So I Had No Choice But to Stop Being the White Moonlight – Chapter 116
by Little PandaI’m Not Going to Be the White Moonlight
“Ah Qian, Wear It for Me, Okay?”
The waves surged ashore, the sound of them striking the reef like a heart skipping a beat.
Under the moonlight, the white seafoam scattered and sprayed, draping a pure white veil over their shadows on the sand.
The churning seawater was reflected in the facets of the diamond, light from the water and the gem mingling, glittering brilliantly in the moonlight.
This was the kiss they should have shared when they exchanged rings, but it had been delayed for so long.
Chi Qian lightly brushed her lips against Shi Jinlan’s. The night wind carried a chill that made her lips feel cold, too.
But Chi Qian didn’t mind. Her dense kisses were like a series of light pecks, patiently pressing her own warmth against the other woman.
The damp, humid scent of water vapor was overwhelming, easily flooding into Shi Jinlan’s mouth.
A soft tongue traced the roof of her mouth, and the first thought that popped into her head was: It’s been too long. She hadn’t smelled Chi Qian’s scent in so long. When that familiar, gentle warmth slid across the tip of her tongue, she nearly let tears slip from her eyes.
The punishing bite from moments ago had been real, and this unrestrained invasion now was also real.
Shi Jinlan was forced to tilt her chin up to accept Chi Qian’s conquest. The ground at the seaside was soft, and as Shi Jinlan stood on the sand, her calves began to feel weak.
There was no one else around; even the cat had run off from their arms.
Chi Qian held Shi Jinlan and kissed her deeply, until her mouth was filled with Shi Jinlan’s taste. Her fingers pressed against the other’s neck, feeling the thrumming blood in the pulsing vein, tapping against her fingertips, one beat at a time.
To Chi Qian’s senses, the world was finally becoming real again.
“I…” As if realizing this, the tears in Chi Qian’s eyes could no longer be held back.
Her gasping breaths couldn’t pass between their joined lips. The air around her felt thin, and only then did Chi Qian pull away from Shi Jinlan slightly.
She looked at the person before her with tear-filled eyes, her long fingers tracing Shi Jinlan’s cheek with a lingering, infatuated touch. She felt that Shi Jinlan had truly gotten much, much thinner. “How long was I gone for?”
“Twenty-eight days.” Shi Jinlan’s voice was calm as she answered, raising her own slightly reddened fingers to wipe away the tears on Chi Qian’s cheeks. “You were gone for twenty-eight days. If this were February, you would have been gone for a whole month.”
“How could it have been so long?” Chi Qian was completely surprised by the amount of time. In her mind, she had only spent a single day in that other world.
But thinking about it carefully, she had indeed been gone for quite a while.
In her memories, she had lived a past life with Shi Jinlan. They had met, fallen in love, and finally…
The thought made Chi Qian’s heart clench with anxiety.
She didn’t know how she had returned to this world, and a sudden unease filled her. “So what’s going on now? Ah Yuan, did she do something to you…”
“I dismantled her system. She’s repairing it now.”
Before Chi Qian could finish her question, Shi Jinlan coolly informed her of the current situation.
She was hardly friendly toward Yuan Ming. A flicker of emotion crossed her eyes before she quickly composed herself, looking at Chi Qian gently. “You’re back. We’re reunited.”
But despite Shi Jinlan’s gentle tone, her first sentence was still astonishing.
Chi Qian stared at Shi Jinlan’s calm features and blurted out, “You dismantled the system?!”
“Yes.” Shi Jinlan was still placid, her tone almost dismissive.
As she spoke, she took Chi Qian’s hand and promised, “From now on, no system will ever be able to threaten us again. And the world will no longer restart.”
The moonlight rippled with the movement of the sea, shimmering in the dark night.
The glittering water seemed to cast a white film over Chi Qian’s vision. She just looked at Shi Jinlan, her gaze distant and full of devotion.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Chi Qian felt as if her heart was about to beat out of rhythm. She couldn’t grasp the main point of Shi Jinlan’s words.
And yet, at the same time, she was perfectly clear-headed, understanding the meaning of her promise.
Shi Jinlan’s voice had always been this cool and clear, and it was always accompanied by a deep certainty.
She never made empty promises. Her guarantee was real, and it bound Chi Qian’s mind and soul to her vow. From now on, they would truly be together forever.
This was something others wouldn’t even dare to imagine, yet Shi Jinlan spoke of it with such ease.
But that was because she was Shi Jinlan.
Just as she had so many times in the past, Chi Qian felt a resolute trust welling up from her heart.
She still believed, even now, that Shi Jinlan could do it.
