Chapter 6

Lin Miao returned to her room and only then remembered that before she left, her mother had repeatedly told her to study.
So she went and grabbed her school bag, taking out her textbooks.
She didn’t really want to read, but she was missing her mom a little, so she ended up flipping through them slowly.
Before long, she’d fallen asleep on the desk.
She woke up in the middle of the night, dazed, and climbed into bed to continue sleeping.
The next morning, she got up early again, only to find that it was still raining.
Lin Miao had a love-hate relationship with rainy days. When it rained a lot, mushrooms would grow all over the mountains. But rain also meant the river would rise, and it’d be hard for her to cross it.
But now, she couldn’t go back to pick mushrooms, and she didn’t have to go to school either. Instead, she found herself disliking the rain.
Because she’d discovered that on rainy days, the young master wouldn’t come downstairs for breakfast. The butler brought it up to him.
So she ate breakfast with Grandma.
Although Grandma was kind, and the young master sometimes picked on her, she still felt a little stiff around Grandma. Oddly enough, she didn’t feel that way around the young master.
Breakfast was mushroom and pork buns, delicious, and Lin Miao ate her fill.
After breakfast, Grandma asked her, “Shui Shui, can you go check if your brother has eaten?”
Lin Miao was a little embarrassed to call him “brother.”
But since Grandma had asked, she naturally went. She’d just reached the doorway when she saw the butler coming out looking utterly dejected.
In his hands was the breakfast meant for the young master, completely untouched.
Lin Miao was a little afraid of the butler; he was the one who’d greeted her at the door and made that comment about how dirty she was.
The butler saw her and said, “The young master is still sleeping. Don’t go in.” Actually, the young master was just in a bad mood from waking up.
Lin Miao said, “Grandma told me to come check if he’s eaten.”
Everything on the tray was still untouched.
Lin Miao remembered that his health wasn’t great. If he wasn’t in good health, how could he skip breakfast?
When she saw the butler about to carry the tray away, she pushed aside her fear and said, “I’ll take it in to him.”
The butler handed her the tray and opened the door for her.
Inside, the room was still dark, the curtains drawn tight.
The young master’s voice came from the bed, sulky and annoyed: “Get out! I don’t want to eat, don’t you understand?”
Lin Miao spoke gently, “Eat a little before going back to sleep, okay?”
Hearing her voice, he realized someone else had come in. He pulled the blanket over his head, burying himself, refusing to respond.
Lin Miao’s eyes had already adjusted to the dark. She set the tray down and walked over to his bed, whispering, “Just a little bit?”
If it had been her younger brother acting like this, she absolutely would’ve taken the food away and let him go hungry for two meals. That’d make him behave.
When she’d first returned home, her brother had thrown similar tantrums, refusing proper food, crying and rolling on the floor because their mom wouldn’t buy him cookies. It had upset their mom so much she cried too.
Back then, Lin Miao had packed up all the food on the table and wouldn’t even let him eat the sweet potatoes meant for the pigs. After two missed meals, he’d never dared skip again.
There was no misbehavior that couldn’t be fixed by going hungry. And if one missed meal didn’t work, two would.
But looking at the young master now, she just couldn’t do it.
He didn’t seem tough like her brother, like he could afford to skip a meal or two. If he missed one, she’d feel like it was a tragedy.
But the young master still didn’t want to eat.
Lin Miao brought the tray right up to his bed, speaking softly, “Just take a bit of time to eat, then I’ll leave right away. I won’t keep you from sleeping.”
The young master could already smell the fragrance of porridge. After all the fussing, he was fully awake now, and a little hungry.
He gave himself an out, muttering, “Alright, but only because you said so. I’ll eat a little, and then you leave. Don’t waste my time.”
Hearing that, Lin Miao was thrilled and handed him a spoon. “Of course, I always keep my word.”
The young master sat up. “I’ll brush my teeth first.” That was why he hadn’t wanted to eat, because he didn’t want to get up to wash up.
But he couldn’t eat without brushing his teeth.
Lin Miao quickly helped him up to go wash.
The young master quickly finished washing up and came back to eat.
Then he noticed Lin Miao watching him eat and handed her an egg. “Didn’t eat enough again?”
After just one shared meal, he’d noticed she ate very little.
Lin Miao didn’t really mind his words. Strangely, while everyone else here was polite to her, only he occasionally teased her, but she wasn’t afraid of him at all, nor did she bother hiding anything from him.
She took the egg and began peeling it. “I can’t eat too much. I’m already useless enough. If I eat too much, they really might throw me out.”
The young master choked on that and looked up, only to see her holding out the peeled egg to him.
“It’s cold. I don’t want it,” the young master said.
Lin Miao replied, “No it’s not. It’s still warm. Try it.”
“I can’t eat anything even slightly cold,” he muttered. “If you don’t want it, just toss it.”
Lin Miao didn’t dare eat the leftover bread he hadn’t touched. She just ate the egg.
Because she figured, if she finished everything, the butler and doctor wouldn’t be able to judge how much the young master had eaten.
When she left, the young master had already gone back to bed.
Lin Miao didn’t really like sleeping. She woke up early every day, and if she slept too much, she’d get dizzy and uncomfortable. So she figured the young master must also feel unwell lying in bed all day.
When she brought the tray out, the butler was a little surprised.
No one gave her any tasks that morning either. Lin Miao didn’t dare wander around. Everyone looked so serious and busy, and no one paid her any attention.
So she sneaked back into the young master’s room, since he was the only one with time to deal with her.
Only to find him sleeping again.
Lin Miao was baffled. He really did seem to sleep all day.
Just then, he woke up.
Lin Miao lit up, “The weather’s cleared. Want to go outside for a walk?”
There were lots of flowers outside. She was too shy to go look alone, and Grandma always said she should take the young master out for more walks.
The young master didn’t want to go, saying listlessly, “Don’t feel like moving.”
Lin Miao said, “You don’t have to move.”
Then she pulled back the blanket and, quite boldly, picked him up on her back.
The young master, now being piggybacked by a girl a full head shorter than him: “…”