At seven o’clock in the evening, Lin Xinyuan knocked on the door next door right on time.
Before long, Aunt Yi came out to greet her, warmly grabbing her hand.
“Oh my, it’s little Yuan! Just in time for dinner—I was just about to call you!”
“Uh… sorry to trouble you, Aunt Yi.” Lin Xinyuan felt a bit embarrassed and awkward from Aunt Yi’s enthusiasm.
“No trouble at all! We’re family! And it’s your mom’s fault, always out of the house so you have to cook for yourself. It’s much better to come here and eat! Such a stubborn temper…”
Hearing this, Lin Xinyuan didn’t know what to say.
She wasn’t very familiar with her mother’s thoughts and could only smile awkwardly.
But as she thought about how her mother still hadn’t come back, she felt uneasy…
While she was lost in thought, Aunt Yi gently pulled her into the living room and called out toward a tightly shut room, “Lin Xinyu, your sister’s here. Still hiding in there? Come out and eat!”
Almost as soon as Aunt Yi’s voice faded, Lin Xinyu’s reply came from inside: “Got it, I’m coming out now!”
“That kid, always hiding in his room playing games as soon as he gets home!” Aunt Yi muttered disapprovingly but then immediately softened, turning to smile at Lin Xinyuan, “Don’t mind him. Your brother will be in there dawdling for a while. We’ll start eating first.”
“Thank you, Aunt Yi.”
“Nonsense, no need to be so polite!”
She pulled Lin Xinyuan down to sit, and before the girl could even settle, Aunt Yi eagerly ladled her a bowl of soup. “Here, have some soup first to soothe your stomach~”
“…I can get it myself… no need to bother you.”
Aunt Yi just chuckled at that and served herself a bowl as well. “Alright then, eat whatever you like.”
Though she said that, even without serving Lin Xinyuan other dishes, she still brought over a white-cut chicken leg.
“This is the Da Yan Chicken I specially asked someone to pick out when I heard you were coming this afternoon. It’s definitely delicious. Eat more, the chicken flavor is really rich.”
Aunt Yi’s enthusiasm was overwhelming, leaving the young girl a bit flustered.
Just then, Lin Xinyu finally opened the door and stepped out, looking somewhat speechless.
“Mom, didn’t you say this morning you bought this just for me?”
Aunt Yi shot him a glare. “You talk too much, always fighting with your sister!”
“Alright, alright!”
Lin Xinyu didn’t argue further but kept nodding and then sat down beside the girl.
Glancing to the side, he saw it wasn’t his Lin Cousin Sister but Lin Cousin, who hurriedly glanced at him and said, “Brother Yu, dinner.”
“Oh… okay…”
Lin Xinyu scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed as his face warmed up.
Suddenly, he regretted sitting here…
Because his Lin Cousin Sister was just too beautiful, and even at this distance he could smell a faint, pleasant fragrance…
Thinking this, Lin Xinyu couldn’t help but complain inwardly that she was way too bewitching.
When she was still his Lin Cousin, he never noticed before…
He tried to compare the current girl to the image of the boy he remembered.
Only then did he realize the face of Lin Xinyuan back when she was male was already quite blurry in his memory, and he couldn’t recall much.
Without thinking too much, Lin Xinyu served himself a bowl of rice, ready to eat!
After finishing the meal, Lin Xinyuan planned to slip away quietly—being at someone else’s house made her quite uncomfortable.
Before she could say anything, Aunt Yi spoke up, “Xiaoyuan, why don’t you go to your brother’s room and play games, or chat with Auntie for a bit? Don’t rush off so soon! There’s nothing much going on anyway.”
Well… that was hard to argue against.
So she decisively chose to follow her Lin Cousin—after all, she couldn’t handle chatting with middle-aged people very well.
Even though Aunt Yi was gentle and mild-tempered in her youth, she had become a bit more talkative now, and seemed even more enthusiastic toward her than before when she was still a boy…
Nearby, Lin Xinyu bit into a piece of chicken dripping with Sha Jiang Soy Sauce and silently rolled his eyes at Aunt Yi’s words.
Playing games on his own was one thing, but now that someone else was here, he was completely spoiling himself…
Lin Xinyuan sat on the living room sofa waiting.
Soon, Lin Xinyu finished eating and came over, grabbing two tissues from the coffee table to wipe his mouth. He grinned mischievously, “Sis… let’s go? I’ll take you to play games.”
Clearly, Lin Xinyu was fully embracing his big brother role and saw how awkward she was.
