Inside, Lin Jianqing looked up at her.
“What else do you want?”
Shen Huaixue slowly put down her chopsticks. She looked at Lin Jianqing, and her eyes suddenly became quieter. Maybe it was because of what she had found over the past two days still weighing on her heart.
Maybe it was because Lin Jianqing was now sitting in front of her, his expression lively, the tips of his ears slightly red.
Shen Huaixue suddenly asked.
“What was your family like before?”
Lin Jianqing’s fingers holding the chopsticks paused slightly. This time, he didn’t answer immediately. Shen Huaixue watched him, the amusement in her eyes fading a little.
She could have packaged this question with a teasing tone to make it less obvious. But after the words left her mouth, she herself realized that this question was different from the previous ones.
Lin Jianqing was silent for a while, then said quietly.
“Pretty ordinary.”
“Ordinary?”
“Yeah.”
He lowered his eyes, looking at the rice in the bowl.
“My parents were both very busy with work. When I was little, they were often not home. It wasn’t until my sister was born that the house became a bit livelier. My dad can cook, but just okay. My mom is worse—she can even burn noodles when boiling them.”
As he said this, Lin Jianqing seemed to recall something. The corner of his mouth moved slightly—not a very obvious smile.
But it was much softer than the reactions Shen Huaixue had teased out of him earlier. Shen Huaixue looked at that faint smile and suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable in her heart.
It wasn’t jealousy or dissatisfaction, but more like something she couldn’t insert herself into, something that lay between her and Lin Jianqing.
Lin Jianqing continued.
“Actually, there’s nothing special about it. Just an ordinary family. School, meals, occasional arguments, getting scolded by my dad now and then. My sister’s grades weren’t good, so I had to help her with tutoring.”
He said it very plainly, but Shen Huaixue listened very quietly.
“So you were a good kid when you were little?”
Lin Jianqing looked up at her.
“More or less.”
“Never been in love, never done anything out of line?”
“No.”
“Really boring.”
Lin Jianqing felt the rare gentle atmosphere shattered completely by her.
“It’s normal for regular students not to do those things, isn’t it?”
“Is that so?” Shen Huaixue said lazily. “I was pretty mischievous when I was little, but at least I had family to clean up after me.”
Lin Jianqing’s gaze at her became a bit complicated.
“You sound proud of that?”
“Not bad.”
“No wonder you have such a rotten personality now.”
Shen Huaixue laughed.
“Lin Jianqing, you’ve scolded me several times tonight.”
“I’m just stating facts.”
“Then should I punish you for that?”
Lin Jianqing immediately became alert.
“What are you going to do?”
Shen Huaixue watched his wary expression and slowly reached out her hand. Lin Jianqing instinctively leaned back.
But Shen Huaixue only picked up a piece of green vegetable and put it into his bowl.
“The punishment is for you to eat this.”
Lin Jianqing looked down at the vegetable in his bowl. He was silent for two seconds, then looked up at her.
“What’s the meaning of this again?”
A brief silence passed.
Shen Huaixue finally burst out laughing. This time, she laughed very lightly. It was as if the gloom that had weighed on her heart for the past two days was finally torn open by Lin Jianqing’s words.
“Swallow it,” she said with a smile. “Maybe.”
Lin Jianqing looked at her laughter and suddenly found himself speechless. Shen Huaixue was a strange person. When she was nasty, she was truly nasty, and when she was scheming, she was truly scheming.
But occasionally, she would reveal a look he couldn’t understand. It was as if she herself didn’t know what she was thinking. Lin Jianqing didn’t like this feeling of not being able to see through her. So he lowered his head and ate the vegetable.
Shen Huaixue watched him obediently eat it, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.
“So obedient.”
Lin Jianqing looked up and stared at her expressionlessly.
“I… I just didn’t want to argue with a piece of vegetable.”
“Mm.” Shen Huaixue propped her chin on her hand, her eyes smiling. “So does that mean the vegetable won?”
“Why did the grass win?” Lin Jianqing said.
Lin Jianqing was already speechless from Shen Huaixue’s strange thought process. In the end, he could only barely maintain his expression and continue eating.
By the end of this meal, Lin Jianqing had completely given up on talking to Shen Huaixue. After all, he couldn’t understand the thought process of a godlike being.
And no matter what he said, she would find an angle to tease him back. The more serious he was, the happier she got. The more red his face turned, the more she egged him on.
Lin Jianqing even began to suspect that the true purpose of Shen Huaixue inviting him to eat was just to entertain herself.
But strangely enough, the meal didn’t feel that hard to endure. At least not as suffocating as the beginning. Still, Shen Huaixue was still bad.
After the meal, Lin Jianqing put down his chopsticks and let out a long sigh of relief.
Shen Huaixue looked at him.
“Full?”
“Yeah.”
“Then let’s call it a day.”
Lin Jianqing looked up in surprise.
“I can go?”
“Otherwise?” Shen Huaixue said with a half-smile. “You want to stay?”
Lin Jianqing immediately stood up.
“No. I have class tomorrow.”
“Mm.”
Shen Huaixue didn’t stop him. She just sat in her chair, watching him go to the door to change his shoes.
After changing his shoes, Lin Jianqing thought about it and turned back to say.
“The food was pretty good.”
Shen Huaixue paused slightly, then smiled.
“Want to come again next time?”
Lin Jianqing immediately regretted opening his mouth.
“I was just commenting on the food.”
“I know.” Shen Huaixue rested her chin on her hand. “So I’m asking if you want to come again to eat.”
Lin Jianqing was silent. He shouldn’t agree, absolutely shouldn’t agree. But he thought about tonight’s dishes, and then about the cafeteria food that always tasted the same.
Finally, he said with great difficulty.
“We’ll see.”
Shen Huaixue’s smile deepened.
“So that means you want to come.”
“No.”
“Oh~ I understand.”
“You don’t understand.”
“You’re shy.”
“Shen Huaixue!”
The motion-activated light at the door flickered on because of his voice. Lin Jianqing’s ears turned even redder. He didn’t want to keep tangling with this woman, so he pushed open the door and walked out.
After the door closed, the room fell silent again.
Shen Huaixue sat at the dining table without moving immediately. The residual warmth of the food still lingered on the table. She looked at the seat where Lin Jianqing had been sitting.
It was empty now.
But the image of him arguing back with red ears still seemed to hover before her eyes. The smile on Shen Huaixue’s face slowly faded.
She remembered the soft, gentle expression Lin Jianqing had worn when talking about his parents. That was a side of him she rarely saw, and also a part she couldn’t easily touch.
Shen Huaixue lowered her eyes and tapped her fingers lightly on the table. Guilt was still there, but so was possessiveness. Even clearer now.
She wanted to know more about Lin Jianqing’s past. Wanted to know what he liked, what he hated, what he feared, what he cared about.
She wanted to know if he had ever shown that gentle expression to anyone else. And she wanted to take those things for herself, little by little.
Shen Huaixue knew this kind of thinking wasn’t normal, but she had never been a normal person anyway.
She let out a light laugh.
“Never been in love, huh…”
Her voice was very low, carrying a hint of ambiguous pleasure.
“That’s good.”
At least in that respect, Lin Jianqing’s emotional history was still clean.
But the cleaner and purer it was, the more Shen Huaixue wanted to dirty it, to leave a mark that belonged only to her on this blank sheet of paper.