Chapter 6

The next morning, there were no phone calls to disturb him, and Yao Yingmo slept until he woke up naturally.

At this time, the sun was already shining brightly outside the window, shining into the room and bringing comfortable warmth.

She walked to the window, stretched, squinted her eyes and enjoyed the morning sun bath comfortably.

She has always believed that humans also need photosynthesis.

Especially for people like her who work at home for a long time, if they don’t deliberately get some sun, their hearts will start to get damp and moldy before their bodies.

Moreover, as a novelist, if you stay indoors typing all day, one day you will have nothing to write.

This period of time every day when she basks in the sun is also the time for her to observe humans.

The food truck selling pancakes usually closes at this time, and ten minutes later, the grandmother selling boxed lunches will start setting up her stall at the same location.

It is also around this time that a man in a suit with messy hair would run out with a briefcase, asking the pancake stall to make him the last pancake for the morning.

Yao Yingmo has lived here for three years, and this man has eaten pancakes for three years.

I don’t know if he is late as a normal habit or if he comes to work after noon.

There is a newly opened book cafe across the street. The owner is an elegant middle-aged man who usually wears a light gray shirt and khaki trousers, and a pair of thin-framed gold glasses on his face.

Surprisingly, the book selection in the store bears little resemblance to the owner’s persona.

Yao Yingmo has seen her books placed on the recommended reading shelf next to the counter more than once.

This made her feel a little subtly ashamed, so her plan to bring her laptop to the store to write while drinking coffee was put on hold indefinitely.

Today, there was even a promotional poster for her new book on the floor-to-ceiling glass window opposite.

Yao Yingmo was about to look away when he saw a bright orange figure passing in front of the poster.

The color was so bright that it could not be ignored, but the pulled-up hat hid the person inside very well, so much so that there was no blind spot and not even a chance to catch a glimpse.

You can tell at a glance that she is her next-door neighbor.

He looked a little tired and walked slowly.

Yao Yingmo thought it was normal. After all, he worked long hours, more than twelve hours from last night to now.

After getting up, Yao Yingmo hadn't checked the time yet, but she knew herself. If she slept until she woke up naturally, the earliest it would be 11 o'clock in the morning.

The figure of the neighbor next door disappeared downstairs, and soon the sound of opening and closing the door was heard.

Yao Yingmo also closed the curtains, changed clothes and started working.

For lunch, I made fried rice with the leftover ingredients from yesterday’s noodles, and had it with a cup of black coffee.

As she made her coffee, she hesitated for a few seconds, her fingers moving from black coffee to the espresso button.

The coffee isn't strong enough and it gives me a headache.

Compared to yesterday's chaos, everything was on track today, and Yao Yingmo's typing efficiency had returned to normal. In two hours, she had already typed 5,000 words, and another two hours would complete today's task.

But sitting for four hours straight is impossible and harmful to your health.

Yao Yingmo pressed the save button, went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, and picked out a few ingredients from the freezer to thaw them. After finishing typing, he would be able to make dinner.

After she finished everything and returned to the computer, she saw the message from Orange.

The crew seemed very positive about this collaboration, and it was said that they sent her a formal contract shortly after she agreed.

It’s just that an accident happened yesterday, and Orange thought she needed to rest, so he held off sending it to her until now.

Yao Yingmo took a quick look and found no major problems.

The problem was that she never traveled far during the serialization period, and this "travel" naturally included traveling across half the city to sign a contract.

Orange had thought of a problem a long time ago. When Yao Yingmo replied that the contract was correct, Orange immediately said that he would leave the office and go to Yao Yingmo's house.

After yesterday's fire incident, Chengzi has not been able to feel completely at ease. It just so happens that he has the excuse of signing the contract as a cover, so he can skip work openly and see with his own eyes Yao Yingmo's mood and complexion.

After seeing the message, Yao Yingmo took out another piece of meat from the freezer to thaw it before returning to his laptop to type.

It would take some time for the oranges to arrive, so she had to work as hard as possible during this time.

The oranges arrived an hour later.

"Hehe! I'm coming!"

As soon as Yao Yingmo opened the door, he was forced to take a step back by Chengzi's hug.

"Calm down." She stood up again, took the bag from Orange's hand and put it on the shelf by the door.

Chengzi checked her up and down, then patted his chest and said with lingering fear: "You really scared me to death yesterday."

Yao Yingmo shrugged, "There's no way to prevent this kind of thing. I'm fine now."

"You always say it's okay." Orange sighed, "Answer me, did you sleep well last night?"

