Blood Neon

Chapter 42

Chapter 42

It's Fine Too

"Then you stay home and steam the rice. I’ll go buy some vegetables."

With that, her plan was perfectly falling into place. Once she bought some potatoes and onions, she could look forward to the delicious curry at noon. Lin Ying thought to herself while standing up, clearly ready to head out.

Zhang Qiming hurriedly stopped her.

"It’s fine, I’ll go buy the groceries. You’re a guest—just relax in the living room."

How could he possibly let a guest go out, buy ingredients, and then come back to cook for the host? After a moment of thought, he decided it was best for him to do the grocery run.

This was also his way of holding on to the last shred of dignity as a man. Otherwise, if he just sat at home watching a girl busily prepare everything, that would be too shameful…

Besides, her impression of him would probably plummet.

.

For a moment, Lin Ying was actually tempted by his suggestion to let her lie down comfortably on the living room sofa.

Buying groceries…

Well, it wasn’t that complicated—just picking up a potato and an onion. It wasn’t something she had to personally do, right? Staying home and waiting for the ingredients to come back on their own—just thinking about it felt satisfying and smooth. What could possibly go wrong?

To be honest, she'd been walking all morning. While her body wasn’t particularly tired, her mind definitely was.

Still, after some thought, she felt it was a bit improper.

Visiting a friend’s house, only to let the recently injured host go out and buy groceries alone—that didn’t seem right.

"No need, it’s not a big deal. You just stay put."

Better that she went herself. The kid, who hadn’t stepped into society yet, could obediently wait at home for the meal. After all, she was the reliable and mature adult here.

Zhang Qiming, naturally, didn’t pick up on all that. He just instinctively thought it was politeness.

"It’s really fine, I’ll go."

After hearing that, Lin Ying felt that the conversation was heading toward an endless loop of “I’ll go” and “No, I’ll go” levels of polite back-and-forth. That couldn’t be allowed to continue.

Then…

Go together?

That didn’t feel quite right either. What was the point? Just a waste of manpower allocation.

Besides, it still felt like they weren’t that familiar with each other yet.

To sum it up—it was doable, but unnecessary.

So after giving it a bit of thought, she decided to stop being polite and decisively played an impolite card, aiming to break the pointless loop.

"If you go, is your body really okay?"

"No problem, I even went out this morning."

Zhang Qiming patted his own chest.

That’s true—judging by how stubborn this iron-headed kid looked, his body probably wasn’t in any real trouble.

A body that could take a beating was kind of enviable. Though maybe she, who had been stabbed and was still hopping around, wasn’t exactly in a position to say that.

"Alright then, I’ll trouble you with that."

"OK~"

Having happily reached an agreement, the two of them briefly discussed it and decided to cook the rice after the groceries were bought.

As Zhang Qiming walked straight to the door to change his shoes, Lin Ying didn’t forget to remind him what to get.

"Just about one potato this size, and any onion will do. Of course, if you want to get more, that’s fine too..."

She held out a fist to indicate the size, but after feeling it might be too small, she added another fist next to it for comparison.

"Got it. You go ahead and rest for a bit—I’ll be back soon."

As he left and the door clicked shut behind him, the room returned to silence. Listening to the sound of his footsteps fading away, Lin Ying suddenly felt a sense of nostalgia—like the times back in high school when she visited a friend’s house to hang out.

Everyone chatting noisily, preparing food, scrubbing pots, washing dishes...

To feel once again the rare joy of visiting a same-gender friend’s home—how nice that was.

But whenever people left, there was always a hint of emptiness.

Standing alone in a room that no longer held its resident, she gazed silently at the door for a moment, then slowly took a deep breath. Without a word, she walked over to the sofa and sat down.

The soft sofa sank slightly under her weight. Lin Ying pulled a cushion into her arms, leaned against the backrest, closed her eyes, and sank into a feeling that resembled being embraced.

Unlike at her own place, this soft sofa was definitely part of the good civilization.

She slipped her feet out of her slippers, bent her knees, curled her body in, and clamped the cushion between her legs. Then she wrapped her arms around her shins, resting her crossed hands on the smooth tops of her feet, trying to warm them up—even if only slightly.

Laundry was a bit of a hassle, so she usually didn’t wear socks.

If she did, the socks always seemed to develop a smell. That just added one more thing to the laundry pile. But if she didn’t wear them, aside from the tactile sensation, there were no actual downsides—and no smell either.

The human body… pretty strange, right?

In any case, she had more or less come to accept that her body wasn’t quite the same as normal people’s.

Secretions, bodily fluids, hormones—all that.

It was all pretty mysterious stuff. Even finding patterns in it seemed like too much trouble.

So, better to let it go and take things easy. Maybe the idea that "beautiful girls don’t XXX" was actually one of the fundamental rules of this world...

Lin Ying flopped onto her side and curled up on the sofa, twisting slightly to free her pinned hair. After adjusting her position for more comfort, she closed her eyes and stopped moving entirely.

