My Gorgeous Neighbor Is Cooking Every Day - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jiang Yingyue was a bit taken aback. Did knowing each other for ten days require exchanging gifts?

When did she and Xia Xingye become friends? Although Xia Xingye had helped her a lot, did that already count as friends?

Furthermore, Jiang Yingyue looked down at the smart watch on her wrist. The white watch looked somewhat like a toy a child would enjoy.

Xia Xingye noticed Jiang Yingyue’s confusion and chose to answer the last question first: “Although it looks a bit childish, it looks very good on your wrist.”

Jiang Yingyue was beautiful and looked good wearing anything.

“Don’t you like it?” Xia Xingye asked with a wounded expression.

“No, it looks alright, but I don’t need to check the time.”

“You don’t know what this does?” Xia Xingye was a little surprised. She turned on the screen and explained to Jiang Yingyue, “Besides telling the time, you can also make calls. It’s smaller than a phone, easy to carry, and you won’t forget where you put it.”

“I don’t need to…”

“I know you don’t need to answer calls and that others will wait for you to contact them, but when I can’t reach you, I worry.”

Xia Xingye sighed and slumped onto the sofa like a boneless person, muttering, “If you disappear, the police will think I hurt you.”

Jiang Yingyue hesitated: “Will they really?”

Xia Xingye nodded seriously, her face solemn: “Of course, they will! Maybe the property management will look for you for some reason, find that I was the last person who had contact with you, and turn me over to the police station.”

Property Manager: …I feel like someone is talking bad about me.

The words sounded so wronged that Jiang Yingyue thought about it and reluctantly agreed: “Okay, thank you for the gift.”

Xia Xingye looked up at Jiang Yingyue, her eyes sparkling—Where’s my gift?

Jiang Yingyue said helplessly, “I’ll go out and buy one.”

“Now?” Xia Xingye glanced at the dark window outside. Seeing that Jiang Yingyue had already turned around and was genuinely preparing to leave, she let out a sound of alarm, got up, and pulled her back, blocking the door. “No rush, no rush. You can buy it whenever you remember.”

The gift wasn’t important; what mattered was that Jiang Yingyue accepted her gift.

Xia Xingye had known that Jiang Yingyue disliked carrying her phone. When she saw the children’s smart watch, she couldn’t move. She stood at the storefront for a long time.

The sales clerk noticed Xia Xingye staring and proactively asked her what style she wanted.

“Do you have any for adults?”

“Adults?” The clerk was surprised but professionally introduced options to Xia Xingye. Xia Xingye immediately chose a discreet style. Once she had it, Xia Xingye didn’t hesitate to record her number into it.

The children’s watch had many functions. Xia Xingye was tempted but kept her boundaries, refraining from secretly turning on the GPS location tracker.

If Jiang Yingyue didn’t want to tell her where she was going, she would pretend not to know. She only thought that Jiang Yingyue’s job seemed very special. Could it be some mysterious, confidential work?

Jiang Yingyue had always been quite mysterious. She had been so busy worrying about Jiang Yingyue lately that she almost forgot how they met.

The wall still hadn’t been fixed. During the days Jiang Yingyue was gone, Xia Xingye almost couldn’t resist going over to rummage through Jiang Yingyue’s things to see what exactly she did.

Now that Jiang Yingyue was back, Xia Xingye started to piece together the things she had previously overlooked.

Little Jiang was too supernatural and outside her realm of understanding, but seeing the yellow paper and cinnabar in Jiang Yingyue’s room earlier, Xia Xingye had a bold guess.

Although Jiang Yingyue was a great beauty—if she became a model, she could easily earn hundreds an hour—she wouldn’t need to engage in fraudulent activities, so the possibility of her being a scammer was ruled out.

Could she have been scammed by someone?

Xia Xingye looked at Jiang Yingyue with a bit more concern. Being gone for so long without a trace—could she have been scammed and brainwashed?

The more she thought about it, the more plausible this possibility seemed. Xia Xingye seriously told Jiang Yingyue: “Tell me whenever you go anywhere from now on.”

Feeling her tone was too strong, Xia Xingye thoughtfully added: “Is that okay?”

“The places I go are not convenient to discuss with you.” Jiang Yingyue didn’t overthink it and immediately refused.

“Wuuu…” Xia Xingye wiped non-existent tears from the corner of her eye.

Little Jiang called out in a loud voice: “Don’t fight! Don’t fight!”

Its voice was very small; only Jiang Yingyue heard it. Jiang Yingyue looked at Xia Xingye with some bewilderment. Were they fighting?

She didn’t quite understand, but what Little Jiang said shouldn’t be wrong.

Jiang Yingyue explained, “I’m not sure where I’m going either, so I can’t tell you.”

Xia Xingye was half-skeptical: “It’s not that you can’t tell me?”

“That’s part of the reason, too.”

Xia Xingye: “…”

Staring into Jiang Yingyue’s eyes, Xia Xingye had to believe her.

“Alright then, just remember to answer the phone.”

“Okay.”

…

After Jiang Yingyue returned, she didn’t even glance at her own side of the apartment. She looked at Xia Xingye’s bed and asked, “Can I sleep in the bed today?”

Jiang Yingyue had always slept on the floor at Xia Xingye’s place and had never asked to sleep on the bed before.

“Yes, yes, sleep whenever you want.”

Jiang Yingyue thanked her, washed up, and went straight to Xia Xingye’s bed. The moment her body touched the mattress, she fell asleep.

