I Give Half of My Life to You

That night, Lin Miao placed the plushie Yu Jingxuan had given her on her pillow. She worried that the plushie might get too cold, so she brought it under her quilt and slept hugging it.

The plushie reminded her of Yu Jingxuan, her heart accelerating. She had watched a movie with him earlier today, but she was already missing him.

After they confessed to each other, Lin Miao often missed him, wanted to hold his hand, and hug him.

Even though her heart would beat faster when she did so.

She felt her heartbeat accelerate just upon thoughts of it. Lin Miao placed a hand on top of her chest. So this is what love is.

Does Gege feel the same way? Would his heart also beat so fast when he thinks about me?

Lin Miao pulled out her phone and messaged Yu Jingxuan.

Yu Jingxuan quickly noticed the message.

“Gege, I suddenly miss you so much.”

The corners of his mouth curved upwards, replying: “I miss you too.”

He felt like his life suddenly sweetened. Lin Miao spoke her heart and never hid any emotions.

Seeing Gege’s reply, Lin Miao felt satisfied as well.

Humans are really strange. She would feel happy when Yu Jingxuan said that he missed her in the past, but it wasn’t the same feeling she had now.

She soon fell asleep while holding onto her phone.

Early next morning, when Lin Miao woke up, her younger brother was already in the kitchen preparing the glutinous rice dough essential to make tangyuan.

Lin Miao walked over to help. “The ones you make will break and leak the fillings, let me do it.” Lin Sen said.

Lin Miao had helped out with the tangyuan last year, but all of the ones she’d made had leaked.

Her household tradition was to eat brown sugar tangyuan on the morning of the New Year’s.

She didn’t quite know what implications of it was, either, probably meaning reunion.

(The “yuan” in tangyuan shares pronunciations with the Chinese character “圆”, which means “reunion” when coupled with the character “团” in front of it)

Her mother knew how to cook everything, but she couldn’t make her tangyuan not leak. It was a strange anomaly.

Every time, the brown sugar inside would leak out when they boiled it.

But her younger brother and father never had the same problem.

Her mother even joked about this, saying to Lin Miao that she needed to marry a person who could make tangyuan properly, or else what would they eat for the New Year’s breakfast?

She only remembered this when she woke up this morning, seeing her brother work away in the kitchen. Lin Miao hadn’t thought about the joke much last year, but now…

Thinking of how Yu Jingxuan looked… He seemed more hopeless than she was, so she must master this skill from her younger brother.

“Younger brother, I feel like mine look the same as yours.” Lin Miao said to her brother, looking down at the tangyuan in her hands.

But when it was time to boil the tangyuan, her brother’s would stay perfectly sealed while hers would break.

Lin Sen looked at her, saying, “It’s okay, we can’t eat that many anyway. I can manage by myself.”

“I should learn how to, though. I’d definitely need to make my own in the future.” Lin Miao said.

She made a few, copying her younger brother, placing the brown sugar in the middle and then covering it with the rice dough around it.

Lin Miao was still worried about hers leaking.

So she made another one extra meticulously, thinking that this one would definitely be fine.

Proud of her work, Lin Miao took a picture of the raw tangyuan she’d made and sent it to Yu Jingxuan.

“Gege, look at my big tangyuan!”

“Shuishui is so skilled.” Yu Jingxuan soon replied.

“Did Gege eat breakfast yet? Did you also have tangyuan?” Lin Miao asked.

Yu Jingxuan had already eaten breakfast. Since it was the New Year’s, his house was populated with visitors. He found it to be boring inside, so he headed outside to Lin Miao’s apartment.

Of course, he didn’t have tangyuan for breakfast as it wasn’t a part of his family traditions.

Lin Miao educated Yu Jingxuan about her family history, well, just about the brown sugar tangyuan tradition on New Year’s.

Then Yu Jingxuan sent a message: “I’m at the base of your apartment.”

He already had an urge to come when she sent him the message yesterday. It was incredible for him to hold himself back for a night.

His parents were greeting the guests, and his grandma went to a temple. He guessed that none of them really needed his company.

Lin Miao stood still for a brief moment, and then went to open the door.

Her younger brother and little Ling were putting the tangyuan into the pot, “Sis, we’re almost done making them, don’t stay out for long.”

“I’ll be back very shortly.” Lin Miao said and then opened the door.

She saw Yu Jingxuan outside with his New Year’s present.

Lin Miao suddenly realized that she’d been obsessing about Yu Jingxuan too much for the past few days and totally forgot about preparing her own presents.

Meanwhile, her brother spoke, “Sis, your tangyuan all broke.”

Lin Miao looked inside the pot. Her tangyuan had all exploded, spilling brown sugar all over the water.

Lin Miao: “… Broken ones don’t taste as good.”

Lin Sen scooped the tangyuan into separate bowls, well, only the ones that were intact.

Lin Miao felt it was wasteful to throw away the ones she made, “I’ll eat the ones I made.”

Then she passed a bowl to Yu Jingxuan, about to give him two perfect tangyuan.

He took hold of the bowl, “I’ll eat the ones you made.”

Lin Sen: “…” The scene is becoming more annoying by the minute.

Lin Miao split the broken tangyuan with Yu Jingxuan.

While they were eating, Lin Miao couldn’t resist looking at Yu Jingxuan. Then, she noticed that her brother and little Ling were focused elsewhere, so she whispered to him, “Gege, what do we do, we’d have to be stuck with this the rest of our lives.”

She really didn’t seem to have a talent in making tangyuan.

It was Yu Jingxuan’s first time eating tangyuan. Even though they were broken, he still found them to be pretty savoury.

Then he heard this sentence, feeling as if his heart fell into a can of sugar.

Lin Miao messaged him about how she had a family tradition of eating these tangyuan every New Year’s.

Lin Miao basically implied in that sentence that they were going to be together.

Yu Jingxuan felt as if he could see scenes of them living together in the future.

“I’ll learn.” Yu Jingxuan said, “I’ll make tangyuan for us.”

“What’s Shuishui saying?” Little Ling whispered to Lin Sen, who sat beside her.

Lin Sen: “…” No idea. He previously thought that his sister would distance herself from Yu Jingxuan once she had a boyfriend. He was so naive back then, forgetting that Lin Miao had an alternative way to do things.