Shen Wuqiu ultimately failed to go back out to continue searching for the cat. Aside from the obstruction caused by Gu Lingyu, that clingy human-shaped feline, Father Shen also forbade her from venturing out again.
Pitch-black outside, it was actually only seven o’clock. The countryside didn’t have much of a nightlife to speak of; only those fond of lively chatter would drop by a neighbor’s house for a post-meal chat. On a rainy evening like this, however, everyone simply hunkered down indoors.
Before long, Su Yunzhi finished brewing the ginger soup.
Shen Wuqiu drank a bowl herself and was just about to carry a bowl upstairs for Gu Lingyu when Su Yunzhi called out to her, “Invite your friend down to sit for a while. We’re all family here, tell her not to be so formal.”
Ever since their explosive argument at the dining table a few days ago, Su Yunzhi’s attitude had undergone a subtle shift, but such genuine hospitality as this was truly rare.
Just as Shen Wuqiu was feeling puzzled, Father Shen chimed in, “Exactly. It’s rare for a friend of yours to travel from afar; don’t leave her cooped up in the room. Have her come down to chat and watch TV.”
Truth be told, Shen Wuqiu really didn’t want to share a confined space with the girl. After all, she was currently at an age as fierce as a wolf or a tiger, and this eighteen-year-old miss was so painfully good at flirting. With the two of them alone, one lone woman and another, it was practically asking for a spark to catch tinder.
Thus, she simply nodded and carried the ginger soup upstairs.
Inside the room, Gu Lingyu loathed the proper, conventional button-up shirt she was wearing with a passion, especially the row of tiny pearl buttons running down the front. Taking advantage of Shen Wuqiu’s trip downstairs, she began tugging at those very buttons.
Who would have thought these buttons were so fragile? With just a casual pull, three of them popped off in one go.
She was actually quite speechless herself. She had only meant to unbutton the one at her neck, but now her shirt had split open all the way down to her chest.
When Shen Wuqiu pushed open the door, this was precisely the alluring, breast-revealing sight that greeted her.
Locked in a mutual gaze for a few seconds, Gu Lingyu felt a slight twinge of guilt, though she still tried to save face and defend herself out loud, “These buttons are completely useless. I barely touched them, and they just fell apart like firecrackers.”
With a blank expression, Shen Wuqiu reined in her gaze. “Come over and drink this bowl of ginger soup.”
Seeing that Shen Wuqiu didn’t comment on her unbuttoned shirt, Gu Lingyu covertly tinkered with it once more, ensuring that the remaining few buttons on the shirt truly scattered with a flurry of snaps.
“Sister, look, I told you these buttons were no good.”
Shen Wuqiu’s mouth twitched. Her gaze traveled slowly upward from the gaping shirt to rest finally on Gu Lingyu’s flushed, excited face, leaving her entirely at a loss for how to react.
After a dozen seconds, she took a deep breath. “Right. Well, keep wearing it like that, then.”
Gu Lingyu had zero objections to this. She happily leaned in close to sniff the bowl in Shen Wuqiu’s hands, only for her brow to immediately furrow into a deep ridge. “What is this stuff? It smells awful.”
“Ginger soup. This season is the easiest time for cold dampness to enter the body, drink it up quickly.”
“No, I won’t drink it. It looks repulsive just looking at it.”
“Suit yourself.” Shen Wuqiu glanced at her and promptly set the bowl down on the improvised desk they usually used.
Intuitively sensing that the person before her was upset, Gu Lingyu glanced from the steaming ginger soup back to Shen Wuqiu, deciding to take a step back. “Then Sister can feed me.”
Shen Wuqiu looked at her. “Do you really take me for your actual older sister?”
Gu Lingyu shook her head hurriedly. “That won’t do.”
If they were real sisters, that would be incest, and her parents would definitely flay her alive.
Shen Wuqiu shrugged. “I’ve never fed a single bowl of soup to my own younger brother, either.”
For a moment, Gu Lingyu couldn’t quite keep up. “What does that have to do with this?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Shen Wuqiu caught sight of those fluttering eyelashes of hers, and a bizarre sensation of she is so adorable rushed straight to her head. Swayed entirely by this feeling, she couldn’t help raising a hand to flick the girl’s forehead. “So, little sister, you have to be a good girl and drink it yourself.”
Gu Lingyu pouted, thinking she would try to be good and finish the soup, but the moment she laid eyes on that murky black liquid, revulsion surged from the bottom of her heart. Struggling, she protested, “What if I refuse to drink it?”
“Then don’t drink it. After all, I’m not the one who’ll be suffering if you get sick.”
No matter how she listened to it, that sounded like a fit of pique.
Her father had said that a divine beast who made its partner angry was not a happy divine beast and would easily end up lonely in old age.
Gnashing her teeth, Gu Lingyu finally picked up the bowl and downed it in one breath, then sought credit from the other person. “Sister, I finished it.”
With that expression, Shen Wuqiu honestly wondered if the girl had a hidden tail tucked away somewhere.
Still, she was undeniably cute.
