Hurry and find a chance to deliver your first kiss; seal the deal on your romantic relationship with Shi Jinlan!
【The halo of the long day surrounded them, life golden yet fragile.
Shi Jinlan gripped the asthma inhaler in her hand, unable to evade it any longer; she could not bear the pain of losing the person before her eyes.
[Punishment proceeding smoothly, Storyline 3 successfully initiated]】
The afternoon sun slanted down, the light blinding.
Chi Qian’s blocked throat had just opened up; breath and sound tangled together, raspy and tearing.
To help Chi Qian better access the medicine, Shi Jinlan had placed her on her lap from the start.
How could she recover so quickly? The person’s face was still pale, only the corners of her lips pulled into a smile, a smile that looked like the rest of her life after a disaster1.
She just raised her hand like that, her fingers—cool as silk and folded back—drifting like feathers falling in the light, familiarly, stroke by stroke, brushing past the back of Shi Jinlan’s neck.
It made Shi Jinlan freeze for a moment.
The carotid artery is one of the most important arteries in the human body. When Shi Jinlan was a child, her Grandpa2 would choose to clasp this spot to show his “kind and amiable” concern and approval for his most beloved granddaughter.
Old Master Shi controlled Shi Jinlan with an oppressiveness that bordered on forcing submission.
Even later, when Shi Jinlan had grown tall enough that he could no longer simply drop his hand to grasp her neck, he would still trouble himself to raise his hand, smiling as he clasped it and squeezed tight.
So, from childhood to adulthood, Shi Jinlan was exceptionally repulsed by others touching her like this.
Such behavior made her hear the clinking sound of the chains locked around her neck.
The sun threw all its light into this tiny room, the sunlight blending with the smile.
Chi Qian’s hand was currently lying across the back of Shi Jinlan’s neck, but this time, she didn’t hear that sound.
Chi Qian’s touch did not repulse her.
Even more, she inexplicably felt a gravitation toward this action.
The line of her neck was taut like a string; Chi Qian’s movements were slow yet familiar. Her slightly cool fingertips rubbed against the skin just like that, and as the heart continuously pumped fresh blood through the arteries to every part of the body, Shi Jinlan’s pulse carried the warmth of Chi Qian’s fingers.
In the surrounding silence, Shi Jinlan’s heartbeat was even more intense than before.
Whether it was the shadows or the resistance, all vanished and were soothed by Chi Qian’s caress.
This feeling made Shi Jinlan feel strange.
And this wasn’t the first time Chi Qian had made her feel at ease.
Pledging one’s body to another.
Shi Jinlan chewed on this phrase in her mouth, her mind stirring slightly.
It wasn’t impossible.
So tired.
Just as she was thinking this, a soft sigh suddenly came to Shi Jinlan’s ear.
The hand resting on her neck crashed down; Chi Qian had only been lucid for those few seconds before fainting again.
Her body was completely drained of strength, like a flower filament swaying in the air.
Shi Jinlan hurriedly reached out to support her, cupping the back of her head with one hand.
Amidst her thick long hair, a thin layer of sweat oozed out, damp and muddy, sticking tightly to Shi Jinlan’s fingers.
Shi Jinlan didn’t like this feeling and frowned slightly, but her hand never let go of Chi Qian’s head.
The room faintly echoed with human breathing, light yet even.
Shi Jinlan looked at the person sleeping in her arms, a layer of helplessness paving the bottom of her pitch-black eyes.
It was just asthma; why did she make it seem like a final radiance of the setting sun3?
“Is the price of making you pledge your body to me a bit too high?” Shi Jinlan brushed past Chi Qian’s forehead, seeming to mutter to herself.
The western sun shone into the room, but the intense light still couldn’t warm the floor; the damp, cold soil seeped its chill through the tiles.
Shi Jinlan looked at Chi Qian and attempted to pick her up from the ground.
The floor was no place to be.
She had just barely scraped her life back; she shouldn’t catch a cold again.
Thus, pain resurfaced the moment Shi Jinlan tried to prop up her body, twisting her bones, screaming hideously, demanding she give up.
But Shi Jinlan turned a blind eye.
She never minded tasting pain; propping herself up on one knee, she struggled to hold Chi Qian and stand up from the ground.
Others could do it.
Why couldn’t she?
Her skirt hem fluttered as Shi Jinlan, with heavy and careful movements, placed Chi Qian onto the bed.
Then she pulled over a nearby chair and sat down unhurriedly.
The time it took to stand up again was within Shi Jinlan’s expectations. She let her hands hang over her knees, her expression natural, as if everything was under her control.
