Crush's Cold Senior Sister is Actually Childhood Sweetheart - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: “So You Weren’t Dating Before?”

Yuan Shunhua felt like she had been in a very, very long dream.

In the dream, the wind was gentle and the sun was warm, and everything was peaceful and quiet.

There were no red clouds descending from the sky, no puppet formations, and no one had been in a coma in the mortal realm for eight hundred years. Shen Tianmo had always stayed in her own small corner, never appearing in front of them.

She was still the carefree little princess who could do whatever she wanted. For example, today, she had refused the help of her immortal attendant sister and was lugging an easel to the stream by herself, huffing and puffing.

Not far away, a woman in white was leaning against a tree trunk, her fingers gently turning a page of a book. Hearing the sound of the easel moving, she looked up at Yuan Shunhua, and the corners of her mouth curved when her gaze swept over the canvas and brushes beside her: “Are you serious?”

The weather today seemed particularly nice.

The heavenly light flowed, shining through the leaves onto Ling Qi, and even her long hair had a very soft glow. Seeing this, Yuan Shunhua’s pupils slightly widened, and she was stunned for a few seconds.

It wasn’t until the person in front of her, seeing that she hadn’t answered, asked “Hmm?” in confusion that she shook her head as if waking from a dream.

Ling Qi chuckled, teasing: “What does shaking your head mean? Should I leave then?”

“Don’t—”

Yuan Shunhua shouted in a hurry, but saw that Ling Qi was still leaning against the tree in her original posture, her feet not having moved an inch.

There was no intention of leaving at all.

Yuan Shunhua then realized she had been tricked and pouted: “You can’t leave. You voluntarily agreed to be my model.”

“I was voluntold,” Ling Qi corrected.

Seeing that the girl in front of her was about to get truly upset, Ling Qi started to coax her again:

“Actually, you don’t know this, but my dream has always been to be your model. I was just too afraid to tell you before. I think your paintings are especially beautiful.”

“Really?”

“Of course.” This time, Ling Qi nodded quickly. “My life’s ambition is to appear in your paintings.”

Yuan Shunhua was always easy to please, and she became happy again after hearing Ling Qi’s words.

She grabbed the palette beside her. A few seconds later, a deep, indescribable gray color, a mixture of green and purple, appeared on the palette. Ling Qi’s mouth twitched, and she turned her head away, unable to bear the sight.

Yuan Shunhua had a special love for oil painting, but unfortunately, her talent was not in that area. After she painted Yuan Se’s prototype, the Black Tortoise, as a green-faced, fanged monster, no one on Carefree Island was willing to be in her paintings anymore.

Still not giving up, Yuan Shunhua then set her sights on Emperor Fei Ling. Emperor Fei Ling had been tormented by her for so long that even the Jiu Yang Palace had been burned down once. A few paintings were nothing to her.

And so, after a few decades, the rebuilt walls of the Jiu Yang Palace were covered with identical paintings.

No matter what Divine Sovereign Fei Ling wore or what pose she struck, she would always end up sitting in the painting with a blank expression, dressed in monotonous black. When Ling Qi and the other people from the academy saw that wall, they looked at each other and then, with their eyes closed, praised the paintings to the high heavens.

At this moment, the wind had just rustled through the treetops.

If Yuan Shunhua had looked up at that moment, she would have seen Ling Qi looking at her with a very gentle expression. But she didn’t. She was focused on her painting.

The figure on the canvas gradually took shape. A Lu Xuan bird happened to fly by and land on her shoulder. Seeing that Yuan Shunhua had no intention of stopping, the Lu Xuan bird chirped a couple of times in protest and regretfully flew away.

The air between them was quiet, and all that could be heard was the sound of the brush rubbing against the canvas.

When she put down the last stroke, she set down the brush and palette, rushed in front of Ling Qi, and held up the painting for her to see. She lifted her face, her eyes bright and filled with anticipation.

Ling Qi smiled. As if holding some rare treasure, she carefully held it up, closed her eyes, and started praising it lavishly: “Oh my god… I think this is a spitting image of me.”

But then the person in front of her smiled slyly: “You’ve accepted my painting, so you’re mine now.”

