Chapter 16
As soon as he got home, he put the takeout container on the dining table, turned on the tap and washed his hands and face with hot water. Only after he could feel his hands and face again did Li Ye return to the dining room and lead dinner into the kitchen.
The braised pork and Yangzhou fried rice I brought back had long since cooled down, so I reheated them by putting them back on a plate and microwaving them a couple of times. Meanwhile, Li Ye wanted some hot milk, so he went to the dining room to get a carton of room temperature milk. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the living room and noticed that the macarons on the coffee table were still there.
Going through the timeline from noon to afternoon in his mind, Li Ye realized that no one had touched the dessert. He hesitated. He could definitely eat it, but desserts are high in calories.
It's already cold. How can cold food have calories? It's okay to eat it.
Li Ye tried to convince himself to do it by discarding his brain.
When Zhou Yuan sent over photos of dinner, Li Ye was pouring heated milk into a cup from a saucepan, and the work on the microwave was also finished.
Two minutes later, Li Ye also sent a photo. She put the macarons on the dining table, arranged them into an inverted triangle, and added a hot drink. Then she put her phone aside.
When Zhou Yuan picked up his phone again, he had already finished cleaning up the kitchen and was eating the last bite of the dessert. Unsurprisingly, he also noticed the macarons that had unexpectedly appeared.
Flower Tears: We've finished it all.
Flower Tears: Macarons aren't actually that sweet!
Flower Tears: How can a reduced-sugar version still taste like that? Which restaurant did you eat at for lunch?
Naoki Haruka: Address Link
Naoki Haru: If you want to eat, just go to the store.
Naoki Yuan: Together.
There was no further reply. Luckily, I don't have the habit of talking or playing on my phone while eating, otherwise Li Ye felt like I was going to eat the food cold. It was too distracting. I didn't do that yesterday.
Driven by a desire to retaliate, Li Ye returned to his bedroom, opened his wardrobe, and began searching for an outfit to wear on his date the next day.
First, I checked the temperature on my phone for tomorrow. After the temperature rises, the overall temperature will be above zero degrees Celsius, and the outdoor temperature in the evening and at night will also be close to this level.
When going out, dress warmly and protect yourself from the wind; during holidays, dress in a festive atmosphere; and on dates, dress attractively.
After filtering through the options, there were not many choices. I dug out a set of Hanfu winter clothes that I bought more than a year ago from the depths of my closet. I tried it on to see if I could still wear it. Fortunately, these kinds of clothes are usually made with extra fabric, and it fits me well now.
He hung all the other clothes he had taken out back in the closet, leaving only this one set out on the outside. He laid it out on the bed, found a good angle, took a full-body photo of the outfit, and sent it to Zhou Yuan.
Flowers Splattering Tears: Full-body photo in Hanfu.jpg
Tears well up: Tomorrow's clothes!
Flower Tears: I bought you a matching men's Hanfu back then. Was it at home?
Naoki Yuan:!
Naoki Yuan: At home, waiting.
Naoki-yuki: Matching Men's Hanfu.jpg
Naoki-yaki: Low temperature, cold. [Disapproving look]
Flowers shed tears: merely an outer decoration.
Flower Tears: Down lining, fleece pants, tight sleeves.
Flowers shed tears: There are many ways to keep warm.
Flower Tears: It easily withstood a mere few hours.
Naoki Yuan: ok
Flower Tears: OK!
A few minutes later, Zhou Yuan sent a few photos of the hand warmers he found at his house. Li Ye also sent a photo of a bag of hand warmers she bought on sale before the Lunar New Year. She had one of those too!
Holding her phone, she fell straight onto the bed, rolled to the right once, then to the left once, then to the left again. She put the phone down, spread her arms to the sides, and touched the clothes that hadn't been put away yet. Startled by their icy temperature, she jumped straight up off the bed.
"Go to bed early tonight to be well-rested for tomorrow," Li Ye thought, picking up his pajamas to take a shower. As he passed through the living room, directly beneath the main light were the ninety-nine roses Zhou Yuan had given him during the day.
