Chapter 152: Cooking for the Very First Time

"Wife, I didn't say anything bad about you. Why are you scolding me?" Li Dong asked with a bitter expression.

In the past, Song Li always scolded Hao Xuan for being useless. Why had she turned her anger onto him now?

Song Li scolded, "So what if I scold you? If you had the ability to buy me two BMW X7s, a villa, and a company, I wouldn't scold you."

Li Dong immediately lowered his head, stopped talking, and let Song Li continue her rant.

Are you kidding me? If he had the money to buy two BMW X7s, a villa, and a company, would he still have to endure Song Li's attitude? He would have chewed her out directly and let her see who was boss.

Sigh, poverty robs a man of his ambition; he hadn't risen to power yet.

"Mom, don't talk to Dad like that," Li Qingying said, unable to watch any longer.

"Hmph, Qingying, I'm not talking about your husband, so stay out of it. Men need to be kept on a tight leash, otherwise they'll run wild," Song Li said, imparting her wisdom to Li Qingying.

Hao Xuan frowned slightly upon hearing this. What was going on? When Song Li disciplined her own husband, how did she manage to drag him into it?

Seeing that Hao Xuan looked a little displeased, Song Li immediately smiled and said, "Hao Xuan, I didn't mean you. I meant Li Dong. He thinks about making a big fortune all day long, but he has zero capability. If he had even a tenth of your ability, that would be great."

Oh, come on! Didn't you used to constantly curse Hao Xuan as a good-for-nothing? Why are you shifting the words you used on him onto me now?

Li Dong didn't want to say another word. Fuming with anger, he stomped upstairs and returned to his own room.

Song Li offered an apologetic smile to Hao Xuan. "Hao Xuan, please excuse that unsightly display. By the way, didn't you mention letting me and Song Li be vice presidents of the company? Well, how is it? Have you made the arrangements?"

"Eh, didn't that General Manager Fang Chen call you yet?" Hao Xuan asked, looking puzzled.

"Ah, it seems someone with the surname Fang did call me, but I thought what he said sounded a bit fishy. I figured it was some kind of internet scam, so I just hung up on him," Song Li said with embarrassment.

"How about this? You can call him again tomorrow, and then go to his company to work as a vice president," Hao Xuan said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Song Li was overjoyed. It seemed her flattery toward Hao Xuan earlier hadn't been in vain after all. Just a little buttering up, and she had secured a vice president position.

"Alright, Hao Xuan. You chat with Qingying, I'm going upstairs." Song Li hummed a little tune as she walked up.

Seeing Song Li go upstairs, Li Qingying immediately put on a stern face and sat there watching television, acting as if Hao Xuan didn't even exist.

"Wife, what's wrong with you?" Hao Xuan asked.

"Do I need your permission to be anything?" Li Qingying gave Hao Xuan a sideways glance.

Hao Xuan felt that something was indeed off with Li Qingying. "Wife, what did you eat today? You're acting like a ticking time bomb."

"I didn't eat anything tonight," Li Qingying snapped angrily.

It was all because of this troublemaker. If it weren't for him, she wouldn't have lost her appetite entirely.

"Wife, are you feeling unwell? Is your stomach acting up?" Hao Xuan continued to ask.

Hearing this, Li Qingying really wanted to hurl her shoe straight at Hao Xuan's head.

"Hmph, Hao Xuan, I'm not as comfortable as you. You were out wining and dining and only just came back now," Li Qingying said resentfully.

"Wife, how could you say I was wining and dining? Today we only ordered light dishes, and I even felt a bit hungry afterwards," Hao Xuan shrugged helplessly.

If it weren't for the fact that Xiaoyu and the others were paying, he really would have liked to order some more delicious food.

"With beauties to keep you company, I suppose you don't even need to eat. What does feeling a little hungry matter to you?" Li Qingying's words were laced with heavy jealousy, which Hao Xuan caught immediately.

Hao Xuan smiled. "Wife, are you drinking vinegar [jealous]?"

"Hmph, I wouldn't touch your kind of poison, Hao Xuan," Li Qingying glared at him angrily. "Who do you think you are?"

"That's true, I'm nobody special. But tonight I had quite a few beauties accompanying me for dinner, and they kept calling me Brother Xuan and toasting me. I honestly didn't know what to do," Hao Xuan said deliberately.

Hearing Hao Xuan say this, Li Qingying's expression turned even uglier.

This dead Hao Xuan, stinky Hao Xuan, actually dared to go flirting under the guise of having dinner with colleagues!

*Hmph, I'll teach him a lesson.* As Li Qingying thought this, she picked up the TV remote control from beside her, intending to smash it ruthlessly against Hao Xuan's head.

