The question had come too abruptly, and it was so utterly bizarre.
For a moment, Fang Wenyuan truly didn’t know whether she should respond—or even if she could go fetch it.
For the young miss of the Ye family to ask such a thing…
—Did she have some deeper meaning behind it?!
This line of thinking was perfectly normal.
People always loved to speculate about the thoughts of those in higher positions. When they saw a towering mountain, they wanted to guess just how tall it was, even wishing they could whip out a measuring tape. It was a kind of mental habit.
And with that habit in place, she naturally lifted her head to glance at Miss Ye’s current expression, hoping to glean some useful hint!
“…”
It was futile.
She showed no expression whatsoever.
But…
It wasn’t entirely without reward.
Huh.
Miss Ye’s gaze… it seemed to be fixed on the edge of the table?
The only thing there was a bottle of unopened Lao Gan Ma chili sauce—one that no one in the family really liked except for Yuliang.
“…”
The threads of human thought, often left dangling, could reconnect in some coincidental moment through sheer serendipity.
Suddenly, a guess popped into Fang Wenyuan’s mind—one that even she herself found a bit unrealistic.
Could it be…
That they’d all overcomplicated the issue?!
It wasn’t impossible.
After all, Miss Ye had come today as Yuliang’s friend, not as a superior conducting an undercover inspection.
Practice was the sole criterion for testing truth.
Fang Wenyuan figured that instead of letting her imagination run wild, she might as well test the waters a little.
Her husband was already frozen stiff anyway, more dazed than the native chicken stewing in the pot. There was no counting on him.
While maintaining her awkward smile to preserve the status quo, Fang Wenyuan stretched out her left hand toward the chili sauce within Ye Zhibai’s line of sight as much as possible.
But she wasn’t just reaching blindly.
From the corner of her eye, Fang Wenyuan kept watching Ye Zhibai’s reaction!
And the result of this little test…
Well, it left Fang Wenyuan dumbfounded.
As her hand drew closer to the bottle of chili sauce, the beautiful eyes of Miss Ye—which normally lacked any emotion—began to sparkle brighter and brighter.
Brighter still!
But when Fang Wenyuan subtly drew her hand back, those eyes dimmed again, disappointment plain as day on her face.
—It was just like a manually adjustable desk lamp!
After testing it twice—Ye Zhibai’s eyes brightening and dimming twice—it was Chi Yuliang’s light cough of a reminder that finally snapped Fang Wenyuan back to reality.
Cough… sorry, sorry. Fang Wenyuan had found it so amusing that she’d gotten a bit carried away and forgotten the main point.
This time, she reached out and took the bottle directly.
With a slight twist, she unscrewed the cap, and the spicy, aromatic scent of chili sauce instantly wafted across the table.
It was like testing a fierce-yet-adorable big cat. Fang Wenyuan smiled cautiously as she pushed the chili sauce toward Ye Zhibai.
“Miss Ye… are you craving some chili sauce? Ah ha… yeah, it really doesn’t taste right without dipping some steamed buns in it, huh?”
“Wenyuan…?!”
Li Mowei was aghast.
He hadn’t been frozen stiff earlier—he’d been quietly booking a private room at a five-star hotel under the table!
If Miss Ye had shown any displeasure, they could have had a backup plan and driven straight there.
But you’d gone and pushed forward a ten-yuan bottle of chili sauce without a word! After working at the company for decades together, you knew full well those rich folks’ picky habits. With this bottle of chili sauce, they’d surely look down on us in their hearts!
Li Mowei knew his promotion… was probably toast.
Decades of hard work, undone by a single bottle of chili sauce!
But what the Li couple never expected was this.
Ye Zhibai soon took a seat.
She first glanced at Chi Yuliang, as if seeking her approval.
After Chi Yuliang nodded with an unhesitating smile, Ye Zhibai didn’t stand on ceremony!
Like any ordinary kid at home, without a trace of the eldest miss’s airs, she used a single chopstick to delicately scoop a bit of chili sauce into her mouth, smacking her little lips with relish.
