Shine on Me

Does your house know you're slandering it like this...

After learning that my house only had one guest room, which was already reserved for Jiang Rui, Lin Yusen's house was fortunate enough to escape the crisis of leaking...

For the small housewarming gathering on Saturday, I didn’t invite many people. Aside from Lin Yusen, it was just Lao Da, Xiao Feng, and Jiang Rui. In the end, Lao Da had something come up and couldn’t make it, so only four of us ended up having dinner.

With so few people, everyone unanimously voted to cook ourselves, with each person making one or two dishes. Lin Yusen and Jiang Rui had things to do in the afternoon and would arrive later, while Xiao Feng was relatively free and came early to help me prepare.

Then, after making one dish of smashed cucumbers, she happily ran off.

Me: "..."

Never have I seen someone cut corners so blatantly.

But she must have felt a little guilty because, after wandering around the house for a bit, she came back to the kitchen doorway holding snacks, as if standing there as punishment. "Watermelon, what dishes are you planning to make?"

"Sweet and sour spare ribs and stir-fried greens with gluten puffs—a Wuxi specialty."

"That’s amazing! There’s actually meat!"

"Well, what else? Should I just boil some greens? I don’t know who was the first to suggest we cook ourselves," I teased her.

"Hehe, practice proved it’s a bit challenging," Xiao Feng cleverly changed the subject. "By the way, didn’t you invite Lao Da, Si Liang, and the others?"

"I invited Lao Da, but she couldn’t make it—didn’t I tell you? I didn’t invite Rongrong or Si Liang."

Her question reminded me that I’d promised to treat them to a meal before. A promise is a promise, so I paused what I was doing and thought for a moment. "How about I treat everyone to lunch outside tomorrow? Since you’re free now, help me arrange it. But don’t mention to Lao Da or anyone else that I’m hosting at home today."

I also wanted to check in on Rongrong and see how she was doing.

Though I’d barely ever stepped into a kitchen before, following a recipe didn’t seem too hard—just a bit slow and messy. By the time I finished my masterpiece, Jiang Rui finally arrived, and I immediately pushed him into the kitchen.

Jiang Rui had strong objections to this. "At least let me take a look at my room first."

"Hurry up and get to work. You can check out the room when Lin Yusen gets here."

"What?" He looked disappointed. "Do I not even get the right to a solo tour now?"

Me: "...Stop inventing these weird rights."

After working for over an hour, I was ready for a break, but Jiang Rui wouldn’t let me go, dragging me in to assist him.

He seemed determined to challenge himself, starting with the high-difficulty salted egg yolk chicken wings. Since it involved deep-frying, the whole process was nerve-wracking. I stood beside him, handing him one thing after another while dodging splattering oil, making it even more chaotic than when I cooked alone.

Just as we were almost done, Lin Yusen called. I freed one hand to put him on speaker. His steady voice came through: "I’m downstairs. Can you come get me?"

Getting more and more high-maintenance, asking me to come down when I’m clearly busy. "You can use the elevator passcode to come up. First, enter my apartment number, then the passcode. The passcode is... guess. It’s four digits."

I didn’t hang up, and neither did Lin Yusen, so I heard the sound of buttons being pressed, followed by a mechanical female voice: "Incorrect passcode. Please try again."

"...You don’t even remember my birthday?" I immediately accused him.

Lin Yusen sounded even more aggrieved than me: "I thought you wanted me to guess something special.""So what password did you enter?"

"My birthday."

"..."

Jiang Rui, who was turning off the stove nearby, burst out laughing.

Speechless, I wiped my hands, hung up the phone, and went to open the door. Jiang Rui had just finished plating the chicken wings and followed behind me, commenting enthusiastically, "This guy seems pretty interesting."

He trailed after me step by step. "What should I do? I'm a bit nervous meeting him for the first time. What if he doesn't pass my assessment?"

I snapped irritably, "Step aside. Who gave you assessment privileges anyway?"

"Fine, no privileges then. No need to be so harsh," he muttered. "But sis, using your birthday as the password is so lazy. Doesn't that mean anyone who knows your birthday can get in?"

"Who here even knows me?"

"True."

Xiao Feng noticed the commotion and eagerly ran over from the living room. "What's going on? Are we forming a welcome party?"

Thus, when Lin Yusen finally arrived and stepped out of the elevator, he was greeted by the sight of the door wide open and three people staring at him intently.

He slowed his steps and asked me, "What's this? Can't your front door take a password? I could've opened it myself—this time I wouldn't have entered my own birthday."

Everyone burst into laughter, and the atmosphere instantly relaxed.

I introduced them one by one. "Let me introduce you. This is Lin Yusen, my boyfriend. Xiao Feng, my college classmate—you two met at Lao Da's wedding banquet. And this is my idiot younger brother, Jiang Rui. He's currently studying at F University."

"I've heard about the difficulty of Jiangsu's college entrance exams. Getting into F University is like one in ten thousand—how could he be an idiot?"

Lin Yusen had always been smooth with words, and this single remark made Jiang Rui puff up with pride. "Haha, just luck, just luck."

After the introductions, I finally noticed the two large plastic bags Lin Yusen was holding, which bore the name of a restaurant. My eyes lit up. "What's this? You brought takeout?"

"I passed by a famous Cantonese restaurant and packed a few of their signature dishes."

I knew Lin Yusen always knew how to handle things! Now, even if the dishes we made turned out bad, we had a backup plan!