"Wife, don't do anything rash! I confess, I was just teasing you earlier. I was merely eating and drinking with my colleagues, how could that be flirting? In my eyes, all my female colleagues put together tonight aren't even a ten-thousandth as pretty as my wife," Hao Xuan coaxed, trying to appease her.

"You're talking nonsense." Li Qingying felt a surge of secret joy upon hearing this.

This Hao Xuan was simply incorrigible, always using such sweet words to coax her. She refused to listen!

Though she claimed she didn't want to hear it, Li Qingying wasn't nearly as angry as before.

*Gurgle, gurgle.* Li Qingying's starved stomach let out a protest.

"Eh, Wife, did you hear something make a noise just now? Sounded like a frog," Hao Xuan said as he looked around.

"A frog?" Li Qingying was momentarily stunned, but she quickly caught on and cursed angrily, "Hao Xuan, you're the frog!"

Seeing that Li Qingying was about to grab the remote to throw at him again, Hao Xuan quickly said, "Wife, wasn't the takeout you ordered unpalatable? Let me go to the kitchen and cook you some noodles."

"I didn't order takeout. I made it myself, two dishes and a soup." Li Qingying had watched Hao Xuan cook and prepare meals before, so she had simply tried to copy him, never expecting she would actually manage to pull it off.

Li Qingying was quite proud of the dishes she had made. She was very smart, after all, and no less capable than Hao Xuan.

"You can cook now?" Hao Xuan couldn't believe his ears.

"Of course, this young lady is extremely talented." Li Qingying gave Hao Xuan a sideways look. "Hao Xuan, go help me heat up the food. I'm starving, I want to eat."

"Alright, just wait a moment." Seeing that Li Qingying hadn't eaten yet, Hao Xuan felt a pang of pity and immediately took the two dishes to heat them up.

Before long, Hao Xuan walked back carrying the dishes.

Li Qingying said to him, "Bring your bowl and chopsticks too, let's eat together."

"Okay." Hao Xuan hadn't actually eaten much earlier, so he could easily manage another bowl or two of rice.

Hao Xuan brought over the bowl and chopsticks, served himself a bowl of rice, and seeing that Li Qingying was sitting there without picking up her chopsticks, asked curiously, "Why aren't you eating yet?"

"This is the first time I've cooked a meal myself. I want you to taste it first and then praise me," Li Qingying smiled.

"Alright." Hao Xuan smiled and picked up a piece of pork. The moment he put it in his mouth, he felt as though his mouth had been turned into a salt vat.

Good grief! Did Li Qingying think pork was so expensive nowadays that she needed to add ten times the amount of salt to make it worthy of the price?

"How is it? Is the dish I stir-fried for the very first time delicious?" Li Qingying looked at Hao Xuan with expectant eyes.

Hao Xuan found himself in a tight spot; this question was rather difficult to answer.

If he said it was utterly unpalatable, it would certainly crush Li Qingying's fragile heart, perhaps even making her very sad to the point of throwing her arms around him in tears and feeling like her world had ended.

However, saying it was delicious felt too unfair to himself.

He had been an exemplary student and a model youth since childhood; he couldn't lie.

"What's wrong, Hao Xuan? Is it so delicious that you're struck speechless? Heehee, I really admire myself, being able to make something that looks just like what you cook on my very first try." Li Qingying beamed.

Oh boy, what you were aiming for was appearance, not flavor!

Judging by the way you cooked this, you probably emptied out all the salt in the kitchen.

Hao Xuan tried a piece from the other dish. It was outrageously salty beyond belief; he honestly didn't even know what to say.

"Alright, I'll have a piece of meat too." Li Qingying reached out with her chopsticks to grab some food.

Hao Xuan hastily said, "Wife, the food you cooked is so delicious that I simply must eat more of it."

The moment the words left his mouth, Hao Xuan began wolfing down the food from both dishes like his life depended on it.

*Sigh, if I don't enter hell, who will?*

Let me be the one to eat this atrocious food. Although Hao Xuan wore a bitter expression, his right hand moved at lightning speed, flying back and forth.

True to his word, Hao Xuan was a champion; it wasn't long before he had completely finished off both dishes.

At that moment, he felt as though he had turned into a salt farm. If someone were to dry him out in the sun, they could probably harvest piles of sea salt.

"Hao Xuan, what's wrong with you? Why did you eat all my food? What am I supposed to eat now?" Li Qingying cried out in exasperation.

Hao Xuan put on a thick skin and said, "Wife, you only have yourself to blame for this."

"Blame me for what?" Li Qingying was puzzled.

"Because the food you cooked was so delicious that I couldn't help myself, and before I knew it, I devoured every last bite." With that, Hao Xuan bolted toward the water dispenser on the right side of the living room and frantically poured himself water to drink.