#THE_LAST_MINUTE_GROOM
©Sir_Zach
EPISODE 32
The reason he made the rule that Jeslyn could have his body as his wife was firstly, to confirm his doubt and secondly, to test if she can get his body to react to her, and here it was, doing more than Jeslyn was doing.
Their kisses got heavy and demanding as the beast that had been locked out reared its head in Maverick, ready to cut the chains. Just when the hand roaming the crook of Jeslyn’s neck got to her chest, a soft knock was heard from the door.
Maverick paused and raised his head. His eyes were bloodshed, accompanied by desire. He turned to look at the door. The knock didn’t sound again, but he knew someone was there.
From the small screen on the door, Valen was standing outside with one hand in his pocket and the other behind him.
Maverick got off Jeslyn and glanced at her trying to seat up, then he said while brushing his shirt, “We are consummating our wedding tonight,” before and walked to his desk.
Jeslyn was left dumbfounded as she stared unblinkingly at him.
“C— consummate?!” she asked with her mouth forming an ‘O’, still Maverick ignored her to go pick up the remote to the door.
Valen burst into the room the second the door cracked open.
“You kept me waiting outside for 1 minute and 5 seconds and… What are you doing here?”
Valen was a little taken aback when he saw Jeslyn. He thought she was still sleeping and that was his reason for coming here.
Jeslyn’s excited heart heated up when she saw Valen. She had first gone to Valen’s room before coming here, but couldn’t find him anywhere, then a servant told her that Valen left the mansion.
Jeslyn put aside what her husband just said, got up, and strolled to Valen with her reddened face. She tried to touch the boy but he took a step back in a guarded manner.
Jeslyn sighed. She forgot they were enemies.
“Report got to me that you didn’t stop taking revenge on me when I was unconscious,” Jeslyn said.
“So,” Valen didn’t deny it.
“Do you know what happens to such children?” Jeslyn asked with a small smile forming on her lips.
“What has that got to do with me?” Valen asked while his injured hand was still behind him.
“They are made to do the laundry…”
“You ungrateful weakling!” Valen yelled.
Jeslyn got a fright from his outburst. However, Maverick only glanced at Valen without saying anything.
“Did you just call me names?”
Valen rolled his eyes before he turned to look at his father who was writing.
“Dad, I’ll take my leave now,”
Maverick raised a brow, then shifted his gaze to Jeslyn before he flattened his lips. It was clear that he figured out why his son came to him, so he’s returning since Jeslyn was ok.
Hearing what Valen said, Jeslyn pulled Valen’s injured hand from behind his back and looked at the neatly wrapped hand. Jeslyn felt tears welling in her eyes but stubbornly didn’t shed them.
“Does it hurt?” Jeslyn asked in a soft voice.
Valen pursed his lips, but instead of answering, he tried to pull the hand back but couldn’t.
“This happened because of me, I’m so sorry,” Jeslyn sincerely apologized. She looked at the child’s stone-cold face but saw no pain in his eyes.
Jeslyn instinctively pulled the boy closer and hugged him tightly, surprising Valen who went stiff.
Maverick looked at them but ignored them. However, he was anticipating an outburst.
Valen h@ťěs body contact, especially with women, and his disgust for women who hugged him was over the top.
Valen once soaked himself in a bathtub of hot water filled with disinfectant because a lady he detested hugged and kissed his forehead.
That lady happened to be Piper, his Aunt, but still, Valen didn’t tolerate her or even pretended to be ok.
The moment Piper let him go, Valen took off his coat and threw it at Piper before running into the car to go home and disinfect himself.
Now that Jeslyn has done the same, what would be Valen’s reaction?
Valen pushed against Jeslyn after a few moments of freezing.
Feeling his struggle, Jeslyn broke the hug only to see Valen’s face reddened with fury.
He pointed his left index finger at Jeslyn. The finger was trembling, and so was his whole body.
“Y–you, you–” Valen wanted to use abusive words but they got stuck in his throat when he saw Jeslyn’s beautiful face looking at him with confusion.
Valen gritted his teeth, glared at Jeslyn, turned around, and stormed off.
Jeslyn watched as the boy left the room and slammed the door with all the strength his left hand could summon.
Jeslyn turned to look at Maverick, but he had his head down, writing.
“Your son… is he mad at me?” She asked.
“Hmm,” Maverick responded without raising his head.
“Did I do anything wrong?” Jeslyn queried in a small voice.
Maverick raised his head to look at her. Seeing how meekly she was staring back at him, he slowly nodded.
“Wh– what did I do?” Jeslyn looked flabbergasted. She didn’t remember doing anything wrong just now.
“He h@ťěs hugs, especially from women,” he replied before going back to what he was writing.
