Chapter 10: Liar!

Jiang Ruotang gave the manager a look, and the manager led them upstairs to check out the wardrobe.

It really was just half an hour—Jiang Ruotang didn’t waste any extra time and left with Zhao Changfeng.

As they walked out, Zhao Changfeng muttered under his breath, “You didn’t even look at anything, just wandered around.”

“Sigh, just killing time.”

Jiang Ruotang brought Zhao Changfeng home.

As they reached the front door, Zhao Changfeng hesitated a little. After all, during New Year’s he’d come with his mom to pay a visit, and Jiang Ruotang had given him quite the cold shoulder.

Like when he tried to sit on the couch, Jiang Ruotang gave him a look that clearly said, “Did I invite you to sit?” And when he reached for the juice that Jiang Huaiyuan passed over, Jiang Ruotang snatched it first, saying he shouldn’t drink sugary stuff if he played ball—just stick to mineral water. Even when Jiang Huaiyuan invited them to stay for dinner, Jiang Ruotang bluntly said, “You eat, I’ll order takeout,” basically kicking them out.

The moment the door opened, those memories came rushing back to Zhao Changfeng, and he thought to himself, Do I have a screw loose? Why did I come back here again?!

Maybe I should just forget it.

No matter how important Reggie Miller’s trading card was, it couldn’t be more important than his own dignity.

“I should probably head—”

Before Zhao Changfeng could finish, Jiang Ruotang had already opened the shoe cabinet and taken out a pair of new slippers for him.

“Juan-jie, I brought Zhao Changfeng home. Is the lion’s head stew ready?” Jiang Ruotang called out.

“All done! I also made beer-braised duck, black pepper short ribs, and stir-fried shrimp!”

Hearing that, Zhao Changfeng swallowed hard.

Zhao Yunshu had been working overtime lately—he hadn’t had a home-cooked meal in over a month.

He gritted his teeth and decided to see what Jiang Ruotang was up to this time.

He followed Jiang Ruotang into the living room. While Jiang Ruotang casually tossed his school bag onto the sofa, Zhao Changfeng bent over and neatly placed his on the floor beside it.

Juan-jie had already laid out the dishes. Seeing the full table of food, Zhao Changfeng suddenly felt uneasy.

Jiang Ruotang gave him a shove. Zhao Changfeng immediately tensed up—Oh no, here comes the drama!

“Hey, go wash your hands!”

“Ah? Oh…”

So he wasn’t being sarcastic—he was literally telling me to wash my hands?

Zhao Changfeng followed Jiang Ruotang to wash up and then sat down at the table.

“Let’s eat!” Jiang Ruotang lowered his head and began chatting with Juan-jie while eating.

Only Zhao Changfeng seemed out of place. The stir-fried shrimp were right in front of Jiang Ruotang, and Zhao really wanted to eat some, but didn’t dare reach out.

“Hey, did you watch the Suns vs. 76ers game last week? That comeback by the Sixers in the last minute—crazy, right?” Jiang Ruotang casually asked.

“Ah? Yeah, I saw it… Their shooting guard dropped 18 points in 3 minutes, insane.”

Jiang Ruotang nodded and turned the lazy Susan, rotating the shrimp toward Zhao Changfeng. “Even though that shooting guard was amazing, I think the power forward grabbing all those rebounds was the real key to their win!”

“Right? He was like Lu Bu under the basket, surrounded by defenders and still pulled it down!”

“Yeah, like one man holding the gate against a thousand enemies! What position do you play on your team?”

“Power forward too.”

“How are your rebounds?”

“I’ve been the rebounding leader in four out of five games!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Jiang Ruotang burst out laughing, and Zhao Changfeng realized his mistake.

“I mean five games—four times rebounding leader!”

Once they started talking, Zhao Changfeng relaxed while eating. Juan-jie kept urging him to eat more and even served him a fist-sized lion’s head meatball.

Zhao Changfeng hadn’t eaten this much protein in ages.

After dinner, he realized he’d just spent over half an hour chatting about basketball with Jiang Ruotang—and enjoyed it. It felt like seeing the sun at midnight—completely unreal.

“Juan-jie, I’ll do the dishes,” Zhao Changfeng offered awkwardly.

Juan-jie smiled. “Go hang out with Ruotang. We have a dishwasher—just need to load it, no big deal.”

Zhao Changfeng took a deep breath. Hang out with Jiang Ruotang? What would we even do—stare at the air or mess with each other?

“Come with me. I’ll give you that trading card,” said Jiang Ruotang.

Right, that’s why he came here in the first place.

He followed Jiang Ruotang upstairs. When the door opened and he saw the spacious, bright room, he couldn’t help feeling a little envious.

He lived with Zhao Yunshu in an old city apartment—pricey but dated. Zhao Yunshu hadn’t had time to renovate it. His room was only half the size of this one, so they used a bunk bed setup. It hadn’t bothered him in middle school, but since starting high school, he’d had a growth spurt—taller, heavier—and every time he climbed to the top bunk, the bed creaked like it was about to collapse.

Jiang Ruotang turned around and saw him standing at the doorway.

