So I Had No Choice But to Stop Being the White Moonlight – Chapter 31

“Then Promise Your Body to Me.”

In the distance, wind grazed the sea surface, wrinkling the waves that had been surging smoothly onto the shore.

Seawater slapped against the reef rocks; white foam shattered into pieces, splashing in all directions.

In the courtyard, three different gazes fell upon Shi Jinlan.

Chi Qingyan’s eyelashes drooped low, his obscure pupils filled with surprise and worry.

Chi Qian was astonished; she had thought Shi Jinlan was still angry with her and wouldn’t be willing to participate in the float parade with her.

As for Auntie Zhou, her surprise and joy were undisguised.

Lingji and Ah Qing guarded the island’s hot springs, and it had always been her family’s responsibility to make offerings.

In her heart, she already favored Shi Jinlan. At this moment, she was overjoyed and couldn’t stop clapping her hands: “Good, good! Tomorrow morning I will come find you all——”

Speaking of this, Auntie Zhou paused.

She felt somewhat embarrassed and smiled at Chi Qian: “I’m so happy I’ve gone silly, I forgot to ask our Qianqian.”

“Qianqian, how about you? You have no problem, right?”

“Me?” Facing Auntie Zhou’s burning gaze, even if Chi Qian wanted to refuse, she had no way to refuse.

Moreover, she “liked” Shi Jinlan; how could she possibly give up such an opportunity?

The blankness in Chi Qian’s eyes was immediately replaced by a smile, and she agreed without hesitation: “Of course I have no problem.”

“That is just too good!” Auntie Zhou felt a weight lifted from her mind and let out a sigh of relief. “The hotel still has some things unfinished, so I will leave first.”

“Goodbye, Auntie Zhou.” Chi Qian waved her hand, saying she wanted to see Auntie Zhou off.

“Goodbye, goodbye, don’t send me off.” Auntie Zhou blocked Chi Qian. “Your cold hasn’t healed yet, don’t come out running around blindly. Go back and recuperate properly, I am still waiting for you.”

“Ai.” Chi Qian nodded.

Today the sickroom had no new patients and was not busy.

The gentle sunlight shone on Chi Qian’s face, making her feel as if her nose was finally clearing up.

She thought that people all need the sun; no matter how uncomfortable one feels, coming out to bask in it a bit makes things much better.

Perhaps Grandpa letting Shi Jinlan come to bask in the sun also had this meaning?

Her body always carried so many burdens: invisible fate, a past of being betrayed by those beside her, and a life marching forward according to Grandpa’s strict requirements.

Was there any method that could let her break free of these things?

Even if she could just break free of one thing.

Chi Qian stood under the sun, her thoughts like cotton wadding fluffed by the sun, flying about in all directions.

Shi Jinlan sat quietly in the courtyard. She watched as Chi Qingyan, after Auntie Zhou left, turned and departed with a gloomy expression.

Very inexplicably, a kind of pleasure rose in her heart.

A despicable pleasure.

But she had never been such a childish person.

The reason Chi Qingyan proposed letting Yuan Ming act alongside Chi Qian—she naturally understood it.

But was such a matter worth her applying a marketplace mindset, striking first to gain the advantage?

Moreover, did she know what kind of matter she had agreed to when she abruptly cut off Auntie Zhou’s words?

Although it was only a small-scale sacrificial ceremony within the village, and no people from outside villages would come.

But this matter had no relation to the things she needed to do; it didn’t even have an intersection.

Why did she agree with such urgency…

“Why do this? Is this how you casually waste your time?”

From the distance came the sound of ocean waves slapping the coast, and Grandpa’s voice suddenly rang out beside Shi Jinlan’s ear.

Since childhood, she had been exhorted not to do useless work, not to do things without meaning.

That kind of darkness, paved with gloom, covered the sun before her eyes layer by layer, wanting to drag Shi Jinlan back.

She was never a person permitted to bask in the sun.

“Ai!”

Right at this moment, a sound of surprise came from beside Shi Jinlan’s ear.

She raised her head to look and discovered Chi Qian standing in front of the cage Ah Ning had brought over.

“Reserve Grain!” Chi Qian looked at the rabbit in the cage with pleasant surprise, carefully hugged it out, and turned her head to look at Shi Jinlan. “Miss Shen, is this our reserve grain?”

This person’s voice was full of the joy of reunion, seeming to have even forgotten to watch her wording.

“Our.”

Shi Jinlan sensitively caught these two words from Chi Qian’s speech, her gaze pausing lightly.

She watched her stroking the rabbit, fair fingers interlaced within the black fluff, her lowered eyes holding points of light, both eyes curved in a way that made one’s brows feel relaxed just by looking.

Shi Jinlan didn’t know what kind of emotion she was harboring, but she nodded anyway and answered: “It is it.”

