Yu Jingxuan’s mother felt that… Her son was a completely different person.
He was very introverted since his childhood. He didn’t laugh or smile much as a result of their negligence.
She later switched jobs to spend more time with her son, but he didn’t change and was still introverted and collected, not like a child at all.
Everyone else’s sons were whining about going outside to play while he was reading or watching Lin Miao’s competitions.
Everyone else’s sons were dating prematurely behind their parents’ backs, confessing to their crush, chasing girls with their bros while her son was preparing university papers or watching Lin Miao’s competitions.
She always felt that every step he took was too conservative, not like a teenager at all.
Now, everything had changed. He would wake up before sunrise everyday, hurriedly going out of the house to go to the library with his little girlfriend and then returning to walk the dogs. He smiled more, too. It was like his teenage years had arrived late. When she made jokes about him, he wouldn’t look at her as if she was mentally ill, either.
Love was a great thing.
Yu Jingxuan’s mother really wanted to go shopping with Lin Miao, but looking at her son acting like an old tree that made it to spring, she decided not to interfere in their relationship.
Lin Miao’s exams were getting closer and closer. Apart from Lin Miao, the most nervous person was Yu Jingxuan.
So, her parents prepared an extra portion of lunch. They had let Lin Miao eat at the cafeteria before as it was a new experience for her, but now they were worried that she might not be getting enough nutrients.
So Lin Miao packed her lunch from home.
They napped in the library during noon. They had a spot in the corner of the second floor they would always go to. They always sat there, and over time, it basically became reserved for them.
And then… Later, practice booklets appeared on the desk.
Every one of Lin Miao’s fans knew that she was shy. They were also likely to have been brainwashed by Lin Miao’s longtime fans, thinking that one doesn’t need interactions with their idol, and that her mere existence gave people positive energy and drove them forwards.
Lin Miao had quite a fanbase in the university, but few came up for signatures or pictures.
However, as the college entrance exams were coming up, they wanted to give a little present to their idol to show their intentions.
Lin Miao also felt heartwarmed when she saw all these notebooks and practice books.
She felt that she wouldn’t deserve all of this if she didn’t try hard enough.
So she worked even harder to be worthy of her fans.
Yu Jingxuan naturally accompanied her. He had gotten used to other people liking Lin Miao, it was fine as long as he was the one beside her. It didn’t disturb Lin Miao, either, so he organized all the workbooks for Lin Miao before giving them to her.
Even though they weren’t as legendary as Yu Jingxuan, everyone who made it to this university was a genius, so all of their notes were pretty valuable.
In the final days before the test, due to her constant studying and reviewing, she didn’t feel stressed and even wished for it to come quicker, likely because she was confident in her knowledge.
Before the exam, Lin Miao’s parents and Yu Jingxuan’s mother and grandma all came to watch Lin Miao enter the exam building.
Even though it had been so many years since she had met Yu Jingxuan’s family, Lin Miao’s mother still didn’t forget Yu Jingxuan’s celebrity mother, and his grandma. The things that happened back then were very memorable.
However, it wasn’t as awkward as she’d imagined. Despite not having seen each other for so long, they still chatted like old friends.
Yu Jingxuan’s mother was always very curious towards Lin Miao’s mother. She had talked to her when she disguised as a university student when she followed Yu Jingxuan to Lin Miao’s competition, but she didn’t know she was talking to her.
Under the accompaniment of the two families, Lin Miao finished all her subjects.
They went out together for a meal after Lin Miao finished her last subject. Yu Jingxuan walked in the back, holding Lin Miao’s hand.
Lin Miao was relieved, whispering to Yu Jingxuan, “If nothing unexpected happens, I think I did pretty well.”
Yu Jingxuan knew. He checked all her mock test papers, so he naturally knew how good she was.
The next day, Lin Miao woke up late in her house for the first time ever, only waking up at 8:30am.
It felt as if her world had emptied, as she was half done her goal. What will be next?
Her parents had both gone to work, and her brother was also at school. She was home alone, and when she came out of her room, she saw a note left by her mother: “There’s breakfast in the kitchen.”
