MTMIO Chapter 52

“After using this, just leave it at your place.”

After Yue Yunxi finished speaking, she continued leading the way towards the supermarket.

Following that brief interlude, the four-person procession shifted. Grandma dropped back a couple of steps to walk alongside Lu You. Auntie Liu went ahead to chat with Yue Yunxi about her granddaughter studying cello abroad.

Under Grandma’s watchful gaze, Lu You perfunctorily dabbed a bit of green balm behind her ears.

After twisting the lid shut, she didn’t hurry to put it away, but instead, like Yue Yunxi had done earlier, she twirled it around for a while.

“Be careful not to drop it.” Once she stopped, Grandma moved closer, lowering her voice to ask, “About how many days will we be staying at Yunxi’s place?”

Lu You stuffed the tin into her crossbody bag, falling into thought.

“If they catch the person in the next couple of days, that’ll be good, but what if they don’t?” Grandma muttered, “We can’t just keep not catching them and keep staying at Yunxi’s place, can we?”

Even catching them wouldn’t be good; there’s no guarantee the person caught would be the last one.

These obsessive fans are like cockroaches that appear in the house—you kill one, but there’s still a nest hiding in the dark corners, and you never know when a few more will suddenly pop out.

“In my opinion, how about moving to your dad’s place later on?” Grandma asked for her opinion, “What do you think?”

Lu You scoffed, saying, “I’m afraid he’ll find it inconvenient.”

Although she had considered it before, she had only thought of using Lu Huai’an’s love nest as a temporary measure.

Whether staying at Lu Huai’an’s or at Yue Yunxi’s, neither was a long-term solution.

Grandma retorted, annoyed, “If he finds it inconvenient, he can go live somewhere else!”

Lu You was amused by the old woman’s domineering tone. She looped her arm through Grandma’s and playfully teased, “We’re going to be a cuckoo in the nest.”

“What cuckoo in the nest? What’s his is ours. Did we become his daughter for nothing?” Grandma laughed along, patting the back of Lu You’s hand, sighing as she said, “He should compensate you.”

Compensate…

Lu You’s eyes flickered slightly. She gazed forward, paused for a moment, then comforted Grandma, “Let’s just stay here peacefully for now. I’ll think it over carefully.”

“As long as you know what you’re doing.”

Reaching the entrance of the supermarket, Grandma told Lu You to go get a shopping cart, then turned to stop Yue Yunxi, who was about to follow, asking, “Do we have enough things like toilet paper at home? With three more of us, should we buy some more?”

Yue Yunxi stopped beside Grandma. “We could buy some more.”

“What about seasonings? Do we have everything?” Auntie Liu asked.

“They’re basically all running out.” Yue Yunxi took out her phone to make a note. “Oil, light soy sauce, vinegar…”

Lu You’s mind wandered after hearing only a couple of sentences. She grabbed a shopping cart and absentmindedly pushed it back.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed twice.

Steadying the shopping cart with her left hand, she took out her phone from her bag with her right.

Unlocking the screen, she saw two WeChat messages, both from Yue Yunxi.

Yue Yunxi: [Thinking about what to buy again?]

Yue Yunxi: [Watch where you’re going, don’t get bumped into.]

Lu You looked up in surprise. Yue Yunxi was standing right across from her, holding her phone, head slightly lowered, looking like she was earnestly taking notes.

Looking down at the screen again, she indeed saw the messages that Yue Yunxi had sent.

It should be her who’s worried about spacing out and bumping into someone.

Lu You smiled and quickly typed a line: [You’re slacking off. Be careful not to miss what Grandma wants to buy, zhǐ zhǐ diǎn diǎn]

Yue Yunxi: [zuǒ yáo yòu bǎi]

Lu You was taken aback, then slowly realized—zuǒ yáo yòu bǎi, if you sway left and right, you can’t be zhǐ zhǐ diǎn diǎn’ed.

The upward curve of her lips deepened. What is that? Is that even possible?

