Unconvinced

"I know," Ye Wanqing replied, her head lowered, but her ears were slightly red. "You clearly hated me at first."

"I... I don't dislike you... it's just that we don't get along in many ways," Xiao He muttered softly. Ye Wanqing glanced at him sideways and asked, "Then why do you like me now?"

"Hey, why are you asking so many questions? Do you want me to hate you?" Xiao He said irritably.

Ye Wanqing frowned slightly, glared at him, and then muttered, "We didn't even buy flour..."

"I'll go buy it now!" Xiao He immediately turned around and prepared to leave, secretly relieved that he could change the subject.

"Hey! Wait here, I'll go with you." But then Ye Wanqing stopped him. "You don't know what kind of flour to buy. There are many kinds of flour, such as high-gluten, medium-gluten, and low-gluten flour. You can't buy the wrong kind."

After going downstairs, Ye Wanqing reached out her hand to him, tilting her head and looking stern, like a little daughter who was angry with her father but couldn't bear to leave him.

Xiao He didn't say anything, but took her small hand and walked with her across the street.

Seeing a car approaching, Xiao He pulled Ye Wanqing to the stop, shielding her behind him, and waited until the car had passed before continuing.

"What? Wasn't she quite thoughtful?" Ye Wanqing thought to herself, turning her face away, a faint smile appearing on her lips.

"So, what kind of flour should we use?" Xiao He asked, looking at the bags of flour in front of him as they entered the supermarket.

"All-purpose flour is generally used for making dumplings and steamed buns, so the dough is chewy but not too tough," Ye Wanqing said, examining the flour in front of her. "Low-gluten flour is usually used for making cakes, while high-gluten flour is used for frying dough sticks and making ramen. There's also extra-high-gluten flour, which can be used to make gluten. Anyway, there are many kinds..."

Thinking of this, Ye Wanqing suddenly had a flash of inspiration, which she expressed directly through her body language: she tilted her head and trembled slightly, making people want to smile like an aunt.

"Oh, right. How about we buy a bag of each? That way we can fry dough sticks or make cakes later." Ye Wanqing smiled sweetly at him. Her smile was truly sweet; her eyes narrowed, revealing two eye bags. Moreover, she laughed openly, generously showing off her row of pearly teeth, unlike some girls who would hide their smiles.

Xiao He also noticed that her left lateral incisor (the tooth next to her front tooth) was slightly crooked, turning inwards a bit more than her right lateral incisor, but this only made her smile even more adorable.

"Hmm..." Xiao He pinched his cheek hard in response, trying to keep himself from being completely charmed by the girl.

"What are you doing?" Ye Wanqing asked, looking at him in confusion. Xiao He shook his head. "Nothing, my face is twitching."

Ye Wanqing gave him a suspicious look, then handed him the flour in her hand. "Here, take this. We'll each take a bag, and we can make all sorts of things when we get back. Fried dough sticks, steamed buns, dumplings..."

"This is just too wonderful..." Xiao He imagined the future recipes and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Ye Wanqing bought two bags of all-purpose flour and one bag each of bread flour and cake flour, then nodded in satisfaction. "That's enough. Let's go, Old Xiao, let's go buy some meat. We'll have dumplings tonight."

"Yes," Xiao He responded, following behind Ye Wanqing.

After getting used to it, the nickname "Old Xiao" actually feels pretty good.

Back home, Ye Wanqing began directing Xiao He to chop the meat into minced meat, and then she seasoned the minced meat.

As for the physically demanding task of kneading dough, that was naturally left to Xiao He.

"Why are you rubbing so hard? Be gentle!" Ye Wanqing asked, dissatisfied.

Xiao He noticed that Ye Wanqing's tone of voice when she spoke to him had changed significantly. Before, it was always accusatory, but now it sounded like she was being coquettish.

Cute.

"I'm being gentle..." Xiao He said, reducing the pressure as he carefully kneaded the dough on the work surface, then slowly rolled it into a long strip. "Is this okay?"

Ye Wanqing cut off a small piece of dough and then skillfully rolled it out into a dumpling wrapper using a rolling pin.

"Almost done." Ye Wanqing nodded in satisfaction, pointed her little finger to the kitchen, and said, "Take the dumpling filling to the living room. We'll make dumplings together later and watch Gintama while we're at it."

After all the preliminary work was completed, Xiao He and Ye Wanqing sat down at the coffee table in the living room.

"Watch carefully, this is how you wrap dumplings." Ye Wanqing said, picking up a dumpling wrapper, putting some filling on it, then pinching a pleat on one side of the wrapper, and then pinching along the edge of the pleat all the way to the other side. Finally, she pinched another pleat at the other end and sealed it. A delicate dumpling was finished.

"Have you learned it?" Ye Wanqing asked Xiao He.

"How about we try changing the name of the dumplings to 'Lin Tiannan'?" Xiao He muttered.

"Oh dear, don't rely on Superpower for everything. Life will become so boring if you do that," Ye Wanqing frowned. "Isn't it the same if we wrap them ourselves slowly? Besides, your method sounds really unreliable... Are you going to ruin the dumplings?"

"I just said it offhand..." Xiao He replied dismissively.

Ye Wanqing was busy, so she lifted her leg and pointed at the TV with her cute little toe, "Can you cast it to the screen? Let's watch Gintama, and wrap some things while we watch."

The two sat on the sofa, making dumplings and watching anime. Tuantuan then nimbly jumped and landed on the coffee table opposite them, watching them curiously as they made dumplings, her tail wagging back and forth.

Xiao He felt a special warmth and comfort at this moment, and he even considered taking a picture of it to use as his desktop wallpaper.

However, when it was time to cook the dumplings, Xiao He suddenly stepped forward. "I'll do it! Let me show you my pan-fried dumplings!"

"Are you sure you can handle this? It's so hard to make dumplings properly, don't waste them!" Ye Wanqing frowned. Xiao He smugly. "Hmph, my three culinary specialties are instant noodles, fried rice, and pan-fried dumplings. In these three areas, I won't lose to anyone."

"It's all the simplest stuff, what's there to be proud of..." Ye Wanqing was both annoyed and amused. "Fine, you do it today."

Xiao He carried some dumplings into the kitchen, and Ye Wanqing was happy to have some free time, so she crossed her legs and sat on the sofa to watch cartoons.

She only came to the table out of curiosity when Xiao He brought over a plate of steaming hot fried dumplings.

"Pretty impressive..." Ye Wanqing said, looking at the dumplings Xiao He had fried. Then she picked one up, blew on it, and ate it. With a "crunch," the crisp sound of the flaky crust underneath the dumpling showed its perfect texture.

A hint of surprise flashed across Ye Wanqing's face. "Delicious! Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside..."

"Hmph." Xiao He stood to the side, arms crossed, watching him smugly.

"What's there to be so smug about? It's just frying some dumplings..." Ye Wanqing muttered, glancing at him sideways.

But despite saying that, she ate twelve fried dumplings in one go before stopping.

She never usually eats this much, which made her feel frustrated: she had actually lost to this man in cooking!

While washing the dishes, Ye Wanqing still seemed a little resentful.

"Don't act like Little Pufferfish," Xiao He said, suppressing a laugh.

Ye Wanqing didn't say anything, but simply handed over the clean plate. Xiao He took it, rinsed it with water, and then put it in the cupboard. The two were becoming more and more in sync.