Lin Zhexia: “You changed your name to insult me first.”
Chi Yao: “Which word did I use to insult you?”
“Your style of insulting people isn’t as forthright as mine,” Lin Zhexia said. “You didn’t use any dirty words, but you still insulted me.”
Chi Yao sneered: “Should I also praise your forthright approach?”
“Sure,” Lin Zhexia waved her hand. “I’m just that kind of straightforward person.”
After saying this, she squatted at Chi Yao’s entryway to open the package, then solemnly took out…
A ball of yarn.
Besides the yarn, there were also several thin wooden needles and a small booklet with “Scarf Knitting Tutorial” written on the cover.
To prevent Lin He from discovering that she was knitting a scarf, Lin Zhexia could only hide at Chi Yao’s house to knit secretly.
At first, she was enthusiastic, exclaiming: “Isn’t my gift great? Practical and original. I’m truly her warm little cotton jacket. Once I finish knitting it, it’ll keep her warm all winter.”
This enthusiasm dissipated within three days.
Because scarves are really.
Very. Difficult. To. Knit.
She had always been bad with her hands since childhood. Before, during craft class, when they had to submit plaster assignments, she tried hard for a week but still ended up begging Chi Yao to finish it for her to turn in.
Not to mention delicate work like knitting a scarf.
In the video tutorial, the person could finish knitting in no time, but her hands were like malfunctioning mechanical arms, completely not listening to commands.
The video tutorial played on loop: “Cast on… for the first stitch, pick up right but don’t knit, place the yarn on the right needle, then use the right needle to pick up the second stitch from the left needle to the right needle…”
“…”
Even math problems seemed simpler than this.
Lin Zhexia listened through once, then silently dragged the progress bar back to the beginning and started over: “Cast on…”
She sat on the carpet with balls of yarn all around her feet.
Chi Yao was taking a nap on the sofa, covered with her small blanket.
The young man’s black sweater and her small floral-patterned blanket created a unique juxtaposition—jarring, yet somehow subtly natural.
The air conditioning was on, making the room quite warm.
The person on the sofa slowly opened his eyes after hearing the phrase “cast on” for the fifth time.
“Lin Zhexia.”
Lin Zhexia was struggling with the tutorial and had no energy to deal with him: “What?”
Chi Yao raised one hand to shield his eyes and asked with some disbelief: “You still haven’t learned how to do it?”
Lin Zhexia replied irritably: “I’ve only watched it five times. It’s very difficult, okay?”
“Is it that difficult?”
He said, “Five times, I could learn it just by listening.”
Lin Zhexia put down her needles and yarn, looked at him, and mimicked his tone to ask: “Are you still half-asleep?”
“If you’re not fully awake, I suggest you continue sleeping. This isn’t a dream, so don’t randomly show off, or you’ll get struck by lightning.”
Chi Yao ran his hand through his hair, then sat up.
He was sitting on the sofa while Lin Zhexia sat cross-legged on the floor.
Lin Zhexia looked up, and from this angle, his legs appeared even longer. Her gaze moved upward, noticing his lean jaw and the slight movement of his Adam’s apple when he spoke.
The young man’s voice was drowsy: “Give me the needles and yarn.”
…
Was he going to show off?
Lin Zhexia bit her lip.
She didn’t believe he could learn just by listening while half-asleep.
“If you’re so capable, go ahead,” she said, handing over the tangled mess of yarn she had been working on. “Let’s see how you knit.”
Chi Yao took the ball of yarn and completely unraveled the part she had knitted.
After untangling the needles and yarn, he hooked his fingers around the thin needle, adjusted his hand position, then casually moved his fingers in coordination, and amazingly, successfully cast on.
He knitted while feeling his way through, and although he was not quite skilled enough twice in the middle and had to pull out stitches to redo them, he quickly finished a row.
The beige yarn was neatly arranged, almost indistinguishable from what was shown in the tutorial.
Chi Yao lifted his eyelids slightly: “See that?”
“…”
After a while, Lin Zhexia didn’t want to admit it and said, “I can’t see, I’m blind.”
Upon hearing this, Chi Yao’s movements paused briefly.