Yue Yunxi sent another message: [I won’t miss anything. I’ve started a voice recording.]

So she had that trick up her sleeve. Smart people’s brains really do work well.

Lu You quoted the first sentence and replied: [I’m wondering, what was that compensation you mentioned earlier?]

Yue Yunxi: [You’ll find out later.]

Lu You pouted. Raising her eyes, she saw Grandma waving at her, so she put away her phone without replying and pushed the shopping cart over.

A little over ten minutes later.

The wheels of the shopping cart weaved between other wheels and footsteps, moving from the snack section to the seasoning section, finally stopping at the least crowded corner of the shelves.

Lu You leaned halfway over the handle of the shopping cart, watching Yue Yunxi put snacks inside.

Besides the cookies, bread, and dried nuts and fruits for Grandma, the rest—

Lime-flavored potato chips, strawberry-flavored AD calcium milk, grape-flavored squeezable jelly, 72% dark chocolate, and canned Coca-Cola and orange-flavored lollipops that she had specifically asked the staff to find…

They all matched her preferences.

Hearing familiar footsteps approaching, Lu You turned her head while quietly asking, “These snacks, could they be the… compensation you were talking about?”

“Yes.” Yue Yunxi picked up a bottle of olive oil and placed it on the edge of the shopping cart, gently asking, “Judging from your tone, it seems like you’re not very satisfied?”

“Your hearing seems a bit off.” Lu You leaned forward, reaching out to move some of the snacks in the cart to make some space.

Yue Yunxi bent down to put the oil inside, chuckling softly.

They were very close, and the restrained voice brushed against her ear, like the sound of a piano string muffled under a membrane.

Lu You couldn’t help but look up, clearly seeing the joyful curve of Yue Yunxi’s fluttering eyelashes.

And, she finally noticed a small, brown mole dotting the slightly upturned corner of her eye.

It wasn’t a dark color, very small. If you weren’t close, if you weren’t staring, it would be hard to notice.

“Looks like I can’t be colleagues with you. But, why… that tone?” Yue Yunxi turned her head, meeting her gaze, her voice unconsciously dropping.

Lu You hurriedly retracted her gaze, straightening up. “It’s just a bit surprising how you know my tastes so well.”

“You said it when you were little.” Seeing her blank look, Yue Yunxi added as a reminder, “That time when my phone broke, and you asked me to get it fixed, and I bought you snacks while I was at it.”

Lu You was astonished. “That was so long ago. You still remember?”

“Because the closest supermarket didn’t have the lime-flavored potato chips, orange-flavored lollipops you wanted, and the cola was only Pepsi, so I went to another one, but that one didn’t have the lime-flavored potato chips and orange-flavored lollipops either, so I went to another one.”

Yue Yunxi sighed. “I went to four in total before I got everything.”

Lu You chuckled. “That’s a bit unforgettable. You didn’t have to buy them if you couldn’t find them.”

Yue Yunxi silently curved her lips. “I’ve always been stubborn, I guess.”

That’s why she could secretly love someone for so long.

After a short pause, Yue Yunxi naturally changed the topic. “Your taste in snacks hasn’t changed much.”

“I don’t really like change, unless something special happens that forces me to change.” Lu You gave an example. “My taste in food is also pretty much the same as when I was a kid. If a fish bone hadn’t gotten stuck in my throat and I hadn’t gotten a fever, vomiting out a psychological shadow, I probably wouldn’t hate eating fish either.”

If Tao Xin hadn’t cheated, she probably wouldn’t hate Tao Xin either.

Yue Yunxi looked at her meaningfully.

Lu You blinked, slowly understanding the meaning in her eyes.

She didn’t dislike Yue Yunxi’s possessive jealousy, but she still felt uncomfortable about it.

“But I don’t know what you like. I don’t know you as well as you know me.”

Yue Yunxi’s gaze softened, and she said with a smile, “It’s okay, let’s take it slow. Slowly get to know me. Maybe in the process, you’ll find that I’m very worth liking.”

