### In the Inn
==============================
Lin Nan couldn’t be bothered to step outside today. She was lounging on the hotel sofa, legs crossed and chatting via video with Chen Jing, who she hadn’t seen in a few days.
Chen Jing seemed to have settled into life at his grandparents’, and with those few days of absence, it looked like his cheeks had puffed up a little.
“Mom, when are you and Dad coming back?” Five-year-old Chen Jing was being surprisingly polite, holding the phone while sitting cross-legged on his bed, gazing at his mother on the screen.
Although Lin Nan suspected that once he hit his rebellious teens around fifteen or sixteen, he would probably give her a headache.
She comfortably leaned back, grinning as she replied, “Probably on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. How have you been behaving at Grandpa and Grandma’s? Have you made them mad?”
“Not at all! I’m making them laugh every day!” Chen Jing said, rubbing his tiny belly and pouting, “But Grandma and Grandpa always cook way too much. No matter how much I eat, I can’t finish it all!”
That sounded about right. Lin Nan remembered how she’d gotten full to the point of exhaustion at Chen Yao’s house.
“No worries, tomorrow you’re going to stay with Great-Grandpa for a couple of days. Their cooking is lighter.”
As she spoke, there was a light knock on the room’s door, and in walked Chen Yao carrying a crate of beer.
Lin Nan glanced up at him: “Your dad is back. I’ll hang up now.”
“Wait…”
Chen Jing didn’t finish his sentence before Lin Nan hung up the call.
Chatting with the kid was fun when she was alone, but the moment Chen Yao showed up, she wasn’t about to let him continue basking in the spotlight.
“How’s he doing at my parents’ place?” Chen Yao set the beer down in the corner of the room and asked.
“Looks good, just a bit chubbier.”
“When we get back, you need to make him exercise more. We can’t have him growing into a little butterball!”
The heated air in the room caused Chen Yao to shed his windbreaker sweater, leaving on just a black long-sleeve shirt. He flopped down next to Lin Nan, pulled up his shirt, revealing his belly, and gave it a couple of playful slaps.
Years of working out hadn’t given him six-pack abs; his physique was more robust than anything, but he had slimmed down a bit due to late nights at the office.
Maybe Lin Nan had drained him dry over the past few days.
Lin Nan scrunched up her nose in distaste and looked away. “Where’s our barbecue takeout?”
Just as she asked, there was a knock on the door. Chen Yao jumped up to answer it, bringing back the barbecue.
Barbecue and beer were laid out on the coffee table, and the two of them settled side by side on the sofa. Lin Nan excitedly popped open a beer and was ready to drink.
It had been a couple of years since she last had a beer.
While not her favorite, she actually enjoyed that pleasantly tipsy feeling when she let loose.
Just sometimes, she let loose a bit too much—like that one night during their wedding festivities.
Eating barbecue and chugging beer, Chen Yao complained about work troubles while Lin Nan vented about the frustrations of raising Chen Jing.
“You have no idea. We just hired a new employee last month, and he’s just sitting around playing on his phone instead of doing any actual work. I give him tasks, and he just runs off! The whole company is obsessed with making money from pay-to-win games. They’ve flopped on a few projects already; at this rate, we might go under!” Chen Yao took a swig of beer and shook his head.
“I’ve heard there are quite a few independent studios popping up making single-player games lately?” Lin Nan asked curiously.
Chen Yao thought for a moment and nodded. “When I first started working, I was with a studio that made single-player games. The boss even reached out to me recently, asking if I wanted to join his new company, which is gearing up to make a domestic AAA title. The demo they showed looked pretty good.”
“The catch is the job is in another city, and the salary is a bit lower than mine now. It’d be starting from scratch, and if I go, I might only get back once a month,” Chen Yao sighed softly.
Without family concerns, he wouldn’t be willing to work on pay-to-win games. He’d be perfectly happy making his dream single-player domestic game, where at least he could hold his head high.
Having played on Famicom and GBA as a kid, hung out at internet cafés in middle school, and experienced all sorts of foreign single-player masterpieces in college, it was impossible for him not to have dreams while participating in game development.
Most young game developers likely feel the same way, but the industry’s landscape doesn’t allow for it.
Lin Nan paused in thought and encouraged him, “If that project seems reliable, then you should go for it!”
