The list of day-to-day instructions from Zhou Fi Hai was quite well-detailed. It seemed like Zhou Fi Hai really worked on them a lot to make sure all basis he deemed important was covered.b
From making sure he’s taken care of his hygiene to different chores to keep his room and items clean and organized.
But before the day even ended, Pu Li Ming found that he had encountered a certain hurdle.
Eat three full meals each day. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The list had said.
He did buy a full meal from the cafeteria stall they frequented for lunch. However, he couldn’t even take a single bite.
His stomach turned and churned as he raised a shaky spoon filled with something saucy.
In the end, he sets it back down on the plate with a sigh.
“Li Ming?” He heard from behind him.
Turning around, he saw Feng Phan with his own tray of food settling down at the table.
“You bought a meal? You don’t usually like eating those sold here for lunch.” He remarked, placing his plate and bowl on the table.
“That’s because I don’t…” Pu Li Ming said, staring at the food in front of him.
“Why then?” Feng Phan asked.
“I…” How does he even answer this? “Mother asked me to eat more. Said I was too skinny.” That should be close enough to the truth, right?
“You really are skinny though.” Feng Phan remarked, “I would’ve insisted the same if I saw you being more tired, drained of energy, or getting nauseous of some sort.” Then he started digging into his food.
“I eat enough.” Pu Li Ming insisted with a huff, why does everyone say that? “But… I don’t want to eat this at all, to be honest.”
“Then don’t.” The other said it so firmly, like it was that easy. “You shouldn’t push it too much. You might end up getting sick in the stomach if you just force it.”
Feng Phan paused, “You still have Wenduo’s baked bao bun?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Pu Li Ming blinked before reaching into his sling bag to pull out the baked bao packed in plastic, “En.”
“Sja atja obg cbk lo sbe gfjiis mjc’a.” Mfcu Utjc rjlv.
“Ktjcxr…” Ue Ol Zlcu rjlv rboais, qertlcu tlr qijaf jkjs yfobgf eckgjqqlcu atf yjb ogbw atf qijralm.
Ktja’r ktfc Vtjcu Qfcveb olcjiis mjwf yjmx, mjggslcu jc fzagj ybaaif bo pelmf, “Lfgf.” Lf rjlv jr tf tjcvfv la ab Ue Ol Zlcu.
“Oh, thank you.” The other said, accepting the juice.
“Whose this?” Shang Wenduo gestured to the plate that had been pushed aside.
“Mine.” Pu Li Ming answered, “Didn’t really like it. So I’ll just be eating the baked bao you gave me this morning for lunch. And the juice too, I guess.”
“Can I have it then?” Shang Wenduo said, already dragging the plate closer toward him.
“En.” Pu Li Ming answered.
Despite claiming it as his own, Shang Wenduo shared it with Feng Phan. And together, they finished it just in time before lunch break was ending.
“Come on, let’s go, Li Ming.” Shang Wenduo said as they gathered their things and stood up.
Pu Li Ming glanced at the empty plates, the plastic wrapper, and the empty bottle of juice that was gathered by Feng Phan and thrown into the garbage.
…he really has great best friends.
–
“How was your day?” Zhou Fi Hai asked.
After finishing all the paperwork for today (Well not really all of them, just the ones he split from the big pile that was urgent and those he thought would be best to be done today, he called Pu Li Ming and asked him to meet him at a nearby café to get the younger boy some snacks right after school.
“It was alright. We finally passed the bridge models we were working on, so that’s thankfully done and off my list of schoolwork.” Pu Li Ming said with a relieved sigh.
“Good job, Xiao Ming!” He said and smiled at the other, “And how about your other list? Did you follow it okay?” He followed.
Pu Li Ming grimaced and fiddled with his shirt, “Uhm, not… exactly?”
Zhou Fi Hai paused, “‘Not exactly’ how?”
“I… couldn’t do the lunch one.”
The older let out a sigh, “Li Ming, I thought we talked about this. This is supposed to help you.”
“…I know.”
“So why? We already talked about punishments.”
They did.
But Pu Li Ming just couldn’t.
Before he knew it, his breath hitched as he felt his eyes burn.
“Pu Li Ming?” Zhou Fi Hai asked in concern seeing the boy curl up into himself.
“Talk to me, Pu Li Ming. Please?” Zhou Fi Hai cupped Pu Li Ming’s cheek and turned his face to look at him.
“…” Pu Li Ming’s eyes glazed over, tears starting to well up as he bit his lip and shook his head.
“I just want to hear what you’re thinking and feeling right now.” Zhou Fi Hai urged, “I swear I won’t judge you, or get angry, or respond badly.”
Pu Li Ming’s eyebrows furrowed, “…you can’t promise that.”
“Trust that I will.” Was the response which was met with silence.
Before long, once Zhou Fi Hai was going to pull away, Pu Li Ming finally spoke up.
“I…” He gulped, tears welling up even more.
Zhou Fi Hai patiently waited for him to continue, rubbing his cheek in circles with his thumb, trying to soothe the other boy.
“I have trouble…” Pu Li Ming finally followed, “…with eating, that is.”
“…would you mind elaborating on that for me, Xiao Ming?” Zhou Fi Hai asked.
“I… don’t quite have a good relationship with food, I guess you could say.” Pu Li Ming said, “I don’t really want to explain what exactly happened but it left me feeling paranoid at the thought of eating food.”
Zhou Fi Hai reassured him, “I won’t ask you to explain more than you are comfortable with.”
Pu Li Ming nodded and said further, “It helps when it’s something packed and sealed, or when I see the food being prepared, or when it’s cooked by someone I trust. But sometimes it’s still hard even with that. Sometimes there are days that I just… can’t.”
“Thank you for telling me, Xiao Ming.” Zhou Fi Hai said, cupping his other cheek as well, “You did a good job.”
Pu Li Ming sniffed and nodded, “Thank you.”
“I apologize for pushing you to eat when you didn’t want to,” Zhou Fi Hai said, soft eyes turned to the younger man who sniffed again, “Please tell me next time when you feel uncomfortable with something, alright? Would that be okay?”
The light-haired nodded again before answering out loud, “Yes, please.”
“Would you want to leave then? We don’t have to order anything.” Zhou Fi Hai asked, glancing at the menu.
With a slight hesitation, Pu Li Ming nodded, “En. Please.”
And with that, Zhou Fi Hai swept him out of the café and back to his car and on their way home instead.
Zhou Fi Hai didn’t think he could say much of anything when Pu Li Ming had looked at him with his wet wide lychee eyes like that. He isn’t that strong to the younger’s whims, he can admit that.
This author has something to say:
I’m having trouble writing more chapters with my other work, Something’s Up with Background Character D.
You know that moment where you know exactly how the story should go, but having trouble implementing it? Yeah that lmao
