"Has Ling Sui gotten a girlfriend?"
The next day, Meng Luobai finished her work close to noon. She rubbed her neck as she came down from upstairs. She figured it was because she'd had bad posture while gaming last night that her neck was a bit sore, and work had been tiring too.
She had just turned down the stairs when she heard Meng Luoyu's taunt from the living room, "If you're going to change your name, you should at least find someone to do the math on it. Ling, Sui—sui, sui, like 'decline, decline'—how unlucky is that?"
Ling Sui sat on the sofa, his tone flat but each word deliberately enunciated, "It's pro-nounced sui."
Meng Luobai walked down the stairs and saw that on the living room sofa set, Ling Sui and Meng Luoyu were sitting far apart, both wearing expressions of varying degrees of disdain toward the other.
Meng Luoyu crossed her arms, her gaze tinged with contempt. "Sui or shuai, whatever—it's ugly either way."
Ling Sui leaned back into the sofa, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. "Do they not check educational qualifications when hiring security guards at the procuratorate these days?"
Meng Luoyu took a deep breath and was about to flare up when she caught sight of Meng Luobai coming down the stairs. "Sis."
Ling Sui's gaze shifted lightly as well, landing on her.
Meng Luobai looked at them, curving her lips slightly, then glanced toward the kitchen. "Is Mom in the kitchen?"
"Yeah," Meng Luoyu said. "Mom just loves to fuss—she insists on eating at home."
Just as she said that, Meng Wenjian walked out from the dining room, his voice gentle. "Kids, food's ready. Luoyu, go upstairs and call Sangsang down to eat."
Meng Luoyu got up and headed upstairs to find Sangsang.
Meng Wenjian turned back and smiled at the two of them. "You two go wash your hands."
Meng Luobai turned and headed to the bathroom first. Ling Sui, hands in his pockets, responded to Meng Wenjian with a smile before striding after Meng Luobai.
Meng Luobai twisted open the faucet, and cold water rushed out over her hands. Just then, another pair of large hands came under the stream—his knuckles were distinct, lined with thin calluses, forming a stark contrast to her slender, fair hands.
As the water rushed over her skin, she instinctively shifted aside to give him more room. Ling Sui lifted his eyes slightly. In the mirror, she kept her gaze lowered, droplets of water falling from her slender, pale fingers.
After washing her hands, Meng Luobai pulled out a tissue to dry them, naturally rolling up her sleeves as she did. As the fabric slid down, the scar on the outside of her forearm was silently exposed to the air.
Ling Sui's movements paused. He raised his eyes, his gaze heavy and fixed on her arm.
Meng Luobai finished drying her hands and met his gaze in the mirror. Seeing that he was looking at the scar on her arm, she paused mid-motion and pulled her sleeve back down. She tried to leave the bathroom, but found that Ling Sui's tall figure was blocking the exit.
Meng Luobai looked up, and only then did she realize that Ling Sui had grown tall enough that she had to look up at him.
She thought back to before—there was a period when Ling Sui, for some unknown reason, had gone crazy drinking milk. Meng Wenjian had even advised him that drinking milk alone wasn't enough; kids still needed to eat more meat, more vegetables, and exercise more to grow properly.
Meng Luobai had been rushing off to school back then. She'd ruffled Ling Sui's head. "Little brat, grow up on schedule. What's the rush to shoot up so tall?"
During that time, she was in her junior year serving as student council president—classes and activities kept her incredibly busy, and she didn't come home for a long stretch. By the time winter break came and she returned home for the New Year, Ling Sui had just come back from playing ball outside with Sang Shu. As the two walked home side by side, Ling Sui was already about the same height as Sang Shu, who was 182 centimeters back then.
Later, when little Sang Shu was four, Ling Sui's height was already slightly taller than Sang Shu's. By the time he was fifteen and a sophomore in high school, Ling Sui had grown to 185 centimeters.
When she called him a little brat again, Ling Sui would respond coldly, "I'm taller than all your male classmates."
