Cooking inevitably made quite a bit of noise, but the room’s soundproofing was good, so there was no need to worry about waking Lin Ziyan from her deep sleep.
As usual, she took out last night’s leftovers, simply reprocessed them, and heated them in the pot to make breakfast.
That was how it was most of the time, but sometimes when her foster parents didn’t have time or didn’t want to cook the night before, she had to prepare fresh ingredients and cook from scratch, which was more troublesome—she would have to wake up at least half an hour earlier than usual.
The sun gradually rose, and golden sunlight streamed through the window into the kitchen, a bit dazzling.
At some point, footsteps sounded at the kitchen entrance. But they were drowned out by the noise of the range hood, so Ye Xingmian didn’t notice at first.
“Sister… are you making breakfast?”
It wasn’t until the sudden voice came from behind that she was startled.
The spatula in her hand nearly clattered to the floor with a clang. Ye Xingmian spun around abruptly, only to find Lin Ziyan had somehow appeared behind her.
Her voice was a little hoarse, tinged with weariness.
“Ziyan?! You… when did you come?”
“Just now. I heard you cooking and wanted to come down and see.”
As Lin Ziyan spoke, she lowered her eyes for some reason.
“I see. Sorry for waking you.”
Ye Xingmian was a bit surprised, but didn’t dwell on it. After these two days of getting along, she wasn’t so afraid of Lin Ziyan anymore. Being able to interact with her normally was a good thing, after all.
“Can you not call me ‘sister’? It feels awkward.”
Lin Ziyan raised an objection while she continued cooking.
Ye Xingmian paused her stirring and turned around.
“Then what should I call you?”
But she found that Lin Ziyan had quietly moved right behind her—almost pressing against her body as she spoke, which made her feel a bit creeped out.
“Um… can you not stand so close to me?”
“You can call me… whatever, it’s not that important. Suit yourself.”
Lin Ziyan’s eyes dimmed slightly, and she took a step back.
“Oh.”
Ye Xingmian breathed a sigh of relief, but when she came to her senses, she noticed something she hadn’t seen before.
Lin Ziyan seemed to be in bad shape—faint dark circles under her eyes, and many bloodshot veins in the whites of her eyes.
“Did you not sleep well last night?”
“Yeah.”
Strange. Normally, Lin Ziyan would sleep like a log during holidays, right? Why did she not sleep well?
It couldn’t be because she hadn’t slept with her last night, could it? That was too absurd!
“Breakfast is almost ready. Do you want to catch some sleep? If so, I’ll come wake you later.”
Ye Xingmian said casually. She had experienced mornings like this many times even before she was a girl, so she had some experience.
But this one seemed a little different.
Lin Ziyan’s eyes wandered, her tone lacking confidence.
“Sister got up so early… was it to go see her?”
“See who?”
Ye Xingmian’s movements froze.
“Liu Yinuo… Sister got up so early, you must want to leave early and go to her place, right?”
She didn’t expect Lin Ziyan to ask such a question. Was this the reason she couldn’t sleep?
Enduring drowsiness to get up early and find her—just to make sure she wasn’t leaving to see Liu Yinuo?
Ye Xingmian didn’t quite know what she was feeling anymore. This seemed to be the first time Lin Ziyan cared so much about her, though the focus seemed a bit off.
But with this topic brought up, the atmosphere between them instantly became more oppressive.
So what did she herself want to do?
At first, it was because she had a dream about her mother, which made her lose sleep. After finally falling asleep, she was woken up by the wind, and after that, she couldn’t get back to sleep, so she simply went downstairs to cook.
But after eating? What should she do?
It seemed the only thing she wanted to do was go see Liu Yinuo, but going too early wasn’t good either—Liu Yinuo was sick, and what if she was still asleep? And if she went too late, she was afraid Liu Yinuo would worry waiting…
After thinking it over, Ye Xingmian finally nodded.
“I guess so…”
She expected Lin Ziyan to react more strongly, like getting angry as before.
But today’s Lin Ziyan was different. She looked very calm, just softly saying “Mm.”
Lin Ziyan silently turned her head, as if casually remarking:
“It’s still early. No need to rush to see her after eating, right? What if she’s still asleep? So it’s better to stay home a bit longer.”
“True.”
Ye Xingmian had thought the same thing, so she nodded.
Maybe Lin Ziyan had really given up on those weird ideas?
As long as she didn’t pester her or threaten her to do this or that, all that nonsense and unrealistic stuff was fine.
After all, they had lived together for over ten years, and she was nominally her “little sister” who grew up with her. Ye Xingmian was quite lenient with her.
Of course, going back to how they used to be was no longer possible.
After that, Lin Ziyan left the kitchen.
Ye Xingmian finished cooking and brought the dishes to the dining room. They sat across from each other to eat.
Lin Ziyan rarely scrolled through her phone; she just sat silently, as if thinking about something.
Ye Xingmian was used to a stifling atmosphere, but she still felt something was off.
Wasn’t Lin Ziyan being a little too quiet today? So quiet that it was strange.
In the past, she would have made her do this and that—massage her shoulders, tap her legs, or fetch things. And recently, she had always liked to hug her.
Now, she was being uncharacteristically quiet, which was eerie.
“Ziyan… is something on your mind?”
Actually, if she used her head, she knew she shouldn’t be the one asking this.
After all, whatever was worrying her was probably related to herself.
But considering Lin Ziyan’s changes over the past few days, Ye Xingmian felt she should show a little more concern.
Otherwise, after all the kindness Lin Ziyan had shown—spending a lot of money to treat her to meals, buying her medicine and small cakes, and even sewing a toy bear—
Though in the end, she didn’t take the bear.
She had done so much for her; it wouldn’t be right for Ye Xingmian to keep a cold face.
Of course, even before yesterday, Ye Xingmian wouldn’t have taken the initiative to care about her.
The main reason she asked now was that Lin Ziyan seemed to have really given up on those messy thoughts about her, which made her feel relieved.
Otherwise, interacting with her always felt strange and uncomfortable.
“Something on my mind…”
Lin Ziyan stared blankly, mumbled, then turned her head to look straight at Ye Xingmian.
“Did Sister make an appointment with her to meet?”
“Huh? Why are you asking that?”
“Just curious. But since Sister doesn’t have a phone, maybe there’s no appointment.”
Lin Ziyan suddenly shook her head to herself.
“In that case, she probably doesn’t know you plan to go to her place today, right?”
“Mm…”
Ye Xingmian suddenly had a bad feeling.
“Mm… what’s wrong?”
Ye Xingmian could only answer like that, otherwise Lin Ziyan might suspect she had a phone.
Hearing her answer, Lin Ziyan suddenly smiled.
“Nothing…”
“Will you keep me company?”
“It won’t be long… I just want…”
“Before Sister leaves, just a little while, okay?”
[Step 2: Compare against checklist]
1. Honorifics: No Japanese honorifics present. Chinese terms like “姐姐” (sister) are translated as “Sister” (capitalized when used as address). OK.
2. Residue: Check for any non-Latin characters. All Chinese characters have been removed; only English remains.
[Step 3: Output final text]