CH 54.1

Becoming Strong Together (1)

Qin Yuan silently watched him as Ruan Qingmu flushed and spoke nonsense, a light smile slowly creeping in from the corner of his mouth.

“Hey, are you hungry?” he asked. “I’ve waited for you this whole time. My stomach has been empty for a very long time now.”

Ruan Qingmu finally released the little mute and stood up proudly. “I knew you would simply starve yourself to death. My mom made me bring a bunch of food.”

He ran to the entrance and opened the large lunch box he had brought, turning around and running straight to the kitchen. “Here, here, I’ll heat up the food for you.”

He was about to heat up the food still in their containers, but Qin Yuan reached out from behind to stop him.

He took out small, beautiful porcelain tableware from the cupboard. “Put the food on here. They don’t have a gold edge and are microwaveable.”

Ruan Qingmu shook his head hard. “Why all the big fuss? We can just use the containers I brought.”

In the past, he would willingly use these, wanting every wine cup and tableware for his meals to be luxurious. But these days, he had to wash the dishes and plates by himself now!

Qin Yuan was very persistent. “No, we need to have a sense of ceremony when eating.”

Ruan Qingmu took a glimpse of his earnest and eager expression, his heart suddenly feeling sour, and he didn’t dare to utter another word anymore.

Only when someone always ate alone could they feel it was worth it to grandly treat another person when they accompanied them, right?

The food Mu Wanli cooked was really delicious and even Ruan Qingmu’s picky taste buds always felt satisfied with the dishes she cooked.

For this October 1st holiday, Mu Wanli had exerted all her energy. In addition, Xiao-Yun had always wanted to thank Qiu-ge, so she had taken out a few hundred yuan from her salary and asked Mu Wanli to add some more dishes to treat him. Mu Wanli had bought the ingredients, made the preparations, and managed to cook seven or eight dishes in total.

But the lunch box couldn’t pack so many things and it could only contain four dishes: pan-fried hairtail, stir-fried pork, fried fungus with yam, and stir-fried artemisia. All the colors of the dishes went on to complement each other.

Ruan Qingmu looked at Qin Yuan’s foot. “You go and sit at the dining table. I’ll heat up the food and bring it out.”

Qin Yuan didn’t move and stood alongside him by the counter. “My foot is really fine. I sent a picture to Dr. Gong this morning and he said it’s only a muscle sprain. It’ll heal after three to five days.”

He looked at the crutches sitting beside the table outside and slowly said, “Just to be clear. I won’t be using those crutches after we return to school.”

“Hehe.” Ruan Qingmu angrily sneered. “It turns out I’m showering affection on an uninterested party and eagerly brought it here. You don’t have to use them if you don’t want to.”

Qin Yuan opened the microwave and covered the hairtail with plastic wrapping before placing it inside the microwave oven.

Amidst the buzzing of the electrical appliance, he whispered, “You aren’t showering affection on an uninterested party.”

The microwave was loud and Ruan Qingmu was too busy dividing the plates to hear what he said, so he shouted, “What did you just say?”

There was no sound coming from behind him. Qin Yuan stood upright and was engrossed in watching the light inside the microwave.

A pale orange-red glow reflected from the light coming in from the microwave window and his face slightly turned red due to the lighting.

***

The rice aroma in the electric rice cooker flowed all over the place. Qin Yuan opened the lid and served three bowls of rice, saying with an unchanged expression on his face, “I heard you’re coming, so I cooked the rice at the last moment.”

Ruan Qingmu looked at him. “Oh, is that so?”

He took the little mute to the bathroom to wash their hands before coming out and placing him on his chair.

The large oak dining table was covered with a blue-white striped tablecloth, with an elegant calla lily at the side. The little mute sat next to Ruan Qingmu, with Qin Yuan on the opposite side.

On the table were the four dishes that Ruan Qingmu had brought, along with the marinated beef Qiu-ge had purchased, saucy red and full of a meat smell. In front of them was snow-white rice.

Ruan Qingmu coughed once and suddenly scratched his head as he looked at Qin Yuan, who sat upright on the opposite end.

“It’s fucking weird to sit like this.” He blurted out of embarrassment, “It’s like in those TV shows…”

Looking at Qin Yuan and the little mute, he desperately pushed a certain strange thought away.

Qin Yuan calmly picked up a piece of hairtail and placed it in the little mute’s bowl. “What is it?”

Ruan Qingmu quickly gestured. “It’s like that… dog blood* drama about richnesses, power, gratitude, and grudges. Cough, cough – A family of three brothers: a two-faced sinister eldest brother, a naïve and kind-hearted second-eldest, and an adopted orphan.”

*T/N: Dog blood plots: is an Internet term, which are plots in TV dramas that are constantly being remade and imitated to describe those similar plots that often appear that are poor imitations, or very exaggerated and fake performances.

Of course, he had never seen this kind of show before. Still, Niu Xiaoqing happened to share a Thai drama with the class group a few days ago, saying it was too touching, with all kinds of unbelievable and complicated family relationships. He had briefly looked at the summary and felt that the general idea seemed to be something like this.

Qin Yuan ate the fish in a refined manner, spitting out the fishbone on another small bone china plate at the side. “The two-faced sinister eldest brother – is that saying something about yourself?”

Ruan Qingmu was stunned: Aiya. He really didn’t know who was older between himself and Qin Yuan.

They were all peers, so they could apply for the same grade. Honestly speaking, the entire sophomore year’s students only had less than a year difference.

“You must be older,” he mumbled to himself.

This person was clearly half a year older than him when they exchanged their birth dates in his previous life.

Qin Yuan looked at him. “My birthday is on February 18th and it happened to coincide with the lunar New Year’s Eve on the year I was born. It’s quite easy to remember. What about you?”

Ruan Qingmu lowered his head and didn’t say anything.

For a moment, the sourness in his heart felt like a tidal wave rolling over uncontrollably.

Surprisingly, it was no different from his previous life. In this life, Qin Yuan was also half a year older than he was.

He tried to hold back the sudden heat in his eyes, not daring to look up. “See, I’m right. My birthday is in August. Anyway, you’re that two-faced sinister eldest brother.”

“I feel like it’s not three siblings. Xiao-Zhuang is way too young.” Qin Yuan swallowed a mouthful of rice and pointed his finger at the little mute, indifferently saying, “Instead, we’re just like a family of three people.”