Dania Is Just Looking at You

Xiao Ling had to admit that counting dumplings was definitely one of his ancestors' greatest inventions.

At least, with its help, he had managed to get some sleep.

...It would have been even better if no one had suddenly shoved him awake.

Xiao Ling opened his eyes with great reluctance and found Dania standing beside him, just looking at him quietly without saying a word.

(Dania is just looking at you.jpg)

And so he forcibly swallowed the grouchiness that came from being woken up short on sleep.

"I'm hungry," Dania said to Xiao Ling.

"What do you want to eat?" Xiao Ling's voice was a little hoarse with sleep.

"Anything."

If another girl had said "anything," she might have meant something else, but if Dania said it, she probably really wasn't picky.

"Then sit for a bit. I'll go make you something."

Xiao Ling threw off the blanket and climbed off the couch, stretching his stiff, aching neck.

This place is too small. I should move somewhere bigger another day. I can't keep sleeping on the couch, Xiao Ling thought.

Wearing slippers and sporting dark circles under his eyes, he walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and rummaged through the remaining ingredients.

Honestly, living alone, he rarely cooked, but that was purely because he was lazy, not because he couldn't. If he really had to cook, he could at least put together a decent meal of three dishes and a soup.

...Though when life had been at its hardest, he hadn't even had vegetable soup to eat.

Xiao Ling took scallions and some still-fresh lean pork from the fridge, grabbed a few eggs, and went to the stove to get to work.

Pots, bowls, and utensils clattered in the kitchen like a small concert, with Xiao Ling as their conductor.

Dania sat on the couch, where she had a clear view of Xiao Ling working in the kitchen.

She still hadn't figured out what was going on, either. She had clearly fallen asleep at home, only to wake up in a completely unfamiliar place.

Dania had actually enjoyed a rare, restful sleep. Before this, she had never slept well; Aleph-1's whispers had always disturbed her rest.

So when she had pushed Xiao Ling awake, she had actually felt a little guilty. She knew full well how irritating it was to be woken from sleep, but she was simply too hungry to bear it.

To Dania's surprise, though, he had an unexpectedly good temper. He had only asked what she wanted to eat before going to make her something.

He's a pretty nice person. That was Dania's first impression.

While Dania was lost in thought, Xiao Ling was nearly finished.

He put the cooked noodles in a bowl, layered the cooked pork slices and boiled eggs on top, sprinkled on a layer of chopped scallions, and finally poured flavorful broth over everything. It was a simple dish, but the portion was large enough to fill her up.

"Come eat," he called.

As soon as Dania heard the food was ready, she came over with quick little steps.

Before her was a large bowl of noodles, accompanied by pork slices and boiled eggs and garnished with chopped scallions. It looked delicious.

"Then... shall I dig in?" Dania said, seemingly asking for Xiao Ling's permission.

"I made it for you," Xiao Ling said gently, the corners of his mouth curling up.

Dania dropped the formalities, picked up the utensils Xiao Ling had prepared, and began to enjoy her breakfast unhurriedly.

Strangely enough, she was clearly eating slowly, with an elegance like a swan sipping water, yet the noodles in the bowl were steadily dwindling before his eyes.

"Aren't you eating?" Halfway through her meal, Dania finally remembered that the cook who had made it didn't seem to have eaten yet.

"You go ahead. The ingredients are ready, so making another bowl won't take long," Xiao Ling said calmly.

Only after getting his answer did Dania feel at ease enough to bury herself in her food again.

Good, good. Looks like she likes my cooking well enough. Xiao Ling breathed a quiet sigh of relief inwardly.

For a little while afterward, Dania ate with her head down while Xiao Ling watched her. There was something rather peaceful about it.

"I'm full." Dania pulled out two tissues and wiped her mouth like a proper lady. A look at the bowl showed that, goodness, it was spotless, without even a drop of soup left.

"Good, as long as you're full." Xiao Ling picked up the bowl and utensils and casually put them in the sink used for washing dishes.

"I'm going to catch up on sleep first. This afternoon, I'll take you out to buy some clothes and stuff. The TV remote is here; just press the buttons yourself if you want to watch something."

After briefly explaining how to use the remote and what its functions were, Xiao Ling yawned and went back to his room to catch up on sleep.

Hajiling was actually dead tired. Now that he had finally fed Dania, he could retire with his task accomplished and enjoy a good sleep.

Dania had no objections and watched him go straight back to his room.

With a click, the living room and bedroom became two separate spaces, and Dania had time to think about other things.

This world doesn't seem to have resonance power or Laments. That was Dania's first discovery.

Most of her power came from the Lament Aleph-1, but after coming to this world, she couldn't draw on Aleph-1's power, and even her own resonance abilities were restricted.

Of course, it wasn't all bad. At least she no longer had to listen to that guy muttering all sorts of nonsense in her ear every day.

Since there was no resonance power or Tacet Discords, there were correspondingly no Sui Sentinels or Threnodians.

That only made her more curious about how civilization in this world had survived.

She used the remote to find an educational history channel and began learning about it.

Dania's second discovery concerned Xiao Ling.

Though she wasn't entirely sure, she felt that Xiao Ling and Rover must have some connection. Perhaps Rover was Xiao Ling.

She felt that Xiao Ling himself was more human than Rover. Rover treated everyone with the same even-tempered gentleness and would even save someone like her.

That was good, but it wasn't good either. Rover was like a dazzling sun: she could bask in his radiance and feel its warmth, but he was hard to reach.

By comparison, Xiao Ling was all too ordinary, yet within Dania's reach.

The educational program happened to be showing the history of humanoids evolving into true humans.

At the mention of evolution, Dania couldn't help feeling a chill rise from the bottom of her heart.

"Evolution... heh. That crazy woman goes on all day about making humanity evolve."

But in truth, wasn't that another kind of step backward in history?

Dania quietly watched the educational program and listened to the ticking of the living room clock, suddenly feeling a little sleepy.

This educational channel was quite useful in a way, Dania thought. At least it helped her sleep.

Then she found a relatively comfortable position on the couch and fell asleep, drifting off to the program's narration and the ticking of the clock.