You Call This a Green Tea? - Chapter 6

He Zhen finally managed to bluff his way through lunch with Zhuo Luyuan. Under the other man’s highly suspicious gaze, he turned and left, looking very much like he was beating a hasty retreat. The moment he got home, he dragged the System out of its space. “How many more of these tasks are there?”

Saying the lines was one thing, but the actions and expressions made He Zhen incredibly uncomfortable. Especially with the way Zhuo Luyuan looked at him—if He Zhen didn’t have such a convincing physique, Luyuan probably would have asked: Do you have some kind of fundamental misunderstanding of your own gender?

The Ragdoll cat gave a fawning smile, letting out two greasy, fake-sweet meows. “Meow~ Host, as long as you earn enough points, you can choose to complete only the dialogue. Please keep working hard!”

He Zhen used his foot to nudge the cat away. He looked back and forth between the low-gluten flour and high-gluten flour in his hands, sighing as he searched his phone for which one to use for cookies. He had never made pastries before and didn’t plan on making it hard on himself; he decided on simple butter cookies.

Following a recipe, he softened the butter, added powdered sugar, creamed it with a whisk, added the egg wash, and finally folded in the flour.

Lacking experience with the electric mixer, He Zhen overbeat the butter on his first try. It splattered everywhere—even the System’s fur was covered in greasy flecks. He couldn’t bring a failed batch for a house visit, so he shoved the mess into the fridge to deal with later.

He weighed every ingredient precisely on an electronic scale, stirred it into a batter, and squeezed it into a piping bag. Gripping the bag with a bit too much force, a long, unidentifiable, tube-like object appeared on the baking sheet.

He Zhen: “…”

The recipe said to do it this way. Where did it go wrong?

The System shook off the butter crumbs, hopped onto the counter, and watched He Zhen’s expression before cautiously suggesting: “Host, maybe try twisting the bag in a circle? And… don’t use so much strength?”

He Zhen looked at the piping bag, which was slightly deformed from his grip. He loosened his hand. “…I wasn’t using strength.” Who knew butter batter was this soft? The shapes just wouldn’t obey him.

He restarted the video, mimicking the circular motion slowly. Although the resulting cookies were much larger than the ones in the video, they finally actually looked like cookies. He slid the tray into the oven, set the timer, and watched them take shape through the glass. He finally let out a sigh of relief.

Most of the cookies turned out well. The ugly ones from his early attempts were picked out and tossed to the System. “Don’t waste them. I’m watching you eat every single one.”

The System sullenly batted the misshapen cookies with its paw, took a peek at He Zhen’s face, and swallowed them down in a few gulps. It was a system; it could eat as much as it wanted as long as the Host did the tasks.

The next day, He Zhen arrived for his visit as promised, holding a box of cookies. When Mrs. Zhuo saw him, she warmly grabbed his hands. “Oh, Little He, you’ve grown so big! You really didn’t have to bring… uh, cookies?”

Mrs. Zhuo took the box and opened it in front of him. Seeing the contents, she hesitated. Is it trendy now for boys to hand-make cookies for house visits?

She instinctively looked at her son. Zhuo Luyuan looked back defensively, immediately clearing his name: “Why are you looking at me? I don’t have a hobby for baking.”

Of course, He Zhen hadn’t come with only cookies. He also brought fine wine, tobacco, and high-quality medicinal supplements. Seeing these, Mrs. Zhuo’s expression finally smoothed out. I knew it, she thought. A guy like Little He doesn’t look like the baking type. The cookies were probably made by his family’s maid.

Zhuo Luyuan craned his neck to peek at the cookies. They looked far worse than the ones their family chef made. Their chef’s cookies were golden, delicate, and bite-sized. These ones were nearly as big as macarons. A pastry chef would be fired for this, wouldn’t they?

He stole a glance at He Zhen. Could he have actually made them himself?

Watching He Zhen effortlessly socialize with his parents—answering every question with a gentle, refined demeanor that was nothing like the “Green Tea” act he pulled in private—Zhuo Luyuan muttered under his breath, “What a poser.”

Mrs. Zhuo didn’t hear him. “Luyuan, what did you say?”

