Crush's Cold Senior Sister is Actually Childhood Sweetheart - Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Even If The Heavens And Earth Collapsed, She Still Wanted To See Her.

She hesitated for a long while, trying to speak several times under Yuan Shunhua’s fiery gaze, and finally, with that expectant look, she cautiously asked:

“…That was a heart?”

“Of course!”

Just as expected, Yuan Shunhua’s eyes widened, glaring at Ling Qi. “You are insulting my art!”

Her voice suddenly rose by several decibels, and she looked like she was about to be furious.

Logically, every time this happened in the past, whether she was genuinely angry or pretending, and whether it was a big deal or a small one, that look and tone meant the same thing:

You can start哄(coaxing) me now.

But this time, Ling Qi didn’t follow the usual script.

She looked up and smiled, and while Yuan Shunhua was still thinking, What is she trying to do? Does she not want to coax me anymore? Did she get me and now she doesn’t cherish me?—Ling Qi grabbed her shoulders and kissed her directly.

Ling Qi’s body was still kneeling on the rug. She tightened her arms, pulling Yuan Shunhua’s shoulders toward her. Yuan Shunhua’s body uncontrollably tilted forward, almost falling into her arms.

They exchanged a long and deep kiss.

After their breaths slowly separated, Yuan Shunhua’s ears were very red. She lightly bit her lip, looking a little uncomfortable, glancing left and right, but not at Ling Qi.

This expression, to Ling Qi’s eyes, was rather amusing. She asked: “Why are you nervous? Weren’t you the one who took the initiative last time?”

“That was different…”

She mumbled, her voice very soft.

Ling Qi didn’t hear her. She changed her posture, turning to sit on the floor with her back against the bed. When the bed was quiet for a long time, she tilted her head back, rested it on the mattress, and looked at Yuan Shunhua.

The next second, the person sitting on the bed suddenly leaned over and squeezed her cheeks with both hands. Ling Qi’s lips were forced into a pout, and her entire face looked very comical.

“How old are you…”

Her face was distorted from the squeeze, and her voice was a little muffled. Yuan Shunhua knelt on the bed, shamelessly kneading her face into all sorts of strange shapes.

Ling Qi’s attempts to resist were futile, so she could only surrender with slurred words, lying motionless on the bed and letting Yuan Shunhua do as she pleased, her eyes still filled with a look of indulgence.

Yuan Shunhua finally got tired of playing and let go. She fell back onto the bed, lying on her back and catching her breath. Ling Qi had been resting her head on the edge of the mattress, and as Yuan Shunhua lay down, their long hair got tangled together.

Hair entwined with hair, foreheads touching, they could smell the fragrance in each other’s hair and hear each other’s ragged breathing.

After lying in silence for a while, Yuan Shunhua spoke softly: “How did you recognize me at a glance?”

The face was unfamiliar, the divine power and aura were unfamiliar, yet Ling Qi hadn’t hesitated for a second. The moment she turned her head and saw her, there was 100% certainty.

“Bai Zang told me,” Ling Qi said, having been prepared for this question. “She learned some kind of strange art during that time and was convinced you would be waking up soon. I looked for you everywhere in the mortal realm but couldn’t find you, and I thought she had tricked me… I didn’t expect you to come directly to the grand selection.”

“Back then, she and Huaiyu both disagreed with me going to look for you, worried that the person behind everything was watching my every move and would figure something out. But since Ying Huaiyu was covering for me on the surface, I thought it would be fine as long as I didn’t cause too much of a stir.”

Looking back now, Shen Tianmo had probably started to be suspicious from that time, which led to the letter Liao Huan received and the Su You Flower in the Wu Xu Secret Realm.

She was just trying to test them in different ways.

But even if she could do it all over again, Ling Qi thought, she would still choose to go to the human world at that time.

Because she really couldn’t control herself…

The person she had been longing for for eight hundred years had finally appeared. Even if the heavens and earth collapsed, she still wanted to see her.

Yuan Shunhua let out a soft “ah” and asked: “The invitation wasn’t from you?”

“Of course not,” Ling Qi said. “If I had really found you before the grand selection, I would have tied you up and brought you back to the Chongguang Palace. I wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble.”