Ling Qi blinked: “Oh… how sly.”

Although she said that, she still held the painting in her hands, even wanting to pull it close to her chest.

As if she were afraid the person who gave the painting would regret it.

Yuan Shunhua, believing that the ambiguous period had officially ended and that she had finally broken through that barrier, was very happy. She pulled Ling Qi and ran toward Carefree Island, completely oblivious to the person behind her who had a look of “Am I dreaming?” on her face.

Under the treehouse on Carefree Island, Emperor Qing Yuan was buried in her work, dealing with the official duties of the Upper Realm. Hundreds of years’ worth of official documents were piled up on a stone table, a tower so high it almost reached the clouds, proving that procrastination was truly a bad habit.

Hearing the familiar footsteps at a time like this, she didn’t even bother to lift her head.

It wasn’t until Yuan Shunhua finished her declaration of love, which was comparable to a vow of eternal devotion, that Emperor Qing Yuan gave them a confused look: “So you weren’t dating before?”

She frowned, which was rare for her. She felt like she couldn’t understand what these kids were thinking these days.

Beside her, Yuan Xihe was also writing furiously, with no time to pay them any mind. Without looking up, she shooed them away: “Got it, got it. Go play now.”

Yuan Shunhua, Ling Qi: “…”

Just then, they suddenly heard a loud crash from the stairs on the top floor of the wooden house outside. Yuan Se stood there, having broken off a section of the railing with one hand: “Say that again?!”

“Ling Qi! How dare you abduct my senior sister?!” she yelled, her eyes wide, her face filled with disbelief.

The moment she leapt down from the stairs of the wooden house, the two of them, with unspoken understanding, simultaneously grabbed each other’s hands, smiled at each other, and turned to run.

“You two stop right there!”

Yuan Se’s shout was still behind them, but they had already run several miles away. Yuan Shunhua kept looking back, but Ling Qi held her hand even tighter.

The heavenly light shone down as they ran hand in hand on the floating clouds, just as they had when they first met.

Until a woman in black blocked their way, expressionlessly shaking her sleeve and separating the two of them.

“D-Divine Sovereign Fei Ling…”

Yuan Shunhua’s eyes flickered, feeling a little guilty, though she didn’t know what she was guilty of. But it was probably a conditioned reflex from causing so much trouble over the years.

But I’ve been busy planning my confession lately, so I shouldn’t have had time to cause her trouble, right?

She stood on her tiptoes, trying to look past Divine Sovereign Fei Ling to see Ling Qi, who was blocked behind her. But she saw Emperor Fei Ling flip her sleeve and pull out a scroll from inside.

Whoosh.

The scroll, over a meter long, unfurled from her hand, so long that it dragged on the ground.

The scroll slowly opened on the floating clouds.

Yuan Shunhua: “?”

“These are all your criminal records.” Emperor Fei Ling’s expression was calm, showing no emotion. “I will not let you see Ling Qi again until you have paid off all your debts.”

“…What debts could I have…” Yuan Shunhua couldn’t think of any for a moment. Seeing Emperor Fei Ling raise an eyebrow and about to start reading, she quickly rushed over to stop her: “I have! I have them, I remember now. I’ll definitely pay them back.”

And so, due to Yuan Shunhua’s excessive debt, her lover was locked in the high tower of Jiu Yang Palace by her master. The tower had no stairs or doors, only a very small window at the top.

Every time Emperor Fei Ling wanted to go in, she would ask Ling Qi to let down her long hair from below and then climb up using her braid.

Yuan Shunhua: “…I feel like I’ve seen this plot somewhere before.”

So why did Ling Qi’s hair suddenly grow long enough to hang all the way down from the high tower to the ground?!

To rescue her Princess Ling Qi, Yuan Shunhua could only sneak to the bottom of the high tower when Emperor Fei Ling wasn’t there and softly call Ling Qi’s name.

So the black hair was let down, and Yuan Shunhua climbed up the high tower using the braid.

As she climbed, she thought: I really have seen this plot somewhere before.

Just as she was holding onto the window sill and climbing in, with her feet not yet on the ground, her eyes met with Divine Sovereign Fei Ling, and both of them fell silent.