Li Ye stood on the dividing line between the living room and the dining room, looking at the roses that were crowded together, and then at the empty vase on the dining table. The flowers that he bought before the New Year had only just finished blooming a few days ago, and Teacher Li hadn't had time to replace them yet.
After putting down her pajamas, Li Ye went to the coffee table, where dozens of flowers appeared. She prepared to put them in a vase in the dining room.
Today was the second time I sat on the small stool next to the coffee table. One flower, two flowers, three flowers... nine flowers. There was no more room. Li Ye tried to adjust the position of the flowers, but the vase wasn't very big to begin with, and it wouldn't look nice if there were more flowers.
After filling the vase with water and returning it to its original place, Li Ye held the remaining rose. For some reason, she thought of the rose that Zhou Yuan had taken out during the day. She thought that she could put it in the bedroom so that she could see it as soon as she opened her eyes tomorrow.
Li Ye had taught herself flower arranging for a while, and naturally had some slender-necked vases at home. She picked out a white porcelain vase from the kitchen cabinet and carefully carried the vase and flowers back to her bedroom.
The first thing that came to mind was the side cabinet by the door. But after a quick estimate of the angle, it would require Li Ye to get up and put on his shirt, which didn't meet the requirements.
The second option was the windowsill near the desk, where a vase would create a nice ambiance. However, she quickly realized that she needed to draw the curtains when she slept, and the heavy fabric would completely obscure the vase, which didn't meet her requirements.
Finally, looking towards the bedside through the window, I successfully discovered the blind spot: the bedside table. This is mainly because the bedside table is usually used to put my phone and clothes for the next day.
However, the clothes have now been moved to the bedside table near the door, and next to the phone are roses and their vase.
After putting aside his temporary idea, Li Ye returned to the living room to continue his original plan: to wash up early and go to bed early.
Lying on the bed, Li Ye sent Zhou Yuan a "goodnight" message before bed, then placed it next to the vase. He then curled up under the covers, turned off the light, adjusted his position, closed his eyes, and waited to fall asleep.
Goodnight, roses.
Goodnight, Liye.
At 6:30, Li Ye opened his eyes on time and looked to the right. The roses were bigger and more beautiful than yesterday.
Last night's attempt to fall asleep early had no effect, and she even heard the usual sound of her phone being turned off on a timer. Surprisingly, she still wasn't sleepy. In order not to affect her date the next day, Li Ye chose to use meditation to fall asleep, which worked best for her this time.
At seven o'clock, Li Ye appeared at the restaurant dressed in the clothes he was going out. The two adults who had returned home sometime last night showed no signs of anything amiss and remained as usual.
Today's breakfast is a bowl of boiled glutinous rice balls of varying sizes.
Ms. Li said that she cooked several different flavored glutinous rice balls together. She felt tired of eating only one flavor after a few, so this way was more of a pleasant surprise.
As the person buying the glutinous rice balls, Li Ye said, "The ones I bought had meat filling inside, and they take different cooking times."
"I saw it. They were cooked separately and then put into one bowl at the end. I counted and there were ten glutinous rice balls in each person's bowl. If there weren't enough, they had to find their own way."
Li Ye received three meat fillings. Curious about the taste, she bought a whole pack and used it on herself. She got three black sesame fillings and four peanut fillings. Towards the end, she found the black sesame and peanut fillings to be sweeter and more cloying.
Next time, it would be better to cook less. Li Ye felt that this would mark the end of the Lantern Festival. Then he remembered that the date in the evening was also a Lantern Festival tradition, and he felt that the Lantern Festival was now lasting a whole day.
"Is Xiao Ye going out to play?" Ms. Li questioned Li Ye as Teacher Li cleared the dishes.
Li Ye nodded: "Let's go to the central square tonight, they say there's an event."
Ms. Li tapped the table lightly with her hand and continued, "I knew you were going out tonight. Luckily, I cooked some glutinous rice balls in advance. Who are you going out with tonight?"
Li Ye honestly replied, "Zhou Yuan. He went out at 4:30 in the afternoon and will be back before 10:30 at night."
