Chapter 425: – Starving Ghost
Lin Jin felt a headache coming.
She sat at the head of the bed and helplessly leaned against the wall as she watched Xia Tian sitting at her computer, playing games.
Yep, this guy had fully transitioned into being a Dota 2 streamer now. His gaming talent appeared to be very good. In just a few months, he was already beginning to occasionally match with some professional players in ranked games, and his rating was apparently more than 5000.
Five thousand in rating was roughly equivalent to being Master or Diamond I in League of Legends. Just another 2,000 points or so, and he’d be comparable to professional players.
Of course, Xia Tian seemed to have hit a wall now. He originally played the carry role, but ever since reaching 5000 rating, he found that he kept getting targeted and shut down. So, he switched to playing as a roamer. This did help him climb a few hundred more points, but he was now stuck at just over 5000 points and the winrate in his usual streams was 50%.
So, Xia Tian convinced himself that it must be a problem with his computer, not his skills, and used that as an excuse to take over Lin Jin’s computer.
"Aren’t you going to make lunch?" During a break in the game, Xia Tian turned around and asked Lin Jin.
"It's only half past eleven. Everything’s been prepped. I just need to toss it in the pan later. If I start cooking now, the food will be cold by the time we eat." Although Lin Jin’s excuse sounded reasonable, she really just wanted to slack off a bit.
"Are you hungry already?" Lin Jin was looking down at her phone as she asked absentmindedly "If you’re hungry, go grab some bread or something. Anyways, I’m not hungry."
"Is this how you treat your guests?" Xia Tian said with a deadpan expression. "Maybe I should draw a few nude sketches to reward my fans?"
"I’ll cook right now!"
Lin Jin immediately jumped up from the bed and rushed to the kitchen to start cooking.
The rice was already done in the rice cooker. Today’s menu was quite bountiful, including braised fish, braised pork, sweet and sour pork, and a stir fried cauliflower. While these dishes might be considered everyday fare for an average family of three, for Lin Jin, having even one vegetable and one meat dish on the table usually counted as a feast.
Thanks to Teacher Lin’s lessons, although Lin Jin’s cooking wasn’t full of color and fragrance and couldn’t compare with those high end professional chefs or veteran cooks with decades of experience, it at least tasted good. In fact, it was probably better than what most full time housewives could manage.
After bustling around for nearly an hour, Lin Jin finally brought the food to the table. Xia Tian, who had just finished his game, was also going back and forth to help prepare some bowls and chopsticks, which could be considered as somewhat helping.
"I'm starving to death." Xia Tian held his chopsticks in one hand and a bowl of rice in the other. He looked over at Lin Jin and said, "You eat first."
"Is there a difference? Do you want me to test it for poison or something?" Lin Jin rolled her eyes. She picked up a piece of meat with her chopsticks and stuffed it into her mouth. She happily chewed it and swallowed before nodding at Xia Tian. "No poison, go ahead and eat."
Of course, Lin Jin knew that Xia Tian was actually just being polite. When she was a kid, she was also taught by her parents that you should let the elders and chef eat first.
Seeing Lin Jin start eating, Xia Tian didn’t hold back anymore. His chopsticks quickly flew across the table, grabbing dish after dish, enjoying one bite of rice followed by every two bites of food.
How long had he been starving for?
Lin Jin saw that every time his chopsticks moved, a piece of meat would disappear from the table. Her mouth twitched slightly as she realized that if she ate at her usual pace, the food might all be gone before she could finish her meal.
So, Lin Jin immediately sped up her eating speed, even going so far as to scoop all the dishes into her bowl and then shoveling it into her mouth together like a rice bowl.
But speaking of which, why did Xia Tian’s image immediately collapse as soon as he started eating?
Originally in Lin Jin’s eyes, Xia Tian’s exterior had always been this cold, iceberg guy. But when he started eating, he was like a rabid dog. His chopsticks moved so fast that in just about two minutes, his palm sized bowl of rice was already empty.
"I’ll get you some more." Lin Jin took his empty bowl and stood up to head to the kitchen. But she suddenly turned back and stared straight at Xia Tian, who was about to take another bite of meat with his chopsticks.
"I’m going to get you more rice and you’re still planning to keep eating? Wait!"
Xia Tian reluctantly withdrew his chopsticks and awkwardly sat there.
"If I find even one piece of meat missing…" Lin Jin made a throat slitting gesture before heading to the kitchen, satisfied with herself as she went to get him more rice.
The rice bowls at Lin Jin's place were quite small, barely the size of a palm. This was mainly because Lin Jin had a small appetite and she usually cooked rice dishes. A small bowl of rice with one or two small side dishes was more than enough for her. But Xia Tian was a different story.
So after filling his bowl, Lin Jin decided to just unplug the rice cooker and move the whole thing to the coffee table in the living room.
"If there’s not enough, I’ll go fry a couple of eggs?" Lin Jin felt full just watching Xia Tian devor the food. She helplessly put down her chopsticks, propped her chin on one hand, and just watched him eat. "Or I could get you a couple of sausages or something? Say, are you that hungry? Or do you just think my cooking is that good?"
"You’re not eating?" Seeing that Lin Jin had stopped eating, Xia Tian put down his chopsticks too and started chatting with instead "To be honest, when I first started eating out, I thought the food was pretty good. But I’ve lived around here for three years during college and one more year working, and the food options haven’t really changed…"
"Got tired of it, huh?"
"Yeah." Xia Tian nodded. "So I find your cooking actually tastes pretty good."
Oh, wasn’t that just a roundabout way of saying her cooking was delicious! Did he need to beat around the bush like that?
Lin Jin crossed her legs and yawned: "Quickly eat. I’m full, I’m planning to take a nap this afternoon before heading to the welfare institute. What about you?"
"Me? Then I’ll also go home and sleep too."
"What happened to the plan to go to the mountain behind the welfare institute this afternoon?" Lin Jin pouted, then firmly insisted "Since you’ve already eaten my food, then you have to go no matter what."
Xia Tian blinked. Though his face remained expressionless, his tone was playful as he said: "Then I’ll puke it all out?"
"Gross, what’s wrong with you?" Lin Jin looked at his with disgust as she scooted her chair back a couple of meters "Are you coming or not?"
"I’m coming."
Xia Tian figured he didn’t have much to do today anyway. He usually got plenty of sleep at night and didn’t really need to nap during the day, so he figured he might as well find something to do.
"But I don’t like children…" Xia Tian frowned and complained, "Although those children are very pitiful, I still don’t really like them."
"You’ll warm up to them. Also, every child has a different personality. You might not like some, but there’s bound to be one or two you’ll like."
Lin Jin used to dislike kids too, especially the unruly ones in her extended family. But the children at the welfare institute were all so well behaved that she had no reason not to like them.