Chapter 1178: Only the Person You Trust Most Can See Shi Ran's Weakness

"Ranran, are you alright?"

Yun Qitian ran in from outside, first carefully observing Shi Ran's hands, afraid she might have hurt them while smashing something.

She grabbed him in a hug: "Shh! Don't speak, let me hold you for a while."

Tears couldn't stop sliding from her eyes, falling along her cheeks onto Yun Qitian's shoulder.

He felt them, icy and cool.

But he didn't dare move; what he felt most was heartache.

Yun Qitian was usually a chatterbox, but he was very quiet now, not saying a single word, only gently holding Shi Ran, letting her quietly release her sorrow and grievances.

Shi Ran was a very strong girl.

No matter how bitter or difficult things were, on the surface, she would always appear calm and unruffled, as if nothing had happened.

There were very few things that could make her sad and tearful.

And it was even rarer for her to be seen by others when she was crying, weak, and helpless.

Yun Qitian was naturally optimistic and excelled at finding joy in suffering.

He didn't care who Shi Ran was sad or upset for; he only cared that when Shi Ran was sad and upset, he was the one accompanying her, and her weakness was unmasked before him—that was enough.

This just went to show that Shi Ran trusted him the most!

She cried for quite a while.

Shi Ran felt much better, and just as she was preparing to pull away from Yun Qitian's embrace, the door was pushed open without a knock.

Ma Ling'er walked in carrying a thermal food jar: "Ranran..." She only got the beginning out before she saw her own son hugging Shi Ran.

She was pleasantly surprised and apologized happily: "Sorry, sorry, I'm disturbing you, excuse me, I'll go out right away. Oh, right, I have a surgery to perform, the patient is waiting..."

Saying this, she went out.

Shi Ran and Yun Qitian had already separated, both of their faces bright red.

One was from anxiety, the other from anger!

Shi Ran was anxious to explain, but Mother Yun spoke like a machine gun, dense and impenetrable, without even a punctuation mark, naturally giving her no chance to cut in.

Yun Qitian was angry.

His mother had come at a truly bad time; he had finally managed to get such an opportunity to have intimate contact with Shi Ran, yet she had to come at this exact moment, not a second earlier or later.

And it seemed she was carrying a thermal food jar in her hand?

"Knock, knock, knock."

The door was gently knocked three times, and Ma Ling'er asked softly from outside: "May I come in? Will I be disturbing you?"

Shi Ran:...

Yun Qitian:...

He muttered to himself: Do you not have any idea whether you're disturbing us or not?

Shi Ran hurriedly went over to open the door: "Please come in, Auntie."

Ma Ling'er was all smiles and walked in quite naturally.

She was smiling so brightly that Yun Qitian didn't even dare to look directly at her!

"Ranran, Auntie knows you've been working hard lately, so I personally stewed some black-bone chicken soup for you to build up your strength. Look at how thin this child is, eat more meat... Alright, I won't disturb you two anymore, I'm leaving, goodbye!"

After saying this, she left, arriving like lightning and departing like a gust of wind.

Before Shi Ran could even react, only she and Yun Qitian were left in the office—well, and the thermal food jar!

To ease the awkwardness, she wanted to say something, but she really wasn't good at breaking the tension, so she didn't say anything at all, feeling even more awkward.

It seemed that she was the only one who felt awkward.

Yun Qitian picked up the thermal food jar with disdain and said to Shi Ran: "Listen to her bragging. My mom has only ever held a scalpel in her life; she can't use a kitchen knife at all and has never stepped foot in the kitchen. But our family's cook is very skilled at cooking, so I bet this chicken soup in the jar was stewed by the cook."

Shi Ran smiled: "Alright, I'll bet with you, but I bet it was made by Auntie herself; she wouldn't lie."

Yun Qitian: "Open it and see?"

Shi Ran: "Mm."

As the two joked, the previous awkwardness invisibly dissipated.

The thermal food jar was opened—a pungent smell of garlic rushed into their noses!

He took one look, then covered it back up.

Yun Qitian admitted defeat: "I lost. This soup really was made by my mom. I'll treat you to lunch at noon as the wager." After saying this, he picked up the thermal food jar, intending to go out.

Shi Ran: "Where are you going? Pour some out to drink, it'll warm your stomach."

Yun Qitian:...

He held the thermal food jar behind his back, looking terrified: "Can't drink it. This really was made by my mom, so it really can't be drunk."

Shi Ran found it funny and joked: "Why can't it be drunk? Could Auntie have poisoned it?"

He explained: "Poisoning wouldn't happen, but it's not far off. When I was little, my mom had a sudden whim and made me a meal: scrambled eggs with strawberries..."

His expression changed, looking pained.

That incident from back then left him with a very heavy childhood trauma.

Scrambled eggs with strawberries was already bizarre enough, but the problem was that the eggs were boiled first and then scrambled—that wasn't the issue, the biggest problem was—she put a lot of garlic in it!

That taste... unforgettable for a lifetime.

His mother explained that garlic kills bacteria, and putting in a lot of garlic is good for the body.

He had seen a lot of garlic in the soup just now, so he judged it couldn't be eaten; one bite and you wouldn't be able to eat a meal for days.

Shi Ran, however, insisted on eating it.

She said it was Auntie's kind intention and shouldn't be wasted.

Unable to refuse her, Yun Qitian could only take it out and pour a shallow bowl: "Don't force yourself, if it tastes bad, spit it out immediately."

"Mm."

She used a soup spoon to scoop a mouthful and put it in her mouth—ugh!

This taste was indeed a culinary disaster, but she still drank it all.

"Another bowl!"

Yun Qitian looked at her in disbelief: "Are you sure?"

"Sure."

So he began to doubt himself; perhaps his judgment had been wrong.

Perhaps his mother's cooking skills had improved over these years, making it much better than before.

This time he scooped out two bowls.

Shi Ran drank it with great relish, but Yun Qitian spat it out after just one mouthful!

It hadn't improved at all; it was still the same taste from childhood, as awful as ever.

He even suspected for a moment whether something was wrong with Shi Ran's sense of taste.

But he soon thought of the answer.

There was nothing wrong with Shi Ran's sense of taste; it was just that the hurdle in her heart had not yet been crossed, and she now needed to achieve inner balance by tormenting her body, and this bowl of soup from his mother had come at just the right time.

A whole bucket of black-bone chicken soup was eaten up by Shi Ran, including those particularly awful, boiled garlic cloves!

Having eaten so much garlic, her mouth had a strange odor, so Shi Ran logically locked herself in the office and saw no one.

Including Yun Qitian.

But she completed all of that day's work without missing a single thing.

Island.

The weather changed again not far away, with gale-force winds blowing and monstrous waves surging.

Waves as high as a dozen-story building rose continuously, then crashed down!

But nothing happened on the Island, and there was even sunshine.

Sheng Hanyu and his wife sat in front of the small house, arm in arm, admiring this marvelous scenery.

Sheng Hanyu was fine; although amazed, he was not overly dramatic, but Shi Youxuan widened her eyes and kept exclaiming, "Wow!"

"Wow—"

"Wow! It's too beautiful; even movies wouldn't dare to portray it like this, it's a proper blockbuster, it's just a pity I don't have a phone in my hand right now, so I can't film it..."

The expression on Shi Youxuan's face was one of regret, and her hand naturally reached to tug at the pendant on her neck.