Then Li Yun noticed something was off.
Hm?
That was not Russian.
“You speak Chinese too?” He was genuinely surprised.
He had not expected Yelena to know Chinese at her age.
China and Russia might have had friendly relations for years, but she was still young—and not only could she speak it, she was fluent.
Yelena lifted her chin proudly and immediately began introducing her accomplishments.
Chinese was not the only foreign language she knew.
She also spoke German and English.
Together with her native Russian, that made four languages in total.
“Well, well~ So there’s a little genius in the family.
Nice.
Got any dreams yet?
If not, one day I might drag you into our office as a clerk.
Then the paperwork wouldn’t be such a pain in the ass.”
“Hmph~ Then you’d better pay me triple!
And I’m not part of your family yet.
You haven’t even married my sister~!”
Yelena’s smug little tsundere act made Li Yun shake his head despite himself.
A young girl was still a young girl—easy to make proud, but also sensitive and often lonely.
He could easily picture her spending long stretches alone at home, studying, cooking, and doing housework while Natasha traveled from place to place on missions.
Li Yun understood that kind of life because he had lived it himself.
His biological parents had died early, and Andrey was hardly a master of household chores.
Come to think of it, Li Yun’s own background was slightly complicated as well.
He had been adopted by a foreigner, then later joined his own country’s military.
He was genuinely grateful the security vetting had cleared him, because he had absolutely no desire to serve in the American armed forces.
The American military at this point barely felt like a proper regular force to him.
Sometimes it seemed no different from a mercenary outfit with lousy discipline…
Well, that was not entirely fair.
The infamous international mercenary unit Red Lizard was the real deal.
At that moment Natasha stirred.
Her expression looked faintly uncomfortable.
Li Yun wondered whether she was having a nightmare.
Was she still not used to sleeping beside him?
“All right, she’s about to wake up~ I need to go upstairs and finish my schoolwork.
You take good care of her.”
Yelena quietly returned upstairs.
Sure enough, Natasha woke not long after she left. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Li Yun had to admit that a younger sister knew her own sibling best.
He still had a long way to go.
“How long was I asleep?” Natasha asked while rubbing her eyes.
Li Yun told her it had not been long—probably less than ten minutes.
Natasha thought for a moment, then suggested that she cook dinner tonight.
On the plane, Li Yun had proposed simply taking the sisters to a good restaurant.
Li Yun laughed in surprise and said that sounded even better.
He had never actually eaten a meal cooked by Natasha during all their time together.
Getting the chance tonight would be interesting.
Natasha smiled happily when he agreed.
The sight left Li Yun momentarily dazed.
He was twenty-two now, but even in his previous life he had been young—only twenty-one when he transmigrated.
He had arrived in this world at sixteen.
Now a gorgeous woman had suddenly become this close to him, and for once he was finding it genuinely hard to handle.
Seeing color rise into Li Yun’s face, Natasha naturally guessed what was going through his head.
Hmph~ He had to be thinking about how beautiful she was and how great her figure looked.
Men’s little thoughts were far too easy to read.
She had no intention of dwelling on that now.
Natasha stood with a smile and checked the refrigerator to see what ingredients they had.
If there was not enough food, they would need to buy more immediately.
She knew better than anyone how much Li Yun could eat.
For once, Li Yun could truly relax.
He had been comfortable during the months of training before, but not carefree.
Back then, he had been deeply concerned about Dr.
Rex’s research and constantly wondering what disaster it might cause.
The result had been exactly as he feared: one enormous catastrophe.
There was no telling how long the aftershocks would take to settle.
[Sooner or later, I’ll return to that city.
There will definitely be another battle.
New enemies too.]
The thought flashed through his mind before he forced it into a distant corner.
It was the reality he hated most and felt most helpless to change.
In the real world, Li Yun always charged forward without hesitation when action was required, but in his own head he despised the bastards who kept turning everything into a mess.
Take Zeta City.
Li Yun was certain someone on the inside had betrayed CT intelligence.
Otherwise, how could Rex’s laboratory—so well hidden that even Li Yun had never known its location—have been found so easily and then stormed by Irina with a heavy force?
Maybe back then, even with only a handgun, he should have tried putting a bullet straight through Irina’s head. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Li Yun did not indulge in regret often.
This was one of those rare times.
Watching Natasha work in the kitchen, Li Yun smiled, stood, and went in to help.
Natasha greeted him with a playful elbow, and the two began cooking together.
“Russian food.
Can you make it?”
Natasha teased him with a smile.
Li Yun replied that, in his eyes, Russian food and American food were not all that different.
If he had to describe them, both had a certain rough, primitive boldness.
Cooking them was straightforward enough.
In plain language: a lot of dishes from either place amounted to throwing everything into one pot and letting it cook.
The supposedly refined dishes mostly added more elaborate individual preparation and plating.
Beyond that, he did not see much difference.
Of course, that was partly because his own social status only exposed him to ordinary food.
He did not have access to true high-end cuisine, and restaurant food rarely impressed him.
That was probably all there was to it.
After months together and extensive joint military training, the two already coordinated almost instinctively.
From chopping ingredients to cooking them, they moved around each other with practiced ease.
Their small military base had a mess hall where everyone could eat together, but the building Victor assigned them also had its own kitchen.
As a result, the two often cooked for themselves.
Back then, however, Li Yun usually handled the cooking alone.
Natasha rarely helped.
She normally used that time to tune and maintain her weapons, then appeared when the food was ready.
When dinnertime arrived, Yelena came downstairs.
She sniffed the air, and her eyes immediately lit up.
The aroma alone was enough to make her hungry.
She was suddenly very interested in tonight’s dinner.
[No way my sister made this.
She’s not that good…]
That was the very next thought that crossed her mind.
Yelena knew exactly how well her sister could cook.
Natasha’s food was perfectly edible, even good.
But it had never reached this level, and Yelena knew that because she had eaten it many times.
In fact, as far as kitchen skills went, Yelena considered herself considerably better than her older sister.
When she actually sat at the table and started using her knife and fork, she hummed in satisfaction.
Yep~ Definitely not her sister.
Li Yun had to be the one who cooked this.
The flavor was completely different.