“Big Brother, don’t forget your bento, okay?”
“Tsk…”
“Big Brother, you just clicked your tongue, didn’t you?”
“I… I didn’t. If Xinya hadn’t reminded me, I wouldn’t even know what to eat at noon.”
“Mm~~ Then you have to eat every single bit of it, okay?”
“Xinya, you… how much bitter melon did you put in?”
“Eh~~ Is there bitter melon? Xinya doesn’t remember either. I only remember preparing a lot of vegetables for Big Brother.”
“Big Brother, the vegetables all have to be completely—eaten—up—okay?”
“I know. I’m not some elementary school kid.”
“After all, Big Brother right now is like an elementary school boy with blurred gender awareness… Oh, wait, wrong. A kindergarten boy.”
“…If this keeps going I’m going to turn into a paramecium.”
“Even if you turn into a paramecium, you still have to work hard to finish the chlorella, okay~~”
“Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk~~”
Just as the siblings were chatting, a large head topped with flower-white hair suddenly appeared between the two of them, making tsking sounds.
“Good morning, Grandpa.”
“Good morning, Grandpa.”
“Good morning, Xinya. Full of energy early in the morning… Oh, and Siji too.”
The difference in treatment is way too obvious!
The old man looked at Zhong Xinya, then at Zhong Siji, and finally his gaze settled on the bento in Zhong Siji’s hand.
“Siji, how is Xinya’s bento?”
“Pretty… good. Tasty and nutritionally balanced.” If it weren’t occasionally used to punish me, it would be even better.
“Grandpa, if you’re worried about nutrition, no need to worry. I didn’t spoil Big Brother at all. I added a lot of vegetables for him.” Zhong Xinya clenched both fists in front of her chest, full of adolescent vitality.
“That’s exactly the point, Siji. When will Xinya get to eat a bento made by you?”
“Eh? But I don’t know how to make bentos.”
“Grandpa, just the fact that I’m preparing bentos for Big Brother—Xinya doesn’t feel the slightest dissatisfaction.”
“So this is also your problem.”
“Huh?”
The old man gently knocked on Zhong Xinya’s little head, then turned to Zhong Siji.
“In the past Grandpa didn’t say much to you, but you’re already a high school student now, you know? As an older brother, shouldn’t you be the one taking care of your little sister? Generally speaking, isn’t it the older brother who makes bentos for the little sister?”
“Grandpa!” Zhong Xinya’s dissatisfied protest was suppressed by a rough large hand.
“Besides, if you keep letting your little sister make bentos for you, when you have a girl you like in the future, are you going to let your little sister make bentos for her too?” “
Grandpa!”
Second suppression.
“As a boy, cultivation of manliness is also very necessary, you know? Simply put, it’s manly charm. Siji, not having manly charm just won’t do. You don’t want to meet a girl you like in the future only to have her stolen by another man because you lack manly charm, right?”
“Romance is the so-called war. A moment of hesitation will lead to defeat!”
“Grandpa… I—”
“Really now!”
Zhong Xinya broke free from the restraint and shoved the still-wanting-to-say-something Zhong Siji out the door in one push.
“Big Brother! Time seems to be getting late. If you don’t leave now you’ll be late!”
“And don’t listen to Grandpa! Making bentos for Big Brother makes Xinya very happy. I don’t have any unwilling thoughts at all. Tomorrow Xinya will still make even more delicious things for Big Brother.”
Click. With the heavy front door closing, the originally noisy entryway fell silent at once.
“Gulp…………”
“Hoho, why are you looking at Grandpa like that?”
“Grandpa, why did you say those things to Big Brother?”
“Does Xinya think anything Grandpa said was wrong?”
Zhong Xinya puffed up her still somewhat baby-fat cheeks and said sulkily, “Even if it’s right, can’t Xinya be unhappy? And you even talked about girlfriends and such.”
“Sigh.” The old man sighed and pinched the girl’s smooth cheeks.
“I want to see how long you can keep up these two different faces.”
“Xinya isn’t faking it in front of Big Brother at all.”
“Silly girl. Then let me ask you.”
The old man slowly bent down to look Zhong Xinya straight in the eyes and spoke slowly. “Siji’s first bento as a man—do you really not want to eat it?”
“!!!”
“Alright, take off the apron and go to school. If people outside see this, they’ll think our family not only produced a fake girl, but also a tomboy.”
……..
……..
……..
“Sigh~~” Lately he seemed to have been sighing constantly. This wasn’t good. How did the saying go? Every sigh lets good fortune slip away. He couldn’t let any more slip away.
“But speaking of which, I really am quite pathetic. When exactly did it start?”
“When I gradually started depending on her.”
He couldn’t even remember when Xinya had started preparing bentos for him.
Even after the world flipped, he only belatedly realized that she was still preparing bentos for him just like always.
“Xinya, you… are still making bentos?”
“Big Brother, are you not fully awake yet? Your bento… here.”
The girl’s smiling face shone as brilliantly as always.
“Haven’t I always been the one making them?”
So as an older brother in this world… no, it already had nothing to do with gender concepts. As an older brother cooking for his little sister, did he still need some special reason?
“I am… her big brother after all.”
But that said, how should he do it?
His understanding of cooking was limited to washing the ingredients and then throwing them all in to boil together. Bentos clearly belonged to another dimension entirely.
He also didn’t have any friends, and no one he could ask for advice.
Teacher Wu Di? Forget it. That person looked like she radiated kitchen-disaster aura from head to toe at a single glance.
Although he could look it up online, having someone teach him offline would still be a lot easier.
“This is really troublesome… Huh? Is that Classmate Runhui over there? Does she also take this path to school?”
Although he couldn’t see her side profile clearly, that uniform and the hard-to-ignore scale were still very easy to recognize.
At this moment she was slowly walking toward the school while drinking milk. Maybe because of the timing difference, he just hadn’t run into her usually.
Anyway, first go ask her.
“Classmate Runhui~~”
“Ah! Classmate Siji, good morning.”
“Mm, good morning.”
However, Xu Runhui looked a little lacking in energy.
“You look really tired. Did you not rest well last night?”
“Ah… mm. I didn’t sleep very well last night.”
All because Little Sister said those things yesterday. It made me overthink the whole night, Xu Runhui muttered darkly in her heart.
But Classmate Siji really does take this path to school. Hehehe… I guessed right.
And I even got cared about by Classmate Siji. Not sleeping well last night was totally worth it. Today’s opening is perfect~~~
“Is that so? No wonder. After all, you only ran into that kind of thing yesterday.”
No no no. If it was only about yesterday’s matter, I would definitely have had a sweet dream that I didn’t want to wake up from.
“Speaking of which, I still haven’t thanked you yet. Thank you, Classmate Siji.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. We’re all classmates. It’s just normal mutual help.”
Great! Then take this chance to invite Classmate Siji…
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to treat you…”
“Ah! Right, Classmate Runhui, do you know how to make bentos?”
“Huh?”