534: Chapter 534 Friends You Can Chat With

The door to the private room was knocked on lightly twice, and waiters filed in carrying trays.

Steam wafted over first.

Lin Que's gaze fell upon the dishes, and his movements paused.

There were no elaborate platings on the table, only a few steaming home-style dishes.

A plate of bright red sweet and sour pork ribs, a bowl of bubbling home-style tofu, and a plate of steamed fish with scallion oil that had just been drizzled with hot oil.

Shredded ginger and scallion segments rested on the fish, their aroma spreading along with the white mist.

It was all the flavor of Jiangcheng.

Lin Que's hand holding the chopsticks stopped in mid-air, and he was suddenly unable to speak.

"This..." Lin Que looked at Ye Xi.

"I arranged it with the kitchen," Ye Xi explained, resolving his confusion.

"I asked them to cook it according to the home-style flavors you usually eat in Jiangcheng. I specifically asked Auntie, and she gave me the names of the dishes you love. The chefs here are skilled, so it shouldn't be too far off."

Wang Xiulian picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork rib, tasted it, and her eyes lit up.

"Oh? This flavor is really seven or eight parts similar to what I make." She looked at Ye Xi in surprise. "You even inquired about this?"

"Auntie's culinary skills aren't something one can just learn on a whim," Ye Xi said, shaking her head with a smile. "I just described the general method to the chef and asked him to lean towards a home-style taste. For the parts that fall short, I hope you'll bear with us, Auntie."

"What a good girl, so eloquent." Wang Xiulian was so amused that her brows and eyes relaxed.

Lin Que picked up his chopsticks and put a piece of rib into his mouth. The sweet and sour flavor melted on the tip of his tongue, and his hand holding the chopsticks paused slightly.

This was the taste of home. It was the taste of that old alleyway, that small kitchen, and his mother standing in front of the stove in her apron, busy at work.

It felt like a lifetime had passed, yet here in this private room in folding beijing, it had returned to his tongue once again.

The sharp voices from the outside world were blocked off by the steam on the table. At this moment, all he could hear were the light clinking of bowls and chopsticks and his mother urging him to eat.

"Eat more." Wang Xiulian piled more food into his bowl. "Look how thin you are. Whenever you get busy outside, you don't take care of your meals."

Lin Que smiled. "I usually eat at the school cafeteria; there's a wide variety."

"You still have to make time to eat," Wang Xiulian insisted. "No matter how many varieties there are, it's useless if you don't eat."

Lin Jianguo sat to the side, sipping his tea leisurely. He said very little, but his eyes remained fixed on his son, and the smile on the corners of his mouth never faded.

"Son." He set down his tea cup, turning serious for once. "Those things people on the internet are saying about you... are you really okay?"

Lin Que raised his head, meeting his father's gaze. "I'm fine." He said it steadily. "Dad, I'm really fine."

Lin Que set down his chopsticks, his voice steady. "The online arguments are fierce, but in the end, it comes down to the work. I've already communicated with the school and my teachers, and everything that needs to be prepared is ready."

"Really?" Wang Xiulian asked from the side.

"Really, don't stay up late scrolling through your phones," Lin Que nodded. "When it's presented on the day of the awards, these current voices will naturally disperse. The louder they shout now, the harder it will be for them to back down later."

Lin Jianguo looked at his son's determined expression and slowly sighed in relief. "Sigh, as long as you know what you're doing."

He picked up his tea cup and took another sip. "Dad doesn't understand those literary things of yours, but Dad knows that our son has always been steady in doing things since he was a child."

Ye Xi sat on the side, listening quietly as the family talked. She didn't interrupt, only occasionally pouring tea for the two elders or serving them food, taking care of the rhythm of the entire table perfectly.

Lin Que glanced over and suddenly felt that this person, who was always on stage or on magazine covers, sitting here in this private room full of the scent of daily life, didn't feel out of place at all.

Whenever the conversation was about to slide toward the outside controversy, she would unobtrusively pour a cup of tea or turn a freshly served dish toward Wang Xiulian. After a few times, the conversation at the table returned to the old alleyways of Jiangcheng and old stories from Lin Que's childhood.

"Xiao Ye," Wang Xiulian suddenly changed the subject and looked at Ye Xi. "Auntie is going to ask you something, don't mind me being nosy."

"Please go ahead, Auntie."