“You brought it out too.” Chi Qian hugged this little black rabbit that had once shared weal and woe with them, unable to put it down.

“En.” Shi Jinlan looked at Chi Qian and nodded.

It was just that this rabbit didn’t seem to have merely shared weal and woe with them; it also carried another attached meaning——

“Miss Shen, you shouldn’t still be wanting to eat it, right?” Chi Qian suddenly remembered, raising her head carefully to look at Shi Jinlan.

Shi Jinlan watched; her hand resting on the wheelchair armrest tapped lightly twice. Her eyes narrowed slightly, seemingly containing a smile: “Not necessarily.”

“Ah.” Chi Qian’s face immediately hung with worry. “But it’s not tasty. Dry and skinny, you can even feel the bones.”

Shi Jinlan stated: “So it must be fattened up.”

Chi Qian really couldn’t bear to part with it: “Can we not eat it even if it’s raised fat?”

Shi Jinlan looked at the expression on Chi Qian’s face, the incomprehension in her eyes growing: “It is merely a rabbit.”

Chi Qian argued strongly on just grounds: “But after raising it for so long, it’s different from other rabbits. Moreover, it has a name now.”

“So what if it has a name?” Shi Jinlan asked in turn.

Chi Qian: “Having a name makes it different. Having a name means it has fetters with us; it is a member of our group.”

They went back and forth, the dialogue switching very quickly.

The sunlight shone in Shi Jinlan’s pupils, bright and piercing, dazing her for a moment.

It seemed that a long, long time ago, she had once said the exact same words.

It seemed that when she was very, very small, she had also once given a name to something beside her.

“What are you doing? It is just a doll, if it’s gone, it’s gone. If you still want one, just buy it. Making such a scene over a toy in front of so many people, losing your temper with Miss Chen.” Grandpa’s voice was severe as always, even containing a kind of disappointment.

And little Shi Jinlan’s eyes were red through and through, scared yet stubborn as she argued with Grandpa: “Ah Ling is different, Ah Ling is…”

But Grandpa gave her absolutely no chance. Instead, he interrupted her right when she opened her mouth, asking sternly: “Ah Ling? Is this that doll’s name?”

“Yes.” Little Shi Jinlan nodded, thinking Grandpa would be moved by this. “She is my friend, I…”

“Friend?”

Yet unexpectedly, all she received was a cold sneer from Grandpa.

“This doll of yours will not be coming back.”

This segment of memory had been forgotten by Shi Jinlan for a long time.

She didn’t know if she had been able to forget it, or if, following her growth, it had been silently forgotten bit by bit.

It was just that remembering it now, she could still clearly see Grandpa’s expression at that time.

The cold-toned incandescent light struck her body. Forced to lift her head, she clearly saw the wrinkles around Grandpa’s eyes and his mustache trembling with his voice.

Old yet vigorous, he looked down from high above to announce to little Shi Jinlan, forcing her to accept this fact: “I will tell you one more time, the last time. You are a person standing above; you must control them, not let them control you. To make such a scene over a toy—this is not the appearance a member of the Shi family should have.”

Saying this, Grandpa commanded the steward beside him: “Change all the things in her room.”

From that day on, the softness that a child should have was wiped away from Shi Jinlan’s room.

Everything was monotonous cold colors. She was forced by Grandpa to grow up, to pull out the emotions she shouldn’t have.

He said she didn’t need such fetters.

So later, she never made them again.

And now.

There was another animal, and because it had a name, it produced…

Amidst the golden brilliance paved by the sun, Shi Jinlan saw the rabbit in Chi Qian’s embrace look over at her.

Its grey-blue eyes moved lightly, the tip of its nose twitching. That damp and cool sensation wrapped around her fingertips—clearly she had only touched it that one time, yet it was reawakened so easily.

Fetters.

This was what Chi Qian brought to her.

This was not the first time Chi Qian had brought her such a feeling.

Shi Jinlan’s gaze was heavy; she could not explain this feeling.

But she seemed to be helping her retrieve the things that had been thrown away by Grandpa, and by her own hands.

“You are responsible for raising it.”

With a cold voice, Shi Jinlan said this sentence to Chi Qian.

Having spent so many days together, Chi Qian felt she could understand a bit of Shi Jinlan’s meaning. Knowing she had agreed, she let out a very happy “Ai”.

The sun was climbing toward its zenith. Chi Qian’s shadow also brushed bit by bit over Shi Jinlan’s shoulder, falling into her palm.

Shi Jinlan looked at this shadow. Her spread-open hand did not clench tight like in the past; she just watched the shadow stay in her palm and opened her mouth to ask: “What is the story of Lingji and Ah Qing that Auntie Zhou mentioned just now?”

