Chapter 12

Bai Shihan, who had been quite excited just a moment ago, grew gloomy once again. Her expression filled with worry and inner uncertainty, she cast a questioning look at Lin Xinyu. "Be a good girl, you're still a good kid," Lin Xinyu said, reaching out to gently pat her head. "You just want to live as yourself, not as the person they expect you to be." "But... I lied again..." "Silly girl, that's called a white lie." "Re-, really?" Lin Xinyu nodded. Nobody wants to live the way others want them to; that would certainly make anyone unhappy. Only by living for oneself can a person truly understand what they want. "You're going to be amazing in the future. Your situation analysis is fast, you see through things thoroughly, and your proposed solutions are always flawless. So, don't doubt yourself." He wasn't lying. Although Bai Shihan was socially anxious in the future, when it came to offering advice, her analysis of situations was fast, accurate, and ruthless. Even without much communication, the solutions she provided were almost always the best ones. Unconvinced, Bai Shihan wrapped herself tightly in the quilt, as if only this small area offered a safe zone. "Actually, I've been wondering—since you never go out, why is there always food at your place?" Eager to keep Bai Shihan from dwelling on it, Lin Xinyu changed the subject directly. "There, there's an auntie who knocks on the door and leaves the groceries right outside..." Hearing this, Lin Xinyu couldn't help but sigh. It must be nice to be rich. "Stop hiding in that quilt, hurry up and get up to teach me how to cook. With culinary skills as good as yours, I definitely need to learn so I can cook for my wife in the future." "N-, not your wife." Lin Xinyu shook his head. "I didn't say I was cooking for you." At first, Bai Shihan didn't catch his meaning. It wasn't until she climbed down from the bed that it finally dawned on her. She felt an inexplicable sourness well up inside, and suddenly she didn't feel like cooking for him anymore. Yet she didn't dare show it, so she simply pouted, refusing even to look at Lin Xinyu as she walked straight into the kitchen. When Lin Xinyu followed and stood beside her, Bai Shihan, who had always been passionate about cooking, made up her mind. She was definitely going to add a lot more salt and vinegar this time so he could learn his lesson properly. Lin Xinyu watched from the side. He had only made that comment in passing just to tease her, but then he watched as Bai Shihan scooped up a huge spoonful of salt, followed by a huge spoonful of vinegar... Who on earth did this girl learn from? . . 028. The Kind of Eating I Mean Will Make Your Legs Hurt "You eat first, and if it tastes good, I'll eat." Bai Shihan, who had originally planned to sit back and watch him make a fool of himself, suddenly lost her composure. Left with no choice, she picked up a piece of the food, endured the stinging shock of sourness and saltiness, and forced herself to look calm. "The, the taste is... not bad..." "Is that so? Then let me try some." Just as Bai Shihan thought her plan had succeeded, Lin Xinyu snatched the chopsticks she had been using. With lightning speed, he picked up a piece of food, popped it into his mouth, and even remembered to lick the chopsticks afterward. "It really does taste pretty good!" "..." Bai Shihan fell silent. Then, her pretty face turned red at a visible speed. She had thought she could prank him, but she never expected him to use the exact chopsticks she had just been eating with—not to mention they still had her saliva on them. "I, I won't use those chopsticks anymore." Seeing that his own pair of chopsticks remained unused beside him, Bai Shihan moved with lightning speed to snatch them up. "It's fine. I've discovered that food seems to taste even better with these chopsticks." Bai Shihan finally understood the true meaning of having thick skin. Could this be considered lifting a rock only to drop it on one's own feet? "If you dare to lie to me again in the future, it won't just be a matter of stealing your chopsticks," Lin Xinyu remarked while picking up another piece of food. He didn't explicitly expose Bai Shihan, but his message came across loud and clear. Blushing, the little girl finally realized that he had seen right through her all along. "I, I won't dare anymore." "I think I still need to bully you a bit more, otherwise you won't be scared of me at all." Bai Shihan pulled back the hand she had reached out to grab some food. "N-, no bullying good friends." Lin Xinyu shrugged helplessly. "I'm different from others. I happen to like bullying good friends." "Th-, then we won't be good friends anymore." "As husband and wife?" Fuming, Bai Shihan refused to talk to him. In the end, using the excuse that food shouldn't be wasted, the two of them worked together to finish off that intensely salty and sour cucumber. Once it was completely dark outside, Bai Shihan kept dropping hints for Lin Xinyu to go home, but he acted as if he couldn't hear a thing and frantically changed the subject. "Tomorrow, I, I need to wake up early." "I know, you're going to eat tofu pudding with me too." "It seems dark outside..." "I'm not afraid of the dark." "..." Sure enough, when faced with someone utterly shameless, there was simply no way to win. "I'll head out first then. Wait for me downstairs tomorrow morning." For some reason, after getting the answer she wanted, Bai Shihan didn't feel as happy as she thought she would. "Okay." Watching him walk out of the room and listening for the sound of the door