Her smile was gentle, her voice soft, leaving the confidence in her words at just the right point.

Not conceited, not lacking.

Lu You looked at her, only feeling that at this moment, “confident people are most attractive” had become a tangible thing in her.

“You already are.”

The murmur was too quiet for Yue Yunxi to hear. “What?”

“Nothing.”

Yue Yunxi’s gaze fell on the fingertips of her hand that was touching her nose.

Silence speaks volumes.

Lu You lowered her hand. “I won’t say good things twice.”

As if hearing a joke, Yue Yunxi smiled.

“What are you laughing at?”

Yue Yunxi said, “I suddenly thought, for you to be so embarrassed to say it, it must be very, very good words.”

Lu You: “…”

“Yoyo, push the cart over here.” A few steps away, Grandma and Auntie Liu, each holding a bottle of oil and light soy sauce, waved at them.

Lu You pushed the shopping cart over, not hearing Yue Yunxi’s footsteps following, so she turned her head and saw Yue Yunxi going to the grains section on the other side.

After buying the seasonings, Grandma and Auntie Liu discussed breakfast and went to look at the frozen foods. There were a lot of people there, so Lu You parked the shopping cart at the fork leading to the fruit section.

After a short while, Yue Yunxi came over, put down a few bags of soy milk ingredients, and said, “I’ll go take a look at the fruit.”

“Okay.” Lu You looked at her back, then looked down at the shopping cart.

Judging from the ingredient combinations, they were recipes for oatmeal almond milk, walnut peanut milk, and five-red soup.

As she was looking, Yue Yunxi came back with some fruit.

Cherry tomatoes, avocados, kiwis, oranges, as well as a box of durian meat and a pomegranate, still clutched in her fair hands.

Lu You’s eyebrows twitched almost imperceptibly. Among the fruits, the ones she liked least were avocados and durian.

The texture of avocado felt too much like fat to her, but at least it didn’t have much of a taste.

“You like to eat this?” Lu You pointed at the durian meat, her tone slightly surprised.

Yue Yunxi hummed in agreement, saying, “Still hesitating about whether to buy it, not sure if you guys can accept the smell.”

Lu You pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, then said, “Buy it if you like it. Grandma doesn’t hate the smell. I used to take her to the supermarket, and she’d ask me to buy some for her to try.”

“Grandma likes to eat it too?” Yue Yunxi asked.

“Doesn’t like it.” Lu You shook her head like a rattle-drum. “She said it tastes like sweet garlic.”

Yue Yunxi was amused, and after a moment, she asked, “What about you?”

“I think it smells stinky. I haven’t eaten it.” Lu You emphasized again, “Buy it if you like to eat it. It’s not like I’m repulsed by it.”

Yue Yunxi smiled and put the durian meat into the shopping cart.

“Still, I really didn’t expect you to like eating this,” Lu You said, impressed.

Yue Yunxi smiled and said, “I like baked durian and frozen durian. The smell of baked durian isn’t stinky, it’s very fragrant, and the taste is also very sweet. After frozen durian softens, the texture is like ice cream, and the smell is much lighter.”

Lu You nodded.

“You’re listening so intently, looking so intently, are you carefully memorizing my preferences?” Yue Yunxi suddenly asked.

The eyes she looked over with were inky black, deep and rich, dotted with the light cast by the overhead lights, making her gaze particularly bright.

Lu You’s hand on the handle curled up, and she didn’t say anything.

“If you don’t say anything, I’ll take it as a default,” Yue Yunxi said with a smile, putting down the pomegranate in her hand.

Lu You’s eyelashes fluttered, her gaze fixed on the pomegranate.

Full and round, the skin seemed to have been caressed, with a smooth texture, the vibrant red intertwined with a faint yellow, like a smeared oil painting.

Compared to the one on the pomegranate tree in the small courtyard of the West City homestay, it was even more mature.