The Unreturnable Refrigerator - Chapter 26.1
Chapter 26.1: Taking Care
Lu Yin’s heart pounded with anxiety. She spun around, confirming she wasn’t seeing things.
Her stuff was really gone!
A wave of dizziness hit her, and Lu Yin quickly grabbed the wall for support. The spin had made her dizzy.
The hallway light wasn’t on; it was a little dark, with only the light from the living room spilling out into the corridor.
The living room light is on? Lu Yin wondered. Is it Sheng Xiali? Is she still here?
Following the light, she held on to the wall, slowly moving forward with her dizzy head.
The more she walked, the dizzier she felt. Lu Yin figured it wasn’t just because of the spin; it was probably because she was hungry.
She had, after all, woken up from hunger.
The thought that Sheng Xiali might have thrown away all her food made her angry. Her stomach, which was just a little uncomfortably empty, twisted into knots. It was like a stormy sea inside, and memories of going hungry in the past bubbled up from the corners of her mind.
The “beep, beep, beep” of a disconnected call, her nightmare, echoed in her mind. Lu Yin’s face, which had been flushed, suddenly turned pale.
Lu Yin quickened her pace, heading toward the light.
As she slowly emerged from the dark hallway and stepped fully into the light, she saw a tall, slender figure in the kitchen.
She hadn’t left yet…
Under the kitchen light, Sheng Xiali was wearing a dark blue housecoat, her sleeves rolled up. She held a light yellow wooden spatula, stirring something in the pot.
Lu Yin couldn’t see what was in the pot, only a steady stream of white steam rising into the range hood.
Lu Yin couldn’t help but take a breath. Although her nose was stuffed and she couldn’t smell anything, her restless stomach miraculously calmed down.
Even the “beep, beep, beep” sound in her head suddenly vanished, replaced by the humming of the range hood.
The person in the kitchen seemed to sense her presence and turned around.
Their eyes met, and both were surprised.
Sheng Xiali was surprised that Lu Yin was up. Her gaze fell on Lu Yin’s pale face, which looked worse than it had when she had gone into the bedroom earlier. She frowned, turned back, added water to the pot, and put the lid on.
Lu Yin was surprised that Sheng Xiali hadn’t left yet and was even cooking…
She shuffled to the dining table, supporting herself as she stood, and her gaze swept across the surface.
Where were her things? All that was left on the table was a box of tissues and two gray leather placemats that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
Lu Yin picked up a placemat and looked at it, confirming that she hadn’t bought it.
It wasn’t her style. If she were to buy placemats, they would definitely be lively and patterned.
Something so simple, clean, and cold-looking would decrease one’s appetite. It was clearly something belonging to the person in the kitchen.
What was the meaning of this? Why were her things on her dining table?
Where had all her things gone?
Lu Yin looked at the figure in the kitchen. Sheng Xiali’s cooking had momentarily distracted her, and she had almost forgotten what she had come to ask.
Lu Yin swallowed, and with her dry throat, she spoke to the person in the kitchen.
“Where are my things?”
Her voice was so hoarse that Lu Yin was startled by it herself and immediately grabbed her throat.
The person in the kitchen walked out at that moment, holding a cup of water.
Lu Yin looked at the cup of water in front of her and didn’t take it.
She looked up at Sheng Xiali and continued to ask in her raspy voice: “Where are my things?”
Sheng Xiali didn’t reply. She placed the cup on the table, pulled out a tissue, and calmly wiped the water from her hands.
As Lu Yin was about to speak again, Sheng Xiali casually threw the tissue into the trash, walked to the other side of Lu Yin, and turned on the laptop on the chair.
With Lu Yin watching, she held the laptop with one hand and operated something with the other.
Lu Yin’s words were on the tip of her tongue, but Sheng Xiali’s unexpected actions left her confused. Was she deliberately not answering her? Had she really thrown away her things?
Sheng Xiali was wearing a mask, so only the top half of her face was visible. Lu Yin couldn’t see her expression. She could only look at her eyes, which were illuminated by the computer light, and guess what she was up to.
The more she looked, the more nervous she felt. It was like the other person was carefully preparing to negotiate with her, but she had no idea what they were going to say.
Lu Yin’s heart was in her throat.
