CH 31

Sea Otters; Scary

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

They head downstairs for dinner.

The sweet wine Bai Yao fermented last week is done, so he’s planning to make desserts with it. He wants to let Mu Mu’er try all the tasty food in the world, and care for him well that his thin body becomes plump and healthy.

Sea otters really can’t do without a little fat and roundness.

Tonight’s dinner features stewed beef brisket with potato and tomato, served with sticky rice. There was leftover fresh kelp as well which would go bad tomorrow, so he can make miso soup as well.

For dessert, then, Bai Yao thinks he’d make some jiuniang tangyuan, of which the tangyuan are balls he make by hand using sticky rice powder and rice flour with water. In the tray with flour at the bottom, these look exceptionally cute.

Jiuniang tangyuan is done quite quickly, even before the main dishes.

He’s going to let them keep warm in the stove, but Bai Yao sees Mu Mu’er sitting excitedly on the chair outside, looking hopefully in the direction of the kitchen.

The miso soup won’t be done in a while, and the briskets need more stewing. He doesn’t know if Mu Mu’er is hungry yet, so he decides to serve the tangyuan before instead of after dinner.

Bai Yao also isn’t sure if Mu Mu’er has ever eaten the dessert or his tolerance for sweetness, so he only puts a couple in a glass bowl for Mu Mu’er for him to taste.

After he put the bowl down, though, in the time between he walking off to retrieve some sweet osmanthus gel and walking back, the bowl is already emptied. Mu Mu’er is biting the spoon, blinking at him longingly.

Bai Yao doesn’t even know how to react anymore. The bottle of gel in his hands has become useless. Heh. Like giving Zhu Bajie pepino dulce to eat – what a waste!

He’s going to take the bowl away, but Mu Mu’er is smacking his lips, staring at the bowl with huge disappointment.

“Want more?” He asks, shaking the bowl.

Mu Mu’er immediately nods with all haste, and follows after Bai Yao. Then he looks at the stove, sees lots of tangyuan remaining within, and smiles happily. He stands there waiting for his next bowl.

Bai Yao doesn’t give him what he wants, though, telling him with a fiendish smile, “no more, or you will be too full for dinner.”

“I won’t be,” Mu Mu’er retorts quietly, but obedient as he is, he doesn’t plead anymore. Instead, he starts looking around the kitchen.

His big rock is still there in the corner, so his eyes brighten a little as he walks over, kneels, and pats the stone like greeting an old friend.

Though soon enough, he loses interest, and starts wandering about the kitchen, touching the stuff he finds interesting, until a bowl catches his attention.

Bai Yao is stirring the brisket in the clay stove while wondering how Mu Mu’er can still be hungry after eating all the snacks earlier, when he hears some knocking sounds.

He looks behind him, and sees Mu Mu’er with a clam in his hand, smacking it on his big rock. He just cracked it open, and is about to eat.

Bai Yao took that bowl out to thaw earlier this evening for making soup. He was going to put it back in the fridge for tomorrow but he forgot.

“It’s raw! Raw! Gods!” Bai Yao immediately confiscates the clam, “you can’t eat this raw!”

Mu Mu’er looks at Bai Yao with a sad, lonely face. He is biting his lips, not understanding why he cannot eat the clam. Saddened, he starts taking a step back.

Bai Yao worries he’s scaring him, and gently explains, “Mu’er, tell me if you want to eat anything, ok? But you cannot eat raw food. It is bad for you, do you understand?”

“I, always ate,” Mu’er does not understand, “everything was raw.”

“I have to eat. Or they, they will be taken,” he looks straight at the clam, his gaze unmoving, “and Mu’er will be hungry.”

Bai Yao has to take some time to work out what Mu Mu’er is saying. The little sea otter is like a puzzle, or riddle. He has to take time to reveal the secrets lying underneath, to know him better.

“Taken by whom?” He asks.

“Sea otters. Scary ones,” Mu Mu’er answers quite quickly and with quite the sombre tone. He repeats himself, “Mu’er will be hungry.”

Bai Yao pauses. This reminds him of when Mu Mu’er had a little tantrum this morning. The boy appears to dislike sea otters.

Another piece fills the puzzle. Bai Yao thinks Mu Mu’er is likely to have spent time with actual sea otters in the oceans… And, they might have taken his food.

So Bai Yao asks, “Mu’er, can you tell Yaoyao, how long you have lived in the ocean?”