closing, Bai Shihan got up from the bed and routinely headed to the balcony to bid him farewell. ... If someone had told her when she first started high school that she would ever look forward to going to school like this, she wouldn't have believed it. When the alarm went off, she got dressed and washed up in one smooth motion. She grabbed her schoolbag and headed down to the lobby of Bai Shihan's building, where the girl was already waiting obediently by the entrance in her school uniform. "Whose wife is this, waiting for the person she likes so early in the morning?" Ever since she couldn't remember when, Lin Xinyu had taken a liking to teasing her. If Bai Shihan had shown any aversion to such nonsense, he would have stopped, but she never reacted with annoyance—she just stood there with a blushing face. "Not a wife..." "How long have you been waiting?" "J-, just came down." Clearly, this was not the truth. That was just how Bai Shihan was; she never wanted others to go out of their way for her, fearing that it would make her seem useless. Lin Xinyu didn't call her out on it. "Let's go. Let me see the changes you've made these past few days." "Okay." Bai Shihan also wanted to prove herself. She had wanted to change long before now, but she had never had the courage. Now things were different—she had Lin Xinyu. She was still clutching the corner of his shirt, but without the panic she had felt at the very beginning. It had already become a habit. Standing on a street lined with stalls on both sides, Lin Xinyu didn't lead her toward the tofu pudding stall; instead, he let Bai Shihan choose for herself. In the end, the little girl fixed her gaze on a steamed bun shop. "Want a steamed bun?" "Mm, want to try one." Lin Xinyu led her into the shop. Breakfast bun shops were always the busiest spots, especially right across from schools, because besides buns, they also sold soybean milk and fried dough sticks. Most importantly, they were convenient to carry and didn't require a long wait. "You've never eaten steamed buns before?" "Never..." "Your childhood was truly miserable." Feeling a bit wronged and unable to find a reason to retort, Bai Shihan could only glare at him with puffed-up cheeks. "There are meat buns, red bean paste buns, pickled vegetable buns, plain steamed rolls, flower rolls..." Before Lin Xinyu could finish, Bai Shihan tugged at the corner of his shirt and pointed at the sign, wanting to tell him that everything was described right there and she knew how to read. It had to be said that steamed bun shops made good money in any era. Just by looking at the length of the queue, one could roughly calculate the daily revenue. In her memory, the owner of this bun shop already had a car and a house within two or three years. Bai Shihan didn't think that far ahead. She only felt that there were too many people around her right now—it was a bit crowded and noisy. Standing at the entrance of the bun shop, an inexplicable sense of pressure welled up in her chest. The mingling noises of chatter and laughter echoed endlessly in her ears. Noticing that something was amiss with Bai Shihan, Lin Xinyu could roughly guess from her panicked expression that the little girl was feeling a bit frightened. He reached out and gently stroked her head to soothe her. Like a little lamb suddenly placed among wolves, her fear instantly vanished. Her trembling shoulders grew still, and the terror in her heart gradually subsided. "It's fine, you're already doing great." At that very moment, Bai Shihan felt as though Lin Xinyu was far safer than the noisy world outside. Bai Shihan looked up. "I'll keep working hard..." "Don't worry, if you don't work hard, I'll eat you up. That way you'll be even bolder." Hearing this, Bai Shihan didn't quite grasp the deeper meaning, but she quickly realized that he couldn't possibly eat people; he was obviously just joking with her to help her relax. "Thank you." "I'm going to eat you, why are you thanking me?" Knowing that he was just teasing and didn't want her to worry, Bai Shihan replied, "You don't eat people." Only then did Lin Xinyu realize the little girl had misunderstood. "The kind of eating I mean will make your legs hurt." "Huh?" Bai Shihan didn't understand, but she didn't dwell on it either. Summoning her courage, she bought two meat buns, two red bean paste buns, and two cups of soybean milk. Once the fruits of her victory were in hand, Bai Shihan let out a long sigh of relief. "How is it? Are you happy?" "Happy!" She had made progress again today. Bai Shihan pulled a meat bun and a red bean paste bun from the bag for Lin Xinyu, then grabbed the corner of his shirt again as they slowly made their way through the crowd. Panic and fear were completely gone. On the way to the classroom, Bai Shihan even learned from Lin Xinyu, eating as she walked—something she would never have done in the past out of concern for her image. Now, she would naturally follow along with whatever Lin Xinyu did. Of course, if it were something she deemed wrong, she certainly wouldn't copy it. Right now, the little girl stood happily beside Lin Xinyu, biting into a steamed bun she had never tasted before, her face full of bliss. She was afraid of everything in the world—except for him. . . 029. Can You Just Eat and Take Whatever You Want Like This? In high school, right in the midst of youth and budding awareness, it was hard for boys and girls not to be attracted to one another.There are many factors of attraction: grades, appearance, personality, the silent understanding when you are together...

