◎ A fist was her response to him. ◎
Though she had urged Xie Zhiyan to hurry up and start cooking, Ning Yuxuan still went to the kitchen to help as she had mentioned earlier.
She originally wanted to observe his technique and learn a thing or two, thinking she might be able to fend for herself when cravings struck in the future.
The man's movements were practiced. With a few deft flips of his slender fingers, a shrimp in his hand was cleaned.
But when it was Ning Yuxuan's turn, even though she tried to mimic Xie Zhiyan's actions, she was nowhere near as smooth and effortless.
Either she'd accidentally lose her grip and let the shrimp slip from her hand, or she couldn't get the scissor placement right.
Ning Yuxuan didn't consider herself stupid. Her grades had always been good since childhood, she learned things quickly, and she even picked up video games faster than most.
She couldn't help but feel a bit discouraged now: Was her talent for cooking really that lacking?
When she broke the shrimp vein yet again, Ning Yuxuan grew somewhat annoyed. She looked up and happened to meet Xie Zhiyan's gaze.
A hint of a smile flickered in the man's eyes.
Before she could snap, Xie Zhiyan spoke up in time, "Don't rush. Take your time."
Ning Yuxuan: "..."
"I know," she said.
She knew it was unreasonable to get angry with him, but she still couldn't help grumbling inwardly: Didn't she know to take her time? Did she need him to say it?
Xie Zhiyan saw right through her thoughts and said gently, "The first time I tried cleaning shrimp, I was about the same as you are now, maybe even worse."
Ning Yuxuan's fingers paused slightly. "Really?"
Xie Zhiyan gave a slight nod. "Mm. Back then, it took me an hour and a half to clean a whole basin of shrimp in the kitchen."
She had to admit, his words did comfort her.
In her eyes, this man seemed to excel at everything effortlessly, as if there was nothing he wasn't good at.
Hearing him say this, she immediately felt her own "clumsiness" was justified.
Ning Yuxuan was a bit curious. "You said it was your first time cleaning shrimp. When was that?"
Xie Zhiyan's gaze grew slightly distant, as if briefly lost in memory.
After a moment, he answered, "About five years ago."
"Five years ago..." Ning Yuxuan did a quick mental calculation. "At that time, I should have... just started university not long before."
Xie Zhiyan: "Mm."
After casually chatting with him for a bit, Ning Yuxuan's mood had improved a lot, and her earlier frustration was soothed.
She lowered her head again to battle the shrimp in her hand, and this time she successfully pulled out the remaining vein.
Ning Yuxuan placed the cleaned shrimp on a clean plate and reached into the basin for another one.
As she snipped off the shrimp's antennae, she said offhandedly, "So why did you want to learn how to cook shrimp back then? Did your mom make you learn? I remember Auntie's shrimp dishes were delicious. That summer I stayed at your place, braised prawns were one of my favorite dishes she made."
As she spoke, she snipped off the sharp point of the shrimp's head.
Xie Zhiyan's amused voice came from beside her ear, but his answer didn't match her question. "If you call her that tomorrow when we meet, she'll definitely be unhappy."
The two families had agreed to have a dinner gathering tomorrow evening at Zheng Xinmei's place.
Hearing this, Ning Yuxuan was taken aback.
After Ning Fei and Ning Shiyue found out about the marriage certificate, Xie Zhiyan had also explained the whole story to his mother.
Ning Yuxuan wasn't present at the time but later heard from Xie Zhiyan about Zheng Xinmei's reaction.
It was probably similar to the Ning family's side: first shock, but it didn't take long for her to understand and accept it.
When they met again later, Zheng Xinmei specifically pulled Ning Yuxuan aside for a few words.
The gist was: Xie Zhiyan had acted improperly; he shouldn't have used marriage as a condition for agreeing to invest in the hotel back then.
Then she expressed that since the two were now in love, she, as Xie Zhiyan's mother, would support them wholeheartedly and wouldn't hold any grudge over the past secrecy.
During that meeting, Ning Yuxuan also changed her form of address for the first time.
However, the number of times she had met Zheng Xinmei in the capacity of a daughter-in-law was still limited.
Ning Yuxuan hadn't fully gotten used to the new title "Mom" yet.
In contrast, Xie Zhiyan called Ning Fei much more naturally.
"Got it," Ning Yuxuan glanced at Xie Zhiyan. "I'll be careful when we meet."
Distracted by the man, she also forgot the question she had originally asked him.
Ning Yuxuan went back to deveining the shrimp.
Whether it was luck or she had truly gotten the hang of it with practice, this time she smoothly pulled out the entire shrimp vein in one go.
The corners of Ning Yuxuan's lips lifted. "Looks like I'm not completely devoid of cooking talent," she muttered to herself.
After finishing that one, she picked up a new shrimp.
Xie Zhiyan watched her. "So eager? Don't you need a break?"
