Contractual Cohabitation GL - Chapter 18

“I don’t agree!”

In the spacious, lavishly decorated office, Jing Xiaonan sat across from the owner of the office, calmly looking at the red-faced, thick-necked Gao Jiong shouting.

Perhaps realizing her overreaction, General Manager Gao took a few deep breaths, her chest rising and falling several times, before leaning back into her boss chair, resting her hands on the polished desk. However, her eyes still conveyed the firmness of her objection.

“Xiao Nan, you’re my best friend. Given our relationship, I’d go through hell and high water with you. But I don’t agree with this matter. If you insist, I can’t stop you, but if I help you, I’d be harming you.”

Jing Xiaonan secretly sighed. Her decision to discuss this in Gao Jiong’s office was indeed the right one. In a public place, walls have ears, and Qin Yan might walk into her own office at any time. This room was extremely soundproof; even if Gao Jiong shouted loud enough to shake the heavens, no one outside would notice the commotion.

“A-Jiong, I’m a lawyer too, graduating from the same school in the same year as you. All the risks you can think of, I’ve already considered them all. With your connections and methods, making it seamless is easy. I’m not worried about the possibility of being exposed.”

Gao Jiong stared at her best friend of many years, looking incredulous: “Xiao Nan, what you’re asking me to do now is help you forge evidence! Yes, if the matter comes to light, I can certainly withdraw completely unharmed. But what about you? Knowingly breaking the law, as a lawyer, your license will be revoked for life!”

No matter how composed Jing Xiaonan was, a flicker of indecision was unavoidable when she heard the last sentence, but she quickly calmed down. She naturally understood these consequences.

“It’s not as serious as you think. For me and Ye Luochen to register a de facto relationship, since we are of the same s3x, we need to prove that we have cohabited for a year prior. All you need to do is help me manufacture the evidence for this one year of cohabitation, including a joint bank account, joint fixed assets, and other minor pieces of evidence. These are not difficult to do. Asking for your help is simply for absolute certainty. Even if we are discovered…”

Gao Jiong raised her hand, a rare interruption, and stared intently at Jing Xiaonan. When she spoke again, her voice was deliberately lowered and very deep, and her eyes were full of veiled meaning: “Xiao Nan, have you forgotten how painful your uncle’s lesson was back then? Do you want to repeat your father’s path, and for such an unworthy reason?”

Unable not to be moved by such persuasion, Jing Xiaonan lowered her eyes. Memories flowed like water in her mind, and she finally closed her eyes.

“A-Jiong, if you help me, I won’t possibly fall into that kind of situation.”

Gao Jiong fully understood Jing Xiaonan’s stubbornness. She had already said everything she could to persuade her and said no more. She knew in her heart that Jing Xiaonan was right. If this person was determined to do this, then her help would increase the odds of success.

“But, Xiao Nan, can you tell me what you’re thinking by doing this? Haven’t you been hurt enough in love?”

Sighing, Jing Xiaonan didn’t actually like analyzing herself in such depth with others, but some things still needed to be told to this person who was like a sister to her, sooner or later.

“I’ve only met her a few times, but from the very beginning, I felt that there are too many potential possibilities between us. Some people you’ve known for a long time, and you know the extent of your connection is limited to that. But some people you’ve just met, and you can feel that you’ll have a deep entanglement. That’s how I feel about Luochen.”

General Manager Gao frowned, not quite understanding: “Didn’t you stop believing in growing old together?”

“I don’t want to be a fool again.” Jing Xiaonan leaned back in her chair, curling her lips into an arc of self-mockery, but immediately returned to seriousness, “However, my feelings for her are getting deeper and deeper. This makes me realize that perhaps the best solution is not to try to stop it, but to go a step further than letting nature take its course. Human nature is just like this: the more you crave something unattainable, the harder it is to let go. But if you get it easily and see through it at a glance, then it’s hard to long for it anymore. I’ve never felt this way about Ye Luochen. Every frown and smile of hers can influence my mood. I want to know if, after cohabiting, this feeling, steeped in the mundane reality of daily life, will simply break down and lose its flavor. When the initial breathtaking admiration turns into aesthetic fatigue, and the unspoken tenderness turns into mutual aversion, perhaps that will be the true sense of release and liberation.”

Gao Jiong looked at Jing Xiaonan, who spoke as if in a trance, this friend she had made with sincerity, and after a long while, finally shook her head and sighed: “I truly don’t know if you’re deceiving me or deceiving yourself.”

After receiving her friend’s strong support, Jing Xiaonan immediately felt much better. Looking at the sky outside the window, she felt that even the city center, with its tall buildings blocking the sun, looked brighter.

She was currently sitting to Gao Jiong’s left, negotiating future cooperation with the representative from Kang Huang, a meeting she had secured with a night of heavy drinking. This meeting was just a basic routine communication and didn’t require her full attention. As Vice General Manager Jing, she only needed to be present without speaking.

Jing Xiaonan was writing something in a black leather notebook with a Parker pen, looking earnest and occasionally nodding. To any member of the Kang Huang team, she appeared to be fully engaged in the meeting. However, Qin Yan, who occasionally glanced at her notebook, knew clearly that this person was planning her schedule for the upcoming week again.