Jeslyn panicked, “then, then what should I do to make amends?”
Maverick stayed silent for a while. None of them had ever consoled Valen before, so he couldn’t help her.
Jeslyn sighed and sat back on the couch feeling dejected.
“You behave like a child yourself, what makes you happy when upset?” Maverick threw the question with his eyes on his writing.
“My face,” she giggled.
Maverick raised his head to look at the face. Truly, she was one of the prettiest he had ever seen.
He subconsciously compared Jeslyn’s face to the face in his memory. The other girl had a round face with blue eyes. Jeslyn’s face is what they called the ‘V–shaped face, accompanied by hazel eyes.
Both girls didn’t look identical at all, however…
Maverick snapped out of his reverie to see Jeslyn touching her face.
“I look pretty, right?” She asked with puppy eyes.
Maverick lowered his head to his work. “Not bad,” he stated.
Jeslyn grinned ear to ear before she got up and was about to leave but paused in her steps.
“Ah, Mr. Maverick, I heard from Riya that Valen is not allowed to eat sugary food, uncooked food, and a lot more. However, is he allowed to eat baked food? Like, cookies, treats, and all?”
“Not in large quantities…”
“Ok, thank you,” Jeslyn said excitedly and rushed towards the door, then she heard him say,
“Once in a week.”
“Oh, it’s still manageable.” Jeslyn left the study and hurried away.
Meanwhile, Maverick got up with a bulge in his trousers. He touched it and narrowed his eyes at the door.
When was the last time he felt like a man? That was 6 years ago.
After what happened, Maverick’s body stopped reacting. Even when he wakes up in the morning, he doesn’t feel the bulge.
Though he checked with different doctors, they confirmed he was fine.
Maverick went to the room and headed to the bathroom.
…
Inside the kitchen, Jeslyn was stopped by a lady with a cold face. The lady wouldn’t allow her to do what she wanted.
“Let me through,” Jeslyn said.
“I’m sorry Miss, you can’t enter the kitchen. Wh@ťěver you want, I’ll prepare it for you.”
“First of all, I’m your Madam. Secondly, what I want is something I alone can do, so get away.” Jeslyn slightly pushed the lady away.
The lady wearing a white gown and a chef cap bowed. “I’m sorry I forgot, Ma’am.”
Jeslyn didn’t care about her anymore. She didn’t want to know if the chef’s apology was real or not. But one thing she knew was that whoever tries to get in between what he wants to achieve will suffer.
“Riya, help me get the glutinous rice flour, groundnut oil, rice syrup, mooncake, or biscuit mold…”Jeslyn turned to look at the chef.
“Do you have those things I mentioned in the kitchen?”
The chef nodded.
“Including fillings?” Jeslyn asked again.
“Which of the fillings do you ask for, ma’am?” The Chef asked.
Jeslyn remembered that Valen liked eggs, so she waved her hand, “Don’t worry, I’ll use egg yolks and date paste… Do you have date paste?”
It was better she use what she saw Valen eat than use ingredients she doesn’t know if he is allergic to.
“The kitchen still has little date paste, but I’m not sure what you want to make, so I don’t know if the one we have will be enough.” The Chef replied.
“I’m making snow mooncakes. Bring out the date paste let me see.” Jeslyn said and the Chef went to get a container with date paste in it.
Jeslyn nodded. “This should be more than enough. Riya, get the other ingredients.”
Riya bowed and started to get the ingredients ready for wh@ťěver Jeslyn wanted to do.
Snow Mooncake, as Jeslyn called it, is not a thing in Country M which was why Riya felt odd.
However, to Chef May who was one of Country V’s great chefs, she had heard of Snow Mooncake and had seen pictures of it but never cared to learn about it.
The household she works for doesn’t eat such treats, so what was the use?
Chef May walked to the cupboard where she placed those molds and brought out four different molds in different shapes and patterns.
Looking at the molds, a bitter smile crept onto her lips as her mind flashed back to the bad memories she had of these molds.
Chef May remembered the first time she came into this house. Seeing the two-year-old Valen, she was so excited that she ordered mooncake molds to make cute-looking biscuits for the child.
Chef May made those biscuits out of love and happily gave them to Valen who looked excited after seeing the different shapes
However, before the child could taste them, Nanny Mulan rushed out of nowhere and swept the plate of biscuits off the table before she gave Chef May a deafening slap on her ear.
The lady suffered hearing loss for two days as a result of that slap from Nanny Mulan.
Ever since, Chef May kept the mooncake molds away, thinking they would never be useful until today.
She handed the mooncake molds to Maya to wash and went to stand beside Jeslyn to help her out.
