I’ve decided—I’ll see you on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I can see you again on Saturdays. This way, balancing work and rest, it won’t be too exhausting. What do you think?”

“I… I think it’s not good.” Fu Qiao looked at her awkwardly. “We used to see each other every day, weren’t you bored? We’ve already transferred schools, so why do you still want to see me?”

Xu Yingran blinked. “Isn’t it a perfectly normal thing to want to see the person you like?”