Several days had passed since the afternoon when Ye Luochen decided to enter into a contract cohabitation with her. Through daily, punctual text message ‘harassment,’ Jing Xiaonan clearly learned that Miss Ye had completed the procedures to move out from her landlord and had changed her registered address in various places to Jing Xiaonan’s residence. Today was the day they had agreed to move all of Ye Luochen’s packed belongings to the Jing residence, and it was also an important day to officially register their cohabitation relationship.

The meeting with Kang Huang ended precisely as expected. Jing Xiaonan left the company during lunchtime. Gao Jiong and Qin Yan were well aware of all her absences since she fell in love and dismissed them with disdain. The rest of Pengju naturally wouldn’t question where Jing Xiaonan had gone.

Driving all the way to Ye Luochen’s apartment building, Jing Xiaonan was in her parents’ Land Rover this time, not her preferred Porsche. Ye Luochen hadn’t specified how many things she was taking, and Jing Xiaonan factored in the large volume of the Land Rover, which could accommodate a lot of luggage.

After a phone call, she smoothly arrived at the third floor where Ye Luochen lived. The door was slightly ajar. Jing Xiaonan gently pushed it open, and the empty apartment lay before her. Ye Luochen had indeed packed everything she planned to take with her. As for the furniture and kitchen utensils that clearly couldn’t be taken, Jing Xiaonan had passed a Red Cross donation point with many deposited items on her way.

Seeing her enter, Ye Luochen offered no excessive greeting or formality, simply handing the cup of water she was holding to Jing Xiaonan. The latter took it, smiled when her fingertips felt the warmth of the cup, and happily drank most of it in one go.

Putting the cup aside, Jing Xiaonan’s attention fell on the three large travel bags at the entrance. She reached out and lifted the largest one. It was a bit heavy, but manageable. Turning her head, she said to Ye Luochen, who was about to take the cup to the kitchen to wash it:

“Why didn’t you hire a moving company?”

Her fair, jade-like hand was wiping the water from the fabric coaster on the cup. Such an ordinary chore became elegant in Ye Luochen’s hands. She thought for a moment and replied:

“Moving in with you for immigration is to get rid of my identity as Miss Ye. As such, I cannot be pampered and spend money to handle every little thing. What’s wrong? Are these too heavy?”

The first half of her sentence was spoken flatly and coldly, but as she reached the end, her tone naturally warmed with concern. Jing Xiaonan felt warmth in her heart upon hearing this and smiled:

“Not heavy. But, after you shed the identity of Miss Ye, your new title will be Mrs. Jing. Do you think my Jing family’s child would let her woman suffer like this?”

Ye Luochen was currently standing with her back to her, wiping the water off the cup she had just finished washing. Jing Xiaonan couldn’t see her expression at all after hearing that sentence. She strained her ears for a while, and seeing that she still didn’t intend to reply, she pouted, shrugged, picked up the large bag, nudged it with her knee, and walked into the elevator with it to go downstairs. For a woman with a naturally cool and detached personality like Ye Luochen, who kept people at arm’s length, having no reaction to this sentence was a good thing. If she had taken the bait, her reply would definitely not have been what Jing Xiaonan wanted to hear.

Jing Xiaonan carried the two largest bags down in one trip. Just as she was returning from the car to retrieve the last one, she saw Ye Luochen walking out of the building, carrying the last one in both hands. Jing Xiaonan was startled! Looking at the woman’s slender, delicate frame, and recalling the weight of the previous two bags, she darted forward and snatched the bag from her.

But she found it wasn’t heavy at all.

“What’s in this bag?”

There was no more space in the trunk. Jing Xiaonan placed the relatively long and slender piece of luggage on the back seat, opened the car door for Ye Luochen to get in, and then asked curiously.

“A Guzheng (Chinese zither).”

“You play the Guzheng?” Jing Xiaonan climbed into the high-chassis Land Rover, her ‘peach blossom eyes’ wide as she stared at Ye Luochen. For a woman of such temperament and charm, she would only associate her with noble instruments like the violin or piano. Although the Guzheng was also classical and elegant, few people would choose to learn it, right?

The person being stared at was not uncomfortable at all, simply looking calmly at Jing Xiaonan and nodding. Her demeanor was neither humble nor arrogant, her expression elegant and tranquil, which, on the contrary, made Jing Xiaonan unsure how to respond.

Suppressing her slightly astonished look, she turned her head, started the car, and drove onto the road. Jing Xiaonan was silent for a while, then couldn’t help but ask:

“Well, would you play something for me sometime?”

Thinking briefly, Ye Luochen nodded: “It seems plausible.”

“Uh, what do you mean by ‘it seems plausible’?”

Ye Luochen turned her head to look at the serious, driving profile of the person next to her. Her voice was cool and steady, but the corner of her lips held a subtle, almost imperceptible arc of slyness: “In our cohabitation agreement, this humble woman is selling her body, not her art. However, since it’s just ‘playing the zither to a cow’ (casting pearls before swine), I might consider it.”

Jing Xiaonan was utterly flustered. When did this woman start talking like that?