Chapter 150 Wage Cap

With a salary cap of one hundred and fifty yuan, and having signed the star player Prawn, only two-thirds of the salary space remained.

"Next, what other prospects are there?" Chen Yuan asked Chef Xia.

"Roast duck counts as poultry. Prawns count as seafood. Then we should choose one more from the meat category," Xia Xinyu said after thinking for a moment. "Of course, roast duck can also be counted as meat. Isn't your diet here more inclined towards light flavors and seafood? Buying some other seafood might be okay too."

"It's your birthday."

Chen Yuan had lost count of how many times he had reminded Xia Xinyu of her status as the birthday star.

Didn't she know that the birthday star's words on that day, like something from a rule-based horror story, had to be followed?

"I'm okay with anything, and I need to slowly get used to the cuisine here anyway."

After Xia Xinyu finished speaking with a smile, she suddenly realized something and froze.

Then, looking at Chen Yuan, who was also reacting to something like she was, but clearly hadn't fully caught on, she quickly added, "What I mean is, since I might be going to university here in the future, I need to slowly get used to the cuisine here."

Oh, that's what you meant.

I thought you were saying you wanted to marry into this place.

Then say it out loud! Only daring to fantasize in your heart, huh?

Just fantasizing, just fantasizing.

"I'm okay with anything. When I go to your place for feasts, as long as the dishes aren't too spicy, I can accept them," Chen Yuan said.

Although the dishes there were still mainly spicy, and there were hardly any that Chen Yuan could eat, Xia Xinyu's cooking style seemed to have become coastal.

At least the few times he had tasted it, it was flavorful and not spicy.

Quite interesting, almost like Jingbei flavors.

"Then how about this, we'll add a sweet and sour spare ribs, and a steamed perch," Xia Xinyu proposed after a little thought. "Of course, we also need vegetables, so we'll have stir-fried Chinese lettuce."

After she said these things, Chen Yuan gradually fell silent.

"What's wrong, are you not satisfied?" Xia Xinyu asked, puzzled.

"It's not that." Chen Yuan shook his head, feeling a bit complicated as he said, "As a wanderer away from home, I haven't had such a lavish home-cooked meal before..."

"Homesick?"

Xia Xinyu sensed the change in his emotions.

"Not really, it's only been a short time since the start of the semester." Thinking of tonight's dinner, Chen Yuan said truthfully, "It's really thanks to your birthday that I can eat so many good things, grateful for you, Xinyu."

"Pfft." Xia Xinyu was amused and playfully responded, "I'm also grateful to you. If you didn't celebrate my birthday, I probably would have just had noodles tonight."

"That's not true."

After Xia Xinyu said that, guilt hit Chen Yuan in the back of the head like a boomerang again.

If his aunt hadn't told him, she probably would have spent this October 24th like any other day.

And now she attributed all of this to his thoughtfulness.

"The eighteenth birthday is the most important. Next time will definitely be better than this time."

Pushing the shopping cart, Chen Yuan walked ahead, not facing her when he said these words.

"Eh?" Xia Xinyu followed behind, puzzled. "What's wrong with how we celebrated this time?"

"Not cool enough."

"How could it not be?" Xia Xinyu said quite sincerely. "How else can you celebrate a birthday? If we have another eighteenth birthday, we can go to the riverside to release a Kongmiao lantern and eat some good food."

Chen Yuan, I'm easily satisfied.

"Besides, you're the one turning eighteen first, right?" Xia Xinyu stood next to Chen Yuan, changing the subject. "When the time comes, you come over from home in advance, like two days before the start of school, and I'll celebrate for you."

"No need to come early, I'm not going back." Hearing this, Xia Xinyu was stunned and said softly, "Then you're not going back because..."

"I have to make up lessons, the second year of high school doesn't have a summer vacation, isn't that the case for your school?"

"Oh right, I almost thought I was still a first-year high school student, so confused." Xia Xinyu then realized and smiled awkwardly.

That's right, at that time Chen Yuan would have a reason to continue staying in Xiahai.

Unlike this winter vacation, he had no reason to continue staying in Xiahai.

Continuing to listen to Xinyu, Chen Yuan increasingly felt that he was incomplete in terms of 'heart'.

His incomplete heart wouldn't even fetch a good price in Myanmar.

Now that he thought about it, she was the one who remembered his birthday, she was the one who considered the arrangements for the summer and winter vacations, and even the equation '504+121=625' was Xia Xinyu's major patented invention.

Sigh, Xinyu is too considerate.

After the two bought the spare ribs, had the perch processed, and picked out the vegetables, Xia Xinyu suddenly stopped when passing the fruit wine rack and suggested, "Since we don't have to go to school tomorrow, want to drink a little?"

"You've turned into a drunkard too?"

Chen Yuan thought that only he was the kind of person who didn't know what he did at school, but thought he was busy, so he needed to have some cold beer to heal his soul as an alcohol enthusiast.

But Xia Xinyu, who gets knocked out after one glass, also liked this?

