Troublesome – Chapter 120

Floor-to-ceiling Window Extra

A little bit of warmth and sweetness

Lu Zhenqiu[ was stunned for two seconds before coming to her senses. “The one next door?”

Jin Shuilan nodded.

Lu Zhenqiu’s expression soured. “Why didn’t you say so before?”

Jin Shuilan opened her mouth to explain, “My parents bought it.”

She tried her best to distance herself from it, even saying, “If you want to buy it, I can go discuss it with my parents.”

“Buy…” Buy your big-headed ghost!¹ Lu Zhenqiu fumed, turning her head to ignore Jin Shuilan. She asked, “What’s the one next door like?”

“It’s not as big as this one. It’s been renovated, has a bay window, a floor-to-ceiling window, and a study.” Jin Shuilan’s description was very detailed. Lu Zhenqiu asked her, “What are the curtains like?”

Jin Shuilan faltered.

She really hadn’t noticed.

Lu Zhenqiu said, “Go take a look right now.”

Jin Shuilan got up, wanting to pull Lu Zhenqiu along with her, but Lu Zhenqiu didn’t move. Jin Shuilan had no choice but to go over by herself and take a picture of the curtains to send to Lu Zhenqiu.

Lu Zhenqiu didn’t reply.

Only then did Jin Shuilan realize she had been swept out the door².

She stood at the door, rubbing her forehead. If she had known, she would have confessed before bed. After she left, Lu Zhenqiu locked the door from the inside and grumbled with dissatisfaction in their small group chat: 【This is too much!】

Hua Luo: 【What’s wrong, what’s wrong, did you two have a fight!】

Xiao Yu: 【Oh my, at this hour, could it be that your sex life isn’t harmonious?】

Lu Zhenqiu: …

These two were as unreliable as ever.

Hua Luo: 【Where’d she go?】

Xiao Yu: 【@Zhenqiu, Qiuqiu?】

Lu Zhenqiu bit her lip, sitting on the sofa as she briefly recounted the matter of the apartment across the hall.

Hua Luo: 【Well damn, for a moment I couldn’t tell if this was showing off wealth or showing off wealth.】

Xiao Yu: 【Qiuqiu, ah, I don’t mean anything by this, but Teacher Jin, is she, uh, lacking a younger sister? An older sister would work too.】

Hua Luo: 【I remember now! So the apartment she wanted to rent at the very beginning was probably the one next door!】

Her words served as a wake-up call for Lu Zhenqiu. The apartment Jin Shuilan wanted to rent from the start was the one next door, and then she only chose to invite her to live together after seeing her, even making up excuses about being sick and wanting to get a dog.

It was all to trick her.

Lu Zhenqiu was both angry and amused.

She ignored Jin Shuilan’s message and watched the chat in the small group.

Xiao Yu: 【Thinking about it this way, Teacher Jin is really full of tricks and plots³.】

Hua Luo: 【You can’t say that. Teacher Jin is only like this because she likes Qiuqiu.】

Xiao Yu: 【What’s wrong with liking her? Does liking her mean it’s not deception? Cohabitation! Who knows what she might have done back then? What if she had tried to force the king to draw the bow⁴, wouldn’t Qiuqiu have been in a miserable spot!】

When Lu Zhenqiu herself said Jin Shuilan had deceived her, her heart felt heavy.

But now, seeing someone else say it, her heart felt even heavier.

These two kinds of heaviness were different.

She didn’t like other people talking about Jin Shuilan like that.

An unconscious act of protecting a shortcoming⁵, Lu Zhenqiu sent: 【Well, it’s not that serious.】

From the very first day of renting, Jin Shuilan had respected her daily routine. Back then, she had just gone through a breakup, and Jin Shuilan took her out to vent during her spare time, just so she wouldn’t let her imagination run wild. Fearing she wouldn’t have time, she even took Maomao downstairs for walks.

From beginning to end, Jin Shuilan had been taking care of her.

