After her shower, she rummaged through the fridge. There were only a few green peppers, a radish, and a plate of chicken wings her mother had made for dinner.
She decided to make fried rice with green peppers and chicken wings.
Just as she was stirring the rice, she heard the door open and close.
Without turning around, Tao Xinrou knew it was Ying Jingsheng, but she still instinctively glanced back.
"What are you...?"
Before she could finish, Ying Jingsheng handed her a few takeout bags.
"I bought some food. Sili told me you didn't eat dinner."
Tao Xinrou looked down at the bag. It was from her favorite Japanese restaurant. The white takeout box had a familiar logo.
She suddenly didn't know what to say.
That restaurant was not on the way.
"Take it." He pushed it toward her again.
Tao Xinrou took it, a warmth flooding her heart. "Thank you, President Ying." Her voice was a little dry.
"I told you, at home you don't need to call me 'President Ying.'"
"Then... okay." Tao Xinrou thought for a while but still couldn't bring herself to say anything else. Finally, she just said, "Thank you."
Ying Jingsheng nodded and turned to leave.
"Wait," Tao Xinrou called out.
He turned back.
"I made some fried rice. Would you like to eat together?"
She guessed that he had come back so quickly because he had handled her matter and hurried home, probably not having eaten dinner either.
Ying Jingsheng looked at her and then nodded.
In order not to disturb her mother, who had already rested, they stood in the kitchen. The kitchen was small, and they stood very close.
Close enough that Tao Xinrou could feel Ying Jingsheng's breath above her head.
The fried rice in the pot was still steaming. She served a bowl for Ying Jingsheng. It was just ordinary leftover rice stir-fried with scraps, but afraid he might not like it, she added two eggs to make it look less shabby.
"I didn't expect your cooking to taste so good."
"Really?"
"Mm."
Tao Xinrou's eyes lit up. Getting a compliment from the president was wonderful!
"My mother isn't in good health. Sometimes I'm afraid she'll get too tired, so I learned a little. But it's just basic home cooking, nothing compared to what you'd have at your house."
Ying Jingsheng didn't say anything. Tao Xinrou thought the topic was over and just lowered her head to eat.
But the person across from her unconsciously stopped eating and looked at her.
After a moment, he said, "I went abroad very early. In England, no one took care of me, so I cooked for myself. Back then, my family was all very busy..."
Tao Xinrou looked up and saw that his gaze was fixed on some distant point. His expression was faint, as if he were reminiscing.
His father was busy, his mother was busy, his grandfather even busier.
The Yunlu Group had grown from a small hotel to its current scale, every step walking on a knife's edge. No one dared to stop.
When he was seven, his father called him to the study.
"Jingsheng, you need to go abroad."
Ten-year-old Ying Jingsheng stood there, looking at the pile of documents on his father's desk as high as a small mountain, watching his grandfather's car pull into the yard and then quickly drive away, seeing his mother on the phone in the hallway.
He didn't ask why.
He knew the answer. Because he was a child of the Ying family, and all the children of Yunlu had to learn things that couldn't be taught domestically. Everyone in the Ying family was running on their own track, and he couldn't stop either.
So he just nodded and responded calmly, "Okay."
At a British boarding school, he was the only Eastern face among a crowd of blonde-haired, blue-eyed children.
His English wasn't good enough. He couldn't understand what the teachers were saying, nor what the classmates were laughing about.
In the first week, he sat alone in the corner of the cafeteria, eating tasteless food, watching others in groups, no one coming to talk to him.
At night, back in the dormitory, he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, homesick.
He missed the braised pork made by the family cook, missed the faint perfume scent on his mother, missed his father's habit of ruffling his hair when he came home from his frequent business trips.
He thought for a long time, then got up and called home.
The butler answered.
"Third Young Master, the master is on a business trip, the madam is in a meeting, and the old master flew to Hong Kong today. Is there anything you need? I can relay it."
Ying Jingsheng held the phone, silent for a few seconds.
"Nothing, just asking how everyone is at home."