Where the Moon Sets, My Heart Finds Peace - Chapter 5

He Zian couldn’t cook to save her life. Pampered by her mother, Liu Fang, since childhood, she had grown up without ever lifting a finger in the kitchen. To her, anyone who could actually cook possessed an automatic, undeniable aura.

Because of this, Jiang Jingyue’s image in her mind shot up by another notch.

After grabbing her food, Zian found a seat with her roommates. She poked at her rice while staring intently at her phone. After a moment of hesitation, she carefully typed out a reply: “Professor Jiang, you made this yourself?”

The reply came back almost instantly…just three words, cool and faintly proud: “Who else would?”

Zian’s eyes darted around as inspiration struck. Seizing the opportunity, she decided to push her luck. “Professor Jiang, that sweet and sour pork looks absolutely delicious.”

To her disappointment, the older woman simply replied: “It’s not bad. Perfectly balanced.”

Zian was speechless. “……”

So, was the point of sending the photo just to torment her?

Gritting her teeth, Zian threw caution and her dignity to the wind. She sent another message, attaching a puppy-dog whimpering emoji at the end: “Professor Jiang, I want a taste too.”

Looking at the text and the emoji on her screen, Jiang Jingyue couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. Suddenly, she found that teasing this kid was actually quite entertaining.

Her fingers paused over the screen before tapping out a line: “Come over to the faculty apartments for dinner tomorrow night. I’ll cook for you.”

The moment Zian saw the message, she nearly leaped out of her seat. Swept up in a wave of excitement, her face lit up as she began gesturing wildly.

Liu Dongwang continued to eat with his usual stoic calm, but Li Xin glanced over at her, utterly baffled. “What is wrong with you? Did you just win the lottery?”

Zian cleared her throat, trying and failing to suppress the grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Way better than winning the lottery. You wouldn’t understand.”

A second later, her phone buzzed again. Jiang Jingyue had sent over the exact address and apartment number.

Clutching her phone close, Zian felt her mind drift completely toward tomorrow night.

The next afternoon, Jiang Jingyue grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to the local market near the university.

She wasn’t entirely sure what Zian liked to eat, but judging by their hotpot dinner the other night, the girl seemed to prefer meat. With that in mind, she picked out some fresh pork ribs, crayfish, and beef, and grabbed a bit of fruit on her way out.

Meanwhile, Zian only managed to finish half of her lunch.

Li Xin watched her in disbelief. Usually, one serving wasn’t even enough to fill Zian up, yet today she was leaving half of it behind.

Zian offered only a vague excuse, mentioning she was heading out to eat with a friend later.

Since she had no classes during the final period of the afternoon, Zian snuck out early to buy a gift. After all, it was her first time having dinner at Jiang Jingyue’s place, and she couldn’t neglect proper etiquette. It was funny she had been so bold over text, but now that she was actually about to show up at the door, a sudden wave of nerves hit her.

At exactly six in the evening, the doorbell chimed at Jiang Jingyue’s apartment.

When Jiang Jingyue opened the door, she found Zian standing there clutching a bouquet of pristine white lilies. Her cheeks were faintly flushed, and she spoke with a touch of shyness. “Professor Jiang, these are for you.”

Jiang Jingyue reached out to take the flowers, her voice gentle. “Thank you.”

Turning around, she placed a pair of slippers by Zian’s feet, set the bouquet down on the small coffee table in the living room, and looked back. “Have a seat. I just have two more dishes left, they’ll be ready in a minute.”

Zian hurried after her. “Professor Jiang, let me help you.”

She never entered the kitchen at home, but standing by and doing nothing while waiting to be fed at Jiang Jingyue’s place felt entirely wrong.

Jiang Jingyue didn’t object.

The two of them squeezed into the compact kitchen one managing the stove, the other helping out. Zian only knew how to wash the vegetables, pluck the stems, and pass ingredients, so she stood quietly to the side.

Jiang Jingyue was dressed casually in a silk robe, her long hair swept up and loosely secured with a clip at the back of her head, exposing a slender, elegant curve of her neck.

Zian’s gaze drifted toward her, completely out of her control.

