Chapter 98: Pray, Do Tell

From “Hotpot tonight? You in?” to “Where is everyone???” and finally “If you don’t reply, I’m calling the cops!!!”

Feng Miwan walked out while smilingly replying: “Just finished training, dead tired.jpg”

“Hotpot works for me, but I need to head home first and check with Yibai. Not sure if she’s made dinner for me. If she has, I won’t go!”

After sending the message, she drove home, parked the car, and trotted upstairs. As soon as she pushed open the door, she saw Xiong Yibai sitting leisurely on the living room sofa, petting the Little Honeybee sprawled across her lap. A documentary played on the TV—clearly, she had been waiting for her.

“Yibai, I’m back!”

Feng Miwan slipped into her house slippers.

“Shu Tong messaged, inviting us for hotpot.”

Xiong Yibai looked up, her gaze soft. “Mm, she told me. Are you going?”

“Of course! Let’s head out quick, before they get antsy! Shu Tong’s so impatient; she’s probably griping already.”

No sooner had she spoken than the Little Honeybee at her feet voiced its displeasure, meowing “mew mew” and circling her legs, as if protesting:

“You’re all going out for tasty food and drinks, leaving me home alone? I wanna go too!”

Feng Miwan burst out laughing, bent down to scoop it up, and rubbed its little head, coaxing:

“Be a good Little Honeybee. Mommy and Mama are going to eat human food—you can’t come. Stay home and guard the place. We’ll bring back the fanciest cat treats, okay?”

The Little Honeybee’s mews softened, but it still butted her palm hard with its head to show its dissatisfaction.

The two didn’t dawdle any longer. They tidied up a bit and headed out to the hotpot restaurant whose location Zhao Shutong had sent.

They found the private room and pushed open the door, hit by a rich, tantalizing aroma of butter hotpot.

Zhao Shutong and Ren Queyue were already seated inside. The dual-flavor pot bubbled away on the table—the spicy side roiling red oil, the mushroom broth steaming gently—while shelves nearby groaned under platters of all sorts of ingredients.

The moment Zhao Shutong spotted them, she slapped the table dramatically:

“Oh, my two ladyships! You finally made it! I’m so hungry my front’s sticking to my back! If you’d been any later, I’d have tossed Queyue in as mutton!”

Ren Queyue calmly dunked a slice of tripe into the pot, bobbing it up and down, and deadpanned:

“Try it and see. Who’s faster—you dunking me, or me calling 120?”

Feng Miwan shrugged off her jacket with a grin, apologizing cheerily:

“My bad, my bad! Training just wrapped; we came straight here!”

She pulled out the chair next to Xiong Yibai, and the two sat side by side.

Zhao Shutong shoved a plate of fatty beef toward the pot:

“Quick quick, meat first! We’re all friends—no need to stand on ceremony. I’ll lead by example!”

With that, she scooped up a chopstickful of slices and slid them into the spicy broth.

The four gathered around the steaming pot, the mood lively.

As Feng Miwan swished some duck intestines, she asked curiously:

“What made you suddenly think of hotpot today?”

Zhao Shutong swallowed her mouthful. “To celebrate our Queyue here successfully winning me back, duh!”

She grinned smugly and slung an arm around Ren Queyue’s shoulders.

Ren Queyue laughed, swatting her hand away. “As if. You were just craving it and needed an excuse.”

Xiong Yibai chimed in: “Statistically speaking, seventy percent of her excuses involve Queyue.”

Feng Miwan cracked up. “Spot on! Haha, Yibai, you nailed it!”

Zhao Shutong, busted, didn’t get mad:

“So what? She’s my girlfriend—I can hype her up however I want, use her however… Ow!”

Before she finished, Ren Queyue gave her a light kick under the table. She shut up at once, mumbling awkwardly:

“…however I… uh… respect her, that’s how.”

Everyone burst into laughter again.

“Yibai, try this.”

Feng Miwan ladled up a perfectly cooked shrimp slider, blew on it, and placed it in Xiong Yibai’s bowl.

Xiong Yibai: “Okay.”

Zhao Shutong watched, smacking her lips:

“Tsk tsk, look at Miwan—such a caretaker. And you, Ren Queyue? All you do is feed yourself!”

Ren Queyue didn’t bat an eye. She fished a beef ball from the mushroom pot and dropped it into Zhao Shutong’s bowl:

“Eat this and shut your trap. Here, your favorite—no spice.”

Zhao Shutong eyed the ball. “That’s more like it!”

She bit into it, then glanced over at the other pair’s interaction.

Feng Miwan had clamped a perfectly blanched slice of tripe—not shoving it straight into her mouth, but turning first to Xiong Yibai:

“Yibai, is the doneness good on this?”

Xiong Yibai glanced up and nodded slightly. “Yes, any longer and it’ll toughen.”

Only then did Feng Miwan eat it with satisfaction.

And it didn’t stop there. When she wanted to blanch some beef trachea, she checked with Xiong Yibai again: “How long for this? A minute?”

Xiong Yibai replied: “About that. Watch for the edges to curl.”

Zhao Shutong watched the scene and pointed her chopsticks at Feng Miwan from afar:

“Whoa—Miwan—am I seeing this right? Reporting in real-time for hotpot?”

“Your position in the household… tsk tsk. Who knew the mighty Rain Battle Goddess was such a henpecked wife?”

Feng Miwan had just taken a sip of soy milk and nearly spat it out.

“Shoo shoo! Henpecked? Don’t throw terms around!”

“This isn’t being henpecked—it’s a wise choice! Get it?”

Zhao Shutong arched a brow, her face saying “Keep making it up”:

“Oh? Pray, do tell.”

Feng Miwan got fired up:

“Simple: my wife’s decisions are just too brilliant! She sees right through things, considers everything thoroughly.”

“All those details I miss, the key points I overlook—she spots them at a glance, nails them dead-on, and gives the safest, most perfect answer!”

“So, in that case, is it better to stubbornly go your own way, take detours, and look ‘in charge’? Or happily listen to your wife and rocket straight to life’s peak?”

Zhao Shutong gaped, speechless for a beat before blurting:

“…Damn, Miwan, that enlightenment… that eloquence… You’d kill it in multi-level marketing! First one to make being whipped sound so fresh, classy, and elevated!”

Ren Queyue added dryly from the side: “TL;DR: Follow the wife, and life only gets better.”

Feng Miwan lit up like she’d found a soulmate:

“Yes yes yes!”

“Sister Queyue sums it up perfectly! That’s exactly it!”

The hotpot wound down amid the banter and teasing.

Zhao Shutong waved over the server to settle the bill.

Once the server left, a sly grin spread across Zhao Shutong’s face. She furtively pulled a small box from her carry-on pouch and slipped it into Feng Miwan’s hand.