Chapter 123: Shen Que, It's Over, It's All Over
"Ouch!"
The kitchen was filled with the aroma of cooking, and Shen Que was busy flipping the dishes in the pan.
Suddenly, he heard a muffled thud from the living room, which startled him. He quickly put down the spatula and hurried to the living room.
There, Meng Ci lay sprawled on the floor, his face contorted in pain.
"What happened? Did you hurt yourself? Are you okay?"
Shen Que asked anxiously, reaching out to gently stroke Meng Ci's waist, his concern evident.
Meng Ci winced as he sat up, about to speak, but was interrupted by Shen Que: "Are you injured? Let me see!"
With that, he reached out to lift Meng Ci's shirt to check for injuries.
"Don't… don't, I'm fine, just a slip."
Meng Ci quickly grabbed Shen Que's hand to stop him.
"Really? Are you sure?" Shen Que looked at Meng Ci skeptically, his eyes full of worry.
"Yes, really." Meng Ci nodded forcefully, forcing a smile.
At that moment, an awkward rumble came from Meng Ci's stomach.
Meng Ci's face turned beet red, wishing he could find a hole to hide in.
"Haha, looks like someone is starving." Shen Que chuckled, his eyes filled with affection.
"Yeah, I'm about to starve to death. Hurry up and finish cooking," Meng Ci pouted, pretending to be fierce.
Shen Que smiled warmly, smoothing out Meng Ci's messy hair and said softly, "Alright, rest for a bit. Dinner will be ready soon."
With that, he turned back to the kitchen to continue cooking.
Meng Ci let out a sigh of relief.
Last night, not only did they not eat the rice Meng Ci had brought out, but they barely touched the Western meal on the table.
They only drank most of the bottle of red wine.
Unable to resist, Meng Ci took out a cup of packed congee from his space and slurped it down, not caring if Shen Que noticed anything odd.
"Eggplant, come here and give me a massage," Meng Ci called out to Eggplant.
Eggplant obediently came over and started massaging Meng Ci's waist.
"Awooo!"
Eggplant grumbled inwardly, thinking that his master was being bullied by that cold-faced guy and couldn't fight back, so he was taking it out on him.
But thinking about the chicken leg waiting for him later, Eggplant continued to massage Meng Ci's waist diligently.
Shen Que focused on cooking, hearing the sounds behind him but not turning around.
Everyone has secrets, and since Meng Ci hadn't told him, he wouldn't ask.
When the food was ready, Shen Que was still worried about whether Meng Ci had taken care of whatever he was holding, so he didn't turn around.
"Dinner's ready!"
Hearing this, Meng Ci quickly pushed Eggplant away and sat up.
"I want two large bowls."
Only when he heard Meng Ci getting up did Shen Que turn around to help him up.
"Shall we eat on the sofa?" Shen Que asked.
His eyes caught sight of the cup still in the plastic bag on the floor, and he sighed inwardly.
If it weren't for Shen Que's lack of curiosity about Meng Ci's secrets, he might have confronted him long ago.
"Sure."
Meng Ci didn't want to move; his buttocks and waist were sore, all because of Shen Que, so he felt justified in commanding Shen Que to feed him.
After eating, Meng Ci urged Shen Que to take Eggplant for training.
Shen Que didn't question why and took Eggplant to his room to start training.
He first made Eggplant run 120 laps around the room.
Earlier, while catching mice, Shen Que had found a lap counter at Si Chen's house, though it was a bit broken.
He fixed it and adjusted the height, making it perfect for Eggplant to use while running.
After warming up, Shen Que started doing crunches and running.
Meng Ci entered his space, soaked in a bath for half an hour, and came out feeling much better.
For the next few days, Meng Ci didn't go out, staying on the sofa at home.
Apart from the daily one-hour sparring session with Shen Que and half an hour of exercise using Shen Que's equipment, Meng Ci spent most of his time on the sofa, playing single-player games and thoroughly enjoying himself.
Fruit Ninja, Tower Defense, Candy Crush, Temple Run...
Too many games filled Meng Ci's life. Shen Que wanted to play Minecraft with Meng Ci and could only make a reservation.
Even the beautiful house Shen Que built couldn't attract Meng Ci's attention.
So Shen Que could only lead Eggplant out of the house, alone with his wolf, to go chop wood.
But Meng Ci didn't think much of it.
After all, he had stored so many things in his spatial ring that he lacked nothing.
At the beginning, apart from avenging the original host, his other thoughts were to survive, to survive until the end of the apocalypse.
It was just that there had been some unexpected events in between, and now he was simply returning to his initial thoughts.
That day, Meng Ci was still playing games when he heard the door open. Without lifting his head, accompanied by the "amazing" sound from Candy Crush, Meng Ci said indifferently, "You're back."
Awooo.
Eggplant, for some reason, suddenly approached Meng Ci.
Master, look at me!
Meng Ci's hand didn't stop matching animals, but he felt the cold from Eggplant and squeezed further into the sofa in disgust.
"Eggplant, come over here, you're so cold."
"Uh!"
Meng Ci jumped up from the sofa, eyes wide, staring at Shen Que.
"Shen Que, you're so mean."
Just then, Shen Que had placed his icy hand on Meng Ci's neck.
Shen Que calmly withdrew his hand, watching as Meng Ci kept rubbing his neck.
"Shen Que, where did you catch the rabbit?" Meng Ci exclaimed in surprise, seeing the rabbit in Shen Que's hand.
Shen Que placed the dead rabbit on a nearby cardboard box.
"This is what Eggplant caught outside."
While chopping wood today, Eggplant had suddenly run off after discovering something.
Knowing Eggplant's abilities, Shen Que hadn't rushed to chase after him.
Sure enough, not long after, Eggplant returned with a dead rabbit in its mouth.
Hearing that the rabbit was caught by Eggplant, Meng Ci patted it several times and even took out a chicken leg from his spatial ring to reward Eggplant.
Shen Que had processed rabbits before, so he handled this one with ease.
Soon, a large bowl of spicy rabbit cubes was ready.
Of course, he didn't forget about Eggplant's meal.
Half of the rabbit meat, along with carrots and potato cubes, was cooked into a pot of rabbit stew. Worried that Eggplant might not have enough to eat, he even added some steamed buns to its bowl.
He cooked a pot of rice and stir-fried a bowl of braised eggplant.
After the meal, Meng Ci felt he had played games for too long and went to the balcony to try to relax his eyes.
"Shen Que, it's over, it's over."
"I'm done!"
Shen Que, who was washing dishes, hearing this, thought something had happened outside and hurried over.
"What's wrong?"
Everything looked the same as before.
Meng Ci rubbed his eyes, "Shen Que, I'm going blind!"
Upon inquiry, Shen Que learned that Meng Ci couldn't see things far away clearly anymore.
"I used to be able to see everything easily from the 17th floor."
"Now, I can only see a little bit by squinting."
Shen Que sighed upon hearing this.
"Think about how much you've been playing on your phone these past few days. It's strange you haven't become nearsighted."
Meng Ci nodded, agreeing, and in the following days, he quit mobile games and started building LEGO and playing puzzle games.