There were only two familiar faces in the kitchen when Xiao Yi and Huang Peng arrived. Knowing that they were also long-time players, Xiao Yi nodded in their direction, silently greeting them.
It seemed like most of the players were newbies, so they didn't dare to get out of the room at night, as expected from the first realm.
"What should we cook, ge?" Xiao Yi asked in a low voice, trying not to make much commotion in the guest house. Xiao Yi led Huang Peng to the fridge, where, to his surprise, store a lot of fresh ingredients.
"Do they always give us this many ingredients? All of them are fresh too." Huang Peng took a random carrot into his hand and inspected it in awe.
Xiao Yi shook her head. "Not always. There are also realms where you have to hunt for your food." She looked around the fridge but didn't seem to find anything interesting other than a pack of sliced beef and sliced chicken breast that were commonly used in a hotpot. "Gege, can you cook?"
Memories of the days living together with Qi Wei flashed in the back of his mind.
During their relationship, Huang Peng was usually the one who prepared food or decided what food to order. Qi Wei, on the other hand, was terrible in the kitchen. Huang Peng once joked that there was a dark force that pushed Qi Wei to always pour extra salt in his cooking. All of his dishes were salty beyond what humans could handle. No matter how many times Huang Peng taught the guy how to cook, the flavoring just couldn't stay right. But of course, there were some lucky days when his seasoning didn't miss, but when that day came, the food was burnt into a hard black stone, making Huang Peng laugh uncontrollably when Qi Wei confessed his yet another failure in the kitchen.
"Ge? Why are you smiling to yourself? Did I say something funny?" Xiao Yi tilted her head in confusion, questioning herself if Huang Peng's mentality was so poor that the older guy got so stressed he went insane.
Quickly flattening the expression on his face, Huang Peng didn't realize he was smiling at the adorable Qi Wei in his memory. Huang Peng faked a cough, clearing his throat. "No, ah, I just got reminded of something funny."
The eyebrows on Xiao Yi's face grew closer together. "Because of a carrot?"
Instead of answering Xiao Yi's question, Huang Peng grabbed a few eggs and asked Xiao Yi to look for instant noodles in the kitchen drawer. "It's already nighttime. We are all tired and it's also cold. What's better than eating fancy instant noodles in this type of situation?"
Xiao Yi, long forgotten about the carrot business, nodded excitedly as she imagined the piping hot instant noodles with slices of beef and chicken breast in it, along with eggs too. This Huang Peng gege seemed to be a genius in the field of cooking.
With his lead, Xiao Yi suddenly turned into a sous-chef, preparing bowls, serving trays, spoons, and chopsticks neatly.
Cooking instant noodles wasn't a heavy task, so the head chef, Huang Peng, could handle everything by himself and let Xiao Yi just stand near him and watch.
"Gege," Xiao Yi called him as he stirred the noodles in the pot.
"Hm?"
"Gege, you must be Qi Wei gege's ex-boyfriend, right?"
The question catch Huang Peng off guard, and his stirring movement halted for a few seconds. "How did you know?" Huang Peng turned his face, asking back to Xiao Yi.
"It can be seen. Qi Wei gege clearly still loves you a lot. I thought it's either he has a crush on you or you're his ex-boyfriend. But Lai Yuan gege guessed that you are his ex-boyfriend. So, his guess is true?"
Huang Peng tried to focus on his cooking once again, thinking of the right thing to say to respond to such a question, but all that came out of his mouth was a small "Yeah."
Xiao Yi sensed a shift in Huang Peng's mood and felt guilty for putting him in a gloomy place. At first, she was actually just wondering what happened to their former relationship because clearly Qi Wei was still very much in love with Huang Peng.
Her guess was that Huang Peng was the one who called it off. But for someone who called the relationship off, Huang Peng didn't seem like he ended it on a bad note either. He didn't seem to hate Qi Wei as well, although it could be seen that Huang Peng didn't love Qi Wei as much as the others loved him. So, then, what was the reason behind the ending of their relationship that led Qi Wei to be a quarry and yet, Huang Peng to be a volunteer in Fifteen Realms of Doom?
"You don't have to feel guilty for asking," Huang Peng chuckled, surprising Xiao Yi that he knew what she was feeling before.
The two of them finally plated the noodles prettily, and Huang Peng put an extra egg in Qi Wei's bowl but left his own egg-less. "Qi Wei gege likes eggs?" Xiao Yi inquired again, trying to find a topic to talk about that had nothing to do with the game, in case it triggered panic for Huang Peng.
"Yeah, I always give him my eggs in the past. I just realized I did the same thing just now out of habit." Huang Peng pondered if he should take back the egg and put it in his own bowl again, scared that a small gesture of affection like this would give hope to Qi Wei that Huang Peng was still in love with him.
But if Huang Peng didn't do it, wouldn't Qi Wei get sad? This type of place and setting couldn't be gone through with sadness at heart. Huang Peng ended up letting Qi Wei's bowl have two eggs, as he initially set.
Walking back to their room, Xiao Yi felt hunger rush down to her stomach as her nose caught the scent of instant noodles. Trying to distract herself, she turned to Huang Peng again. "Gege, do you still love him?"
This time, it didn't take Huang Peng a long time to answer. With a small smile and a nod, he answered as if he knew the answer to this question so well in the back of his mind, "Yes. As a friend."
Xiao Yi let out a long 'aaah', finally connecting the dots. It seemed like she finally caught up to the reason behind their separation. Finally, her nosy session bore fruit. She will keep this information in mind and use it to bribe Lai Yuan into training her so that she could go through the realms more seamlessly.