Xu Xinyuan was stunned.
She never would have imagined that she’d run into Chen Qiao’en here, of all times.
And judging by the situation, Chen Qiao’en had arrived even earlier than she had!
At those words, Chen Qiao’en let out a cold humph. She set down her water glass, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked at Xu Xinyuan as she shot back:
“And why can’t I be here?”
“What? Is this your house?”
“Do I need to file a report with you before I come?”
She was aggressive and sharp-tongued.
Combined with that string of pointed questions, she was acting every bit the lady of the house.
If it were anyone else, they might have been intimidated by her display of dominance and been left speechless.
But Xu Xinyuan, after all, had spent over a decade navigating the mixed bag that was the entertainment industry. She’d seen all sorts of characters and dealt with them all.
So not only was she unaffected by the aura Chen Qiao’en was projecting, she didn’t end up on the back foot.
Instead, she noticed the wooden box sitting on the table. Realizing something, she let out a cold laugh.
Xu Xinyuan placed the box in her hands on the table and casually sat down across from Chen Qiao’en, saying:
“Oh my, looks like Ms. Chen is a quick learner. I dropped mine off at noon today, and by evening you’ve already copied the move?”
Chen Qiao’en was unmoved. “So? Did you patent it? Is only you allowed to do this, and everyone else has to pay you a fee? And if I remember correctly, Teacher Jiang never invited you—you just barged in, didn’t you, Ms. Xu? That’s not very appropriate, is it?”
Those words hit Xu Xinyuan right where it hurt, and her expression shifted abruptly.
Because from the very beginning until now—
Jiang Nian had never once proactively invited her.
But she quickly recovered her composure. “So? You think I’m like you, with such a distant relationship with Teacher Jiang? And this is Teacher Jiang’s home—whether I stay or leave isn’t up to an outsider like you to decide, is it? Wouldn’t you agree, Teacher Jiang?”
With that, Xu Xinyuan looked toward Jiang Nian.
She was clearly smiling, but Jiang Nian felt a chill run down his spine.
It would have been one thing if she were the only one doing this.
But unfortunately, after she finished speaking—
Chen Qiao’en also turned to look at him, smiling as she asked, “Teacher Jiang, what exactly is the relationship between you and her?”
“Uh—”
Faced with the questions from both women.
Jiang Nian felt a massive headache coming on.
Because no matter whether he sided with Chen Qiao’en or Xu Xinyuan—
Whatever he said would inevitably offend the other.
So, after a brief moment of thought:
“I’m hungry. I want to eat.”
Jiang Nian said.
Changing the subject wasn’t necessarily the most effective tactic.
But at this moment, it was undoubtedly the best option.
Because if these two went along with it, then nothing would happen.
On the other hand, whoever decided to be contrarian—Jiang Nian wouldn’t indulge her either.
And if neither of them went along with it?
Even simpler—both of them could get lost.
Because if things had escalated to this point—
That meant there was no salvaging this situation, and no need to salvage it either.
Like a leaking boat—what you should do isn’t try to patch it, but grab a life vest and run for shore.
Cut your losses when you need to. Throw things overboard when you need to.
Otherwise, in the end, you’re the only one who suffers.
The two women had no idea what Jiang Nian was thinking.
They merely paused slightly upon hearing his words.
Xu Xinyuan was the first to snap out of it. She looked at Chen Qiao’en and let out a light laugh:
“Teacher Jiang is right. I came here to deliver food—why am I wasting my breath on all this pointless talk?”
“If Teacher Jiang goes hungry because of you, that wouldn’t be good at all.”
“Here, Teacher Jiang, take a look at what I’ve prepared for you.”
With that, she opened her lunchbox.
Instantly, a rich, intense aroma of fresh seafood washed over the room.
Jiang Nian looked over and saw that inside this unassuming lunchbox—
It was packed full of abalone, sea cucumber, raw oysters, and shelled lobster and crab—all sorts of seafood.
The whole theme was sheer luxury.
Seeing this, Chen Qiao’en’s eyes narrowed.
She clearly hadn’t expected Xu Xinyuan to be so thoroughly prepared.
But she wasn’t intimidated either.
Instead, she covered her mouth and let out a light scoff:
“Feeding Teacher Jiang so much cold-natured food this late at night—are you trying to give him diarrhea tonight?”
“Teacher Jiang, you’d better eat mine instead. It’s not as fancy, but it’s definitely better than her gout special.”
With that, she also revealed the dishes she had brought.
Though not as luxurious as Xu Xinyuan’s—
Every dish was a hearty one: braised pork knuckle, potato beef brisket, stir-fried garlic scapes—and even taking into account that Jiang Nian was from the Northeast, she’d specially made egg sauce and prepared dip-style vegetables.
