Chapter 7: That’s Mine!

On the twenty-eighth day of living together, Lin Xia ordered takeout.

This was an extremely ordinary thing.

These days, they often ordered takeout to eat.

But from the moment she opened the delivery app to the moment the food arrived at the door, something happened that bothered her:

Her malatang had an extra portion of lotus root added about three minutes after she placed the order.

She hadn’t added it.

‘Who could that be…’

“……Su Xin!”

“Hmm?”

“How could you open my phone?”

“Your phone was on the table, and you didn’t lock the screen,” Yin Qi said, her tone righteous.

“Adding some lotus root makes it taste better.”

“……That was my order.”

“I added it for you, I’m not taking it from you, don’t worry.”

“……”

Lin Xia looked down at the malatang order with the added lotus root.

“Then why didn’t you order your own?”

“You ordered, so I just need to snag a bite,” Yin Qi said.

“Eating a whole portion by myself is too much.”

Lin Xia felt she had no retort, so she didn’t argue.

She was silent for a moment, then finally chose to open the notes section.

While the restaurant was still preparing the order, she changed “mild spice” to “extra spicy” as a silent revenge against Yin Qi.

When the delivery arrived, Lin Xia went to open the door, brought the bags in, put them on the table, glanced, then glanced again.

There were two portions in the bag.

Her malatang, with added lotus root, extra spicy.

There was also a dry-mixed rice noodles, which Yin Qi had ordered.

She turned around and saw Yin Qi sitting at the dining table, already ready with chopsticks, expression calm.

“……Did you order that yourself?”

“Mm,” Yin Qi said.

“Just eating yours wouldn’t be enough.”

Yin Qi had used her own account—one the organization had prepared for her, and they would regularly deposit enough living expenses for her to order food.

“Just now I said I’d just snag a bite was a lie, but you really added spice quickly. I felt like you were retaliating, so I ordered my own.”

Lin Xia stood there, holding her meal container, feeling like some invisible force had seen through her, making her look undignified.

“Can you not always do this,” she said, “like you have mind reading or something?”

“No,” Yin Qi opened her rice noodles.

“I saw your action of changing the notes. I saw you add the spice.”

“……Then you’ve got sharp eyes.”

Lin Xia sat down, lowered her head and started eating.

After two bites, she placed those few slices of lotus root into Yin Qi’s bowl without saying a word.

Yin Qi took them and ate them, then said, “Ah, you don’t want them?”

“Don’t touch my phone anymore,” Lin Xia said.

“Next time you want to eat something, just tell me directly.”

“That’s fine,” Yin Qi answered readily.

“It just so happens tomorrow is Thursday.”

Lin Xia almost choked: “……I meant ask you what you want to eat, not have you place an order directly.”

“Ah, what’s the difference?”

“Ugh……”

Lin Xia decided not to explain anymore.

She turned back and continued eating her extra spicy malatang.

For a Chuanyu Tyrannosaurus Rex like her, extra spicy was probably just about right.

She didn’t know if Yin Qi, as a Meme, had the same taste preferences as humans—she hadn’t asked after all these days.

But based on her experience living with Yin Qi for the past month, Lin Xia decided to hand Yin Qi the small container of chili oil that came in the bag.

After one human and one Meme finished eating, they cleaned up the table and dispersed as usual.

But in that day’s observation log, Lin Xia broke her routine by not writing “no anomalies.”

Instead, she added an extra sentence at the end:

“Observation subject has strong observation and reasoning abilities. It is recommended to reassess the cognitive level in the follow-up evaluation report.”