“It’s fine. Come in.”

“I’ll just stay here.”

“Hm? I’ve got the entire year’s collection of Slam Dunk World. Want me to carry it out for you?”

“You’ve got the whole year’s issues?”

“Yep.”

Truth was, he had just bought them the day before yesterday—and they’d only arrived yesterday afternoon.

He hadn’t expected to bring Zhao Changfeng home so soon.

“I’ll carry them.” Zhao Changfeng couldn’t resist the temptation and stepped in.

To his surprise, Jiang Ruotang really had over a dozen magazines on his shelf.

“You can read them here. I’m gonna work on my problem sets. Aunt Zhao will be coming to take you home later.”

“Uh… Read here?”

“Yeah. When Aunt Zhao sees us getting along, she’ll be thrilled,” Jiang Ruotang said, spreading out his practice book.

As soon as Zhao Yunshu was mentioned, Zhao Changfeng’s guard came down and he quietly curled up on the armchair, occasionally glancing at Jiang Ruotang.

He’d thought Jiang Ruotang was just putting on a show—but the guy was seriously working through practice problems.

“Aren’t you an art student? Why work so hard?”

“I want to try applying to the Capital Academy of Fine Arts. But the score requirement for art students is 20 points higher than for second-tier universities.” Jiang Ruotang shrugged.

Hearing that, Zhao Changfeng didn’t interrupt. He wasn’t great at studying, but he respected those who were and never believed in dragging others down just because he couldn’t focus.

Juan-jie came in with fruit—clearly prepared specially: a platter of dragon fruit, Hami melon, and blueberries placed right on the coffee table in front of Zhao Changfeng.

“Man, your life’s too good,” he muttered.

Jiang Ruotang looked back and smiled. “Only because you’re here. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be this fancy.”

Zhao Changfeng ended up finishing the entire fruit platter without realizing it. He looked up and saw Jiang Ruotang’s face bathed in the warm glow of the desk lamp—soft down on his skin, long lashes drooping peacefully. All of a sudden, he looked a hundred times more pleasant than before.

Then Zhao Changfeng slapped his forehead. Am I nuts? Letting one meal, a fruit plate, and a few magazines win me over?

Be careful—what if this young master has something bigger up his sleeve?

At that moment, Jiang Huaiyuan and Zhao Yunshu came back. As soon as Jiang Ruotang heard Juan-jie call out “Sir, you’re home,” he dropped his pen and practice book, rushed out, and stood at the top of the stairs.

He looked down and saw Zhao Yunshu, in her early forties, walking in. There were no gray hairs yet, and her voice was full of joy as she greeted Juan-jie—her face glowing with the happiness of love.

Jiang Ruotang’s eyes stung. He wanted to run down and hug her.

In his last life, she had given so much for him, but in the end, he never once called her “Mom,” because he knew he would leave her first. He was afraid that if he said it, it would hurt her even more when he was gone.

“Mom!” came Zhao Changfeng’s voice from behind.

Zhao Yunshu looked up and saw the two boys standing on the stairs. She was stunned for a moment, opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t find the words.

It was Jiang Huaiyuan who broke the silence: “See? I told you they were getting along fine—turns out it’s true. Juan-jie said she was worried about a fight when she brought fruit up, but one was reading, the other doing homework—perfectly well-behaved.”

Zhao Yunshu brushed her hair from her forehead and looked at Zhao Changfeng with suspicion.

He scratched the back of his head. “It’s… it’s okay, I guess…”

Zhao Yunshu then turned to Jiang Ruotang. “Ruotang, you really—”

“Aunt Zhao, go enjoy your dinner and movie with my dad. Zhao Changfeng will keep me company for dinner,” Jiang Ruotang grinned, showing all eighteen of his teeth.

The look on Zhao Yunshu’s face was like a giant rock had been lifted from her chest.

“Who’s eating with you?” Zhao Changfeng muttered under his breath to Jiang Ruotang.

“You think eating takeout every day is gonna get you to 195 cm before graduation?”

“Huh?”

“You said you want to play power forward, right? Which team has a power forward under 190 cm?”

Zhao Changfeng felt like he’d just been shot in the knee—he didn’t even know how to respond.

That night, Zhao Changfeng went home with Zhao Yunshu. On the ride back, she asked, “You and Ruotang are really getting along, huh?”

“Just… kind of…”

“Your Uncle Jiang said Ruotang seems to have matured lately—suddenly figured a lot of things out.”

“Let’s see how long that lasts.”

The next second, Zhao Changfeng suddenly realized—he forgot to get the trading card!

But the car was already far from their house—no way he’d ask the driver to turn back.

He was beyond frustrated. Then he saw a notification on his phone—Jiang Ruotang had added him as a friend.

Zhao Changfeng: You didn’t give me the trading card!

Jiang Ruotang: So you’ll come back next time for dinner. 😊

Zhao Changfeng gritted his teeth. “Liar!”

Like hell I’ll have dinner with you again!

“Hm?” Zhao Yunshu looked over.

“N-Nothing… Just a classmate said something ridiculous.”