Chapter 48: Is It Ready to Eat?

Hearing the sound of coughing, Ji Tianxin lifted her head and glanced at Lin Si, who was standing nearby. Then she withdrew her gaze, as if she had never seen this person before.

Lin Si found this a bit odd and looked toward Si Kouyan.

Si Kouyan’s eyes flickered slightly as he looked at Ji Tianxin. “We haven’t seen each other for a few days. Has my little sister already forgotten me?”

Ji Tianxin’s eyes, which had returned to the roast chicken, lifted again. “Who are you?”

That simple question—“Who are you?”—struck Si Kouyan with an odd sense of déjà vu, a faint ache settling in his heart. Something flashed through his mind, but he couldn’t grasp it.

He had assumed she would recognize him. She’d met Lin Si before, and they had exchanged a few words. Yet, she didn’t seem to recognize either of them, not even Lin Si.

Suqing explained, “My lady’s memory isn’t very good. If she doesn’t see someone often, she forgets them.”

After all, it was simply because they hadn’t made themselves important enough to her. If her lady cared, she would remember. Just as she herself had never been forgotten by her mistress. At that thought, Suqing couldn’t help but feel a little proud and secretly pleased.

So that’s how it was.

Though Si Kouyan understood, a hint of disappointment appeared in his eyes.

“But your voice is familiar to me. I’ve heard it before,” Ji Tianxin added.

She did have an impression of his voice, though she couldn’t recall who he was.

Si Kouyan gave a faint smile. “If you hear it a few more times, won’t it become even more familiar?”

Ji Tianxin considered this seriously. “That’s true.”

He smiled. If she saw him a few more times, surely she would remember.

Suqing leaned in to remind Ji Tianxin, “My lady, these are the people we ran into on the way to the General’s manor a few days ago.”

Ji Tianxin remembered that incident. At Suqing’s words, the memory surfaced: that day when their carriages passed, the curtain lifted to reveal the lower half of a man’s face.

No wonder his voice had seemed familiar.

“So it was you,” Ji Tianxin finally recognized him.

Si Kouyan had hidden his true identity in Jin’an City for over ten years; this was the first time he’d ever been pleased to be recognized.

“You’d better eat it quickly.” Ji Tianxin’s sudden words drew everyone’s attention back to the food.

She frowned, staring at the roast chicken in Si Kouyan’s hands. “Can I eat it now? If you don’t, it won’t taste as good. You should hurry and eat it.”

Hearing her repeat the word “eat” several times, those present couldn’t help but smile.

Indeed, to Miss Ji, good food was more important than people.

“Of course you can. But I have a condition,” Si Kouyan said, his long, phoenix eyes lifting with a hint of mischief.

“What condition?” Ji Tianxin asked, watching him.

Truthfully, a single chicken was hardly enough to make her agree to any terms. If he refused to let her eat, she would simply help herself. But since this person could cook delicious food, she wasn’t eager to resort to force.

“Not only can you eat this, but from now on, anything I cook, you may eat as well,” Si Kouyan offered, as if he could read her thoughts, extending a most tempting proposition.

Sure enough, when Ji Tianxin heard this, her eyes lit up instantly. Her face brightened with a childish delight that hadn’t been there before.

Si Kouyan’s gaze dropped, a gentle smile on his lips. “Give me that rabbit lantern,” he said after a pause, looking back at Ji Tianxin across from him. “That’s my condition.”

Ji Tianxin looked at him, then lifted the rabbit lantern from her arms and handed it over without hesitation. “Here.”

A lantern in exchange for a cook.

That was a fair trade.