So I Had No Choice But to Stop Being the White Moonlight – Chapter 14

Couples VIP Room

The sun climbed slowly along its invisible path, its light dazzling.

But Shi Jinlan felt she was looking at something even more dazzling than the sun.

Chi Qian was squatting right in front of her, her audacious hands resting on her own knees.

Sunlight filled her smiling eyes as she looked up, pure like the finest amber, or perhaps like some kind of large, golden-haired canine.

“Heh.” Shi Jinlan chuckled at herself for seeing herself in that description¹.

It was a very soft sound, but Chi Qian’s scalp instantly tingled.

Her mind raced, and she added, “How about I bring today’s medicine out for you? It’ll be perfect to drink it while basking in the sun.”

The sunlight was warm, and a ball of heat enveloped Shi Jinlan’s knee.

This person’s hands were always like this. The gradually rising temperature made her palm a little damp as it caressed her knee. Its strange softness felt comfortable, as if it could make one forgive her audacity.

Shi Jinlan’s grip on her wheelchair loosened slightly. Her expression was placid, her tone relaxed. “Alright.”

The courtyard brightened. “Just a moment,” Chi Qian said, relieved.

As soon as she finished speaking, Chi Qian got up and walked toward the kitchen.

Out of Shi Jinlan’s sight, she let out a sigh of relief.

She felt like she had just been dancing on the tip of a blade². And who knows where that Thirteen had gone. If only he could have popped up and created a diversion like yesterday at the beach, that would’ve been great!

She had to watch her words from now on, she must!

As Chi Qian left, the courtyard fell quiet once more.

Shi Jinlan hadn’t brought a book and closed her eyes gently against the sun.

“If you fail, you start over. No one is obligated to coax you.”

“You can’t change what has already happened, so you’d better abandon anything that doesn’t offer a solution. Don’t even think about it!”

The pain of a scraped knee awoke from a dust-covered memory, and her grandfather’s emotionless voice suddenly echoed in Shi Jinlan’s ear.

A seabird circling in the sky passed over the courtyard. The glaring sun flashed before Shi Jinlan’s eyes, and with a flicker of emotion, she abruptly opened them.

“Coax.”

Shi Jinlan weighed this word in her mind for a long time, her expression inscrutable.

It dawned on her belatedly that Chi Qian had… coaxed her into a good mood again.

Was this person very good at coaxing people?

Or was it because she…

Shi Jinlan’s brows knitted together, stopping the answer that was about to surface.

Her eyes were heavy with incomprehension and disdain.

There was even a hint of self-reflection.

She shouldn’t be giving rise to such superfluous emotions. She would be better off reading a few more books with that time.

“Here.”

As if in response to her thoughts, the book she had left at her bedside teleported into her hand.

Of course, Shi Jinlan knew she didn’t have that kind of power. She looked up and saw Chi Qian’s brilliant smile.

She had moved a small table over. Besides Shi Jinlan’s medicine, there was also a plate of frosted huameigan³. “You can have a huameigan to cleanse your palate after you finish. My family dried these themselves last year. They’re delicious.”

“Many thanks.” Shi Jinlan took the medicine bowl from Chi Qian’s hands.

Her pale lips touched the dark brown medicine, and a bitter taste instantly filled her mouth.

She didn’t so much as frown. In fact, her calm and unruffled expression made it seem as though she were savoring the flavor.

Chi Qian felt that her own motivation for taking good care of her health—to avoid drinking medicine—was completely invalid when it came to Shi Jinlan. On the contrary, Shi Jinlan was more the type to drink her medicine down to the last drop for the sake of maintaining her health.

She was a langmie⁴.

Without pausing, our Miss Langmie quickly finished the medicine.

She set the bowl down and unhurriedly selected a huameigan from the plate that suited her fancy and popped it into her mouth.

The white frost that precipitated on its surface was cool and slightly sweet, instantly dispelling the bitterness that had lingered on her tongue.

Shi Jinlan quite liked this taste. Even the flames on her body seemed to burn with a gentle blackness under the light.

Chi Qian watched her secretly from the side, glad that she had brought the huameigan for Shi Jinlan. She swiftly picked up the empty medicine bowl, ready to leave.

—Yay! Mission complete, she could go back to her room and touch fish⁵!

But before Chi Qian could take a single step, Shi Jinlan’s voice stopped her. “Where are you going?”

Chi Qian, who had been preparing to go touch fish, froze for a moment. “Back to my room.”

“Didn’t you say you were going to keep me company while I sunbathe?” Shi Jinlan looked up at her.

Her voice was very faint and devoid of any particular tone, as if she were simply reminding the other person of a trivial matter.

But this trivial matter was “keeping her company.”

Chi Qian swore to the heavens that she had only said that to placate Shi Jinlan.

She just felt that two people were better than one, and that having someone by her side would make Shi Jinlan feel less angry about being betrayed before.