Seeing He Zhen also looking over, Luyuan bluffed: “I said the box he used for the cookies is really nice.”

After a while, Mrs. Zhuo noticed Luyuan looking bored. She smiled. “My fault, I’ve been monopolizing Little He. You two are young; you should have more to talk about. Luyuan, take Little He upstairs to play. I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”

“Oh. Follow me then,” Zhuo Luyuan said, standing up and stretching.

“There’s nothing much to do at home,” Zhuo Luyuan said as he led He Zhen to the second floor. “This floor has my media room and gaming room. Sometimes when I’m annoyed, I lock myself in here all day. Down there is my bedroom, my parents’ master suite, and some guest rooms.”

He opened the game room. It was filled with top-tier equipment. He Zhen picked up a controller—a limited edition. This place was a nerd’s paradise.

They moved to the third floor. “The third floor is the glass sunroom. My mom likes to grow flowers and plants here.” He didn’t mention they only survived because the maid took care of them.

Zhuo Luyuan pressed a button on the wall. The dome opened, allowing sunlight to spill through the glass. “These plants are delicate. Usually, the white shade is closed so they don’t burn. But it’s nice here at night. In the summer, you can lie here and see the stars. The view is decent.”

He Zhen saw a lounge chair in the corner and smiled. This guy actually had a romantic side. It matched the gift he had chosen perfectly.

He Zhen pulled an exquisite small box from his pocket. The box was embossed with “K&K”—the brand of cufflinks Zhuo Luyuan had admired at the mall. He handed it to him. “I prepared a gift for you too. Want to open it?”

While the System’s task was the handmade cookies, He Zhen was too embarrassed to only give those. He had prepared gifts for the whole family. The parents’ gifts were easy, but he had struggled with Zhuo Luyuan’s until he remembered the cufflinks Luyuan was eyeing before Zheng Xi crashed their shopping trip.

Zhuo Luyuan was surprised—and a little guilty. He had truly thought the cookies were his only gift. Why does He Zhen do things that are so easy to misunderstand? Like falling with Zheng Xi, or asking to go to the mall…

He opened the box and froze. Inside were the sapphire cufflinks he had wanted. He had only looked at them for a few seconds before putting them down. He Zhen remembered?

“I saw you liked them at the shop. The situation was chaotic then, so consider these a ‘nice to meet you’ gift. Want to try them on?”

He Zhen watched as Luyuan put them on. The deep sea-blue sapphires caught the sunlight beautifully, looking like a beam of light piercing through the ocean depths.

Since he truly liked them, Zhuo Luyuan finally gave He Zhen a genuine smile. “Since it’s a ‘nice to meet you’ gift, I won’t be polite. You don’t know many people here yet. Are you free tonight? I’ll take you to meet some friends.”

Fearing He Zhen might refuse, he added, “They’re close friends. You met one of them at the airport—Sheng Junwen.”

He Zhen wasn’t hesitating; he was just waiting to see if the System would trigger another embarrassing task. When nothing happened, he nodded. “Sure. I don’t have many friends here. I’ll count on you to introduce me.”

“No big deal,” Luyuan laughed.

He Zhen surmised that because the original Green Tea female lead never gave him cufflinks, there was no scripted conflict here. He was relatively free for this “friend gathering.”

If only this freedom could last a bit longer, he thought.

A bold idea began to swirl in He Zhen’s mind. He was so distracted he barely focused on lunch. Even the System noticed and popped out once he got home. “What is the Host thinking about?”

He Zhen looked at the “innocent” cat-system. He patted its head and said dismissively, “Nothing. Just wondering what you’d look like as a hairless cat.”

The System recoiled and scurried into the space to hide. The Host’s thoughts are terrifying. But if it knew He Zhen’s actual plan, it would find it even scarier.

He Zhen sat in his room, reflecting. Giving the cufflinks was an “unscripted” move, and the System hadn’t reacted—no mission, no punishment.

Does this mean if I keep ‘adding’ to the plot, I can carve out more freedom within the mission’s boundaries?

He glanced at the System, which was currently debating whether to switch to a dog form. He Zhen let a silent smirk tug at the corners of his mouth.

I’ve decided. I’m going to make things very difficult for you.