Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 953 - 467: Life Unending (Part 9)

In the following days, Chen Qiusheng and the other two seldom went out.

Zhao Cheng'an was ordered by Chen Qiusheng to stay at home and forbidden to go out, while Chen Ping'an sometimes went out briefly in the late afternoon, and Chen Qiusheng would sneak out every night for several hours. To prevent Zhao Cheng'an from feeling unfair about being the only one not allowed to go out, he was indulged with food during his confinement.

He picked only the best foods, eating whatever was precious. Smoked chicken, bacon, pig's head meat, offal, white rice, white flour, pastries, candied fruits, nuts—all were available to eat, most of which ended up in Zhao Cheng'an's stomach.

Chen Ping'an had a small appetite due to his poor health, and Chen Qiusheng, because of his age, couldn't eat much meat. Only Zhao Cheng'an would eat with full force, wishing he could eat Xia Mubing's share too. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

When not eating or going out, the three would stay in Chen Ping'an's room, watching him teach Zhao Cheng'an how to write.

Zhao Cheng'an only had problems with his mind; he was inherently a spirit, unable to adapt his thinking, unlike a human, but that didn't mean he was foolish. From Chen Ping'an's proficient teaching status, Qin Huai could see that over the years, Chen Ping'an had taught Zhao Cheng'an a lot about writing. Zhao Cheng'an wasn't illiterate; he recognized all the characters in Chen Ping'an's textbooks, could even do arithmetic, understood systems of equations, read English, and comprehended some physics formulas.

He was just too lazy to practice writing, hardly ever wrote, and now, being confined at home without anything to do, he could only follow Chen Ping'an's calligraphy practice obediently. Practicing both brush calligraphy and pen calligraphy, yet the written characters were crooked and scribbled, looking genuinely like a standard elementary school kid's handwriting, unbearably ugly.

Chen Qiusheng stood on the side watching Zhao Cheng'an practice writing, shaking his head straight, and only after Zhao Cheng'an had written two pages of large characters did he mock, thankfully he hadn't lost his mind and sent Zhao Cheng'an to a children's enlightenment school to learn writing, otherwise it would have been a waste of money.

Angrily, Zhao Cheng'an shouted on the spot that he wouldn't write anymore, not a single character.

Chen Ping'an laughed and asked, under normal circumstances facing such ridicule, shouldn't one work hard and write two more pages to prove not being a worthless piece but a talent worth nurturing? How come Zhao Cheng'an threw away the pen and refused?

In response, Zhao Cheng'an justified: "That's something only that stubborn Xia Mubing would do. When others say he's not good, he must secretly practice until he's good enough. Why bother over two sentences from others? There are many things I'm not good at; if I'm not good, I'm not good. Not in this life, then be good in the next life."

Chen Ping'an couldn't help but laugh: "A sheng, you still believe in reincarnation so much."

Zhao Cheng'an solemnly shook his head: "It's not that people have reincarnation, none of you have reincarnation, only I do."

"To be precise, I don't have reincarnation now either. I will have it after I work hard for some more time."

"So only I can die casually, you all cannot. I promised Xia Mubing before he left that I would definitely take good care of you all, even if I die, it must be before you."

"Nonsense, what rubbish are you talking about." Chen Qiusheng watched Zhao Cheng'an start to ramble again, and gave him a big slap on the head, "Children do not speak of ghosts and spirits, such talk cannot be said inadvertently."

"Father, the saying about not speaking of ghosts and spirits seems to mean something else." Chen Ping'an weakly said.

Chen Qiusheng glared at Chen Ping'an: "At times like this, don't split hairs."

Having received a slap, Zhao Cheng'an's thoughts drifted again to what to eat later: "Master, do we still have white flour at home? Let's have dumplings tonight, let's make more."

"We have white flour, but the meat is already gone. There's only a little bacon left in the kitchen. If you want to make dumplings, you'll have to dice the bacon, steam the potatoes for the filling, and make potato dumplings." Chen Qiusheng said.

"Potato dumplings are delicious too. Master, let's stop practicing writing and make potato dumplings. I can knead the dough!"

Chen Ping'an laughed and backed Zhao Cheng'an up: "Yes, father, we've been staying at home for days, it's either me reciting stories to you or teaching A sheng to write, we should do something else."

"Usually when you two cook, I can't help much, but I can contribute when making dumplings. At least I can help peel potatoes."

Chen Qiusheng stared at Zhao Cheng'an for a while, his expression eased, and finally nodded in agreement: "Alright, let's make dumplings."

"That's great! No more writing!" Zhao Cheng'an cheered as he ran towards the kitchen, followed by Chen Ping'an and Chen Qiusheng. Once Zhao Cheng'an was out of sight, Chen Ping'an spoke up worriedly.

"Father, I heard that Beiping may not hold, Langfang is already gone, the defending troops are retreating to Nanyuan, the situation seems really bad, letting A sheng stay in Beiping, is it...?"

Chen Qiusheng shook his head, gesturing for Chen Ping'an to stop talking: "At this point, there's no escape. I snuck out the night before last to scout the situation, to see if I could find any connections to send A sheng out. Even when Langfang was still there, we couldn't get out of the city, now it's even worse..."

After saying this, Chen Qiusheng sighed: "At first, I thought A sheng's mind wasn't sharp, escaping to the unfamiliar South might lead him into trouble, where Xia Mubing couldn't control him should he steal, it's not safe. Now that Xia Mubing is gone, I've been regretting these past few days."

"The South is not safe, is staying in Beiping safe? Those beasts, what they did outside the border, won't they do it again in Beiping?"

"I have my selfish reasons, your health isn't good, and I'm at this age, if A sheng and Xia Mubing both went to the South, leaving just the two of us in Beiping would be somewhat unsafe. With A sheng here, at least you have some protection, but the more I've thought these past few days, the more I've regretted, tossing and turning at night unable to sleep, feeling that by letting A sheng stay in Beiping, I might have harmed him."