She Adopted Me After My Biological Mother Passed Away - Chapter 3

“I was planning to use them for dinner tonight.”

The world of adults is like a pair of tangled earphones, always full of inextricable knots and creases that Shi Shuxue had no interest in smoothing out. She only needed to accept it all passively, whether it was being sent to her aunt’s house or following this arrogant woman back to her own home.

Heels crushed against the bluestone path. The night air seemed to bloat the old locust trees in the alley, their branches casting swaying shadows against the mottled brick walls.

Night in the old district was far too dark and oppressive. This essential path home was missing several streetlights, and the sparse flickers of light from other people’s homes were nothing more than distant blurs.

Shi Shuxue had walked this path so many times she could find her way home with her eyes closed, so she took the lead. Chi Yeyu followed behind, shining a flashlight for her without offering any criticism of the dismal environment.

Chi Yeyu didn’t have much room to talk anyway, she was busy slurping a milk tea with one hand, while another empty cup dangled from her wrist in a plastic bag.

During the first year of her grandmother’s illness, Shi Shuxue used to be afraid when walking this road alone. The path was too narrow, looking up, one could only glimpse a sliver of deep black sky, like the dream of a prisoner on death row.

Stray cats would dart past her feet, and the distant barking of dogs would be reimagined as wolves in a deep forest. At every corner, she would be on high alert, fearing a sudden ambush by some criminal who might stuff her into a sack and carry her off.

Primary schoolers have such vivid imaginations. Fortunately, after walking it enough, she learned the rhythm of the neighborhood: which alleyway would feature a late-shift sanitation worker pushing a creaking trash cart, which low wall always had a squinting stray cat napping on it, and exactly how long the broken streetlights would flicker before going dark again.

As they walked one after the other, Shi Shuxue was wondering if this woman would stay the night, which guest room she should tidy up, and if there were fresh linens, when a hand suddenly tapped her shoulder from behind.

She turned around. Facing her was a face rendered ghastly pale by a flashlight shining upward from under the chin.

“Wah!” Chi Yeyu let out a terrifying shriek.

Shi Shuxue stared at her with a blank expression.

Maintaining her scary pose, Chi Yeyu seemed to choke slightly on a boba pearl, making the gurgling sound in her throat even more convincing.

“What exactly are you doing?” Shi Shuxue’s voice was as flat as a stagnant pond.

Chi Yeyu swallowed the pearl and let out an “Eh?” She turned the flashlight around so the beam finally landed normally at Shi Shuxue’s feet. Seeing the girl’s unruffled expression, she said in shock, “Aren’t you scared at all? I practiced this expression for ages.”

“Please don’t talk while you’re drinking milk tea.”

“I finished it,” Chi Yeyu grinned, looking inexplicably proud of herself.

Shi Shuxue offered no comment on the feat of consuming two full-sugar milk teas in a matter of minutes and calmly continued walking.

Chi Yeyu’s face was simply too beautiful; she lacked the basic qualifications to successfully pose as a ghost. With features like hers, no matter how much she messed around, she could never truly be repulsive.

She had deliberately bared her teeth just now to look fierce, but those slightly upturned cat-like eyes only made her look like a mischievous spirit who had snuck into the human world for a prank, even her intimidation felt charmingly arrogant.

Shi Shuxue thought that only an adult like Chi Yeyu would spend the middle of the night in an old alleyway trying to jump-scare a high school student.

And failing at it.

“Don’t always keep such a stiff face. Kids should smile more.” The childish adult suddenly reached out, her finger hooking the strap of Shi Shuxue’s backpack. “Are we almost there? Let me carry that for you.”

“Wait”

Chi Yeyu had already snatched the bag, sounding surprised. “Is a high schooler’s bag always this light nowadays? What do you even have in here?”

Shi Shuxue turned to grab it back, but Chi Yeyu stepped aside. Using the flashlight, she noticed a corner of a red plastic bag peeking out from an unzipped side pocket.

What was it? Study guides?

But seeing the kid’s desperate attempt to get it back, it didn’t seem like “normal” school supplies.

