Chapter 795: Chapter 775: The Fish in the Yard
"Pfft." Jimo Cheng laughed out loud, shaking his head helplessly, "Are you praising me or dissing me here?"
Luo Qianqian spoke earnestly, "It’s obviously flattery. I’m just worried you might stop letting me eat crab if you aren’t happy."
"Nonsense... Can you eat more? Have you forgotten the lesson from last time?" Jimo Cheng looked at Luo Qianqian, whose face was filled with helplessness, "All you think about is eating, never worried about your own body."
Luo Qianqian spoke earnestly, "Because I have senior brother to worry for me, I just need to enjoy myself." She also took a sneaky breath, "Senior brother just can’t do that..."
"Hm?" Hearing Luo Qianqian say that, Jimo Cheng was genuinely curious. How couldn’t he?
"Wanting to eat whatever but still needing to be mindful of one’s health. After all, I’m not as meticulous as you," Luo Qianqian said earnestly. "Instead of worrying about those things, I prefer to think about what to eat later."
Jimo Cheng smiled helplessly, "Let’s go, I’ll take you to see the fish."
Luo Qianqian happily nodded and bounced along behind Jimo Cheng.
Arriving in the yard, Luo Qianqian was startled because the normal yard with barbecue suddenly had a pond in it??? That made no sense.
Moreover, there was a wooden bridge over the pond. How long since they’d had the barbecue? And it had changed to this? Was this some kind of magic speed?
"Senior brother, am I seeing things?" She thought it was just an ordinary fish tank, so why would this appear??? She must be dreaming, definitely...
Jimo Cheng watched Luo Qianqian rub her eyes as she stared at the pond in front of her, rubbing her eyes repeatedly, somewhat helplessly but amused, "You’re not seeing things." He just didn’t want a repeat of her feeling unwell after eating crab post-barbecue, so he decided to nip it in the bud.
Luo Qianqian looked at the pond in front of her, the water clear to the bottom. The saying ’water too clear has no fish’ is false; there clearly were lots of fish.
He casually grabbed something and handed it to Luo Qianqian, who reached out and found it to be a slice of bread. She was about to stuff it absentmindedly into her mouth but Jimo Cheng stopped her, "What are you thinking?" He looked both amused and exasperated.
"Ah?" Luo Qianqian looked puzzled, wasn’t it given to her to eat?
"Good thing you didn’t eat it," he shook his head helplessly, "This is for feeding the fish."
Luo Qianqian put on a serious face, What? Bread for feeding the fish? What about fish food?
"It’s yesterday’s leftover, already a bit hard, perfect for feeding fish," Jimo Cheng pulled Luo Qianqian to the bridge and started throwing pieces of bread into the pond.
The fish, big and small, ate happily.
But Luo Qianqian’s eyes weren’t as joyful.
Perhaps she was being too sentimental. She always remembered how her mom hated to throw away moldy bread, tearing off the moldy parts and continuing to eat it, and how her brother, to save money, would eat only the cheapest large bread at noon, all to save some money for her to buy tasty treats.
Their current life naturally didn’t need such economy, either in the Luo family or with An Zilan, who could always buy fresh and tasty bread straight from the oven.
But was this wastefulness really okay?
Feeling Luo Qianqian’s mood dip, Jimo Cheng looked at her puzzledly, "What’s wrong?"
Luo Qianqian forced a smile, "Maybe I got up too early, feeling a bit sleepy." She yawned as she explained her depressed mood, rubbed her eyes, and wiped away the tear at the corner of her eye.
"Should we go to sleep for a bit?" Jimo Cheng suggested without doubt, seeing Luo Qianqian indeed looked exhausted. His face immediately showed concern.
Luo Qianqian nodded, her smile forced, "Others might feel sleepy seeing sheep or dumplings, but looking at fish makes me sleepy. Could it be that when I can’t sleep at night, I am counting fish?"
Jimo Cheng listened and smiled slightly, "Then you should ask yourself that question. How would I know?"
With that, he took Luo Qianqian to the room she had slept in before. He would paint outside, but this time, Luo Qianqian also slept inside, yet he couldn’t bring himself to paint. Usually, as soon as he picked up his brush, he would feel calm and immersed in his painting, but today his heart felt restless throughout.
For some reason, Jimo Cheng always felt like he had done something wrong.
Meanwhile, Luo Qianqian lay wide awake on the bed, not a trace of sleepiness, her eyes fixed on the canopy above her bed, sighing softly.
Previously, she had thought it was enough to just like someone, why worry about anything else?
Now, she realized it wasn’t that simple, being well-matched in terms of social standing was important.
Just like how she cared about a loaf of bread, maybe this was the gap between her and such a prominent family?
At home, although they sometimes had leftovers, they would share them timely with Baozi or Qin Nuan, not waiting until it spoiled. Every time her grandmother cooked, she would calculate the number of people, trying to make just the right amount of food.
And even if there were leftovers, her grandfather, with his large appetite, would make sure they were cleaned up.
She couldn’t help but feel that throwing a day-old bread to the fish might be somewhat wasteful?
Fishes, unlike Baozi who were like family to her, smart and helpful around the house with things like fetching the newspaper and helping grandma with the trash, were just for viewing and not really useful for anything else.
Luo Qianqian sighed; was she being too petty?
Getting up, she pushed these thoughts out of her mind and decided, next time this issue came up, to talk directly to Jimo Cheng. After all, a person like him probably wouldn’t understand such concerns, right?
Just as she got off the bed, she saw Jimo Cheng walking toward her. The two of them stood there, looking at each other for a moment, before Jimo Cheng finally said, "I came to see if you were keeping the blanket on properly."
Luo Qianqian laughed, "I was just about to see if my senior brother was painting properly." Her smile returned to the usual genuine one.
Jimo Cheng didn’t know why, but he felt relieved, "Would you like something to eat? I have some nice flower tea here."
"Why flower tea?" Luo Qianqian blinked, clearly puzzled.
"It smells good," Jimo Cheng replied with a smile, "I really don’t like the ones my grandfather drinks; they always seem a bit bitter."
Luo Qianqian nodded vigorously; exactly, rose tea tastes much better than those.
It was strange how the same tea leaves could be red, green, yellow, or black.
"But my favorite is still milk tea," Luo Qianqian admitted, blinking at Jimo Cheng, "because it’s sweet."
Jimo Cheng was taken aback, then laughed, "It seems you prefer milk over tea."
