☆、Thirty-seven、I Bringed a Toy Home (2820 words)
Li Yaxi felt a significant generation gap between them, and three drops of sweat immediately appeared on her forehead.
"Forget it, there's no point in asking you. Just take your things and come with me. I haven't eaten yet. You know how to cook, right?"
He preferred home-cooked meals to those served outside, and Li Yaxi's mood improved when she saw Qin Tian nod.
After paying the bill, he gestured for Qin Tian to follow him home.
He received another phone call on the way, from Song Qing, who asked him to come over for dinner.
Li Yaxi refused.
He doesn't mind people having fantasies about him, but they can only fantasize.
Seeing the blatant look in his eyes, Song Qing felt it was better to avoid him.
Perhaps feeling a little dizzy from riding an elevator for the first time, Qin Tian gripped the elevator arm tightly, afraid to move.
Li Yaxi found it somewhat amusing, but she didn't show it, afraid of hurting the child's self-esteem.
He entered the room, grabbed his slippers, and tossed them in front of Qin Tian. He noticed Qin Tian had changed his shoes but hadn't moved for a while, which seemed odd.
"Come in! No monster's going to eat you. What are you standing there for?"
Qin Tian hesitated to go inside the house, which had a distinctly modern feel.
The walls are pale yellow, the sofa is white, the coffee table is made of glass, and the dining table is made of colorful glass.
There are chandeliers, a large color TV, a computer, and a refrigerator that is bigger than the doors of his cabinets.
Qin Tian was dumbfounded. Like Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Garden, he was curious about everything but dared not touch anything. He could only stand there dumbly at the door. Seeing that he still didn't move, Li Yaxi had no choice but to go over and take him to the kitchen.
"Hey, you can cook whatever you want from the fridge. The seasonings are here. Here's the sink. Be careful when you use the knife. Turn on the range hood when you're cooking. Is there anything else you don't know how to use?"
Qin Tian looked around. His family still used a stove to cook. Although it was all very novel, he understood after Li Yaxi explained it to him, and nodded to Li Yaxi.
"Alright, you cook then. The rice cooker is in your cupboard, get it yourself. Make sure it's delicious, or I'll throw you out."
While Qin Tian was still stunned as he threw out those three words, Li Yaxi had already returned to the living room to play on the computer, standing in the kitchen, a place she had only ever seen on his small TV.
Qin Tian sighed briefly, then immediately washed his hands and started cooking.
Li Yaxi looked at the three dishes and one soup on the table and thought they looked pretty good. She picked up a piece with her chopsticks, tasted it, and nodded in satisfaction. Indeed, cooking skills must be practiced from a young age.
Feng Zihao, who had only recently started learning, was still a bit unskilled. "Hmm, not bad, better than I expected. Eat up."
Li Yaxi saw Qin Tian standing motionless by the table and kicked him lightly, it didn't hurt.
"You think you can get full just by staring? Come and get your own rice! How can you be so dense!"
Halfway through the meal, Li Yaxi suddenly remembered that he had a grandmother. "Is your grandmother at home? What did she eat for lunch?"
Qin Tian hadn't expected Li Yaxi to ask him this, and he was momentarily taken aback.
It took her a while to swallow the food in her mouth before she said, "Grandma can cook noodles or make steamed buns herself..."
Why don't you cook?
Li Yaxi regretted asking the question as soon as he did. He suddenly remembered a minister in a certain dynasty who told the emperor that the common people were so poor that they couldn't even afford vegetables. The emperor replied, "Then go eat meat!"
He felt that he was just as foolish as that emperor.
She looked at Qin Tian with some apology.
However, Qin Tian kept his head down and didn't dare to look at Li Yaxi, his voice somewhat muffled, "Sometimes I cook in the afternoon."
Li Yaxi said "Oh" and then asked, "Why doesn't your father work? Is it because some woman outside has dumped you?"
Qin Tian was momentarily speechless at Li Yaxi's question, his face turning red, whether from the embarrassment of the color or from what Li Yaxi had said, it was hard to tell.
"No, he...no woman would want him, he...gambles."
Li Yaxi understood; having a father like that must make life difficult. "Oh, your dad wouldn't be coming back to ask you for money if he's out of money, would he?"
Qin Tian remained silent, but Li Yaxi understood that this meant he had tacitly agreed. No wonder.