“…”

“…”

Yuan Shunhua awkwardly coughed lightly, looked at the anxious-looking Ling Qi beside her, and then turned to Emperor Fei Ling. Just as she was about to make up a few excuses, Divine Sovereign Fei Ling spoke before she could: “It’s time for you to go back.”

“Okay, okay, no problem. I’ll go back to Carefree Island right now.”

She agreed eagerly with her mouth, but her feet slowly moved toward Ling Qi, taking small steps as if afraid of being discovered.

But Emperor Fei Ling still looked at her calmly, her voice neither loud nor soft, yet it was like a thunderclap.

“There is no Carefree Island anymore, Yuan Shunhua. You can’t live in a dream forever.”

“Go back to your reality. Go and take on the responsibilities you should, and do the things you should.”

“Do you still remember? That red cloud eight hundred years ago burned half the sky.”

…

That thunderclap exploded next to her ear, and Yuan Shunhua’s eyes snapped open.

The sight that greeted her was a familiar crystal chandelier and a pink-themed decor. The curtains were very thick, blocking out the light completely, so she had no idea how long she had been sleeping.

It took her several minutes to realize that it had really just been a dream.

No wonder it was so beautiful. It was just a dream.

She turned her head to look at the side of the bed. The room’s owner was still on the rug, her arms propped on the edge of the bed, fast asleep. Her black hair was scattered on the bed, looking a little messy. Yuan Shunhua gently hooked a strand of long hair with her finger and muttered: “I knew it wasn’t that long…”

The movement was so light it was almost imperceptible, yet the person on the rug suddenly woke up, sharply lifting her head.

Her long hair was still messy, but her sleepy eyes instantly lit up when their gazes met:

“You’re awake!”

Yuan Shunhua didn’t speak, just stared at her with her eyes wide open.

She looked for a long, long time, as if to make up for the eight hundred years she had lost.

After a few seconds of silent staring, Yuan Shunhua closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her face had returned to its usual cheerful brightness, and a familiar smile curved her lips. Grabbing Ling Qi’s hand, she asked:

“Tell me! Were you addicted to teasing me, seeing me so傻傻地 following you every day, thinking it was especially fun?”

Her tone didn’t sound like angry questioning; it was more like she was pouting.

Ling Qi also smiled and said: “No, of course not.”

“Then why didn’t you say something earlier? You obviously recognized me a long time ago!”

Ling Qi blinked, and her fingers slipped between Yuan Shunhua’s, their hands interlocking.

She said: “I thought it was a part of our romance.”

Yuan Shunhua, of course, knew why she hadn’t said anything. And she also knew that Ling Qi knew she knew.

Many things had always been like this—they simply had an unspoken understanding.

You don’t say it, and I don’t ask. If you do ask, I’ll just make something up. You won’t take it seriously, and I didn’t really think I could fool you.

Sometimes, when people are too familiar with each other, talking about things seriously can feel a bit awkward.

Yuan Shunhua didn’t dwell on the question. She pouted and asked again: “Then why didn’t you know I liked you before?”

“…Was I supposed to know?”

“Of course!” Yuan Shunhua said with righteous indignation. She sat cross-legged on the bed and counted on her fingers, item by item: “I came to Jiu Yang Palace whenever I had free time, and I always liked to sleep while holding you…”

“You’ve liked sleeping while holding me since you were a child. You said I was more comfortable to hold than your plush bear, that I could change positions, and that I was less likely to be kicked out of bed.”

“…”

Yuan Shunhua was a little speechless but continued: “And I was always right beside you, and I would pull you to do everything with me.”

“When you were a child, you also liked to pull me everywhere, saying it was to train my resilience to your punches.”

“…And I was always secretly kissing you when you were half-asleep…”

Hearing this, Ling Qi got a little annoyed: “So you know I wasn’t awake then!”

Yuan Shunhua’s eyes darted around, and she seemed to realize something, slowly becoming more guilty: “And what about this? Every time it was your birthday, I made you a heart-shaped cake… I never made one for anyone else. Not for Senior Sister or Se-Se!”

Ling Qi looked up, and a hint of surprise finally flashed in her eyes.