After returning home, Jiang Zixuan set his suitcase down in the living room.

He sat there for a while. Perhaps out of boredom, he scratched his head, stood up, and walked into the empty bedroom.

The empty bedroom was quite a bit larger than the one he lived in. Strictly speaking, this room was actually the master bedroom. The landlord couple had previously lived here, while their son stayed in the guest room.

Jiang Zixuan’s reason for choosing the guest room was actually very simple. For one thing, the guest room had been designed for their son, so its décor leaned toward a clean, comfortable style that suited Jiang Zixuan’s tastes. For another—and more importantly—the room was small, which made it quick and easy to clean.

After moving in, he hadn’t entered the master bedroom many times, and naturally hadn’t cleaned it either. When the landlord’s family moved out, they had tidied it up, but after a long time dust inevitably accumulated. Standing at the doorway, Jiang Zixuan felt that the room looked much dirtier and messier than it had on the first day.

Of course, it might just have been psychological.

Since he had nothing else to do, he picked up a broom and dustpan and gave the entire room a simple cleaning. It didn’t take long before the trash can in the room was half full.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Jiang Zixuan finally checked that the air conditioner in the room was still working properly. Letting out a sigh of relief, he returned to the living room.

Shu Yuxin still hadn’t come back, and there were no messages from her on his phone.

He sat in the living room for a while longer, then couldn’t help but get up and head into the kitchen.

The refrigerator contained only the various drinks he had bought earlier and a bit of fruit. After rummaging around for a bit, Jiang Zixuan finally found some dried noodles tucked behind a half-cut watermelon. He had bought the noodles when he first moved in, for nights when he felt hungry but didn’t want to go out—boiling a bowl of noodles made a decent late-night snack.

That’s right—Jiang Zixuan could actually cook. He just didn’t know many dishes. Still, at least for now, his cooking skills were far better than Shu Yuxin’s.

“Heh. Worst case, I can always boil two bowls of noodles to get by,” Jiang Zixuan nodded to himself as he closed the fridge door. “Dark cuisine… I’ve never really tried that before.”

Just thinking about it made him feel a little excited.

After waiting for quite some time, Shu Yuxin finally returned from grocery shopping. When Jiang Zixuan went to open the door, he saw the girl standing there with two large bags of ingredients, her smile bright and radiant, like a spring breeze.

“Ready to die, Master?” the girl greeted him.

Jiang Zixuan smiled and ushered her inside. “If you can really turn edible food into something inedible, that’s a talent in itself.”

The kitchen was close to the front door. After entering, Shu Yuxin put the bags down in the kitchen and clapped her hands together. “You won’t know until you try. I haven’t cooked in ages.”

Since Jiang Zixuan had used the kitchen a few times before, it didn’t need cleaning and could be used right away. Shu Yuxin looked around, washed her hands, pulled a large kitchen knife from the cabinet, waved it around a bit, and began taking the ingredients out of the bags.

Standing behind her, Jiang Zixuan finally saw what she had bought—

Potatoes. Different kinds of potatoes. Not the same potatoes. A lot of them. A whole lot.

“…Wait,” Jiang Zixuan finally couldn’t hold back. “Did you only buy potatoes?”

“Of course not!” Shu Yuxin shot him a glance and, as proof, took out garlic and chilies. “How could you cook with just potatoes?”

Jiang Zixuan twitched the corner of his mouth. “I mean, are you planning to make nothing but sliced potatoes?”

Shu Yuxin stared at him for a moment, then defiantly pulled out a box of chicken breast. “Of course not!”

Jiang Zixuan: “…”

With all the ingredients laid out and everything ready, it was finally time to start cooking. Seeing Jiang Zixuan still standing there in silence, Shu Yuxin felt a bit uneasy. After some thought, she simply put down the knife, turned around, and pushed him out of the kitchen.

“Don’t stand here—you’re affecting my performance! I’ll call you when it’s ready!”

After being pushed a couple of times, Jiang Zixuan obediently left the kitchen. It wasn’t that he minded Shu Yuxin only buying things she liked to eat. It was just that, for the first time, he was experiencing the power of picky eating so directly, and somehow it struck him as funny.

In the kitchen, after making sure Jiang Zixuan wasn’t secretly watching her, Shu Yuxin took out her phone and placed it beside the cutting board.

On the screen was an article: How to Make Delicious Sliced Potatoes.

Although she kept joking about “dark cuisine,” deep down the heroine of our story still very much hoped to whip up a tasty dish on her first try and show off in front of her best friend.

“Sliced potatoes… feels like it should be pretty simple…” Shu Yuxin thought. She had already read the article three or four times before coming home. Now, after giving it one last look, she started peeling and slicing the potatoes.

“Yuxin,” Jiang Zixuan’s voice suddenly came from the living room. “Did you buy rice? Don’t forget to cook it!”

Shu Yuxin’s hands froze.

She had forgotten.

No wonder she had felt like something was missing in the supermarket. She had even gone back and wandered around several times, but still couldn’t remember what it was.

“Hah… haha… Zixuan, I think I… forgot to buy it.”

Jiang Zixuan couldn’t help covering his face.

It looked like dinner was really doomed tonight.

Should he consider letting Shu Yuxin do something else instead? Like cleaning or something—surely that would be easier than cooking.

“Zixuan, um… should I go back down and buy it?” Shu Yuxin’s tentative voice drifted over.

Jiang Zixuan sighed quietly. “No need. There’s still some dried noodles in the fridge—should be enough for two bowls. We’ll just make do.”

“Great! I know how to cook noodles!” Shu Yuxin instantly perked up, even adding, “I’ll make noodles for you to eat!”

Jiang Zixuan’s head started to ache.

In the past, if one of his buddies had said something like that, he definitely would’ve shot back with an insult. Even if it wasn’t particularly vicious, it would’ve been enough to choke the other person. But now… if he retorted, wouldn’t it seem like he was ungrateful for his good fortune?

So he said nothing.

That line from Shu Yuxin had only been meant as a joke anyway. When she didn’t hear her best friend’s usual comeback, she was a little surprised, but didn’t think much of it.

She hadn’t cooked in a long time, but that didn’t stop her from enjoying the act of cooking itself. Ever since she was young, Shu Yuxin had loved hands-on activities—like making a spear out of books and wood, or taking a small shovel to the wilderness to “reclaim” a little plot of land of her own. She delighted in that immersive feeling of working with her hands, so much so that her family once suspected she had ADHD.

So the task she was doing now easily awakened that long-dormant interest, allowing her to fully immerse herself in it once again.