7:30 pm, Ning Qing's house.
Lin Yuan was packing up his books from the dining table. Ning Qing was in the kitchen with her grandmother helping her prepare dinner.
At this time, Ning Yao stuck head out of the hallway and looked into the living room. Seeing that her sister was gone, she happily rushed to the couch where the fat cat was watching the tv.
Even though Ning Qing had turned the sound off so as not to distract them when studying, Baozi was still very engaged. However, Ning Yao came too late as the fat cat was already tired by then.
When Ning Yao tried to approach the fat cat, it jumped nimbly off the couch and pranced toward the dining table. The little girl walked behind it unabated like a follower.
Lin Yuan was watching all of this. He felt bad for Ning Yao so he quickly picked up the cat and sat back down on the chair.
"You can pet him." He held the fat cat in his arms and smoothed out its fur, "Baozi, be still."
Ning Yao was excited. Usually the only time the fat cat allowed her to touch it was when her sister held it.
She gently ran her fingers over the fluffy white fur. She was very delicate in her touch and only rubbed the cat a few times.
"Were you studying?" Lin Yuan asked.
Ning Yao nodded. Actually, even though she was only in the first year of middle school, as the best school in the county, students had a lot of homework. Especially maths…Ning Yao scrunched her forehead. Her head was hurting thinking of how many exercises she still had left to do. Even petting the fat cat no longer felt so good.
"Huh?" Ning Yao suddenly looked at Lin Yuan.
"What's wrong?"
Ning Yao didn't say anything, instead she rushed back to her room. After a while the little girl returned holding a pile of books, which she placed onto the table.
Lin Yuan looked at the familiar textbook, and then glanced up at the silent girl, "Do you want help?"
"My sister said you were really good at maths Brother Lin Yuan." Ning Yao nodded with an admiring look on her face.
"Well…I'm not too bad."
Lin Yuan tried to stop his mouth from turning up.
Later when Ning Qing returned to the living room to check up on Lin Yuan, she saw the two figures sitting at the dining table concentrating on something.
"What are you guys doing?" Ning Qing asked curiously.
"Maths."
Lin Yuan lifted his head for a second and then went back to writing.
Ning Qing walked to the dining table and looked over Lin Yuan's shoulder. Even though she was in the liberal arts stream during highschool she was still a good student, and anyway it was only middle school maths. Ning Qing thought she could easily follow along, however when she looked at the dense paper her face was full of question marks.
She glanced at her younger sister who was sitting obediently at the table with her eyes glazed over.
"Uh, Lin Yuan, why did you solve it like that?" She pointed to a question, "I don't think you need to write so much."
"This is more rigorous." Lin Yuan spoke absentmindedly.
Seeing as he was still writing, Ning Yao was helpless. This is only middle school maths, why do you look so excited?
"Xiaoyao can't understand what you're doing." Ning Qing patted his shoulder.
"Oh." Lin Yuan stopped writing and looked at the little girl to his left who was in a daze, and then he looked down at the dense exercise book, "Sorry."
Ning Qing just shook her head with a smile and sat down next to him, "Why don't I help Xiaoyao."
She poked her little sister who was not paying attention and began to slowly go through the questions one by one. Meanwhile, Lin Yuan watched the two of them carefully.
"I prefer Brother Lin Yuan to be my teacher." Xiaoyao complained after a while.
Hearing this Lin Yuan was a little proud, but then Ning Qing quickly retorted, "Don't be lazy, you can't let him do all your homework for you."
Lin Yuan glanced at the young girl's guilty expression and his face turned dark.
Twenty minutes later Ning Qing was still patiently helping Xiaoyao go through the questions. Seeing as they were almost done, Lin Yuan felt restless, he felt like he hadn't helped at all. He couldn't help but stare at Ning Qing.
It only took a few moments for Ning Qing to notice something strange. She looked up to see the young man beside her staring up at her with a hopeful look. Seeing his large watery eyes and upturned eyebrows, she suddenly had the urge to pinch his cheeks and pet his head.
"..."
Ning Qing shook away strange thoughts and turned to her younger sister, "Xiaoyao, your weekly test is based on these questions, right?"
The young girl nodded.
"Then how about you ask Lin Yuan for some tips?" Ning Qing motioned to the boy.
Lin Yuan was very excited that he could help. So with the assistance of Ning Qing at the side he carefully explained to the middle schooler potential questions she would get and formulated some simple solutions.
It was only when dinner was ready that they finally stopped.
Around 10 pm, his mother and sister came to pick him up from Ning Qing's house. At that point Grandma Ning had already fallen asleep so his mother didn't stay long. She chatted with Ning Qing for a while, promising to treat her to a meal later, and then they all left.
…
…
…
Late at night.
Lin Yuan suddenly woke up to find Baozi resting on his chest.
Listening to the quiet purring, he sighed and carefully placed the sleeping cat onto the bed and stood up.
He was a little thirsty.
When he went down the hallway on the second floor he happened to walk past his mother's room but he was surprised to see that the door was open and the room was empty.
Did she leave? Lin Yuan was somewhat disappointed.
He went downstairs and saw that the kitchen light was on but it was not his mother there.
Looking at his sister who was rummaging through the fridge with a sleepy look in her eyes he shook his head, "What are you doing?"
"Huh?!" Lin Yuerong turned around in fright. Seeing it was just Lin Yuan, she sighed in relief, "Oh it's just you, Lin Yuan. I thought it was mom! You scared me!"
Lin Yuan went to the kettle and poured some water for himself, "Mom…she isn't in her room."
"She's sleeping in my room." Lin Yuerong said as she took out some leftover fried dough sticks. They were a little hard after being in the fridge for so long but she still ate them happily.
"Oh."
"By the way, mom was disappointed she couldn't have dinner with you guys. Actually, the company is very busy right now, especially since it's nearing the end of the year."
"Oh."
Lin Yuerong stopped chewing on the dry dough sticks and glanced at Lin Yuan who was sipping his water with an expressionless face. She hesitated for a while and then finally said, "You know mom really wanted to come…it's just that…it's hard for her to be in this house."
Lin Yuan was dazed hearing that.
After a long time.
"Oh."