The adult then asked in a different direction, "Did you go to the street yesterday?"
Li Ye nodded again: "I've been there. It was very crowded. I packed my dinner and went home. Did you see that?"
Ms. Li pointed to the vase on the dining table and said, "It's impossible not to see it. Who sent the flowers?"
Li Ye didn't think anything was wrong and told the truth as before: "Zhou Yuan even ordered takeout to have lunch at home with us."
“…” Observing her daughter’s open and honest expression, even Ms. Li, who had raised her from a young age, felt a little tired. She asked one last time, “You’re not talking about it, are you?”
This time, Li Ye hesitated for a moment before answering: "We haven't talked about it yet."
The vague answer plunged the restaurant into silence. In the end, Teacher Li personally took Ms. Li back to her hometown, giving the space in the house to the children once again.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Li Ye had already finished her makeup and was now thinking about how to style her hair when she heard a knock on the door. She let down her long hair and ran to open the door.
Zhou Yuan indeed came out wearing that black and red robe, but he was carrying a black backpack, which looked extremely out of place in terms of style, but fortunately the colors matched.
"Come in and sit down, it's still early. As you can see, my hair isn't even combed yet."
Li Ye ran back to the bedroom, leaving Zhou Yuan alone at the front door.
Only after the girl, dressed like a painting, had completely disappeared from his sight did Zhou Yuan come to his senses. He changed into men's slippers for guests, washed his hands, got himself a small cup of hot water, and sat on the sofa in the living room waiting for the girl to come over.
As expected, Li Ye brought a bunch of things from the bedroom to the living room: a dressing mirror, a fine-toothed comb, and a dressing box that opened to reveal two layers. The upper layer contained various styles and colors of hair ties and headbands, while the lower layer contained hair clips of different sizes and styles.
"I always feel it's not good to leave guests alone in the living room. Please don't mind if you comb your hair here, it won't make a difference anyway."
Zhou Yuan shook his head to indicate that he didn't mind, and then raised his question: "No jewelry?"
"Why don't you take out the jewelry box? Didn't you say there might be a lot tonight? This outfit has quite a few accessories. I don't want to get bombarded with gold coins yet, it's not even the end of the first month."
After nodding in understanding, Zhou Yuan placed his hand on the backpack beside him and asked, "Are you cold?"
After thinking it over, Li Ye decided to braid her hair into two pigtails and put them up. Following up on Zhou Yuan's question, she replied, "I'm not cold. It was a bit warm at noon. I've been wearing this outfit since I got up this morning, and I probably won't feel cold when the temperature drops."
"What's wrong? Are you feeling cold?"
Zhou Yuan withdrew his hand from his backpack and gripped the hot water cup. After warming it for a while, he extended it to Li Ye, as if wanting to examine Li Ye's face.
"Don't touch my face, my makeup's just been done. Just touch my hands, ouch—!"
Li Ye was startled by the temperature of Zhou Yuan's hand. When she looked at the color of his hand, it was all purple. She immediately put down the hair she was braiding and touched Zhou Yuan's other hand. She had to apply some hot water to warm it up a bit.
"Zhou Yuan, are you stupid? I told you to just wear it as a coat, it's too thin to wear on its own."
Zhou Yuan tried to explain: "Without the down lining that Li mentioned, it wouldn't look good worn over other clothes, so I just changed into it before going out."
Li Ye reached out and grabbed Zhou Yuan's arm to check the thickness of his clothes. He was so angry that he couldn't help but question him: "Zhou Yuan, when did you start having such high standards for your appearance? You just changed into your clothes and you're already freezing like this. What's the point of going out to play?"
As she spoke, she let down her almost-braided hair, leaving the hair ties scattered messily on the coffee table. Li Ye tried her best to keep her expression and voice steady, and said calmly, "You should go home and change. I'll change with you. Neither of us will wear this."
"Let's meet at the elevator. If I haven't changed my clothes yet, I'll just go out alone."
"I should have made you wait and see what I would wear. Now that it's like this, it'll be your fault if the event isn't fun later."
Then Li Ye kicked Zhou Yuan out, bag and all.
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