Chapter 26: Tentative

Because there is a lively atmosphere, a hot pot meal is not embarrassing.
Halfway through the meal, Zhou Yizhi got up to add spices, and Lin Jiayu also stood up and went to her to change the dipping dish.
The two said something.
The distance was too far, Xue Xi couldn't know what the two said, only that they were standing in front of the glass shelf, the boy turned his back to him, and Zhou Yizhi said with a smile at Yan Yan.
It was very hot in the hot pot restaurant. Zhou Yizhi took off his jacket and wore only a black turtleneck sweater underneath, showing a small piece of fair skin.
She looked up at the boy and smiled again.
Xue Xi frowned.
Zhou Yizhi turned her head to look at her brother, but when her eyes fell, her brother was completely focused on eating the food on the plate. The rising hot pot mist covered his Ying Ting's profile, making it difficult to see his expression.
Zhou Yizhi quickly walked back with Lin Jiayu.
Xue Xi lowered his eyes, and the shadows under his eyebrows looked a bit gloomy.
After the hot pot was eaten, the rain had stopped, so Zhou Yizhi asked the driver to stop the car in the parking lot, go down and walk home to eat.
The leaves of the plane trees along the road on the left side of the ramp fell all over the place, and some remaining bleakly remained in the winter, but some places had already sprouted buds, as if spring was about to come.
Zhou Yizhi's neck was buried in the scarf, and Xue Xi walked beside her.
The street lamp illuminates the two figures, the young girl is thin and slender, and the young man is long, passing by the street lamps, which are long and short.
"Is the hot pot delicious?" Xue Xi said suddenly.
He let out a cloud of white mist.
Zhou Yizhi stared at his shadow on the ground, thinking, here, my brother is going to ask her and Lin Jiayu what they said in front of the shelf.
She didn't know why she was a little excited, and tried her best to suppress it, and said casually: "It's pretty good, I especially like the dipping sauce made out."
Xue Xi was silent.
Zhou Yizhi's fingers curled up in the pockets of the down jacket, his heart beating.
But when she thought that her brother was going to say something, Xue Xi paused, looked at her, and said, "If you like, you can go to eat in the future, but don't use it too often, and the house will be cleaner."
this one? Zhou Yizhi almost spit out his heart.
She did not give up and said: "Brother, what do you think of Lin Jiayu?"
She turned her head, showing a full smile, staring at Xue Xi.
"How about what?"
"He is not from our school, but his grades are very good. He seems to be among the top ones in their school. I think it might be helpful for the college entrance examination to communicate with other high schools about the scope of the exam, so I invited him to come to my home to review his homework on weekends. , And he is much more handsome than Cong You, he is simply stepping on my aesthetics of boys."
Zhou Yizhi finished, waiting for his brother to react.
But the elder brother had already walked outside the fence, stretched out his fingers that were whitish by the cold wind, pulled the fence aside, and signaled her to enter.
Zhou Yizhi couldn't help repeating it again: "It's okay to let him come home on weekends?"
My brother glanced at her, lowered his eyelashes, and paused: "Oh."
"It's cold outside, go in." He motioned to her again.
Zhou Yizhi:...
I said a lot and praised others, so you "oh"? ! What does "oh" mean? Is it happy or unhappy? ! Zhou Yizhi was frantic and couldn't help but stare at the boy next to him carefully.
At this time, he had already reached the steps in front of the villa.
The elder brother was carrying the schoolbags of the two of them with no expression on his face. Seeing her looking over, he asked her to enter the door quickly.
Zhou Yizhi was really wrong, and quickly entered the door. Because there was no way to get the answer she wanted, she was chilled in her heart, kicked off her shoes, kicked each other, and went into the kitchen to pour juice.
Xue Xi entered the door behind her, leaned over and picked up her shoes that had been flying so far, and placed them on the side of the entrance.
He changed his shoes and walked in, threw two schoolbags on the sofa, and listened to her talking to Aunt He in the kitchen, saying that a friend would be coming this weekend, in a cheerful and expectant tone. There was no expression on his face, and he walked upstairs, his back looking bored.
On the weekend, Lin Jiayu came as scheduled. The housekeeper and Aunt He rarely saw Zhou Yizhi bring friends to the villa. They were naturally very happy. They washed a lot of fruits to entertain.
Zhou Yizhi gave a brief introduction and asked Lin Jiayu to enter the room with her with her schoolbag. Lin Jiayu also smiled and said hello to Xue Xi. Xue Xi looked as usual.
After entering the room, Zhou Yizhi closed the door, placed two chairs in front of the desk, spread out many information books on the desk, and sat down with Lin Jiayu in front of the desk.
After sitting down, Zhou Yizhi stuffed a pen in Lin Jiayu's hand, spread a draft paper in front of him, and whispered to him: "Pretending to be talking about the topic."
Lin Jiayu also lowered his voice and said, "But I don't think your brother had any response just now."
"Don't worry about it, you just need to cooperate." Zhou Yizhi was about to bury his head on the table, and quickly wrote a few questions on the blank paper in order to make the play more realistic.
In fact, Zhou Yizhi told Lin Jiayu frankly that he had a favorite last time at the hot pot restaurant. The two stood in front of the glass shelves for a long time. Lin Jiayu looked a little disappointed at first, but fortunately, Zhou Yizhi’s words were very good. In time, the goodwill for beautiful girls in adolescence is easy to take back, just don't cross the line.
But then his disappointment turned into surprise. Zhou Yizhi liked the brother she lived with, but it didn't matter if he was not his biological brother.
Instead, Lin Jiayu offered to help Zhou Yizhi try. As the saying goes, there are three things that are most difficult to hide, sneezing, coughing, and liking. If the tall and silent young man also liked Zhou Yizhi, he couldn't hide it at all.
