Chapter 568: – Lin Jin doesn’t need others to worry
Over the next few days, Lin Jin and her family moved to another residential community across the street.
Mom and Lin Chen were also living at Xia Tian’s place. Even though her mom said they would only stay for half a month, Xia Tian felt that his current one bedroom apartment was just too small. So they rented a new two bedroom apartment instead.
Since her mom and Lin Chen were here, they needed to move as soon as they could. Otherwise, once they left, the available manpower would be halved.
The new two bedroom apartment was quite nicely furnished in a European style and was complete with furniture. However, there was no TV in the living room. The thirty square meter living room only had a sofa and coffee table set, looking quite empty.
Both bedrooms had a bed, but Lin Jin and Xia Tian didn’t plan on sleeping separately. Instead, they made the second bedroom their streaming room and they would take the master bedroom instead. Since Lin Jin’s mom had yet to leave, the second room was left to her. Lin Chen was a big man and they didn’t need to worry about him catching a cold or anything, so he could just directly sleep on the living room sofa at night.
After renting the apartment, it took Lin Jin about half a day to move everything into the new place.
This new apartment was much bigger than the old one. The previous one bedroom one living room apartment was only about fifty square meters, whereas this new one was close to eighty or ninety square meters. However, the rent was a lot higher. Even though it could be considered as the outskirts of Xiamen, the rent was still nearly three thousand.
Then, the Chinese New Year season arrived.
Lin Jin’s mom was planning to spend Chinese New Year here with Xia Tian this year. However, around the fourth or fifth day of the New Years, her mom and Lin Chen would have to go back to their grandparent’s place for the usual gathering. They would stay there for a while before returning back to Guangdong.
“Lin Jin! Come with me to buy some Chinese New Year’s couplets!”
Her mom suddenly called from the balcony.
“I’m live streaming.” Lin Jin unhappily turned her head “Streaming is my job, okay?”
“Have your younger brother do it. You come with me to buy couplets and then some New Year’s stuff. It’ll get expensive if we wait.” Her mom took out and glanced at her phone, frowning as she said “It’s already the 27th, there’s still nothing in the house. It’s so empty, there’s no festive spirit at all.”
“I’m not used to celebrating Chinese New Year anyway.” Lin Jin pouted “Back when I lived at home everyday in highschool, Chinese New Year was just buying some more groceries to cook some more dishes.”
Lin Jin really didn’t know what the Chinese New Year customs they needed to do were. She only knew that before, her mom would always buy a bunch of random Chinese New Year goods to offer to their ancestors. The fridge would always be completely filled.
“That’s why this year, for the New Year’s, you just follow me around. For New Year’s in the future, if I’m not there, you’ll have to do it yourself.” Her mom grumbled “Traditions can’t be lost. Your dad’s too much. It’s fine if he never bothered with worshiping the ancestors or anything, but he didn’t even put up couplets.”
“Fine, fine.” Lin Jin sighed, then glanced at Lin Chen, who was playing on the console next to her. “Help me stream for a bit, I’m going out with mom.”
“Mm.”
Lately, Lin Chen had basically taken over Lin Jin’s game console. This guy had gone through all the games that she had bought, even giving them a lick at one point. As a result, Lin Jin needed to continue spending money to buy new games for him.
But Lin Jin had always had a bit of a younger brother complex and had completely no resistance towards him. Now that she could even make some money, spending three or four hundred on a game cartridge was still acceptable.
Xia Tian was really busy at the restaurant now. It had only been open for less than a month, so Xia Tian was still worried about a lot of things and needed to handle it himself.
Lin Jin followed her mom out of the house and went to the largest market nearby.
A lot of the Chinese New Year’s customs in Xiamen were different from those from her hometown, so some of the stuff wasn't sold in Xiamen at all. But her mom didn’t seem to care too much, she just told Lin Jin what to buy for the New Year’s, how to pick the groceries, and so on.
Lin Jin’s mom wasn’t familiar with Xiamen, but maybe because of a middle aged person’s intuition? She could always find the things she wanted to buy in Xiamen. After taking around three hours, she finally finished buying all the New Year’s stuff and then hailed a car to have it delivered home.
Because it was already the holiday season, the delivery services in Xiamen had basically all closed, leaving only SF Express still operating. Otherwise, her mom would have also bought some stuff she couldn’t buy in Xiamen online.
Lin Jin, who had bought a bunch of stuff with her mom, came home exhausted. But she found that Xia Tian had also come back and was leisurely brewing tea on the sofa right now.
Who knew what was up with Xia Tian. He was only older than Lin Jin by two years, but when he was at home, he was already living like an old person.
For example, he always added goji berries when drinking hot water, or whenever he had some free time, he would just sit on the sofa making tea while going on his phone.
He looked just like some old veteran.
“When did you start liking tea?” Lin Jin plopped down next to Xia Tian, crossed her legs, and yawned “My mom’s coming back with the New Year’s goods, she’ll probably be back in about ten minutes.”
“Buying New Year’s goods?” Xia Tian was stunned for a bit, then nodded “True, it’s almost New Year’s.”
“Did you used to always go back home for New Year’s?” Lin Jin put both her feet on the sofa, leaned her back against Xia Tian’s shoulder, and muttered as if talking to herself “I used to really hate the New Year’s, because I had to stay home every time it was the New Year’s. My mom had been away for almost ten years and my dad had always never cared. For New Year’s, it was basically just cooking an extra two dishes, but others’ homes would always be so lively.”
Lin Jin let out a sigh and stared up at the ceiling: “Back then, every year for the New Year’s, I would stay in my room and cry. I probably only cried that one time every year.”
“It was just last year that was better. My mom brought Lin Chen back last year. This year’s pretty good too, there’s four of us being lively here.”
Xia Tian gently rubbed Lin Jin and rested his own chin on her head. In a soft voice, he wanted to speak out and comfort her, but was actually pushed away by her.
“Are you crazy? That hurts!”
Xia Tian blankly stared at Lin Jin. Wasn’t this how they always comforted someone in TV dramas?
Lin Jin rolled her eyes at him and stood up. Her sadness just now immediately vanished: “Let’s not talk about these unhappy things! Anyway, it'll be fine as long as you’re here in the future.”
“Mm” Xia Tian watched Lin Jin bounce away to the streaming room, helplessly shaking his head.
Even though they had been living together for quite a while now, Lin Jin always acted like a tomgirl around him. For so long, Lin Jin had rarely shown what she was feeling inside.
Including this time, it seemed to be just two or three times, right?
This Lin Jin person, she really didn’t need others to worry at all. They were already engaged, but she would still bury whatever things inside.