Chef May had a prejudice against Jeslyn before today. When she was informed that the master had brought his new wife home, she wasn’t happy, thinking the new bride was just another desperate woman like Nanny Mulan, but after watching her and seeing that the new bride couldn’t care less about pleasing anyone, her fondness for Jeslyn started to grow.
But with what’s happening right now, Jeslyn has become one of her favorite people.
Once the ingredients were ready, Jeslyn placed a spotless frying pan on a low-heat stove and added the desired amount of glutinous rice flour into it.
The chef and Riya watched her stir fry the powdered rice with their lips flattened.
After a few minutes, Jeslyn turned off the stove and took the flour off the stove. The flour was starting to turn a little yellowish, so she smiled.
Jeslyn transferred the hot flour into a clean bowl and let it cool down before she took out a little bit of the yellowish flour into another clean bowl to be reserved for molding.
On the stove, Jeslyn started to cook 12 eggs.
While the eggs were cooking, Jeslyn mixed the rice syrup with a little bit of water until it dissolved before she added it to the larger portion of the cooled fried flour.
She added a little bit of groundnut oil and started to mix them until it formed a soft white dough.
Jeslyn divided the dough into four equal parts and started to add colorings.
One dough was light pink, another was light yellow, then the third was…
“What color does Valen love?” She asked no one in particular as her focus was on what she was doing.
Riya and the chef couldn’t answer as they were blown away by the weird stuff Jeslyn was doing.
Not hearing an answer, Jeslyn turned back only to see the two looking at her doughs of different colors.
“I asked you two something.” She brought them back from their daydreaming.
“Sorry ma’am, we were…”
“I asked what Valen’s favorite color is,” she cut Riya off.
“Oh, well, Ma’am, nobody knows what the little master likes. We only know what he dislikes,” Riya responded.
“Ah?… Ok, what color of cloth does he wear often?” Jeslyn asked. She wasn’t surprised to hear that answer and she would also not be surprised to hear it was black.
“Black,” both Riya and the Chef said simultaneously.
Jeslyn sighed. How can she use black on a moon cake?
“Have any of you ever gone to his… Ah, white and…” she didn’t say what the color was and took a purple coloring.
Jeslyn made a purple dough and then cut half of the white dough and mixed it until the dough started to give two colors. Purple and white.
The day she went into Valen’s room, she saw a purple and white pillow on his bed. It was just one and also the only odd color in his black and white room.
“Ma’am, are you not going to color the half dough?” Riya asked.
“No,” Jeslyn answered while mixing the color to integrate itself into the dough.
Once she was done, Jeslyn took out the eggs from the stove and called the Chef to help her peel off the shell while she searched around for something else.
Jeslyn picked one of the dough she made and flattened it with a rolling stick on the board. She used a round cutter to cut out three pieces each from the flattened dough.
Separating the cut-out dough from the leftovers, Jeslyn coated the dough with the date paste while giving instructions to the chef.
“Separate the white egg from the yolk and pass me the yolks you took off.”
The Chef did as told and Jeslyn added the egg yolks into the cut-out doughs with date paste, before stretching the dough to cover the yolk and rolling it on her palm to form a round ball.
She did the same to all the other twelve doughs.
Jeslyn pulled over the stored fried flour she kept aside a while back and dipped a dough inside it. Once the flour had covered the dough, she would bring the dough out and place it inside the mooncake mold and press the top to push the dough out.
Her purpose in rubbing the round dough inside the flour was to prevent the dough from sticking to the mooncake mold.
After the round dough is pushed out of the mooncake mold, the round dough would come out with a different shape.
Jeslyn used different shapes of the mooncake mold. Some had the shape of flowers, some came out with the shape of little creatures, like bunnies.
Others came out as different shapes with Chinese characters on top.
Once she was done, Jeslyn arranged the twelve appetizing snow mooncakes into a small tray and stored them in the fridge for a few hours to cool off so they’d taste more delicious.
“Let’s make a small cake,” she suggested with a bright smile.
The two helpers nodded before the cake-making process started.
After about an hour and thirty minutes, the sponge cake was ready.
Jeslyn didn’t use icing on the cake. Instead of icing it, she melted dark chocolate and spread the syrup on the cake.
She used buttercream to write an apology on top, then added fruits around the edges of the cake.
Chef May and Maya couldn’t help sighing after seeing the apology. Is this truly an apology or a way to anger the child even more?
“It’s done and set!” Jeslyn clapped in excitement.
“Riya, help me get the snow mooncake from the fridge. Take out two for you and Chef May, then bring the rest with me.”
“Thank you, Ma’am,” they both chorused. Chef May and Maya also wanted to taste the snow mooncake, so they were elated.