“Achoo!”
Just as Chi Qian was about to say something, a sneeze came out before her words could, forcing its way out of her throat.
She shivered, and as a cold wind blew from somewhere, she subconsciously said, “It’s so cold.”
“Put this on first.” Seeing this, Shi Jinlan took off her own jacket and wrapped it around Chi Qian’s thin frame.
Chi Qian’s clothes were all wet from walking along the water’s edge.
The cold seawater clung to her skin. In the night air, filled with a clean, fragrant scent, she belatedly realized the season felt wrong. “Ah Lan, what time of year is it?”
“Yesterday was the Autumnal Equinox,”1 Shi Jinlan replied.
Chi Qian paused for a moment, then her mind, for once, worked with lightning speed. “So the current timeline is twenty-eight days after our wedding?”
“You remember.” Shi Jinlan was also a little surprised that Chi Qian could state the date so fluently.
A hint of a smile touched her eyes as she gazed deeply into Chi Qian’s. She raised a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, her fingers brushing almost imperceptibly against her earlobe. “In everyone else’s memory, the tsunami never happened. After the wedding, I took you on a honeymoon.”
This debriefing was accompanied by a subtle electric current that made Chi Qian’s heart flutter.
She slowly processed what Shi Jinlan was telling her, then looked at her strangely. “Then why are you here now?”
“Waiting for you.”
Shi Jinlan uttered two simple words, and they landed heavily on Chi Qian’s heart.
So much had happened during their days apart; the story would be long and complicated to tell.
But Shi Jinlan always had endless patience for Chi Qian. She added, “I set up a program. The people on the island can’t see me.”
As Chi Qian digested this, Shi Jinlan called her name, her voice soft and gentle. “Besides, Ah Qian.”
“No matter how things develop, we will always meet by the sea.”
“This is our bond, something that the system can never change, no matter what.”
As their eyes met, a mist began to cloud Chi Qian’s vision. Hearing Shi Jinlan’s words, her tears welled up again.
Their beginning was by the sea, and the end of their story was also by the sea.
In one world restart after another, Shi Jinlan had walked into the deep sea countless times.
But this time, she didn’t have to. Instead, it was Chi Qian who walked out of the deep sea to find her.
At this thought, Chi Qian fought back her tears and said earnestly, if a bit awkwardly, “Th-the current plot is much more reasonable than before.”
“But there’s still one thing that hasn’t been handled,” Shi Jinlan said, seeming to dismiss Chi Qian’s comment. She gently massaged her neck.
“What?” Chi Qian immediately grew tense, not wanting Shi Jinlan to bear too much alone.
“Have you thought about what gifts we should bring back for Grandfather when we get back from our ‘honeymoon’?” Shi Jinlan tilted her head, and the tense topic was instantly dispelled by her smiling eyes.
“Huh?” Chi Qian hadn’t expected the problem she was bracing for to be something so simple.
But while it sounded simple, it was a bit difficult to execute.
Chi Qian had just let out a sigh when she froze.
That’s right. After their ‘honeymoon’, they would have to bring back some gifts.
But what should they get?
Perhaps, if she and Shi Jinlan had really gone on a honeymoon trip, this problem would have been resolved effortlessly2 along the way.
But they hadn’t gone on a trip. She hadn’t spent these twenty-eight days with Shi Jinlan; she had vanished from this world.
A wave of melancholy washed over Chi Qian’s heart at the thought.
Regret sprinkled lightly over her world, a nagging feeling.
As Chi Qian sank into this faint gloom, Shi Jinlan’s voice pulled her back.
“Want to come home with me and see?”
Noticing Chi Qian’s reaction, Shi Jinlan reached out and gently flicked her earlobe, a tender and ambiguous gesture.
Hearing this, Chi Qian knew that Shi Jinlan had already prepared the gifts.
They were married, anyway. What Shi Jinlan prepared was what she prepared. There was no need to distinguish between them. She nodded decisively. “Okay.”
As she spoke, she glanced toward the nearby pier.
In the quiet night, the boats moored at the pier bobbed up and down with the waves. She wondered if Shi Jinlan’s boat was among them. “Is your boat at the pier right now?”
But Shi Jinlan just smiled mysteriously. “We don’t need a boat.”
With that, Shi Jinlan waved her hand in the air.
A beam of crystalline blue light formed a circle in mid-air. The seawater was held back outside the circle, and from Chi Qian’s side, she could see Shi Jinlan’s Manor in Ningcheng City on the other side.
Golden ginkgo leaves rustled outside a window. The location was likely the second-floor storeroom of the Western-style mansion.
This was a scene Chi Qian had only ever seen in science fiction movies.
