“Old Deng, you came but didn’t even let me know?”
Luo You looked up to the second floor, only to see her rebellious daughter glaring down at her, striding down the stairs with an air of authority.
“I just asked Sister Mengmeng, it seems you’ve been here for a few days already? What have you been up to that’s so secretive?”
“Tsk!”
Luo You quietly clicked her tongue and said, “I saw how busy you were, and Aunt also said it’s best not to disturb you.”
Then the topic was just brushed aside, and the next subject began.
“So, where are we eating tonight? I want to go to San—”
“Didn’t I tell you to cook?”
Ji Yue pointed at her with the Great Wilderness Heaven-Imprisoning Finger.
“You, go to the kitchen, put on an apron, and cook.”
Ah, this.
But since the opportunity was rare, Luo You was also eager to try her hand at preparing some premium ingredients.
“Don’t blame me if it doesn’t turn out well.”
Luo You made her way to the fridge with practiced ease…
Looking at the massive refrigerator, she felt as if she was being crushed by sheer wealth, struggling to catch her breath.
She opened the fridge door—
“Wow~ Looks like I can make quite a few dishes.”
There were so many kinds of ingredients that Luo You couldn’t even imagine how much it would cost just to buy from one section, and any random ingredient in here was something she could usually only dream of.
“Heh!”
Luo You suddenly let out a cold laugh.
[What High-Grade Meat? What High-Grade Vegetables? All you high-and-mighty ingredients, in the end, aren’t you going to be utterly ravaged by me? Drenched and basted over and over with scorching-hot liquids, brushed and coated, forced to release your wondrous juices, finally compelled to journey from raw to perfectly cooked?]
With this wicked mindset, Luo You began to wantonly “ravage” these luxurious delicacies she normally would never get to touch.
“Zi Ning, go help out.”
Ji Yue turned and ordered Luo Zi Ning into the kitchen as well.
“Eh? Me?”
Luo Zi Ning pointed at herself and shamelessly declared, “I’m the woman who can turn shredded potatoes into Li Kui Fries, you know? Are you sure you want me in there?” “That’s why you should learn. Not knowing how to cook at all is just embarrassing.” “Uh, actually I can do a little… Fine…”
Under Ji Yue’s relentless pressure, Luo Zi Ning entered the kitchen too.
But when Luo You saw this unknown creature barging into the kitchen, she instantly protested, “What are you doing here?”
“Helping with dinner,” Luo Zi Ning shrugged, “Aunt forced me to.”
“I don’t care who told you to come, but if you make another batch of Li Kui Fries, I’ll throw you out.”
Even though the Li Kui Fries incident was years ago, just that once was enough for Luo You to never want this rebellious daughter in the kitchen again.
Even when her cooking barely scraped past the passing line later on, Luo You still refused to touch anything she made.
“Tch!”
Luo Zi Ning was unconvinced in her heart.
Who do you think you’re looking down on?
Just because you can cook a few dishes, you act all high and mighty?
The more she was looked down on, the more determined she was to prove herself.
So she started cooking the dish she wanted to try, though her hands were a little all over the place.
Luckily, Ji Yue’s kitchen was large, so two or three people could move about without interfering with each other.
“I’ll step out for a bit, need to buy some good red wine.”
“You’re too polite, Aunt, that’s not necessary, is it?”
Luo You was alarmed.
Aunt, oh Aunt…!
You’re exposing me, aren’t you?
You know I can’t drink, yet you’re still buying wine!
“I’ll be back soon.”
Ji Yue left quickly, but she wasn’t actually going to buy wine—instead, she was checking the household situation through the surveillance outside.
From the current interaction between these mother and daughter, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
According to Ji Yue’s speculation, if Herrera really had any designs on her daughter, her gaze would definitely be impure, her hands would roam, the distance between them would be ambiguous, and even her speech would be overly intimate.
But under surveillance, the pair were acting entirely normal.
Herrera didn’t just avoid laying a hand on Luo Zi Ning—her gaze was full of open disdain.
When she saw Luo Zi Ning injecting plum juice into the already wrapped dumplings, she even kicked her out of the kitchen and took over herself.
“Looks like there shouldn’t be a problem…”
Ji Yue fell silent, deep in thought.
In fact, it was pretty much confirmed that Herrera truly had no untoward intentions toward Luo Zi Ning.
“Sigh, that’s right, what was I even worrying about?”
That Herrera would do those disgraceful things with her, Xing Yu, and Li Yunxing was probably because she didn’t really feel any sense of kinship toward them.
To Herrera, they were just “live weapons” cloaked in the guise of relatives, which only made her more excited.
But Luo Zi Ning was different.
She really was someone Herrera had personally raised from infancy, so no matter how deranged Herrera might be, she’d never harbor such thoughts toward her own daughter.
With this, the problem was resolved.
But Ji Yue didn’t feel much joy.
Because the fact that she was forced into excessive intimacy with her own niece still objectively existed.
She truly didn’t know how she was supposed to face Li… Ji Lan after this.
“Aunt, hello.”
Ji Yue slowly turned around to see a rather unfamiliar face.
Beige, chin-length hair with two side ponytails, a single sharp canine peeking out, a babyish face and build rivaling Ji Meng’s, bright eyes and white teeth, lively and spirited.
“Is… that you, Ji Nai?”
Ji Yue asked.
“Bing bong bing bong~ It’s me!”
The little girl grinned sweetly.
“It really is you?”
Ji Yue was stunned.
This was the youngest of Luo Zi Ning’s siblings, also the one adopted most recently—Ji Nai.
Among Luo Zi Ning’s four sisters, Ji Nai was the most distant.
She had only been with them a short time before they parted again.
Over the years, Ji Yue did keep in touch with Ji Nai, but they only managed a handful of conversations each year.
Occasional attempts to offer financial help were always tactfully declined.
Ji Yue quickly composed herself, but facing this niece she hadn’t seen in years, she had no idea what attitude she should take.
“You… really haven’t grown a bit after all these years, just like Mengmeng.”
“Nonsense, my chest has definitely grown, look, I can make a line with it.”
Ji Nai wasn’t offended at all.
In fact, she confidently pulled down her collar, proving she had developed after all.
“I just happened to be visiting the Jiuming Sea, so I thought I’d drop by to see you, Aunt. Mengmeng lives here too, right?”
“Yeah, but not at my place. Come on in, Zi Ning and her foster mother are here too, you can meet them.”
Still busy cooking, Luo You saw Aunt come back so soon and hadn’t even asked her what happened before she noticed an unfamiliar person trailing behind.
“Zi Ning, stop for a sec, guess who’s here?”
“Huh?”
Unwilling to accept being driven out of the kitchen, Luo Zi Ning stubbornly finished the dumplings, washed her hands, and ran out.
“…Ji Nai? No way?! You haven’t changed a bit! Just like Sister Mengmeng!”
“Hehe!”
Ji Nai gave a smug little laugh, arms squeezed in slightly to create a rather impressive curve on her chest.
Not overly large, but just enough to outdo Luo Zi Ning by one crucial point.
“Shi—”
Luo Zi Ning’s eyes went blank with shock, white as a sheet.
“Who is this?”
Luo You came out after washing her hands, looking at the unfamiliar Ji Nai standing before her, feeling an inexplicable sense of aversion.
Who is this cocky little brat?
She also noticed that the brat’s gaze on her held an undisguised mischief.
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