Liang Jianshi’s kiss had taken Qilan completely by surprise.
Her body trembled with inexperience as she passively received his kiss.
Intense emotion washed over her like waves, leaving her breathless even as she surrendered helplessly.
She had always been skilled at rejecting affection.
Though her looks had attracted many male classmates during her school years, the inferiority deep inside had never allowed her to accept anyone’s feelings. Even when she felt a strong attraction, she forced herself to kill it.
But Liang Jianshi was different.
Qilan drowned in his gentleness, succumbing to his advances.
From the very first moment she saw him, something felt wonderfully strange. Her attachment to him seemed etched into her genes, as if she was destined to love him.
An intense wave of bittersweet emotion washed over her. Her slender, cool arms wrapped around Liang Jianshi’s neck as she instinctively leaned into him. A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, but Qilan found his lips first, pecking at the corner of his mouth clumsily like a little bird.
Something inside her surged and overflowed.
As she started to pull back, uncertain what to do next, his arm tightened around her waist. In a daze, he pressed closer. In the quiet night, they held each other and kissed.
The small lamp behind them gave off a faint glow. Liang Jianshi’s long lashes lowered, his deep gaze fixed on her soft lips as if admiring a precious treasure. He traced her lips carefully, claiming them with varying intensity, savoring the taste with meticulous devotion.
Qilan, who had always kept her distance, now recklessly lost herself. She was surprised by her own boldness, swept up in this breathless intensity. Perhaps her feelings for him had already run far deeper than she realized.
She loved him more than she had ever known.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
The cream cake on the plate had melted into a mess, the decorative strawberry toppled to the side, revealing the sweet peach-colored filling within.
In the glass sunroom, soft cashmere blankets were piled on the tatami. Qilan held the cat, leaning against Liang Jianshi.
“I confessed to you. You haven’t confessed to me yet.”
Liang Jianshi’s fingers gently stroked her soft hair. “Mm?”
Qilan pouted. “You were Lans all along, but you deliberately hid it, watching me make a fool of myself. Did you want to secretly be my pen pal and then surprise everyone?”
Liang Jianshi laughed. “You kept hiding from me. How could I tell you?”
Qilan looked up. “I wasn’t hiding. Work rules said not to disturb you, so I only went in when you weren’t in the room.”
Liang Jianshi rubbed her head, the same way he petted the cat.
Qilan happily wrapped her arms around his waist. “But thank you. You never stopped writing to me for four whole years.” She recalled the days of waiting for his letters, a bud blooming deep in her soul. “You don’t know how much your letters helped me.”
Liang Jianshi’s gaze drifted into the distance, a gentle smile reaching his eyes. “Things were very hard for you back then, weren’t they? Why didn’t you mention any of it? I didn’t really help you. You made it this far because you were strong enough.”
Qilan sighed softly.
Her correspondence with Lans had begun in December of her freshman year.
She had lost her pen that day. It wasn’t anything valuable, but it was the only memento her grandmother had left her.
Liang Jianshi had found the pen, but when he went abroad, his secretary accidentally packed it. To return it to Qilan, he had to mail it.
When she received the pen, she saw it came from abroad. Thinking it was from a foreigner, she wrote back in English to express her gratitude.
She thought that would be the end of it, but half a month later, Liang Jianshi’s reply arrived.
And so, they corresponded for four years.
Many things happened in those four years, but she never mentioned a single hardship. Every letter she sent overseas was filled with hopeful words. Qilan worked hard to find joy in her struggles, and even someone as perceptive as Liang Jianshi hadn’t seen through her letters.
Qilan didn’t want to use Liang Jianshi as a sounding board. In her heart, Mr. Lans was someone who could hold her hand and lead her home in the dark. The ugliness of the world would only tarnish the sacred bond between their souls.
She wrapped her arm around Liang Jianshi’s, smiling sweetly. “Haven’t you heard? If you keep talking about how miserable you are, you might have to go through it again. So better to forget it.”
Qilan didn’t want to go through that again.
Not having enough to eat, being hounded by debt, juggling part-time jobs, struggling with schoolwork, constant minor illnesses, her body weighed down by stress. And there were always people who couldn’t understand her situation, whispering rumors behind her back…
It was as if they thought her life wasn’t hard enough, as if they were amazed she hadn’t fallen apart. All of it converged in her junior year.
Qilan closed her eyes, unwilling to dwell on that dark time.
After a long silence, Liang Jianshi’s voice came from above.
“From now on, I’m here. You won’t suffer anymore.”
Warm light slowly enveloped her heart. “I believe that. You’re Liang Jianshi.” “The most capable person in the world.”
Feeling immensely lucky, Qilan savored her happiness, missing the trace of sadness hidden beneath Liang Jianshi’s smile.
“Lanlan, call me by a different name.”
Qilan’s fingers played with the cat’s fur. “What should I call you? What do you like?”
She thought Liang Jianshi would tell her to think of something, but instead he said directly, “Call me A-Shi.”
