Later in the evening.
Lin Yuan was at his desk taking out his English textbook. He turned to Ning Qing and bowed slightly.
"Thank you for taking care of my sister yesterday."
"Ah, you don't need to be so formal. It's nothing."
Ning Qing glanced at him, "By the way, how was your weekly test results?"
They had been focused on mainly revising second year English, but she still placed some emphasis on the weekly tests.
Lin Yuan didn't speak.
Seeing his serious face, Ning Qing thought he did poorly.
"Actually, you're just starting out, it's okay if you didn't do so well this time. These things take time."
"No, I did well. I've improved." Lin Yuan took out the paper wedged between his text book and handed it to her.
"Oh wow, Lin Yuan! You got 75%, that's a major improvement!" Ning Qing was surprised. She had seen some of his other marks and it seemed he usually only barely passed.
"It's not a big deal. Most of it was memorisation. I still lost marks on the reading comprehension."
"Well, comprehension questions take lots of experience to get better, you'll get there." Ning Qing consoled him,"Is that why you looked so serious? Don't be too hard on yourself!"
"No, I was pranking you."
"..."
"My sister said you're good at knowing people's thoughts…"
Ning Qing was exasperated, what kind of prank is that? It's so anticlimactic. Also…
"Sister Yuerong is exaggerating, people are not so easy to read."
"Oh."
Lin Yuan knew from experience that was true. But he still thought she was very adept.
A few minutes later.
Ning Qing was explaining the mistakes Lin Yuan had made in the weekly test.
"You should've picked the fourth option for this, because even though the other answers also seem to make sense, this one is the simplest. You can't overthink when it comes to comprehension questions -"
"-Ah."
Lin Yuan was about to grab his pen when he accidentally knocked it off next to the table.
They both shuffled back from their chairs and Lin Yuan got off and squatted down to look for it. His desk was close to a bookshelf so the pen was proving difficult to find in the small space between.
Seeing him bent down next to the edge of the desk, Ning Qing instinctively covered the corner of the table with her palm. And sure enough the next moment his soft hair bumped against the back of her palm.
"Be careful."
"Yeah."
Lin Yuan finally found his pen and stood up. But seeing his slightly resentful look, Ning Qing was surprised.
"What's wrong?"
"...Nothing."
…
…
…
There were still ten minutes till 8pm. Lin Yuan was working with Ning Qing on analysing a past essay.
Suddenly, he felt something soft brush against his feet. It was quick so he couldn't quite distinguish it.
He glanced at Ning Qing's face.
She was leaning slightly towards him as she talked about the text. At this distance he could clearly smell her perfume. He was even close enough to notice that she wasn't wearing makeup, he had thought before that it was just really light.
Ning Qing's expression betrayed nothing, so he decided to ignore it and focus on paying attention to her words.
Then again, he felt something soft touch his legs and then move away. Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow. What is she doing?
Lin Yuan wanted to say something, but finally he just bit his tongue.
A few moments later, Ning Qing's voice suddenly faltered. She quickly began speaking again but she moved back from him a little.
Lin Yuan was confused. Why is she the one moving back?
Then a few seconds later Ning Qing stopped speaking altogether. The room was silent. Lin Yuan looked at her complex gaze and somehow couldn't help but feel anxious. He didn't even do anything but he felt like a deer in front of headlights.
"Lin Yuan, this is not-"
"-Hey! Have you guys seen Baozi?!" Lin Yuerong stood at the entrance to his room and poked her head in.
The sudden interjection alleviated the tension in the room. Lin Yuan stood up gratefully and turned to his sister, "Baozi? Weren't you looking after him?"
"I just went to the kitchen for thirty seconds and then when I came back he wasn't in the living room. I've been looking for him downstairs for the last 5 minutes!" Lin Yuerong complained as she walked into the room, "Huh, Ning Qing, what's wrong with your face? You're bright red, are you feeling sick?"
Lin Yuan turned back and sure enough, Ning Qing's fair face was flushed and she had a bad expression on her face.
