Chapter 168: Ren Tianyou’s Confusion
Compared to the boring weekends at home, Li Mu actually preferred going to school.
At least at school, there was a learning atmosphere, so doing homework didn’t feel so annoying.
She finished all the weekend homework in just one morning. After that, she walked to the balcony, grabbed the mop, and got ready to clean the house.
Xiao Jing was sitting on the sofa singing, practicing for the New Year’s performance, while Liu Shenglong was still quietly crouching in the corner, watching everything in the room like a little pitiful creature.
Around noon, someone knocked on the front door.
Li Mu, who was mopping the floor, was a little startled. She stood up, patted the dust off her clothes, ran her fingers through her bangs, and rubbed her face a bit, trying to soften her usual cold expression.
Once she was ready, she went to the door and opened it abruptly.
"What do you want for lunch? I'll make it for you."
But when she looked up, it wasn’t who she expected. It was Ren Tianyou.
Her heart dropped a little in disappointment.
"Xiao Mu, you're looking lovely as always~ You’re cooking? Then I definitely want to try your food," Ren Tianyou said while stretching and walking into the room, looking around. "Why does your place feel kind of cold?"
"It’s always a bit colder inside my place than outside."
"Yeah, I guess that’s true."
Then he looked at Li Mu and teased, "You looked pretty happy when you opened the door. But after seeing it was me, your mood dropped, huh?"
"No," Li Mu replied as she turned around, picked up the mop leaning against the wall, and kept cleaning.
Ren Tianyou was speechless. He could feel the disappointment coming off her, it was practically overflowing!
But at that moment, his eyes suddenly froze. He stared at the girl sitting on the sofa watching TV, Xiao Jing, and his eyes went wide in shock.
"You, you, you..." he stammered, pointing at Xiao Jing, his face full of fear. "Wait, your sister... she’s back...?"
He clearly remembered that Li Mu’s little sister had died in a car accident three years ago. And now, he was seeing her again with his own eyes!
"No, she’s my cousin. She’s staying with me," Li Mu said, trying to use the same excuse she had used to fool Zhang Hui before.
"Cousin?" Ren Tianyou slowly lowered his hand and quickly pulled out his phone to find some old photos from three or four years ago.
He felt a chill run down his back. "How can your cousin look exactly like her?"
"What else could it be? You think my sister came back from the dead?"
That... kind of made sense?
Ren Tianyou was stunned. But suddenly, he remembered something. That night when he was driving for a rideshare app and thought he saw a ghost. He had been trying to convince himself it was just a crazy person. But deep down, he’d already stuffed a blessed charm in his pocket and had lit who knows how many incense sticks at the temple.
Thinking about it more, if ghosts really exist… then maybe the girl in front of him was Li Mu’s sister, come back from the dead?
Otherwise, how could someone look so alike?
He kept comparing Xiao Jing to the old photo of Li Mu’s sister. He just couldn’t find any real differences.
The face, the height, the hairstyle. Other than the clothes, Xiao Jing looked exactly the same as the girl in the photo.
How could anyone in the world look so similar? And the most unbelievable part was, she just happened to be Li Mu’s cousin?
He looked at Li Mu in confusion, but she didn’t react much. She just kept calmly mopping the floor.
If she acted too surprised, it would only make Ren Tianyou even more sure of his guess. Li Mu had already messed up like that once before.
Xiao Jing didn’t pay any attention to Ren Tianyou and just kept happily singing to herself.
Since no one was responding to him, Ren Tianyou looked back at Xiao Jing again.
After a while, he noticed something strange.
This little girl seemed very different in personality from Li Mu’s younger sister.
“Brother Tianyou!” Xiao Jing suddenly looked up, holding a phone with a recording, and happily ran over. “Can you listen to this for me? If it sounds good, I’ll upload it!”
At the very least, Li Mu’s sister was never this outgoing.
Ren Tianyou hesitated as he took the phone and asked, “Do you know me?”
“She’s heard me mention you. A few times when you came over, she was in the bedroom playing on the computer,” Li Mu quickly explained, afraid Xiao Jing might give a strange answer.
In truth, when Xiao Jing was still inside the mirror, she often saw Ren Tianyou. Plus, he was kind of handsome, so Xiao Jing had a bit of a crush on him.
After all, if a guy isn’t good-looking, he can’t really be a playboy, unless he’s rich.
“I see…” Ren Tianyou still looked a little suspicious. He started listening to the recording while keeping an eye on Xiao Jing.
Their personalities were just too different.
Even if Li Mu’s sister had come back as a ghost, she wouldn’t suddenly become this cheerful, right?
So… was she really a cousin?
“Her name is Xiao Jing.”
“Xiao Jing?”
“The ‘Xiao’ (晓) from ‘spring dawn’(春晓), and the ‘Jing’(静) from ‘quiet’(安静).”
Li Mu made up a proper name for Xiao Jing on the spot to trick Ren Tianyou and make him let down his guard. To help sell the story, she even handed him the mop.
“You mop the floor. I’m going to take a break.”
“Wait, I just came to visit—”
“I’m going to cook. Are you eating or not?”
“Of course I’m eating!”
So Li Mu headed straight for the kitchen.
She actually wasn’t picky about cooking, but after living alone for a while and not having much money, she learned to cook to save money. And over time, even without trying too hard, her seasoning and cooking skills became decent.
She had ordered the groceries from an online supermarket. Pork ribs, bok choy (cabbage), pork loin, eggs, and she even specially bought a kids' steak to pan-fry for Xiao Jing.
She had cleaned the kitchen earlier. Maybe because last time, when Zhang Hui showed up, a bunch of cockroaches came out and were then wiped out by Ren Tianyou, this time she didn’t see any when tidying the cupboards. Just a few cockroach eggs in the corners.
“Xiao Jing! Come help me!”
“Coming!”
Nowadays, Xiao Jing was a lot more well-behaved than Li Mu’s sister used to be. If it were her sister, she’d probably have to be called three times before she would come over, pouting the whole way.
“Pick off the leaves from the vegetables, wash each one. Also wash the bowls on the table.”
“Oh yeah, did Yu Fan say he’s coming over?”
“Not yet.” Xiao Jing stood obediently at the sink picking vegetables and muttered, “If Brother Tianyou is here, won’t he and Brother Yu Fan argue?”
“Why would they?”
“Brother Tianyou sees you as a little sister. Of course if his little sister gets snatched up by some jerk, he's gonna be pissed.”
Li Mu gave her a light smack on the head. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Yes, yes, Brother Yu Fan isn’t a jerk.”
“No, I mean I’m not being taken by anyone!”
Li Mu glared at her but didn’t say more. Xiao Jing was always fooling around like this, she was used to it.
“Xiao Mu, what are you cooking today?” Ren Tianyou called out as he passed the kitchen while mopping the floor.
“Just wait and eat.”
Just before she started cooking, she took the phone Xiao Jing handed her and glanced at it, but suddenly lost all motivation to continue.
Yu Fan said he wasn’t coming. He was going to eat out with his family.