Chapter 1001: Remote Coaching Me?
"Alright then." Zhao Dingli agreed without the slightest hesitation.
Then he just went and stood in front of the building entrance, waiting to go in.
Li Xiaoyun: "..."
She’d been planning to invite Zhao Dingli out for a meal.
She didn’t know how to cook!
She’d always eaten whatever Ye Fei made before.
But seeing that Zhao Dingli had misunderstood, Li Xiaoyun was too embarrassed to clarify, so she decided to invite him home to sit for a bit first, have some tea or something.
So Li Xiaoyun temporarily stopped mentioning eating at a restaurant, opened the door, and invited Zhao Dingli in.
The two of them went upstairs together and came to the door of Li Xiaoyun’s apartment.
After Li Xiaoyun opened the door, she invited Zhao Dingli inside.
Then Li Xiaoyun realized something awkward.
She didn’t have any men’s slippers at home either.
"It’s me being careless." Li Xiaoyun said in annoyance.
Looking into the open shoe cabinet, Zhao Dingli took a glance.
Inside were two pairs of women’s slippers, apparently about the same size.
And a tiny pair of kids’ slippers.
Following his line of sight, Li Xiaoyun explained, "These two pairs are Ye Fei’s and Xiao Mo’s."
"The two of them come over here a lot. Sometimes when I’m free I’ll help take care of Xiao Mo, so I always keep their things here." Li Xiaoyun said.
"Back when Ye Fei and Xiao Mo were living on their own, they also kept my things at their place." Li Xiaoyun explained.
Zhao Dingli knew the two of them were close, but he hadn’t expected them to be this close.
Since Zhao Dingli had even specially bought an extra pair of women’s slippers to keep here, Li Xiaoyun couldn’t just let him go barefoot.
It’s just that, unlike Zhao Dingli who could casually buy such expensive shoes, there was no way she’d do the same.
"So, I don’t have any men’s slippers at home either. Wait a bit, I’ll place an order for a pair." Li Xiaoyun said.
There was a convenience store near her place, but she was familiar with all of them around here, and none sold slippers.
Fortunately, there was a supermarket nearby, and the supermarket had its own delivery people—quite fast, too.
Li Xiaoyun went straight onto the supermarket’s own app and placed an order.
Seeing this, Zhao Dingli said, "For dinner tonight, you’re going to cook it yourself?"
Clearly, Zhao Dingli had no intention of going out to eat.
He’d just arrived at Li Xiaoyun’s place; the sofa wasn’t even warmed by him yet, how could he head out right away?
If he went out, there was no guarantee he’d get to come back.
So, what Zhao Dingli wanted was to eat at Li Xiaoyun’s place.
Now Li Xiaoyun had no choice but to expose her weakness of not being able to cook.
Even though she didn’t have any romantic fantasies about Zhao Dingli, she still didn’t want him thinking she was useless at everything.
Feeling very embarrassed, Li Xiaoyun said, "I...I’m not good at cooking."
"I’ve basically been spoiled by Ye Fei. If I don’t have clients to meet, after work I either go home to eat, or I go to Ye Fei’s place." Li Xiaoyun said sheepishly. "So I’ve pretty much never needed to cook for myself."
"Once Ye Fei got married and I couldn’t just go to her place for meals, I simply started ordering takeout." Li Xiaoyun said. "It’s...not that I can’t cook at all, just that I rarely do it, so I’m really out of practice, and the taste might be...pretty average at best."
When she was home resting, Li Xiaoyun had cooked for herself before.
Stir-fried noodles, fried rice, that kind of thing.
Simple and quick, just enough to fill her stomach.
As for stir-fried dishes, since it was just for herself, there was no need for anything fancy, so she rarely bothered.
Besides, when you’re cooking for yourself, even if the food tastes average, you can still accept it—of course you’re not going to look down on your own skills.
But just because she thought it was acceptable didn’t mean Zhao Dingli would.
Li Xiaoyun sighed silently in her heart, regretting for the first time that she hadn’t learned a few dishes from Ye Fei.
Ye Fei had taught her a few simple and easy dishes before, ones that tasted pretty good.
But she’d always thought, as long as Ye Fei was around.
If she wanted to eat something, she could just go to Ye Fei, so she’d been too lazy to learn.
Now she finally understood the regret of "wasting your youth only to suffer when you’re older."
"Then when you said you wanted to treat me to a meal, how exactly were you planning to do that?" Zhao Dingli asked Li Xiaoyun.
"I was planning to take you to a restaurant." Li Xiaoyun said.
If she was treating Zhao Dingli, ordering takeout clearly wouldn’t cut it.
She hadn’t expected to see Zhao Dingli looking slightly disappointed as he said, "I thought you’d be cooking personally."
Li Xiaoyun: "..."
"I usually eat out all the time. I really miss home-style food." Zhao Dingli said.
Li Xiaoyun: "..."
"Then...how about I get Ye Fei to guide me remotely?" After all, she was trying to show her appreciation to Zhao Dingli, so she had to do it in a way that actually made the person being thanked happy.
Not just express her gratitude and feel good about herself while ignoring how the other person felt.
That wouldn’t be gratitude.
That’d just be her trying to ease her own conscience.
"That would be too much trouble for you." Zhao Dingli said, putting on an act.
But at this point, if Li Xiaoyun still couldn’t see that Zhao Dingli didn’t mean what he was saying, she might as well give up on being a manager in the business department.
She couldn’t possibly be that bad at reading people.
"It’s no trouble, no trouble at all." Li Xiaoyun said. "I really should learn a few dishes anyway. It’s more sincere when hosting friends, and cooking for myself will also bring down living costs quite a bit."
As she spoke, Li Xiaoyun quickly went to ask Ye Fei for help.
Ye Fei was in the middle of packing luggage for Zhao Gushen.
Zhao Gushen was flying out to Gaul tomorrow.
The conditions he’d negotiated with Mokalesfo before—about adding more seats within the International Chef Association and promoting Zhao Guoxian to vice president—
Mokalesfo had agreed to all of it.
As for Changping becoming one of the shareholders of the International Chef Association, Mokalesfo had already persuaded the other shareholders.
But regarding the investment share that Zhao Gushen was demanding, that was something Mokalesfo couldn’t decide alone; it required a board meeting.
And if that matter was decided while Zhao Gushen wasn’t present, he’d obviously be at a disadvantage.
So Zhao Gushen also had to attend the meeting and negotiate personally with the other shareholders.
Therefore, Ye Fei was now packing things for Zhao Gushen.
Watching Ye Fei bustling about for him, Zhao Gushen felt incredibly happy.
Before, when he was single, he’d never had this kind of treatment.
He’d always packed for himself.
Don’t be fooled by how careful he was with Ye Fei; when it came to himself, he was really quite careless.
The luggage he packed always had something missing.
He’d always leave this out and forget that.
And when packing, he’d just grab things and stuff them into the suitcase, without any concept of organization.
Unlike now, when Ye Fei had already written down everything she needed to pack for him in a notebook and made a checklist.
Using the checklist as a reference, she put his things into the suitcase one by one.
And each area was neatly organized; she’d managed to fit a lot more into it than when he packed it himself.
"When I’m not home, you and Xiao Mo need to be careful and stay safe." Zhao Gushen said.
He really didn’t feel at ease leaving Ye Fei and Xiao Mo at home alone.