Although she didn't know what had happened, Ling couldn't just leave the two outside in the cold, so she let them in.
"I'm going to make dinner first. Make yourselves at home for now. We can talk about anything at the dinner table." Seeing their hesitant expressions, Ling thought for a moment and decided to give them some time alone.
Unexpectedly, until Ling had finished cooking and served the meal, which was an extra two Uma Musume's worth, the two of them were still playing on their phones on the living room sofa, waiting for her. She had thought they might start bickering as usual.
"Alright, dinner's ready!" She placed the dishes on the dining table and called them over to eat.
She felt a bit like a mom taking care of two children... She shook her head to cast away the useless thought, and Teio and McQueen also came to the dining table.
"Wow, so many dishes!" Teio's eyes sparkled as she looked at the rich variety of food.
"You didn't have to go to so much trouble..." McQueen was worried if she had made so much just because they were there.
"This is how I eat by myself, so you don't need to worry too much." She wasn't lying. If she were eating alone, she would reduce the amount of each dish and make several more. Although it felt a bit troublesome, she wouldn't mind it if it meant good food and drink. This time, she had simply increased the portion size of each dish.
Teio, already seated, looked at Ling with expectant eyes, waiting for her to pick up her chopsticks first. Due to Japan's peculiar emphasis on hygiene and etiquette, guests had to wait for the host to start eating, and communal chopsticks were specially prepared for serving dishes into one's own rice bowl.
However, Teio looked rather like a little dog waiting for dinner, while the cautious McQueen beside her resembled a kitten. Thinking this, the two seemed quite well-matched.
After all, the cat and dog war has been an age-old rivalry, hasn't it?
The dishes Ling made this time were Chinese... sichuan cuisine.
sichuan cuisine is often misunderstood as being only numbing and spicy, but in reality, most Sichuan dishes are mild. However, Ling's preference for strong flavors meant she focused on the more intensely flavored dishes. As a result, after a few bites, both of them started to have red faces, breathing heavily, and sweating, yet they couldn't stop eating.
"Ugh!!!" Teio suddenly widened her eyes, trembling slightly, with the chopsticks she had just used to pick up food still in her mouth.
"What's wrong, Teio?" McQueen looked at Teio in confusion, casually wiping sweat with a handkerchief nearby. Although delicious, eating while sweating like this was too inelegant.
"Woo woo! Woo woo!" Teio covered her mouth, pointing at a dish with her finger. McQueen followed her finger and looked over.
It was a clean, white meat dish, looking very much like chicken skin? It wasn't that complicated, just garnished with a few yellow-green small chili peppers, appearing unusually mild.
"Well, McQueen, you'll know if you try it~" Ling smiled and picked up a bit, putting it into her mouth with some rice.
Pickled chili boneless chicken feet. Deboning was just a matter of trouble. She had originally planned to make lemon boneless chicken feet, but seeing the two children come over, she directly took out those from the pickled chili jar.
As for the taste of pickled chili... for these children who were trying it for the first time and weren't good with spicy food... McQueen couldn't resist her curiosity. Although she had seen Teio's miserable state of frantically drinking milk, people always have a bit of wishful thinking.
What if Teio was just overreacting? What if she could surprisingly handle spicy food?
The result, of course, was +1 to the number of people chugging milk.
"Pfft" Seeing their reactions, Ling couldn't help but burst out laughing, then was met with angry glares from the two.
"Hahaha, sorry, sorry, but I really wanted to see your reactions www" Someone had absolutely no guilt about tricking her juniors.
"Hmph... What is this, it's so spicy..." Teio could finally speak now.
"It's a food called pickled chili. Although it's classified as a seasoning, many people like to eat it directly, like me." Saying this, Ling calmly picked up a pickled chili and put it in her mouth, chewing.
Pickled chili, also known as fish chili, is one of the three soul seasonings of sichuan cuisine, alongside douchi and pickles. It's spicy with a slight sourness, which is excellent for stimulating appetite. In other regions, pickled chili made from wild mountain chili is more common.
"..." x2 The two understood her love for spicy food.
"Don't look at me like that. I haven't even made the really spicy dishes yet," Rei Zai shrugged.
"There's something even spicier!?" McQueen couldn't help but exclaim.
Afterward, everyone continued to eat and chat happily. Perhaps because of the earlier incident, McQueen had relaxed a lot and no longer paid attention to those cumbersome etiquettes.
After finishing the meal, the two were naturally sent by a certain rascal to wash the dishes.
"Since you've eaten, you should at least give something in return, right?" Those were the rascal's original words, and the two, feeling it was rude to freeload a meal, naturally agreed.
After the work there was done, Rei Zai led the two to sit on the sofa, gave them a pudding and honey drink, and then began to ask questions.
"So, what happened?"
"Well…" Teio looked a little embarrassed.
"Te—i—o—?" McQueen stared at her with an ill-intentioned gaze.
"Cough." Teio, knowing she was in the wrong, cleared her throat and began to explain the reason.
It all started when McQueen was found to have gained weight during her physical examination, while Teio, despite eating various calorie bombs all day, showed no change in her weight.
It felt unnecessary to say too much; this reason alone was enough for McQueen to chase Teio three streets.
In short, Teio accidentally saw the weight-gaining McQueen and started taunting her. Then, the two argued and began to run. They ran and ran, eventually running out of school (no classes or training on the day of the physical). They ran for a very long time before stopping. By the time they realized something was wrong, it was already dark.
Although they were two new students who enrolled this year, it was absolutely impossible for them not to know the authority of the Dorm Leader and Miss Hayakawa, especially since they couldn't make it back before curfew, no matter how fast they ran.
It would take half an hour to get from Rei Zai's residence to the school, but that half hour was for training at a running pace. The two had just finished an ultra-long distance run; it was already good that they hadn't collapsed on the spot. In their current state, it was utterly impossible to get back before curfew.
As for McQueen, she felt that today's events, regardless of the cause, were too embarrassing, so she didn't want to notify her family to pick her up. Thus, the two hit it off and decided to stay overnight at Rei Zai's place.
"= =" How to put it, there were too many things to complain about, it was a bit overwhelming.
"Are you two rivals from a hot-blooded anime!?" Anyway, let's complain about that first.
"Ah haha…" Teio scratched her face awkwardly.
"Forget it, but there's only one guest room right now. You two don't mind sleeping together…" Halfway through her sentence, Rei Zai immediately stopped, looking at their expressions.
"Alright, well, the bed is big enough. You two discuss it, and one of you can sleep in my room = =" After all, they were her juniors. She couldn't let them sleep on the floor or the sofa, and it was impossible for her to go herself.
Anyway, the bed was big enough, and since none of the three were particularly large, sleeping together on one bed wouldn't be a problem if they didn't mind being a bit cramped.
But that would be too cramped. It was almost summer now. Although it wasn't very hot yet, there was a faint urge to turn on a fan while sleeping.
"Let's go. If there are three of us, let's go wash in the bathhouse downstairs. As for clothes… (She looked at their figures)… you can barely wear my clothes, I guess = = Just bear with it tonight for now."
Teio was only slightly taller than her, while McQueen was a bit tall, about 159cm. But it was fine; if her estimation wasn't wrong, this child was even flatter than her, so wearing her clothes wouldn't cause difficulty breathing.
Suddenly, she felt a little sorry for McQueen, in every sense of the word.
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