This flavor buried deep in her memories—nothing extravagant, yet endlessly memorable—was truly worth celebrating!
“It’s delicious. Thank you, Auntie. Hmm? You and Uncle should eat too—the food’s getting cold.”
“Alright… alright! As long as it suits your taste, Miss Ye. Auntie was just worried you might not be used to it.”
“Not at all. Home-cooked food is the best. Auntie, this beef you stewed—the timing is perfect, and the aroma has come out just right.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm, really. And this bok choy too—not salty, just a touch bland. It reminds me so much of the days when I wouldn’t bear to use salt… I mean, it’s just like what I ate as a kid. So nostalgic, so delicious.”
“Really?!”
“Yes, Auntie, your cooking is wonderful. Sister Chi is so lucky.”
“Ahh, Zhibai, you sweet child! Auntie really likes you! Here, eat more if you like it. There’s still chicken stewing in the pot—it’s almost ready… I’ll go dish some out now. Give it a taste and tell Auntie what you think!”
“Sure.”
See? In a good mood, and Miss Ye dropped the formalities, calling her Zhibai just like that.
Now that’s more like it.
This was Ye Zhibai’s newly acquired secret weapon.
Flattery.
Through her time with Yun’er, Ye Zhibai had learned a simple truth.
—Any woman who could cook was powerless against praise for her culinary skills!
She still remembered how, after she’d casually complimented Yun’er’s braised pork, Yun’er had stubbornly made it every single day for a whole week.
That week had nearly made Ye Zhibai puke from overeating!
But Yun’er just wanted her big sister’s praise~ She hadn’t done anything wrong.
It had nothing to do with age, young or old—even Auntie Fang couldn’t resist such a pointed compliment.
In other words, this was the perfect way to warm up the lunch atmosphere!
Fang Wenyuan was reveling in this inwardly when Chi Yuliang winked at her own mother.
It was a little reminder.
What reminder?
Pfft, Mom, hurry up and get the steamed buns! Forgot? Little Bai’s absolute favorite is dipping buns in the sauce.
Fang Wenyuan lightly knocked her own forehead, then beamed happily as she bustled off to the kitchen, paying no mind to Li Mowei, who was now truly stunned silly like a wooden chicken. Chi Yuliang didn’t have the bandwidth to soothe her dad’s feelings just yet, either.
After all, her own emotions were still a bit stirred up.
While the steamed buns hadn’t hit the table yet, Chi Yuliang leaned in close to Ye Zhibai’s ear again and whispered with a smile.
“Little Bai, I knew you could smooth this over, but… this method of yours? I’m not entirely on board with it.”
“Why not?”
No way—this was her secret weapon. It had to be flawless!
And look, aside from Uncle’s chopsticks still tapping out a nervous rhythm, the atmosphere had thawed right back into harmony, hadn’t it?
Chi Yuliang shook her head gently.
She leaned in even closer to Ye Zhibai’s ear.
Purple hair draped down, veiling their profiles. But beneath that curtain of hair, what couldn’t be seen was how her cherry lips nearly brushed Ye Zhibai’s earlobe.
A voice so intimate rang out, its effect rivaling Guang Yu’s mind transmission!
“Mm… the method’s great, super efficient too. The only thing Sister’s not thrilled about… is that you didn’t consider my feelings this time.”
“Elaborate.”
“Think about it—this lunch was originally supposed to be my doing. Mom snatched my job, which was already unfair enough. And now Little Bai goes and praises her cooking right in front of me… doesn’t that make Sister feel totally inadequate?”
“It does seem like… I didn’t consider that…”
“Pfft, just kidding~ Little Bai, don’t take it so seriously. Sister wouldn’t really hold it against you.”
“…”
Teasing back and forth, chipping away at my fragile emotions, huh.
And it wasn’t over yet.
Before Chi Yuliang pulled back to her own side…
She added one more line.