Fortunately, it wasn’t there for long. Soon after, Sheng Xiali placed the laptop on the table and turned the screen toward the stunned Lu Yin.
“Check this data and see if there are any issues.”
Lu Yin’s head was already a little dizzy, and now she felt dizzy from the words on the screen, which was covered in a table filled with text.
“What is this?”
What did she want her to check?
Sheng Xiali propped one hand on the back of the chair, and the curve of her bent arm was beautiful. Her fingers moved like she was playing the piano, and her voice was light and lively.
“Your stockpiled items.”
Lu Yin had been trying to squint and focus. When she heard that voice, she finally saw the content of the screen clearly.
Her things?
Lu Yin pulled out a chair and sat down, moving closer to the screen. Her brow furrowed as she scrolled up, down, left, and right through the table.
“What do you mean? What do you mean, ‘my things’?”
The table categorized things like daily necessities, food, miscellaneous items, and toys…
What were all these things? What did they have to do with her? Why couldn’t she scroll to the bottom of this table?
Lu Yin sat up straight and looked at Sheng Xiali: “Why are you showing me this table?”
Sheng Xiali’s fingers lightly tapped on the back of the chair again: “Your things are all tallied here. Take a look and see if there are any omissions or quantity discrepancies.”
“What?!” Lu Yin looked at the table on the computer again. What did she mean? Were these her things? 398 eggs? What the hell? How could she possibly have 400 eggs!
Sheng Xiali saw the shock in her eyes and stopped tapping on the back of the chair.
“These are all the things that have been tidied up in this room and categorized for you.”
Lu Yin looked up from the computer, her voice cracking: “You tidied them up?”
“How many hands do you think I have?”
“Two.” Lu Yin looked at Sheng Xiali’s outstretched hands and answered without thinking.
The next second, she heard a soft laugh, a laugh filled with a hint of mockery.
Lu Yin gritted her teeth in regret. How could her mouth be faster than her brain? She hadn’t even caught on to such a simple taunt!
With so many things, how could Sheng Xiali, with only two hands, have tidied them all up in the time it took for her to take a nap!
Just as Lu Yin was about to try to say something else, Sheng Xiali’s outstretched hand, holding a phone, was extended in front of her.
Her fingers were truly long. Even a large-screen phone didn’t look clumsy in her hand; she held it with ease.
Unlike her, who held it like a brick.
Lu Yin was a little envious. She looked away from Sheng Xiali’s hand and at the bright screen of her phone.
It was a payment record.
Hmm, one, ten, hundred, thousand… Before Lu Yin could see the exact amount, the phone was taken away.
“I hired a professional organizer. Remember to transfer the money back to me.”
Sheng Xiali said this as she put her phone away, swiped a few times, and held up a different page in front of Lu Yin.
“I only accept WeChat transfers. Remember to unblock me first.”
She said this as she pointed to the red exclamation mark under the unsent message in the chat window.
The large red exclamation mark appeared brazenly in her line of sight. Lu Yin coughed softly. It was the first time she had been called out for blocking someone to their face. That red exclamation mark seemed to grow bigger and bigger in her eyes.
Especially since there was more than one red exclamation mark on that page…
If she knew she was blocked, why did she keep sending her messages?
Was she just waiting for this moment to question her?
Lu Yin pushed the phone away. She had no intention of unblocking her. Her gaze shifted and fell on the empty living room, and she suddenly figured it out.
“Why should I pay you?!”
It wasn’t her who hired the person, and it wasn’t her who wanted to pack all this stuff away.
“And you! How could you make this decision without a word or my permission!”
“You left without a word, and you didn’t have my permission.”
Lu Yin was suddenly speechless. She looked at Sheng Xiali, who had brought up the matter so suddenly.
She was standing on the other side of the dining table, standing casually, and her words sounded just as casual, as if she was just trying to get a jab in…
“That’s my freedom. I don’t need your permission.”
Lu Yin looked away, her gaze landing on the computer, her eyes trembling.
Sheng Xiali’s finger pressed against the back of the chair. Her voice was not as light as before; it was a little heavy.
“Oh, well, what about my refrigerator? Can I not give my permission?”
“That’s my refrigerator!” Lu Yin looked up at Sheng Xiali, raising her voice. The pain in her throat made her eyes fill with a pained expression.