Ning Yuxuan had regained her confidence and was even eager to verify if she had truly found the knack.
"Not tired at all!" she said. "Just watch. I can handle all the rest in one go."
Xie Zhiyan chuckled. "Then I'll await the good news."
In the end, however, the man didn't let Ning Yuxuan clean all the remaining shrimp by herself.
He got another pair of scissors, and the two of them finished the rest together.
After the ingredients were prepped, the remaining work was left to Xie Zhiyan.
Knowing her own limits, Ning Yuxuan occasionally helped as his assistant, but most of the time she just watched from the side.
After standing for a while, her legs began to ache.
Xie Zhiyan noticed her awkward stance and asked if she wanted to go sit down and wait for him.
Ning Yuxuan didn't hesitate much and readily agreed.
Today's "lesson" had shown some initial results; she could now clean shrimp with relative proficiency.
As for the rest, she could learn it whenever she felt the urge in the future.
After playing on her phone on the sofa for a bit, the "feast" was finally served.
Ning Yuxuan first tried the braised prawns, as she had contributed to that dish.
The taste was as good as she had imagined.
The other dishes prepared by Xie Zhiyan also suited her palate perfectly.
Ning Yuxuan ate with great satisfaction, especially since Xie Zhiyan took on the task of peeling the shrimp, allowing her to focus on enjoying the food.
After lunch, she was added to a group chat named "Youyou's Gorgeous Bridesmaid Squad".
Tao You's wedding was set for two months later. Besides Ning Yuxuan, who had been confirmed as the maid of honor long ago, several other girls were invited to form the bridesmaid party.
Everyone had jobs now, and it was hard for working people to get time off. Schedules couldn't be finalized too far in advance, so the final lineup was only confirmed now.
Tao You sent several sets of pictures in the group, and everyone discussed the style of attire for the wedding.
Besides the bride, there were four other people in the group, and not everyone knew each other.
For example, Ning Yuxuan only knew two of them—mutual roommates she shared with Tao You. The other two she wasn't very familiar with, having only met them briefly at the previous engagement party.
But they were all girls in their twenties, so communication flowed easily.
As they chatted, the atmosphere in the group warmed up.
Ten minutes later, everyone found typing too inconvenient and simply started a group voice call.
Other than meetings, it had been a long time since Ning Yuxuan had chatted on voice call with so many girls her own age. The last time was probably back when she was still in school.
It felt like being back in her student days, everyone chatting and laughing, joking around with each other.
The conversation drifted from dresses to wedding decorations and ceremony planning, then to their own funny stories, and they even ended up making plans to go shopping together next weekend.
Perhaps because they were all Tao You's friends, they got along extraordinarily well.
Ning Yuxuan burst into laughter from time to time, drawing sidelong glances from the man beside her.
Xie Zhiyan was next to her, replying to work emails on his laptop.
They had agreed not to work on weekends, but since he had been "abandoned" by Ning Yuxuan first, he had no choice but to find something to do himself.
By the time Ning Yuxuan finished her enjoyable chat and finally hung up the call, she remembered Xie Zhiyan was there.
Ning Yuxuan blinked: "You're replying to emails?"
Xie Zhiyan gave an "mm-hmm," then said lightly, "Someone told me to keep my weekend schedule free, only to happily chat with others herself. So, I had no choice but to check my messages and reply to emails."
Ning Yuxuan was amused by his tone: "I'm done now. What would you like to do?"
Xie Zhiyan: "It's up to you."
So, Ning Yuxuan scrolled through her phone and found the new drama Ning Shiyue had just released.
Over the past two years, Ning Shiyue could be called a workaholic, spending most of his time immersed in film sets honing his acting skills.
His latest historical drama, "Tidal Decree," hasn't been scheduled for release yet, but a pre-produced urban romance drama was released yesterday.
During their video call last night, Ning Shiyue had specifically reminded her about it.
She had originally planned to watch it before bed last night, but an "unexpected incident" happened, and she never got around to it.
Ning Yuxuan cast the drama onto the TV and watched it with Xie Zhiyan.
The drama had released four episodes in one go last night, plus the two episodes updated today. They watched until past six in the evening.
Ning Yuxuan also gradually shifted from sitting upright at the beginning to leaning crookedly against Xie Zhiyan.
Although they were getting a bit tired from watching, the drama itself was quite good.
Both Ning Shiyue and the female lead in the drama were very attractive, and the pacing was tight. By the end of the sixth episode, the male and female leads had already kissed.
The corner of Ning Yuxuan's lips grew warm as Xie Zhiyan gave her a brief, light kiss as well.
She turned her head, and the man met her gaze as if nothing had happened.
Ning Yuxuan blinked her eyelashes, turned back, and used the remote to rewind the progress bar by half a minute.
Xie Zhiyan let out a soft, helpless laugh.