In the bright but narrow bathroom, Ling Sui's sharp, towering silhouette was tall and imposing. She recalled the data from the news—he was probably 194 now.
As Meng Luobai was thinking this, a face suddenly leaned in closer. "Is there something on my face?"
His delicate features suddenly enlarged before her eyes, and only then did Meng Luobai realize she had been spacing out. But she didn't avert her gaze. She lowered her eyelashes slightly, their slender shadows trembling beneath her eyes, before she said slowly, "Are your hands washed?"
Ling Sui's voice was clear and cool, carrying a hint of cold moisture. The corners of his eyes held a slight ripple, and his Adam's apple moved gently. "They're washed."
Meng Luobai pulled a tissue from the side and handed it to him. "Dry your hands. Come eat." With that, she sidestepped past the narrow gap behind him and left.
Ling Sui stood in place, watching the tissue in his palm become damp with water droplets, and the corners of his lips curved up slightly.
Auntie and Meng Wenjian had prepared a full table of dishes.
Meng Wenjian sat down last and said to Ling Sui, "Was the food I sent you yesterday enough?"
Ling Sui sat across from Meng Luobai and nodded. "It was enough."
Meng Luobai's gaze lifted slightly. He hadn't gone out yesterday?
Meng Wenjian smiled and said, "I was worried I sent too little and it wouldn't be enough for you. After all, you're so tall now—your appetite must be different from when you were little."
Meng Luoyu glanced at the dishes on the table and said, "What's so different about it? Wasn't he already as tall as a telephone pole seven years ago?"
Meng Wenjian shot her a teasing look. "If you ate a few more bites, you'd grow a few more centimeters too."
Meng Luoyu: "Am I not tall enough? Sister eats properly, and isn't she still five centimeters shorter than me? If I grow a bit more, I could lift her up."
This brat…
Meng Luobai shot her a glance. "Aren't you something." In fact, Meng Luobai was 168 centimeters—not short at all—but both her younger sisters were over 170, tall and striking.
Amid the laughter and chatter, everyone began to pick up their chopsticks.
Meng Luobai scanned the dishes on the table. Ling Sui couldn't eat spicy food and preferred sweet flavors, so most of the dishes had been made according to his tastes.
Meng Luoyu bit into a piece of sweet and sour pork. "Mom, why didn't you make spicy chicken?"
Meng Wenjian's tone was gentle. "I'll make it for you tonight."
Meng Luoyu: "I'm leaving this afternoon."
"You'll have it when you come home next week." Meng Wenjian had always been tolerant with the children, always granting their requests. "Didn't I just make it yesterday?"
Meng Luoyu pouted in dissatisfaction. It was clearly because Ling Sui couldn't eat spicy food that it wasn't made.
During the meal, she chatted with Ling Sui, asking how he'd been these past few years, how life was, and about his MMA matches. Yet she quietly glossed over the matter of Ling Sui's family leaving without a word back then.
Peeling away the polished exterior, Ling Sui seemed much the same as when he was young—restrained and courteous—though compared to his coldness as a teenager, he had become more composed. He gave a general account of his MMA matches.
Meng Wenjian only half-understood what he was saying, but she still tried her best to follow along, smiling and nodding.
Ling Sui said, "Auntie Meng, if you're interested, you could come watch my match next time."
"Auntie wouldn't dare go watch in person." Meng Wenjian touched Meng Luobai's arm, her brow slightly furrowed. "Luobai has shown me videos of your matches. Punch after punch—it breaks my heart to watch."
Meng Luobai was eating, and when she heard herself brought up, she couldn't help but look up, only to see Ling Sui looking back at her. She let out a dry laugh. "Your news gets quite a bit of coverage back home."
Meng Luoyu chewed as she spoke, "How come I never came across any?"
Meng Luobai: "…"
"Don't talk with food in your mouth."
"Oh." Meng Luoyu lowered her head and focused on her meal, and Meng Luobai continued eating as well.
Then Meng Wenjian brought up another topic. "So after school starts, will you still compete?"
Ling Sui gave a faint smile. "I'll still compete, but I'll try not to let it interfere with my studies."