A week after Yao Yingmo insisted that he was fine, he fainted and was admitted to the hospital because he couldn't sleep for several nights in a row.

Chengzi was severely frightened at the time and never believed Yao Yingmo's words "it's okay" again.

Yao Yingmo: "I slept until noon."

"Insomnia and sleepiness can coexist." Orange said.

"I'll get you a glass of water, black tea, okay?"

Yao Yingmo turned around, but was pulled back by Chengzi, "I can do it myself."

In the small trash can next to the water dispenser, there are freshly opened medicine boxes.

Yao Yingmo had no time to hide and had to remain silent.

"You took sleeping pills last night."

Yao Yingmo remained silent.

"I should have come yesterday." Orange sighed, "I finally stopped taking sleeping pills."

"I'll just eat this one." Yao Yingmo repeated in a low voice, as if to himself, "Just eat this one."

"From today on, I will call you every day," Orange announced, "to make sure you are alive and well."

"I have no thoughts of suicide."

Yao Yingmo frowned. She felt that Chengzi was worrying too much. "I just spoke to Xiaoyu on the phone yesterday. He called me first."

"Of course I know you don't want to die. I'm just worried you'll die of insomnia." Chengzi glared at her, then when she realized the second half of Yao Yingmo's words, she asked in surprise, "Did he see your Weibo?"

That older kid reads Weibo? That's really grown up.

"Well, he's coming over on the weekend." Yao Yingmo smiled from the bottom of his heart.

"Only when I see you smile like this can I really believe that you are okay."

Yao Yingmo: "Xiaoyu is very well behaved."

The corner of Chengzi's mouth twitched. She felt that Yao Yingmo's words were not appropriate for her age. "You are only a few years older than him, why do you always worry like a mother?"

Yao Yingmo said: "He is my brother."

Chengzi shrugged. After all, Zhou Yu and Yao Yingmo were each other's only remaining family members. It was inevitable that she had to worry more about them, having to be both a sister and a mother.

Put pen to paper at the bottom of the last page and the contract is signed.

Orange checked again from the first page to make sure there was no missing signature. "That's it. I'll send it back tomorrow."

The contract was put back in the bag, and Orange showed no signs of leaving.

Yao Yingmo had anticipated this and was prepared, so he readily invited her, "Stay for dinner today."

"You really do understand me." Orange was waiting for her to say this. Without hesitation, he ordered the dishes without hesitation, "I want to eat sweet and sour fish."

Yao Yingmo’s cooking skills are pretty good. Every time Chengzi comes home, he has to have a meal with her and then leave feeling satisfied.

I usually eat alone, so it's hard to stick to cooking every meal properly. In the end, it just degenerates into a bowl of noodles. Occasionally, when someone comes to eat for free, I have the motivation to cook a few dishes and a soup carefully and have a serious dinner.

This is actually quite good.

But Orange was really good at ordering, and she ordered ingredients that were not in her refrigerator.

"We don't have any fish at home. Go buy some from the supermarket. I'll cook the other dishes first."

Orange responded well and couldn't wait to go out.

When she came back, she looked at the table with horror at the five or six plates of food on it.

"He He, there are only two of us having dinner. Why did you cook a whole table of dishes? Will we not be able to finish them?"

Yao Yingmo was a bit embarrassed. She hadn't measured the ingredients carefully when she thawed them that afternoon, and only realized she had more than she expected when she started cooking. But since thawing and putting them back in the freezer would spoil quickly, she just cooked them all.

"I accidentally did too much," she said.

Orange looked around and saw that all of them were his favorite dishes. His eyes darted around, "Then save some for my lunch box tomorrow?"

"Can."

After finishing the last sweet and sour fish, Yao Yingmo came out with two lunch boxes and said, "Pack them first. You can't leave the food overnight after eating."

Chengzi looked at the two lunch boxes in Yao Yingmo's hands with confusion and said, "One lunch box is enough for me."

"I'll send the other one next door," said Yao Yingmo.

She was worrying about what to do with the extra dishes, and Orange's suggestion gave her inspiration.

Since the neighbors don’t cook, she just packed a lunch box and took it to the neighbors to improve relations with them.

They say people become soft-hearted after eating, so maybe after he finishes eating, he will let down his guard and take off his mask?

Yao Yingmo had a good plan, but Chengzi was shocked. "Are you going to take on a new brother? What about Xiaoyu?"

"..." Yao Yingmo was completely speechless by Chengzi's jumping logic. "What are you thinking about?"

What does sending a lunch box have to do with recognizing a brother? At least you should guess that she likes him.