Only, the sun shone from the side of her face, and the thin sweat on her forehead lingered, the slight trembling magnified as her arms dropped.
Shi Jinlan still felt uncomfortable.
The Little Mermaid’s curse was never that easy to dispel.
But she had stood up.
Shi Jinlan still remembered Yuan Ming telling her just now that she had to relax to stand up.
And she had said she was never someone who could learn to relax, so standing up was also soul-stirring.
But speaking of soul-stirring, what this person just went through was even more so than her.
If she hadn’t returned in time, would she have…
Death lay across Shi Jinlan’s eyes, becoming exceptionally blinding for the first time.
She didn’t even want the word to appear, cutting off her train of thought directly. Her gaze leveled, she raised her hand to feel Chi Qian’s pulse.
This person was sleeping soundly; although the pulse was still weak, the beating was fairly steady and orderly.
Shi Jinlan’s hand lightly pressed against Chi Qian’s wrist; every inch of her breath brushed past her fingertips, the blood warm, toasting Shi Jinlan’s fingers.
In the urgency just now, she hadn’t heard anything very clearly.
But Chi Qian’s last sentence, Shi Jinlan heard very clearly. She smiled at her, and using a familiar tone, called her: “Ah Lan.”
But why “Ah Lan”?
Shi Jinlan looked at the sleeping Chi Qian, her brows knitting together.
Whether in this place or the Shi family, no one had ever addressed her like that.
Could it be that this person had secretly given her a nickname in her heart?
But why didn’t she feel awkward about such a completely unfamiliar address?
A subtle resonance seemed to sound in the bottom of her heart, spreading through her entire body the moment she heard Chi Qian call her that for the first time.
Why was it like this?
Meow~
Just then, a small cat’s cry came from the doorway.
Thirteen discovered that after Chi Qian was saved by Shi Jinlan, the system shielding was removed.
Anxious to see Chi Qian but afraid of Shi Jinlan, it squatted at the door and meowed cautiously at Shi Jinlan, reminding her of its existence as a little kitty.
That cry indeed attracted Shi Jinlan’s attention.
She turned to look at Thirteen, examining this calico cat carefully for the first time.
Logically, free-range cats on the island should be dirty, but the cat before her was very clean. The white base was evenly distributed with black and yellow colors, and even the paws were completely different colors. With black and yellow placed together, it sat upright, even dignified.
Shi Jinlan’s definition of cute was different from others.
Seeing Thirteen’s anthropomorphic appearance, she actually felt it could be considered somewhat cute.
“I just found it. I’m nursing it back to health, how could I watch it run out again! So I chased it and ran to the west coast.”
Shi Jinlan’s mind automatically replayed Chi Qian’s explanation after finding her.
It was the cat at the door.
Shi Jinlan extended a deep gaze from her memory, looking at Thirteen sitting upright at the door, making Thirteen’s hair stand on end. Relying on a survival instinct, it maintained this posture that was about to go numb.
Until Thirteen could finally barely hold on, Shi Jinlan unhurriedly lifted the hand she had placed on Chi Qian’s wrist and hooked a finger at it, signaling: “Come here.”
Meow~ Thirteen tried hard to play the part of a cat that understands humans. Obeying Shi Jinlan’s command, it walked into the bedroom and jumped lightly onto Shi Jinlan’s lap.
“Your name is Thirteen.” Shi Jinlan observed the cat sitting in her arms and spoke faintly.
Meow~ Thirteen responded, not forgetting to tread milk4 on Shi Jinlan’s lap.
The cat wasn’t very heavy; stepping on Shi Jinlan’s lap could barely be considered comfortable.
Shi Jinlan lowered her eyes to look at the cowardly, fawning look of the cat before her, and suddenly remembered the scenes where Chi Qian tried to pet it but was dodged every time.
Do cats also serve dishes according to the guest5?
“Heh.”
Shi Jinlan’s mood was inexplicably pleasant. Stroking Thirteen’s neck, she let out a scoffing laugh.
Thirteen, however, shivered in fear at Shi Jinlan’s laugh.
It finally understood Chi Qian’s feelings from before. Facing the hand gripping the back of its neck—its fate—it could only act even more obediently, lying on Shi Jinlan’s lap.
It even attempted to melt into a cat pancake6.
Feeling the little cat lying on her lap becoming increasingly well-behaved, the smile at the corners of Shi Jinlan’s eyes deepened.
She leaned back unhurriedly, resting lazily against the chair back, experiencing the “joy of having a cat” she often heard people speak of.
Time flowed without a trace in this small room; the sun dropped another degree.