“Ah?” Chi Qian froze for a moment.

By reason, she should be very familiar with this story.

But she was not the original owner; her understanding of this island was only a very shallow bit.

This is killing me.

【Thirteen! Thirteen!】 Chi Qian summoned Thirteen frantically in her heart.

【Heard you! Heard you! I am currently downloading the story of Lingji and Ah Qing!】 Thirteen was also caught off guard by Shi Jinlan. 【Host, stall for time, I will send the story to you very soon!】

【Hurry up! I’m afraid I can’t hold on for too long!】 Chi Qian had a very clear measure of herself; her heart was roaring anxiously, but her face feigned calm.

“This, ah, is an ancient legend of ours here.” Chi Qian spoke stalling for time, then, as if thinking of something, issued an invitation to Shi Jinlan. “Does Miss Shen want to hear it? I can tell it to you, it just so happens we are also basking in the sun here for a while.”

Shi Jinlan didn’t like listening to stories, nor did she like sunbathing.

But who knows which of Chi Qian’s words attracted her, making her not think of refusing, but instead nodding her head: “Okay.”

Chi Qian was overjoyed in her heart. She couldn’t help but smile, expressing to stall for time: “Then I will go to the sickroom to move a stool over.”

Shi Jinlan did not stop her, merely gazing with plain eyes at Chi Qian’s happy pace.

Her embrace still held the rabbit Chi Qian had inexplicably stuffed into her arms.

Reserve Grain pressed against her legs that had no sensation, its small body curled into a black dumpling.

Shi Jinlan didn’t know where the interest came from; she touched this fellow’s whiskers, watched it shiver, and, not knowing what she thought of, suddenly smiled.

Idiot.

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【Ding-dong! Island legends loading complete.】

Thirteen was very effective this time. While Chi Qian was still feigning conflict in selecting a chair, the system notification sound rang out, sending the mythological stories large and small circulating on the island directly into Chi Qian’s head.

Chi Qian had never felt the system’s cold, icy voice to be so intimate. She stopped “struggling,” moved a chair over, sat beside Shi Jinlan, and began telling her a story she herself was hearing for the first time: “This story is quite distant in the past, I don’t know if it was the Ancient Era, but at that time Small Yu Island and Big Yu Island were still very desolate islands.”

“Ah Qing was an orphan girl with no father or mother. To make a living, she had no choice but to disguise herself as a man and go with the boats to fish for a living. One day she went out to sea to fish, but caught an injured Jiaoren¹ instead.”

“That Jiaoren was beautiful to the extreme, skin like snow, hair like algae. Ah Qing lost her soul the moment she saw her. At the same time, she also knew the Jiaoren was a very expensive medicinal ingredient; her tears could turn to pearls, and her flesh could help people be immune to a hundred diseases and live forever without aging. Ah Qing worried the Jiaoren would be discovered by others, imprisoned, abused, and cut for meat, so she secretly hid her and brought her home to heal.”

“When the Jiaoren woke up, she was extremely grateful to Ah Qing and wanted to use her blood and tears to thank Ah Qing, but Ah Qing didn’t want them.”

Speaking to this point, Chi Qian paused.

Too many things had suddenly barged into her head, giving her a bit of a headache.

She wanted to let herself digest the discomfort brought by the story suddenly barging into her head, so she slowed down the storytelling and deliberately kept Shi Jinlan in suspense: “Hey Miss Shen, guess what the Jiaoren gave Ah Qing as thanks afterward?”

“Thanks?” Shi Jinlan voiced faintly, her brows knitting lightly.

“Yes ah, thanks.” Chi Qian nodded, prompting Shi Jinlan. “She saved her, she had to express something, right.”

Shi Jinlan listened to this sentence from Chi Qian, her gaze looking fixedly at Chi Qian.

She thought Chi Qian was hinting at herself—after all, she herself was just like Ah Qing, having saved the Shi Jinlan who fell into the water. She narrowed her eyes slightly, her meaning unclear: “If I guess it, what benefit will you give me?”

“If you guess right, naturally whatever you want me to do, I will do.” Chi Qian said, her voice carrying a kind of slyness.

——What can one do on the island? Nothing more than some small matters.

——Anyway, she wouldn’t suffer a loss.

“Is that so…” Shi Jinlan’s voice was light and slow, the drawn-out tone resembling the string of a violin.

Her line of sight unhurriedly roamed over Chi Qian’s face, then fell upon her eyes, smiling faintly: “Then promise your body to me.”

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The author has something to say:

Qianqian: Okay wife! The wedding will be held tomorrow!

Pigeon: Then the day after tomorrow you jump off a cliff, and the day after that Lanlan goes crazy, perfect! (Claps hands)

At this moment, Lanlan is sharpening a knife in a place the Pigeon cannot see.

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