Bai Shihan had initially just been curious about Lin Xinyu because he behaved differently from the other students, but later, she found herself constantly protected by him in subtle ways, which caused her long-closed heart to open just a sliver.

"Bai Shihan, do you think the class monitor has a thing for you? Why does he keep staring at you?" Lin Xinyu frowned, his tone tinged with jealousy.

These words made the young girl, who had been slumping on her desk slacking off, sit up straight immediately, though she looked a bit aggrieved. "No, it’s not like that. Before, he... he was always asking me for my homework to check his answers..."

Judging by the way Bai Shihan frowned, she seemed to have a bit of an aversion to the class monitor.

Yet, girls like this who appear weak and don't know how to refuse are often misunderstood by others. Some men with a strong sense of superiority even mistake this behavior for playing hard to get.

"What would you do if someone confessed to you?"

This time, Bai Shihan appeared very calm. She looked at Lin Xinyu with a peaceful gaze; almost no words were needed for him to understand what she meant—isn't that what you're here for?Lin Xinyu was just about to reach out and stroke her little head, but remembering this wasn't a private space, he changed his strategy. He quickly ducked under the table and, before she could react, grasped her middle and ring fingers in his hand.

The sudden movement startled Bai Shihan, making her blush so deeply that she even forgot to resist.

"Everything else doesn't matter; you only need to understand one thing: I will make the ring appear on your middle finger first, and then on your ring finger."

This time, the little girl understood the meaning. Pretending not to know, she pulled her hand away and refused to look at Lin Shiyu anymore.

He's talking nonsense again...

As for whether he was being serious or not, Bai Shihan might not understand right now, but Lin Xinyu knew in his heart.

Honoring their agreement, starting today, Bai Shihan was going to tutor Lin Xinyu in his studies, which actually made her quite happy.

