Under meals

Chapter 24 Red

As Tao Xue became pregnant, she handed over most of the business of the nail salon to others, and lived a leisurely life of anti-abortion.

Her life trajectory is very simple. She occasionally goes to the store to take a look, and other times she is alone at home to cook different dishes.

Sometimes the dishes are accidentally overcooked or too poor, and Tao Xue can't bear to waste them, so she will send a copy of the dishes to Tao Mingzhuo at night.

Anyway, she has always known her brother well, and knows that he can show off everything very well.

I just don't know why, Tao Mingzhuo said almost every night that he has something to do, and he is always away from home, so he just asks her to put the vegetables in the refrigerator every time.

Tao Xue had a spare key for Tao Mingzhuo's house, she didn't ask directly, but she deliberately picked a later time one night to go there, only to find that he was still not at home.

This kid...couldn't be secretly in love, right?Tao Xue thought hesitantly.

Today, Tao Xue's sweet and sour short ribs were overcooked, and finally turned into sweet and sour small charcoal. She ate two mouthfuls by herself, but she couldn't swallow it anymore, so she came to Tao Mingzhuo's house again with a plate.

She didn't expect to meet Tao Mingzhuo at first, but just as she opened the door with the tray, she found that the lights in the room were on.

Tao Xue froze for a moment, and said, "Oh, what a rare visitor."

Tao Mingzhuo sighed, took the plate from her hand, and then turned his head to continue busy with the matter at hand, and had no time to pay attention to her ambiguity.

Tao Xue took a closer look and found that he was packing his luggage: "What, do you want to go on a business trip? Do you still need to travel for this job?"

Tao Mingzhuo said, "No, a ... a colleague I know very well is sick, and I will go to his home to take care of him for a few days."

Tao Xue said "Oh" and thought it was reasonable, so she didn't ask any further questions, opened the refrigerator and put the ribs in.

After closing the refrigerator door, Tao Xue stared at Tao Mingzhuo's packed luggage for a while, and suddenly felt something was wrong.

Tao Xue knows Tao Mingzhuo's living habits, the young man is full of energy and blood, and the four seasons change throughout the year. He basically hangs out at home wearing a T-shirt.

But this time, Tao Mingzhuo pretended to put a set of cotton pajamas on top of the luggage.

With sharp eyes, Tao Xue took out a thick hardcover book from a gap in her luggage: "What is this?"

Tao Mingzhuo's expression suddenly became unnatural. With a cough, he snatched the book back from Tao Xue's hand: "Read some books once in a while, improve... improve your self-cultivation."

Tao Xue: "Are you kidding me?"

Tao Xue realized that things were definitely not as simple as she imagined. She stared at Tao Mingzhuo's slightly reddened ears and asked sharply, "Is your colleague male or female?"

Tao Xue knew Tao Mingzhuo too well. Every time she was confessed to by a girl from childhood, Tao Mingzhuo's face was several times redder than the girl who confessed to her.

After returning home, I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep, and the next day I solemnly told others not to like me and to study hard, and every time I scared the girls enough.

Tao Xue saw his shy and weird state, and knew that it was definitely related to emotional matters.

But Tao Mingzhuo said: "A man."

Tao Xue: "Really?"

Tao Mingzhuo acted even more unnaturally, but still said: "Really."

He looked down at his phone and said, "I'm leaving first."

"And sister, don't always run around by yourself in the future." Tao Mingzhuo said, "Ask my brother-in-law to pick you up. I think he always says he's busy, but when he opens Moments, he's drinking outside. ..."

Tao Xue slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Oh, he wants to socialize, don't worry about me, get out of here."

Tao Mingzhuo waved at her helplessly.

Tao Xue always felt something was wrong, so she stared out the window for a while.

At first, she thought Tao Mingzhuo was taking an online car-hailing car, but she saw him getting into a black luxury car with his luggage, and even a driver got off to open the door for him.

The driver looked familiar. Tao Xue was taken aback for a moment, then glanced at the license plate, and immediately opened her eyes wide.

She murmured: "Isn't this... Sister Li's family's car?"

Tao Mingzhuo felt like a primary school student suffering from spring outing syndrome.

I'm not expecting.Tao Mingzhuo said to himself, I just never lived in a big house, so I just feel a little excited.

On the way to Jingci's house, Tao Mingzhuo received a WeChat message from him.

The first is a string of numbers.

Jing Ci: "The password for the gate is this."

Jing Ci: "Sorry, I have a meeting to hold in a while, and I can't entertain you. When you arrive, enter the password to come in first, is that okay?"

Tao Mingzhuo replied: "Okay."

He hesitated for a while, always felt that he seemed a little indifferent to reply a word, but he didn't know what to reply, so he finally added another emoji.

Tao Mingzhuo: [little frog applauds]

After a while, Jing Ci also replied with an emoticon package of the same series.

