The Nutrition is Too Good - Chap 33 I Like It Anyway
Zhong Yi thought a lot.
At first, there was definitely shock and confusion, after all, no ordinary person could recover from such an impact in just three seconds. However, with the buffer from Kong Sandou’s words a couple of days ago, Zhong Yi accepted it much faster than he had imagined.
What really made Zhong Yi curl up was the words he had said to Rong Mian in the past.
Zhong Yi never thought that being a guest would mean being a guest in a cat café.
So in Rong Mian’s eyes, being a guest was just about humans patting and holding a little cat. But for Zhong Yi, being a guest meant a completely different world.
He also didn’t expect that while chatting aimlessly, the two of them would actually end up talking about something meaningful.
Zhong Yi recalled the things he had said before, like “self-respect, self-love,” and “I’ll be your VIP guest,” “I have a slow pace.” It made him feel dizzy.
Perhaps Rong Mian had never really understood what he was saying, or maybe he had never taken those words to heart. He was just happy every day, asking Zhong Yi if he could have meat for dinner or if they could be more intimate.
He seemed confused and scattered, but his heart and eyes were always on Zhong Yi.
Zhong Yi couldn’t help but wonder, if it had been someone else who caught Rong Mian eating canned cat food in the bathroom that day, how would the story have unfolded?
What made Zhong Yi feel even more bitter was that perhaps, from the perspective of a little cat, kisses were just special displays of affection from himself as a VIP guest, without realizing that from a human perspective, kissing was something that only lovers did.
Previously, Zhong Yi had thought that maybe he was too conservative and Rong Mian was too bold and straightforward. But now it seemed that the situation might be quite the opposite.
After recovering from the initial shock, Zhong Yi belatedly realized that he had been numb yesterday and had hurriedly left without considering Rong Mian’s feelings.
Zhong Yi remembered that Rong Mian’s eyes seemed a bit red at that time, and he suddenly felt uneasy.
He knew he had to do something immediately.
He couldn’t sleep either, so early in the morning, he went to a nearby imported supermarket and stood in front of the cat food aisle, staring blankly at the shelves, unable to decide which one was the best.
Picking a can of cat food felt like picking flowers, so in the end, Zhong Yi decided to take two cans of each variety.
When he returned to the hotel, he was standing at the door, rehearsing what he was going to say to Rong Mian, when Rong Mian happened to open the door.
Perhaps it was because he had bought so many cans of cat food, or maybe it was simply because Rong Mian rarely said no to Zhong Yi.
In any case, Rong Mian hesitated for a moment, then slowly took a step back with a plastic bag in hand, allowing Zhong Yi to enter the room.
The hotel room is not spacious. Apart from the bed, there is no seating space. Fortunately, there are wooden tables and chairs on the balcony. Rong Mian walked to the balcony and placed the bag on the table.
Zhong Yi followed him and sat down.
Outside is the sea. It’s still early, and the sky transitions from a pinkish-orange to a pale blue. The sound of the waves is clear, as if the rhythm of everything has slowed down.
The morning light gently shines on Rong Mian’s face. Zhong Yi watches as Rong Mian slowly opens the plastic bag, staring at the various cans inside, and his eyelashes tremble slightly.
Zhong Yi feels his heart softening.
Zhong Yi says, “Let’s eat.”
Rong Mian looks up, silently gazes at Zhong Yi for a while, and suddenly asks, “What about you? What are you going to eat?”
Zhong Yi is stunned.
Rong Mian pauses, pushes the plastic bag towards Zhong Yi, and says softly, “I won’t eat.”
Zhong Yi was dumbfounded and ask, “Why?”
Rong Mian turns away and dryly says, “I don’t feel like to eat.”
Rong Mian just saw several boxes of canned food in the bag, most of which are flavors he loves.
Last night, he was feeling down and only ate a piece of birthday cake given by Kong Sandou. In reality, he is quite hungry now.
Zhong Yi bought canned food for himself, which shows that he wants to treat himself well, and Rong Mian feels happy about it.
However, Rong Mian still doesn’t want to eat in front of Zhong Yi.
It’s because he doesn’t want Zhong Yi to feel that there is something different about him. The expression on Zhong Yi’s face when he was startled by Rong Mian’s tail yesterday still bothers him.
He doesn’t want to appear strange in Zhong Yi’s eyes, nor does he want Zhong Yi to think that he is a special existence, requiring such deliberate kindness.