Shen Wuqiu lowered her gaze and smiled slightly, though her eyes kept lingering on the drops of soup lingering at the edges of Gu Lingyu’s lips.
The young miss was truly a messy eater.
Enduring and enduring, Shen Wuqiu ultimately failed to hold back, reaching out to wipe a finger across the corner of the girl’s mouth.
“Sister?”
“You got some soup on your lips.”
No sooner had the words left Shen Wuqiu’s mouth than the very finger she had just pulled back from the girl’s lips slipped straight into the other’s mouth.
“Sister, look, I didn’t waste a single drop.”
Shen Wuqiu concluded that if she stayed with this person a moment longer, she might genuinely do something out of line.
Keeping her face rigid and fighting hard to maintain her composure, she forced out, “My dad and the others were asking if you wanted to go down to the living room to watch TV.”
Mid-sentence, her gaze snagged on the girl’s attire once more, prompting her to amend, “You’d better just stay here and rest instead, I’ll go arrange a room for you right now.”
Her words tumbled out fast and frantic. The moment she finished speaking, she fled in a panic.
Left standing in place before she could even process what had happened, Gu Lingyu blinked, pondering to herself: Why did Sister suddenly blush?
Leaning against the wall by the stairwell, Shen Wuqiu rubbed her face. The little rabbit in her chest was still leaping around wildly because her mind was entirely filled with the image of the woman in her room.
So this was actually her karmic retribution for disrupting the white cat’s lineage!
Because of her meddling, the white cat had stubbornly latched onto her, only to run away from home in cursed weather like this, dragging her into meeting such a tormenting little siren at just this exact moment, a siren who was hopelessly alluring. And to top it all off, every single sign indicated that she could only look and not touch.
Fate truly worked in mysterious ways.
“Sis, what are you doing out here?”
Just as Shen Wuqiu was lost in thought, a soaked Shen Wenjun came tramping up the stairs.
Startled out of her wits, Shen Wuqiu blurted out in a fluster, “What are you doing here?”
Sizing her up with a frown, Shen Wenjun muttered, “I’m heading up to change my clothes. Did you still not find the cat?”
“No.”
Looking somewhat disappointed, Shen Wenjun sighed, “I didn’t find her either. Oh right, I just heard Mom say you have a friend visiting? Is it that friend of yours? Old Le, wait, did you get a clear look at that girl’s face? I only caught a glimpse, but she’s an absolute stunner. Wonder if she’s taken. Too bad our Wenjun is a bit too young, though who knows who’ll be lucky enough.”
“You women and your endless gossip behind people’s backs.” Impatient with such chatter, Father Shen cut in from downstairs, “She’s a guest in our home, stop rambling about nonsense.”
“I’m just talking with you, aren’t I? I certainly wouldn’t say these things to her face.”
Upstairs, Shen Wuqiu had gone straight to making the guest bed. Once she finished smoothing it out, she hid in that room for half an hour playing on her phone before finally returning to her own.
Gu Lingyu, lingering in her bedroom like she owned the place, was lying face down on her bed, kicking her legs as she browsed through Shen Wuqiu’s tablet.
“Your room is all set. You’ll be sleeping in there tonight.”
At that, Gu Lingyu put on a masterclass of shock, laced with a hint of grievance. “Sister isn’t sleeping with me?”
Guilty of a guilty conscience, Shen Wuqiu thought, “I’m not used to sleeping with people.”
Liar, utter fraud, Gu Lingyu thought. Clearly, for the past few nights, you’ve held me tighter and slept sounder than anyone.
Burying her face in the quilt, Gu Lingyu let out a muffled, “Oh.”
“It’s getting late. You walked a long way today, you must be tired. Go get some rest early.”
Gu Lingyu raised her head to look at her. “Sister doesn’t like me.”
Kicking a guest out like this was indeed a bit harsh. Too embarrassed to meet her gaze, Shen Wuqiu shook her head. “No, it’s just that I’m tired too.”
Rolling her eyes twice, Gu Lingyu sluggishly crawled up and dragged herself toward the door. Hurriedly wrapping a bath towel around her shoulders, Shen Wuqiu ushered her next door to the guest room.
Having successfully ousted the person from her room, Shen Wuqiu didn’t feel relieved in the slightest. Standing at the threshold of the guest room, she made conversation purely for the sake of it, “By the way, did you have dinner? Are you hungry?”
With lowered eyes, Gu Lingyu refused to look at her. “None of your business.”
A young miss indeed, full of temper.
Paying it no mind, Shen Wuqiu opened her mouth to say more, but the moment she parted her lips, the temperamental miss slammed the door shut right in her face.
Blinking at the closed door, Shen Wuqiu stood frozen for a good thirty seconds before retreating back to her own room.
The cat she picked up was an ancestor; picking up a human meant dealing with another ancestor.
That must be her destiny.
Just as Shen Wuqiu was entertaining this thought while lying on her bed, a familiar cat meow drifted through her ears. Holding her breath, she cocked her head to listen. Confirming that the sound truly came from outside the window, she executed a textbook carp leap, crossed the room in two strides to the window, and yanked open the curtains and screen. A familiar white fur ball sprang straight into her arms.