"What's the rush? I haven't even added salt yet!"
Finally, Lin Xuan added salt, light soy sauce, cooking wine, white pepper, and some minced garlic, gave it a few more tosses in the wok, and plated the dish.
"Let me try a piece first!"
Zhao Tianxiang had been waiting impatiently. Looking at the shredded pork with green peppers, which smelled and looked amazing, his mouth began to water. He picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a piece, and popped it into his mouth.
"Wow! This tastes even better than what my mom makes! I'm going to have to come over here for dinner all the time!"
Zhao Tianxiang lavished praise on Lin Xuan's cooking skills for quite a while, making Lin Xuan feel a little embarrassed.
"You brat, wait until we're done! The meal isn't finished yet!"
There was still the stir-fried tomato and eggs. It was a classic home-style dish—pretty much anyone who knew how to cook could make it.
Ten minutes later, Lin Xuan had the stir-fried tomato and eggs ready.
A rich, savory aroma filled the air. Since neither of them had eaten yet, the smell made them feel even hungrier.
"Tianxiang, you take these two dishes to the table first. I'll dish up the soup!"
"We're finally going to eat! I was starving to death!"
Zhao Tianxiang quickly carried the two plates of food out to the living room, taking the cold dish they had bought earlier along with them.
"I'll go get the bowls!"
As soon as he set the food down, Zhao Tianxiang ran off to fetch the tableware.
Lin Xuan brought out the corn and pork rib soup, placing it right in the center of the table.
"Grandpa, come eat!"
"Coming! Who would've thought you two boys were so capable? That smells amazing! It's bound to be delicious!"
"Hehe, I only cooked the rice, Xuanzi stir-fried all the dishes!"
"Grandpa, try some and see how it tastes."
Lin Changshan picked up a piece of shredded pork with green peppers and put it in his mouth. Instantly, a smile broke out on his face.
"Not bad! It looks good, smells good, and tastes great! With food like this, I could easily eat two extra bowls of rice!"
"Then eat as much as you want, Grandpa!" Lin Xuan picked up another piece and put it in his grandfather's bowl.
"Grandpa, try the ribs and the tomato and eggs too!"
"Alright, alright. You boys eat too, don't just look after me. You must be starving after studying all day!"
The three of them chatted as they ate, the scene warm and harmonious.
Lin Xuan found that when he stopped wasting his energy pursuing Yu Jiaxin, everything he ate tasted fantastic. Spending your time on people who genuinely cared about you was the right choice after all!
"Oh, by the way, Xuanzi, it's the weekend tomorrow. What are your plans? How about we hit the internet café and play games together? We finally have a break, time to relax a bit!"
"I don't have any interest in that. You've got good grades, but if I don't study hard, I probably won't even make it into college!"
Lin Xuan had wasted nearly all three years of high school on Yu Jiaxin. Now that he had been given a second chance at life, he certainly wasn't going to repeat the same mistakes. Pouring his energy into bringing his grades up was the right thing to do!
"Huh? You're really not going?" Zhao Tianxiang asked, his face falling.
"Really not going. I plan to stay home and review my schoolwork tomorrow."
Seeing that Lin Xuan wouldn't go, Zhao Tianxiang instantly lost all enthusiasm for it. Playing games was only fun when you teamed up with a friend; playing alone was pretty boring.
"How about this? I'll come over tomorrow morning and tutor you, and we can go play in the afternoon. How does that sound?" Zhao Tianxiang offered a tempting condition.
"Well... that's not out of the question."
With Zhao Tianxiang helping him, it would make a huge difference. After all, when you hit a wall with subjects you didn't understand, figuring it out entirely on your own was terribly difficult.
"It's a deal then, I'll come find you tomorrow morning! But before that, we need to set up a study plan! We have to start with the subjects you're worst at. Which ones are you failing at, Xuanzi?"
"I... well, pretty much all of them!"
Lin Xuan's grades weren't just at the bottom of his class; they were at the bottom of the entire school. To be honest, if he started working hard now, getting into college would still be quite a challenge.
"Then we'd better hurry! Otherwise, when the time comes, you won't even end up at the same university as me, and how boring would it be playing by myself?" Zhao Tianxiang resolved to help Lin Xuan get his grades back up no matter what.
"Let's do this: tomorrow we'll start with math! After we study for a bit, we'll see how it goes."
Hearing this, Lin Xuan nodded. As far as he was concerned, it didn't matter which subject they started with.
After making their plans, the two chatted a bit longer. Seeing that it was getting late, Zhao Tianxiang said goodbye to Grandpa and headed home.
"Grandpa, you've worked hard all day. It's getting late, get to bed early!" Lin Xuan said, looking at his grandfather's wrinkled face with deep affection.
"Alright, alright. You get some rest early too, Xuanxuan. Just study in moderation, don't push yourself too hard. If we don't manage to get into college, so be it—living an honest, steady life isn't the end of the world."
His grandfather knew his grades were poor, but he had never blamed him once. Instead, he cared for and looked after him just the same as always.
Lin Xuan secretly swore to himself that he had to work hard! He would prove it to everyone! He believed that as long as he persevered, there was nothing he couldn't achieve!
After washing up, Lin Xuan lay down on his bed to rest. He checked the time; it was already past midnight. On this very first day of his rebirth, he felt a bit exhausted.
He picked up his phone to check his notifications and found a massive number of unread messages popping up on QQ.
When he opened them, he discovered they were all from Yu Jiaxin.
What was going on here? Back when he used to chase after her constantly, she had never once initiated a message or called him. Now that he was ignoring her, why was she suddenly getting anxious?
This completely baffled Lin Xuan.
He scrolled back through their chat history.
"Lin Xuan, why didn't you answer my calls?"
"Did you block me?"
"Why aren't you replying to my messages?"
...
Lin Xuan used to keep Yu Jiaxin pinned to the top of his QQ chat list and had set her as a special notice so he would know the moment she messaged him.
But there was no need for that anymore. Looking at his own childish online username and status signature, Lin Xuan felt like he truly used to be far too pathetic.
He decisively deleted the childish username and signature and unpinned Yu Jiaxin, removing her special status as well.
It was past midnight. Normally, Yu Jiaxin would have been fast asleep by this time. She kept a disciplined routine and usually washed up and got ready for bed shortly after ten o'clock.
Yet tonight, because of everything that had happened with Lin Xuan, she couldn't fall asleep at all. Her mind kept replaying what Lin Xuan had said to her earlier that day, and the fact that he had actually blocked her phone number.
Yu Jiaxin opened QQ once more and refreshed the screen. Lin Xuan still hadn't replied.
He seemed to be completely ignoring her...
He wouldn't even send a perfunctory reply. Had he not seen her messages?
She refreshed the interface again and noticed that Lin Xuan had changed his username and signature.
It seemed he hadn't missed her messages; he simply didn't want to reply at all.
And seeing that he had cleared out his username and signature, did that mean he was never going to pester her again?
Why didn't she feel happy about it? She clearly didn't like him, so shouldn't she be glad that he had stopped bothering her?
Yet right now, she couldn't muster up any joy. She didn't know when it had started, but she had long since grown used to Lin Xuan's presence in her life.
Yu Jiaxin felt a profound sense of grievance. Why had Lin Xuan, who used to be blindly good to her, turned out like this?
Yet she perhaps forgot: through countless days and nights, Lin Xuan had felt this exact same way, nervously waiting for her to reply to his messages. But what had she done back then?