"You and our Little Que..." Wang Xiulian's eyes darted between the two young people, and halfway through, she laughed to herself.

Lin Que's hand paused.

Ye Xi was poised and generous, smiling as she finished the sentence for the elder. "Auntie, we are friends who can talk well with each other."

She smiled at Lin Que, then quickly withdrew her gaze. "He writes, I play the piano; there are many things we can understand without needing to explain too much when we talk. Today is his eighteenth birthday, and I wanted him to have a lively celebration."

Wang Xiulian gave a meaningful "Oh," and didn't ask any further, but Lin Que understood what was hidden in that smile.

He lowered his head and took a bite of rice, not picking up on the topic.

The meal was lively. Wang Xiulian kept asking Ye Xi questions, from where she went to school to whether practicing the piano was tiring, and then rambled on about embarrassing stories from Lin Que's childhood.

Lin Jianguo occasionally interjected, but mostly just listened with a smile, not even noticing when the tea in his hand had gone cold.

Sitting in the middle, wrapped in this long-lost atmosphere of home, even the fatigue that had accumulated over the past few days dissipated by more than half.

He suddenly remembered his eighteenth birthday in his past life, when he blew out the candles alone. That year, the main lights in the room weren't on; there was only that little candlelight, so quiet that he could even hear the sound of the wind.

He made a wish to the air and blew it out himself; even now, he couldn't remember what he had wished for back then.

In this life's eighteenth birthday, he had his parents sitting beside him, steaming home-cooked food, and even more, someone who had traveled over a thousand kilometers to quietly arrange all this for him.

Lin Que thought of this, his gaze sweeping over Ye Xi, and finally, he gently added two words in his heart: Friend.

"Oh, right." Wang Xiulian seemed to remember something and pulled a small package wrapped in red cloth from her bag. "Almost forgot the main thing."

"This is a safety amulet Mom went to the temple to pray for you a while ago. Wear it on you for peace of mind."

Lin Que took the small red cloth package; it felt warm to the touch. "Thank you, Mom." He carefully put the amulet into his pocket.

"And this too." Lin Jianguo also pulled a bulging kraft paper envelope from his jacket's inner pocket and shoved it into Lin Que's hand. "Take it."

Lin Que opened it and saw a stack of neatly cut newspaper clippings and photos inside.

"Qingyun Cup" Excellence Award... "Jieyou Cup" Champion Report... "Fu Zhi Yao Competition" Award Report... [Warm congratulations to our city's Jiangcheng No. 1 High School student Lin Que for being recommended to Qingbei University]... "folding beijing" Premiere News... <Well-known Douyin short video adventure blogger [xx Truth-Seeker Brother x] exposed for suspected criminal case>...

On the back of each one, a date was written. On top was a letter, with two lines of his father's handwriting, stiff but sincere.

[Eighteen now, you're an adult.] [Just keep moving forward, Mom and Dad will always be waiting for you at home.]

Lin Que pressed his finger against those lines, his throat suddenly tightening. "Dad, when did you collect all of these?"

Lin Jianguo turned his face away and cleared his throat. "It's nothing. Your mom said that since you're a writer, you might find them useful in the future."

Wang Xiulian glared at him. "It was obviously you who went to the newsstand every day to flip through newspapers, and you'd be heartbroken for half a day if you cut one poorly."

Lin Que slowly closed the envelope and solemnly placed it in the innermost layer of his backpack. "Okay," he said. "I'll keep them safe."

Wang Xiulian nodded as she watched, patting her son's hand.

The meal drew to a close, and most of the dishes on the table were gone. Wang Xiulian was still rambling, urging Lin Que to add layers when it got cold, to stay up less, and to call home more often when he had time.

Lin Jianguo leaned back against the chair, his face showing the satisfaction of someone who had eaten and drunk his fill and had seen the people he wanted to see.

Ye Xi poured a cup of tea for everyone again. Just as she set down the teapot, Wang Xiulian picked up a rib and put it into her bowl.

She was stunned for a moment, then her eyes curved, and she softly said thank you.

In that instant, sitting at this dining table, she seemed to lose a bit of the reserve of a guest.

Lin Que raised his tea cup and looked around the small private room. Father, mother, and Ye Xi.

The schemes and the blades that had been weighing on his heart for the past few days were now very far away. For once, he didn't think about anything at all.