Lin Miao went to the kitchen. Her mother made buns herself. Homemade ones always had thinner skin and more filling. Her mother even added water at the bottom of the steaming cage, so all Lin Miao needed to do was turning on the stove.
Lin Miao didn’t like to eat things like noodles, but she loved her mother’s buns.
She turned on the gas and went to wash up. Soon, she heard her phone ring.
She ran to check and saw it was a call from Yu Jingxuan.
He was coming to her again.
So, there were two people waiting for the buns to steam. However, her mother only prepared enough for one person. They would need to make more.
Lin Miao went through the kitchen and found extra filling her mother had already prepared. However, there was no extra dough left.
It was no big deal, though, as she had seen her mother do this countless times. She found the flour and washed her hands with Yu Jingxuan.
Seeing him also wash his hands, it surprised her that he was going to help her.
“Gege… Do you know how to make dough?”
“I think so.” Yu Jingxuan said with uncertainty.
Lin Miao was always blindly confident in Yu Jingxuan and praised him, so she defaulted his answer as an affirmation.
She poured the flour into a bowl, but since she was bad at estimating the water, she asked him to do it. Yu Jingxuan didn’t seem intimidated at all, immediately filling the bowl with water.
Lin Miao froze, then realized that her eyes weren’t lying to her. He had filled the bowl with water.
Looking at her expression, he said, “Shuishui, can you repeat your question?”
Lin Miao quickly reacted, thinking about which question he was referring to and repeating, “Gege, do you know how to make dough?”
“No.” Yu Jingxuan said confidently.
Lin Miao: “…” Gege’s even good at failing.
Luckily, they just added too much water, and they just needed more flour to save the bowl from going to waste.
So, Lin Miao poured more flour and began kneading dough.
Now, the amount of water and flour were fine.
The two were satisfied with the results and moved on to making the buns.
Lin Miao had only made tangyuan before, but she thought that buns shouldn’t be too far off from dumplings.
Since they both involved putting the filling in and then masking it into a ball with dough.
Then, she noticed that Yu Jingxuan’s movements seemed more experienced than her own.
“Gege, you know how to make buns.” Lin Miao said in surprise.
He was just making buns as if they were tangyuan. He only knew how to make tangyuan, too.
One year, when Lin Miao’s parents left to visit their village, Lin Miao had told Yu Jingxuan that she always ate tangyuan on the Chinese New Year, but she could never get them to not leak, so he’d tried learning to make tangyuan through video tutorials.
The first round of buns was already steamed when they finished making their buns, so they quickly replaced those with the buns they made.
They ate the buns Lin Miao’s mother made as they excitedly waited for their own to steam.
Thinking that they could cook for each other, and might even have some talent for cooking.
They quickly finished their buns, so they wandered around Lin Miao’s apartment until the ones they made were steamed thoroughly.
The two happily tasted theirs.
Even though these were the fruits of their labor, it couldn’t hide the fact that they made the skin too thick. However, it wasn’t by much, and overall, it tasted pretty nice.
When Lin Miao’s mother came back, she saw two… buns in the kitchen?
They were round as if they were tangyuan. Calling them buns could only be an assumption.
She soon realized that Lin Miao had a new goal: learning to cook.
In the past, Lin Miao had always been busy competing and training, so her mother never bothered her with cooking meals. The last time she’d cooked was when she was a little kid back in the village.
Lin Miao sighed, “I don’t seem to like to eat outside.”
She wasn’t allowed in the past and could only look at everyone else enjoying their meals, but now that she had tried it, she felt that the food at home was better.
It was also the perfect time for her to learn, as she had nothing to do but wait for her exam scores.
Her mother was a bit busy, so she could only show Lin Miao things while she was cooking for the family. Lin Miao practiced mostly with Yu Jingxuan.
He thought that they didn’t need to bother learning themselves as they could just hire a cook.
However, it also felt nicer to only have each other in their house. They didn’t need outsiders who weren’t related by blood, otherwise home wouldn’t even seem like home.