Zhou Yizhi was a little impatient and looked up at the doorway from time to time.
Lin Jiayu suggested to her: "Open the tablet."
Zhou Yizhi: "?"
Lin Jiayu said: "Find a comedy and watch it."
And Xue Xi, who was standing in the kitchen pouring juice, was also a little anxious and unbearable. His absent-mindedness caused the juice to almost overflow. He looked up at the second floor, and Zhou Yizhi and the boy’s cheerful laughter came from the second floor. I don’t know if they were. looking at what.
Aunt He said with relief: "The little boy looked very upright just now, but will the young lady's early love affect his studies?"
Xue Xi lowered his eyes, constricted.
Zhou Yizhi and Lin Jiayu were far away from each other. They were doing homework while watching the video. Suddenly they heard someone coming upstairs, and the two hurriedly pulled their chairs closer.
The door was pushed open.
Xue Xi saw that the two were close together. They were all happy boys and girls. He seemed to be immersed in the joy of sharing, and he didn't notice the door being pushed open.
He stared at Lin Jiayu's head, with a strong feeling of being taken away.
Enduring the exclusivity in his heart, he walked over and gently put two glasses of juice on the table.
He asked: "What are you looking at?"
Lin Jiayu hurriedly asked embarrassedly: "Brother, did you noisy the people downstairs?"
"No." Xue Xi said: "It's okay."
Zhou Yizhi looked at him with one hand and smiled: "Brother, I am not thirsty."
"Drink again when you are thirsty." Xue Xi nodded, glanced at the draft and papers on the table of the two of them, and turned and went out.
The door was closed gently.
Zhou Yizhi looked at the juice and was about to say something. Within a few minutes, the door was knocked slightly again. Zhou Yizhi smiled and said, and his brother walked in again. He carried a bag of snacks and walked over to Zhou Yizhi. , Said: "If you watch the video, you will want to eat something, you eat slowly."
Zhou Yizhi took the snacks and said with joy: "Thank you brother!"
Xue Xi nodded and turned and went out.
Lin Jiayu suddenly whispered: "How do I feel like sitting on pins and needles."
Zhou Yizhi asked in a low voice, "Do you think he likes me, or is it purely out of his desire to protect his sister."
Lin Jiayu said: "For my sister, you should enter the door no more than three times. Now you have come in twice, you can look again--"
Before the words were finished, the door was knocked gently.
Zhou Yizhi was about to be unable to restrain the joy on her face, and the corners of her mouth were about to reach the back of her ears. She coughed in a low voice, pretending to be nonchalant and lazily doing the question, and said, "Is this brother again, come in."
Xue Xi held two packs of potato chips in his hand, walked over and put them on the table, and said, "Your favorite has just fallen."
Zhou Yizhi touched his chin and looked at him with a smile.
Xue Xi paused, then glanced at the chairs of Zhou Yizhi and Lin Jiayu. The two chairs were very close. Lin Jiayu's knee was about to touch Zhou Yizhi's, and his eyelids twitched slightly.
Five minutes later, Xue Xi sent another kind of juice squeezed by Aunt He himself.
When he placed it on the table of the two of them, he calmly swept Lin Jiayu's chair aside with his knees.
The two reached a safe distance.
Xue Xi turned around and went out.
Zhou Yizhi looked at his elder brother's back, suffocating a smile.
She can't say that she is 100% sure now, but she is at least 80% sure. At this time, her teenage brother already liked herself a bit. The so-called possessiveness, tut tut.
Zhou Yizhi suddenly became hot on his cheeks, and he couldn't help covering his face with cold hands. Next second-
Brother is here again.
He brought the hand warmer in time.
Xue Xi left the room soon after delivering the things.
He felt that he was not acting very abruptly.
Zhou Yizhi in the room could not restrain his excitement, and said to Lin Jiayu: "How many times has my brother been here? Is there seven times?"
"No, I have been up five times in half an hour." Lin Jiayu raised his wrist and looked at his watch, and said, "If I stay any longer, he should be up for the sixth time soon."
Unexpectedly, she was just planning to chase a girl, but she was forced to eat a bowl of dog food.
Lin Jiayu decided to kick over this bowl of dog food. He packed his schoolbag and planned to leave. To Zhou Yizhi: "Goodbye in cram school."
"Are you leaving now?" Zhou Yizhi smiled, leaving the room to see him off.
As soon as they reached the top of the stairs, they saw Xue Xi who was going upstairs.
Lin Jiayu turned around and said to Zhou Yizhi: Look, the sixth time.
Zhou Yizhi smiled at Xue Xi and said, "Brother, Lin Jiayu has something to do temporarily, so I have to go first. I'll go out to see him off."
Xue Xi nodded, turned around and watched the two jumping down the stairs. After leaving the villa, I don’t know what Lin Jiayu said. Zhou Yizhi's face was flushed, and he seemed a bit agitated. His footsteps were brisk and bright. Joyful, she kept sending Lin Jiayu to the fence, so happy that she jumped up, she was even more "yeah".
Xue Xi:...
Do you like this boy so much?
It's rare to see her so happy.
Xue Xi looked down at the hot tea he was holding, pressed his lips gently, and was silent.
He went downstairs, turned and walked towards the kitchen.
Zhou Yizhi could almost confirm that her brother liked herself, his heart was surging, and his heart was pounding, but when she turned around and went to the villa, she saw her brother standing in front of the kitchen sink to wash the cups. There was no expression on his face, because there was no light in the kitchen, so he looked a little gloomy, but his expression seemed to be filled with a deep and low breath.
My brother was washing the cup alone, looking a bit sad.