Contractual Cohabitation GL - Chapter 26

Ye Luochen had expected Jing Xiaonan’s idea of “going out to play” to be like the previous times—a visit to some scenic, poetically romantic location. However, she never anticipated that this Vice President Jing, who only seemed to act like an un-grown-up in front of her, would turn the steering wheel and bring her here.

Looking at the group of children whose heads hadn’t even reached their waists making faces at the glass window, and the gorillas and monkeys inside the glass window making faces back without showing any weakness, Ye Luochen shook her head and chuckled softly. Thinking of the person who usually sat formally in a suit, commanding the business world, actually showing up in such an endearing place, she couldn’t help but feel a jarring and comical sense of incongruity.

But Jing Xiaonan on the side wasn’t thinking so much, stretching her neck and looking with keen interest at the various birds in the cages. If it weren’t for her conspicuously adult height, her current demeanor and expression would allow her to blend into the group of children without any problem.

After looking at the animals, she finally turned back to Ye Luochen. Seeing her looking at her with a gentle smile, Jing Xiaonan suddenly felt a little embarrassed. She rubbed her hands and gave a silly grin: “Didn’t you also like small animals? I thought bringing you here would be a lot of fun.”

Indeed, it was true that she liked small animals; in this regard, Ye Luochen was on par with, if not surpassed, Jing Xiaonan. But looking at the way this person was now reduced to her true self by a few adorable meerkats, she found her much more interesting than the little creatures in the zoo.

“Haha!” Pointing at a gorilla that failed to grip a tree trunk and accidentally fell head-first onto the ground, Jing Xiaonan shook the hand of the person next to her and said, “Look, look, doesn’t that one look like A Jiong?”

Having long been accustomed to her referring to Gao Jiong of Pengju as A Jiong, and having heard many stories of the “good deeds” the two had done in college, Ye Luochen also glanced in the direction of her pointed finger. Seeing the gorilla use its claws to prop itself up and pull its face out of the mud, she also smiled lightly; it really did look quite similar.

“Then tell me, what animal resembles me?” Looking up at Jing Xiaonan, Ye Luochen originally intended to challenge her playfully, but after asking the question, she found herself genuinely curious about her answer.

“You?” Jing Xiaonan pondered: “Do you mean the ‘you’ that is the Ye family daughter, or the ‘you’ that is my Luochen?”

“Hmm… the Ye family daughter?”

“If it’s the Ye family daughter, you won’t easily find a matching animal in this zoo,” Jing Xiaonan replied with a faint smile.

“What do you mean?”

Walking past a small jungle area in the zoo, Jing Xiaonan was lowering her head, contemplating how to explain it to her, when she suddenly noticed a blooming flower in a certain spot in the jungle, and she raised her finger to show the person next to her.

“Look, do you see it? Waratah, the national flower of Australia. It kind of feels like you.”

Ye Luochen looked up. It was a bright, attention-grabbing red, very conspicuous. How could it resemble her in any way?

She remained silent, looking back at Jing Xiaonan, conveying her question with her eyes.

Knowing exactly what she was thinking, Jing Xiaonan answered unhurriedly: “It’s not the flower itself, but the overall feeling it gives you. A flower stalk over four meters high, sacred and elegant, giving people the impression that it can only be admired from afar and not desecrated. Doesn’t it? The official translation of this flower is Telopea, but I always prefer the phonetic translation, ‘Wan Ru Ta’ (宛如她 – Just Like Her). That ‘She’ is lofty, desirable but unreachable.”

After hearing her explanation and looking again at this ‘Wan Ru Ta,’ she did find that there was some truth to it. Thinking for a moment, she curiously asked, “Then what would you compare the current me to?”

Tilting her head and thinking for a moment, Jing Xiaonan replied, “It should be very much like a little deer.”

“A little deer?” Ye Luochen blinked, letting Jing Xiaonan take her hand and lead her towards the Sika deer enclosure, “Is it because of being gentle, harmless, and tender?”

Grinning and gesturing at the Sika deer on the other side of the iron fence, Jing Xiaonan happily replied, “Because of the long legs!”

Ye Luochen: “…”

This person was being nonsensical again. Ye Luochen pulled her hand away and walked on her own to tease the little deer, the corner of her mouth slightly turned up, but she showed no intention of paying attention to a certain person.