"Let me take those." I eagerly grabbed one of the bags and peeked inside—there were three large boxes in one bag, so six boxes in total! Immediately abandoning all principles, I said, "The elevator password was set by Aunt Huang through the property management. But given all this delicious food, changing it to your birthday wouldn't be out of the question."

Jiang Rui rolled his eyes skyward. "Sis, didn't you say we'd tour the apartment together once Lin-ge arrived? Hurry up."

So, after Jiang Rui had spent ages fussing in the kitchen, he finally got to see his room.

"Not bad, not bad," he said, visibly relieved.

I grinned proudly. "Pretty good, right? This was the result of multiple discussions with the designer."

Jiang Rui looked traumatized. "After seeing the rest of the place, I was ready to accept becoming a pastel-loving, pink warrior."

"The rest isn't that pink, is it?" I asked Lin Yusen hesitantly. "Is it?"

Lin Yusen chose his words carefully. "I only noticed the trash can is pink, but it's very pretty."

"Dusty pink. Dusty pink doesn't count as pink."

"Oh."

The two men nodded in unison, duly enlightened.

Lin Yusen was far more self-aware than Jiang Rui. After the apartment tour, he headed straight for the kitchen."Can you actually cook?" I trailed behind him, a bit worried. After all, both Xiaofeng and Jiang Rui seemed rather clumsy in the kitchen.

"Of course. I used to perform surgeries—cooking is nothing," Lin Yusen said with full confidence.

Me: "..."

How should I put this...

Lin Yusen did look much more composed and skilled in the kitchen compared to Jiang Rui. His knife work was smooth and even pleasing to the eye. But if all he was making were scrambled eggs with tomatoes and pineapple shrimp, there was really no need to bring up his credentials as a surgeon...

After a chaotic afternoon of taking turns in the kitchen, we finally sat down for dinner at six on the dot. The dishes we made ourselves were laid out alongside the takeout Lin Yusen had brought, filling the table to the brim.

Xiaofeng gripped her chopsticks, ready to pounce, while Jiang Rui sighed at the spread. "Hard to believe we spent so much time just to make such simple dishes."

"Simple? Not at all," I said, picking up a piece of the sweet and sour pork ribs I had made. After tasting it, I was quite pleased. "Try these ribs—they're legit."

Everyone followed suit and took a bite. Immediately, Xiaofeng and Jiang Rui’s faces twisted into indescribable expressions.

What was that about? Did they get a bad piece? Skeptical, I took another bite. Nope, still delicious.

Jiang Rui grimaced. "Sis, did you dump half a jar of sugar in here?"

"No," I answered seriously. "Just four or five spoonfuls."

Jiang Rui pushed the ribs toward me. "You eat them. We Nanjing folks can’t handle this level of sweetness. Wuxi cuisine is terrifying."

Xiaofeng nodded in agreement. "My hometown prefers savory flavors too. Nanjing’s fine, but coming to Shanghai, I already thought the food was sweet. But Wuxi? That’s next-level sweet—borderline insane."

She then glanced at Lin Yusen, who was already on his second piece, with a look of awe. "Is your boyfriend suffering for love?"

I immediately turned to Lin Yusen.

He finished his second rib unhurriedly and gave me high praise. "Of course not. I genuinely like it."

I beamed with pride.

See? Lin Yusen gets it! What kind of dish doesn’t have sugar? Even stir-fried greens need a pinch to bring out the flavor. Though I never cooked before, I instinctively knew to add it—call it sugar in the blood!

Jiang Rui silently shifted his gaze to the two dishes Lin Yusen had made. "Please tell me you didn’t add four or five spoonfuls of sugar to these too?"

"Of course not," Lin Yusen denied firmly. "I followed the recipe exactly."

Jiang Rui’s chopsticks hovered hopefully.

Lin Yusen finished his sentence. "Though when I searched for recipes, I specifically looked up ‘sweet dishes.’"

Jiang Rui dropped his chopsticks in despair, dramatically covering his eyes with his hands. "Now I get why you brought takeout, Lin. That wasn’t just takeout—it was your last shred of mercy!"

Everyone burst into laughter. I raised my glass. "Alright, alright, next time I’ll go easy on the sugar. Cheers? To my housewarming!"

Jiang Rui lifted his glass too. "And to me freeloading at your housewarming!"

Amid laughter, four glasses clinked together above the table.

Thanks to the takeout Lin Yusen had brought—saving Xiaofeng and Jiang Rui from sugar overload—everyone enjoyed the meal to the fullest.Xiaofeng had a curfew at her school, so she left early after dinner. Jiang Rui, on the other hand, decided to stay over and even declared he’d come to stay every weekend from now on. Of course, I was more than happy to have him. As for Lin Yusen, he had to leave when the time came, but as the host, I naturally had to see him off—after which he would walk me back home.

So, despite living in adjacent neighborhoods just across the street, it took me over an hour to finally return after seeing him off.

The moment I stepped through the door, I saw Jiang Rui sitting in the living room, clearly waiting for me, and I immediately felt a little guilty.

Sure enough, Jiang Rui asked, "Why did it take so long?"

"Uh... avoiding the security cameras."

"Oh."

Just an "oh"? He wasn’t going to ask why I was avoiding the cameras?

"What’s up with you?" I curiously leaned in closer to him.

Jiang Rui looked at me with a strange expression. "Sis, you guys forgot to take the trash down when you left, so I went to throw it out."

"Oh." Was he really criticizing me for that? "Thanks for the hard work?"

"And then, downstairs... I saw Brother Zhuang."