The loose fabric did nothing to hide the innate, cool elegance radiating from her. Her collar was slightly open, offering a fleeting glimpse of her delicate collarbones and the smooth, beautiful line of her shoulders. As the hem of the robe shifted, it revealed a sliver of fair, smooth thigh not deliberate, not overt, but possessed of a lazy, detached sensuality. She was effortlessly beautiful, commanding a quiet yet powerful presence.

In the privacy of her mind, Zian sighed: Professor Jiang is truly breathtaking.

Because the kitchen was small, they stood incredibly close, though both instinctively maintained a fragile, subtle distance.

Once a dish was finished, Zian reached out to grab a plate. In the motion, the back of her hand brushed lightly against Jiang Jingyue’s arm.

It was a momentary touch. But Zian’s heart skipped a beat, and a fierce blush crept from the tips of her ears all the way down to her neck.

Before long, dinner was served. The table was filled with an array of vibrant, aromatic dishes: spicy crayfish, sweet and sour pork, stir-fried beef, a light plate of bitter melon, and a pot of rich, milky-white fish soup.

Zian’s eyes widened at the sight of the feast. She showered Jiang Jingyue with endless praise.

Handing a bowl of rice across the table, Jiang Jingyue offered a gentle invite: “Sit down. Eat up.”

Looking at the incredible meal and then at the woman sitting across from her, Zian felt her appetite surge. She was never one to play coy; she tasted each dish, praising every single one, eating until her lips glistened, a look of pure contentment on her face.

Jiang Jingyue sat opposite her, quietly watching her eat, finding her own mood lifting in response.

Since arriving in L City a few days ago, she hadn’t spent this much continuous time with anyone other than Zian. Most of her days were spent entirely in her own company.

Neither of them were the type to talk much during meals, so the dinner passed in a comfortable, quiet rhythm.

The plates were nearly licked clean, leaving behind only a little fish soup. Jiang Jingyue had eaten very little; the vast majority had gone straight into Zian’s stomach.

When they finished, they cleared the dishes together with an easy, unspoken harmony.

Once everything was put away, Jiang Jingyue washed some strawberries and green grapes, placing them on the coffee table. She then found a vase and began carefully trimming the white lilies to arrange them.

The warm, golden light of the lamp washed over them. The air was thick with the faint blend of floral scent and the lingering aroma of home-cooked food quiet, peaceful, and exceptionally tender.

Ambiguity, quietly spreading in the silence.

Curled up on the sofa, Zian’s eyes kept tracing Jiang Jingyue’s movements.

The older woman leaned over to adjust the vase, her silhouette slender and upright, every movement carrying an unspoken grace. For a fleeting second, Zian felt a strange sense of domestic stability, as if they were a long-married couple living out an ordinary, peaceful evening.

Having just finished dinner, Zian felt too embarrassed to immediately get up and leave but truth be told, she simply didn’t want to go. Every extra second she could steal here was a luxury.

Satisfied with the position of the vase, Jiang Jingyue turned and walked over, sitting down right beside her.

The sofa wasn’t large to begin with, barely accommodating the two of them. The proximity was so close that Zian could practically feel the warmth radiating from her body.

The moment she sat down, a soft, subtle fragrance drifted into Zian’s senses gentle and unassuming, yet entirely enough to make her lose her train of thought.

The interactions over the past few days had left Zian with a growing urge to draw closer to Jiang Jingyue, to know everything about her.

She spoke up first, her voice barely a murmur. “Professor Jiang, your cooking is incredible. Did you use to cook a lot before?”

“Mm.” Jiang Jingyue casually opened the book resting on her lap, her fingertips resting lightly against the page. “I studied abroad in Country D a few years ago. I couldn’t get used to the food there, so I learned to cook for myself.”

Zian’s eyes drifted to her lowered eyelids, where long eyelashes cast delicate, faint shadows.

She instinctively leaned a fraction closer to Jiang Jingyue, her knee almost brushing against the soft fabric of the silk robe. Her heart rate was silently losing its rhythm.