Seeing the person sleeping soundly, Xia Xingye quietly turned off the light.

Thinking that Jiang Yingyue must be tired from being out, Xia Xingye made a rare early morning effort to buy breakfast. When she returned home, the bed was empty. Xia Xingye reached out and touched the bed; it was cold. The person must have left a while ago.

Xia Xingye took out her phone, subconsciously wanting to call Jiang Yingyue, but after a moment, she didn’t dial the number. She sighed and put the phone down, reminding herself she shouldn’t be too nosy.

Xia Xingye turned around dejectedly, and an enlarged face appeared right in front of her. The skin before her was delicate, and she could faintly smell a faint, fresh scent.

Xia Xingye was momentarily dazed.

“What are you looking for?”

Xia Xingye snapped out of it. Jiang Yingyue had already pulled away.

“Nothing. Where did you just go?”

Jiang Yingyue pointed behind her: “Went back to grab some things.”

Xia Xingye: “Are you going out today?”

“Mmm.”

“I’ll see you off?”

Jiang Yingyue belatedly realized why Xia Xingye cared so much about what she was doing. She laughed lightly and said, “I’m going out to buy cleaning supplies. I ran out at home.”

Xia Xingye gave a blank “Oh”: “Do you want me to come with you?”

“That would be alright,” Jiang Yingyue thought for a moment and said.

Xia Xingye was surprised and cheerily told Jiang Yingyue to eat breakfast first.

The weather was nice today, and Xia Xingye was full of energy. At the supermarket, she even took the time to push a cart, filling it with a pile of snacks.

At the checkout, the person behind her saw Xia Xingye’s load of items and quietly switched to another line.

Jiang Yingyue watched Xia Xingye, who looked like a sunflower, glowing all over, incredibly dazzling.

Xia Xingye finished paying and stood opposite, waiting for Jiang Yingyue. The cashier finished scanning the items and prompted: “Please scan the code to pay.”

“Wait, I’ll pay with cash.”

As soon as she spoke, the people around all looked at Jiang Yingyue—Does anyone still use cash to pay these days?

Some younger people hadn’t even seen cash and asked their parents what it was.

Jiang Yingyue took out a small white pouch from her pocket, pulled out cash, and handed it to the cashier. The cashier had seen customers pay with cash before, but rarely, almost exclusively older people. Jiang Yingyue looked so polished and yet used cash, and the money pouch looked quite aged, prompting the cashier to take a few extra glances.

The cashier was a little rusty at giving change. The person behind Jiang Yingyue urged: “Hurry up! Someone’s still using cash these days! Is she a bumpkin from the village?”

Jiang Yingyue turned and glanced at the person faintly, then withdrew her gaze without a ripple of emotion.

For some reason, this glance infuriated the other person, who angrily demanded: “What’s that look for? Did I say something wrong?!”

Xia Xingye frowned and retorted sharply, “It’s not your money! Why are you so nosy?”

The cashier quickly tried to mediate and handed the change to Jiang Yingyue.

Jiang Yingyue took the bag, lifted her chin slightly, and signaled Xia Xingye to leave.

Xia Xingye effortlessly took the bag from Jiang Yingyue’s hand, feeling uncomfortable as they walked: “Why didn’t you refute him?”

Jiang Yingyue said helplessly, “There’s nothing to refute. Some people are impossible to communicate with.”

Her voice didn’t sound at all bothered, remaining gentle. Xia Xingye worriedly turned her head and asked, “You’re not angry?”

“Not angry.”

Seeing that Jiang Yingyue truly wasn’t angry, Xia Xingye let her frustration go: “You have such a good temper.”

Jiang Yingyue smiled and said nothing. She didn’t have a good temper; she was just used to it.

The two quickly forgot about the small incident. Xia Xingye had intended to help Jiang Yingyue clean, but her class assistant suddenly called and asked where she was.

“Nowhere special, I’m at home.”

The assistant urgently asked: “Did you forget what we were supposed to do today?”

Hearing the assistant, Xia Xingye suddenly remembered that the class had planned a cycling trip today.

Xia Xingye said guiltily, “I’m on my way.”

After hanging up, before Xia Xingye could say anything, Jiang Yingyue cautioned: “Be careful on the road.”

Xia Xingye: “You be careful too.”

Please don’t cause any more explosions.

At the school gate, the group took a bus together to the location their class monitor had designated to rent bicycles. There was a park nearby that circled a lake, with a path specially built for cycling, frequented by cycling enthusiasts.

The class assistant, the class monitor, and the vice-monitor each watched over a small team. Xia Xingye and her three roommates were assigned to one group. They needed to count heads every so often. As they cycled, the routine changed to the team leader waiting ahead, and only following once all the team members had passed.

Xia Xingye was cycling quite fast. The wind felt comfortable on her face. She was in a daze, just pedaling forward, until she realized there was no one around her. She involuntarily slowed down.

Besides their class, other people were cycling too, and she would occasionally encounter people near or far. Now, there was no one. Xia Xingye gradually stopped. Fog seemed to have rolled in ahead, and she looked up to see the sun had vanished at some point.

Xia Xingye got off her bike. She looked back but didn’t see anyone. The strange fog, however, was getting thicker, and visibility was dropping lower and lower.

In broad daylight, it feels like I’ve run into a ghost.

However, Xia Xingye never believed in the supernatural. Since visibility was too low, and she couldn’t see the path beyond three meters, cycling further could be dangerous. She could only push her bicycle forward.