The next day, Lin Zhexia was awakened by intense sunlight.
The curtains were only half-drawn, and the dazzling light shone directly in, illuminating the entire living room.
If not for the still-wet ground outside, she would have almost believed that last night’s downpour was just an imagined nightmare.
But as she sat up from the sofa and ran her fingers through her hair, she saw the neatly laid out mattress and blanket on the carpet, and memories from last night came rushing back.
The voice she had heard beside her ear last night.
And the bedtime story about the little rabbit—none of it was a dream.
She took out her phone and checked the time.
8:23 AM.
She opened her contact list and sent Chi Yao a few messages—
Are you back home yet?
Want to have breakfast together later?
I’ll treat you to xiaolongbao, don’t be polite with me, free all-you-can-eat.
Chi Yao had probably just left not long ago and replied with a “Read” receipt.
With Lin He away, there was no one to cook, so breakfast naturally had to be eaten outside.
There was a row of shops at the entrance of the residential complex, with several breakfast establishments lined up side by side.
After eating there for so many years, the children in the complex and the shop owners had all become familiar with each other.
Lin Zhexia pulled Chi Yao into the breakfast shop, and before they could even order, the owner sitting at the cashier greeted them with a smile: “Xiao Xia, you’re here! And Xiao Chi, too. What would you two like to eat today? Xiaolongbao?”
Lin Zhexia found an empty seat and sat down. She was wearing a thick white down jacket, and while taking it off, she said: “How did you guess right away? I feel like I don’t even need to order…”
The owner was a middle-aged woman who was calculating prices on a calculator and joked: “You don’t need to order anymore, just scan the code and pay. If there’s even one thing we serve that you two don’t like, this meal is on me.”
The place had a strong sense of homely warmth. The kitchen was steaming buns, and the moment the lid was lifted, the aroma wafted out along with the steam.
Lin Zhexia asked Chi Yao, “How many baskets will you eat?”
Chi Yao hadn’t answered yet.
Afraid he might order too much, she quickly added: “Although I said I could treat you to all you can eat, breakfast should still be balanced. Look at the tofu pudding and pumpkin porridge and such—these aren’t just nutritious, they’re also relatively inexpensive.”
Chi Yao was wearing a black sweater today. His hair had grown a bit longer, making his eyebrows and eyes appear even more defined, with an inescapable air of arrogance.
He let out a light snort: “Coward, is this how you treat someone?”
“…” Lin Zhexia slowly admitted, “I’m the type of person who tends to go back on her word.”
Soon, everything they ordered was served.
Lin Zhexia had been craving xiaolongbao since last night and, staying true to her heart’s desire, focused intently on eating them.
They each had one basket.
After finishing her portion, Lin Zhexia stared at Chi Yao’s basket.
Taking advantage of when Chi Yao lowered his head to drink his porridge, her chopsticks darted over quickly, grabbed one, and placed it in her bowl.
Just when she thought her operation had gone undetected, after stealthily taking three, she suddenly heard: “Do you think I didn’t see that?”
Lin Zhexia: “…”
She looked up and met Chi Yao’s eyes.
Lin Zhexia, holding her bowl, said: “I thought someone as generous as you probably wouldn’t mind.”
“I’m sorry,” Chi Yao said, “but I do mind.”
Lin Zhexia: “I already complimented you on being generous, shouldn’t you just accept the label?”
Chi Yao: “Oh, I’m stingy then.”
Lin Zhexia: “But I’ve already eaten them, surely I can’t…”
Before she could finish, Chi Yao leaned back slightly: “You can spit them out.”
“…”
In the end, that basket of xiaolongbao still ended up in her stomach.
Despite what Chi Yao said, when her chopsticks eagerly attempted to steal more, he chose to turn a blind eye—
Lin Zhexia still spent most of her winter break at Chi Yao’s place, just like usual.
With Lin He gone for these few days, she went over even more frequently.
On Chi Yao’s sofa was a small blanket she used to keep warm, along with some manga books she had brought from home. The coffee table displayed her favorite snacks, and on the desk, among Chi Yao’s textbooks, were interspersed her textbooks and homework.
Occasionally, He Yang would come over to escape from his mother and stay for a while: “Xia-ge, anyone who didn’t know better would think this was your home.”
Lin Zhexia was sharing a desk with Chi Yao. The winter break assignments from Second Middle School were all the same, and she would occasionally glance at Chi Yao’s answers.
She directly acknowledged it: “Why would you come to my home?”
He Yang: “…You’re not polite.”