“But… next time Little Bai comes over, you have to give Sister a chance to show off her cooking. And when you praise me, it can’t be as perfunctory as this time—it has to come straight from the heart. Sister’s pretty confident, you know.”
“Confident in what?”
“Confident in conquering Little Bai’s taste buds~”
“Is this another joke…?”
“Dead serious.”
“…”
A woman’s words truly twisted like an eighteen-bend mountain road.
Drifting around every curve, without end.
And Sister Liang, when you say “conquering taste buds,” don’t puff air right in my ear!
You scared me into a shiver!
Fang Wenyuan wasn’t reassured solely by Ye Zhibai’s “secret weapon,” of course.
As a veteran office worker who’d climbed to mid-management, she wasn’t that naive.
What truly put her at ease was the spark in this Miss Ye’s eyes when she tasted the chili sauce.
How to put it… Miss Ye had said she missed the taste of chili sauce.
In the same way, Fang Wenyuan cherished that scene just now.
Come to think of it, ten years ago when Yuliang had first come home, she’d had a very similar reaction.
Fresh out of the orphanage, Yuliang had been like a hamster just released from its cage—startled at every turn, full of wonder and fear toward everything beyond those walls, the unknown laced with curiosity.
When Fang Wenyuan had bought some snack cookies from the mall and offered them, Yuliang’s little hand reaching for one had stretched out, then pulled back, then stretched out again.
That cautious demeanor had been just like Ye Zhibai’s a moment ago.
But in the end, when she finally tasted those ordinary snacks that other children had long taken for granted, the deep, bewildered darkness in Yuliang’s eyes transformed into a sparkling light.
As a mother, Fang Wenyuan remembered that moment vividly to this day.
It was for that light, that smile… that Fang Wenyuan had decided, no matter how difficult it might be, to bring Yuliang into their family and help her soar out of the orphanage.
To break free from the shackles that had bound her life from birth.
Ahaha… Though Yuliang had only eaten one piece before hurriedly making an excuse to pack up the rest of the cookies and dash out the door.
She was probably bringing them back to her little friends at the orphanage, right?
For all her sharp words, Fang Wenyuan took pride in her daughter’s loyalty and sense of roots.
And Zhibai’s reaction just now to the chili sauce bore a strangely similar charm to Yuliang’s first taste of those cookies.
Similar? Actually, opposite might be more accurate.
In Fang Wenyuan’s eyes, Yuliang had been thrilled by the cookies because her circumstances had never allowed it before.
But Miss Ye, used to every luxury and delicacy, must have found it even harder to crave these everyday foods that others took for granted.
Yet she had tasted them, and she was still delighted.
The same joy—whether it was little Yuliang back then or Miss Ye now.
Their backgrounds were worlds apart, their life paths ones that should never have crossed, yet here they intersected in this wondrous way. It warmed Fang Wenyuan’s heart.
No matter how rich… no matter how poor, as long as their hearts were pure enough, weren’t they all just naive and cute children savoring that simple flavor?
They were different.
And yet, they weren’t so different at all.
That’s why… they could become friends.
Having sorted through all this, Fang Wenyuan had healed herself a little.
She had spent a lifetime witnessing backstabbing and betrayal. Even knowing this was just a coincidence, seeing a child like Zhibai still brought her a sliver of solace.
Yuliang, maybe you were right.
When it comes to making friends, beyond family background or talent, there really are some special sparks that only you kids can see in each other.
Fang Wenyuan lifted the lid on the stewed chicken pot and took a small sip of the broth with a spoon. It was still a bit bland.
She reached for the spice rack to grab some salt, humming a little tune in high spirits as she rummaged through the seasonings.
She found the salt.
But her hand, sifting through the bottles, paused at the one next to it.
She frowned slightly.
After inspecting it closely to confirm, she turned back toward the living room in puzzled confusion, raising her voice as she called out.
“Yuliang? Have you seen the wasabi? Why is the wasabi bottle empty? That’s weird… I just bought a new one yesterday.”