Sheng Xiali stared at her: “I bought it.”
Lu Yin argued: “You gave it to me as a gift.”
“I’m taking it back.”
“You’re shameless!”
Their eyes met. Sheng Xiali’s gaze was sharp, and she looked at Lu Yin with such intensity, as if she wanted to cut through Lu Yin’s skin to see what was deeper inside. Lu Yin’s heart skipped a few beats, and she was the first to look away.
Just as she averted her gaze, the person in her line of sight moved.
Lu Yin looked up again and saw Sheng Xiali quickly returning to the kitchen. She lifted the lid of the pot, releasing the steam that had been threatening to push it off.
The water in the pot was boiling.
At that moment, Lu Yin’s blocked nose seemed to suddenly work. She smelled a fragrance. After a careful sniff, she realized it was tomatoes.
Sheng Xiali had her back to her and was slowly adding something to the pot. Lu Yin couldn’t see what it was, but the scent of food in the air grew stronger.
The hunger she had ignored earlier started to creep back in, and it was becoming more and more noticeable.
Lu Yin covered her stomach to prevent it from rumbling at this moment, which would completely ruin her momentum. They had just finished arguing. She couldn’t possibly eat something Sheng Xiali had made… And she wasn’t even sure if Sheng Xiali was cooking for her…
“You were going to renovate and clean up anyway. Getting everything put away now means you can start the work sooner.”
The scent of food was not the only thing coming from the kitchen; Sheng Xiali’s voice was too.
Lu Yin’s hand, which was covering her stomach, clenched her clothes. Was Sheng Xiali explaining herself?
“Where are the things you put away?” Lu Yin asked.
Sheng Xiali continued to stir the contents of the pot without turning around. When she heard the question, the corners of her mouth curled up in a small, fleeting arc.
“At my place.”
Lu Yin was speechless. Even if she had to pack things up for the renovation, she hadn’t planned on putting them at Sheng Xiali’s place.
And how could this person say this so righteously?
“Your actions are called a home invasion!”
The corner of Sheng Xiali’s mouth, which had just been pressed down, curled up again when she heard that. After adding the last seasoning to the pot, she turned off the heat with a “click.”
She scooped out a bowl and took it out.
“Eat first.”
Lu Yin didn’t want to eat. This wasn’t over. Although her mind was still a little fuzzy, she knew that the current situation was wrong. This was no longer just about a refrigerator!
Her home had been emptied while she was sleeping!
She had to get her things back right now!
Rumble, rumble, rumble. Before Lu Yin could even speak, her stomach spoke for her, its call so enthusiastic that Lu Yin wanted to find a crack under the table to hide in.
No, she didn’t have to look for one now. It was empty under the table. She could crawl in whenever she wanted.
Lu Yin held her stomach, debating whether to struggle and say she wouldn’t eat, when the food was already right in front of her.
She finally understood what Sheng Xiali had made…
She looked up at Sheng Xiali, who had turned and left after putting the bowl down. Her eyes followed her as she re-entered the kitchen.
She watched her scoop out a bowl for herself, watch her carry the bowl, watch her walk past, and watch her sit at the end of the sofa in the living room.
She held the bowl with one hand and took off her mask with the other, placing it to the side.
Lu Yin measured the distance between them. Was it ten meters? Was this distance effective for virus prevention?
And how could she just sit down so naturally?
Just start eating like that?
Sensing Lu Yin’s gaze, Sheng Xiali turned her face. Their eyes met, and Lu Yin saw her lips curl into a smile that was barely a smile.
“What, looking at me makes you full? Is my beauty so delicious?”
Lu Yin’s eyes trembled, and she quickly looked away: “Have some shame!”
Sheng Xiali lowered her head and blew on the hot porridge in the bowl. She said indifferently: “Indeed, I’m just ordinary.”
Lu Yin’s eyes widened, and she looked back. Why did that sound so familiar? She had just said the same thing to Sheng Xiali… Had she heard it? No way. Wasn’t Sheng Xiali completely drunk and passed out at that time?
Was it a coincidence?
Lu Yin felt a little guilty but held her ground. She took a deep breath: “It’s good to be self-aware.”
“I always have been.”
Her words were calm, but Lu Yin’s heart tightened. After seeing Sheng Xiali’s straight lips, she suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.