Yu Shao’s family ran a hotpot restaurant.
It wasn’t so big, trendy chain restaurant, just a small family-run hotpot place on the corner. The decor was a bit outdated, but the food was great, and thanks to loyal custors, business was steady.
It was dinner ti now, and the restaurant was in full swing. So, when Yu Shao got ho, his parents were still at work.
In the living room, two dishes and a soup were sitting on the table, covered by a sh food cover: stir-fried green peppers with dried tofu and shredded pork, braised beef with carrots, and winter lon soup. These were all simple ho-cooked als, likely made earlier by his mother, Cai Xiaoi, during a lull at the restaurant.
Next to the food was a note that read: Heat the food in the microwave before eating. Don’t be lazy.
Seeing the note, Yu Shao couldn’t help but chuckle.
In his mories, the original "him" often skipped heating the food and ate it cold straight from the table. That’s probably why this note existed.
However, now that Yu Shao carried the ntality of an adult, he naturally took better care of himself and wouldn’t eat cold food.
Soon enough, he heated the dishes in the microwave, served himself a bowl of rice, and turned on the TV for so background noise while he ate, savoring his al.
As he was eating, his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen to see a ssage on WeChat:
[Cheng ngjie: What are you up to?]
Seeing the na "Cheng ngjie" in his contacts made Yu Shao’s eyelid twitch slightly.
Cheng ngjie was a girl from his class, fairly attractive, with a sweet, girly vibe. The original "him" had once confessed to her, only to be rejected with the classic excuse: "I need to focus on my studies in high school."
Yes, despite his crush on Xu Zijin, the original Yu Shao had still managed to confess to Cheng ngjie. It was like claiming that Satomi Ishihara was his "wife" but still trying to marry soone else—it didn’t really conflict, right?
But rejection was rejection. The issue was that Cheng ngjie didn’t leave it at that. She often ssaged him afterward with things like, "If only we were already in college."
Was that a hint? Did she an she would have agreed if they were in college?
"Could it be that she actually likes ?"
The original Yu Shao, being young and inexperienced, quickly got hooked. He convinced himself that her rejection was just her way of focusing on her studies, and that once she got into a good university, she’d co around.
However, just as his feelings for her reignited, Cheng ngjie suddenly turned cold and stopped ssaging as often.
The original Yu Shao, who wasn’t exactly lacking in optimism, ca to a "brilliant" conclusion:
"She must be busy doing howork!"
By the ti Yu Shao transmigrated into this body, the original "him" had reached the ridiculous point where a single reply from Cheng ngjie would make him squirm on his bed in bliss like a worm.
In Yu Shao’s opinion, Cheng ngjie was quite the skilled manipulator for her age. While he had been mastering Go strategy at her age, she had already mastered the art of "tea."
After transmigrating, Yu Shao completely cut contact with Cheng ngjie. He didn’t talk to her at school and never ssaged her online. Cheng ngjie, on the other hand, didn’t reach out either, so Yu Shao figured the matter had blown over.
But now, it seed that wasn’t the case.
So, should he reply to this ssage or not?
After so thought, Yu Shao decided that, as they were classmates, ignoring her entirely might seem rude. So, he typed a brief response:
[Eating.]
After sending the ssage, he put his phone down and continued eating.
By the ti Yu Shao was almost done with his al, Cheng ngjie still hadn’t replied. Just as Yu Shao was starting to think this young "tea master" had finally turned over a new leaf, his phone buzzed again.
[Cheng ngjie: The sunset is beautiful today. (Picture.jpg)]
Yu Shao opened the image. It was a photo of the sunset, with a pale, delicate hand in the fra making a peace sign. If a typical "Nike mouth" high school boy saw it, he’d probably think: Wow, she’s so cute and artsy!
Even Yu Shao took a closer look this ti. After confirming that the Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet on her wrist was a knockoff from Putian, he contentedly closed the image and decided not to reply.
However, his phone buzzed again shortly after.
[Cheng ngjie: Why aren’t you replying to ?]
Yu Shao still didn’t respond.
[Cheng ngjie: Are you done eating? What did you have?]
Yu Shao finally couldn’t hold back. Picking up his phone, he typed a single word:
[Rice.]
The other side fell silent.
Even after Yu Shao finished his al, there was no further reply from her. He was more than happy with this outco.
After washing the dishes and storing the leftovers in the fridge, Yu Shao headed to his bedroom. Pulling out his books from his bag, he got straight to work on his howork.
By the ti Yu Shao's parents got ho, it was already 10 PM. These days, more and more people were eating late-night snacks, so Yu Shao’s father, Yu Dongming, and his mother, Cai Xiaoi, had been closing the restaurant later and later.
At one point, Yu Dongming had even considered running the restaurant 24 hours a day. But after discussing it with his wife, they ultimately decided against it—it would just be too exhausting.
When the couple returned ho, Yu Shao had long since finished his howork and was now lounging on the sofa watching a movie.
Yu Shao felt he had discovered a hidden perk of transmigrating to this parallel world.
Although many of the classic films and shows from his previous life didn’t exist here, the classics of this world were just as good, if not better.
This ant there was an endless trove of exciting new movies waiting for him to "review." Compared to the effort of sifting through diocre content in his past life, this was a huge improvent!
At one point, Yu Shao had toyed with the idea of bringing the films, novels, and TV shows from his previous life to this world, like those "plagiarist protagonists" from web novels who capitalized on knowledge from their past worlds.
But it remained just a passing thought.
When it ca to the movies from his past life, Yu Shao only rembered the general plots. Making a movie required understanding cinematography, the art of lighting, and—most importantly—the ability to secure investnts.
As for plagiarizing novels? That was even more unrealistic. Novels were often hundreds of thousands of words long—who could possibly rember all the details? Even if soone could recall them perfectly, writing at that scale would require not just imnse skill but also the speed of a professional author.
Yu Shao could only tip his hat to those "plagiarist predecessors" in novels and think: I don’t have that kind of brainpower. Mind lending so of yours?
“Did you finish your howork? Sitting here watching movies like that,” Yu Dongming frowned as he walked in and saw Yu Shao sprawled out on the sofa.
“Dad, I finished it ages ago,” Yu Shao imdiately defended himself. “The howork is still on my desk in my room.”
“And you’re not looking at the ti? Go take a shower and get to bed. Do you think you don’t have school tomorrow?” Cai Xiaoi chid in, adding, “No self-control at all. If we hadn’t co ho tonight, would you have stayed up watching movies all night?”
Yu Shao had once heard that mothers around the world all said the sa things, and he hadn’t believed it at the ti. But now it seed like it wasn’t just "all mothers in the world"—mothers in both worlds were exactly the sa.
Still, Yu Shao didn’t find it annoying.
His mother in his past life had passed away early, and it had been a long ti since he’d heard this kind of nagging. Hearing it now actually ward his heart a little.
“Got it, I’m going now.”
Yu Shao smiled, grabbed the remote to turn off the TV, found so fresh clothes, and headed into the shower.
“This kid…”
Seeing Yu Shao obediently go to the bathroom, Cai Xiaoi looked at her husband in surprise. “He’s been unusually well-behaved these past couple of days. Could it be that his rebellious phase is over?”
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