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Xue Meng realized, to his horror, that Shi Mei didn’t like candied fruits.
His realization was too late. He received a gift of a box of candied fruits from who-knows-who and eagerly shared to Shi Mei at least a dozen of the biggest ones laced with the most sugar. He had even told him, “The candied loquats are really nice. Have some.” – then proceeded to take out the loquat slices from his own skewers and presented them to Shi Mei, proud from having expressed his love language eloquently...and completely unaware of Shi Mei’s paling face.
The same day, Shi Mei got so sick that it was pure luck that he hadn’t thrown up his organs at this point.
He vomited as if he had eaten a plate of garbage for breakfast. But that morning’s breakfast was an ordinary meal everyone in the sect ate and, to Xue Meng’s knowledge, there was no news of mass food poisoning, so it must be something in what only Shi Mei had eaten. And it was Xue Meng’s candied fruits. Xue Meng himself had had a bunch of them and he was still fine, so it mustn’t be that they had been bad or poisoned.
It must be that Shi Mei hated candied fruits so much to the point that his guts couldn’t take it!
Xue Meng wanted to go into seclusion, hide in a cave and vanish from the surface of the world forever. Shi Mei was his long-time friend – and also his long-time crush, although he couldn’t admit it out loud – it was beyond shameful that Xue Meng didn’t even know what he liked and disliked.
If Shi Mei didn’t like candied fruits, then what food did he actually like?
With Shi Mei too sick to attend classes, there was no one to be the peacemaker between Xue Meng and Mo Ran, nothing to hold him back from being aggressive when Mo Ran teased him; but that afternoon, Xue Meng shut himself in his own running thoughts, silent and dejected, until Mo Ran grew bored from being ignored and stayed quiet too.
Although Xue Meng didn’t say anything, he really wanted to skin the dog next to him, who had been teasing him with provocative words like ‘Your candied fruits got Shi Mei suffering, you should take responsibility.’
He sighed.
Why did Mo Ran have to say something so wretched yet so true?!
Mo Ran was his love rival. He better not know Shi Mei’s favorite food, otherwise – first, Xue Meng wouldn’t know how and where to hide his face, and second, he’d have to extract that information from him...
This train of thought randomly brought in the mental image of Mo Ran casually feeding Shi Mei a spoon of food some nights ago, something that Xue Meng had to endure with steam evaporating from his head.
“Ah! Fuck it!”
Xue Meng was brimming with anger and embarrassment and didn’t realize that what he intended to shout in his mind had been shouted with his tongue instead, in a volume louder than appropriate. No one could figure out who had offended the darling of the heavens so badly he cursed as if being stabbed out of the blue; even Mo Ran faced front and played dumb, afraid to hit more nerves.
Thankfully, his shizun only sternly scolded him and then moved on. Everyone else followed suit, distracting themselves from Xue Meng’s sudden meltdown.
Meanwhile, Xue Meng put aside his ego and his just-ruined image with the thought of a resolve: he will find out what Shi Mei liked, and he will take responsibility.
Words quickly spreaded that the young master was asking around ‘what kind of food does Shi Mingjing like?’. Most of the people he asked didn’t know, and those who claimed to know gave vague answers. It seemed that Shi Mei didn’t really have anything he didn’t like...except for candied fruits...the food Xue Meng gave him most often.
It would be great if he could vent his frustration with a blood-curdling shout once again. In the end, he only had two people left to ask: Mo Ran, and Chu Wanning. But of course he couldn’t ask Mo Ran. So, there was only one person, who he found in the kitchen.
When Xue Meng asked, Chu Wanning understood his intention at once, considerate enough to not stall and give a concrete answer, “Wontons.”
The very same thing he was cooking.
And also the very same thing Mo Ran fed Shi Mei that other night...
Successfully practicing self-control and held back a string of crude words, Xue Meng finally said, “Then, shizun, please let me bring over the bowl to Shi Mei. I-I made a mistake when I gave him my candied fruits. I have to apologize.”
Chu Wanning nodded and handed Xue Meng the bowl. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know.”
“But, as his friend, I...”
“Shi Mingjing treasures you too much to say no. Go, now. Be careful and hold it firmly, it’s hot.”
“Yes, shizun!”
Hold on—Chu Wanning said something strange before. Shi Mingjing treasures you too much to say no...treasures him too much? Treasure?
All the way to Shi Mei’s room, Xue Meng screamed internally. Every word that came from Chu Wanning, for Xue Meng, was to be respected and learned, not to be pondered if it was wrong or not – Chu Wanning wasn’t hesitating when he said that, but just how right could he be – how could he tell that Shi Mei treasured him, the friend who didn’t even know the kind of food he liked, the secret crush that could only watch over him from afar?
By the time he arrived, the scream materialized into a real, hostile-sounding but well-meaning, “Shi Mei!”
He knew Shi Mei couldn’t get up and open the door, and what was initially planned to be a gentle, quiet entrance turned into a downright barging in, hostile and, although well-meaning, no person in their right mind could think that it was.
“Young master, what happened?”
Shi Mei leaned on his elbow as a leverage to get his weak body up. Xue Meng wanted to rush over and help him, but he was holding a bowl of hot soup in his hands, clearly unable to make any rash moves. “D-don’t you get up!”
“...”
He placed the bowl down on the bedside table, his face still red from the mix of emotions.
“What’s wrong?”
“I know you don’t like candied fruits, that’s why you fell sick!”
No...in the script, it should be ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know that you didn’t like candied fruits, that’s why right now, I’m bringing you some of your favorite food as an apology.’
“...”
Why did everything he wanted to say lovingly turn out so violent?!
Shi Mei was shocked silent from being yelled at repeatedly and from having his distaste for candied fruits revealed to himself in broad daylight, all from the person he least wanted it. He looked down, his lips trembling slightly. Xue Meng noticed Shi Mei’s eyes; they were still red and watery from the previous rounds of puking.
“I...I’m sorry, Shi Mei, I thought you liked them, that’s why I wanted you to have more. You don’t have to eat them anymore. If you still have some left, just throw them away. I won’t give you candied fruits anymore,” Xue Meng said, each word like an exhale. He held up the bowl awkwardly, “Your stomach must be empty. Shizun cooked this soup.”
Shi Mei smiled. “Thank you so much, young master,” he reached out a limping hand to take the spoon, and Xue Meng panicked a little.
“What are you doing! You’re still weak, let me feed you!”
Being able to feed him more spoons than Mo Ran did made Xue Meng feel like a champion. And the shy smile Shi Mei gave him was also definitely absent when Mo Ran had been the one to offer his feeding service. Mo Ran could very well just admit defeat and go home.
“Shi Mei, actually, I don’t know anything about the food you like to eat...”
“Don’t blame yourself. It’s not like I’ve ever told you either,” Shi Mei shook his head, then patted the back of Xue Meng’s hand; a small, dear gesture to assure him. “I like spicy and savory food best, like wontons and stir-fried vegetables. I like light snacks that aren’t too sticky .”
Xue Meng nodded. His hand quivered as he gave Shi Mei a spoonful of broth. “So you...don’t like sweet things at all?”
Shi Mei laughed, beautiful enough for Xue Meng to retract back by reflex, moreso when Shi Mei pinched his reddening cheek gently, “Hm? Who said I don’t like sweet things?”
He was truly the champion.