Ning Yuxuan looked at him, fully justified: "What are you laughing at? I need to properly evaluate this guy's kissing scene. It was your fault for distracting me just now, I didn't see it clearly."
It has to be said, watching her own younger brother act in a kissing scene felt a bit strange.
Especially since Ning Shiyue had been single his whole life and usually acted rather clueless about romance.
Yet in the drama, he and the female lead had great chemistry, and the kissing scene looked quite convincing.
Judging by the enthusiastic response in the bullet comments, the audience was really shipping the couple in the drama.
As for Ning Yuxuan herself, she was caught between being immersed in the story and being pulled out of it. On one hand, she thought Ning Shiyue and the female lead acted well; on the other hand, thinking of Ning Shiyue himself, she felt a bit like laughing.
After the sixth episode finished, Ning Yuxuan picked up her phone and sent Ning Shiyue a message: [The new drama is pretty good.]
Ning Shiyue had been waiting for this message. He replied quickly: [Of course it is, you don't have to tell me!]
Ning Yuxuan: [Especially the kissing scene, a big improvement compared to before. Have you been secretly dating behind my back?]
Ning Shiyue first sent a question mark, followed by a long string of ellipses.
A few seconds later, another message came: [You think I'm like you? Hiding things, making me and Mom find out about your marriage certificate ourselves.]
Ning Yuxuan: "..."
The day the marriage certificate was discovered, Ning Shiyue had accepted the fact, but that didn't mean he wouldn't bring it up later to tease her.
And Ning Yuxuan, knowing she was in the wrong, could only let him have his way at times like this.
Ning Yuxuan: [It seems your comprehension is very high. To act so well without ever having dated is truly commendable!]
She followed it with a "vigorous applause" meme.
Ning Shiyue scoffed at her praise: [You only praise me when you feel guilty!]
Ning Yuxuan: [Not enough? Should I add a few more?]
Ning Shiyue: [Better not. If you really want to praise me, you can save it to say to my face tomorrow night.]
...
In the evening, Ning Yuxuan and Xie Zhiyan ordered light meals from a nearby restaurant.
The lunch had been too lavish; they needed to take it easy. More rich food would be too much to handle.
After dinner, Ning Yuxuan dragged Xie Zhiyan to watch a movie.
"We agreed to relax properly this weekend," she said. "Tonight, you're not allowed to do anything else. We'll watch the movie and then go to sleep."
Xie Zhiyan agreed.
Ning Yuxuan looked at the man suspiciously: "You really agreed?"
Xie Zhiyan: "What's wrong?"
Ning Yuxuan murmured: "Agreeing so readily doesn't seem like your style."
Xie Zhiyan raised an eyebrow: "And what is my style?"
Ning Yuxuan answered without thinking: "Of course, taking every opportunity to have your way with me!"
Xie Zhiyan chuckled.
"Mm, you're right," the man nodded. "But I'm also afraid that if I lay a hand on you again tonight, you might just move back home because you can't take it."
Then, Xie Zhiyan gently tapped her forehead. "Besides, we're going back to the old house tomorrow night to see our families. I should let you get plenty of rest."
Ning Yuxuan scoffed lightly: "That last part is your real thought, isn't it? Afraid everyone will find out you're actually a wolf in sheep's clothing."
Xie Zhiyan remained unperturbed: "Then I'm only a wolf for you."
His response earned him a punch.
The choice of which movie to watch naturally fell to Ning Yuxuan.
She chose a post-apocalyptic zombie film.
Ning Yuxuan had always liked sci-fi and post-apocalyptic movies and didn't watch romance films too often.
There was another reason: she was afraid certain scenes in romance movies... might stir up a certain someone's "interest."
After what happened yesterday, twice, Ning Yuxuan now felt she had to be somewhat guarded against this man.
So, a little after eight in the evening, the sounds of zombie roars and panicked human screams filled the apartment's living room.
Not only was there no trace of fear on Ning Yuxuan's face, she even took the peach Xie Zhiyan handed her and ate it with great relish.
Just as the protagonist's axe buried itself in a zombie's head, Ning Yuxuan also took a big bite of her peach, juice overflowing.
She had loved this genre since middle school and was immune to such imagery.
Ning Shiyue, on the other hand, no matter how many times he had watched these with her, would still instinctively squint and stiffen up during such scenes.
Ning Yuxuan took a moment to glance at Xie Zhiyan and found that he seemed to have no particular reaction, just like her.
However, compared to others she had seen before, this movie's plot was mediocre, and it was especially drawn-out.
By the latter part of the film, Ning Yuxuan's eyelids grew heavier and heavier until she couldn't keep them open at all.
In her drowsy state, she felt herself being picked up.
Then, she was placed on the soft bed.
Just before consciousness slipped away completely, a kiss was gently pressed to her forehead.
"Goodnight, Xuanyuan."
