"Did Yu break off this string ?" Xiao Ruawen held a bean and plucked old leaves from one end to the other.
"Yu, do you think this much water is okay?" Xia Xiaoxiao had just washed the rice and added fresh water. She also held the rice cooker to ask for advice.
"Hmm, it's okay." Wu Lingyu was seasoning the pot and turned around when she heard the voice.
At that moment, she felt incredibly relaxed, as if a huge boulder had been lifted from her head, feeling the relief as if a light boat had passed through thousands of mountains.
[Now only Wanning is left, Brother Fan will definitely handle it, humph~ I'm so mad, Brother Chou Fan, don't expect me to cover for you again!]
Even though a cheating bastard's behavior is contemptible, if there's a next time, Yu would probably still help coordinate...
After all, he is Brother Fan, stinky as he is.
[If you don't coax me properly next time, I won't cover for you!]
Wu Lingyu scraped the extra oil back into the bowl after seasoning the pot, a smile unconsciously forming on her face.
"By the way, Yu, you were so agitated when you called Brother Fan to get up just now," Xiao Ruawen paused her leaf picking. She had been distracted by Xu Qingfan's supreme skills earlier but now remembered.
After Xia Xiaoxiao put the egg custard into the rice cooker and pressed the quick-cook button, she also looked at Yu.
Wu Lingyu's fish-frying movement hesitated but then resumed: "Ah ha... Maybe it's because I got my period these past few days, so I might get a bit emotional at times."
Xiao Ruawen tilted her head and began calculating the dates: "I was the week before last, Yu is before Xiao Xiao, Xiao Xiao is before Wanning, Wanning is after me…"
"That's not right, Yu, shouldn't your period be due in a few more days?"
"It came a few days early this time." Wu Lingyu was embarrassed.
"Oh, okay." Xiao Ruawen nodded and continued picking leaves.
The silence lasted half a minute before she spoke again, "Then you drank bubble tea yesterday, I'll have to tell Brother Fan later!"
"I'd already bought it... it was barely cold when I drank it." Wu Lingyu suddenly felt like imploding; lying was too exhausting!
"Hehe~ just kidding!"
"Boys are better, Brother Chou Fan once tricked us into believing that boys have an 'egg-switching period,' bullshit!"
Every time Xiao Ruawen recalled raising her hand during the health class in middle school to ask the teacher "What is the male egg-switching period," she felt the urge to stab Xu Qingfan.
"Pfft~" Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu both remembered something joyful, their cheeks puffing up.
"Stop laughing, no laughing allowed!"
"Brother Chou Fan...."
Xiao Ruawen glared at them resentfully but soon couldn't help but laugh herself.
"Are you again talking bad about me, laughing so happily?" Xu Qingfan, pushing Lin Wanning, just happened to come in and saw the three hiding in the kitchen and jokingly said.
"We were saying you're Hong Shixian, seizing the tools of the crime!" Xiao Ruawen picked up the scissors from the counter and snapped them shut.
Xu Qingfan shivered unexpectedly, his eyes guiltily turning towards Yu frying in the kitchen.
However, Wu Lingyu didn't even turn to look at him, focusing on her cooking, treating him as if he were air.
While the dog man breathed a sigh of relief, he felt faintly uneasy.
"Wha... what Hong Shixian, I am clearly Wei Xiaobao!" Yet, confronted by Xiao Ruawen's words, he glared back fiercely.
"Understood, Brother Fan wants to be a eunuch!" Xiao Ruawen continued with another snap of the scissors.
"Brother Qing Fan, where are the keys, let's get the keys and wake Yiyi up!" Lin Wanning hopped behind him. There seemed to be no place in the kitchen that needed her help.
Xu Qingfan rubbed her head and pointed backward, "It's in that tube in the middle of the TV cabinet. It's filled with many keys in a mooncake box. I don't know which one is for Yiyi's room; just take them and try them all."
"Hehe~okay!" Lin Wanning obediently took the keys.
Watching her hop away, Xu Qingfan shook his head helplessly: [She's in high school, yet she walks like a grade schooler.]
Xiaoxiao is enough for Yiyi, Xu Qingfan didn't follow but went into the kitchen.
"What soup is this, did you add salt?" He lifted the pot lid and stirred the soup with a spoon.
Xia Xiaoxiao quietly picked vegetables, not looking at him.
Xiao Ruawen did glance at him but didn't know what soup he made, so she didn't speak.
Wu Lingyu intended to answer but, remembering the grievances from the morning, she closed her mouth again.
Thirty seconds, one minute.
The kitchen remained quiet.
"No one is talking, huh." Xu Qingfan muttered to himself to ease the awkwardness.
[Something's wrong!] Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu felt alert at the same time.
"Didn't you go shopping with Auntie this morning, how come you still ask what soup it is?" Xia Xiaoxiao cast doubtful glances at him.
Xu Qingfan instinctively wanted to say he hadn't gone shopping at all, but Wu Lingyu preemptively interjected, "Brother Fan and Yiyi went straight to sleep after shopping, so they don't know what soup was made?"
Xia Xiaoxiao's skeptical glance shifted to Yu: "You know what groceries were bought, how could you not know what soup was made?"
"Uh... this... um." Wu Lingyu's voice of explanation grew fainter, finally opting to shut her mouth entirely.
Xu Qingfan and Zhang Yiyi had already corroborated their stories in the bathroom earlier, and knew that Yu had helped them coordinate, so now he bravely responded, "There's chicken, duck, and ribs, how would I know which ingredient my mom wants to use for the soup."