Chapter 161: Of Course I Don’t Mind
After a good fight with their food, the two, who had been hungry all day, managed to finish every last bite. Not a single bit was wasted.
“Phew~ I'm so full. Did Auntie really make all of this herself?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, her cooking is amazing!”
“You like it?”
“Mm-hmm, I love it! It would be even better if Auntie could teach me how to cook like that.”
After putting down her bowl and chopsticks, Lin Muqing sat at the dining table and started chatting with her close friend.
She didn’t know if it was because she had been hungry for too long, or because Ye’s mom really was a great cook, but after eating, Lin Muqing felt completely satisfied. Even though the food was just simple home-cooked dishes, they tasted so good, it felt almost magical.
What she didn’t expect was that her casual comment, which was meant as a joke, was taken seriously by Ye Ziming. He even started thinking about finding the right time to talk to his mom and ask her to teach Lin Muqing how to cook. Thinking of this, Ye Ziming stood up and began cleaning up the dishes on the table.
“I’ll do it. You go rest over there.”
Seeing Lin Muqing also getting up to help, Ye Ziming gently tapped her hand, clearly not planning to let her do any of the work.
“It’s fine, there are so many plates. There’s no way you can carry them all with just two hands.”
Even though she was stopped, Lin Muqing didn’t give up. She sat on a stool, ready to help carry the dishes as soon as she could.
But to her surprise, Ye Ziming stacked all the bowls and plates together and carried them all into the kitchen in one trip. Before leaving the dining table, he even wiped the table clean with a cloth. He didn’t give Lin Muqing any chance to help.
“Boss, I…”
“Be good~”
That was a little awkward and a bit helpless, too. In the end, Lin Muqing was kicked out of the kitchen and sent to rest on the living room sofa. Meanwhile, Ye Ziming stayed in the kitchen with his mom to wash the dishes.
So, the living room went back to how it was earlier, Lin Muqing and Meng Yue (Aunt Lin) sat together on the sofa, staring at each other, big eyes looking into small eyes.
Although Lin Muqing knew that it was impolite to keep staring at someone, she just couldn’t help herself. In fact, she felt like this stranger looked a little familiar.
It was really strange, her mind had no memory of this person, so logically, she shouldn’t have met Meng Yue before.
But then… why did she feel so familiar? That was a big question.
“Muqing.”
After staring at each other for a while, Aunt Lin finally snapped out of it and softly called her.
“Hmm?”
Lin Muqing tilted her head slightly, looking at her with curiosity, and responded without thinking.
But what she didn’t realize was that, to her, it was just a normal look of curiosity, big, bright eyes staring at someone with a puzzled face.
To Meng Yue, though, this brought a strong emotional shock, because Lin Muqing’s beautiful, lively almond-shaped eyes looked exactly like her child’s back then.
Just that one moment of eye contact was enough to melt her heart.
If it weren’t for the fact that so many years had already passed, Meng Yue didn’t think she could’ve stayed calm while talking to Lin Muqing.
“Can I call you that?”
Trying to hide her excitement, Meng Yue took a deep breath and slowly asked.
“Of course!”
Without any hesitation, Lin Muqing smiled and nodded. “No problem.”
“Muqing.”
“Yeah.”
"I heard you go to school in the south part of the city."
"Yeah, I go to…"
It started with a gentle question, just trying to learn a bit more about Lin Muqing.
The other person answered honestly, responding to every question like it was just a caring elder showing interest. In fact, she kind of enjoyed the attention.
What surprised Lin Muqing was that, even though she was usually bad at talking, she somehow ended up chatting with Meng Yue for quite a while, and really enjoyed it. With other people, she would often jump between topics so much that the conversation wouldn’t last very long.
That’s why some people had even given her a nickname: “The Awkward Chat Queen.”
Just when they were chatting the happiest, Meng Yue accidentally brought up something about parents, which caught Lin Muqing off guard.
“If that makes you uncomfortable, we can talk about something else,” Meng Yue quickly said when she noticed the change in her expression.
“No worries, I’m okay with it,” Lin Muqing replied with a smile and waved her hand casually.
In her mind, if she passed away one day, she wouldn’t want people crying for her every day. Her parents had taught her that too. She didn’t want to be treated as someone special, didn’t want pity or sympathy, and didn’t want to use her story to gain attention.
If someone treated her differently because of it, she’d feel uncomfortable, maybe even upset.
In fact, not many people knew about her family background. Unless someone asked directly, she wouldn’t say a word about it. Sometimes she’d even bring up past stories about her parents just like anyone else would.
Because she felt unexpectedly close to Meng Yue, she ended up sharing a little bit about her family.
Since she had already moved on from the pain, she spoke about it with a calm and natural smile. There was no sadness in her voice, but no joy either.
“Living alone must be hard.”
As she listened to Lin Muqing, Meng Yue felt a wave of sadness and pain just looking at the gentle smile on her face.
Without saying anything more, Meng Yue got up, walked over, and took Lin Muqing’s hand. She wanted to just take her home right then and there and love her like her own child.
“It’s not that bad. I’m used to it,” Lin Muqing said, scratching the back of her head a little awkwardly at Meng Yue’s sudden closeness. But she didn’t pull away, she just kept smiling and chatting like usual.
At that moment, the mother and son who had been washing dishes in the kitchen for quite a while finally came back out.
After learning what his mom was thinking, Ye Ziming frowned a little and looked over at Meng Yue and Lin Muqing with a subtle expression. Knowing Lin Muqing well, he didn’t think this plan would work out, because she really didn’t like it when people made a big deal out of things like this.
Even though she seemed like she’d moved on, deep down, maybe she hadn’t. Otherwise, she wouldn’t keep letting people believe her parents were still alive. Even he had only found out the truth by accident after they had known each other for quite some time.
“Muqing, I almost forgot to tell you something,” Ye’s mom suddenly said as she walked up and took Lin Muqing’s other hand with a cheerful smile.
“Hm? What is it?”
With Meng Yue holding her left hand and Ye’s mom holding her right, Lin Muqing felt a little strange.
“It’s just… we don’t have any extra rooms, so you’ll have to share a bed with Ziming.”
Ye’s mom said it gently, explaining the reason nicely and then smiling at Lin Muqing again.
“Oh, don’t worry about it! I can sleep anywhere.”
As soon as she heard that Ye’s mom was thinking about calling someone to come fix the bed right away, Lin Muqing quickly stopped her.
Then she looked up at her good friend, using her eyes to ask if he minded her sharing a bed with him. Ye Ziming replied with a glance that said he didn’t mind at all.
In fact, he very much welcomed the idea.