“Professor Jiang—” Zian squeezed the throw pillow in her arms, intentionally slowing her speech, a hint of a test hiding in her eyes. “You spent so many years abroad… you must have had a lot of people pursuing you, right?”

Jiang Jingyue’s fingers paused against the page. She lifted her gaze to look at her.

Her eyes were calm, yet they held a trace of an unreadable, playful scrutiny that locked directly onto Zian’s. “Why the sudden curiosity?”

“Just wondering,” Zian replied smoothly, meeting her gaze without flinching. “Someone as beautiful and talented in the kitchen as you must be incredibly popular.”

Jiang Jingyue let out a soft chuckle. It was a light sound, like a feather brushing against the heart, leaving a circle of warmth in the quiet air.

Instead of giving a straight answer, she tossed the question right back. “Then what kind of person do you think I should like?”

That single sentence sent Zian’s heart rate into overdrive. She could feel Jiang Jingyue’s gaze anchored firmly to her face, searching, yet laced with a subtle indulgence.

“Probably…” Zian swallowed hard, her voice as quiet as a breath. “Someone who will quietly sit and eat with you, and share an ordinary, peaceful life.”

Jiang Jingyue’s gaze drifted down to the faint blush on the tips of Zian’s ears, her eyes darkening imperceptibly. Tapping her fingers lightly against the back of the sofa, she replied softly, “Sounds wonderful. But as of right now… there is no such person.”

Confirming that the other woman was single, Zian secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Gathering her courage, she immediately shifted the topic.

“Professor Jiang, you’ve just arrived in L City. Are you settling in okay?” She looked up, her eyes filled with an unhidden, earnest sincerity. “Even though I’m your student, I feel like you’re not that much older than me. Can we… be friends? If you ever need anything in the future, you can always count on me.”

She had been holding those words back the entire evening.

From their time together at the temple, she had sensed a lingering note of loneliness and isolation hanging around the older woman. She wanted to step closer, to bring warmth, to pull this person out of her quiet, cold solitude.

The shift in topic caught Jiang Jingyue slightly off guard.

She straightened her posture, her gaze locked tightly onto Zian’s face, as if weighing the transparent emotions hiding in her student’s eyes. Those eyes were too bright, too sincere so intense that they brought a wave of heat to her chest.

“Friends?” she echoed. She picked up her water glass from the table, her fingers slowly tracing the cool glass surface as her gaze drifted toward the window.

Before coming to L City, Du Qiaoxi had teased her, telling her to bring an “impressionable young thing” back with her. At the time, she had simply laughed it off, never giving it a second thought.

Yet right now, the person sitting within arm’s reach on the sofa possessed an earnestness so raw and uncovered that it felt like a tiny ember landing softly on her heart, melting away her defenses.

Jiang Jingyue pulled her gaze back, looking at Zian once more. A rare tenderness, one she hadn’t even realized was forming, softened her eyes.

Her voice was slow and smooth, carrying a hint of a smile. “I’ve just arrived in L City, and the place is entirely unfamiliar to me. It’s true that I don’t have many acquaintances here.”

She paused, watching Zian’s tense, expectant expression, deliberately slowing her words.

“Being friends… works for me.”

“Awesome!” Zian’s eyes instantly ignited with light, her mood suddenly feeling as bright and clear as a sun-drenched afternoon.

“Then I’ll call you Professor Jiang in class. But in private… should I call you Jie-jie? Wait, that feels a bit strange. Friends don’t really call each other big sister.”

She agonized over it for a split second before quickly making up her mind. “I’ll just call you by your name, Jiang Jingyue. And you don’t have to call me ‘Student He’ anymore, it sounds way too distant. Just call me Zian.”

Watching her bounce between internal debate and fierce seriousness so vibrant, alive, and endearing…Jiang Jingyue couldn’t help but smile again.

It felt like ever since she started spending time with Zian, the number of times she smiled had increased dramatically.

The girl before her was bright, cheerful, and delicate-featured, with a pair of eyes that seemed to hold the stars themselves as they stared directly into her own. It was a gaze that was slowly, piece by piece, softening the hardest, coldest corners of her heart.

Jiang Jingyue didn’t argue. She simply let her silence be her consent.

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