Chapter 18 Huaxian Delights

Xiaolang took a step out of the car to the chilly Northern air. It was colder than the South, but nothing one couldn't get used to.

In front of him stood a tall and modernly designed apartment building; his new home. It wasn't the fanciest housing he's ever been to, but after surveying the neighborhood, this particular building was definitely the most upscale.

The outside off the apartment building was surrounded by lush gardens, the majority of the flowers being roses. It gave off a nice fragrance to the cool air.

He walked a little closer to the entrance to see the building plaque with its name beautifully carved in.

Rosemerry Homes.

"RoseMERRY?"

"Xiaolang!" Meilin called from behind him. "Don't forget your bags!"

The young man grumbled to himself before turning back to get his belongings. If he knew this would happen, he would have sent everything by post like his other stuff.

Meilin smiled at the new and improved little cousin of hers. It seemed like he was taking the whole second identity endeavor pretty seriously. Hopefully he would be able to keep this up and stay out of trouble.

No matter how much she nagged and teased him, being his caretaker for the majority of his career meant she would always be his supporter. So seeing him act accordingly was satisfying to say the least.

Xiaolang dragged his two bags into the lobby where a security guard eyed him but said nothing. They were supposedly in a small suburban town but his mother was thankfully considerate enough to get him a place to stay where he would be safe from intruders. Having guards in any normal apartment building would usually be pretty rare.

Meilin came up from behind him and nodded in greeting towards the guards. She then ushered him into the elevator before pushing the top floor button; 55.

"You should be a bit more thankful. I got you the penthouse. You can't get any better than this in all of Bellrose," she said plainly.

𝘈 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳... he grumbled inwardly.

They reached their floor, where the elevator opened into a small hallway with only a single door. There was only one penthouse on the entire top floor, and it was now owned by the Li Family.

They walked up to the huge metal door to see a nameplate beside it with the name, Xiaolang.

"The passcode is your birthday," Meilin smiled.

Xiaolang's eyes narrowed before asking, "Which birthday?"

She chuckled at his question. "Quick aren't we. We made it your original birthday."

Xiaolang clicked his tongue and went to input the numbers to Li Tian's birthday on the door's passcode lock. Though technically, it was only a one day difference.

0401. April 1st.

Click.

The door unlocked and he slowly pushed it open to enter his new abode.

The penthouse was extremely wide, to say the least. It was fully furnished while being reinforced by state of the art Li Clan technology. His family didn't pull any punches with the place at all.

While it wasn't the best in comparison to their many other residences, mainly due to its location, his family made up for it in design and security.

"Quaint, isn't it?" Meilin mentioned from behind him. "We wouldn't want you to suffer too much. Your game system was installed in the living room. Hopefully one day you will have friends over to play with."

"Games are played online," Xiaolang muttered, pulling his bags inside.

She rolled her eyes at his remark and chided him, "Make some 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 friends, Tian."

Hearing the name, he glared at her. "I'm Xiaolang."

"Relax," she closed the front door behind here. "This is a safe space. You can return to being Xiao Tian here, isn't that right, Silas?"

"It is indeed, Miss Meilin."

"What the?" Xiaolang looked around him, trying to figure out who said that.

"It's the home A.I., Tian. We had Levi arrange it," she laughed at his silliness. They did have A.I.s back in the Li Estate but not every room was voice activated. "As much as she terrifies you, Aunt Yelan actually cares about you a lot, you know."

Xiaolang grunted and walked towards the giant white sofa in the living room, sitting on it comfortably.

"She didn't want the Ivon Corps too involved so she got Levi to program it personally according to your current situation. He's the only one that knows about your current identity. So unless you call upon him, Silas won't say a word. After all, you wouldn't want him activating when your friends are over do you?"

"Tsk. I'm not having friends over!" he barked frustratedly before muttering under his breath, "That Levi... he's supposed to be working on 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 thing. How much free time does he actually have..."

"Hmm? What was that?"

"Nothing," he scowled.

