All I Want Is to Hold the Heroine in My Arms [Transmigration into a Book] - Chapter 8
When Wan Shuang opened her eyes again, it was already the next morning.
“Aunt Wang, was it my brother who carried me home last night?” Wan Shuang asked as she walked downstairs and stood at the kitchen door, watching Aunt Wang prepare breakfast.
“Miss, you’re awake?” Aunt Wang turned her head slightly. “Yes, it was Young Master who carried you home.”
“And these pajamas…” Wan Shuang tugged at her clothes, her voice hesitant.
“I changed them for you,” Aunt Wang replied.
Hearing that, Wan Shuang let out a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness it wasn’t Wan Cheng who changed her. That would’ve been too awkward.
Since she had gone to bed early the night before, it was still only around seven in the morning.
Listening to the clattering sounds in the kitchen, Wan Shuang suddenly remembered something. She bolted back to her room like a gust of wind.
Thirty minutes later, she came downstairs, fully dressed and ready.
Before heading out the door, she said to Aunt Wang, “Aunt Wang, no need to make breakfast for me today~”
When Wan Cheng finally woke up and saw the empty chair across from him, the veins on his forehead visibly tightened in frustration.
Meanwhile, Wan Shuang had already made her way to a narrow alley.
The place was lined with weathered red bricks, uneven cement paths, and small shops that looked like they came from another era. The air carried an old-time charm that felt out of place in the modern, high-rise-filled M City.
At the far end of the alley stood a bun shop.
This was why Wan Shuang had come.
“Ha! It really is the bun shop!” she clapped her hands joyfully when she saw the sign.
She ran over excitedly and called out, “Boss, I’d like three cabbage and pork buns, please!”
…
Shi Yi sat beside the cashier counter, her expression focused as she reviewed the ledger. She tapped her pen rhythmically against the surface.
Ding-ling~
The bell above the door chimed.
Shi Yi looked up quickly to see who it was.
It was a stranger.
“Hello, I’d like to buy some…” the customer began.
After wrapping the bouquet the customer had requested, Shi Yi handed it over and watched the customer leave. She stood quietly in the aisle, staring at the doorway, lost in thought.
The moment the doorbell rang, she had thought it was Wan Shuang.
But when she saw a stranger instead of that familiar face, her heart stirred restlessly, though she didn’t understand why.
Everything that happened yesterday still felt like a dream.
First, the girl she thought was a struggling college student had confessed she was actually a rich heiress. Then she said she was only working at the shop to help Dr. Jian get closer to Shi Yi. And finally… she confessed her feelings.
It was the first time in Shi Yi’s life that she had been confessed to by another girl, and though she appeared calm on the surface, she was completely shaken inside.
She didn’t know how to respond next.
Should she reject Wan Shuang? But she was afraid that anything she said might hurt her. Accepting her feelings? That was completely out of the question.
While Shi Yi was caught in this emotional turmoil, the phone suddenly rang.
At that moment, it felt like a lifeline pulling her out of the chaos.
But after hanging up and turning around, she saw the girl still standing there with her head lowered, and her heart tangled up once again.
She had no choice but to force herself to remain calm and offered to walk the girl home, expressionless.
“I hope you can be my girlfriend,” the girl’s sweet and lively voice echoed in Shi Yi’s mind. That memory snapped her back to the present as she stood frozen in the aisle.
She glanced at the door but didn’t see the familiar figure she hoped for.
Just as she turned to walk back to the counter, assuming Wan Shuang wouldn’t come, the doorbell rang again.
Along with it came a cheerful voice, “Shi Yi-jie! I brought you breakfast!”
Shi Yi took the buns Wan Shuang had brought. Even though she had already eaten, the expectant look in the girl’s eyes made it impossible for her to refuse.
Though she couldn’t quite tell what Wan Shuang was hoping for, Shi Yi didn’t want to disappoint her. So she picked up a bun and took a bite.
It was soft and tender, flavorful but not greasy, with a slight touch of sweetness. The taste was so familiar that Shi Yi’s eyes lit up.
“Is it good?” Wan Shuang asked.
After swallowing, Shi Yi nodded. “It’s delicious. And… it tastes familiar.”
“Familiar?”
“Yes, it reminds me of the bun stall I used to go to in high school,” she said, nodding again as she took another bite.
Hearing this, Wan Shuang grinned and made a silent victory gesture behind her back.
The bun shop really was the same one Shi Yi had mentioned.
In the novel, Shi Yi had casually told Jing Yijie she missed the buns she used to eat in high school. Jing Yijie then ordered a team of people to search for the shop, and they finally found it in the same alley where Wan Shuang had gone that morning.
“I’ll bring them for you again tomorrow,” Wan Shuang said with a bright smile.
Shi Yi’s chewing slowed at those words. The taste of the bun in her mouth began to fade.
She placed the half-eaten bun back into the paper bag and looked up at Wan Shuang.
“I think we need to talk,” she said seriously.
The atmosphere suddenly turned heavy and serious.
