Chapter 181: An Exception

Qin Kai had just received an order from Li Hanchen asking him to prepare the quarterly financial report.

However, Li Hanchen’s next order was for him to buy all the potato chips available on the market.

Despite being paid tens of millions per annum, Qin Kai could not draw a connection between the tasks.

It did not once cross Qin Kai’s mind that someone as cool as Mu Sheng would want to eat potato chips, but he certainly knew Li Hanchen was not a fan.

Perhaps they were for Li An.

Qin Kai felt this was the most likely reason. However, it did not seem like Li Hanchen’s style to buy snacks for Li An…

“Do you have a problem?” asked Li Hanchen as he raised his head when he noticed Qin Kai was still standing where he was.

“No, Mr. Li. I will get to it right away.”

Meanwhile, Mu Sheng was standing beside a quiet lake and looking at its surface.

Li Hanchen and Li An had left first thing in the morning. Since Mu Sheng did not have to work today, she decided to come out for a walk.

She happened to encounter some old men fishing by the lake.

Mu Sheng had spent her entire life in the laboratory and studying, so she had never seen people fishing.

Even though she had a cool personality, she was particularly curious about everything. Mu Sheng saw the old men throwing some string out using a fishing rod and decided to wait for the fish to take the bait.

Since this was a natural lake, its fish were wild and particularly agile, so it was not easy for them to take the bait. Mu Sheng waited for three whole hours.

A white-haired and energetic-looking old man sitting by the lake did not take notice of Mu Sheng at first, but he was later surprised by how patient she was and was terribly amazed. “Young lady, I’m impressed by your patience.”

Mu Sheng glanced at him and said nothing as she continued looking at the buoy floating on the lake surface.

The old man was not the chatty sort, but people always tried to make small talk with him. He had surprisingly encountered someone even less talkative than him. “If you are bored waiting, I have a spare fishing rod you can use. Why don’t you give it a shot? We can have a little competition while we are at it.”

Mu Sheng looked at the lake before she nodded. “Okay.”

The old man baited the hook for Mu Sheng. “I tell you. The fish in this lake are super hard to fish, so most people go back empty-handed. Even though I have been fishing for decades, I only manage to catch one after waiting all afternoon.”

Mu Sheng threw the line into the lake as the old man spoke and moved the fishing rod gently.

In a matter of seconds, Mu Sheng’s line moved.

A black carp over 500 grams got pulled out of the lake.

The old man instantly ate his own words. “You were really lucky.”

A minute later, splashing could be heard.

She had caught another fish…

She repeatedly kept succeeding in catching fish.

Everyone stopped fishing and stood dumbstruck as they watched the young lady pull out fish with every flick of her wrist.

The old man was astonished. “H… how did you do it?”

Mu Sheng pulled the fishing rod in and placed it in front of the old man. “Thanks for lending me the fishing rod. I will give you half my catch. Bye-bye.”

The moment Mu Sheng finished her sentence, she left.

She looked at the bag of fish she had just caught and felt it was fun.

The old man sensed his forehead throbbing as he looked at the fish jumping on the ground behind him.

The strange girl had appeared out of nowhere.

He wanted to say more to Mu Sheng, but she had disappeared without a trace.

The old man looked at his empty fishhook and felt disappointed. He gestured into the distance and decided to stop fishing.

Before long, an entourage of people walked over and took the fishing rod from him reverently.

Just as the old man was about to turn and leave, he turned to look at the fish on the ground. “Bring them back.”

“Yes, Old Master.”

Li Hanchen came home very early and sat in the living room to wait for Mu Sheng.

Li Hanchen heard a sound coming from outside, so he walked over and saw Mu Sheng coming back with a bag in her hand.

There were a lot of things that Li Hanchen did not like and fish was one of them.

Back in the day, his abductors had tied him to the boat and dumped him into the ocean just for the fun of it while they were on the run.

He was covered in wounds, so blood scattered into the ocean when strong currents of water came gushing towards him. Large sea creatures got attracted by the blood scent.

Li Hanchen was eaten alive by a huge whale along with other prey and found himself in a nauseatingly fishy-smelling environment. He did his utmost to prevent himself from getting swallowed while he inhaled the fishy stench of half-digested fish and crustaceans.

Despite his escape, Li Hanchen was so traumatized by the incident that he abhorred all manner of fish from then on.

The stench was a stark reminder of the humiliation Li Hanchen had suffered after being thrown aboard and dragged through the ocean like a plaything. He was swallowed alive by a whale and had lost all hope and could have died any moment.

Even though Mu Sheng was standing outside the door, Li Hanchen could already smell the fish. He instantly frowned and his eyes turned dark.

Since Mu Sheng had a lot of fun fishing, she walked happily with a joyful look on her face. She showed him the bag. “Look at what I caught today.”

She seemed like a proud child waiting for him to praise her.