“Not long,” Mu Mu’er extends his arms about a metre apart, and explains, “only, this long,” then he seems to judge the distance between his arms inadequate, and moves them apart a bit more, “this long.”

Then Mu Mu’er takes a few seconds more to think, before continuing. He shakes his head and adds, “don’t like them. Mu’er likes staying with Yaoyao more.”

A critical hit right into Bai Yao’s chest. So he smiles, and smoothes the boy’s hair, saying,, “Yaoyao also likes being with Mu’er.”

After dinner, Bai Yao is quite tired. He cleans up everything, and gets ready to sleep. He closes the door to the storeroom directly, and lets Mu Mu’er into his bedroom again.

When all is settled, Bai Yao lies waiting in bed, to see if Mu Mu’er will try to hold his hands like he suspects he would.

As expected, Mu Mu’er snuggles up to him, finds a comfortable position, before looking up at him, and carefully nudges his hand into his palm while carefully scrutinising him to see if he doesn’t like it.

Bai Yao smiles, and grasps Mu Mu’er’s hand tightly. Now, it’s time to sleep.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t end up a dreamless night as he wished.

Two or three hours in, Bai Yao wakes up in a daze. His sleeping partner has been rolling all around, like he hasn’t fallen asleep at all.

Most importantly, Bai Yao is still holding Mu Mu’er’s hand. The boy’s grip loosens and tightens haphazardly, then rolls around a little. Bai Yao can sense all the little movements.

Past two in the morning, Bai Yao wakes up for the umpteenth time that night. He rolls around, looks at the boy sleeping next to him, and asks coarsely, “what’s wrong. You can’t sleep?”

Bai Yao thinks maybe he should never let Mu Mu’er take naps anymore. Stay up until the night when he can fall asleep entirely.

Mu Mu’er’s eyes are wide open in the dark. He mumbles, “so much food.”

Bai Yao thinks he might be excited from a dream. He’s going to tell him to sleep now and eat tomorrow, when Mu Mu’er adds, “not eaten… go bad.”

Bai Yao’s brain takes some time to turn on just to figure out what Mu Mu’er is saying.

All the snacks they bought that day in the market, especially the largely untouched bag of dried anchovies, and the remaining jiuniang tangyuan… Great. The little foodie is worried all his food is going to go bad overnight.

“They won’t go bad. We have a fridge,” Bai Yao is too sleepy to continue. His eyelids and sticking together, and so are his words.

Mu Mu’er is still quite energetic, blinking and thinking about what Bai Yao said. He makes an ‘oh’ sound.

Bai Yao, believing the business resolved, turns back around to sleep.

Just before he can fall asleep, though, one mumble comes, “what is a fridge?”

Bai Yao doesn’t answer him. Instead, he puts his big hand onto Mu Mu’er’s head, covering his curious eyes, sighing, “are you not sleepy?”

“Mu’er is not sleepy. Mu’er is not sleepy at all,” Mu Mu’er slides out from under Bai Yao’s hand, and looks straight at him with starry eyes. Like he’s hoping to be praised.

Bai Yao is cussing inside.

Mu Mu’er’s worries do not abate at all while Bai Yao fails to explain the mysterious ‘fridge.’ Oh no, what will happen to his unfinished dried anchovies? And the sweet balls and soup tonight?

While Bai Yao was showering, he sneaked downstairs to look. There were so much left. In the ocean, all the stuff will go stinky after just a day or so.

He asks once more, deeply concerned, “what is a fridge?”

Bai Yao gives up, gets up, and takes the curious sea otter downstairs.

His dried anchovies are in the little drawer in the freezer above. It’s cold enough they’d be good for weeks. The stove of jiuniang tangyuan has been covered with a layer of plastic wrap and put at the topmost compartment of the fridge.

Mu Mu’er looks inside the fridge, and asks, looking at the stove of jiuniang tangyuan, “they… will not go bad?”

Bai Yao is blanking out watching the boy squeeze himself into the fridge from the kitchen door.

It’s baffling Mu Mu’er knows what a bathtub does but not a fridge.

He’s not messing with him, is he?

He glances up at the clock. It’s almost three. With a yawn and barely stopping himself from collapsing asleep on the spot, he says, “gods, if you don’t let me sleep right now I’ll go bad.”

Mu Mu’er, freshly enlightened on the functionalities of the refrigerator, immediately proposes a solution, “then, Yaoyao, do you need to go inside the fridge?”