In her mind, she never even considered whether he might struggle with the material. Instead, she patiently explained everything from start to finish, simply believing that Lin Xinyu was already trying his absolute hardest to get into the university of his choice.

Time ticked away, drop by drop.Lin Xinyu never would have thought that there would come a day when he felt class time was too short. Such a mindset was impossible for him in the past; let alone classes, sometimes he would wake up from sleep and mutter complaints about how slowly time crawled, feeling as though every single day dragged on for a year.

At noon, under Lin Xinyu's gentle guidance, Bai Shihan was already able to converse fluently with the cafeteria staff, no longer the social-anxiety-stricken girl who stammered when she spoke.

Of course, she was only like this because she had grown familiar with him.

Finding a corner seat against the wall, Bai Shihan had grown accustomed to Lin Xinyu's presence as he accompanied her.

From her initial timid and halting movements, she had grown completely at ease, though she still minded her image—after all, there were other students around.

If she were alone with Lin Shinyu, seeing him gorge himself with such gusto at the barbecue stand would be enough to shock anyone who truly knew Bai Shihan.

Lin Xinyu did not pick up his chopsticks, preferring instead to simply enjoy the atmosphere of the present moment.

When a girl with extremely high defenses dropped her guard in front of you, turning what should have been fear into a sense of reassurance, that feeling was undoubtedly a kind of happiness.

"Why aren't you eating?" Bai Shihan noticed Lin Xinyu's gaze and lowered her head shyly. Seeing that he hadn't touched his chopsticks for a long time, she naturally assumed that the food in his bowl wasn't to his taste. "I have meat in my bowl. If there are any vegetables you don't like, you can give them to me. We shouldn't waste food."

The little girl harbored no hidden motives and didn't overthink it; she simply saw that he hadn't eaten and didn't mind sharing.

She hadn't even noticed this subtle, subconscious shift within herself. In the past, she never would have accepted such an ambiguous gesture. But now, to Bai Shihan, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

"Here, you can have all this meat." Lin Xinyu picked up his chopsticks and, leaving Bai Shihan no room for refusal, scooped all the meat from his bowl and placed it onto her plate.

The little girl looked wronged. She had originally intended to give her own meat to him, only to end up with several large pieces added to her plate instead.

"Don't look at me like that. You need to eat more meat so you can grow in all the places I want you to."

Bai Shihan didn't understand what he meant, but she could tell the answer from his gaze—it definitely wasn't anything good...

Twenty minutes later, the two of them finished their meals.

As soon as they stepped out of the cafeteria, Lin Xinyu noticed that Bai Shihan had a troubled expression on her face, turning her head to look at him repeatedly without speaking.Lin Xinyu imitated Bai Shihan's earlier method, flicking a creamy candy out of his pocket and handing it to her. "If you're feeling unhappy, eating some candy helps. Does this count as applying what I've learned?"

However, the response wasn't quite what he had imagined.

The little girl looked somewhat embarrassed as she clutched her stomach with one hand.

Having come this far, how could Lin Xinyu not figure it out? He was no longer that pure, innocent boy who only knew how to talk big.

"I'll walk you back to the classroom first."

"Mhm."

At that moment, Bai Shihan just wanted to dig a hole and bury her little head in it. She had woken up too early and in too much of a rush, waiting for Lin Xinyu downstairs and forgetting to bring...

By the time they reached the classroom, the look of pain on Bai Shihan's face grew increasingly obvious. Throwing all care for his pride to the wind, Lin Xinyu stammered and asked a female classmate for one.

At first, he was looked at like a pervert, but after stating his purpose, he managed to salvage a bit of his dignity.

"Can you manage the restroom by yourself?" When they reached the door, after handing the soft large butterfly pad over to Bai Shihan, Lin Xinyu still felt a bit uneasy.

Hearing this, Bai Shihan gave a start, her cheeks flushed as she nodded and hurried off with small steps.

Watching her walk into the restroom, Lin Newyu finally felt relieved. Then he headed downstairs to look for his good buddy.

