The confrontation with Mo Liu Gui did not affect their mood. The atmosphere between them was harmonious as always.
This time Mo Di suggested they have roasted duck because he had not eaten this dish in a long time. He missed the taste of the sauce and the combination of the succulent duck meat rolled up in the flour wrapping and satisfying his taste buds.
Mu Tian Heng naturally did not object.
They did not make a reservation and had to wait for over twenty minutes to get a table. Mo Di was starving by then.
"Two sets of roast duck, one salted duck liver, one pea flour cake, one mushroom soup, one corn juice, and two more portions of flour wrapping." Mu Tian Heng ordered after looking through the menu. He turned to ask Mo Di: "Anything else you want?" (TN: The wrapping here is something like a very thin tortilla shell)
"No more. That's enough."
Although Mo Di felt he could eat a cow but the judgment of someone with an empty stomach was never sound. If it were up to him, he would have ordered one portion of everything which the two of them could never finish.
"That's it for now." Mu Tian Heng nodded to the waiter.
"Yes. It'll be out in a moment." the waiter answered and left.
The pea flour cake was served the fastest. Mo Di chomped down a few and sighed with satisfaction.
"I'm so hungry."
Mu Tian Heng smiled at him: "How did you get this hungry? You didn't have a proper lunch?"
"This afternoon Xian Yu Chao said he wanted to try the new eating place near our school so we ordered some takeout from them. But they only delivered it to us after one. And the taste was so bad even Suan Suan ran away after smelling it."
At the mention of this, Mo Di remembered that Suan Suan was still in the dorm. He said hurriedly: "Brother, I brought Suan Suan to school. Tonight I will sneak him out so you can take him home."
"Ok." Mu Tian Heng looked at Mo Di tenderly, "It'll be the weekend in two days, will you be coming home, little one?"
"Of course." Mo Di said decisively. Before, even when he was still oblivious about his feelings, he always wanted to return on the weekends, let alone now that he had ulterior motives.
He needed to stir up Mu Tian Heng.
Thinking of this, Mo Di asked Mu Tian Heng with a sweet smile: "Brother, do you like comics or animation?"
"It's ok. When I was your age over ten years ago." Mu Tian Heng said and shook his head in the dark, thinking that he was really an old cattle.
Sigh, the eleven years age gap was not small.
"Then you should've heard of Spirited Away. it's going to return to the big screen soon. Shall we go to watch it together?"
"Ok."
Mu Tian Heng said warmly to Mo Di: "How's your new game coming? Do you still need programmers? I've just transferred a small group of programmers from the head office to Hua Xia. You can contact them if you need anything."
Mo Di considered and said: "There's no need for that. I can still manage for the time being. Furthermore, I don't have the money or qualifications to hire a senior programmer to work for me. They would not be happy if you force them."
"Alright, since you're doing fine then I'll introduce them to you some other time. But you don't have to worry about their work ethics. They're easy to deal with, or rather easily 'bought'. As long as they are interested and the benefits are fair, they can do any work proficiently."
…..
As they chatted, the dishes were all served.
Mo Di dipped the duck into the sauce and placed it on the flour wrapping. He added a piece of cucumber and scallion sprout then rolled it up and bit a mouthful. Hmm, satisfaction!
"Delicious!" Mo Di gulped down the corn juice. He was content like a cat basking in the sun, a sense of comfort diffused throughout his body.
Mu Tian Heng smiled, "Then eat more, but not so fast, it's not good for digestion."
"En."
After consuming half of the dishes, Mo Di's stomach was almost seventy percent full. Only then did he partially divide his attention away from the food.
He picked up a piece of flour wrapping, dipped his chopstick in the sauce, and wrote something on it.
Mu Tian Heng thought that Mo Di was spreading the sauce but even after a while, he did not add anything else. He chuckled and said: "Already full?"
Just like a kid, playing right after being fed.
"Not yet." Mo Di continued to write for a bit. When it was done, he placed it on his palm and proudly showed it to Mu Tian Heng. His beautiful eyes were sparkling like they were filled with stars. He said: "Brother look!"
Mu Tian Heng looked up and observed the crooked writing on the piece of wrap. Wasn't that his name?
This kid…
Mu Tian Heng felt funny and soft in his heart. He rubbed Mo Di's hair and said: "Good boy."
"It seems brother still doesn't know my intentions."
Mo Di shook his head and a sly smile flashed across his face. He rolled up the piece of flour wrapping and put it in his mouth. "Uhm… brother was eaten by me. It's super delicious."
Mu Tian Heng laughed and looked at Mo Di's smug face with indulgence and tenderness, "I taste that good?"