Zhong Yi pauses for a moment and vaguely guesses something.
Rong Mian lowers his head and remains silent for a while. Then he hears the rustling sound of the plastic bag next to him, as if Zhong Yi is taking something out of the bag.
“- bonito mixed with chicken.”
Rong Mian hears Zhong Yi slowly reciting something next to him, as if talking to himself, “Chicken is good, it can help with fat loss and muscle gain. If you don’t eat, I’ll eat it first.”
Rong Mian’s ears suddenly perk up.
Then he heard a very soft sound, and Rong Mian opened his eyes wide because it was the most familiar sound to him, the sound of opening a can.
Rong Mian couldn’t help but turn his head abruptly towards Zhong Yi.
Zhong Yi held a can that had been opened, tilted his neck as if drinking a beverage, naturally chewed for a while, and then looked at Rong Mian, saying, “The fish meat is quite tender.”
Rong Mian was dumbfounded and couldn’t speak.
After a while, Rong Mian finally reacted, and he anxiously waved his hand at Zhong Yi, saying, “Don’t eat this for now.”
Zhong Yi initially thought that Rong Mian had a change of heart, but then he saw Rong Mian pause and add, “This flavor is not tasty; you should get a different box. Tuna is the most delicious.”
Zhong Yi: “…”
Zhongyi’s face stiffened for a moment, but luckily, he quickly reacted and immediately put on a performance, pretending to be puzzled as he asked, “Ah… I see some English here, which one is the tuna?”
Rong Mian pursed his lips.
He pulled the plastic bag back towards himself, held it in his arms, and then took out the cans one by one, carefully arranging them in order according to their flavors.
“You can look at the pictures.”
Rong Mian pointed to the can and said seriously to Zhong Yi, “Tuna and bonito are the same type of fish, but the bonito looks ugly with its short body. It doesn’t look like tuna.”
Zhong Yi nodded in response, appearing to listen attentively. Rong Mian’s mouth twitched with excitement.
“My favorite flavor is this one, which is a mixture of shrimp and tuna. Some cans also include crab meat, but there is another brand that tastes even better. However, Uncle Yun said that it contains appetite stimulants, so he won’t buy it for us.”
Rong Mian pointed at the cans in front of them and continued to explain meticulously to Zhong Yi one by one, “And this flavor is also delicious, but it doesn’t have any shrimp in it…”
Rong Mian suddenly realized that he had blurted out too much information all at once. He paused for a moment, glanced at Zhong Yi, and fell silent.
The atmosphere seemed to become chilly again. Zhong Yi quickly picked two cans of tuna and placed them in front of Rong Mian, also taking a box for himself. Then he opened the cans.
With a determined expression, Zhong Yi tilted his head back and took a bite directly.
In fact, the strong fishy smell made Zhong Yi’s scalp tingle. He had to swallow without chewing, or else he wouldn’t be able to swallow it at all.
Curiously, Rong Mian turned his head and stared at him.
Zhong Yi didn’t seem to think that eating canned food was a strange thing to do.
Rong Mian gradually became happy.
“Wait a moment,” he said seriously to Zhong Yi.
“There might be situations where there are no spoons available, but if you really want to eat canned food, you can do it like this.”
Zhong Yi watched as Rong Mian hooked and opened the can with the pull tab. Then, skillfully folding the metal piece above the lid, he used it as a makeshift spoon to scoop out the fish meat from the can and put it into his mouth.
Rong Mian turned his face and looked at Zhong Yi with an excited expression, accompanied by a hint of pride.
Zhong Yi inexplicably got lost in thought. He wondered if Rong Mian’s tail were still there, would it also wag happily in sync with his owner’s current mood?
Zhong Yi snapped back to reality.
He replied with a sound and followed Rong Mian’s example, folding the metal piece and taking a bite, struggling to swallow.
Zhong Yi: “…It’s delicious.”
Rong Mian looked at Zhong Yi without saying a word, but Zhong Yi knew that he must be very happy.
Unexpectedly, both of them seemed to have become a bit shy.
Zhong Yi paused and asked, “…where is your tail?”
Rong Mian whispered, “I tucked it back.”
Zhong Yi paused for a moment, then coughed and said, “I remember, you were in the garden at that time, and your eyes seemed to be… amber-colored?”
Rong Mian murmured in agreement and explained, “It’s more obvious when I’m in cat form, but because the color of my pupils is black, in human form, my eyes overall appear more like dark brown.”
Zhong Yi nodded.
