Zero-sum game

"...Well, okay, let's do this for today. If you have any questions in class tomorrow, you can write them down, and I will explain them to you in detail tonight."

After Shen Yan finished speaking, the student on the other side of the screen hung up the video call.

Stretching for a while, he was about to go to the kitchen to see how Zhou Xingchuan's meal was doing, when he turned around, he saw him standing at the kitchen door looking at him resentfully.

"The meal is ready?" Shen Yan stood up.

"I'm waiting for you," Zhou Xingchuan pulled him to sit down at the dining table, "I promise, today is definitely much better."

As soon as school started, Shen Yan suddenly became busy.Usually there are classes or rehearsals during the day, and at night he also found a job as an online tutor. He has to give one to two hours of homework tutoring to a child, almost all day long.

Although he solved the problem of food and accommodation at Zhou Xingchuan's place, he usually still had some expenses.And although his mother's side is not in a hurry now, she will definitely need some money in the future, and he has to find a way to save money.

Seeing that Shen Yan was so busy, Zhou Xingchuan didn't say anything.

Originally, as long as Shen Yan opened his mouth, Zhou Xingchuan would help him find a way no matter how much money he had, but Shen Yan didn't ask him for it, so he couldn't take the initiative to give it. Zhou Xingchuan could only carefully grasp the scale.

Just to let Shen Yan have a better rest and recover from his stomach problems, Master Zhou, who has never bothered to go to the kitchen, has recently started learning to cook, but his level is up and down, which is very worrying.

"If it doesn't work today, I'll just hire a nanny." Zhou Xingchuan sat down opposite Shen Yan and said.

"Ah..." Shen Yan picked up the chopsticks and took a bite of the stir-fried vegetables in front of him, "Mmm! It's delicious!"

Seeing his appearance, Zhou Xingchuan also tasted a chopstick, frowned and swallowed, "It's so bitter."

"This is a problem with the vegetables, not yours." Shen Yan immediately said seriously, "This vegetable is always so bitter."

"Really?" Zhou Xingchuan believed his words, "It seems that my aunt's fried food was not bitter at all in the past, but the food in the vegetable market is still not good."

"Yes, yes, yes." Shen Yan said.

Zhou Xingchuan looked at him, and suddenly said: "Forget it, let's invite an auntie, you will eat even worse if I cook, you might as well order takeaway."

Shen Yan waved his hands again and again, "No, no, I'm not used to people coming to the house every day to help cook, if that's the case, I'd rather cook by myself."

Zhou Xingchuan understood what he meant, "Then let her go to my side to make it, and we will eat it after she leaves."

There is nothing wrong with solving it this way, but Shen Yan still felt awkward, "...Let's talk about it."

After dinner, Shen Yan wandered around where Zhou Xingchuan usually lived.

Although Zhou Xingchuan's side is roughly similar to his side, one of the big rooms has been converted into a study by Zhou Xingchuan, and the books are quite decent. There are some professional books on the desk, and there is a book beside it. massage chair.

He flipped through some books on the nearby bookshelf. The types were very mixed. There were many classics and many mystery novels. The original Japanese and English books were not the ones that were just brought in as decorations.

Shen Yan looked at the book in his hand, it was clearly some letters he knew, but when combined they were some unfamiliar words, and then he realized that it was not an English book.

But Zhou Xingchuan obviously read it, because there were obvious traces of reading it, one page was folded, and two words were written in pencil on the side.

Shen Yan recognized at a glance that those were the two words that Zhou Xingchuan had remarked to him yesterday.

At this moment, Zhou Xingchuan also came in, Shen Yan asked: "This doesn't seem to be English?"

"Well, it's German. I went to Germany as an exchange student for a year in high school, so I know a little bit." Zhou Xingchuan replied.

Being able to read the original text should be more than just "knowledge a little", Shen Yan thought to himself.

Then he secretly took out his mobile phone and looked up the meaning of those two words.

It was a bit difficult to type in non-English. Before he could turn to the result, Zhou Xingchuan smiled in his ear and said, "Meinaugenstern, my star."

Shen Yan turned his head to look at him, and quickly put away the phone, "...so that's what it means."

Zhou Xingchuan took the opportunity to kiss him again, and asked, "I'm missing something here, do you know what it is?"

"What?" Shen Yan looked around, but didn't understand what he meant.

"Since it's a study room, is there a missing piece of writing on the wall?" Zhou Xingchuan said while taking out a pen, ink, paper and inkstone from the bookcase next to him, and began to spread paper on the table. "Is it my honor to have Teacher Shen's calligraphy?" ?”

Seeing that he came prepared, Shen Yan shook his head, "My font is too petty, it's not suitable to hang here."

Zhou Xingchuan smiled and said, "Is my place still some kind of museum? Is there anything inappropriate?"

Then he pulled Shen Yan over, "I'll grind ink for you."

Shen Yan picked up the pen that Zhou Xingchuan had prepared for him.This is a Yanghao pen, which feels very good in the hand and has all four virtues, so I feel a little itchy in my heart.

"What should I write?" Shen Yan first wrote Zhou Xingchuan's name to practice his hands.

"It's beautiful, it's really beautiful, I want to frame it." Zhou Xingchuan picked up his name and praised it repeatedly.

Shen Yan laughed at his indiscriminate flattery, "It's alright, alright, you don't think it's embarrassing to frame the words you practiced, but I do."