"Uhuh..." Meilin sat down on the designer couch next to him and made herself at home. "Now that we're finally here, this is your new bank card."

"Bank card?" he raised an eyebrow and took the card she held out.

"All your credit cards have been temporarily frozen," she smiled at him. "Now if you're in need of money, you're going to have to head to an atm machine and draw it out manually. Keep in mind you're only getting five hundred dollars a month."

"F-five hundred?" Xiaolang's face lost all color. He knew he would be getting minimal funds but only five hundred?? He's also never even used an atm machine before.

"You're not paying bills or rent. That's more than enough for food and essentials."

"Still!" he cried exasperatedly.

She shrugged at his desperate expression. "Not my problem. You will be getting a credit card usable ONLY during working hours later on. Mind you, it must always be returned to me by the end of the job. Any foul play will result in fund deduction."

"Seriously?? Uurgh... Fine," he sighed in defeat. The glare he directed towards the bank card was almost strong enough to melt it between his fingers.

Meilin watched as her little cousin got lost in thought, his multitude of expressions continuing to amuse her.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵?

"I'm sure you would like some time to get your head wrapped around things. How about I let you relax the rest of the day and pay for dinner tonight," she offered. "But only this once."

Xiaolang's eyes lit up at her suggestion. "Great! I've been meaning to try some Northern Grilled Lobster Almas Caviar."

Whack!

"Ow!"

"You ain't getting anything over ten dollars!" she growled after hitting the back of his head.

"F-fine..." he moaned his aching head. "What can I get for ten dollars?"

"Heh. There's a lot of good and cheap food out there. You just had too much pride to taste any of it before," she contemplated what would be good for him and secretly smiled to herself. "How about I order some traditional Huaxian takeout and have it sent here. I still have some work to do today so I'll let you enjoy it on your own."

Xiaolang noticed her smile and pointed it out, "What are you up to, Meilin?"

"What are you talking about Xiao Tia- I mean, Xiaolang," she smirked playfully. Standing up, she headed towards the door in a hurry. "Remember not to take off your disguise until AFTER you answer the door. You know how to use the intercom, right?"

"I'm not stupid!" he refuted as he stumbled to follow her. "Why are you trying to leave so fast??"

"You have work tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. so be sure to have enough sleep tonight okay! No playing games until late. Goodnight!" she said her goodbyes and slammed the door shut.

"What..."

Xiaolang stood there completely stunned at what had just occurred. He still had the bank card gripped in his hand, a little damp from his sweaty palms.

He walked back to the sofa and crashed himself onto it to gather his thoughts. He wasn't much of a deep thinker anyway so there was no use in dwelling on Meilin's action too much. She always had her reasons whether she told him or not.

Now that he was alone, might as well see what Levi had programmed in his home A.I.

"Silas," he called out.

"Yes, Little Sky?" a voice answered.

Utterly triggered, an anger mark immediately popped onto Xiaolang's temple. "I am not Little Sky! I am now Xiaolang!"

"My apologies. How may I be of service, Little Wolf?"

"What the fuck!?" he sat up straight. "It's Xiaolang!"

"Little Wolf."

"Xiaolang!!"

"Little Wolf."

"Y-you..." is fists trembled from his anger. "Li Tian."

"Little Sky."

His sanity snapped inside him.

"DAMN YOU, LEVI!!!"

.....

Riiiiiiiing. Riiiiiing.

It was the intercom.

Xiaolang put his controller down, pausing the game, and headed towards the intercom.

It didn't take as long as he thought it would, and he was quite curious how cheap takeout would taste. If it was any good, it would be a good new staple food for him during his stay here.

He checked the intercom screen to see a teen slightly younger than his own age in a blue delivery boy uniform.

"This is Huaxian Delights! I've come with your order!" the teen spoke from the speaker.

Xiaolang pressed the button to buzz him in and walked out towards the main balcony for some fresh air. The delivery boy would be here soon so there wasn't much else to do other than wait.

The sunset was starting to set and he had just the right view from his penthouse balcony.

Bellrose Town.