…

…

…

It wasn’t until she heard the metallic click of a key turning in the lock that the girl reopened her eyes, revealing her red irises.

After thinking for a second, she figured this lazy look wasn’t something outsiders should see. So she rubbed her eyes and sat up a little.

"You’re back."

Lin Ying raised a hand from the sofa and waved it lazily as a form of greeting.

"Yeah, sorry to keep you waiting."

Zhang Qiming walked through the door and placed the plastic bag with a small amount of vegetables on top of the shoe cabinet. After a quick scissor-legged move, he changed into indoor shoes.

Looking up, he saw the girl sprawled out on the sofa with a lazy, natural attitude—as if she were in her own home. He couldn't help but think, You’ve really got some nerve.

No, maybe it wasn’t about nerve.

After all, even though she looked harmless and easygoing, the truth was—if she wanted to come at him right now—he didn’t think he’d stand a chance of resisting.

He couldn’t explain it, but he just had that feeling.

So, putting himself in her shoes, if he were also this strong and carefree, then of course he’d act fearless too.

To be honest, he kind of envied that kind of life.

"So what now? Do we start cooking right away?"

Zhang Qiming carried the plastic bag to the center of the living room.

Truth be told, while the excitement from gaming earlier had dulled his hunger, by the time he’d gone out and caught whiffs of lunch cooking all along the streets, his stomach had started protesting hard.

"Mm, just give it to me. I’ll handle the rest from here."

As she spoke, Lin Ying stretched with a lazy yawn, then slipped on her slippers and got up from the sofa. She took the vegetables from Zhang Qiming’s hand.

And up close—watching the girl take the plastic bag from him—he suddenly felt his heart skip a beat for some reason.

What was that?

He felt the blood rush slightly to his face, and even noticed his ears heating up. Zhang Qiming himself had no idea what was going on.

Lin Ying didn’t seem to notice any of it. After taking the bag, she walked straight into the kitchen.

He hesitated for a moment, then exhaled softly to steady his nerves, and followed behind her.

What a weird feeling…

Zhang Qiming murmured inwardly.

.

Found the knife, laid the cutting board flat.

Rinsed, peeled, and rinsed again.

—Lin Ying moved efficiently and with ease.

She set aside a large bowl, which she would later use to temporarily hold the chopped vegetables.

Then she quickly diced the potato into small chunks. The size could be adjusted—too small, and it wouldn’t be satisfying to eat; too large, and it wouldn’t cook through properly and would need longer stewing.

Lin Ying skillfully cut the potato into cubes roughly 2 by 2 centimeters—her preferred size.

The potato wasn’t very big to begin with, so she didn’t bother saving any of it. She simply diced the whole thing.

After transferring the diced potato from the cutting board into the bowl using her knife, Lin Ying took out the onion she had already peeled and rinsed earlier.

She cut off the root end of the purple onion, revealing its white cross-section. It didn’t take long before a familiar sensation swept across her face.

"Ugh."

A soft whimper escaped her involuntarily.

Alright, one side experiment was now complete: when thiopropanal S-oxide made contact with the epithelial cells of her eyes, it still caused a normal stinging sensation, and her tear glands responded with secretion.

That was perfectly reasonable, wasn’t it? With tears welling up in her eyes, Lin Ying wiped them away with the back of her hand, then simply closed her eyes.

The faint stinging continued to spread across the surface of her eyeballs. With fresh tears at the corners of her eyes, she turned to Zhang Qiming behind her and said,

"In a moment, you should close your eyes too."

"Huh?"

Zhang Qiming, who had been leaning against the kitchen doorway, was completely baffled. Why did this suddenly involve him?

"It’s fine, just do it."

"Ah… okay."

He obediently closed his eyes but still looked confused.

"But why?"

"Don’t worry about it. It’s for your own good."

Lin Ying slyly opened her eyes just a crack. Then, as if a bright incandescent bulb lit up in her mind, a mischievous idea sparked.

A small smile curled on her lips. Without making a sound, she silently stepped forward.

Her hands were clasped behind her back—one of them still holding the kitchen knife—as she leaned in close to Zhang Qiming’s ear.

"If you peek,"

The girl licked her lips and whispered,

"You’ll die."

Seeing the way the boy’s body jolted in response, she couldn’t help but reveal a victorious grin. Then, humming a little tune, she turned back and continued chopping the onion.

This time, she kept her eyes closed again, leaving the task of observing the world entirely to her main body.

Due to the angle, it was a bit hard to see the onion clearly from below through the shadows, so she extended two tentacles from beneath her clothes and gently pressed them against her closed eyelids.

It looked just like some kind of squid-girl was playing "guess who" behind her.

After a moment of adjustment, Lin Ying, pleased with the tremble she sensed from behind her, hummed cheerfully. The rhythm of her chopping—da da da—happily resumed in the kitchen once more...