Later that evening, Qianling and Yang Mo returned home together.
Since there were still plenty of ingredients left from yesterday, there was no need to make a special trip to buy groceries today.
Dinner was mainly prepared by Yang Mo. Without Yang Xia at her side making comments, Qianling finally found the chance to ask Yang Mo for advice on how to cook.
The types of pots, how to use the appliances, precautions when using the stove—she covered all the most basic points.
During the process, Yang Mo asked curiously, “Are you interested in cooking?”
“Well, after all, I am a housekeeping robot.”
Qianling answered without even thinking.
Yang Mo seemed tired of hearing this old joke, and replied, “Are you still going to keep up with that setting?”
The two of them bustled about for a while, and finally brought out a plate of stir-fried shredded potatoes with green peppers and a plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes.
Before they started eating, Yang Mo especially reminded her, “Qianling… um, don’t get your hopes up, my cooking is nowhere near as good as my sister’s.”
When Qianling actually took a bite, she found it was indeed the case.
Maybe too little salt was used on the shredded potatoes—the flavor was a bit bland and couldn’t balance out the spicy aftertaste of the green peppers.
The eggs were slightly burnt, and the tomatoes and eggs weren’t really mixed together.
Still, it wasn’t exactly unpalatable.
Yang Mo watched Qianling eat the first few bites with a nervous look, not even touching her own chopsticks.
So Qianling swallowed her food, looked up, and told her, “It tastes fine. Don’t just sit there watching—eat too.”
“Really? Then I’m relieved.”
Yang Mo let out a sigh of relief and finally reached out with her chopsticks.
But Qianling still felt something was a little odd.
Logically, when Yang Mo was alone, she’d have to cook for herself. If that’s the case, shouldn’t she know perfectly well whether her own cooking is edible or not?
She threw her question at Yang Mo: “Do you rarely cook for yourself? How did you manage when you were alone before I came?”
“Um… about that…”
Yang Mo’s gaze began to dart left and right.
“Don’t tell me…”
Seeing Yang Mo’s guilty reaction, Qianling already had a pretty good idea.
If she remembered correctly, this girl bought a lot of snacks and ready-made food yesterday… Though she did that too herself.
So the truth is—
“You usually just use snacks as meals, don’t you?”
How did you know!?
Yang Mo’s reaction was as if that sentence had been turned into reality.
Even without her admitting it, her gaping mouth and the chopsticks dropping from her hand told Qianling everything.
Next, like a criminal broken by a verbal bullet, she confessed everything to Qianling.
“Well, it’s not all just snacks. There’s also… like cake, and instant noodles, stuff like that.”
After listening to Yang Mo’s forced smile and her supplement, Qianling couldn’t feel even a bit more at ease.
She said coldly to Yang Mo, “How can you mess around with dinner like this when you’re still growing? Your sister definitely doesn’t know about this. If you don’t change, I’ll go tell her.”
“Ugh!… Please don’t!”
Just as Qianling expected, Yang Mo immediately put on a teary-eyed expression and even tried to grab her sleeve to beg for sympathy.
But Qianling quickly moved her hand away, deciding to stay stern and impartial for once.
“Are you going to change?”
“I will, Qianling, I promise!”
Seeing Yang Mo’s watery eyes, Qianling couldn’t help but sigh softly beside her.
Learning to cook really was the right call…
But with this, it looked like she was going to have to stick to the housekeeping robot persona after all.
After dinner, everything went on as usual until bedtime.
Once back in her room, Yang Mo started rummaging through boxes and finally dug out a white cardboard box.
Yang Mo opened the lid right there in the cabinet, and when Qianling looked down, she found an old cell phone inside.
To her surprise, the phone’s model wasn’t outdated.
It was the kind of touchscreen smartphone that was extremely common even in her previous life. There were hardly any signs of use, and the pink phone case on the outside was still on.
“If you don’t mind, you can use this from now on.”
As Yang Mo spoke, she turned to look at Qianling.
Qianling hadn’t expected her to actually remember that casual remark on the way home from school, nor that someone like her—who didn’t care much for phones—could come up with an old one that still worked.
Qianling asked seriously, “Are you sure? Giving me something this valuable…”
“No one uses it if you don’t.”
“Then can you tell me why it was just left here gathering dust?”
“Because it was my sister’s, not mine.”
Yang Mo got annoyed just mentioning it.
She crossed her arms and pouted, telling Qianling the reason.
“She said using an old model would make her the butt of jokes at school, so she switched to the newest one. She’s so reckless with her own spending, yet she lectures me at the supermarket.”
“I see…” Qianling said with emotion.
With this, all her doubts were put to rest.
Yang Mo added, “So don’t worry about the phone’s functions. You can use it without a problem. I’ll help you get a SIM card tomorrow when we go out.”
“You have my thanks.”
This was such a big help for Qianling that she spoke in honorifics without thinking.
But Yang Mo didn’t seem too happy about it.
“Qianling, if you keep talking like that, I’ll take it back.”
“Sorry, it just slipped out—”
“No, no! What you should say now is…?”
“Alright, I get it… Thank you.”
Qianling gave Yang Mo a wry smile, and she finally didn’t protest any further.
“But there’s still one problem.” Qianling picked up the phone and asked, “What if there are private things of your sister’s on here?”
“Let me know about them.”
For a moment, Qianling couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.
So she asked again, “You mean…?”
“The more dirt I have on my sister, the better.”
Yang Mo made her intentions clear again, even flashing a mischievous grin as she urged, “Qianling, on this point, we’re totally on the same side!”
Qianling was silent for a while. She glanced at the pink phone in her hand, then shifted her gaze back to Yang Mo.
“Weren’t you the one who had this phone before? If you wanted to see what’s on it, why not check yourself?”
Faced with this sharp question, Yang Mo immediately lost her confidence.
She scratched the back of her head and mumbled in a feeble voice, “Well… I just happened to get the chance now…”
“…”
For her answer, Qianling just shot her a wordless, piercing look from the side.
You little rascal, pushing the dirty work onto me because you don’t want to do it yourself, huh?
Thinking that, she pressed the power button.
Sure enough, nothing happened.
She’d just have to wait until the phone was charged to see what’s inside.
Qianling could only hope there wasn’t really anything private buried in there.
Thankfully, Yang Xia’s skills with phones probably weren’t on the same level as Yang Mo’s.
After all, someone who cared about trends in electronics wouldn’t forget to wipe their data from old devices, right, Yang Xia?
But if there really is something, there’s nothing I can do for you.
She plugged in the phone’s charger and didn’t pay any more attention to it until the next morning.