Chapter 289: It Flustered Her Every Time He Got Near
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
This made Xu Moyan feel embarrassed because it felt as if she had made a big deal out of nothing. She blamed him for something that was her own fault.
“It’s not your fault, it’s mine for being careless,” Xu Moyan lifted her head to look at Wei Zilin. For some reason, she noticed a slight look of displeasure in his eyes.
It was as if… He was condemning her for her carelessness.
She was curious as to whether her suspicion was true and said, “I’ll be careful not to let anything like this happen in the future.”
With that, she saw the look in Wei Zilin’s eyes vanish.
It looked like she had guessed correctly.
With that, Wei Zilin shifted away slightly and leaned casually against the table. “I’ve given the living room space to Shen Zongyi and Zheng Yuntong. There’s nowhere else I can stay, and it wouldn’t be ideal for me to be a third wheel. Would you mind taking me in for a while?”
Xu Moyan could not help but laugh. “Sure, you can stay here. We’ll be eating soon anyway.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t trouble you at all,” Wei Zilin smiled and said.
Xu Moyan smiled and continued cooking with her head lowered.
It felt different with Wei Zilin around.
She could feel his presence everywhere and it made her feel a little uncomfortable. Xu Moyan could not fully focus on her cooking.
She did not dare lift her head. She wondered if her senses were wrong, but she could feel Wei Zilin watching her every move. Xu Moyan wondered what he could be looking at or thinking about.
She started to feel a wave of insecurity wash over her. Did her apron look nice enough? Did she look pretty while she was chopping up the vegetables? It was getting really difficult for her to concentrate.
She could not put her thumb on what Wei Zilin was actually looking at.
To Wei Zilin however, he did not think much of it. All he did was watch intently as Xu Moyan chopped up the vegetables. While Xu Moyan was stressing over the whole situation, Wei Zilin was in awe as he never realized someone could look so pretty while preparing dishes.
Her posture was straight, and her head was lowered. For convenience’s sake, Xu Moyan had tied her long wavy hair back into a casual ponytail. From the back of her head, one could see her elegant, fair neck. When she lowered her head, it made the back of her neck look lovely and slender.
A few strands of hair around her ears started to fall off gracefully. Wei Zilin came very close to reaching out his hand to pull those strands back behind her ear.
He was about to reach out when he realized that it did not seem appropriate. He decided to keep his hands to himself.
She did not seem used to him getting so close. Judging from her body language, Xu Moyan appeared to neither feel repulsed by him nor did she dislike him. She just was not used to him being that close. It flustered her every time he got near.
That was why Wei Zilin did not want to risk pushing it. He wanted to take things one step at a time. He did not want her to think he was a casual womanizer. It would only leave a bad impression of him.
They did not say a word, but the kitchen was not completely quiet either. Noise from the ventilator fan and the sound of continuous chopping could be heard.
However, even then, it still felt a little awkward as they stood there in silence.
Xu Moyan felt herself going out of breath from all the nervousness, especially when Wei Zilin’s gaze was still fixed on her. He did not seem to look anywhere else.
She was a little worried that there was an imperfection on her face that he had noticed.
While she thought about this, she suddenly heard Wei Zilin say, “I’ve seen your cooking videos on Weibo, I hope you don’t mind.”
Xu Moyan stared at him blankly for a while before smiling and shaking her head. “I don’t mind. I post the videos for people to see them. Only Lin Chu and Yuntong know about my Weibo account. Now, you and Assistant Shen know as well. I think Assistant Shen doesn’t pay much attention to it.”
His full attention was directed at Zheng Yuntong. As for everyone other than her, they really had nothing much to do with him.
Wei Zilin caught the sarcasm in her words and laughed lightly. His melodious laugh sounded like two pieces of jade colliding softly against each other. The voice flowed from his throat and straight into Xu Moyan’s soul. It squeezed her heart tight.
“For those of you I know in real life, only a few of you are aware of this account of mine. It does feel a little embarrassing because I feel that what happens online should be kept separate from reality. Even if there’s nothing inappropriate on the account, I still feel shy when people I know find out about it,” Xu Moyan said. She suddenly paused.
There was nothing inappropriate posted on her account, but the night Yu Linling was being interviewed, she had made a silly move by announcing on Weibo that she had embarrassed herself in front of her idol.
This happened just a few days prior. She did not post frequently on Weibo. If Wei Zilin were to scroll through her posts, he would come across the post in question within a few short scrolls.
Xu Moyan groaned inwardly. She had confirmed Yu Linling’s real identity. Now she really hoped he would not work out that she was the silly person who asked him if he needed a girlfriend that night.
Even if he was unable to put together who she was, that post alone was still enough to embarrass her.
