Can't Hide My Love for You - Chapter 76

After finding the hotpot restaurant empty, they had no choice but to head back to the street entrance and hail a taxi home.

As they passed a fruit shop, Chi Yi stopped at the stall out front. She picked up a bunch of plump black grapes; the skin had a light dusting of bloom, making them look exceptionally fresh.

“Do your parents like grapes?”

Cheng Yixin thought for a moment and said, “I haven’t really seen them buy them much.”

Looking across the stall, the most expensive items besides the grapes were the cherries and strawberries. Chi Yi placed a large bunch of black grapes into the bag handed over by the owner and asked for a case of strawberries and a case of cherries as well.

Cheng Yixin waved her hands in a hurry. “Don’t buy so much, we can’t finish it all!”

“It’s fine. If we can’t finish them, we’ll give them to the neighbors,” Chi Yi insisted. This was her first time visiting her girlfriend’s home; she would rather have too much than too little. She couldn’t let the parents think she was stingy.

The sound of their conversation made the shopkeeper’s wife look at them several times. After a moment, she asked, “Are you Yixin?”

“…” She had been recognized.

The fruit shop owner was an old neighbor on Sande Street—warm, familiar, but possessing a notoriously loud voice.

“Yes, that’s me,” Cheng Yixin replied with a sheepish smile from behind her mask.

“Oh my, I haven’t seen you in forever! Since you became a big star, I rarely see you around. How have you been lately?”

“Very well, very well.” Cheng Yixin gave Chi Yi a secret nudge, signaling her to hurry up, pay, and leave before a crowd gathered.

But it was too late. A young person picking fruit nearby heard that a “big star” was standing right there and immediately pulled out their phone to take a blatant “secret” photo. This triggered a chain reaction; passing tourists instantly recognized them.

“Hey! It’s Cheng Yixin! And the person next to her looks like Chi Yi!”

Unlike the tourists, the local passersby didn’t just take photos from afar; they walked right up to greet them and ask for autographs after confirming their identities. Trapped, Cheng Yixin signed autographs while making polite small talk.

“We came here today for a trip and wanted to visit your hotpot restaurant, but when we passed by, we saw it wasn’t open today. What a pity!”

Cheng Yixin smiled. “You should be able to eat there next time you visit.”

“Mhm! Did you come back with Chi Yi? Is she buying so much fruit because she’s visiting your house?” Fans were like a never-ending stream of questions.

Regarding such personal questions, Cheng Yixin normally wouldn’t—and couldn’t—respond. But today, she said, “Yes, Chi Yi was free today, so she came back with me.”

“You two have such a great relationship,” a friend traveling with the fans couldn’t help but comment. “Just like a couple.”

Cheng Yixin handed over the finished autograph. She didn’t respond to the comment about being a couple, but she didn’t deny it either.

Chi Yi, having finished paying, came out of the shop carrying the fruit. She saw Cheng Yixin talking to the fans and gave them a slight nod as a greeting. Fortunately, it was lunchtime, so there weren’t many people wandering the streets, and it didn’t cause a riot.

“I hope you enjoy your trip~” Cheng Yixin waved to them, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons. Even with the mask, it was obvious she was in a great mood. After speaking, she naturally took Chi Yi’s hand and headed toward the street entrance.

The fans watched their retreating figures. One couldn’t help but say, “Gosh, look at them holding hands. They really look like a couple.”

However, in today’s society, even if two girls held hands or even kissed, people often still assumed they were just “straight best friends.”

“Look at how they aren’t even trying to hide it; they’re obviously straight,” the friend replied. “If they were really a couple, they’d be hiding for their lives in public.”

“True.”

At home, Mother Cheng was waiting anxiously for them to return. Seeing that her husband had already started stir-frying, she worried the food would get cold if they arrived too late, so she called to check in. Learning they were ten minutes away, she finally felt at ease.

Big Yellow, dressed in his pink tutu, lay on the floor with his ears drooping. A visible look of grievance was on his face, for fear that his owners would try to do something else to a poor little dog like him.

“Big Yellow,” Mother Cheng called out.

Big Yellow was exceptionally sensitive to his name. Upon hearing it, he sat halfway up and pricked his ears to look at her.

“We have a guest coming in a bit. You have to be good, okay? No barking. If you scare her, I’ll lock you outside.”

Big Yellow was a Golden Retriever and local village dog crossbreed. He had the gentleness of a Golden and the protective, loyal traits of a village dog. He was incredibly well-behaved with family, but his first instinct with strangers was to bark. He wasn’t naturally friendly to outsiders, and given his size, Mother Cheng was afraid he would frighten someone.

Big Yellow let out a whimper, and without knowing if he understood, he lay back down. Mother Cheng stared at him until the dog grew uncomfortable and turned his head away. She finally remarked, “Why do you look so ridiculous in that outfit…”

But there was no other choice. During the cleaning, they had thrown away Big Yellow’s old, worn clothes and hadn’t bought new ones yet. This pink tutu had been a gift from someone else. It was a bit small, leaving his backside and tail exposed.

Her thoughts wandered back to her daughter and Chi Yi. Because of their daughter’s job, the old couple—who originally didn’t use the internet—had forced themselves to learn how to navigate social media. They knew about the recent firestorm. They also hadn’t told her about the paint being splashed on the shop, fearing it would make her feel worse, but she had found out anyway.

Mother Cheng knew her daughter’s personality; she liked to bottle everything up and carry the burden alone. She had tried to comfort her, only for Yixin to brush it off with a forced smile. A mother feels her daughter’s pain; the old couple knew how much suffering and grievance she was enduring, yet she refused to speak of it.