"Sparkling wine, this alcohol content is still a bit higher," Xia Xinyu said confidently.

"Alright, as long as you're okay with it."

Okay, okay, Xinyu is showing off.

"Actually..."

As Chen Yuan put a bottle of sparkling wine into the shopping cart, Xia Xinyu slowly said with a smile, "Don't be influenced by things on the internet. Extravagant people are in the minority. Ordinary people's lives are like this."

Xia Xinyu could tell that Chen Yuan felt that this birthday was too ordinary, so he specially promised her that next time he would celebrate a more impressive birthday.

But in reality, she was very satisfied.

She had no more expectations.

So boys, don't think about those messy things.

"Ah, you found out."

Since the other party understood it that way, Chen Yuan had no choice but to act like he had been seen through, and said, "I was brainwashed by consumerism, thinking that not having a rolling happy birthday message on a Times Square billboard would be perfunctory, you're right to criticize me."

"Stop being glib, let's go back and cook."

Xia Xinyu patted Chen Yuan's shoulder, urging him to speed up.

Hurry, let's celebrate the birthday.

You might think that the gift you gave was cheap, or that having me cook on my birthday was disrespectful to the birthday star, or that it was too ordinary because there were no other activities besides adding a meal and eating cake. These were some anxieties that boys felt when their abilities were limited.

But you obviously forgot...

Whether a spring outing is happy or not, depends entirely on who is sitting next to you.

…………

After the perch was processed, it was marinated with cooking wine, scallions, and ginger for later steaming.

At this time, Chen Yuan used toothpicks to remove the shrimp veins one by one, opened their backs, and prepared for the salt and pepper prawns.

And Xia Xinyu, with great seriousness, wielded the ladle, doing her best to make a sweet and sour spare ribs.

This level of difficulty was indeed not something that players like Chen Yuan could touch.

Similarly a classic delicacy, the difficulty of braised pork ribs was far less than that of sweet and sour spare ribs.

The step of stir-frying the sugar color was the finishing touch.

If there was even a slight deviation, the color of the ribs would be unsightly.

Too light and it wouldn't color, too dark and it would be burnt.

This Four Sect Little Chef was terrifying!

"I've finished processing the shrimp..."

"Shhh." Xia Xinyu raised her finger, indicating that she couldn't be distracted.

Even for her, she might not be able to stir-fry the sugar color well every time.

After a relatively 'long' process, ice sugar bubbles appeared one by one, the sugar color gradually turned dark brown, and Xia Xinyu put in the previously blanched spare ribs, added garlic and stir-fried them, and after basically every rib was colored, she turned up the heat and added light soy sauce, star anise, bay leaves, and finally poured in pre-boiled boiling water and covered the pot...

After this set of procedures was completed, Xia Xinyu immediately left the room with the shrimp she had processed, and instructed, "After the water boils, turn to medium-low heat and simmer for forty minutes, remember to stir with chopsticks, don't let it burn!"

"Okay, where are you going?"

"Of course, I'm going to my room, there's only one stove here, how long would it take to make everything?"

After saying that, she slammed the door shut.

And Chen Yuan stood in front of the pot, honestly waiting according to Saint Xinyu's instructions.

Just then, his aunt's WeChat message came.

Calm and Breezy: Little Chen, have you guys already started eating?

Looking at the empty small table, he fell into deep thought.

Chen Yuan: Not yet, still serving the dishes.

Calm and Breezy: Then can you send me a picture later to see what you guys ate?

Send a picture?

Crap, aunt thought we were eating out!

And she didn't know that Xia Xinyu was his neighbor, let alone that they were celebrating her birthday in one room, and her little niece was going to get him drunk later...

But he couldn't refuse this reasonable request.

So, A few moments later...

On the dining table, steamed perch, sweet and sour spare ribs, roast duck, the salt and pepper duck rack that came with the roast duck, salt and pepper shrimp, and stir-fried Chinese lettuce were placed around, and a most important C position was reserved.

Picking up the cake from the ground and placing it in the middle, Chen Yuan was just about to unwrap it when he suddenly remembered that he hadn't gotten the sparkling wine that had been chilling for a while, so he got up to get it.

But just as he got it and turned around, Xia Xinyu had already unwrapped the cake and taken off the transparent box.

Then, she turned to look at him and asked in a soft voice with slightly flushed cheeks, "This, is this my cake?"

In response, Chen Yuan quickly explained, "That thing was written by the cake shop clerk on their own initiative, I didn't even know she wrote that kind of blessing."

"But..."

Looking at Chen Yuan, who couldn't see the words on the cake at all from this angle, Xia Xinyu maintained her weak aura and asked back, "What did she write on her own initiative? How did you know before opening the cake?"

Chen Yuan: "..."

I'm a straight man, why are you asking me?

"This..." Xia Xinyu's face was still burning. She wanted to tell herself not to make such a big deal out of it, but it was difficult for her, who hadn't seen much of the world, to do so.

Each of these words could be understood when viewed separately.

But when put together, it was...

