When the Top Chef Transmigrated into a Scum Alpha (GL) - Chapter 7

It was only washing her hands. It was not anything difficult.

Lin Qingwan did not want to listen to anyone nag her, so in order to avoid Shang Wumian’s inexplicably earnest persuasion, she simply stood up and joined Ah Fu’s little hand-washing team.

After washing her hands, Ah Fu could not wait to sit back down. She picked up her chopsticks and looked toward Shang Wumian, asking eagerly, “Sister Wumian, can we eat now?”

Seeing Shang Wumian nod, Ah Fu immediately tried a piece.

Mmm, it was so delicious she could not even speak!

Lin Qingwan also picked up a piece and tasted it. Although her reaction was not as exaggerated as Ah Fu’s, judging by the slight, unconscious lift of her brows, she was clearly satisfied too.

Watching their expressions, Shang Wumian’s mood also became cheerful.

To her, other people liking the food she made was the greatest recognition of her cooking skills.

The three of them were eating when they suddenly heard someone visiting outside, so Lin Qingwan put down her chopsticks and went out to look.

The person who had come was someone unexpected.

Lin Qingwan’s eyes were cold, but her voice was as usual. “Sister Yuyan, how do you have time to visit my home tonight? Is something the matter?”

Li Yuyan and Lin Qingwan’s relationship was average. They could even only be considered acquaintances. Judging by age, there was nothing wrong with calling her “Sister Yuyan.”

Li Yuyan was carrying a basket, though no one knew what was inside. She craned her neck and looked into the house. “Qingwan, I came to give thanks. Um, can you call Little Sister Shang out for me?”

Little Sister Shang. She was calling her quite affectionately.

It had only been a few days. Had these two already hooked up again like they did in the previous life? Shang Wumian truly had some skill.

Lin Qingwan sneered inwardly and secretly rubbed her thumb. On the surface, however, she was so gentle that it made one feel refreshed and at ease. “She seems a little tired today. After dinner, she went back to the guest room to rest. Sister Yuyan, why don’t you come earlier another day?”

Li Yuyan frowned when she heard this, her tone sounding somewhat regretful. “…She’s already asleep? Aiya, I should have come a little earlier.”

Holding the basket, she muttered to herself, “That makes sense too. After all, catching fish seemed to take her quite a lot of effort back then.”

Li Yuyan thought it would be fine to come again another day, but she did not want to have made a trip for nothing, so she simply left behind the things she had brought. “This is a basket of eggs. Accept it on Little Sister Shang’s behalf first. When she wakes up, tell her I’ll come again another day to thank her.”

There was a faint smile on Lin Qingwan’s face, but it did not reach her eyes.

She did not reach out to take Li Yuyan’s eggs. With a few light, casual words, she persuaded the other party to give up the idea. “Sister Yuyan, I can’t accept them for her. As for a thank-you gift, it seems more sincere if you give it to her in person.”

Li Yuyan felt that what Lin Qingwan said made a lot of sense, so she exchanged a few more polite words with her, then left the same way she had come.

Lin Qingwan stood where she was, watching the other woman’s retreating figure, and her gaze completely darkened.

The arrogant, flaunting face from her memories once again surfaced before her eyes, provoking disgust.

But when Lin Qingwan walked back into the house, her expression naturally returned to its usual state, giving no sign of anything unusual.

She had not been outside for long. Shang Wumian and Ah Fu had deliberately slowed down their eating to wait for her.

Seeing Lin Qingwan sit down again and pick up her chopsticks, Shang Wumian casually asked, “Who came? Was something the matter?”

Because she had not expected the visitor to be looking for her, Shang Wumian had not even moved.

Lin Qingwan held her chopsticks and picked up some food, answering calmly, “It was Li Yuyan. She wanted to thank you.”

Shang Wumian froze slightly, clearly not expecting Li Yuyan to come by again at this hour just to thank her once more.

It seemed that handkerchief really was quite important to her.

Lin Qingwan lifted her eyes and looked at Shang Wumian. There was not much emotion in them. “But I thought it was too late. She is a single Kunze, and if she met with you like this, who knows what rumors would spread through the village tomorrow. So I told her to go back first and come earlier another day.”

Lin Qingwan had originally wanted to see Shang Wumian’s reaction, to see whether the other party would angrily accuse her of making decisions on her own.

In the end, not only did Shang Wumian not do what Lin Qingwan had expected, she even felt that Lin Qingwan had considered things very thoroughly.

She simply did not know whether this reaction came from the other party’s sincerity or pretense.

Lin Qingwan found it rather interesting.

Ah Fu did not care about all the twists and turns between the two of them. She simply held her chopsticks and ate.

She was already very certain that Sister Wumian’s cooking skills were especially, especially good.

The only thing was that she rarely cooked, and most of the time, they still had to eat Sister Qingwan’s cooking.

So on occasions like this, when Sister Wumian personally cooked, they had to cherish it especially.

Shang Wumian still maintained her habits from her original world, eating little when it was late.

Recalling the relationship between “Shang Wumian” and Li Yuyan in the book, she subconsciously explained to Lin Qingwan how the two of them had met. She controlled the propriety of it well, making it sound like a casual mention.

During this, Shang Wumian quietly observed Lin Qingwan’s expression from the corner of her eye. Seeing that the other party did not seem to care much, her heart, which had for some unknown reason felt a little uneasy just now, finally settled.

That had been an instinctive perception of danger.

What she did not know was that she had unintentionally escaped disaster.

Upon once again seeing a connection form between two people who had once joined hands to hurt her, Lin Qingwan’s heart, which had originally intended to let Shang Wumian go, had nearly become impossible to restrain.

But listening to the other party say it like this, it seemed to have merely been a coincidence.