Wan Shuang’s smile faded. She licked her lips gently and replied softly, “Shi Yi-jie, I know what you’re going to say.”
She raised her hand slightly to stop Shi Yi from speaking and continued, “After I got home yesterday, I gave it a lot of thought. Confessing to you like that… I was being impulsive.”
Upon hearing that, Shi Yi’s heart, which had barely begun to calm, suddenly tensed up again. Somehow, she felt that whatever Wan Shuang was going to say next might make her even more confused.
As expected, Shi Yi’s next words confirmed the guess already forming in her heart.
Wan Shuang spoke with a smile, “I shouldn’t have asked you to be in a relationship with me right away. I should’ve given you time to think about it.” She flipped her hair playfully. “Originally, I wanted to slowly grow closer to you, let feelings develop naturally. But when I saw how beautiful you looked yesterday, like a goddess from a painting, I couldn’t hold it in and just said what was in my heart.”
“…”
“And now, I’ve made up my mind. Starting today, I’m going to be serious about pursuing you, just like the others.”
“What?”
Shi Yi’s expression showed confusion. Wan Shuang noticed, gently patted Shi Yi’s hand resting on the table, and stood up.
“Don’t worry, Shi Yi-jie. No one can chase you better than I can.”
“I…” Shi Yi tried to speak, but Wan Shuang quickly cut her off.
“Alright, enough talking. Eat your buns before they get cold. I’m going to water the flowers~”
Shi Yi stared at Wan Shuang’s back as she cheerfully hummed an unknown tune, her heart full of mixed feelings.
I was going to tell her that I’ve never been in a relationship, and I don’t even have the desire to be with anyone. So how did it suddenly turn into me agreeing to let her chase after me?
Her parents’ broken marriage and her mother’s passing had left emotional scars that Shi Yi could never forget.
To her, love was like Pandora’s box. She didn’t dare open it, didn’t dare reach for it, didn’t dare to have it.
She didn’t have the courage to look inside, unsure if it held sweet happiness or a sharp blade that would cut into her heart.
Because of that, she always guarded herself tightly, never allowing her heart to be moved. She coldly rejected every suitor.
Wan Shuang knew this too.
But so what?
If even Jing Yijie could make Shi Yi open up to him, then why couldn’t she?
Just thinking about it filled Wan Shuang with overwhelming confidence.
…
Truthfully, Wan Shuang returning to the shop today was something Shi Yi hadn’t expected.
After the awkwardness of yesterday’s confession, Shi Yi assumed that someone as thin-skinned and shy as Wan Shuang wouldn’t show up again so soon.
At the very least, she thought Wan Shuang would need a few days to recover.
But judging from her behavior now, it seemed Wan Shuang didn’t feel embarrassed at all about what had happened.
Shi Yi looked at her, full of unshakable confidence, and though she wanted to say no, the words just wouldn’t come out.
She thought about what Wan Shuang had just said and decided to swallow her feelings for now, silently continuing to eat her bun.
Maybe love… needed time.
That’s what Shi Yi told herself.
Before working in a flower shop, Wan Shuang had always imagined it as a peaceful and artistic job, something romantic and soft.
But after spending two full weeks working under Shi Yi, she realized how naive she had been.
Watering, removing thorns, pruning—these daily tasks were exhausting enough to make her question her life choices.
“Shi Yi-jie,” Wan Shuang said as she carefully trimmed a few pink carnations.
“Hmm?”
“Out of everything you could have done, why did you choose to open a flower shop?”
She was genuinely curious.
“Because my mother loved flowers and plants,” Shi Yi answered softly. She looked over at the flowers gathered nearby, her gaze full of fondness and memories. “If she hadn’t spent her life running the company, I think she would have opened a flower shop like this one.”
“I can picture her now, looking at the flowers with such kindness in her eyes.”
As she spoke, a quiet sadness surrounded Shi Yi.
Wan Shuang gently put down the flowers and scissors, walked over, and slowly knelt in front of Shi Yi. Holding onto her knee gently, she said, “Shi Yi-jie, I want to take you somewhere.”
Shi Yi looked down at Wan Shuang, a strange sense of déjà vu washing over her.
She thought about it for a second and then remembered. Wan Shuang had said those same words yesterday when they visited the clay shop.
Recalling the sudden confession from the day before, Shi Yi immediately said no. “I’m not going. Who knows what unexpected things you’ll spring on me this time?”
But just as she finished speaking, her phone screen lit up.
It was a message from Jing Yijie.
“Yi Yi, I’m coming to see you later.”
Yesterday it was “Miss Shi,” and today it’s “Yi Yi”? Shi Yi sneered quietly in her mind.
After she got home last night, Jing Yijie had been messaging her non-stop, one text every ten minutes.
Annoyed, she had simply replied with a short “Good night.”
After that, the messages finally stopped. But then came this morning’s message, saying he would come see her.
Shi Yi had assumed he was just saying it to be polite. She didn’t expect him to actually follow through.
She placed her phone face down on the table and looked at Wan Shuang, who now wore a heartbroken expression after being turned down.
With a softer tone, she asked, “Where are we going?”