She pulled the bag out, and when she saw the contents, her pupils shrank.

“Am I seeing this right? Student Shi Shuxue, after a week of boarding school, you brought back… two stalks of green onions?”

Even stranger, the bag didn’t just contain onions, there was also a tomato and two cucumbers.

Aside from those, there was nothing else.

“Heavens, did I guess wrong? You don’t go to a key high school, you go to a vocational school for chefs, don’t you?”

Chi Yeyu dangled a sturdy green onion between two fingers. Shi Shuxue’s ears turned red as she reached up and snatched the plastic bag and the onion back.

“I was planning to use them for dinner tonight.”

“Oh..” Chi Yeyu dragged out the syllable playfully.

Shi Shuxue kept a stiff face as she stuffed the vegetables back into her bag one by one. Her school uniform sleeves were rolled up twice, her slender wrists strikingly white.

Chi Yeyu said, “I thought you were going to say it was a project for a labor practice class or something.”

“There was no need to say that.” Shi Shuxue zipped the bag, keeping her eyes downcast. Her slightly trembling eyelashes betrayed her embarrassment.

Chi Yeyu burst out laughing, the flashlight shaking along with her shoulders.

“Your school life is quite interesting.” She helped the high schooler straighten her crooked backpack strap. “Regrettably, you won’t get to cook your cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes tonight. The lady I hired has already prepared dinner for us.”

They reached the door. As Shi Shuxue reached into her pocket for her keys, Chi Yeyu beat her to it and unlocked the door.

“Shi Xianyu gave them to me,” Chi Yeyu explained.

So Shi Xianyu had been planning this for a long time, Shi Shuxue thought. A complex emotion rose in her heart, not quite anger but certainly not grief for her mother.

The title of “mother” had never really belonged to Shi Xianyu, so Shuxue felt she had no right to demand that Xianyu act like one. Even so, she had once held onto a faint hope, trying to draw bits of love from their rare moments of warmth.

As the door opened, the faint aroma of food drifted out. The living room light was warm, and the TV was playing an opera program often watched by the elderly at a moderate volume.

Her grandmother was sitting in a rattan chair, her hair neatly combed and her light gray cloth shirt clean. Hearing the door, she slowly looked up, her gaze a bit vacant and slow, like a lost child.

“Xiaoyu is back,” she said, her voice carrying the characteristic rasp of old age.

Shi Shuxue saw the corners of the old woman’s mouth turn up slightly in a faint smile.

“Yes, I’m back.” Shuxue put down her bag, walked over, knelt by the chair, and habitually took her grandmother’s hand.

Grandmother whispered to her, “Whose girl is this? She’s so pretty.”

“Hello, Auntie. I’m a friend of Xianyu’s.” Chi Yeyu walked over naturally and took a pillbox from her pocket. “These are for you today. I had Dr. Su adjust the dosage.”

The caregiver standing nearby smiled at Shi Shuxue. “You must be Shuxue. Miss Chi mentioned you; she said you’ve been the one looking after the elderly woman.”

The caregiver looked to be in her forties, with kind eyes that crinkled when she smiled. She took the medicine from Chi Yeyu, placed it on a small cabinet, and turned to get a water cup, gently helping the old lady sit upright with practiced ease.

A clatter of pots and pans came from the kitchen, and a woman in an apron poked her head out. “You’re back just in time. Dinner is almost ready! The old lady was in high spirits today, she even helped peel some garlic at noon.”

Shi Shuxue nodded. In truth, they should have been back sooner, but Chi Yeyu had teased her several times along the way, doubling the time of a five minute walk.

She went into the kitchen to help, bringing the dishes to the table one by one: steamed chicken, stir-fried pork, tomato and egg, familiar home-cooked meals. Three meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, black rice porridge, and a seaweed soup.

It was much better than the dinner she had planned to make.

Chi Yeyu was chatting with the old lady, sitting on the rug with one knee up. She didn’t act like a first-time visitor at all, she naturally talked nonsense, telling jokes about Shi Xianyu’s younger days in a band. Their laughter drifted over continuously.