If Feng Zihao had forced him to drop out of school back then, then this child… Li Yaxi suddenly felt a little guilty.
"sorry"
Li Yaxi was confused by Qin Tian's sudden apology. "What?"
Qin Tian put down his bowl and chopsticks. "I'm sorry, last time at the pool... I didn't mean to."
Li Yaxi pushed the rice cooker toward him. "I know you didn't do it on purpose. If you did, do you think you'd still be at No. 4 Middle School? Okay, I know what happened that day. You're innocent too. Let's eat. There's still plenty left. Pack up the food and take it back to your grandma. The old lady can't just make do like this."
Qin Tian stared wide-eyed at Li Yaxi in disbelief, unable to believe he had been forgiven so easily.
He had been upset about this, and he never expected that Li Yaxi would forgive him so easily and even let him take something back to his grandmother to eat.
Li Yaxi was even more amused by Qin Tian's expression. This time, he laughed, though it was only a slight upturn of the corners of his mouth.
"Eat up quickly, and take your food back with you. Also, put all your junk away properly before you come back. This food isn't free; come and clean for me this afternoon, and you'll cook dinner too!"
Qin Tian still felt like he was dreaming when he held the rag.
I used to set up my stall as usual in the morning, but now I'm cleaning here instead.
Looking at the person sleeping soundly on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, Qin Tian unconsciously softened his movements.
Li Yaxi was woken up by the phone ringing, but he had already had enough sleep, so he didn't get angry.
He answered without even looking at the caller ID, his voice a little hoarse, carrying the languor of someone who had just woken up.
The listener's heart felt like it was being scratched by a cat.
"Hello"
"Ya Xi, did you just wake up?" Hearing this soft, gentle voice, Feng Zihao's icy exterior instantly melted into a puddle of water.
Li Yaxi rubbed her eyes, still a little dazed. "Hmm, Zihao?"
Feng Zihao chuckled on the other end of the phone, "Sweetie, it's getting late. Get up and stretch a bit. It's almost dinner time. What do you want to eat?"
Li Yaxi yawned widely. "Time to eat!"
Upon hearing this, Feng Zihao's smile widened even further. "Okay, I'll go back early tomorrow. After dinner, I'll walk around a bit and not go straight to the computer, otherwise I'll have indigestion and feel unwell again tonight."
Li Yaxi didn't like to move around and would always sit in front of the computer right after eating. At first, Feng Zihao let him be, but after a few times when he had indigestion and felt unwell all night, Feng Zihao started to force him to exercise each time.
"I know, you're so long-winded, it's menopause!"
It sounded like someone called out from the other end, and Feng Zihao rambled on for a few more minutes before reluctantly hanging up the phone.
Li Yaxi casually tossed her phone aside, and it fell to the ground, but there was a carpet around it.
He hugged the blanket and continued to rest with his eyes closed. He liked this warm feeling; it was very comfortable.
The morning meals consisted mostly of meat dishes, while the afternoon meals consisted mostly of vegetarian dishes.
Although Qin Tian didn't know Li Yaxi well, he knew that Li Yaxi was in poor health and therefore often missed classes at school.
That's why I only cook vegetarian dishes in the evening.
Li Yaxi didn't think that much about it; after all, he didn't need meat at every meal.
I glanced around casually. Although Feng Zihao often cleaned, he usually messed things up by leaving things lying around.
The house looks so much more comfortable after being tidied up. "Qin Tian, why don't you work for me from now on!"
Qin Tian looked at Li Yaxi in surprise, and became even more surprised after confirming that he wasn't joking.
"Me? Working?"
Li Yaxi nodded. "Yes, this is much safer than setting up a street stall."
Qin Tian couldn't think of any job Li Yaxi could possibly give him, and his eyes grew even more puzzled.
Li Yaxi casually propped her head up with one hand while playing with her phone with the other.
"It's actually very simple. When no one else is cooking for me, you have to cook for me. Occasionally, you have to clean up. When it's my turn to do chores in class, you have to help me with my chores. Your job is to carry my schoolbag and run errands. It's five hundred a month. How about that?"
Qin Tian was a little shocked when he heard "five hundred". He couldn't even earn three hundred a month from his stall!
He hesitated, even though Li Yaxi didn't seem to be joking.
His family seems to be very wealthy, but it's too much of a loss to just give him 500 a month for nothing!
After all, a worker's salary is only four or five hundred a month.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
