My Gorgeous Neighbor Is Cooking Every Day - Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Xia Xingye felt a pang of sadness, but she knew she had no right to be sad. Her attitude toward admitting her fault was good, and she said: “Sister, I’m sorry. I spoke carelessly before. Please don’t be angry. No, you can be angry, but please don’t ignore me.”

Xia Xingye’s current request was simple: she only hoped Jiang Yingyue would talk to her, even if it was to scold or hit her. She was just afraid that Jiang Yingyue would not want her by her side.

Jiang Yingyue looked at her in confusion: “What do you want to do now? You said you wanted to be friends, so let’s be friends.”

She pursed her lips and said clearly: “I won’t force you to do anything you don’t like.”

Hearing Jiang Yingyue’s words, Xia Xingye had a momentary urge to hide, not wanting to face the difficult matter. She was inherently resistant to further intimacy. If a relationship broke down after being established, did that mean there would never be another chance?

Xia Xingye never knew she had this personality until she met Jiang Yingyue. Now she realized she had been consciously avoiding Jiang Yingyue.

She suppressed the urge to run and said earnestly: “I’m not doing anything I don’t like. I’m just… I just have a problem with my head!”

Xia Xingye suddenly shouted, tightly holding Jiang Yingyue’s hand: “Sister, what should I do? I didn’t know my personality was so awful. I thought I was normal.”

Xia Xingye was so anxious she was almost crying. Her eyes were tearful, and she stared intensely at Jiang Yingyue.

Seeing her like this, Jiang Yingyue would usually immediately soften. This time, she didn’t. She only repeatedly confirmed: “Are you sure you’re not saying this because you’re worried I won’t hang out with you? Are you sure that like me, you want to be together because of liking me?”

Jiang Yingyue gave a bitter smile and said: “You don’t have to do this. Even if we aren’t a couple, we can still be friends. You can still come to my place if you want.”

However, in the future, she would maintain an appropriate distance from Xia Xingye to prevent her from misunderstanding again.

Just as Xia Xingye was about to speak, Jiang Yingyue said: “Think about it properly. Don’t rush to answer me. I live right there, and I don’t have anything going on recently. You can find me anytime. Let’s go home together now.”

They took a taxi back. Jiang Yingyue didn’t let Xia Xingye go into her house. She looked at Xia Xingye and said seriously: “Think about it carefully. Don’t rush.”

“Can’t I go to Sister’s place?” Xia Xingye was a little anxious. She had a feeling that if she let Jiang Yingyue go, she would never see her again.

“I know this might be tough for you, and you might feel uneasy, but you have to face it. Even if you were to tell me… that you like me, and what you said before was just careless talk, you still need to be alone now. You need to think clearly that while we can become a couple, we might also break up. I don’t want you to feel completely uncomfortable if we separate later.”

As the older person, even though she wasn’t much older than Xia Xingye, Jiang Yingyue subconsciously took on the role of the more responsible one. Xia Xingye might be immature in this area, but she shouldn’t be equally immature.

Xia Xingye looked at Jiang Yingyue for a long time before finally whispering: “I understand. I will think about it carefully.”

Xia Xingye hadn’t been back to her own home for a while. Upon returning, she habitually tried to move according to the layout of Jiang Yingyue’s place, but realized every turn was wrong, which made her a bit irritable. After taking a shower, she lay in bed, staring at the wall separating her from Jiang Yingyue.

The first time she met Jiang Yingyue, Jiang Yingyue walked over from that side. At that time, Xia Xingye fell for Jiang Yingyue as if bewitched. Xia Xingye wasn’t sure if it was love at first sight then; she had deliberately suppressed her inner excitement.

Now, she was sure that she didn’t want to run away. Perhaps the future would be as Jiang Yingyue said, and they would break up someday. Did she really have to stick to her previous attitude and refuse to be together because she was afraid of separation?

Xia Xingye still remembered that movie; separation was more difficult to accept than death.

Jiang Yingyue might be willing to die together, but Xia Xingye didn’t want to separate; she was simply afraid of separation.

No banquet lasts forever. Even though their relationship was harmonious now, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t break up someday. Xia Xingye didn’t sleep all night, waking up with dark circles under her eyes.

When Jiang Yingyue opened her door, she saw a visibly weary Xia Xingye, yet her eyes were startlingly bright.

“Are you okay?” Jiang Yingyue was a little worried that she had been too hard on Xia Xingye.

“I’m fine,” Xia Xingye’s tone was calm and sincere. “Sister, I don’t want to think about what will happen if we separate later. We’re not even together yet, so why worry about separation? I just want to be with you. Whether we separate or not is a matter for the future.”

Seeing Jiang Yingyue about to speak, Xia Xingye quickly added: “Sister, you don’t need to worry that I won’t be able to handle it if we break up. I’m an adult. Although my personality is sometimes bad, I know that not everyone can be together forever.”

Xia Xingye paused and then continued: “But Sister, you also can’t make me prepare for a break-up now just because of something that might happen in the future. Do you want me to accept the separation before we’ve even started being together? People need to grow. Since we need to grow, let’s worry about it when the time comes. Why does it have to be now?”

Jiang Yingyue was momentarily stunned by Xia Xingye’s words. She had never thought about considering separation before they were even together; she was just worried that Xia Xingye couldn’t accept it. But upon closer thought, she felt Xia Xingye wasn’t wrong. They weren’t even together, so why worry about a potential separation in the future?

