Moonlight falls into my arms

Jiang Yuci met her gaze, "Are you x...?"

The drivers behind honked their horns impatiently, and the red light turned green.

Jiang Yuci shut his mouth and didn't say anything more after he started driving.

Ruan Li hugged Yu Ci and hummed softly, "You must be jealous of how good my relationship with Yu Ci is. Do you have designs on my kitten?"

"..."

Jiang Yuci parked the car in the underground parking garage.

Ruan Li asked, "Do I have to go out too?"

Jiang Yuci had already opened the door. "No need, wait in the car."

Then the car door slammed shut.

Ruan Li frowned; she sensed that Jiang Yuci seemed a little unhappy.

Is it because she cried today that he's a little annoyed?

Ruan Li slowly lowered her head, found the straw and bit it, her eyes vacant.

She didn't know how much longer she could stay at home in Jiangyu. She had originally thought that going back to school would allow her to find her teachers and then inquire about her parents...

Ruan Li waited in the car for a while, then heard the car start. The back seat was opened, and Jiang Yuci put two bags of unknown contents on them before returning to the driver's seat.

Ruan Li turned her head to look and vaguely recognized it from the plastic bag. Her eyes lit up. "You're going to make me bone broth?"

Jiang Yuci didn't look at her and said calmly, "I need to replenish my nutrition. I have surgery tomorrow."

Ruan Li made a face, "I want to drink too, whatever."

Jiang Yuci glanced at Ruan Li again.

She seems to be feeling better now.

When she got home, Jiang Yuci took the bones and stew she had bought and went into the kitchen.

Normally, Ruan Li would follow him around, asking if he needed her help, and then trick Jiang Yuci into giving her his phone to play games.

Today, however, he acted out of character. After entering the house, he put down the cat he was holding and hurriedly ran into his room.

Jiang Yuci looked over, only to see Ruan Li slam the door shut.

Both sides were busy with their own things. Jiang Yuci first rinsed the pork bones in water, then sprinkled them with salt and soaked them. Then she started preparing the corn and yams she had bought.

While I was peeling the yams, I heard a faint meow from the kitchen doorway.

Jiang Yuci glanced at it.

Ruan Li's private property wagged its tail, wanting to eat the bone scraps he had thrown into the trash can.

Jiang Yuci lifted her foot to stop it, and the little ball of fluff raised its head and meowed, "Meow..."

It wagged its tail and went around to the other side to rummage through the trash can.

Jiang Yu called out, "Ruan Li."

Ruan Li huddled in her room, flipping through her diary.

She wanted to understand Jiang Yuci; she couldn't stay at someone's house and keep making them angry.

Ruan Li read a few pages and noticed that when Jiang Yuci saw his first love talking and getting close to other boys, his pen strokes would become very heavy, sometimes even piercing the paper.

Aside from jealousy, she hadn't found anything else that made Jiang Yuci angry; his emotions remained very stable.

So why today?

Suddenly, she heard someone calling her from outside. Ruan Li didn't know what was wrong with her. Feeling guilty, she quickly closed her diary and threw it on the bed.

She went to open the door after two knocks.

"W-what's wrong? I was just in my room... reading a novel, yes, the one you found last time."

Jiang Yuci didn't dwell on why she lied to him again; he simply lifted his foot.

Ruan Li looked down and saw fish bones swirling around his feet.

Jiang Yuci had just tied up the trash bag and thrown it outside when the cat, probably treating him like an enemy, kept circling around his feet and even biting his shoes in anger.

Ruan Li quickly picked up the fishbone, muttering, "I told you he's the last person you should mess with, why are you causing trouble for your boss?"

Ruan Li slapped the fishbone on the bottom as a punishment, but to her surprise, the fishbone bared its teeth and barked at Jiang Yuci.

When Ruan Li looked up at Jiang Yuci, she noticed that Jiang Yuci was startled by the fishbone's cry. "Were you scared?"

Jiang Yuci glanced at Ruan Li with his eyes lowered, his gaze seemingly saying—how could he possibly be frightened by a harmless kitten?

Ruan Li carried the cat back to its bed, closed the window and the door, and said, "Let me peel the garlic for you."

Ruan Li followed Jiang Yu and left the kitchen.

"It's all peeled," he replied, the image of the fishbone baring its teeth flashing in his mind again.

It's a bit like when she puffs out her cheeks in anger.

“Then, I’ll wash the ginger.” Ruan Li went over to get the ginger to wash.

Jiang Yuci took back the words that were on the tip of his tongue: "It's already washed."

While he was cutting the yam into sections with a kitchen knife, Ruan Li washed the ginger and then shredded it.

Jiang Yuci didn't say that just patting the ginger twice would be enough.

A strange thought popped into my head.

It seems that cooking together as a couple is quite nice.

"Oh, what were you going to say in the car today? You didn't say anything."

While slicing ginger, Ruan Li asked a question, trying to start a conversation so the atmosphere wouldn't be too quiet.

I asked, "Are you...?"

After a long silence, Ruan Li raised her eyes slightly. "Is it something?"

"Are you putting on an act in front of me again?"

With a thud, the cleaver was placed on the cutting board.

Ruan Li stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "I know it's hard to make you believe that someone can suddenly travel to ten years in the future, but I really, really didn't lie to you, and I wasn't acting in front of you. Why do you always think I'm acting in front of you? What would I be doing this for? If it were for money, why would I go out and work part-time to earn money?"

"You really didn't mean to..." Jiang Yuci paused for a moment, then said, "Come out with me next week."

"Where to go?"

"To meet my mother."

"Huh?" Ruan Li's brain was slow to process: "Could it be that you're almost thirty and still don't have a girlfriend, so you're asking me to pretend to be your girlfriend?"

Jiang Yuci glanced at her, wondering what the girl was thinking.

"I'll take you out for a free meal."

Ruan Li: "I don't know your mother."

Jiang Yuci gave Ruan Li a strange look. Ruan Li's performance was so natural that there was not a trace of acting.

Is it because he rarely watches TV dramas? Is that why he couldn't tell she was acting?

With everything prepared, Jiang Yuci first put the pork bones, ginger, and garlic into the pot. Once the water was bubbling, she poured in the marinated pork bones, covered the pot, and washed her hands.

The two left the kitchen.

"It will take about two and a half hours to cook," Jiang Yuci said, glancing at the time.

"Then I'll have some snacks first." Ruan Li was about to go to the dining table in the living room to get a bag of snacks and some food.

Jiang Yuci stopped her for a moment and took out a small bowl of steamed eggs from the steamer next to her. "You can eat this first."

"I just ate this morning." Ruan Li was dumbfounded.

Two meals are better.

Ruan Li said with a hint of helplessness, "I'm really not that malnourished."

Jiang Yu did not reply to her.

I went to the living room, sat down, and turned on the TV with the remote control.

Ruan Li sat down next to him with the bowl of steamed eggs with red dates in it. "This is the first time I've ever seen you watch TV."

Previously, it was Ruan Li who was watching it. She even suspected that Jiang Yuci bought the TV just for decoration, because he never gave the large LCD TV a second glance.

Jiang Yu, for the first time ever, pulled up a TV series to watch.

Yes, I need to learn how to see through acting.