Jing Ci: [The little frog nods]

Tao Mingzhuo stared at the emoji for a long time.

In fact, it is an ordinary series of emoticons. Tao Mingzhuo and Yang Kening often use them in their work groups, but for some reason, when Jingci personally sent this emoticon pack, Tao Mingzhuo felt inexplicably ...it seems a little cuter.

After getting out of the car, Tao Mingzhuo took a deep breath and adjusted the expression on his face.

He stood in front of the door, adjusted to a nonchalant and calm look, and then entered the string of passwords that Jing Ci gave him just now.

The door opened, and Tao Mingzhuo found that Jing Ci was sitting on the sofa in the hall.

Jing Ci was wearing loose home clothes, and was chatting with the person on the other side of the screen with the computer on the armrest of the sofa.

The way of chatting is very relaxed, and the English is spoken very fast, Tao Mingzhuo can't hear clearly.

It seems that there is no need to show his face in this meeting, because Jing Ci's sitting posture is very casual, he is barefoot, curled up on the sofa, and his whole state looks lazy and slightly tired.

Jing Ci's feet were very white, Tao Mingzhuo subconsciously stared at them for a while, and then averted his gaze a little stiffly.

Hearing the movement from the door, Jing Ci raised her eyes and met Tao Mingzhuo's gaze.

He first bent his eyes at Tao Mingzhuo, then pointed to his own computer screen, and at the same time gestured with his mouth to tell him to finish in a while.

Tao Mingzhuo nodded, pointed to Doctor Wen who was circling around him at the door, and said that he would feed Doctor Wen first.

Jing Ci lowered her head and chatted with the partner on the opposite side of the screen for a while, then felt a little thirsty.

So he got off the ground holding the computer with one hand, went to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water.

While drinking water, Jing Ci noticed from the corner of her eye that Tao Mingzhuo also walked into the kitchen.

Tao Mingzhuo bent down beside him, as if he had put down something, then he casually picked up the dog bowl next to him and walked out of the kitchen.

Jing Ci was startled, put down the water glass, lowered her head, and found that it was a pair of cotton slippers.

After drinking the water, wearing the pair of cotton slippers, Jing Ci returned to the living room.

I don't know why, but in this short period of ten minutes, Jing Ci felt that Tao Mingzhuo led Doctor Wen, one person and one dog passed in front of her many times as if nothing had happened.

Jing Ci vaguely guessed something, he shook his head with a smile, and ended the meeting early.

Then he raised his eyes and met Tao Mingzhuo who was secretly looking at him.

Jing Ci said: "I'm sorry, the study at home is being renovated for a while, so I can only hold meetings in the living room. I wonder if it disturbed you?"

Being caught peeping, Tao Mingzhuo seemed a little embarrassed: "No, no, no, no."

Jing Ci smiled and said nothing, Tao Mingzhuo pursed his lips, walked up to him hesitantly, and asked, "Tonight...what shall we eat?"

Jing Ci said "ah": "I'm sorry, I don't usually open fire very much. Tonight, let's order takeaway first, and I will order some ingredients tomorrow."

As soon as the words fell, Tao Mingzhuo's stomach coincidentally let out a cry.

Tao Mingzhuo nodded, covered his stomach in embarrassment, and asked in confusion, "But aren't you hungry? It's already 08:30 in the evening."

Tao Mingzhuo seemed startled when he saw Jing Ci.

"I haven't gone out all day, and I haven't consumed much energy, so I'm not hungry very quickly." Jing Ci raised her head, and finally gave such an explanation.

Tao Mingzhuo: "...that's it."

Jing Ci began to order takeaway with her mobile phone.Tao Mingzhuo was really hungry, and he felt that Jing Ci should be hungry too, so he walked around the kitchen very casually.

Jing Ci's home uses a luxurious double-door refrigerator, but the inside is astonishingly empty, without any smell of fireworks that belongs to the world.

In the end, Tao Mingzhuo only found two tomatoes that barely fit his stomach.

Tao Mingzhuo felt a little strange, but he didn't think too much about it. He just thought that Jingci might be a maker of dark dishes like Tao Xue, and he was also the kind of takeaway party.

He returned to the living room and handed one of the washed tomatoes to Jing Ci.

Jing Ci took it and said "thank you" to him at the same time.

The tomatoes were not big, and Tao Mingzhuo killed half of them in one bite.

Tao Mingzhuo felt that Jing Ci looked at his face for a while, then lowered his head, ordered takeaway with his mobile phone, and began to eat the tomatoes in his hand.

These two tomatoes should have been stored for a while, and they were all in a ripe state. Tao Mingzhuo saw that Jingci took a small bite, and a lot of juice flowed out, winding down his wrist.

Tao Mingzhuo was stunned for a moment, then quickly turned his head to help him get the tissue on the table.

When he turned his head again, Tao Mingzhuo was stunned.

