I Start with a Mysterious Island-Chapter 113: How Am I Supposed to Bring This Up?
"DING DONG..."
"Coming!"
"CLICK."
Standing outside, Lin Li rang Su Yue’s doorbell. A moment later, she opened the door.
Having returned home from work, Su Yue had changed into a set of loose, light-blue loungewear.
Although the outfit was meant to be loose, Su Yue’s distinct curves filled it out completely. It didn’t look baggy at all; on the contrary, it seemed stretched taut against her body.
Su Yue had tied her long, smooth, black hair into a ponytail, which, combined with her delicate face, gave her a somewhat playful look.
"Lin Li, you’re finally here! Come on in... Huh? What’s that you’re carrying?" After opening the door, Su Yue welcomed Lin Li inside. Seeing the bag in his hand, she asked.
"I had beef hot pot earlier and the beef balls at the restaurant were delicious, so I got some to go. Since you happened to be making hot pot too, I brought some over for you to try," Lin Li explained as he walked into the apartment.
"Oh, really? In that case, I’ll have to give them a good try later," Su Yue said with a smile.
Afterward, Lin Li followed Su Yue toward the dining room. Sizing her up from behind, her distinct curves were simply perfect... Ahem. ’I shouldn’t be staring, or I’m going to embarrass myself.’
Lin Li averted his gaze and sat down, a sudden thought occurring to him.
"Su Yue, where’s your mom?"
"She went back to her hometown."
"Oh!" Lin Li nodded, inwardly sighing in relief.
Su Yue handed Lin Li a bowl and chopsticks. Seeing the look of relief on his face, she found it a bit amusing. ’Is my mom really that scary?’ she thought. ’To make Lin Li look so relieved.’
"Lin Li, my mom... she didn’t say anything weird to you yesterday, did she?"
"Huh?" Lin Li took the bowl and chopsticks from Su Yue. He had just picked them up, ready to grab some of the cold-dressed seaweed salad she had prepared.
Hearing her question, he froze for a second, then said to her in confusion, "Weird things? No! Your mom was actually very enthusiastic and wanted to invite me in to sit for a while!"
"It’s good she didn’t say anything weird, then." Su Yue nodded to herself. Then she opened the bag of beef balls Lin Li had brought and used a spoon to scoop several into the hot pot.
The hot pot Su Yue prepared today was a split pot, with a broth that was half spicy and half mild.
Lin Li ate the cold side dishes Su Yue had prepared, watching as she carefully placed the ingredients from the table into the pot one by one. Her earnest expression had the air of a good wife and loving mother, causing him to stare blankly for a moment.
"These vegetables just need a quick dip and they’ll be ready to eat. And these soy products are already cooked." Su Yue turned to Lin Li and saw him staring blankly at her. A charming smile involuntarily graced the corners of her lips.
"Oh." Snapping out of it, Lin Li nodded. Before he could even move to pick up food from the pot, Su Yue had already taken the strainer ladle and piled a generous amount of food into his bowl.
"Thanks!" Lin Li said, looking at the small mountain of food Su Yue had piled in his bowl, and then began to dig in.
Seeing how heartily Lin Li was eating, Su Yue served herself some as well. After eating a slice of eggplant, she said to him.
"This eggplant is from the batch you brought over yesterday. It’s really good. The other vegetables are great too. Which market did you buy them from?"
Lin Li and Su Yue lived in residential complexes that were very close to each other, only about a ten-minute walk apart.
There were two markets near their complexes, one large and one small. The larger one had a better variety of green vegetables, while the smaller one specialized in seafood.
’These vegetables were all grown by me on the Mysterious Small Island...’ Lin Li thought to himself.
Then, he said nonchalantly to Su Yue, "I bought them at the bigger market... But the seller doesn’t have a stall; they grow them on their own land in the suburbs.
The owner occasionally brings a cartful of vegetables to the market to sell. I just happened to run into them yesterday, so I bought a bit extra."
"Is that so! The quality of these vegetables is excellent. I was going to ask you where their stall is so I could buy from them in the future!" Su Yue said with a laugh.
"I added the owner on WeChat. He’ll let me know in advance when he’s coming to the city to sell... When that happens, I can just grab an extra portion for you."
Lin Li was surprisingly good at spinning tales. The lie came to him instantly, and he delivered it as if it were the honest truth.
"Alright, I’ll have to trouble you then." Su Yue smiled and nodded, not at all suspecting that Lin Li had made the whole story up.
"I’ve freeloaded so many meals from you, it’s no trouble at all to bring you some vegetables since it’s on the way..." Lin Li said. "The beef balls seem to be cooked. Quick, try one."
Su Yue used the strainer ladle to fish out a beef ball and placed it in her bowl. She then parted her rosy lips, blew on the piping hot meatball, and took a small bite.
"It really is delicious."
"Right? I told you these beef balls were good. My cooking skills might not be great, but my sense of taste is still pretty decent."
"Are your cooking skills *just* not great?" Su Yue said, her eyes crinkling with a smile.
"Er... Well, I can’t compare to you, of course, but compared to other people, I still have a slight edge," Lin Li said, lacking confidence.
Seeing how much Lin Li liked the beef balls, Su Yue thought for a moment and said to him, "I’ll try making these beef balls myself sometime. When I do, would you like to come and be my taste-tester?"
Hearing Su Yue ask him to come taste-test her cooking was such a wonderful offer that Lin Li had no reason to refuse. He immediately nodded in agreement.
The two of them ate and chatted. Lin Li asked Su Yue how her part-time job at her friend’s flower shop was going and whether it was busy.
"It’s pretty quiet in the morning. It mainly gets busy in the afternoon, especially toward evening, when more people come in to buy flowers," Su Yue said after a moment of thought.
The flower shop, which hadn’t been open for long, had business that was neither good nor bad—just enough to cover daily operating costs.
That was until Su Yue arrived. When she started working there part-time, the flower shop’s business began to pick up, and with time, it became more and more prosperous.
As the shop owner, Wang Ling often marveled at the booming business.
’Once summer break is over and Su Yue goes back to work at her school, I’ll be thanking my lucky stars if the shop’s revenue is even a third of what it is now.’
"Summer break is already half over. In the past month or so, have you been out looking for a job?" Su Yue asked, scooping two more beef balls into Lin Li’s bowl.
"..." Lin Li was just about to pick up a beef ball with his chopsticks when he heard her question. ’Sigh, here it comes,’ he thought. ’Su Yue’s going to ask me about finding a job again.’
Seeing Lin Li’s silence, Su Yue already knew the answer. She couldn’t help but grumble inwardly, ’Mom kept pestering me about Lin Li yesterday, and I didn’t even know what to tell her. I can’t just tell Mom that Lin Li is still unemployed after graduating and that he’s aspiring to live off his savings and rent collection!’
Lin Li glanced at Su Yue and saw a complicated expression on her pretty face, which made him a little confused.
’Huh? Why does Su Yue have such a complicated look on her face? Did she run into some kind of trouble?’
...
