Finding Stardust

Emma only glared at the young man"s words and sipped her tea, not bother replying.

"I"m just kidding, you know that," Haoran said again. "You can read my mind, right? You know that I"m telling the truth."

"Ish ... I won"t read your mind again," Emma finally said.

"Again?" Haoran frowned at Emma"s words. "That means you"ve read my mind before, and now you don"t want to do it anymore ... Why?"

Emma just rolled her eyes and again refused to answer.

"Why, Emma? Wouldn"t it be more fun if you could read my mind? I don"t need to tire myself talking so much..." Haoran said again.

Emma looked at the young man in surprise. "You"re just weird, aren"t you? You want me to read your mind just because you"re too lazy to talk? Are you serious?"

"Maybe... maybe not. You can know the answer to your question if you read my mind," Haoran retorted, smiling broadly.

"Other people will feel that their privacy is violated if someone reads their minds," Emma said, shaking her head. "You are indeed different from most humans."

"Ahh ... that"s because I have no secrets from you, Emma dear. I don"t mind if you know what is in my heart. You will know that, in my mind, there is only you ..." said Haoran in a seductive tone.

Emma"s face suddenly turned red when she heard the young man"s words. She remembered when they were watching the meteor shower last month. She could see what on Haoran"s mind at that time... and she found how his head was filled with dirty thoughts about her.

"I don"t want to read your mind ..." Emma grumbled as she finished the tea in her cup hurriedly. Her face was beet red. "Sometimes, your mind is perverted!"

Haoran gasped at Emma"s words. He looked at the girl with a questioning look. Seeing Emma"s very red face, he immediately realized that the girl was right.

"Gosh .. Emma ... is that true?" Haoran was immediately stunned. He was just joking earlier, but as it turns out, Emma was serious about what she said. "When...?"

Haoran admitted that as a normal man, he sometimes imagined doing romantic things to Emma that would lead to slightly perverted stuff when he was alone. But he didn"t remember ever thinking of such things in front of the girl.

For him, Emma was a pure girl, and he did not dare to imagine lewd things right before her. He really respected Emma.

Emma refilled her cup with tea from a teapot. She then cleared her throat after sipping her tea slowly. "When we kissed after watching the meteor shower..."

"Ah ..." Haoran"s brown eyes suddenly went round. He just remembered. "Gosh ..."

Subconsciously, he also gulped down his tea in a hurry and poured more tea back into his cup. He finished his drink for the second time and suddenly coughed violently.

"I"m sorry ..." he finally said in a low voice between his coughs.

Upon seeing Haoran"s expression, Emma could only shake her head. However, her face was smiling.

"Now, do you understand why I prefer not to read the minds of everyone around me? Being able to listen to other people"s thoughts is not always pleasant," the girl said.

"Ahem ... yes, I understand now ..." Haoran said in a chuckle, still trying to calm down from coughing. He then changed the subject and commented on the beautiful potted plants on Emma"s window sill. "I like the plants over there. You really take good care of them."

"Thank you," Emma said. "I really like plants. I think I got my love for plants from my father. He always wanted to be a botanist, but for my mother"s sake, he chose to enter the military to protect her."

"Oh, is that so?" Haoran became very interested to hear that. He and Emma hadn"t talked much about the girl"s parents so far. Initially, it was because Emma herself could not remember details about her biological parents. But now, as it turned out, the girl had recovered all of her past memories. "Your father seems very impressive."

"Indeed. My father only has one power, compared to my mother, who has five types of powers. Still, he managed to prove himself to be a formidable general. My mother often told me how brave my father was when leading his army in war." Emma stared far out of her window, trying to remember the story her mother had told her when she was very young as her bedtime stories.

"Was there a war on your planet?" Haoran asked attentively. "Had your mother ever told you what Akkadia is like?"

Emma nodded slightly. "Sometimes, when she missed her home, she would tell me about her favorite valley that was filled with beautiful flowers, the Academy where she met father, the ruby palace where she lived, and the various places she missed in Akkadia. We have three large moons in Akkadia. Their colors are blue, red, and green. Once a year, the three of them will appear together in the sky. It is such a beautiful sight to behold. People all over the country will celebrate it with a festival. It is one of her favorite holidays."

Haoran listened to Emma"s story with an attentive look. He didn"t know what it"s like to be Emma. The girl could only hear about her hometown from her parents without being able to see how it looked like for real.

Inwardly, he began to feel sad. What if they couldn"t get Emma home? Will Emma be able to accept reality and live on earth forever with him ... without ever being able to meet her parents?

"Why does your face look like that?" Emma asked in surprise. "What are you thinking?"

Haoran shook his head while grinning mischievously. "If you want to know, you can read my mind ..."

Emma chuckled and shook her head. "Gosh, Haoran ... I didn"t expect you to be this lazy to talk after you know I could read your mind. Other people would be scared to be in the same room as me if they knew I could read minds. But you"re actually the opposite ..."

The girl"s complain clearly reached a deaf ear because Haoran truly did not mind if Emma read his thoughts.

This made Emma just shake her head and let out a short sigh. Haoran was really like her father. Since Kaos.h.i.+n kissed Arreya in their old school tower and learned that the girl was a telemancer, he had allowed Arreya to read his mind.

Kaos.h.i.+n, who was basically quite stingy with his words, became worse. Even though Arreya was actually very happy to hear his voice, the man didn"t like talking much.

The sound of the apartment door opened, immediately moved them, and the two stopped discussing what Haoran was thinking. Grandma Lin came back from the supermarket with ingredients to make the special dishes that she wanted to prepare for their dinner.

"Hi, Grandma. What can do to help?" asked Haoran, who swiftly took the shopping bag from Grandma Lin"s hand. He then brought all the groceries to the kitchen and then stood there, listening to Grandma Lin"s instructions about what they had to do to help.

"Ahh .. you can help me cut vegetables and onions. I will prepare the herbs and spices..." said Grandma Lin happily.

"Ahh .. will do." Haoran and Emma immediately shared the task of was.h.i.+ng and cutting the vegetables as requested by Grandma Lin, while the old woman prepared the meat and other ingredients.

They chatted in the kitchen about trivial matters and worked together to prepare the special dinner. It felt really homey. At 6 pm, the three of them had already sat at the dining table, facing their dinner which consisted of black pepper beef and sauteed vegetables, along with rice and mussel soup.

"Enjoy your meal. Thank you for coming and having dinner with us here," Grandma Lin told Haoran. The young man nodded and smiled broadly.

"Thank you for inviting me to dinner together, Grandma. I am very happy."

Haoran hadn"t dined with his family for a long time. The last time he ate with his family was on his birthday, where he had lunch with his father and grandparents. The rest, he was always alone. Sometimes, he would have Emma who to eat with him or the boys.

That"s what made the dinner at Emma"s apartment very special. He felt accepted into Emma"s family now. Because Emma"s parents were absent, practically, Grandma Lin was the only person who could be considered her closest family now.