Li Hanchen suppressed his annoyance and did his best to compose himself. “That’s brilliant.”

Mu Sheng handed the bag to Li Hanchen. “Shall we have this for dinner?”

It was Mu Sheng’s first time catching fish, so she looked very excited about eating it.

Li Hanchen took the bag from her calmly. “Okay.”

He retrieved two pieces of candy from his pocket and placed them in Mu Sheng’s hands. “Here’s your reward.”

“Thank you.” Mu Sheng ate the candy as she went inside the house. The moment she saw cartons of potato chips in the living room, she was caught by surprise. “That much?”

The veins on Li Hanchen’s hands throbbed as the smell of fish wafted from the plastic bag and kept reminding him of the depressing incident from the past.

All those horrible memories kept coming out and testing his self-restraint.

Mu Sheng was completely distracted by the potato chips. She walked straight up to them and opened a bag of original flavor chips in yellow packaging.

Although it was slightly oily, it was very crispy. It was salty and tasted good.

Since it was rather good, Mu Sheng ate another piece of potato chip before she turned and held a piece by Li Hanchen’s mouth. “Try some. This is pretty good.”

Just when Li Hanchen thought his dark emotions were about to burst from his body, a faint scent wafted into his nose.

Li Hanchen lowered his head and looked into Mu Sheng’s cool beautiful eyes. The coolness in her eyes seemed to soothe all his frustration.

He said, “I will pass.”

“Fine.” Mu Sheng pulled her hand back and ate the chip crisply.

Li Hanchen instantly heard her eating the chip. That potato chip was just an inch from his mouth earlier, but Mu Sheng had eaten it.

A new sensation surged through his body. It radiated from his heart before coursing throughout his body, making him a little warm.

Mu Sheng felt there was something amiss with Li Hanchen. “What’s wrong?”

Li Hanchen looked at her deeply. “Some of the water from the bag has gotten onto my hands, so I can’t get myself a cup.”

Mu Sheng caught on to what he meant.

In her past life, she often helped her colleagues to take things since it was normal to have both hands occupied when they were in the middle of experimenting.

However, this time it was very different.

Mu Sheng handed a glass of water to Li Hanchen. Li Hanchen placed his lips against the cup as he looked at her deeply like a snow wolf ready to pounce and attack her.

Mu Sheng inexplicably felt uneasy and instinctively veered her eyes.

A burst of gentle laughter came from diagonally above. Li Hanchen’s cool eyes lit up slightly. “How am I supposed to drink like this?”

Mu Sheng raised her head and realized that the cup was too far away from Li Hanchen, so she moved it towards his lips again. “Stop talking and just drink.”

Li Hanchen did not look at her as he lowered his eyes to conceal the smile on his face.

The moment Auntie Lin saw the bag of fish in the kitchen, she was so startled that she nearly lost grip on her knife.

Everyone in the alliance knew Li Hanchen detested fish. The moment anything tasted remotely fishy, he would go into a fit. All the people who had made the same mistake of bringing fish near him were taken care of. No one dared to test his patience when it came to fish.

Auntie Lin was so terrified that she wanted to remove the bag and throw it out right away.

Just as she was about to leave the kitchen, Li Hanchen’s eyes landed on the bag as he said, “I brought the fish here. Why don’t you cook it for dinner?”

Before Auntie Lin could wrap her mind around it, Li Hanchen had already turned and left.

Li An had volunteered to revise at school after class, so he did not come back to the villa and only Li Hanchen and Mu Sheng were home for dinner.

Mu Sheng looked at the plump white steamed fish curiously before she reached her chopsticks out and took some as though it were meat.

Li Hanchen promptly stopped her.

He looked at Mu Sheng. “You can’t eat it yet.”

Mu Sheng pulled her chopsticks back. She watched as Li Hanchen patiently deboned the fish until only soft flesh remained before he placed it in her bowl.

Mu Sheng took a bite of the fish. Since she had just caught the fish earlier, it was undoubtedly fresh.

Li Hanchen proceeded to debone all her fish for the rest of dinner.

Mu Sheng glanced at Li Hanchen’s bowl when she was almost done eating.

Even though he had spent all night deboning fish, he had yet to eat it himself.

Mu Sheng wanted to try deboning the fish herself. She took another piece of fish and carefully removed its bones before placing it in Li Hanchen’s bowl. “Why aren’t you eating? Don’t you like it?”

Li Hanchen’s eyes froze before he finally took the fish and placed it in his mouth.

Li Hanchen hated its fishy scent as usual, but he did not feel nauseous this time.

Li Hanchen tightened his fists under the table as the smell of fish spread throughout his mouth and refused to dissipate, so he went to pour himself a glass of water.

Mu Sheng had already tried deboning more fish when he went to get a glass of water.

She ended up doing a bad job and choking herself on the fishbone.

“Cough cough.”