He actually had many more questions to ask, like how Rong Mian learned acting, or if his ears could also become furry since his tail could transform…
But he felt like he was talking too much, like one of those annoying characters from a dating show on TV, so he didn’t know what to say for a moment.
“Didn’t we finish shooting the beach scenes? But I still have to stay here for two more days.”
Zhong Yi hesitated and continued, “I have a magazine cover shoot. I’ve already talked to Liu Yuanfeng about it. You can stay too. After I’m done, I can take you on a boat and we can go fishing for live fish together.”
“Really big fish.”
Zhong Yi added.
Rong Mian immediately showed a very excited expression.
But in the end, he looked at Zhong Yi, shook his head, and said, “I have to go back first.”
The current situation is just too complicated, so Rong Mian decided to go back and have a chat with Uncle Yun.
Zhong Yi visibly stiffened.
“Oh, and about the price for the VIP guest package we mentioned earlier.”
Rong Mian seemed to remember something and said, “You might have misunderstood. The entrance fee for the cat cafe is very cheap. I said five hundred yuan, you don’t need to give me that much.”
Rong Mian paused and added, “After I go back, I will immediately refund it to you.”
Zhong Yi choked up.
At that time, Zhong Yi thought of himself as a generous benefactor lavishly supporting a little lover, never expecting it to be actually 500 yuan. Moreover, when he usually discussed matters involving money, he was accustomed to talking about amounts in the tens of thousands.
Zhong Yi took a deep breath and took quite a while to digest this incredibly absurd situation.
He suddenly felt that Rong Mian bringing up this matter was somewhat sudden, and he had a bad premonition.
So Zhong Yi paused for a moment and vaguely said, “Let’s talk about this when I get back.”
Rong Mian looked at him blankly.
“There are still sausages and bacon in the refrigerator at home, I remember they’re almost expired.”
Zhong Yi hesitated again and asked tentatively, “After you go back…”
Rong Mian was easily fooled. After thinking for a moment, he mumbled and said, “Then I can go back and eat them all first, and then buy some new ones.”
Only then did Zhong Yi feel relieved. At least he confirmed that Rong Mian would still be living in his house.
Rong Mian had no idea what was going on in Zhong Yi’s mind at this moment. He lowered his head and took a small bite of the canned food, while stealing a glance at Zhong Yi beside him.
This thing was much harder to swallow than the raw fish slices before, but Rong Mian’s gaze was intense. Zhong Yi could only force himself to take another bite, pretending to enjoy the delicacy, but in the end, he found it difficult to bear the fishy taste.
Zhong Yi secretly sent a WeChat message to Xu Youyou, asking her to buy two bottles of lemon water and put them in his room, preparing to use them to rinse his mouth later.
Then he heard Rong Mian suddenly ask, “Aren’t you afraid of me?”
Before Zhong Yi could react, he heard Rong Mian continue in a stiff manner, “I can bite people, my teeth are sharp, and I also have a tail. In spring, I shed a lot of fur.”
Finally, Zhong Yi knew what those black willow catkins that the housekeeper had swept out a few days ago were.
Zhong Yi pondered for a moment and replied, “Your question is really stupid.”
Rong Mian had already anticipated such an answer, but hearing it directly from Zhong Yi’s mouth still made him feel a bit disappointed.
He squeezed the edge of the can, lowered his eyes and hummed softly.
“First of all, I don’t think you would bite me.”
Zhong Yi looked puzzled and said, “Shen Yan chipped her incisor when she was gnawing on spare ribs a while ago, so it wouldn’t be a bad thing if your teeth were sharper, right?”
“As for shedding fur, it’s not like my house doesn’t have a vacuum cleaner,” he added.
Rong Mian looked up at Zhong Yi in a daze.
He felt a burning sensation in his ears, hummed softly, and then heard Zhong Yi say at the same time, “The tail is quite cute too.”
For a moment, Rong Mian even doubted if he had misheard. He stared blankly and asked, “What did you just say?”
“I said, your tail is very cute.”
So Zhong Yi patiently repeated, “Because you covered it with your hand yesterday, so I didn’t get a clear look, but I remember it had a fluffy feeling, and the fur seemed very soft. The tip of the tail seemed to… have a little bit of white, right?”
Zhong Yi continued, “In any case, it’s furry and beautiful.”
Rong Mian’s eyes widened suddenly, while Zhong Yi calmly met his gaze.
“I really like it anyway.”
Zhong Yi said.