Speaking of studies reminded Meng Wenjian of something. "It's a little over a week until Longcheng University starts, isn't it? How's your packing coming along? Have you bought all your daily necessities and school supplies?"
Ling Sui smiled and said, "I'm all packed, Auntie."
Sangsang chimed in, "Me too."
Meng Luoyu: "Mom, they're going to school right at our doorstep. What difference does it make whether they're packed or not?"
Meng Wenjian scolded her, "Preparing for the new semester is part of school. Unlike you—every semester you're always forgetting this and that."
"So that's why I went straight into the workforce." Meng Luoyu grinned cheekily. "It's a shame though—I have work on the day Sangsang starts school. How about I take a day off?"
Meng Luobai: "Go to work. I'll take Sangsang."
Sangsang said quietly, "It's really just at our doorstep. I can go by myself."
"There's so much to handle on the first day of school; someone should be there to look after you." Meng Wenjian turned to Ling Sui. "Ling Sui, you start the same day, right? Luobai and I will take Sangsang. If you need anything, just call on us."
Ling Sui nodded with a smile. "Okay."
Meng Wenjian then remembered something. "Luobai, isn't Rongxuan a teacher at Longcheng University? Ask him if he's free sometime—we can have dinner together, and he can help look after Sangsang and Ling Sui."
Meng Luobai was eating as she replied, "I've already mentioned it to him. Besides, he'll probably be very busy at work on the first day of school, so it might not be convenient."
"You two have always gotten along well." After saying this, Meng Wenjian paused for a moment, looking at Meng Luobai. "Does he have a girlfriend?"
Meng Luobai shook her head. "I haven't heard him mention one."
Meng Wenjian: "Rongxuan—he's a good kid. A university professor, and he looks refined too. You two have been classmates since middle school, so you know him inside and out."
Meng Luobai knew where this was going the moment her mother started. She swallowed her food. "Mom, leave my classmate alone. Old Wan and I share a bond of revolutionary friendship. Don't make things awkward between us."
Meng Wenjian: "Who said anything about you? Your aunt on your mother's side said that Aunt Su next door has a daughter who's also coming back to Longcheng to teach at the university. She asked her to help set her up with someone."
Meng Luoyu piped up from the side, "Oh, my cousin isn't even married yet, and Auntie's already out there playing matchmaker for everyone else. Didn't she also set you up with some architect or something before? That didn't work out either."
"He's a bridge engineer. And it's not that he wasn't reliable—it's just that Xiao Hu's work takes him abroad." Meng Wenjian asked Meng Luobai, "Are you still in touch with Xiao Hu?"
Meng Luobai said honestly, "I just sent him a message during the New Year, nothing much since then." The "Xiao Hu" she mentioned was a blind date arranged by her aunt at the end of the year before last. He had a good job, a good family, and wasn't bad-looking either.
Meng Luobai had a decent impression of Xiao Hu, and the two had met several times. However, just as their relationship was about to take a further step, he was suddenly sent by his company to the UAE to oversee a new project, and their contact gradually dwindled.
Upon hearing this, Meng Wenjian let out a soft sigh. "Luojing, who is six months younger than you, is about to get married soon. You should start thinking about it too."
"I'll think about it, I'll think about it." Meng Luobai picked up a piece of pork rib from the taro pork rib dish and placed it in Meng Wenjian's bowl. "I'll definitely bring you back a good son-in-law."
Hearing her words, Meng Wenjian sighed faintly. She knew Meng Luobai well—on the surface, she agreed readily, but in reality, she had her own strong opinions and couldn't be pushed. Each generation has its own blessings; although Meng Wenjian urged her, she wouldn't force the matter.
She then turned her gaze to Ling Sui and asked the same question, "Ling Sui, do you have a girlfriend?"
Ling Sui's lashes drooped slightly, a dark chill slowly seeping through the shadows beneath them. But upon hearing Meng Wenjian's question, a smile curved at the corners of his lips as he raised his eyes, their gaze clear and bright. "No, Auntie."