Wasn’t this like the idiom she recently learned online called “loan anxiety”?

Jiang Yingyue chuckled softly: “It seems I’ve been overthinking things, not just you.”

“Then let’s try it,” Jiang Yingyue extended her hand and asked, “Would you like to date me?”

Xia Xingye’s eyes widened. She didn’t expect Jiang Yingyue to ask her so directly. Her fingertips were trembling as she reached out. The moment she held Jiang Yingyue’s hand, she finally calmed down and stopped shaking. She said excitedly: “I do! I want to date you, Sister!”

This time, they confirmed the relationship face-to-face, leaving no room for mistake.

“Can I go to Sister’s room now?”

“Of course,” Jiang Yingyue smiled. “I never said you couldn’t come over before.”

Xia Xingye followed Jiang Yingyue into the room and immediately heard Xiao Jiang’s voice: “Alright, alright! Everything is perfect!”

Xiao Jiang’s voice startled Xia Xingye. Xia Xingye looked over at Xiao Jiang: “Why are you shouting suddenly?”

Xiao Jiang giggled for a bit before saying: “Didn’t you keep asking what the secret I was keeping from you was? It’s this.”

Xia Xingye looked bewildered: “What do you mean, ‘it’s this’?”

Seeing Xia Xingye’s confusion, Xiao Jiang said: “You two are a match made in heaven! You two will be together.”

Xia Xingye was stunned. She quickly picked up Xiao Jiang: “You knew we would be together all along?”

She then immediately looked at Jiang Yingyue, who nodded lightly and said: “I knew we would be together.”

But she wasn’t sure when or if Xia Xingye would be willing.

Xia Xingye tentatively asked Xiao Jiang: “Then can you calculate if we’ll be together forever?”

“That I don’t know,” Xiao Jiang sighed again. “Alright, you two get along well in the future.”

Xia Xingye had a bad feeling. She asked anxiously: “What are you going to do?”

“Nothing, just that my mission is complete.”

By this time, Jiang Yingyue had walked over to Xia Xingye, and they both held Xiao Jiang together.

Jiang Yingyue explained softly: “Xiao Jiang came to me initially because I was alone. Now that I have you by my side, it will leave.”

“But… but…” Xia Xingye choked up. She didn’t want Xiao Jiang to leave. Although Xiao Jiang’s words were sometimes annoying, she had never truly disliked it, especially since Xiao Jiang had been with Jiang Yingyue for so many years.

“It’s okay. I knew it would leave. I’ve been prepared for a long time.”

Jiang Yingyue spoke casually, but her eyes, looking at Xiao Jiang, were full of reluctance.

At this moment, Xiao Jiang deliberately spoke loudly: “I’m only leaving to help someone who needs help more. But my body is still here. There’s no need for you two to be sad. Just remember to water me on time.”

“Understood, we will water you on time,” Xia Xingye replied. “We’ll also take you out to sunbathe, and if you want to go out, we’ll take you out to play.”

“That’s good. You have no idea she only ever took me to work and never out to play. I wanted to go hiking, swimming, and…”

Xiao Jiang’s voice faded, becoming barely audible. Just before its voice disappeared, they heard Xiao Jiang say: “I wanted to stay with you two forever, too. You must be well and not worry me.”

Then Xiao Jiang’s voice vanished. Jiang Yingyue asked uncertainly: “Did it leave?”

There was no answer.

Jiang Yingyue lowered her gaze, hiding the moisture in her eyes.

They placed Xiao Jiang on the balcony to sunbathe. The two quietly watched Xiao Jiang, occasionally talking about it.

Eventually, Xia Xingye couldn’t help but laugh: “Xiao Jiang hasn’t really left. It’s like a funeral.”

“Perhaps we will see it again,” Jiang Yingyue said without much conviction. “But it wouldn’t want us to see it again.”

Seeing Xiao Jiang again would inevitably mean Jiang Yingyue was in distress, and Xiao Jiang wouldn’t want to see her in distress.

“It’s okay. Didn’t Xiao Jiang send me to be with you?” Xia Xingye opened her arms. “Sister, I will stay with you forever in place of Xiao Jiang.”

“I know you will.” Jiang Yingyue leaned in and hugged her. They held each other for a long time before slowly releasing one another, snuggling together in the sunlight.

Whether it was them or Xiao Jiang, they couldn’t deny that Xia Xingye’s arrival was due to Xiao Jiang’s doing. If it hadn’t been for Xiao Jiang, Xia Xingye and Jiang Yingyue might never have met.

That explosion…

Jiang Yingyue confessed: “Xiao Jiang kept saying you were coming and told me to go meet you.”

Jiang Yingyue stopped speaking here. Xia Xingye suddenly glared at her: “You didn’t want to come meet me, so it blew up the wall?”

Though embarrassed, Jiang Yingyue honestly nodded: “It was exactly as you said. Because I wasn’t willing to proactively approach you, Xiao Jiang got anxious and deliberately caused trouble by blowing up the wall.”

Xia Xingye never expected this turn of events, but surprisingly, she didn’t dislike it at all. Even when she saw Jiang Yingyue stand up from the rubble, she felt no aversion.