Shi Shuxue stood to the side, watching this scene, her fingernails unconsciously digging into her palms. This fashionable woman sitting by her grandmother had taken it upon herself to barge into her home with strangers, turning her Friday evening completely upside down.

The living room light fell on everyone like a warm veil. The house felt both strange and cozy.

She suddenly felt that with these people around, her grandmother might be happier than before.

“What are you standing there for?” Chi Yeyu stood up, walked over, and poked her forehead. “Sit down and eat.”

Shi Shuxue instinctively covered her forehead.

The cook Chi Yeyu hired was excellent. Shi Shuxue, who usually treated eating as a mere necessity for survival, managed to eat a few extra bites. Once she was full, she set down her chopsticks and wiped her mouth.

The woman beside her asked with a grin, “How is it? Not bad, right? Better than what you made during your ‘school training’?”

She spoke as if she had cooked the meal herself. Shi Shuxue gave the food a sincere compliment before correcting her: “I don’t learn cooking at school.”

“Really? No? What about a culinary class? A home economics club? A campus vegetable planting squad?”

With every question, Shi Shuxue felt the urge to frown.

“There is no such thing.”

“I see… so, are you good at cooking? I thought high schoolers nowadays didn’t know how to cook.”

Before Shi Shuxue could answer, her grandmother chimed in, waving her hand. “She doesn’t know how to cook! When Xiaoyu goes into the kitchen, it’s a disaster. I don’t know how many porcelain bowls she’s broken. I don’t even dare let her in there.”

Chi Yeyu’s chopsticks froze mid-air.

Shi Shuxue didn’t correct her grandmother’s use of her mother’s name. She said helplessly, “I’ve been trying to learn. I haven’t broken anything.”

“Yes, yes, it’s good to be serious about something. I don’t expect the food to be amazing, as long as you can feed yourself.” The old woman rambled on, placing a piece of cherry pork in Shuxue’s bowl. “Eat, eat more. Don’t you love this? You’ve eaten so little lately, look how thin you’ve gotten. You don’t even look like yourself…”

Shi Shuxue pursed her lips and picked up her chopsticks to eat. The person beside her let out a soft chuckle, reached out with her own chopsticks, and snatched the perfectly squared piece of sweet and sour pork right out of Shuxue’s bowl, popping it into her mouth.

Shi Shuxue shot her a look. “There’s more on the plate.”

“It’s too far away,” Chi Yeyu said righteously.

“So you eat from my bowl?”

“Is that not allowed? For a clean-looking girl like you, I can choose to set aside my germophobia.”

“You”

Shi Shuxue watched in astonishment as Chi Yeyu basically took over her bowl and utensils, looking for all the world like a stray who hadn’t eaten in three days and was mooching a meal.

When Chi Yeyu finished, she pressed her hands together. “Thank you for the feast, Little Shuxue.”

“…”

Who exactly was hosting whom?

Shi Shuxue was speechless, a hint of confusion flickering in her clear dark eyes.

After dinner, Shi Shuxue began to worry about where Chi Yeyu would sleep. Her house had three bedrooms: the master bedroom was for her grandmother, she lived in the guest room opposite, and the remaining room which used to be Shi Xianyu’s was now occupied by the live-in caregiver.

So where would Chi Yeyu stay?

This area was remote; her own home was likely quite far away. It seemed improper to kick her out late at night, especially after she had helped them so much.

Let Chi Yeyu sleep in her bedroom? She could make do on the sofa in the living room, it didn’t really matter where she slept. But her bed was so small, would Chi Yeyu be comfortable? It felt almost better to let her sleep on the floor.

As she pondered a suitable solution, her delicate eyebrows knit together unconsciously, only to be smoothed out by two cool, damp fingers.

Eh?

She looked up to find Chi Yeyu watching her intently, the small mole at the corner of her eye shimmering under the light.

“What are you thinking about now? Is there something worth worrying about?”

Chi Yeyu swayed her head from side to side, looking like a bunch of crazy sunflowers blooming right in front of her.