It was fair to say the two were evenly matched!
“She really did her homework!”
Xu Xinyuan thought to herself. But she quickly noticed something and smiled: “Little Sister Chen, the ingredients you bought don’t look so great. These garlic scapes look old—did you buy them from some roadside stall?”
At that, Chen Qiao’en—uncharacteristically—didn’t retort. Instead, she turned her head with a strange look:
“Buy? I made all of these myself. Aren’t yours homemade too?”
“Secondly, the garlic scapes aren’t old—I reheated them in the wok a second time. Don’t you know that twice-cooked garlic scapes are the most delicious?”
As her words landed—
So did the corners of Xu Xinyuan’s lips, which had curved upward.
She stared wide-eyed at Chen Qiao’en: “What did you say? You made them yourself?”
“That’s right. After all, this is a meal prepared for Teacher Jiang—of course making it yourself shows more sincerity, doesn’t it? Little Sister Xu, the dishes you brought—aren’t they homemade too?”
Chen Qiao’en asked with feigned innocence.
But the gleam of triumph in her eyes betrayed her true thoughts.
After Xu Xinyuan opened her lunchbox, Chen Qiao’en had indeed been momentarily stunned by the incredibly luxurious spread.
But she quickly noticed from the plating and the way the ingredients were prepared that this was absolutely not made by Xu Xinyuan herself.
Sure enough, Xu Xinyuan was stumped.
She never would have imagined that Chen Qiao’en would go this far.
Actually cooking for Jiang Nian herself.
You have to understand—in this era where everyone calls Ma Yun “Daddy,” female celebrities all took the high-end route.
None of them ever lifted a finger in the kitchen.
Even if they could cook, it was mostly diet food—basically just tossing salads.
Let alone braising pork knuckles or handling raw ingredients.
To them, that was completely unbearable—and unacceptable.
“Oh no.”
Xu Xinyuan’s heart sank.
At this point, even if she wanted to stubbornly claim she’d made her dishes herself, she couldn’t.
Because her earlier behavior had fundamentally undermined that claim.
If she forced herself to double down now—
Not only would it be useless, but she’d also earn herself a label of being calculating.
“What a ruthless move—pulling the rug out from under me!”
Xu Xinyuan thought to herself.
But she quickly came up with a way to turn things around. She shrugged and said: “Yeah, but I had no choice. I can’t cook, so I could only order from the nearby Yuanyue Villa. That’s also a form of sincerity, isn’t it?”
Yuanyue Villa was the best restaurant in the area.
Just a seat cost ten or twenty thousand.
If you wanted a proper meal, you couldn’t get away with less than two hundred thousand.
Add alcohol, and even a million wouldn’t cover it.
Chen Qiao’en clearly knew about this too. Her brows furrowed slightly, and she said with a peculiar tone: “So Ms. Xu really went all out, huh.”
Xu Xinyuan smiled brightly: “I wouldn’t call it going all out. After all, I really can’t cook. Professional matters should be left to professionals. I wouldn’t want to mess around blindly—if it turned out badly, wouldn’t Teacher Jiang have a terrible meal?”
“Heh, that’s still better than eating so much cold-natured food and having to run to the bathroom all night.”
Chen Qiao’en shot back sarcastically.
Seeing the two women trading barbs.
It looked like they were about to start fighting any second.
Even Jiang Nian, for all his experience, couldn’t help but mutter: “Damn, this is way too intense—they just keep going at it!”
He felt the situation was getting out of hand, so he quietly closed the door and tried to position himself in a corner where they couldn’t see him, hoping to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
But as the old saying goes—
The more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen.
Xu Xinyuan and Chen Qiao’en had been going back and forth for ages without either gaining the upper hand.
They realized this couldn’t go on.
If they kept arguing, the food would get cold.
If they couldn’t eat, then tonight’s trip would have been for nothing.
So the two of them, with an unspoken mutual understanding, chose to end the contest and fast-forward to the final stage—the decisive showdown.
They both looked at Jiang Nian and said in unison:
“Teacher Jiang, which of these two dishes would you rather eat?”
“Uh, this—”
Feeling both women’s gazes land on him, Jiang Nian was instantly at a loss.
Because at this moment, everything had circled back to the very first multiple-choice question: who to please, who to offend.
“Damn, how bad is the relationship between these two?”
“How the hell did we end up back here?!”
Jiang Nian’s face was a picture of disbelief.
But now he couldn’t do what he’d done before—smoothly change the subject and see how they reacted.