Yao Yingmo secretly shook his head in his heart, thinking that Chengzi’s work as a romance novel editor in the past few years was in vain.

Orange said as he put some food into his lunch box, "Look, you've already started feeding them."

"His family doesn't cook. Since they made too much, giving it to him at least doesn't waste food." Yao Yingmo opened the lunch box and placed it on the table. "You can pack this one as well. I'll get you some soup."

"good."

Yao Yingmo came out with two thermoses of soup. Seeing the arrangement of the ingredients in the lunch box, he frowned slightly and said, "Put a few more pieces of meat on the one next to him. He looks a bit thin and should eat more."

If you are too thin, you should eat more meat.

Chengzi raised an eyebrow. Yao Yingmo said exactly the same thing as he usually said to Zhou Yu, and even said that he was not recognizing a younger brother.

But she was truly soft-hearted, and even though she was complaining in her heart, she still obediently took two more pieces of each meat dish.

"I'll go next door."

Yao Yingmo carried his lunch box, stood in front of the door next door, and rang the doorbell.

Not long after, Yao Yingmo heard a loud noise coming from inside again.

The sound was so loud that Yao Yingmo felt pain for him.

Even though there was no alarm today, he was still panicked, as if just the doorbell was enough to scare him.

I hope he didn't get hurt.

Yao Yingmo thought for a moment, hung the bag containing the lunch box on the door handle, and raised his voice to shout inside.

"I made too much dinner, and I thought you might not have eaten yet, so I took the initiative to pack a portion for you. I'll hang it on your door, and you can come out and get it when I get home. Take your time, don't be nervous."

After saying this, Yao Yingmo turned around and went home, leaving the space to the socially anxious man next door.

"He's back?" Orange filled two bowls of rice and sat at the dining table, waiting. "How was it? Did you see his face?"

Yao Yingmo shook his head, "No, I didn't even see anyone."

"ah?"

Yao Yingmo said: "He seemed to have been frightened by the doorbell and fell down."

"..." Orange said speechlessly, "Xiao Yu is not like this, right?"

"I don't know, but we don't interact much, so I try not to scare him."

“They need to be taken care of.”

Chengzi stared at the sweet and sour fish, unable to move his eyes away. His mouth was almost drooling. He chatted absentmindedly and babbled nonsense. Yao Yingmo couldn't stand it anymore and simply announced, "Okay, let's eat."

As expected, the orange couldn't fit in any more, so he thrust his chopsticks forward and stuffed the entire piece of sweet and sour fish into his mouth.

"Eat slowly, be careful not to choke."

Yao Yingmo was extremely grateful that they took some time to pack the lunch boxes, otherwise Chengzi would have had blisters in his mouth.

"This sweet and sour fish is so delicious!" Orange praised excitedly and picked up another piece of sweet and sour fish. This time he knew to chew it slowly and in small bites.

It is a very fulfilling thing when people like the dishes you cook.

Yao Yingmo also took a piece. The taste was indeed not bad, but it was still different from what he remembered.

“Grandma’s is better.”

"Every time I hear you talk about grandma, I'm really curious about how delicious it is that makes you remember it so fondly."

Yao Yingmo couldn't explain it either.

She learned her cooking skills from her grandmother, and followed her grandmother's instructions for every step and every seasoning. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reproduce her grandmother's taste.

“I can’t eat it anymore.”

Sometimes she would think that maybe it was just the beautifying effect of memory that made her grandmother’s cooking impossible to replicate.

It was like the real taste of home in her memory. She obviously didn't like it when she was a child, but now she regrets every day that she didn't have the time to learn it.

"What you made is already delicious." Chengzi noticed that the topic was getting serious, so he quickly picked up a piece of meat and put it in Yao Yingmo's bowl, changing the subject: "We made so much today, you should eat more."

After the meal, Chengzi volunteered to wash the dishes and Yao Yingmo cleared the table.

After tidying up, Yao Yingmo picked up her bag and was about to go out with Chengzi, "I'll take you to the station."

"No need," Orange said, "You cooked a big meal today, don't you want to rest early?"

"I haven't left the house today, so I'm going to get some fresh air," Yao Yingmo said. "I'll also buy some of Xiaoyu's favorite dishes."

When it came to breathing fresh air, Orange didn't quite believe it, but when it came to buying Zhou Yu's favorite vegetables, Orange understood immediately and didn't refuse.

Before entering the elevator, Yao Yingmo glanced at the door next door and found that the door handle was empty.

It seems that her neighbor took the lunch box and enjoyed it.

Hope he likes it.