Chapter 234: A Celebrity’s Alcoholic Father – 2

Before coming inside, Xie Chuan had many scenarios playing out in his mind. For instance, he expected a heavy stench of alcohol the moment the door opened, or perhaps his father sitting on the sofa, shouting at him, asking why he had bothered to come back.

To his surprise, as soon as the door opened, the first thing he smelled was the aroma of food.

Although the scent was faint, Xie Chuan, who had been hungry for a long time, caught it instantly.

The sofa and carpet in the living room had all been replaced. Not a single liquor bottle was in sight. The curtains had also been changed to a different style, one that didn’t block the light as effectively as the previous ones.

Through the pale yellow curtains, a portion of the sunlight filtered in, making the living room look exceptionally bright and warm.

A pot of unknown flowers sat on the coffee table. Three blossoms had bloomed, emitting a subtle fragrance.

At the entrance where one walked in from the door, a Lucky Bamboo^[1] plant was growing in a glass vase. Xie Chuan stared at the plant for a long time while putting down his keys.

“Why didn’t you give me a heads-up before coming back?”

Xie Hui walked out of the kitchen. Seeing Xie Chuan, a grown man, standing there looking lost, he frowned and scolded him out of habit, just as the Original Host would have done.

After speaking, he walked over to Xie Chuan’s side, opened the shoe cabinet, and took out a pair of cotton slippers.

“I didn’t even cook enough for you.”

“Ah, Dad, I can just have a bite of whatever’s around. If all else fails, I’ll order takeout. Delivery is pretty fast anyway.”

Clearly, he used to order takeout every time he came home, but now, smelling the scent of home-cooked food, an inexplicable resistance to the idea of takeout rose in his heart.

Xie Hui took the luggage from his hands and brought it into his bedroom.

“Want me to make you some noodles?”

“Sure.”

Xie Hui washed his hands and made him a simple bowl of clear broth noodles. As he set it down on the dining table, he saw Xie Chuan still looking around aimlessly and urged him:

“Come and eat. If you wait too long, the noodles will get soggy.”

“Ah, coming.”

It was just a simple bowl of clear broth noodles, and the taste wasn’t anything extraordinary, but Xie Chuan kept staring at his father while he ate.

“Using my face as a side dish?”

“No.”

After saying that, Xie Chuan buried his head and ate. At first, he didn’t think there was anything special about it, but the more he ate, the better it tasted. The noodles were springy, and the broth was decent.

“Go wash the dishes yourself.”

“Okay, Dad.”

While washing the dishes, Xie Chuan peeked into the refrigerator. Unlike before, when it was crammed full of beer, the vegetables and fruits were now neatly arranged.

This would be a perfectly normal scene in an ordinary household, but with the memory of all that beer for comparison, this simple sight was enough to keep Xie Chuan silent for a long time.

The vegetables looked very fresh. There was one head of cabbage that seemed to have been partially used for lunch, with only half remaining. The fruits were all varieties that he liked to eat.

Sitting in the living room, Xie Hui didn’t hear the sound of dishwashing for a while and turned his head to look.

“I heard you were coming back, so I bought the fruit in the fridge for you. Hurry up and finish the dishes. Once you’re done, I’ll wash some fruit for you.”

“Eh, alright, Dad.”

Hearing his father’s voice, Xie Chuan snapped out of his daze and closed the refrigerator door. He turned back to wash the dishes and chopsticks until they were sparkling clean, tidying up the kitchen while he was at it.

He hadn’t done much housework in his life, but he worked very briskly now, as if using the labor to vent the joy in his heart.

Washing the fruit was something he could have easily done himself. But once he finished tidying up, he walked to the door and intentionally reminded his father:

“Dad, I finished the dishes.”

Xie Hui stood up, walked into the kitchen, and took out several boxes of fruit. Xie Chuan watched from the side as he washed them.

Even though he was a grown man, faced with such a massive change in his father, he didn’t dare to ask a single question.

It wasn’t that he was afraid of his father scolding him again; he was simply afraid to ask. If a scolding could get him an answer, Xie Chuan would actually be quite willing to take it.

Once the washed fruit had drained, Xie Hui handed him the fruit plate. Xie Chuan held the plate and sat on the sofa, eating while watching a boring television drama with his father.

“Dad, the production crew will be coming the day after tomorrow to install cameras and things like that.”

“Mm.”

When an episode ended, Xie Hui picked up his thermos and took a sip of water. As the ending theme music played on the TV, he turned his head to glance at Xie Chuan, who was busy eating fruit.

“Your acting is better in this show.”

This sentence from his father almost made Xie Chuan swallow a cherry pit. His eyes widened, and it took a long moment before he could speak:

“Dad, you actually watch the shows I act in?”

He had always thought that ever since he started being “disobedient,” his father couldn’t stand the sight of him.

“I watched a few episodes. The plot was too boring so I stopped. Too many advertisements.”

“Huh? Advertisements?”

Xie Chuan couldn’t help but doubt whether his father was actually watching his show. He acted in television dramas; how could there be advertisements inside the show?

“It was that character you played. When someone tried to poison the female lead, you pulled something out to feed her. Could that brand logo have been any bigger?”

“What kind of candy is so effective that it can bring the dead back to life?”

Hearing his father say this, Xie Chuan remembered that there indeed was such a scene. However, when they were filming, the script described it as a precious pill refined by a divine doctor using a lifetime of knowledge.

“Dad, I thought you didn’t like watching that stuff…”

“I was bored at home.”

At that moment, Xie Hui remembered something else he had forgotten to mention.

“By the way, I’ve mostly spent the money you transferred to me before. I did some simple renovations to this place and bought quite a few things.”

“Dad, I’ll transfer some more to you right now.”

Xie Chuan set the fruit plate aside and transferred his entire salary, which he had just received a few days ago.

Previously, he felt the money he gave his father wasn’t much, mainly because he was afraid his father would take the money and go out drinking.

But now, with not even a hint of alcohol in the house, Xie Chuan felt at ease.

He didn’t even ask what Xie Hui wanted the money for. As long as it wasn’t for drinking, Xie Chuan felt that anything his father did was fine.

After transferring all the money, he went back to eating his fruit, speaking as he ate.

“Dad, I have another payout coming from a drama series in a little while. I’ll transfer that to you as well when it arrives. Don’t you dare try to save it all at home. Buy whatever you want.”

“Alright.”

Since he had given them advance notice, the crew from the reality show arrived exactly as scheduled. After installing the cameras, the director sat down with them to discuss the filming process.

To Xie Chuan’s surprise, the close friend who had previously offered to help him turned out to be one of the guests on this very same variety show.

When the official day of filming finally arrived, the production crew began recording as Xie Chuan entered the hallway. Carrying his suitcase, he stood before the entrance and nervously knocked on his own front door.