Qilan was momentarily confused, but quickly smiled, calling him obediently, “A-Shi.”
She repeated it to herself a few times.
“A-Shi, A-Shi… it rolls off the tongue.” She looked up with a radiant smile. “It feels like I’ve called you this many times before.”
They had agreed to go dogsledding the next day. Qilan fell asleep with anticipation, dreaming happily for the first time in a long while, free from her recurring nightmares.
But in her happiness, she had forgotten something important.
ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
In the morning, the white cat sat on Liang Jianshi’s shoes, her paws wrapped around his feet, meowing loudly.
“meow meow meow!” “What do I do? I’ve turned into a cat.”
Liang Jianshi hadn’t forgotten that she turned into a cat when she slept; he just hadn’t wanted to wake her when she was sleeping so soundly.
He bent down, expertly picked her up under her arms, and lifted her to eye level. “Cats can ride sleds too.”
Qilan drooped her eyes but followed Liang Jianshi upstairs, watching him pull adorable furry outfits from his suitcase.
A little green dinosaur hoodie, a curly little goat costume, a matching Christmas reindeer outfit, a black-and-yellow striped bee costume…
Qilan’s mood lifted. She stretched out her paw and picked up the turtle costume with a shell on the back.
Liang Jianshi laughed in surprise as he dressed her in the turtle outfit, teasing her. “So you want to be a little turtle today.”
Qilan bit his chin. “meow!” “Say that again, and I’ll knock your head!”
As the cat waddled, the turtle’s shell on her back wobbled back and forth. Liang Jianshi was so amused that he couldn’t help filming her.
On the way, Qilan perched on his shoulder, watching the video together, giggling at her own adorable appearance.
Cats could smile, too. When she did, her mouth formed a pink upside-down triangle, curving upward, her eyes squinting, her little fangs peeking out, her delicate whiskers trembling gently.
Her soft fur blended with the surroundings. In the snowy landscape, she hopped and bounced like a little fairy, leaving a trail of tiny paw prints that were simply heartwarming.
Qilan hopped like a rabbit, her tail straight up, with Liang Jianshi following slowly behind.
A heavy snowfall last night had left the snow deep. At first, it wasn’t too deep, and she was having a wonderful time, until she jumped into a deep hole.
The cat ended up upside down in the snow, only her tail sticking out and waving frantically. Liang Jianshi hurried over, only to get a face full of snow kicked up by her little hind legs.
Before he could rescue her, Qilan scrambled out on her own, shaking with fright as she jumped into his arms.
“meow!” “Scared me to death!”
Liang Jianshi wiped the snow off his face helplessly and stood up with the cat. “I shouldn’t have let you run off. You’re staying with me.”
Once she was a cat, Qilan was much more carefree than as a human.
She threw caution to the wind, partly because everything an adorable cat did was adorable anyway. She went wild in the snow.
The guide watched in astonishment as the cat rode a sled with perfect form, cutting through the snow like a pro. He gave Liang Jianshi a thumbs up, asking in amazement, “Do all Chinese cats know kung fu?”
Liang Jianshi laughed in surprise, explaining that his cat was the lead performer in an acrobatic troupe and had been trained since childhood.
The guide nodded in sudden understanding.
Winter seemed bleak, but once you were out in the snow, you discovered all sorts of new joys.
Qilan lay in wait in the snow, trying to catch a squirrel.
“Ridiculous, cats were natural hunters!”
In a flash, Qilan’s rear lifted, she leaped in a smooth arc, and then landed straight in the snow.
Liang Jianshi happened to see this. He walked over and pulled the cat out of the hole. “Rather than a natural hunter, I’d say a natural escape artist.”
In the snow, the comical outline of a cat was imprinted on the ground, limbs splayed. Qilan wished she could find a hole to crawl into.
On the way back, the guide brought over a reindeer sled.
Qilan, perched on Liang Jianshi’s arm like a child, reached out to touch the reindeer. The moment her small paw pads touched its branch-like antlers, the reindeer shook its head violently twice, glaring at the cat with round eyes. Qilan yanked her hand back and buried her face in Liang Jianshi’s shoulder.
Liang Jianshi exchanged a few words with the guide, then passed on the instructions.
His low voice murmured in her ear, making her pointed ears twitch twice.
He then held her under her arms and lifted her forward a bit, letting her carefully touch the reindeer again.
“Hey!?” “It let me touch it!”
The cat’s blue eyes shifted in the sunlight like gleaming jewels.
The guide, adjusting the sled, watched their interaction and made a teasing remark in the local language.
When Liang Jianshi had translated before, but this time he didn’t. Instead, he smiled silently and led Qilan onto the sled.
Unable to contain her curiosity, Qilan discreetly pointed at the guide, signaling to Liang Jianshi.
“What did he say?”
Liang Jianshi leaned close to her ear. “He said, the way you interact with this cat is just like being in love with a girlfriend.”
“Sweet enough to rot your teeth.”