It was also not quite the same as the time and place of their first meeting that Lin Qingwan had later learned about in her previous life.

Lin Qingwan continued eating calmly. Only Ah Fu blinked her eyes, very interested in Shang Wumian’s story of catching fish.

When the little girl spoke, her tone was even a little eager to try. “Can you catch a fish as soon as you scoop it up?”

Shang Wumian heard that Ah Fu seemed to want to try too, so she smiled and answered, “If you grasp the timing well, you can. When your school has a break some other day, I’ll take you there to try.”

Ah Fu could not help cheering. “Yay!”

She had never tried catching fish before! What would it feel like to stand in the river? If she really could catch one or two fish, she would be able to show off to her little friends at school!

After dinner, Shang Wumian consciously returned to the guest room, preparing to rest.

Her leg injury had already healed about seventy or eighty percent. Aside from occasional discomfort, it no longer hindered normal walking. It would probably be completely healed very soon.

And once all of her injuries had healed, the first problem she would face was that Lin Qingwan likely would no longer continue letting her stay.

But in this world, Shang Wumian was only familiar with Lin Qingwan.

Aside from temporarily following her, the female lead, Shang Wumian did not know what she should do.

Shang Wumian lay on the couch and stretched out her arm in the darkness, aimlessly grabbing at empty air.

What should she do to make Lin Qingwan keep her?

Rely on her cooking, or perhaps…

By the time Shang Wumian lowered her arm again and closed her eyes, she had already thought of a fairly comprehensive method.

Perhaps because she had been somewhat tired yesterday, Shang Wumian slept very deeply. In the morning, it was Ah Fu who came over to wake her.

After waking her up, Ah Fu tilted her head slightly and asked, “Sister Wumian, are you awake now?”

Having just woken up, Shang Wumian’s voice was slightly low and hoarse. “Mm, I’m awake.”

She began getting up from the couch and dressing herself properly.

Ah Fu took a bite of the steamed bun in her hand and said vaguely, “Then after you eat today, can you take me to school?”

Hearing this, Shang Wumian lowered her eyes to look at the little girl. “…What about her?”

Usually, it was Lin Qingwan who took Ah Fu to school. Today, however, Ah Fu had come to ask her instead.

Ah Fu swallowed the steamed bun in her mouth before answering, “We don’t have enough firewood at home, so Sister Qingwan went up the mountain to gather firewood.”

Shang Wumian nodded and agreed. “All right. I’ll take you there later.”

Although they called it taking Ah Fu to school, in truth, Shang Wumian did not recognize the way there at all, so it could only count as accompanying her.

Ah Fu was entirely capable of going to and from school on her own.

But needing an adult from the household to send her there was following the teacher’s requirement.

The teacher believed that this could indirectly deepen the bond between parent and child, and increase the student’s enthusiasm for learning.

In Shang Wumian’s eyes, all of that was nonsense.

She clearly knew that the so-called teacher’s requirement did not have such a lofty reason behind it.

All of it only came from the original book’s setting.

The author wanted that teacher and the female lead to have an opportunity to get acquainted, which was why such an arrangement had been made.

Carrying Ah Fu’s cloth schoolbag for her, Shang Wumian began recalling those few passages from the book.

Ah Fu’s teacher was a supporting character who occupied several chapters of the story.

After discovering that “Shang Wumian” had repeatedly bullied and humiliated Lin Qingwan, he, who had fallen in love with Lin Qingwan at first sight, finally could not hold back and extended a helping hand.

One night, when “Shang Wumian” was drunk, this seemingly frail Zhongyong seized the opportunity, put a sack over her head, and beat her viciously.

Afterward, he found Lin Qingwan and asked sincerely, “Are you willing to leave with me? Go to a new place where no one knows us, and leave that bastard behind.”

…

“Sister Wumian? Sister Wumian!” Seeing that Shang Wumian was not paying attention to her, Ah Fu immediately raised her voice.

Shang Wumian woke from her thoughts with a start and subconsciously asked, “Hm? Ah Fu, what’s wrong?”

Ah Fu pouted and pointed at her hand. “We’re at school! Hurry and give me my schoolbag!”

Shang Wumian smiled a little guiltily and handed the schoolbag to the little girl. “Sorry, I got distracted for a moment…”

Here it came, here it came again! Sister Wumian was going to “hug Qian” again!

Ah Fu had already figured out the pattern. Whenever Sister Wumian did something that made her feel guilty, she would “hug Qian.”

With a wave of her little hand, she was very magnanimous. “Since Sister Wumian wants to hug ‘Qian,’ then your punishment is to make me a little crispy cake at lunch.”

That little crispy cake had some tender white tofu stuffed inside, soft on the inside and especially delicious.

Last time, it had been something Shang Wumian made casually because there was tofu left over from when she watched Lin Qingwan cook and did not want to waste it.

There had not been many, and Ah Fu felt she had not eaten enough.

Shang Wumian knew this little girl was probably just craving them, so she smiled gently and agreed directly.

She casually stretched out a hand and rubbed Ah Fu’s head. “All right. Then Ah Fu has to study properly with the teacher. When you come back at noon, I’ll make little crispy cakes for you.”

Hearing that Shang Wumian had agreed to make little crispy cakes, Ah Fu’s eyes could not help lighting up. “Yay!”

There had been too few last time, and she had not eaten enough. This time, she wanted to eat three!

After waving goodbye to Shang Wumian, the smile on Ah Fu’s face did not fade. So much so that even when she saw the teacher, who often scolded people, the resistance in her heart lessened somewhat.

Meanwhile, Xing Fuyu looked at Shang Wumian’s departing back and asked, seemingly casually, “Ah Fu, who was the person who brought you here today?”