“Hey!” Seeing her like this, Jing Xiaonan approached her pitifully again, tugging at her sleeve: “What about me? What do I look like?”

Straightening up, she subtly hardened her expression to conceal the good mood that her antics had brought on, Ye Luochen imitated Jing Xiaonan’s previous answer and retorted, “Which ‘you’? Vice President Jing of Pengju? Or the sister with the same surname as the Jing (景) family’s horses?” (T/N: A play on words, as 景 is part of Jing Xiaonan’s name, and 景駒 are famous horses).

“Uh…” Guessing that asking about “Vice President Jing” wouldn’t end well, she carefully observed Ye Luochen’s expression and cautiously asked, “Just as I am now, the ‘me’ who isn’t the Pengju manager?”

“As you are now? Hmm… like a little penguin.”

“Why!” A certain person puffed out her chest, very dissatisfied with this answer.

“Because you’re silly, chubby, clumsy, and won’t grow up,” Ye Luochen replied, glancing sideways at the person who was sulking after hearing the explanation, and smiled faintly. Actually, it was mostly because she was endearing.

“Fine.” She reluctantly conceded. Jing Xiaonan couldn’t help but ask again: “Then what about Vice President Jing?”

“If it’s Vice President Jing, then… like a fox.”

“Oh?” Hearing this comparison, Jing Xiaonan immediately perked up, her eyes sparkling with excitement, “Is it because of being cunning, intelligent, and very charming?”

Shaking her head and gently biting her lower lip, Ye Luochen replied, “Because you’re very stinky~”

Jing Xiaonan: “…”

She said this with an unchanging expression and a slight, gentle smile. It was only after walking a few steps that she realized the person beside her was missing. Miss Ye looked back and met a pair of peach-blossom eyes full of resentment. Seeing the person’s thin lips slightly pouting in grievance, the curve of her lips gradually deepened, and she finally burst out laughing, her voice sweet and clear.

“Alright, alright, be a good girl~” Coaxing her like a young child, she waved her hand at the Vice President Jing, who had turned into a little penguin. Her crescent eyes smiled at her, and her hand remained in the air, not withdrawn. Jing Xiaonan couldn’t help but smile too. She saw it was time to quit, jogged over two steps, and they continued their stroll through the zoo.

They never held hands in public places with people coming and going; this was a habit Jing Xiaonan had formed in deference to Ye Luochen’s wishes. This wasn’t because she thought their relationship was shameful. Ye Luochen had an independent mind and judgment, and disliked following the crowd. As long as she felt that something was clear in her conscience and proper after thinking it through, she wouldn’t care about the opinions of others. But at the same time, she had a low-key, indifferent nature. She felt that her joys, sorrows, sweetness, and sadness were hers alone, and there was no need to put them on display for others to judge. Jing Xiaonan understood this point.

Because she understood her, she allowed Ye Luochen to simply link arms with her like a close friend, without the slightest resentment in her heart.

Talking and laughing, they walked and saw most of the zoo. After taking a photo with the naturally呆 koala and touching its carpet-like fur, Jing Xiaonan, occasionally under the envious gazes of passersby, led Ye Luochen to a rest area by a small lake.

The water in the lake was very clean, and a circle of reed-like plants grew around it. A flock of wild geese played in the center of the lake, and two black swans swam nearby, followed by a few small cygnets. Jing Xiaonan chose a wooden table where the lake was on the left, and a half-human-height wall made of rubble was on the right, separating the children’s play area from the adults’ resting spot.

It was currently deep winter. Although the temperature in Australia rarely dropped below zero, they were still wearing light down jackets. After walking around, their body temperature had slightly risen. Ye Luochen’s pair of delicate, pale hands reached over her slender shoulders to remove her scarf, which she folded and placed on her joined legs.

At this moment, Jing Xiaonan bought lunch and carried over two bottles of water. Ye Luochen knew at a glance which one she had bought for her, accepted the mineral water and the tuna sub, but her gaze fell on the hot dog and watermelon juice in Jing Xiaonan’s other hand.

“What’s wrong?” Jing Xiaonan lifted her long leg, stepped over to the long wooden bench on the opposite side of the table, and sat down gracefully, asking.