"The cat…it's here." Ning Qing pointed to her feet.
Sure enough, the white cat was curled up beside the desk, covered by Ning Qing's chair. Seeing everyone looking at him, Baozi lifted his head and meowed, then curled back up again.
"I didn't even notice him coming in." Lin Yuan thought this fat cat was surprisingly nimble and quiet. Then he caught Ning Qing glancing at him.
"Ah!"
He realised something.
This fat cat must have been the culprit!
Compared to a few seconds ago he suddenly felt fresh all throughout his body, as if the rain had stopped and the clouds had cleared. His mood was so good he started chuckling to himself. Looking at Ning Qing's embarrassed expression, Lin Yuan was happy. Dammit! You deserve it for making me so nervous!
"..." Ning Qing was even more embarrassed.
Lin Yuerong looked at her brother laughing to himself like a fool, then at her red junior sister and then at the fat cat. She was full of questions.
"What's going on? Why are you laughing?"
"It's nothing." Lin Yuan finally stopped laughing. He tried to suppress his smile and turned to Ning Qing, "Are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?"
Seeing Lin Yuan's smug expression and fake concern, Ning Qing's face turned dark. She bent down and picked up the fat cat who was now startled awake and brought it to her lap. Stroking Boazi's fur, her expression returned to calm, "It's fine."
Lin Yuerong could feel something was strange but she didn't think too much about it. She glanced at the time and said excitedly, "Hey Lin Yuan it's almost eight, how about you guys finish early? I still want to talk to Ning Qing!"
Lin Yuan was fine with it, but he reminded his sister that Ning Qing had to walk home.
"Don't worry about it, I'll drive her back later." Then Lin Yuerong added, "How about you have dinner here, Qingqing? You had us over yesterday, we have to pay it back!"
Ning Qing nodded.
She texted her grandmother and then went downstairs with the siblings, still holding Baozi easily in her arms with a vice-like grip.
Sitting around the coffee table looking at the simple meal, Lin Yuan was embarrassed, "Sorry, it's just leftovers."
But Ning Qing didn't mind, "I didn't expect that you could cook."
"Only a few things." Lin Yuan was modest.
"I made the dumplings!" Lin Yuerong asked for credit. "We'll treat you to a real meal later, my mom is coming back this week!"
Lin Yuan nodded at his sister's idea. After Lin Yuan's mother left early last week, she called him. Because the company was very busy this time of year, she could only come back home once a week but it was much better than before. Actually, it was still awkward for him, but he wanted to try.
Later.
"Ahh…" Lin Yuerong sighed as she put down her chopsticks and leaned back. "This is my last day to relax like this."
"You said you were staying in from work." Lin Yuan and Ning Qing had finished eating earlier and now they were drinking some barley tea.
"Hehehe." Lin Yuerong was embarrassed. She was just boasting before, her senior was already frantically calling her ordering her to come back to work immediately.
"What about Baozi?" Lin Yuan was worried. Lin Yuan glanced at the fat cat who was lying on the couch.
"Maybe he can stay home by himself, cats are pretty self-sufficient right?" Lin Yuerong suggested.
"No, that won't work. He'll just try to follow me to school."
At least right now the fat cat was very attached to him. Lin Yuan felt that it would take a while to go back to how it was before.
At this time, Ning Qing spoke, "Maybe you can leave it at our house?"
Seeing as everyone was silent, she continued, "We are already familiar with it so it would also feel more comfortable, Xiaoyao has school but grandma is there all the time, so you don't have to worry about it being alone."
Hearing this Lin Yuerong was all on board, "Qingqing you're a genius! Let's just do that right?" She turned to Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan was hesitant, "It would be a bother…"
"It's not a bother, I'm sure Xiaoyao would be very happy."
Seeing that he seemed to be the only one unsure, Lin Yuan finally agreed. They decided that he would just bring the cat to Ning Qing's house to drop off in the morning and then pick him up again in the evening. It would also be good exercise, he thought. He would just have to wake a bit earlier.