"Thank you..."
While Bai Ying was still entranced by all the lush greenery, Bean had already opened the scuffed shoe cabinet and taken out a pair of dark blue rubber slippers, placing them by Bai Ying's feet.
But when Bai Ying noticed that Bean was wearing only socks on the metal floor, she realized the slippers had been set out specifically for guests.
After hesitating for a moment, Bai Ying awkwardly waved them away and followed Bean's example, stepping onto the floor in her socks. When in Rome, after all. She didn't want Bean and Sato Yu to have to accommodate her in every way.
Seeing that Bai Ying still seemed a little stiff, Bean became even more welcoming. After putting the slippers neatly back in the cabinet, she led Bai Ying into the rather cramped living room.
Perhaps because space was limited, the only furnishings in the entire living room were an L-shaped open kitchen, a refrigerator, and a tea table so low that it could only be used properly while kneeling.
The induction cooker, microwave, sink... All the kitchen and bathroom fixtures were crammed onto a counter less than five meters long. Bai Ying could only imagine how inconvenient it must be to cook there.
The refrigerator was an old, single-door model, so tiny it could practically be called miniature. By Bai Ying's estimate, even packed to the brim, it couldn't hold more than three days' worth of food for one person.
The one thing that surprised Bai Ying was that seventeen plants, large and small, were arranged in this cramped space—and some were growing in water, while others were planted in soil!
Ever since Bai Ying was born, plants had only existed for her in textbooks and historical documentaries!
On the rare occasions she'd seen real plants,