He saw Jing Ci looking down at his mobile phone, while bringing his wrist to his mouth, casually licking away the juice from his wrist with the tip of his tongue.

Jing Ci's actions seemed very careless, but Tao Mingzhuo's eyes widened slightly.

Inexplicably, Tao Mingzhuo felt that his cheeks were faintly hot again, he lowered his head in a panic, and stuffed all the remaining tomatoes into his mouth in one breath.

After Jing Ci ordered the takeaway, she raised her head to look at Tao Mingzhuo, only to find that he was looking at her erratically, his face and ears were a little unnaturally red.

Jing Ci blinked slightly.

In fact, Jing Ci's judgment ability has always been very good, but Tao Mingzhuo is a special person, because he is so stubborn.

Jing Ci was so stubborn that he felt that he might not even be able to see his own heart clearly, which is why Jing Ci didn't come to a conclusion for a long time.

Before coming to this conclusion, Jing Ci still chooses not to take any action cautiously even though she knows that she already has a different feeling for Tao Mingzhuo.

But after getting along with each other for the past few days, Jing Ci felt that she already vaguely had an answer in her heart.

However, in order to draw the most accurate conclusion, he still needs to determine one very important point.

"The takeaway point is over." Jing Ci said to Tao Mingzhuo.

Then he smiled lightly at Tao Mingzhuo, and asked again: "Speaking of which, you haven't answered my previous question, how have you and your sweetheart... how have you been getting along for a while?"

Tao Mingzhuo almost didn't swallow the last mouthful of tomato.

He...is really still struggling with this problem.Tao Mingzhuo looked at Jing Ci's face, thinking with some worry.

This so-called "sweetheart" was originally an excuse he used to prevaricate Jing Ci, so at this moment, Tao Mingzhuo could only continue to rack his brains and use lies to make up for the lies: "Getting along is getting along, but...but he said that he is temporarily I don't really want to fall in love, so..."

"So... there is no way to develop it," he said.

Jing Ci nodded thoughtfully.

There was a faint smile on his face, and he continued to ask: "Is that so, so you haven't contacted him during your long vacation?"

Tao Mingzhuo didn't expect that Jingci would continue to question, so he could only bite the bullet and continue to make up nonsense: "No, I can't push him too hard, I'm afraid it will backfire, so..."

Before Tao Mingzhuo finished speaking, he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

What Tao Mingzhuo told Jing Ci before was that he wanted to have lunch with his "sweetheart" in the cafeteria, but the only people who often ate with him were Yang Keying and Xu Yi.

Just now Jing Ci asked if the two of them had been in contact with each other in the past few days during the small holiday, and he answered no, which means that he had taken the initiative to help Jing Ci rule out Yang Keying as an option.

Plus his sweetheart couldn't possibly be Xu Yi no matter how he looked at it... Tao Mingzhuo raised his eyes to look at Jing Ci who looked normal, and felt his scalp start to tingle——

I was imperceptibly tricked by Jing Ci.

Tao Mingzhuo took a deep breath, knowing that he had to change the topic now, so he said bluntly: "Ahem... Speaking of which, why did you choose dark green tiles for the floor of your kitchen?"

For some reason, Tao Mingzhuo felt that the smile in Jing Ci's eyes seemed to grow stronger.

This made Tao Mingzhuo feel as if he had been completely seen through. He turned his face away in a panic, not daring to meet Jing Ci's gaze.

However, Jing Ci didn't say anything, just smiled lightly, and then continued following his words: "My mother chose it, and when she speaks dark colors, it won't be obvious if the floor is dirty."

"Oh." Tao Mingzhuo was afraid of being seen more flaws, so he started to find new topics indiscriminately, "Speaking of which, what is your favorite color? I am blue, but I also like orange. like very much……"

Jing Ci thought for a while and said, "It should be red."

Tao Mingzhuo began to talk for nothing at the peak level: "Oh, is it red...Is it the orange-toned red of tomatoes, or is it red in other shades?"

Jing Ci looked up at him, smiled and said after a while: "None."

Tao Mingzhuo was stunned for a moment: "Ah, that's—"

He didn't finish the second half of the sentence, because Jing Ci's cell phone on the table vibrated suddenly.

Tao Mingzhuo saw Jing Ci showing a slightly apologetic expression, lowered his eyelashes, glanced at the screen, and said, "The takeaway is here, I'll get it."

Tao Mingzhuo: "Oh, yes."

Tao Mingzhuo stood there blankly, watching Jing Ci take a few steps towards the door.

As if he suddenly remembered something, Tao Mingzhuo saw Jing Ci's footsteps suddenly stagnate, then he turned around and walked in front of Tao Mingzhuo again.

Jing Ci raised her hand and lightly tapped Tao Mingzhuo's cheek with her fingers.

"By the way," he looked at Tao Mingzhuo with a smile, and said, "It's this kind of red."

The author says:

There are many reds in the world: vermilion, orange, and Xiaotao's blush.