Growing Fond of You, Mr Nian

“Yeah. I look after the baby every day. How can I not lose weight?” Said Nian Xi dryly.

On hearing those words, Jiang Yuning was dumbfounded. His gentle, lovely face grew pale.

“Do you… have a baby?” He asked.

When did she get married? When did she get pregnant? Why didn’t he know about this?

He put a hand on the wall. He felt dizzy.

He felt as if he was having a heart attack, that he was passing out.

“It’s my brother’s baby,” Nian Xi explained. “Besides, it takes ten months to make a baby. You and I saw each other not so long ago. How could I possibly have a baby so soon?”

Once she said that Jiang Yuning instantly sighed with relief. She was right. He had gone to the police station to see her a few times. She never looked like a pregnant woman.

He realized how much he didn’t want her to get married and have a baby.

“When… do you plan to have your own baby?” He stammered. He didn’t know how to ask that question, and after saying it out loud, he regretted it.

He saw Nian Xi move her lips slightly, so he hurriedly covered his ear and said, “I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to know.”

He believed he wouldn’t be able to handle her answer.

Nian Xi didn’t know what to say.

“Whatever you’re having, it’s getting serious,” she thought, “You asked that question.”

Because of the baby topic, Jiang Yuning was a little uneasy the whole time. At the table, he introduced the different dishes to Nian Xi, “I think this is beef, this is pork and this… I’m not sure what it is…”

Nian Xi sighed, “Thank you. You don’t need to introduce these dishes to me. I know what they are. By the way, do you know Duan Yang?”

Jiang Yuning knew that Duan Yang was the victim’s name. He tried very to concentrate, but that name didn’t ring any bells. He never paid attention to other people, after all.

He shook his head.

“I guess it’ll take us some time to solve this case,” said Nian Xi disappointedly.

“I’m sorry,” Jiang Yuning apologized.

“Why are you sorry? You didn’t kill him,” Nian Xi said, then turned to Fang Qi, “We’ve spent the whole morning asking around about the victim. I feel that Duan Yang was a proud person. I guess a lot of people didn’t like him. Now I’m hoping we can get some useful information from the forensics report. I have a feeling the murderer is probably from school.”

Fang Qi agreed with her. “I heard that he spent most of his time in the physical lab and hardly ever left the campus. I don’t think he had any enemies on the outside. I have a feeling we’ll be visiting Xia City University a lot.”

Hearing that, Jiang Yuning, who was focusing on his lunch, felt his eyes glowing. He hurriedly swallowed the food in his mouth, then said to Nian Xi, “I… I’ll also be here too.”

“Aren’t you just a guest professor?” Nian Xi was surprised, “I thought you only came here once in a while.”

Jiang Yuning glanced at her shyly. He couldn’t tell her that he wanted to come to the university only because of her, could he?

He wracked his brain and finally looked at the food on his plate and said, “Because… the food is so good.”

Fang Qi found that lame excuse of his hilarious.” You only eat vegetables,” he said, “The vegetables in all canteens taste the same. It’s because of Nian Xi, isn’t it…”

Before he could finish, Nian Xi stomped his foot to signal him to stop talking.

Fang Qi curved his lips downward, saw Jiang Yuning glance at Nian Xi with a very shy and panicked look, then lowered his head to send some rice into his mouth with his chopsticks. In the meantime, he murmured, “Don’t talk nonsense.”

Nian Xi looked at his red ears. He looked so helpless and adorable. She even wanted to squeeze his cheeks with her fingers.

“When you’re here, can you… tell me? We can have lunch together.” A couple of minutes later, the shy boy, Jiang Yuning, finally extended the invitation.

After lunch, Jiang Yuning dropped his chopsticks and said, “It’s so nice to have had lunch together with you. Can you please let me know when you’re here again? My treat.”

Then, he abruptly smiled like a little boy.

Nian Xi paused briefly. She didn’t understand why he was suddenly so happy.

“Oh, in France, when you were in jail, were you okay? I was gonna wait for you, but our director told us to come back.”

Her words made Jiang Yuning even happier.

It turned out that she was not a cold and unfeeling person.

“It was good. I just… felt uncomfortable in my heart, because I couldn’t see you.”

After saying that, he dropped his head again.

Nian Xi couldn’t help but want to rub his hair.

Then, I thought about it and realized it was a good thing. If I saw you, It would mean that you were in there with me,” Jiang Yuning continued with a low voice.

Nian Xi’s heart softened. “Just eat. The food is getting cold,” she hurriedly said to him.

Jiang Yuning finished the food he ordered, then stopped eating.

Nian Xi was the only one who was still eating.

Watching her eat a lot of crayfish, he couldn’t help furrowing his brows. At last, he reached out a hand and dragged the plate of crayfish to himself.

Nian Xi paused briefly with surprise. She recalled having crayfish together with Nian Junting and Luosang. Back then, her brother was still pursuing Luosang. He attentively removed crayfish shells for Luosang. She was so jealous of Luosang at that time.

“He’s not gonna peel any crayfish for me, is he?” She thought, Does he know that I’d like that? Is he smart enough to do that?

Her eyes glowed. She started to look forward to it. But still, she pretended not to know what he was going to do.

“Why did you take away the plate? I’m still eating.”

Jiang Yuning shook his head and said, “Crayfish aren’t good for your health. They live in dirty water. My father often did experiments with them. They have heavy metal and parasites inside their bodies. I guess you never saw those parasites under microscopes. Crayfish are dirtier than the dirtiest trashcan in the world…”

“Enough. Stop!” Nian Xi’s face even turned green when she heard what he said, “I was expecting you to remove their shells for me, but instead, you told me not to eat them.”

“I’m doing this for your own good,” seeing her serious face, Jiang Yuning was a little sad. “They are really filthy. Those restaurants out there don’t even wash them properly. My father showed me the news. They wash those crayfish with a kind of detergent, oxalic acid that is often used in factories. They’re highly harmful to human bodies. For the worst case…”

“Alright, alright, Nian Xi waved her hand. Eating together with a scientist could be annoying. Her brother had the same problem.

“First of all, these crayfish are bred, not wild. These are cleaner than wild crayfish. Second, I don’t eat them every day. This is the first time I had crayfish this month. They won’t make me sick if I only eat them once in a while, will they? Also, if you don’t want me to eat them in those restaurants, will you cook crayfish for me?”

Jiang Yuning widened his eyes, looked at her. “I don’t know how,” he said with a muffled voice.

Nian Xi dragged the crayfish plate back to herself and said, “So don’t stop me. If you say one more word about this, I won’t eat with you again.”

“Again?” Jiang Yuning’s eyes glowed. “Will we have lunch together again?”

“When did I say that this is the last time we would be eating together?” Nian Xi felt a little awkward.

Jiang blinked, then responded shyly, “You didn’t.”

…