The waves crashed against the shore, making a sound. Sunlight mixed with the sound shone in from the window side. Shi Jinlan’s hand stroking Thirteen suddenly paused.
The waves rolled up spray and scattered it in the air. In this instant, a picture seemed to flash before Shi Jinlan’s eyes: The sunlight was bright and beautiful. She was sitting in a wheelchair, basking in the sun in the courtyard as always.
And this cat was curled up sleeping on her lap, unrestrained and free, completely unlike its current cowardly appearance, happy and at ease.
The scent of medicine came in waves; the light breeze rolled the scent past Shi Jinlan’s face.
She knew that behind this picture that hadn’t captured everything, there was another person hidden.
——Chi Qian.
Human memories only exist if there has been an experience.
But Shi Jinlan knew clearly that she had never experienced this scene.
What was going on?
The sky grew dark. Sunlight was like a net spread over the world; the sun hung heavy by the seaside, unhurriedly gathering her net.
Without the disturbance of sunlight, the twilight was full of people returning home. When Chi Qian woke up, the world was quiet.
Having just experienced a soul-stirring punishment, Chi Qian’s brain hadn’t quite recovered yet.
She stared blankly at the ceiling for a good while before turning her gaze to check the surrounding environment.
Only, in her familiar environment, a familiar yet strange figure was hunched over.
——Shi Jinlan was sitting on the chair Chi Qian used to sit on, asleep by her bed.
Chi Qian simply couldn’t believe her eyes.
In the past, she was the one guarding Shi Jinlan; now, Shi Jinlan was actually guarding her.
God…
Before she could even sigh with emotion, the image of Shi Jinlan kneeling beside her floated before Chi Qian’s eyes.
She lowered her head and leaned toward her; the finger brushing past her lips drew a long, slender, white line in Chi Qian’s vision, cold as mountain snow, landing gracefully on her lips, leaving behind a scent clean to the extreme.
In the silence, Chi Qian quietly pursed her lips slightly.
She was lingering on it, wanting even more to recall the details from just now.
Such things could only be hidden away secretly, unable to see the light.
But just as Chi Qian was moved to do something, she felt something paw at her.
She didn’t know if it was Shi Jinlan or some supernatural event.
Chi Qian had a guilty conscience, and her heart skipped a beat with a thump.
Purr… purr…
Two puffs of wet, hot breath sprayed down from a nose. Chi Qian felt something was wrong; looking up, she saw Thirteen sitting beside her, its round black eyes staring straight at her.
Chi Qian was surprised.
Thirteen, however, leaned in excitedly, even actively rubbing against Chi Qian’s forehead: 【Host! Wuwuwu, it’s so good that you’re okay!】
Chi Qian couldn’t help but complain: 【That I didn’t die at the hands of you systems this time is really just pure luck.】
【But Host has gained a blessing in disguise!】 Thirteen tirelessly passed optimism to Chi Qian.
Chi Qian didn’t think so, frowning and asking back: 【Blessing? What blessing could I get?】
【Shi Jinlan has likely been moved!】 Thirteen was excited.
【Huh?】
Chi Qian was completely stunned.
But she didn’t trust the system much. Suppressing her heartbeat, she caught the loophole in Thirteen’s language: 【What do you mean ‘likely’? Can you systems be a bit more reliable in your work?】
Thirteen: 【Because Shi Jinlan stood up——】
This time, before Thirteen could finish, Chi Qian excitedly cut it off: 【What?!】
【Host, you threw the clothes with the asthma inhaler very far away. To get the inhaler, Shi Jinlan used a lot of effort to stand up!】
Thirteen simply recounted what happened just now to Chi Qian. Clearly, it was a haughty cat just a moment ago, but now it was wagging its tail, its whole body radiating the joy of a love brain7: 【This is the power of love! Love!!】
【No way…】
Not sure if influenced by Thirteen, Chi Qian’s heartbeat also began to accelerate.
Thump, thump, it knocked against Chi Qian’s chest. Although she didn’t dare believe it, her heart was surrounded by an unprecedented warm current.
【How could it not be!】 Thirteen was firm.
It excitedly repeated what Chi Qian had said just now to Chi Qian, urging: 【And Host, you just told Shi Jinlan you wanted to pledge your body to her! Hurry and find a chance to deliver your first kiss; seal the deal on your romantic relationship with Shi Jinlan!】
The author has something to say:
Thirteen: I’m just a little Hongniang8 kitty~
Lanlan: Reward with dried fish.
Thirteen: Thank you, Mommy~
Qianqian: Wall-top cat9 (attempts to catch Thirteen) (capture failed) (puffed up with anger) (angry as a pufferfish)
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