Looking at the cute font of 'Baby, Happy Birthday~' written in red strawberry jam, she was a little confused.

Who invented this format of nickname?

She had never heard of anyone calling her that before...

"Um..."

Chen Yuan didn't know what to say, but he thought it was Xia Xinyu's problem.

You don't know you're called Xin Bao, is that reasonable? (Xin Bao is "Heart Treasure" in Chinese)

Even if I really wrote that, can't the birthday star be a little humorous today and just laugh it off?

Damn college student, you ruined everything!

After about ten seconds, Xia Xinyu gradually calmed down and then looked at Chen Yuan, saying, "Thank you... you really put your heart into it."

"What are you referring to?"

"This blessing is the most special one I've ever seen." Xia Xinyu said honestly, "Although my mother also had the whimsical idea of drawing a heart, it's really interesting that neither of these two words is my name."

Crap, now that you mention it, they really aren't.

"Um... mainly the cake shop clerk said it was a bit ordinary after I finished writing it, so she said she wanted to make it interesting."

"But you just said you weren't aware of it..."

Um, he messed up again.

As expected, it was still a bit too early to call out the nickname Xin Bao.

This kind of thing should be kept within a small circle.

Xin Bao is not suitable for going public.

"Just admit that you wanted to write it yourself," Xia Xinyu said, staring at Chen Yuan in a slightly unforgiving tone.

No, what's the point of you making me admit this?

What can you gain?

"Yes, yes, yes."

Finally, Chen Yuan admitted that this was his original creation.

And Xia Xinyu also felt like something sweet was melting in her heart, her emotions were no longer mixed with shyness amidst joy, but purely feeling that she, as the birthday star, had been made happy...

Although she didn't want to be like this, he called me Xin Bao.

"Then let's put in the candles first."

Xia Xinyu didn't continue to torture Chen Yuan, after all, he didn't even call her Xinyu often, this kind of embarrassing nickname would definitely make him feel embarrassed.

"Wait, let me take a picture."

"Oh... right, it's indeed worth recording." Xia Xinyu expressed her understanding and smiled brightly, making a V sign with her hand.

Then, she saw Chen Yuan pointing the camera at the table.

You're only taking pictures of the dishes...

Xinyu, don't make trouble, I'm trying hard to take this picture so that it looks like it was taken in a restaurant outside, so that my aunt won't see that I've brought her niece into my room as much as possible.

"Move the wine a bit." Chen Yuan continued to command.

"Oh." Xia Xinyu moved the wine away, her smile gradually fading.

After Chen Yuan took the picture and swiped his phone a few times, she put the wine back and inserted the candles.

And just then, Chen Yuan put a small birthday crown on her head with his own hands.

"Um?"

"Wait, I'll turn off the lights."

After lighting the candles, Chen Yuan got up to turn off the room lights, and finally sat back down opposite Xia Xinyu, seriously pointing the phone camera at her.

So, his previous photo was to complete someone's assignment...

"Is it better for my hair to be down or in a ponytail?" In the orange candlelight, Xia Xinyu curved the corners of her mouth into a smile, gently asking Chen Yuan's opinion.

"Both are good." He also answered seriously.

Then, Xia Xinyu took the hair tie off her ponytail, and her smooth black hair flowed quietly like a stream.

"You seem to have some opinions on my ponytail."

Xia Xinyu noticed the obvious change in Chen Yuan's expression when she let her hair down, just like that day in the dream when she undid her pigtails, his aesthetic preferences were really easy to guess.

"Really not, I think both are fine."

It's mainly because you're beautiful, I wouldn't mind even if you had braids.

Ugly people are the ones who are fussy, beautiful people are diverse.

"Okay, tell me when you've taken the picture."

Xia Xinyu clenched her hands into fists and placed them on her chin, nodded slightly, closed her eyes, and posed for the photo.

She in the camera was no different from her in reality.

She belonged to the category of people who were photogenic, unlike some girls who were very good-looking in reality, but looked very different in photos.

The light of the 1 and 7 candles, as the only light source in this room, dispelled the darkness in this area.

But because the candlelight was weak, this light source also had boundaries.

Xia Xinyu's figure was right in the intersection of light and shadow.

Pressing the shutter, this moment was frozen.

In terms of composition, it was very clever.

So clever that the entire background was hidden by the night, and only he knew where she was.

This photo would actually be safer to send to his aunt, less likely to be exposed than the previous photo, but...

Mine.

--Derived from the abbreviation of 'This one is mine'.

"Then I'll make a wish."

After hearing the shutter sound, Xia Xinyu no longer held the idol baggage of having to take every photo well, and silently made a wish.

And Chen Yuan clapped his hands while singing in standard English that he had practiced in advance, "happy birthday to you..."

Chen Yuan's voice was very pleasant, and his English was also standard, so Xia Xinyu restrained her urge to torture him on how to spell 'birthday'.

And in her heart, she earnestly prayed:

[I hope Yuan Bao goes to the same university as me] (Yuan Bao is a term of endearment).