Seeing the message, Xiao Yu let out a mischievous laugh and sent to Hua Luo: 【See? Some people just need a little prodding.】

Hua Luo rolled her eyes at her.

Lu Zhenqiu thought quietly for a while and her mood improved a lot. However, it was still wrong for Jin Shuilan to deceive her, so she decided to ignore Jin Shuilan tonight!

She didn’t even realize how childish she was being, but being in a relationship naturally involves doing childish things.

Afraid she might change her mind, Lu Zhenqiu got up from the sofa and went back to her room. Maomao followed her, hopping onto the bed with a ‘thump’ and lying down beside her. Lu Zhenqiu saw Xiao Yu ask in the group: 【Hua Luo, has Teacher Bai gotten a cat?】

Hua Luo: 【How did you know?】

Xiao Yu: 【I saw it while scrolling through Moments.】

Hua Luo: 【She just got one. It’s a Golden Shaded⁶, really cute. It’s a pity I can’t have pets here, otherwise I’d get one too.】

Xiao Yu: 【Then you can just go over and see her cat more often.】

Hua Luo: 【Tomorrow I’ll bring my laptop over to write. I can pet the cat too, I’ll die of happiness!】

Lu Zhenqiu would reply from time to time. The three of them chatted on and off, and later even started a voice call. Hua Luo suddenly said, “Hey, it’s raining.”

It really was raining. It was drizzling outside. Lu Zhenqiu walked barefoot to the window and pulled open the curtains. The threads of rain were dense, hitting the windowsill and meandering down. She suddenly thought of Jin Shuilan.

That person should be resting next door, right?

I wonder if she has a blanket. No one has been in there for many days, so I don’t know if the blanket is still clean. Although Jin Shuilan isn’t a neat freak, it probably isn’t clean since it hasn’t been tidied up in a long time.

Lu Zhenqiu bit her lip, standing by the window.

Jin Shuilan also noticed it was raining. She was sitting in the study and turned her head. The rain pelted the windowsill with a pitter-patter. She could have actually just called Lu Zhenqiu to ask to come back; Lu Zhenqiu was soft-hearted and would surely agree.

But she really hadn’t told her in advance.

She deserved to be punished.

This counts as self-punishment, I guess. It turns out the worst part isn’t being unable to go home, but being unable to see Qiuqiu.

Jin Shuilan paced back and forth in the study. Finally, she picked up a book and sat down, but her mind wasn’t on it at all. Instead, she listened to the sound of the rain outside.

She suddenly remembered what Lu Zhenqiu had just said.

“If it rains…”

She didn’t finish the sentence. What would it have been? If it rained, she would hold Lu Zhenqiu while standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down. They would admire the beauty of the nightscape together and listen to the sound of the rain.

Jin Shuilan sighed softly and returned to the desk. There were many messages on her phone. She was in quite a few groups, all of them work-related. At this hour, the night owls weren’t asleep yet and were still chatting back and forth.

With nothing better to do, she surfed the web for a bit, then went on Weibo to search for things related to Zhenqiu.

It was all news related to her.

After Zhenqiu’s name, “Teacher Jin” would inevitably follow, to the point that it had formed a search term. Jin Shuilan was very satisfied. With nothing to do, she browsed into a Super Topic and liked several pieces of fanfiction and fanart.

A moment later, she received a tag.

WannaBeZhenqiusDog: Holy shit! Teacher Jin liked my post! 【Screenshot】

Jin Shuilan looked at her ID.

How did she not notice it when she liked the post?

Her act of liking posts, however, started another round of discussion in the Super Topic. Someone tagged Lu Zhenqiu: @Zhenqiu, Qiuqiu, if you give me a like, I’ll have no regrets in this life!

Lu Zhenqiu was on a voice call with Hua Luo and the others in their small group. Seeing a stream of tags on Weibo, she got curious and clicked in, where she saw the screenshots of the posts Jin Shuilan had liked.