Kong Yu's seat was by the window, so Lin Xinyu could just reach out and slap him awake. "Let's go, Fatty, I'm taking you to get something good to eat."

Though still sleepy, Kong Yu instantly perked up. "That's a rarity. Brother Yu isn't keeping the sister-in-law company today?"

"What kind of talk is that? Come on, man, I'm treating you to lunch, take whatever you want."

"Really?"

Seeing that Lin Xinyu's tone didn't sound like he was joking, Kong Yu chose to believe him.

Not taking advantage of a freebie is against the code of a hero!

Inside the school convenience store, Kong Yu was dumbfounded.

He was even deliberately keeping his distance from Lin Xinyu. From an outsider's perspective, the two of them looked like complete strangers. Not only that, but there was a hint of disgust in his eyes.

After hesitating for a moment, Kong Yu looked at Lin Xinyu. "Brother Yu, are you alright?"

"What do you mean am I alright? What are you talking about?"

"If you're alright, you brought me to eat *this*? Take whatever I want, eat whatever I want?"

Especially the look in Lin Xinyu's eyes, which was clearly signaling for Kong Yu to hurry up and grab a few packs.

"Are you out of your mind with hunger? Can this stuff even be eaten?"

Hearing this, Kong Yu grew even more terrified. "Brother Yu, don't tell me you have those few days a month too...""If you talk nonsense again, do you believe I'll shove one right onto you?" Lin Xinyu was somewhat speechless. He had thought the guy might finally turn a corner—he knew there was a sister-in-law now, yet he didn't know who this stuff was for. "Then why buy this?" "Your sister-in-law." Kong Yu finally had a sudden realization. "Why didn't you say so earlier? Talking in circles, you scared me into thinking we were just treating each other to this stuff." Lin Xinyu was taller than him, and coupled with Kong Yu's rather hefty build at the moment, it made Kong Yu look even shorter. He was actually one meter seventy-eight, but from afar he looked only like one meter sixty. "Pick whatever snacks you want. You'll pay the bill, and once we're outside, I'll give you the money." Picking up two bags from the shelf and shoving them into Kong Yu's hands, Lin Xinyu quickly made himself scarce. By the time Kong Yu reacted, the other had already left the small shop. "Such a scoundrel!" ... Lin Xinyu waited by the entrance, demonstrating textbook-style what it means to be a brother. Asking someone else earlier was because he saw Bai Shihan was really uncomfortable and nervous inside, not thinking much of it at the time and just biting the bullet to go straight for it. Calming down was a different story. He had never bought this kind of thing before, so he was bound to feel a bit embarrassed. Before long, Kong Yu came out of the small shop, deliberately asking for a black packaging bag to separate the snacks and the large butterfly. Normally, he would definitely have asked for a white plastic bag to hold the snacks. Just as he was checking out, a few girls happened to line up behind him, making him lose his composure for a moment. Otherwise, he would definitely have carried a white plastic bag filled with different kinds of snacks into the classroom to show off his foodie status. "Yu-zi, I've really got your number now." Hey, he stopped calling him brother. Hearing this, Lin Xinyu immediately got a bit prickly. "Fatty Kong, this isn't very moral of you, haha. The number of times I, your brother, have scammed you can be counted on one hand. You're different, though—when we were kids, you smashed someone else's window and pinned the blame on me without a word while you ran off; you didn't even spare the sixth-grade girl next door when she was taking a bath, telling the auntie that I was the one peeping; and what about those action descriptions in the magazines, every time you secretly tore them out to enjoy all by yourself? Oh, right, didn't you also buy a fly—" "Brother, Brother Yu, you're my own biological brother! I'll help you buy them next time too!" Kong Yu was terrified. He had been a bit careless, never expecting Lin Xinyu to hold so much dirt on him. The way of heaven runs in a cycle; whom has the heavens ever spared? However happy he was in the past, that's how miserable he was now.