Daddy! Come Home for Dinner!

Now it’s all over, my image is completely ruined.

Zhao Dingli pretended to hold back laughter and asked, "What are you mumbling about?"

"Nothing," Li Xiaoyun snapped out of it and said immediately.

She had only just moved her mouth slightly, not too obviously.

How did he even see it?

Li Xiaoyun, feeling a bit resigned, touched her face and said, "You saw the frozen frame earlier, didn’t you?"

Zhao Dingli didn’t dare say that not only had he seen it, he’d taken a screenshot, planning to go back and enlarge it for a closer look.

"Yeah, what’s up?" Zhao Dingli continued to act as if it was no big deal.

"Nothing," Li Xiaoyun couldn’t help but look up at the sky but still said, "It’s just very ugly."

"Ugly? I think it’s quite cute," Zhao Dingli said with genuine sincerity.

Li Xiaoyun: "..."

Is he for real!

So ugly, and he thinks it’s cute?

He must be comforting her.

"I’m home now," Li Xiaoyun meant it was time to end the video call.

The previous awkwardness was too much, and she still couldn’t face Zhao Dingli properly.

"Alright, you should rest early," Zhao Dingli didn’t want to end the call so soon.

He thought it would be nice to chat with Li Xiaoyun on the way home.

But he didn’t want to force her.

He could only respect Li Xiaoyun’s decision.

After hanging up, Li Xiaoyun quickly took a shower, then went upstairs to snuggle in bed and watch a movie with a projector.

Though she didn’t pay much attention to the content of the movie.

Meanwhile, back at his place, Zhao Dingli had showered and returned to his bedroom.

Just as Li Xiaoyun had thought after seeing his bedroom before, Zhao Dingli in the bedroom indeed liked to leisurely sit on the couch by the window.

Enjoying the night view while sipping some wine.

Sometimes, he’d use the projector to watch movies and such.

At the moment, Zhao Dingli had poured a small glass of red wine.

With it in hand, he sat by the couch, stretching his long legs across it, leaning against the backrest with the floor-to-ceiling window providing an unobstructed view of the night sky.

The night view of B City is quite beautiful.

The city is full of tall buildings with bright lights.

From the height of Zhao Dingli’s home, one can barely see the headlights of cars moving on the street below.

After just a sip of wine, Zhao Dingli picked up his phone and opened the album.

The latest photo in the album was the screenshot of Li Xiaoyun that she desperately wanted deleted, the frozen frame during the video call.

Looking at it made Zhao Dingli smile, and his fingertip lightly tapped on Li Xiaoyun’s nose in the photo.

He then muttered to himself, "It’s genuinely really cute."

He didn’t find it ugly at all.

Zhao Dingli even considered setting the photo as his screensaver.

But he hesitated, fearing Li Xiaoyun might see it.

Thinking it over, Zhao Dingli decided to set a time for the screensaver to automatically change.

Initially, he set it from 9 AM to 6 PM, just matching Li Xiaoyun’s working hours.

Without her around, naturally, she wouldn’t notice his screensaver.

Suddenly, Zhao Dingli realized it wasn’t suitable.

He shook his head: "What if we have lunch together?"

After all, their companies are so close.

Now that their relationship is good, having lunch together is just a matter of time.

"Lunch hours need to be adjusted too," Zhao Dingli changed the screensaver time to 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM.

And from 2 PM to 5:30 PM.

Both are half an hour later than work starts and half an hour earlier than work ends.

To eliminate any possibility of Li Xiaoyun discovering it.

"Oh, what else can I do?" Zhao Dingli lightly tapped on the photo again where Li Xiaoyun’s angle revealed a suspected double chin.

"It’s just that I don’t have any other photos of you. If I had, I’d replace this one," Zhao Dingli murmured.

But deleting the photo was out of the question.

Such a cute photo, of course, it must be kept.

After setting things up, Zhao Dingli took another sip of red wine.

Not thinking at all that his actions were in any way odd.

***

The next day, Zhao Dingli set off early to Li Xiaoyun’s place.

On the way, he sent her a WeChat message asking if she was awake.

He didn’t call directly because he feared the ringtone might wake her if she wasn’t up yet.

If she was awake, naturally she’d see his message.

Li Xiaoyun was brushing her teeth.

She’s someone who keeps her phone close all the time.

The phone lay on the sink.

She heard the notification sound and picked it up to look.

It was Zhao Dingli.

"I’m up, brushing my teeth," Li Xiaoyun replied.

"I’m on my way to your place, will be there in about 20 minutes," Zhao Dingli responded.

This early?

Li Xiaoyun almost choked on her toothpaste foam, then asked, "You’re coming this early?"

"I’m also dropping you off at work," Zhao Dingli explained, "I was worried if I got there late, you’d leave first."

"I would definitely wait for you to come," after all, it’s her home’s downstairs, it’s unthinkable not to at least meet.

Zhao Dingli smiled and said, "In that case, I definitely can’t be late. If you end up late because of me, that’s my fault."

"You came so early, you haven’t had breakfast, right?" Li Xiaoyun thought of that point.

"Indeed, I haven’t eaten," Zhao Dingli came with the purpose of scoring breakfast at Li Xiaoyun’s place.

Li Xiaoyun was now in a bit of a quandary.

Normally, she buys a sandwich or rice ball from the convenience store on the way to the subway station.

If the weather is good, she eats while walking and it’s solved.

If the weather’s bad, she waits until she gets to work, then eats in the break room for about ten minutes, never making breakfast herself.

But Zhao Dingli came on an empty stomach, she couldn’t possibly take him to the convenience store for rice balls, could she?

Li Xiaoyun sighed, Zhao Dingli really knows how to add to her workload.

Her home had nothing breakfast-worthy.

With no other option, Li Xiaoyun swiftly spat out the toothpaste foam, rinsed her mouth, and quickly washed her face.

She couldn’t even properly carry out her complete skincare routine.

She only hastily patted on a few drops of skincare water, applied eye cream, serum, and moisturizer, skipping many steps.

Then hurried out the door and rushed to the convenience store across her residential area.

She directly bought a few ready-made sandwiches.

Anyway, if she was to make breakfast herself, it might not taste as good as the convenience store ones.

She also bought a dozen boxed eggs and some milk.

Her place had ground coffee and a coffee machine, if Zhao Dingli wanted coffee in the morning, it could be brewed.

Li Xiaoyun thought, fortunately, she cared enough about coffee to have bought a coffee machine for brewing.

Otherwise, if Zhao Dingli wanted coffee, she’d have to serve him instant.

Once all set, Li Xiaoyun quickly carried the bag and rushed back home.

She glanced at the time, she had spent 15 minutes on all these tasks.

Recalling Zhao Dingli said it would take him roughly 20 minutes to get there.