She couldn’t hold it in and laughed out of exasperation.

Her anger also dissipated.

Lu Zhenqiu hung up the group voice call and saw the message Jin Shuilan had sent her. It was a photo of the room. The curtains were deep purple with many flowers embroidered on them with golden thread, making them particularly striking. Lu Zhenqiu bit her fingertip, thought for a few minutes, then replied: 【They’re quite pretty.】

Receiving her message, Jin Shuilan shot up from her chair and cleared her throat. She thought Lu Zhenqiu would stay angry until tomorrow but didn’t expect a reply so soon.

She sent: 【There’s also the study’s floor-to-ceiling window.】

The floor-to-ceiling window wasn’t as large as the one in the study of her current apartment, but it was enough to see the view outside clearly. Raindrops fell on the glass, tiny scattered beads of water, along with Jin Shuilan’s reflection. She was standing by the window in her pajamas, taking the picture for her.

Something stirred in Lu Zhenqiu’s heart.

She hadn’t replied yet.

Jin Shuilan sent another message: 【This is the bay window.】

The bay window was quite large, just a bit empty. There was only a brown, fluffy, short-piled blanket placed on it. Lu Zhenqiu pursed her lips as she looked, replying after a moment: 【Pretty.】

Only then did Jin Shuilan ask: 【So, do you… want to come over and see?】

Lu Zhenqiu knew she should be angry right now, but she still couldn’t resist the temptation. The moment she opened the door just a crack, she saw the person standing at the entrance.

Jin Shuilan looked at her, her gaze burning.

Lu Zhenqiu bit her lip, opened the door wide as if she had every right to, and said, “I’m just taking a look.”

Jin Shuilan chuckled and led her next door. Maomao was left at home. Lu Zhenqiu stood in the living room. Although no one lived there, it was very clean, showing that someone came to clean it regularly. Jin Shuilan took the initiative to explain, “Qiuqiu, the last time, this is where I stayed.”

Lu Zhenqiu glared at her. “Is there anything else you’re hiding from me?”

Jin Shuilan shook her head. “Nothing else.”

After speaking, she moved closer to Lu Zhenqiu. “Still angry?”

Lu Zhenqiu ignored her, walking into the study instead. The floor-to-ceiling window from the photo was now right in front of her. She walked to the window and looked down. The curtain of rain was dense. The area downstairs was empty, with only the streetlights on, dim and damp. The circles of light were obscured by the rain, leaving mottled shadows. Jin Shuilan hugged her from behind, whispering in her ear, “Qiuqiu.”

Her voice was low and husky. Lu Zhenqiu turned her head and asked her, “Why aren’t you asleep yet?”

Jin Shuilan said, “I can’t sleep. What about you?”

Lu Zhenqiu: “I can sleep just fine.”

Jin Shuilan nodded and smiled. “Is it time for sleepwalking now?”

Lu Zhenqiu was unable to refute that for a moment. She bit her lip and said a few seconds later, “None of your business.”

“None of my business?” After saying that, she hummed softly, the end of the sound rising as if in question, yet it carried a hint of a smile, making it sound like she was in a good mood.

And why wouldn’t she be in a good mood?

Lu Zhenqiu’s anger towards her hadn’t even lasted an hour.

Jin Shuilan took a step forward, trapping her between herself and the bay window. Lu Zhenqiu smelled the familiar scent, her hands placed in front of her. Their gazes met. Outside, only the pitter-patter of the rain could be heard as it hit the floor-to-ceiling window like crisp musical notes, spinning around the entire room. It was as if they were in another world.

A world with only each other in it. Jin Shuilan leaned in a little closer, her eyes lowered, looking at Lu Zhenqiu against the backdrop of the night outside, taking in all her features. A glint shone in her eyes. Lu Zhenqiu also raised her head slightly, looking into her eyes. A spark was ready to ignite at any moment.

The sound of the rain outside grew louder, hitting the glass and composing a symphony, pitter-patter.

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