She was not worried that Wei Zilin would recognize her voice. She had only spoken one sentence and it was said under extreme nervousness with a trembling tone. It was different from when she had listened to Yu Linling’s voice for the past six years before being able to match Wei Zilin with Yu Linling. Besides, Wei Zilin would not be able to tell it was her based on one sentence alone.
He should… Not.
Wei Zilin smiled. “I think your video is produced really well. It looks nice overall. Like how Zheng Yuntong described it, it’s… adorably refreshing.”
He did not seem comfortable using the word. Even saying it felt strange in his mouth.
“Why don’t you work on doing a voiceover for your videos instead of using subtitles? It makes post-production slightly more troublesome,” Wei Zilin watched as Xu Moyan sliced some very thin ginger to be spread on the lotus slices.
“I guess I’m not that confident. After listening to so many great sounding voices, I feel that my voice is pretty underwhelming. It would just spoil the picture. If my voice was that nice, I’d love to do voiceovers for my videos, it would make it a lot more captivating,” Xu Moyan smiled as she picked up the plate of pickled lotus.
Yu Linling’s voice was beautiful enough to make anyone who heard it think their own voice sounded horrendous.
“I think you have a nice voice. It’s very clean. Not many voices out there sound as clean as yours,” Wei Zilin said.
Xu Moyan stared at him blankly. She did not know how to reply to that remark. Wei Zilin picked up the plate of pickled lotus from her hands and glanced at the tidy countertop, “This is the last dish?”
Xu Moyan had the habit of tidying up the countertop, pots, and pans whenever she had any pocket of time in between cooking. That was why the countertop looked clean and tidy after she had just finished cooking. It looked like someone had taken the time to diligently clean it up.
Xu Moyan had not recovered from Wei Zilin’s previous comment. She nodded in a daze. “Yes. I’ll scoop four bowls of rice for everyone and we can start eating.”
“I’ll take this out first,” Wei Zilin nodded. Before Xu Moyan could react, he had already left the kitchen with the pickled lotus.
Not long after, he returned. Xu Moyan had just filled two bowls with rice.
Wei Zilin did not say a thing. Like clockwork, he brought out the two bowls of rice. He came and went so swiftly that all he left Xu Moyan was a light, clean fragrance in the air.
Zheng Yuntong and Shen Zongyi were already sitting at the dining table. They watched as Wei Zilin walked back and forth between the kitchen and dining room, carrying the dishes in his hands. Zheng Yuntong could not help leaning over to Shen Zongyi to whisper, “Why do I feel like our boss is treating our house like his own. He looks so at home busying about the kitchen, like he and Moyan are…” just like a couple.
Zheng Yuntong did not have time to finish the sentence with those last words. Wei Zilin and Xu Moyan were already out of the kitchen and sitting at the dining table.
Zheng Yuntong immediately seated herself back and sat properly. Shen Zongyi was initially pleased that she had moved closer to speak to him but was now unhappy that she moved away just as quickly. He threw an agitated stare at Wei Zilin. He had intentionally brought Wei Zilin along to give him an opportunity, but he ended up being the main obstacle in spending intimate time with Zheng Yuntong.
It took quite a while for Zheng Yuntong to move closer to him. Wei Zilin really made an appearance at the wrong time!
The table was filled with the dishes Xu Moyan prepared. There were six dishes and one serving of soup. Rice was the main dish and there was a plate of crystal Shao Mai as finger food.
Xu Moyan knew that she had good culinary skills. As a foodie, Zheng Yuntong would always praise her cooking but this time, Xu Moyan felt nervous now that Wei Zilin was here. She watched nervously yet expectantly as Wei Zilin picked up his chopsticks and ate a piece of sweet and sour fish.
Before he could say a word, Zheng Yuntong was already savoring it. With her eyes closed, she said, “It tastes great!”
Shen Zongyi gave a slight smile. He did not say a word but silently scooped a bowl of soup for Zheng Yuntong.
“How is it?” Xu Moyan watched Wei Zilin’s reaction as she held her breath in anticipation.
Wei Zilin smiled and nodded. “It tastes great. It’s a little spicy but it’s nothing that I can’t take.”
“I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to take it if it was too spicy, so I didn’t put too much spicy sauce into it,” Xu Moyan said with relief.
“This is fine. I’m not as bad as you think when it comes to spicy food. I can’t really enjoy Chongqing Hotpot much, but it’s still tolerable if I have it in intervals,” Wei Zilin said as he ate the food happily.
Xu Moyan felt that she could eat three bowls of rice after listening to Wei Zilin’s voice.
In fact, she did end up having one and a half bowls of rice for lunch, which is something usually difficult for her to achieve. For some reason, she had become so enamored of Wei Zilin’s voice that she could not seem to fill herself up and ended up eating more than usual.