“Besides, you’re working here anyway, leaving early and coming back late, barely seeing each other,” she teased, grinning. “You’re not scared I’ll find another man, are you?”
“You’re probably not bold enough for that! You haven’t made a single new friend in all these years, let alone flirted with a guy!” Chen Yao hoisted a bottle of beer in mock toast, completely unfazed by her teasing. After years of marriage, they trusted each other enough to joke around like that.
If there wasn’t trust, he wouldn’t be able to say things like that.
And Lin Nan’s social skills… after a year of being pregnant at home and five years of taking care of a child, she hadn’t made a single new friend.
Chen Yao even suspected she might be a bit depressed from giving birth, but then again, she wasn’t a social butterfly even in college.
“Let’s play it by ear?” Chen Yao still worried about his wife and child. Even if he was busy, at least he got to see them daily, unlike if he were working out of town.
Lin Nan nodded her head, and with two bottles of beer down, a lovely blush appeared on her cheeks.
Her gaze became a bit unfocused as she stared out the floor-to-ceiling window at the snowy cityscape.
At some point, it had started snowing heavily outside, and the swirling snowflakes laid fresh layers of white over the already silver scenery of the city.
Feeling a bit lost…
Like Chen Yao, he once dreamed of creating domestic single-player masterpieces after graduating from college, but now he found himself making pay-to-win games. Lin Nan had also once thought about being a teacher to help shape the next generation, but that path had derailed into full-time homemaking.
Life never goes as smoothly as planned, and the paths we envision aren’t always easy to tread.
“Maybe I should just eat the hamburger?”
“What hamburger?” Chen Yao, munching on a chicken wing, looked bewildered. “Did you order a hamburger?”
“I meant the little hamburger that removes magic,” Lin Nan turned her head to explain. “It seems like magic hasn’t really benefited me much anyway. I’m just a housewife; having magic or not doesn’t change a thing.”
Plus, maybe after magic disappears, she would finally be able to age normally.
She definitely didn’t want to still look twenty when she was seventy-year-old and be a golden wedding couple with Chen Yao.
Even if Chen Yao didn’t find that odd, she herself would have difficulty accepting the idea of never aging. She might even live for hundreds of years, if not longer.
That could make her a prime target for research…
Chen Yao ruffled Lin Nan’s hair into a mess, chuckling as he asked, “What, are you worried I’ll feel inferior? Do I seem that kind of person?”
“Aren’t you?” Lin Nan shot him a sidelong glance.
“Keep it, or maybe ask Li Na?”
“I can’t reach her…”
Chen Yao propped one foot up on the sofa and switched the subject. “Speaking of which, your first kiss with me was because of alcohol, right?”
“Yup, what about it?” The embarrassment of the moment had faded with time.
“If you hadn’t used me to unlock magic back then, making me think you liked me, I probably wouldn’t have fallen for you,” Chen Yao laughed. “Especially at that birthday party for Bear Big at KTV when you confessed to me. Looking back, that was probably magic too, huh?”
Lin Nan thought back; her memory had never been great, and she found it hard to recall her thoughts from that time, merely nodding, “What’s your point?”
“You were a bit tipsy then too, right? I thought you actually liked me and that you were confessing because of the booze.”
She vaguely remembered that scene, and her already rosy cheeks turned a deeper shade of crimson.
Half-reclining on the sofa, with a flushed face and a tipsy gaze, Lin Nan’s image had Chen Yao a little light-headed.
But Chen Yao kept his thoughts in check, sitting up straight and focusing intently on the barbecue on the coffee table while keeping his leg awkwardly crossed.
d*mn it!
What’s with this little temptation? Why are you looking up!? Why!?
Look at Lin Nan like that—can my kidney handle it!?
“Chen Yao~” Her sweet lips suddenly brushed against his ear, a faint scent of alcohol tickling him as Lin Nan wrapped her arms around his waist, slurring playfully, “I want to eat! I want to eat… what was it that I wanted to eat again?”
“Why not eat me instead?” Chen Yao finally couldn’t hold back any longer and hugged Lin Nan back.
“Get lost!” Lin Nan kicked him playfully in the waist.
——————
Fifty-thousand collections, cheers and confetti!
