Don’t Be a Kept Man

to eat1.
He only grabbed a bag of chocolate cookies, and when he got up to the counter to pay, he saw a strawberry cake in the refrigerator behind the counter.
Bright and chubby red, it looked very good.

Leaning on the counter, he asked, 

“Was that strawberry cake made today?”

The girl manning the counter smiled and said, 

“Made just this morning.
Especially fresh.”

Strawberries were not cheap.
And cakes made with strawberries were even more expensive.
These kinds of cakes were usually sold by the slice, as there were too few people who would be willing to buy the entire thing all at once.

Wen Chuo was actually willing, but after thinking that the cake wouldn’t be able to keep well for long, and that he himself didn’t quite like to eat this kind of thing, he only bought two small slices.
When he passed by the restaurant, he gave one to Bai Yang, 

“Eat this when you have time.
There’s one more saved for you later at night.”

Sweet and a bit sour strawberry taste, way better quality than the takeout from last time.
And these were all fresh fruits.
When Liu Meng Meng saw the box it was carried in, she immediately knew that the price was not cheap.
Having that in mind, she asked out of interest, 

“Did you hit the jackpot? What a wealthy man.”

“What kind of wealthy man do you see living in such a poor and broken place.”

Leaning against the desk, Wen Chuo stared at Bai Yang as he ate the slice of cake.
Seeing the corners of his mouth being stained with cream, one of his long fingers wiped it off and brought it up by Bai Yang’s eyes.
He smiled, 

“Ah.”

Wen Chuo was originally going to mock, mock him, but who could have thought that Bai Yang would lift up his eyes, lean slightly forward, and lower his head to lick it clean with his tongue.
A warm soft tongue passed by his finger and it made the smile on Wen Chuo’s face fade away and his eyes darkened immediately.

Bai Yang’s back was against the counter so Liu Meng Meng didn’t see anything happen.
The only thing she saw was an unmoving Wen Chuo staring right at Bai Yang and his eyes that looked as if he wanted to swallow Bai Yang up.
Her hands couldn’t help but pause, 

“……What’s wrong?”

She only thought that Bai Yang provoked Wen Chuo into anger.

When Wen Chuo’s senses came back to earth, he smiled and pushed up his glasses.
A face as if nothing had happened and he was as his glorious self, 

“Nothing.
Oh, I don’t see the employee from yesterday?”

Liu Meng Meng said, 

“I’ve already said he wasn’t an employee of ours.
He’s a friend, and he also has to work.
He only came by to help yesterday as it was his day off… Hoh, to be honest with you, he’s a marriage candidate my uncle introduced.”

Wen Chuo suddenly understood and he gave an acknowledgement full of meaning.
He thought to himself, so it was a potential marriage partner huh.
No wonder why he was so eager, and why Bai Yang didn’t explain it clearly to him.
He reached out to mess up Bai Yang’s hair in revenge.

Bai Yang didn’t return the favour and his body bent down from the push before returning back upright, continuing to eat his little slice of cake.

Liu Meng Meng gave them a glance, feeling that Wen Chuo had somehow changed for the better by quite a bit, 

“You……are quite good to Bai Yang.
When you marry your wife in the future, are you going to treat her that well too?”

Wen Chuo ‘tsk’ed at her and laughed as he said, 

“My wife’s going to depend on me to be the breadwinner, I’m going to depend on Bai Yang.
One’s going to ask me for money and the other gives me money to spend.
What do you think?”

So to speak, nope, impossible.

Hearing this Liu Meng Meng was a bit shocked and then she saw Wen Chuo pat Bai Yang’s head, his long, lean fingers sinking into the black inky hair, sharp against the backdrop, 

“To Bai Yang, hmm, I’m going to be as good to him as I would to my wife.”

This sentence that he spoke had a bit of a flirtatious tone.
Bai Yang lifted his hand and grabbed a hold of Wen Chuo’s hand that was on top of his head.
In Liu Meng Meng’s eyes, he wanted to pull Wen Chuo’s hand off, but to the both of them, in truth, Bai Yang simply only wanted to hold on, having no extra strength for anything else.

Seeing that the cake was almost finished, Wen Chuo asked, 

“Was it good?”

Bai Yang nodded his head.

The cake was only as big as his hand, and the amount was so pitifully small.
Wen Chuo placed the other box on the table, 

“If it’s good, then eat.
Finish up the second piece if you want.”

And then said, 

“I’m going now.”

He left riding his bicycle, taking the road all the way back to the bakery he’d just gone into, and bought the rest of the strawberry cake.
Money, this thing was a bastard.
Spend it then earn it back, what was the point of saving it.
It wasn’t even enough to buy a house nor an expensive car.

It was just at the right time at the end of the month and Wen Chuo went to take out all the earnings he had earned yesterday.
He suddenly felt an enthusiasm he had never felt before.
When he got home, he updated his status, livestream at 2pm.

Yesterday he had beaten Wan Ye, and although it had only been six hours, a small fan group had already begun to take shape.
At the same time, fans of Wan Ye were starting to recognize the existence of Wen Chuo, and most people were in the let’s-look phase.
A small part was in the hostile enemy territory, ready to fight and to start a fight anywhere they could.

After uploading a short clip from yesterday’s livestream, he continued to beat through the second level of Death’s Valley.
Wen Chuo grabbed his earphones, opened his mic to test the sound, but he still didn’t open up his camera, so fans could only see his monitor screen.

— K-Da’s voice sounds so good to listen to wu wu wu.
Show your faceeee, show your faceeee.
You’d probably be very good looking too huh.

— Cough cough cough, afaik, most of those who play games are fatties.
There’s so few handsome guys around.
Of course, we only look at your skills, we’re not people who care about faces.

— K-Da fighting! K-Da fighting! Wan Ye had been extremely hasty yesterday to beat you, winning twice and losing three times.
Her experience has been deducted quite a bit.
Waiting for you to beat her down!

The moment this popped up on screen, Wan Ye’s fans that had been lurking immediately stormed up, directly tearing apart the comments section.
A lot of other fans also joined in the battle, and there were numerous accounts flying all over the place, with no less than three words that wouldn’t be talking about body parts. 

Wen Chuo scanned the comments section and then, seeing a news pop up, he wanted to hit close, but who could have thought that it was also related to the Wen family.

Fang Xin Tong met up late at night with her ex-boyfriend at a hotel, and Wen Tian Hao caught the adulterers right in bed and his heart condition immediately worsened.
Sent straight to the hospital as the female adulterer immediately packed up her bags for a vacation in Bali.
Partying with friends and free as a bird.
Fan Qiu Yun didn’t show her face, only yelling at Fang Xin Tong on weibo.
The daughter-in-law and mother in-law fighting, what a good drama.

This immediate drama that slammed down could pay for a lot of news and gossip accounts to live off of.
Netizens were nibbling on their melon seeds on this quite happily, and it brought the Wen family to the tip of the gossip scene once more.

Although Wen Chuo did not like to hear about the Wen family, this kind of bad news was a different case.
The more he read the more it ……

made other people’s hearts flutter in joy.

 

Notes:

*1 Unlike western bakeries, most asian bakeries have a little tray and tongs for you to use to grab your own items that you like.