Transmigration: The Little Chef Calls The Shots-Chapter 1392 - 211, Prodigal Son (Update 8)

At the door, a ruffian stood dirtied and dripping wet, Xia Zheng’s clothes were half soaked and dirty on the left side and dry and clean on the right. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing arms completely covered in black mud. His legs were the same, and even more shocking were his bare feet—don’t even mention the tops of his feet, even the gaps between his toes were filled with black mud; because he walked barefoot all the way back, a layer of yellow dirt had adhered to the black mud, making it look like it was painted on. However, while others might see a beautiful landscape painting, he was just a mess of botched strokes.

What surprised everyone most was Xia Zheng’s face; his hair was also full of mud, and strands were clinging to his body, with water dripping drop by drop from the fringes on his forehead.

Xia Zheng pouted, feeling wronged as he looked at Lin Yuan, and his misty eyes seemed to be genuinely brimming with tears.

Seeing those eyes, Lin Yuan, who initially found the situation amusing, suddenly softened in the heart, overwhelmed by a strong feeling of guilt.

However, when she stood up to inquire about Xia Zheng’s condition, her gaze was drawn to something pinned at his waist. It appeared to be a black, flat object that looked like a shoe.

Lin Yuan rubbed her eyes, and indeed, it was a shoe, a black one at that, which she hadn’t noticed earlier because of the black mud on Xia Zheng’s clothes.

"You, why do you have a shoe pinned on?" Lin Yuan asked, pointing at the smelly shoe, staring blankly at Xia Zheng.

As the topic turned to shoes, Xia Zheng felt even more aggrieved, standing still, his waist quivering comically.

Then, the black shoe hanging at his waist started swinging back and forth with the motion of Xia Zheng’s body, and eventually, it fell to the ground.

As the black shoe hit the ground, about a dozen inch-long tiny fish jumped out, bustling about most animatedly.

Lin Yuan stared at the black shoe on the ground, still faintly gleaming with moss, and then at the fish on the ground, feeling her stomach involuntarily start convulsing.

She could tolerate Xia Zheng using his socks to carry fish, but she couldn’t stand someone using an unknown man’s smelly shoe to carry them!

Lin Yuan covered her mouth and leaned against the wall, deciding she wouldn’t eat fish for a month, no, make that a year! And she didn’t want to see fish ever again either!

Looking at Lin Yuan’s distressed face, Xia Zheng felt a mix of pride and heartache, pleased that he had successfully disgusted her and yet pained to see her pale little face looking so pitiful.

"Go throw these fish back in the pond!" Lin Yuan told Shui Xian weakly, gesturing to immediately get rid of the little fish and just feed them to the dogs.

As Shui Xian passed by him with the fish, Xia Zheng felt even more aggrieved, his lips pouting as he looked at Lin Yuan, "Yuanyuan, should I really just throw back the fish I caught so hard?"

"What else if not throw them? Who knows whose smelly shoe you brought back? What if it belonged to a dead man?" Lin Yuan glared at him irritatedly, quickly grabbing the mud-covered Xia Zheng and pulling him towards the courtyard, "What’s with you being all muddy? Did you think I had fallen into the pond, so you went in to look for me?"

While still disturbed by the mention of a dead man, Xia Zheng went along with her line of questioning, "Well yes, I was fishing and then you disappeared; I thought maybe you wanted to fish too and accidentally fell into the pond. In a rush, I just dove into the pond to look for you!"

"Just talking nonsense!"

As Lin Yuan entered Xia Zheng’s bedroom where he slept, she scolded him irritably and yanked off his belt. Without much effort, Xia Zheng’s robe, covered in black mud, was flung by Lin Yuan into a corner.

Since it was summer, Xia Zheng was wearing only a jade-green undergarment beneath his robe. The undergarment, soaked, clung tightly to his body, and now that the outer robe was gone, Xia Zheng’s entire figure was exposed in front of Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan hadn’t thought much about it when grabbing the clothes, but after tossing the robe aside, she realized what she’d done—yet by then, the handsome man was already in front of her. Her eyes naturally followed the contours downward, her heartbeat quickening and her breathing growing more rapid.

When her gaze landed where it shouldn’t have, Lin Yuan suddenly covered her nose, turned, and ran outside.

Shui Xian and Yin Xing, who were waiting outside, were shocked. "Oh my, Young Lady, why do you have a nosebleed?"

Watching was uncomfortable, but being watched was even more so.

Xia Zheng swallowed hard, feeling his throat incredibly dry despite his damp body. Why was he feeling so hot?

He suddenly remembered that day at Fuman Building when Lin Yuan had sat on his lap and accidentally pinched something she shouldn’t have. Instantly, two streams of blood spurted from his nose.

Just then, Lin Yi, who was entering to bring hot water for Xia Zheng, also exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, Young Master, why do you have a nosebleed too?"

After washing twice, Xia Zheng finally got rid of the black mud on his body, and everyone was very curious about how he had fallen into the water.

Although he told Lin Yuan he was looking for someone in the pond, that pond was so shallow that even at its deepest it reached only to Lin Yuan’s knees. For Xia Zheng, it wouldn’t even reach his shin.

So Lin Yuan’s earlier remark that the stinky black shoe belonged to a dead person was also false, meant just to disgust Xia Zheng. That pond couldn’t drown anyone.

As for how Xia Zheng had fallen into the water, he probably would never tell anyone in his lifetime because after realizing Lin Yuan had taken his shoes and socks, he rushed anxiously toward the shore. Normally cautious in his steps, he was even more prone to tripping when hurried.

Thus, the self-proclaimed handsome and debonair Second Young Master Xia, Xia Zheng, spectacularly toppled sideways into the pond, with half of his body immersed and his hair soaked through.

Fortunately, when he fell, Xia Zheng cared about his face enough to keep silent about his tumble; otherwise, the nearby villagers working would have surely come over.

But even though no one saw him fall, on Xia Zheng’s way home, he still lost face. The Young Master Xia, who had been full of pride the day before, now looked bedraggled, and everyone who saw him couldn’t help but cover their lips and laugh, even guessing how he had ended up in such a state.

What irritated Xia Zheng even more was that it was nearly noon, and these farmers were supposed to have gone back already. Yet, today, there were so many spectating, ruining his twenty years of glorious reputation in an instant.