Twenty minutes later, after finishing their morning wash-up, Utaha and Haruno both came to the living room. Once the four of them sat down, they began eating breakfast together.
After taking a sip of milk and biting into a piping-hot youtiao, Haruno said with satisfaction, "This is so nice—waking up in the morning and having good food ready. Ichin, how about I retire here with you in the future?"
Picking up a shaomai and taking a bite, Ichin nodded in approval before looking at Haruno. "Retiring here is fine, as long as you remember to pay for your meals. The cost of retiring at my place isn't cheap."
"Tch, so stingy."
Pouting, Haruno glanced at Yukino beside her and said, "Since I have to pay anyway, why don't I bring Yukino along too?"
Hearing that, Ichin swallowed what was in his mouth and replied, "And then Utaha, Yukino, and I would all be cooking for you while you just lie around? Dream on. At the very least, you have to work for me, got it? Or you can hurry up and go on blind dates and get married—find someone else to fleece, don't just keep targeting me."
"Well, that's because you're reliable, Ichin~~"
There was something overly sweet in Haruno's tone that made Ichin feel uncomfortable all over.
Taking another sip of milk, Ichin looked at Utaha beside him. "Later I should call Auntie and tell her to hurry up and arrange a few more blind dates for Haruno-nee."
Utaha nodded in agreement. "Mm, I agree."
"You two are ganging up on me!" After gulping down three mouthfuls of porridge, Haruno slapped the table with one hand. "Yukino, help me out here!"
"I think they're right," Yukino said calmly as she took small bites of her shaomai. "Sis, you're not exactly young anymore. You should hurry up and find someone to marry into the family."
"No way! Being single is so comfortable right now—I don't want to get married at all!"
That was what she said, but if Haruno wanted to convince her parents to stop arranging blind dates for her, it was still going to be very difficult.
Ichin more or less understood Haruno's reaction. After all, her standards were high; even if she were looking for a live-in husband, it wasn't like just anyone would catch her eye.
Picking up another youtiao, Ichin said with a smile, "Then you'll have to have a good talk with Uncle and Auntie, Haruno-nee. This isn't something you can decide all by yourself. After all, you already want to inherit the family business, don't you?"
"That's true, but it's just so hard."
Resting her chin on one hand, there was a hint of frustration in Haruno's eyes.
"Forget it, I won't think about it for now. I'm not going back these next few days anyway—I'll wait until next week. We'll talk about it next week!"
As if giving up entirely, Haruno quickly picked up her chopsticks and took a big bite of a shaomai.
After breakfast, with nothing else to do that day, Haruno stayed over at Ichin's place and picked up a controller to play Zelda.
As for Yukino, after the cats at home finished their breakfast, she carried them over one by one and brought them to Ichin's place.
At around ten thirty in the morning, Kō Yagami, Rin Toyama, Tsubame Narumi, and Momiji Mochizuki also came up. Aside from their cats, they were carrying prepared ingredients in their hands.
"We brought ingredients with us!"
This had already been discussed the day before. On weekends, everyone liked to gather together anyway, enjoying a big meal as a group.
But seeing the four enormous king crabs in Kō's hands, Ichin exclaimed in surprise, "Kō, you really went all out this time!"
Kō stuck out her tongue and, after putting everything in the kitchen, said, "I saw them while buying groceries this morning. The quality was just too good—I couldn't resist."
Ichin looked over the size of the king crabs and thought for a moment before saying, "They're all a great size. If there's plenty of crab roe inside, we can use that for steamed egg custard. As for the meat, we can make curry stir-fry and a creamy version—how does that sound?"
Kō laughed and gave a thumbs-up. "You're the head chef—your call!"
Shaking his head, Ichin looked at Rin. "Rin, I'll have to trouble you to help with the prep later."
Rin nodded gently. "No problem."
Leaving Utaha to entertain everyone, Ichin called Yukino over as well. The three of them headed into the kitchen together to start preparing lunch.
Seeing so many king crabs in the kitchen, even Yukino was a little surprised.
But the quality of the king crabs was excellent. Even Yukino couldn't help feeling tempted after taking a look, and she immediately started helping without any hesitation.
With several king crabs, two main dishes and a steamed egg dish were already accounted for, but there were still other things to prepare. The three of them quickly got busy, turning the kitchen lively with activity.
In the living room, Utaha prepared tea and juice for everyone, and they chatted while playing with the cats.
Listening to the rapid thud-thud-thud of knives from the kitchen, even though the wok hadn't been heated yet, Momiji still couldn't help swallowing.
Seeing her like that, Narumi said helplessly, "Momiji, didn't you just finish breakfast not long ago?"
"But… I really want to eat king crab."
She swallowed again as she spoke, her greedy little expression unbearably cute.
Haruno laughed and rubbed Momiji's head. "Being a foodie isn't a bad thing, but don't go getting yourself tricked away by some man."
Momiji might usually look a bit absent-minded, only caring about eating and drawing, but she was actually quite sharp. She nodded and said, "No problem. I've got Tsubame taking care of me."
"I'm not your mom! Stop thinking I'll take care of you all the time! Be a bit more reliable yourself!" Narumi snapped.
Kō drank her juice and burst out laughing. "It's useless, Tsubame. You've said that so many times already, and Momiji never changes. Just accept your role as her nanny. Or hey, you could just marry Momiji and take her home."
"Ah! Kō-san, don't say things like that!" Narumi protested.
In the kitchen, after Ichin finished dealing with one king crab and placed all the roe and crab paste into a bowl, he listened to the commotion outside and said, "Sounds pretty lively out there. No idea what they're talking about, but Tsubame sounds like she's having a big reaction."
Rin smiled. "Probably some topic that makes her shy. After all these years, Tsubame still gets embarrassed very easily."
"Yeah, that's true."
Nodding, Ichin handed the cut king crab body to Yukino. "Here, cut this into pieces. These are for the curry."
Yukino took it and, knife in hand, smoothly chopped the crab body into chunks.
Just as she was about to deal with the crab legs, she felt something brushing against her calf.
Thinking of what it might be, Yukino looked down—and sure enough, she saw Peppa rubbing against her leg, then looking up at her with pleading eyes.
"Meow~~~"
That single meow immediately drew the attention of both Ichin and Rin.
Seeing that Peppa had actually sneaked into the kitchen, Ichin wiped his hands helplessly and scooped the little troublemaker up in one motion.
"You little guy, your nose is pretty sharp, huh? You could smell the good stuff already? Sorry though—today's not your turn. Just wait for lunch; you'll have fish and chicken."
With that, he carried Peppa out and placed him into Utaha's arms in the living room, then returned to close the kitchen door, just in case the cat tried to sneak back in again.
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