Aunt Yi glanced over, just about to scold him for pulling off two tissues, but then she remembered his sister was right there and it was only her first day back, so she held back.
“Uh… okay…”
The siblings went ahead, one after the other, toward the room.
Aunt Yi’s house layout was symmetrical to theirs, also with three rooms, except one had been converted into a study.
Following Lin Xinyu into his room, as soon as the light turned on, Lin Xinyuan froze for a moment.
Wow!
The walls were covered with various game posters, and next to the bookshelf was a wooden rack holding plenty of anime and game character figures.
Looks like… Lin Cousin really loved games…
Lin Xinyu closed the door and walked over beside the girl, asking, “Sis, do you know how to play games?”
As soon as he said this, he almost regretted it.
He nearly forgot that his Lin Cousin used to be his Lin Cousin Brother! How could she not know how to play games?
He was just a little unaccustomed to switching her from “Lin Cousin Brother” to “Lin Cousin Sister” in his mind.
But Lin Xinyuan didn’t overthink it and nodded, “I’ve played before, but not much.”
“What have you played?”
“Fangkuai and Counter-Strike a little, I guess.” Lin Xinyuan scratched her ear, only coming up with those two.
Hearing this, Lin Xinyu’s eyes lit up.
He hadn’t played much Fangkuai, but he was good at Counter-Strike! Perfect chance to show off his skills in front of his Lin Cousin Sister!
Just imagining the admiration on her face made him excited!
“Counter-Strike! I’m super good at it. Let’s duo queue, I’ll carry you!”
Lin Xinyuan glanced around the room and only saw the one computer on the desk. “But… there’s only one computer here.”
Lin Xinyu just smiled knowingly, turned and pulled his laptop out of his suitcase, shaking the computer bag at her.
“I’ve got my laptop too! You use that computer, I’ll use the laptop.”
“Oh… okay…”
Seeing how well-behaved his Lin Cousin Sister was, Lin Xinyu’s heart practically melted.
So cute! He couldn’t resist!
Just like that, Lin Xinyuan sat down at the computer desk.
Lin Xinyu tidied his own desk, cleared some space, set up his laptop, and took out the keyboard and mouse from the storage cabinet that hadn’t been used for a while.
The siblings added each other as game friends.
Thinking about it, even though they’d known each other for so long, they had only just exchanged contact info…
Since Lin Xinyuan played games on an alternate account, they added that one too, so their in-game friends list would show up immediately.
“I’ll invite you!”
“Okay.”
“Lun Hai Tianya sent you a team invite.”
Lin Xinyuan agreed immediately and clicked ready.
After a while, just as she was wondering why the game hadn’t started yet, Lin Xinyu spoke hesitantly, “Sis! A college roommate of mine is joining us. Is that okay?”
Lin Xinyuan glanced sideways at her Lin Cousin but didn’t mind at all. “It’s fine.”
Her Lin Cousin’s gaming setup was pretty complete.
She put on the headset he handed her.
A few seconds later, an ID named “Lun Hai Tianya” joined the team.
As he entered, a male voice came over the voice channel, “Whoa! Lao Yu, why’s there an extra person? Who is it?”
Lin Xinyu glanced at Lin Xinyuan’s direction.
Seeing she didn’t react, he relaxed and spoke into the mic, “That’s my little sister. I’m taking her for a spin.”
Lun Hai Tianya: “Oh, I see! Haha, little sister, I’ll carry you—I’m AK (ak) crazy good!”
Lin Xinyuan didn’t pay much attention to his roommate’s words.
After all, when she was in the dorm, Chen Ze and the others acted the same whenever they found a girl in the game.
She didn’t turn on her mic, just quietly typed one word: “Mm.”
Nearby, Lin Xinyu didn’t share her calmness, completely forgetting that Lin Xinyuan used to be a boy.
He was full of disbelief as he clicked to start the match and opened the chat on his phone to poke his teammate: “Hey! Dumbass, don’t say anything weird later, she’s really my sister!”
“Really? Didn’t you say you were an only child?”
“Damn, Lin Cousin isn’t a sister?”
“Well, that counts. I thought you were joking… Hey, this younger sister you mentioned, is she pretty?”
Lin Xinyu felt he couldn’t give up bragging in front of his roommate, but also couldn’t let that jerk develop any ideas about Lin Xinyuan. So he typed back: “Very pretty! But you can forget it!”
“I don’t believe you. Show a pic!”
“Get lost!”
“Brother-in-law!”
“Get lost!”