Fortunately, there was Chi Yi. Seeing on TV that Cheng Yixin could now calmly discuss those healing wounds in interviews, they knew she must have leaned heavily on Chi Yi. They were sincerely grateful to her.

“Mom, Dad, we’re back!”

The voice from outside snapped Mother Cheng out of her thoughts. She wiped the corner of her eye and hurried out. Big Yellow, who had been lying lazily on the floor, was faster than her, his tail wagging so hard it practically turned into a propeller.

“Whoa~ Big Yellow! Hahaha, oh my god, why are you dressed like this?!”

A large yellow dog flew out of the house, jumping and pawing at Cheng Yixin’s legs. When she saw the tutu, she almost fainted from laughter. The combination of a pink tutu and a bright red bow tie was so bizarre that even the manufacturer would want to close their factory if they saw it.

She turned to Chi Yi. “This is our Big Yellow. He… doesn’t usually dress like this.”

After peeling the excited dog off her, she pointed at Chi Yi and told him, “See the guest? Quick, perform a handshake.”

Hearing the command, Big Yellow sat down. He looked at the stranger before him, tilted his head, and eventually lifted a paw.

“Such a good boy.” Chi Yi crouched down and held out her hand, palm up. “Let’s shake.”

Big Yellow didn’t listen to just anyone. He stared at Chi Yi silently with no reaction, his tail stopped wagging, and his eyes were filled with wariness. After a few seconds of silence, Cheng Yixin gave a sheepish laugh. “He only listens to my parents. You have to get to know him before he’ll be nice to you.”

“Fair enough.” Chi Yi gave up on trying to tease the dog. Just as she stood up, Big Yellow acted.

He first paced slowly toward Chi Yi, circled her once, and sniffed her. Then he walked back in front of her, wagged his tail slightly, and let out a soft whimper.

Cheng Yixin was stunned. No one had ever managed to make Big Yellow wag his tail on their first visit.

“Big Yellow has never wagged his tail for a stranger,” Mother Cheng said with a smile as she came out of the house. “You’re the first. It seems he really likes you.”

“Hello, Auntie. It’s been a long time. I wasn’t sure what to bring for my first visit, so I bought some fruit for you and Uncle.” Facing a parent, Chi Yi lost some of her usual composure. She hurriedly handed over the bags, so nervous she didn’t even realize she was offering gifts before she had even stepped inside.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have! You’re too polite,” Mother Cheng replied with the standard hospitable script. “Come in, quickly. It’s cold outside.”

Mother Cheng led them inside, with Big Yellow wagging his tail behind them. As soon as they sat down, Cheng Yixin asked, “Mom, why did you put this on Big Yellow?”

“Doesn’t he look nice?”

“How is this nice? It’s so ugly.”

Mother Cheng set the gifts on the cabinet. She noticed one bag contained a box that didn’t look like it was for humans; the packaging featured a dog’s head. She pulled out a pack—it was a dog chew treat.

“You even bought dog treats? Yixin, was this your doing?”

“No, Chi Yi bought them for him.”

Cheng Yixin hadn’t even thought about bringing a gift for Big Yellow, but Chi Yi had specifically visited the pet section to buy them while they were shopping.

“Chi Yi, you are so thoughtful.” Mother Cheng was surprised; most people wouldn’t think to buy gifts for the family pet. Seeing that Chi Yi looked nervous on the sofa—looking just like Old Cheng did when he first met her parents—Mother Cheng made an excuse to go help in the kitchen and told them to make themselves at home.

Visiting for the first time, Chi Yi felt it would be rude to stay glued to her phone, so she looked at Big Yellow, who was sitting on the floor. The dog was the only “toy” available in the house.

Cheng Yixin found Big Yellow’s tutu too ridiculous and stripped it off him in a few quick moves. Once free of the tutu, Big Yellow was clearly much happier, grinning and frolicking about.

Chi Yi took a careful look around the living room. The scent of the dog’s shampoo was fragrant and wafted through the house. “Your home is so clean.”

A family portrait hung on the wall with the caption: Commemorative Photo for XX’s Birthday.

Seeing her interest, Cheng Yixin led Chi Yi over to the photos. “Let’s see if you can find me.”

The photo had been taken over a decade ago against a roadside background. Three rows of people stood there, with a pair of white-haired elders—Cheng Yixin’s grandparents—sitting in the center. There were several children around Cheng Yixin’s age in the frame, yet Chi Yi accurately pinpointed Cheng Yixin from among the dozens of faces with a single glance.

“This is you, right?” she said with certainty.

“Amazing. You actually recognized me.”

“You haven’t changed much since you were a child. Besides, I’ve always remembered what you looked like back then.”

Cheng Yixin giggled. Besides the large family portrait, there were other photos of Cheng Yixin and pictures of her parents when they were young. It seemed the old couple had a habit of keeping photos, yet there wasn’t a single portrait of just the three of them as a nuclear family.

Chi Yi asked curiously, “Why isn’t there a family portrait of just you and your parents?”

“We took one before, but it isn’t hung up. My dad said he’ll wait until I get married, and then we’ll go to a studio to take a beautiful new family portrait.”

Chi Yi paused, her eyes lingering on an empty spot on the wall—clearly the space reserved for that future portrait. She thought for a moment and then said tentatively:

“I want to hang on your wall, too.”

“???”

Now that’s a sentence that could be easily misinterpreted.