Besides, hadn’t she not answered just now?

The last time she didn’t answer, didn’t that mean she was unwilling?

The great villain’s heart is so hard to understand.

This is so hard for me.

Forget it. Touching fish here is the same as touching fish anywhere else.

Isn’t sunbathing also a form of touching fish?

Chi Qian glanced around the yard, trying to justify her earlier action. “I, I know. I was just going to the house to get a chair.”

Shi Jinlan glanced at Chi Qian, then said nothing more, allowing her to leave.

The slender shadow passed over her arm and shoulder. As it crossed her brow, it swept past a fleeting smile of relief.

Relief?

Don’t they say that when you like someone, you want to be closer to them?

Does she really like me?

Or.

Was she just saying things to Old Mister Chi…

At this thought, the tranquility between Shi Jinlan’s brows slowly faded, and a faint displeasure overshadowed her emotions.

When Chi Qian came out of the main hall, she saw that the flames on Shi Jinlan’s body seemed to be burning more intensely than before.

Who provoked her now?

Did she… get annoyed from reading her book again?

Chi Qian was baffled and finally understood the feeling that accompanying a ruler is like accompanying a tiger⁶.

But she couldn’t run away, so she could only bite the bullet and drag Chi Qingyan’s wicker rocking chair over to the small table.

—Chi Qian was not one to make herself suffer. Since she had to bear the mental stress of keeping Shi Jinlan company, she might as well make her body comfortable.

The sunlight fell directly onto the wicker chair, and Chi Qian savored the joy of touching fish. “The sun feels so nice today.”

The sound of waves crashed in the distance, and the shadow of a swaying figure flickered back and forth across the jumbled text on the book’s pages.

Shi Jinlan glanced at Chi Qian, feeling that this person was now even more comfortable than the sun.

Besides, she had only just read one page of her book and wasn’t in the mood for small talk.

The sunlight languidly traced the rocking chair’s movements. Chi Qian was perfectly at ease, and the courtyard was quiet and serene.

Shi Jinlan’s gaze lingered for a long time on a simple, easy-to-understand explanation.

A few seconds later, a soft “Mm” sounded in the courtyard.

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After that day, people from the insurance company came a few times.

A professional came to assess Zhou Xingjie’s injuries, and the insurance company provided compensation according to the highest standards. Auntie Zhou was overjoyed.

However, it wasn’t Auntie Zhou who brought this news.

It was her younger son, Zhou Xingjun.

He brought ten jin⁷ of eggs and two freshly caught wild pheasants. While Chi Qian was wondering how to deal with the two pheasants, he helped her move all the newly arrived medicinal herbs to the pharmacy.

The man seemed to have boundless energy. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, then pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to Chi Qian. “This is our family’s hot spring card. My mom said that if you have time, you should bring Miss Shen for a soak in the hot springs. It’s good for her health.”

Zhou Xingjun looked only at Chi Qian the entire time he spoke. Even when he mentioned “Miss Shen,” he didn’t dare to glance too much in Shi Jinlan’s direction.

Logically, Auntie Zhou should have come to do this herself.

Her reason for doing this was to have her younger son make a good impression here and ease the friction between Shi Jinlan and Zhou Xingjun.

“Thank you.” Chi Qian accepted the card from Zhou Xingjun, giving face to Auntie Zhou.

“I should be the one saying thank you,” Zhou Xingjun said, then mustered the courage to walk up to Shi Jinlan and bow deeply. “Thank you, Miss Shen. You helped my brother out so much, and I was such a jerk before. I’m truly sorry! I will be grateful to you for the rest of my life!”

“It was a trivial effort,” Shi Jinlan replied, her voice light and detached, tinged with a cold layer of distance.

Zhou Xingjun’s fear of Shi Jinlan hadn’t dissipated. After speaking, he still looked back at Chi Qian. “I have things to attend to over there, so I’ll be going.”

“Take care on your way,” Chi Qian nodded, watching Zhou Xingjun leave. Her attention immediately fell on the thing she was most interested in.

—The hot spring card.

“Auntie Zhou’s family’s hot spring is the best on our island. You have to book in advance if you want to go. The value of this card is off the charts!”

When Chi Qian had asked Thirteen to tell her about the island, she had been very interested in this hot spring.

She had been craving it for a long time, and now she had gotten it without any effort at all⁸. Full of excitement, she flipped the card over to its front to get a good look—

Before she could examine it, the words caught in Chi Qian’s throat.

Her lively, cheerful voice came to an abrupt halt, and the courtyard fell silent.

Finding Chi Qian’s reaction strange, Shi Jinlan looked up at the card in her hand.

Sunlight glinted off the thin card, casting a dazzling reflection.

On the pale pink card, four large characters were written in a small, black script: Couples VIP Room.

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The author has something to say:

The value is off the charts!

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