"Yes. You're the most delicious."
Mo Di finished the rest of the roll and drank a sip of corn juice. He patted his tummy and said: "I'm satisfied."
Mu Tian Heng's smile was all the more gentle as his heart turned inexplicably soft. But at the same time … little crooked thoughts also crept in….
Mu Tian Heng quickly shook his head and expelled the inappropriate thoughts. Sigh, he was getting closer to become a full-fledged old beast.
Mu Tian Heng's head was emitting exhaust fumes and yet Mo Di was only doing his cute little stage play, he was actually ignorant that 'eating' had another meaning to it.
But in front of an old beast, no matter how 'innocent' the gesture was, their thoughts would still be derailed. An old beast's nature was hard to change.
After their meal, Mu Tian Heng and Mo Di returned to school.
Mo Di stealthily retrieved Suan Suan from his dorm and passed him to Mu Tian Heng.
Suan Suan was very obedient. Mo Di told him to keep quiet and he did as such, staying soundlessly inside the pocket of Mo Di's oversized sweater.
"Bye-bye Mo Suan Suan. Listen to brother ok?"
"Awoo~"
Suan Suan whimpered softly when he was passed to Mu Tian Heng but after realizing that Mo Di was not coming along with him, he frantically stretched out his paws and his call became louder.
"It's alright. Mu Suan Suan, stop making noise, let your father have some rest." Mu Tian Heng carried Suan Suan and left.
Suan Suan: "wan….?" So what exactly is my surname?
Mo Di did not have time to wind down after he returned to his dorm. He finished his assignments then went straight to work on his game until midnight when he got up to wash before returning to his coding.
It was only at two a.m. that he was ready to shut down the computer and rest. But as he was about to do so, he remembered that he had not checked in on the Mo family for two days, so he opened the recordings and listened.
The camera on his old room's door frame did not capture anything useful but the one in Mo San Zhi's room showed a surprising development.
Mo Liu Gui was talking with the second aunt who was preparing some clothes for Mo San Zhi. However, the more they spoke, the more apparent the second aunt's dislike towards Mo Liu Gui. Her thorn-laced words eventually caused a dispute between them.
This was quite hard to come by. In his memories, the second aunt had always doted on Mo Liu Gui.
Mo Liu Gui exchanged a few words of discord with her and then started crying which was just in time for Mo Si lang to witness when he came home. He rapidly came to her protection and got back at the second aunt.
The second aunt cried and swore as she left the room with Mo San Zhi's clothes, leaving Mo Liu Gui and Mo Si Lang behind.
Mo Si Lang was incredibly anxious when he saw Mo Liu Gui in grief. He comforted her and at the same time threw scornful words at the second aunt but in the end, the target was changed to Mo Di.
"Xiao Gui, you're being blamed for no reason. Second aunt is not thinking straight. She should be looking for that animal instead of causing you trouble. You don't have to worry about her, we all know that you're the biggest victim in this incident."
Mo Liu Gui thought of something and dried even harder, "Fourth brother, many people are scolding me on the internet, they even said they will not watch my upcoming movie. Fourth brother, I'm really upset. Even the director was a little unhappy with me. What should I do? Several of the promotional campaigns don't even include me. I'm clearly the female lead…"
Mo Si Lang reached out to comfort Mo Liu Gui: "I've read the hot searches online. They're just a group of people with no three views, money, or judgment. Xiao Gui, you don't have to worry about them. They are just jealous and do not want to see others well off. After some time, this wave of public opinion will die down."
"Anyway, this all came down to that animal's fault. If he had not done all this, you won't have to suffer like this and our family would've been fine. We should have just got rid of that animal the moment he was born. That white-eye wolf is our family's worst luck."
"Brother, Xiao Di he…. He had misunderstood us. We should find an opportunity to have a good talk with him."
"How was that a misunderstanding? Xiao Gui, stop thinking that there's any good in him. He's a vicious white-eyed wolf. Third brother was not bright enough. He wanted to teach that thing a lesson but fell into his trap instead."
A sinister glint flashed on his face and the peach blossom eyes smiled: "But things won't go his way for long. I have plenty of ways to teach him a lesson and get justice for Xiao Gui and our family."
"Brother don't be reckless!" Mo Liu Gui said immediately: " Think about what happened to Third brother. Don't be impulsive!"
Mo Si Lang pinched Mo Liu Gui's face and said gently: "Xiao Gui, don't worry. I will not follow Third brother's footsteps and implement myself. My plans are foolproof."
"What are you planning?" Mo Liu Gui shook her head disapprovingly, "brother, don't mess around."