"Then I'll keep it for myself," Zhou Xingchuan said, putting the piece of paper aside.

"What should I write..." Shen Yan thought for a while, then suddenly dipped his pen into the ink again, "I see."

Zhou Xingchuan only saw the eight words on the paper, "Traveling across hundreds of rivers, there is a long way to go".

The writing force is quite vigorous, but with some softness.

Shen Yan put down his pen, feeling a little proud, "How is it? Isn't it very suitable to hang in the study, and there is your name inside."

"That's good," Zhou Xingchuan said, "but it's too serious, like hanging in the office for entrepreneurs."

He could see that Shen Yan deliberately exerted more strength, unlike his usual style.

"Mr. Zhou," Shen Yan cooperated immediately, "See how you want to change it."

Zhou Xingchuan grabbed Shen Yan's waist, and stood next to him, "You wrote it for me if it stands out."

"This is for you to change."

Shen Yan changed the pen again, wrote "Shen Yan's book" on the side, and was about to write the date when Zhou Xingchuan stopped him again: "I don't mean that, I mean if it's unique to you, no one else has it. "

"Ah?" Shen Yan was in trouble, "I don't know what is unique like you said."

While the two were talking, the doorbell suddenly rang outside, and Shen Yan asked, "Do you have friends over?"

"No." Zhou Xingchuan also felt strange, "I'll go and have a look."

Shen Yan stood where he was and didn't go out, his hands unconsciously clenched the edge of the table, but then relaxed again.

Probably not, I guess it's not that fast, the local news hasn't even been broadcast yet...

Sure enough, the voice of Zhou Xingchuan talking to a person came from outside. The other person was a woman. Shen Yan put away the things on the table hastily and walked out.

"...How can you not come here, you will definitely not be able to eat or sleep if you live alone, look at the dust on this table..." Sister Lin stopped talking when she saw another person coming out of the room.

"Hello." Shen Yan said, he did not recognize the other party's identity.She looked a little older, but she didn't look like Zhou Xingchuan's mother or sister in her attire.

"This is my live-in aunt, Sister Lin." Zhou Xingchuan introduced.

"I'm Zhou Xingchuan's classmate. My name is Shen Yan. Hello, Sister Lin." Shen Yan said before Zhou Xingchuan introduced himself.

Zhou Xingchuan glanced at him.

"Oh, hello, hello." Sister Lin looked Shen Yan up and down a few times, and thought to herself that this kid is pretty good-looking.

She walked towards the kitchen, putting down the thing on her hand, it was a thermal bag, and then she took out an orange-red enamel pot from it, put it on the stove and started heating it.

"This is the stewed chestnut chicken that your mother asked me to bring over. She said that this year's chestnuts are very sweet. You like to eat this." Sister Lin said.

Zhou Xingchuan was a little helpless, "I want to eat, I'd better order a takeaway, and you still need to drive half of the city to deliver it."

"It's still hot at first, but it's cooler at night, so it tastes better when it's warmed up." Sister Lin turned a deaf ear to his words, and only focused on completing the task that Zhou's mother gave her. one?"

"Well, it's just the two of us." Shen Yan replied with a smile, inexplicably guilty.

Zhou Xingchuan said: "We've already eaten, all right, sister Lin, you should go back first, driving at night is quite dangerous."

While packing her bags, Sister Lin walked out without looking like she didn't want to stay any longer, and said, "Eat while it's hot, I'll be leaving first."

Zhou Xingchuan sent people away, and when he came back, he saw Shen Yan tasting chestnuts with a spoon, "It's so hot! But it's really sweet."

Zhou Xingchuan looked at him with a smile, "Next time I'll ask my mother how she did it."

"Your family is so rich, does auntie still cook for herself?" Shen Yan asked.

"I will definitely do it," Zhou Xingchuan said, "Our family is actually quite ordinary."

Shen Yan picked up some leftover rice from dinner in the rice cooker next to him, "This chicken is easy to eat, and I want to eat again."

"Then eat it after warming it up. Every year when there are chestnuts, my mother will make this." Zhou Xingchuan walked over and asked half tentatively, "How about your family? Do you have any delicious dishes?"

Shen Yan thought about it for a while, "It seems that I can't think of it all of a sudden."

Zhou Xingchuan hurriedly took advantage of the victory to pursue. He seldom heard Shen Yan mentioning his family's situation. He only knew that his family's situation was not very good, but he didn't know exactly what it was like.

"Then is there anything delicious at your house?"

Shen Yan recalled the special products of his hometown, "Hmm... peaches? We seem to be the place where peaches are produced."

"Oh... By the way, what do uncles and aunts do?"

This topic was a bit blunt, but Shen Yan still answered, "My parents divorced very early, and my mother did odd jobs casually, and remarried not long ago."

Zhou Xingchuan didn't think of how to answer the conversation for a while, and said, "That's it."

"Actually, you just want to ask me why I'm so short of money?" Shen Yan laughed.

Zhou Xingchuan nodded.

"My mother was sick a while ago and had to be hospitalized frequently," Shen Yan said, "but I'm still in school, so I can only support myself."

He didn't make it too clear, Zhou Xingchuan thought his mother was just not seriously ill, so he said, "I can take care of you."

Shen Yan smiled and said, "I'm worthy of using your parents' money to support me."