Because the reason he could do that earlier was that what the two women had said at the time involved his privacy.
From a male-female perspective, their relationship wasn’t that close yet.
It was like a slightly close friend suddenly demanding you delete all your other female friends except her—
Completely unreasonable.
So Jiang Nian changing the subject and watching their reactions was perfectly justified.
But now—
They hadn’t touched on his privacy.
Chen Qiao’en and Xu Xinyuan were talking about food—they were showing concern for Jiang Nian.
And one of them had spent over a hundred thousand—maybe two hundred thousand—on this meal for him.
The other had cooked it with her own hands.
If Jiang Nian pulled that trick again, it would be a pretty rotten thing to do.
This left Jiang Nian with a massive headache.
Both were the apple of his eye.
Losing either one would be a real shame!
So, after thinking for a moment—
Jiang Nian turned and walked into the kitchen, coming back out with a large bowl.
He looked at the two women, clenched his fist, and declared: “Only kids make choices—I want it all!”
Just as the optimal solution to the trolley problem is not to engage with the trolley problem at all—
Faced with the two women’s open rivalry, the optimal solution Jiang Nian came up with was to play dumb.
To act as if he didn’t know anything, didn’t understand their subtext, and focus entirely on the food—thereby deflecting the conflict aimed at him.
Sure enough, upon hearing Jiang Nian’s response, the two women were slightly taken aback.
“You… want it all?” Xu Xinyuan looked at him strangely. “Are you serious?”
Under what circumstances does delivering food to someone bring you closer?
When two people share a meal together.
And so, whether it was Xu Xinyuan or Chen Qiao’en—
The meals they’d prepared for Jiang Nian weren’t just lavish—the portions were large, enough for two to three people.
And now Jiang Nian was saying he wanted it all…
“Teacher Jiang, you’re not just saying that because you can’t decide whose food to eat, are you?”
Chen Qiao’en directly called out Jiang Nian’s intentions.
Jiang Nian was unfazed. Instead, he asked: “What kind of talk is that? Can’t it just be because I’m hungry and want to eat both?”
Chen Qiao’en shrugged: “Fine. But if you can’t finish it all…”
“There’s no such possibility. If I can’t finish it, I’ll do a handstand and wash my hair today.”
Jiang Nian declared with absolute certainty, then poured both meals into the bowl and started eating with gusto.
At first, Chen Qiao’en and Xu Xinyuan didn’t think much of it.
They just assumed Jiang Nian was putting on a brave front and planned to bring it up again after he finished eating.
But later, as time passed and the dishes they’d brought grew fewer and fewer—
Both women’s faces gradually showed looks of bewilderment.
No way—how can you eat that much?
“How many people was the portion you bought for?”
Chen Qiao’en turned to Xu Xinyuan and asked.
Xu Xinyuan, uncharacteristically, didn’t snap at her. After a brief pause, she said: “Two to three people’s worth. What about you—how many people was your portion for?”
“Mine’s about enough for two people too,” Chen Qiao’en said.
“Then right now… he’s genuinely hungry?!”
Xu Xinyuan said, and for a moment, she didn’t quite know what to do.
Because she’d already planned out what she was going to say if Jiang Nian couldn’t finish.
But now, Jiang Nian’s actions had completely blocked every single thing she’d prepared to say!
He really could eat—and he really did love to eat!
“WTF?”
“Why can he eat this much?!”
Xu Xinyuan was baffled and deeply shaken.
Chen Qiao’en felt the same.
Seeing both women staring at him, completely dumbfounded—
Jiang Nian sneered inwardly.
You think these little tricks of yours can stump me, Jiang Nian? Make me look bad?
Too naive!
But on the surface, he remained as calm as ever. He even looked at the two women and asked: “You two want some?”
Xu Xinyuan and Chen Qiao’en exchanged glances and shook their heads: “No, you go ahead.”
“Alright then, don’t mind if I do.”
With that, Jiang Nian lowered his head and continued eating.
Only after finishing both portions did Jiang Nian let out a satisfied burp and say contentedly: “Thanks for the meal today. Perfect—I’m about eighty percent full. Do you two have anything else?”
Chen Qiao’en and Xu Xinyuan were dazed.
So much so that they didn’t even know what they’d said to Jiang Nian.
They only knew that by the time they snapped out of it, they were standing outside the door, and Jiang Nian’s door was firmly shut.
At this, the two women fell silent again, unable to help but wonder—what exactly had they come here for tonight?
They hadn’t eaten. They hadn’t gotten closer to him. They hadn’t even managed to spend the night at Jiang Nian’s place.
What the hell…
They’d lost the wife and lost the troops too.