She never thought Shi Jinlan would now be powerful enough to directly utilize the system. Her eyes were filled with astonishment. “Ah Lan, you’re making me feel like this world isn’t real.”
Even as she said this, she brazenly poked her head into the circle.
The early autumn air still held a bit of warmth. The inland region was far less chilly than the seaside. The shadows of the trees swayed, quiet and peaceful.
Feeling the completely different climates on either side, Chi Qian couldn’t help but exclaim, “Ah Lan, how did you get so powerful?!”
“I told you, no one will ever be able to threaten us again.” Shi Jinlan’s voice drifted past from behind her. A palm pressed against her back, and with a gentle push, she guided Chi Qian into the house that was originally thousands of miles away.
The storeroom had been kept in perfect order by the Madam Housekeeper, but that couldn’t hide the sheer number of gifts piled inside.
Chi Qian looked at the things in the storeroom, a dazzling array that left her unsure where to even begin looking.
“You prepared… all this?” Chi Qian asked in surprise, turning to glance at Shi Jinlan.
She felt that Shi Jinlan wasn’t very good at balancing social etiquette with logic. She pointed at the room full of things and said, “We went on a trip, not on a wholesale run. This is way—too much.”
“Is it?” Shi Jinlan didn’t seem to think so. She glanced around at the things she’d bought. Hearing Chi Qian’s comment, she said, “Then you choose. Pick out what you’d like to give to Grandfather and the others.”
“Let me see.” At her words, Chi Qian began to search through the piles for some suitably low-key gifts.
She opened a box of mountain ginseng and judged, “Grandfather will like this.”
She tapped a pastry box with an exquisite floral pattern. “This can be for Auntie Zhou.”
…
Chi Qian spoke in the front, and Shi Jinlan took note in the back.
They worked together in perfect sync, truly like a pair of newlywed wives3 discussing what gifts to bring home to their family after a honeymoon.
As she picked through the items one by one, Chi Qian noticed a box on a table.
The box had no carvings or patterns. It was plain and simple, and compared to the exquisite gift boxes around it, it had no appeal whatsoever. Yet for some reason, Chi Qian found herself drawn to it.
“What’s this?” Chi Qian looked back at Shi Jinlan, who was following behind her, and asked curiously.
This time, Shi Jinlan didn’t tell her what was inside. She simply stopped behind her and gestured. “Open it and see.”
How mysterious.
Chi Qian glanced up at Shi Jinlan, grumbling silently to herself, but her fingers were already curiously opening the box.
Inside the reddish-brown box lay a single, perfectly placed collar.
The delicate lambskin showed its unique texture under the light. A metal ring was fixed to it, not too big and not too small, perfectly sized for Chi Qian’s neck.
Chi Qian’s breath hitched. Her fingers brushed against the collar as if she had touched something extraordinary, and the pounding in her chest grew louder and louder.
The midnight was still. Moonlight filtered through the ginkgo leaves, casting a decadent, seductive scene.
Shi Jinlan came up behind Chi Qian and looped her long fingers around the collar. “Ah Qian, wear it for me to see, okay?”
Chi Qian thought that if there really were tempting demons in this world, they must be just like Shi Jinlan.
Ripples spread across the calm lake of her heart. A warm breath brushed past her earlobe, a bewitching lick across her soul.
As if moved by some unseen force, Chi Qian nodded at Shi Jinlan. “O… kay.”
In an instant, the scene before Chi Qian’s eyes changed to the bedroom in the Octagonal Building upstairs.
The mirror in the walk-in closet reflected their figures, one standing in front of the other. Chi Qian watched as Shi Jinlan fastened the collar around her neck from behind.
Her frame was thin, and she was still wearing the same damp dress.
The metal buckle touched her neck, a fleeting moment of coolness, followed by a rush of moist heat.
In the mirror, Chi Qian saw Shi Jinlan lean in from behind her and kiss her way up along her cervical spine.
The author has something to say:
Lanlan (who isn’t lazy): Kissing every single corner!
Footnotes
- The Autumnal Equinox (秋分 qiūfēn) is one of the 24 solar terms in the traditional East Asian lunisolar calendar, marking the middle of autumn, typically around September 22nd or 23rd.
- To ‘split as it meets the blade’ (yíngrèn’érjiě) is a Chinese idiom describing a problem that is easily solved, as if bamboo splitting easily once the blade has passed the first joint.
- Original: xīnhūn qīqī (新婚妻妻). A modern, same-sex variation of the traditional term for newlyweds, xīnhūn fūqī (新婚夫妻), which means ‘newlywed husband and wife’.
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