It was a quiet suburban area right outside the capital of North Huaxia, Lunar City. While there were numerous buildings in the area, most of the housings barely surpassed three floors, giving him a widespread view of his new neighborhood.

The terrain was largely flat, with many greeneries covering the empty spaces. Surprisingly, there were quite a few hills scattered around, some with what looked like manors constructed atop them. It was definitely the wealthy class living in the area.

As he scanned the neighborhood a bit longer, he noticed maybe a few hundred meters away from him, in a section of densely packed buildings, an array of lights had begun to light up. Over there he could see a variety of people walking through the narrow paths in between the structures.

𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵.

As he turned to look on the right side of his penthouse, he could see standing regally way into the distance was a cluster of tall skyscrapers. That was were the Lunar City stood. The city he would be spending most of his work.

Ding dong.

Xiaolang left the balcony and went to the door. He opened it to a surprised delivery boy a head shorter than himself.

"...Yes?" he finally asked, breaking the teen from his stupor.

"Oh. Uh, my bad," the delivery boy stuttered. "I didn't expect- I mean... I have your order right here. Two meat pao, stir-fried spicy vegetable rice with a side of chicken glazed in black sauce and an iced cocoa. Everything already paid for."

He handed the food which Xiaolang promptly received and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"No."

"Ah. Well," the short delivery boy scratched his head before deciding to comment. "Y-you must be new here."

Xiaolang raised an eyebrow intimidatingly.

"I-I'm sorry! I mean, I know almost everyone in Bellrose," the boy stuttered again. "And it's the first time I've seen your face. I'm sure I would have remembered it. H-here you go."

The delivery boy took out and passed what looked like a pamphlet to their restaurant.

"Most of the residents know the shop so I don't have many opportunities to pass these around," he explained embarrassedly. "It's down in the street market. There's also the full menu on it."

Xiaolang took the piece of paper and took a quick glance at the delicacies printed on. However, no matter what he thought of them, he showed none of it on his face.

Seeing that the customer had no reaction, the delivery boy looked at his watch awkwardly. "A-anyway, I have a few other deliveries to get to. I'm Yuhan by the way. Thank you for ordering with us."

He bowed stiffly and made way for the elevator, doing his best to ignore the sharp gaze from the stoic customer.

Xiaolang continued to stare at the teen as whom checked his watch every five seconds waiting for the elevator. The moment the delivery boy walked into the elevator, Xiaolang slowly closed his front door, accidentally making eye contact with the opposite party as the elevator doors also closed.

It was enough for him to see the person suddenly stiffen like a log.

𝘏𝘮𝘮𝘮... 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥.

He was completely unaware that due to his lack of communication, he automatically interacted with people using deep looks and exaggerated expressions. Especially due to being used to looking down on others, his expression went into its habitual look of disdain.

The door auto-locked and Xiaolang headed towards the marbled kitchen island.

He set the bag of food down and slowly arranged them to get a better look. They didn't quite look as appealing as to what he was used to. Rather, they looked like something had exploded in the containers and created the mess he was seeing currently...

But he controlled his prejudice towards it. He wouldn't want to neglect the teachings of the loving person he had lost. He sat down and wondered which he should start consuming first.

Almost immediately, his gaze went to the two pao.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘦𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯... 𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵...

The pao he had originally sent over had already arrived and was stored into the fridge. He had planned to savor them as much as he could and eat them only on certain occasions. If he could find pao from any shop that was even half as good, he would be content.

Before eating anything, he decided to first take a sip of the iced cocoa to moisten his pallet. The moment he took the small sip, his face lit up in pleasant surprise.

𝘔𝘮𝘮... 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥. He took another long sip.

After satisfying his thirst, he grabbed the sweet chicken meat pao, stared at it for a good few seconds before taking a bite.

He chewed and chewed, took another bite, and chewed again. It didn't taste exactly the same as what he had once before, but it did the job. He enjoyed every bite.

After he finished the pao, he took a deep breath and sighed melancholically.

"Sigh... I promised I wouldn't cry for you again, Grandmama..."

.....