Her gaze was undisguised, with no intention of hiding it at all.
The more Qin Chengyi sweated, the more that line of sight felt like the sun hanging in the sky, shining straight down on him. There was nowhere to hide. His hands moved faster and faster until the rabbit was quickly cleaned.
Ye Cai’e didn’t feel that anything was wrong. She was simply appreciating the view.
She took the cleaned rabbit and went into the kitchen, chopping it up with loud thuds.
The cleaver was something she had bought from Pinduoduo. She had deliberately chosen an expensive one, and it cut effortlessly.
Since Qin Chengyi had brought the meat, she would provide the rice. She didn’t know why he had given her a rabbit, but the principle of returning a favor was something she, as a Chinese person, understood very well.
“Can you eat spicy food?”
“Yes.”
After getting a definite answer, Ye Cai’e didn’t hold back. Cooking was an easy task for her. In the past, to save money, she never ate out, but she also didn’t want to treat herself poorly. She had practiced cooking deliberately.
Following online tutorials step by step, she gradually mastered it all.
The seasonings available in this era weren’t very complete, so she used the cupboard as cover to take spices out from Duoduo Space. Before long, a plate of spicy stir-fried rabbit was finished.
The aroma of oil mixed with chili spread far and wide.
The nearest households searched everywhere for the source of the smell but couldn’t find it.
Qin Chengyi smelled it most clearly. The young man, who had still been a bit reserved earlier, kept glancing toward the kitchen. He swallowed mouthful after mouthful of saliva, and his stomach growled shamelessly.
There was no table in Ye Cai’e’s courtyard, so the two of them carried the food to another yard to eat. It was the same anywhere.
“Tomorrow I’ll make you a table and some stools.” If he hadn’t come to eat with her today, Qin Chengyi would have forgotten that the house was basically empty.
Feeling a bit embarrassed, he hurriedly spoke up to make amends.
Ye Cai’e didn’t mind. It even saved her from buying them, though she hadn’t expected him to know carpentry.
“You know woodworking too?”
Qin Chengyi looked over. “Yes.”
“Then I have some things I want made. Help me make them too. I’ll pay you.”
Just like that, the two of them finalized a big deal while carrying the food.
Five meters away, Old Man Yu was completely overwhelmed by the smell. He came out to look around, wondering whose food smelled so good.
Then he saw Qin Chengyi with a girl beside him, thin, holding a pot with steam still rising from it.
The two of them walked together into Qin Chengyi’s house.
Old Man Yu thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He rubbed them hard twice. When he looked again, the people were gone and the door was tightly shut.
He looked around, but there wasn’t a single figure in sight. He was terrified and thought he had seen a ghost. He didn’t even bother looking for where the smell came from anymore.
When he went back and told his family, no one believed him. How could Qin Chengyi possibly have a girl by his side? What family would be willing to let their daughter be with him?
This was actually the first time Qin Chengyi had ever sat alone and eaten with a female comrade.
There were two dishes on the table. Ye Cai’e wasn’t someone who mistreated herself. Afraid that rabbit meat alone wouldn’t be satisfying, she added another dish of chili-fried eggs, pan-fried until fragrant and slightly crisp.
When he took his first bite of rabbit, Qin Chengyi froze completely. He had never eaten rabbit this delicious before.
All these years, living alone, he had always just eaten enough to fill his stomach. Sometimes even he didn’t know whether the food he cooked was edible. Other times it was either too salty or too bland. He never cared, as long as he was full.
This was the first time he had eaten a meal with meat and eggs that tasted this good.
The rabbit wasn’t very big. After skinning and removing the organs, it weighed about one and a half jin.
The two of them ate everything clean. Qin Chengyi even used a steamed bun to wipe up the bit of oil left at the bottom of the bowl.
Only after letting out a satisfied burp did he put down his chopsticks.
Sensing the gaze from across the table, Qin Chengyi finally realized that he had been eating with Ye Cai’e. He had been completely blinded by the food. It really was too good.
“I’m sorry, Comrade Ye, I’m sorry. I, um, I still have another rabbit in my basket. If you’re not full, you can take it and cook it.”
Ye Cai’e was speechless. Was this man a bit slow? Only now did he react. Earlier, she had thought she was fighting a dog for food.
But she was full too. “It’s fine, I’m full. Comrade Qin, you… have you been starving for days?”
She had already imagined a child who never had enough to eat, growing up with one meal and missing the next.
Qin Chengyi scratched his head with a red face. “It’s just that your cooking is too good. I’ve never eaten meat and vegetables this delicious before. I always cooked for myself in the past and didn’t think anything was wrong. I might have scared you. Sorry about that.”
Alright then. Ye Cai’e discarded that mental image. Not having enough to eat as a child was possible, but if he were starving now, there was no way he could be this tall or have so much muscle.
Qin Chengyi was actually quite cute. A one-meter-eighty-five dark-skinned young man. At first glance, he seemed like some cold, aloof type, but he turned out to be extremely shy.
Without her even saying anything, Qin Chengyi took the initiative to handle washing the dishes.
“Comrade Qin, I’ll leave the tables, stools, and lounge chair to you. How much will it cost in total?”
Qin Chengyi didn’t want money at first. It was just some wood. But thinking about the meal he had just eaten, he steeled himself and said, “That… I don’t want money. Could I eat a few more meals with you instead? Any dishes are fine. I can bring vegetables.”
He spoke quickly, as if afraid Ye Cai’e would refuse. His voice even trembled a little.
As soon as he finished speaking, he regretted it. She was just a young girl, and he was a man several years older. Asking this way felt calculating, like he was taking advantage of her.
He hurriedly added, “If you don’t want to, that’s fine too…”
Eat together? What did he mean by that?
Ye Cai’e wasn’t unwilling. She was just thinking that once she started working, if she came home too tired to cook, she could casually take some buns out of Duoduo Space and make do. If there was another person, would the secret of her space be exposed?
Although this man seemed reliable, trustworthy, and handsome…
Qin Chengyi lowered his gaze. The girl’s slender, fair neck looked like white porcelain. She was thin, but her eyes were large and bright, now seemingly deep in thought.
From last night until now, he hadn’t really had a good look at Ye Cai’e. Her face seemed very different from what he remembered.
Her small face had perfectly balanced features. Her slightly upturned nose made her look delicate. Her lips were lightly pressed together, soft and pink.
After looking for just a few seconds, his mouth felt dry and his body seemed to heat up. He stiffly turned his head away and went to chop firewood instead.
“Alright, then…” Ye Cai’e finished thinking and looked up, only to find that there was no one in front of her anymore.