“Hot dogs aren’t very nutritious. When you’re busy with work and can only eat a simple meal, you need to make up for it at other times.” She then pointed at the watermelon juice: “A woman’s body tends to be cold, and it’s not suitable to eat too much watermelon in winter.”

Jing Xiaonan curled the corner of her mouth, a faint light in her eyes showing her good mood: “You manage my food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. How is it that I feel more and more like you’re my mother?”

In the morning, she had walked out of the guest room in trousers and a shirt but was called softly by Ye Luochen. She looked up at the beautiful woman in a white top and tight jeans that wrapped around her long, slender legs, who gracefully descended the stairs and softly told her to change into something more casual and comfortable. She naturally complied at the time, resulting in the current Vice President Jing in a dark blue tracksuit with two purple stripes.

Ye Luochen didn’t respond to the comment, instead seeming interested in a different topic: “What kind of person is your mother?”

Taking a bite of the hot dog and chewing with pursed lips, Jing Xiaonan took a breath and thought for a moment. After swallowing the food in her mouth, she said: “Actually, when you know a person well, you find it really hard to summarize her in a few words. My mother, how should I put it, if I have to pick out the main points to describe her, she’s very home-oriented and a good wife and loving mother, but she also has her own principles and wisdom. She has her own aspirations, but because of my father’s and my personalities, she’s used to sacrificing herself to help others succeed. So, the respect I hold for her is no less than the respect I have for my father.”

Ye Luochen nodded thoughtfully. During this period, she had flipped through many books in the Jing family’s study. Leaving aside the books on history, politics, and law, almost all other types of books had neat, delicate handwriting as annotations. She had seen Jing Xiaonan’s handwriting many times—it was bold and free-spirited—so these annotations must have come from her mother. Ye Luochen hadn’t realized it when she first started reading, but the more she read, the more she found that her thoughts and main takeaways were very similar to the annotations beside the text. Therefore, even though she hadn’t met her, she already held great admiration for the mother who had raised Jing Xiaonan.

Thinking this, Ye Luochen wrapped the toasted sub in a napkin, eating her lunch in small, delicate bites, chewing slowly and thoroughly. Although Jing Xiaonan’s eating style across from her was also refined and generous, her speed was several times faster than Ye Luochen’s. Ye Luochen watched her finish the hot dog, twist open the watermelon juice bottle, and instead of taking a big gulp as she usually did, she only drank a little to quench her thirst, seemingly having taken her previous words to heart. Her crescent eyes looked at her gently, as if she wanted to say something, but her attention was caught by the actions of a little boy nearby.

The boy was adorable and lively, looking no older than two. Wearing tiny shoes, he was tottering along the low rubble wall. One side of the wall was level with the grass, while the other side was about half a person’s height from the ground. As Ye Luochen turned her head, she saw the little boy stumble, fall, and start to roll down. Instantly, her heart leapt, and a light gasp escaped her lips.

Before the sound had faded, Jing Xiaonan across the table had already dropped her drink, sprinting a few steps like the wind, catching the little boy with both hands against the side of the wall. Because she rushed too fiercely and couldn’t control her speed, her knuckles hit the stone wall, sending a chilling pain through her. She bit her lip, frowned, and briefly closed her eyes.

Although the little boy was caught, he had fallen quite hard and was about to cry with a small whimper. However, seeing Jing Xiaonan’s expression, he stopped crying, his pair of dark green eyes wide as he stared at her. After watching for a while, perhaps realizing her pain, his chubby little hand reached up to touch her face, nearly poking Jing Xiaonan’s nostril due to poor directional sense. Vice President Jing, holding the child, cooperated by leaning back slightly, allowing the chubby little hand to rest on her nose bridge. Then, she made a funny face at the little boy and rubbed his palm with the tip of her nose, making the little boy giggle and laugh incessantly.

After Jing Xiaonan rushed out, Ye Luochen also quickly followed. Seeing the interaction between the adult and the child, her eyes and heart softened, and she then worriedly wanted to check Jing Xiaonan’s wound.

The child’s mother was not far away and was drawn over by the laughter. She hurried over, took the child from Jing Xiaonan’s arms, nodded at the two in thanks, and anxiously checked the child for injuries.

Jing Xiaonan had already passed the initial wave of pain and was smiling happily at Ye Luochen. Ye Luochen ignored her smile, instead gently pulling her hand to examine it.