“Wow,” Yuan Shunhua applauded half-heartedly. “How thrilling.”

Ling Qi: “…”

“I thought you and Ying Huaiyu had teamed up to deceive me, taking my invitation to destroy the evidence,” Yuan Shunhua said with another smile.

Ling Qi also smiled: “I wouldn’t have the guts for that.”

“I’m glad you came.”

“Yeah,” Ling Qi let out a long breath.

Her body, which had been tense for a long time, suddenly relaxed. She pinched the bridge of her nose and collapsed onto the bed as if all her strength had been drained.

“I’m glad I came,” she said.

Yuan Shunhua slightly turned her face to stare at her, as if she couldn’t get enough of the sight.

Ling Qi felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze. She turned her head to avoid her eyes, the tips of her ears slightly red, and still pouting, “Why are you looking at me like that? Do you miss me?”

“I do,” Yuan Shunhua admitted frankly. “I miss you so much. I want to look at you more… it’s been so, so long.”

“So long that you don’t even recognize who I am?”

“I was about to ask you that!” Yuan Shunhua suddenly remembered something. “There were so many people at the grand selection, so many naturally born immortals in the mortal realm. How were you so sure that An Jin was me?”

“…Ah,” Ling Qi tilted her head. “The same figure, the same tone, the same eyes… why would you think I wouldn’t recognize you?”

“No,” Yuan Shunhua shook her head, not being easily fooled. “No matter how familiar the aura or how similar the person, a reunion is bound to have a few seconds of daze… but you didn’t hesitate for a second. The first moment you saw An Jin, you were absolutely certain that was me.”

“Could it be that in these eight hundred years, you never looked at a familiar profile or a familiar back and thought, This person looks a little like Yuan Shunhua? Did you never subconsciously shout ‘don’t move’ when some senior sister or junior sister turned around, so they wouldn’t look so much like her anymore…”

“…What did you watch in the mortal realm?” Ling Qi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Why?” Yuan Shunhua was still very persistent. “Why were you so sure that no one could be like me?”

There was another moment of silence.

“Fine, I’ll change the question,” Yuan Shunhua gave in quickly.

“Senior Sister Cen once mentioned that when Fu Xin first entered the Chongguang Palace, you made an exception to take her in because you felt sorry for her. Later, you were the one who proposed the grand selection that happens once every few hundred years at the Chongguang Palace, and you argued with Divine Sovereign Chongguang for a long time over it. Why?”

She looked directly at Ling Qi: “You used to hate doing these meaningless good deeds the most… helping others doesn’t necessarily get you a good face in return, and sometimes it can even bring you a lot of trouble. That’s what you said. You always said you didn’t want to get involved in other people’s karma.”

“So… why?”

“Didn’t you say you’d change the question?”

Ling Qi let out a helpless sigh.

She shook her head. Just as she stood up from the rug, she felt a pair of hands wrap around her waist from behind. With a slight pull, she was sitting on the edge of the bed.

The sound of a heartbeat came from behind her, one beat after another. Yuan Shunhua rested her chin on Ling Qi’s shoulder, and her warm breath brushed against her neck.

“I’m sorry.”

The voice from behind her sounded a little sad.

“It has nothing to do with you,” Ling Qi said. “It’s a hurdle I can’t get over myself. I’ve been fighting with myself.”

“But that’s eight hundred years… eight hundred years, nine thousand six hundred months, nearly three hundred thousand days… Ling Qi Qi, you waited for me for almost three hundred thousand days,” Yuan Shunhua hugged her a little tighter and said. “Every time I think about it, every time I do the math, I hate Shen Tianmo a little more.”

Ling Qi gently patted the hands wrapped around her waist, wanting to say something else to comfort her, but not knowing how.

What was in the past was in the past. She wasn’t against the memories of those eight hundred years, she just didn’t know how to bring them up.

Bringing up her millennium-long childhood friend, always together yet afraid to say “I love you.”

After that, nine hundred miles of vast clouds, and the old friend was nowhere to be found.

In the first period after she entered the Chongguang Palace, she was in a daze every day, and she couldn’t even remember what she had done specifically.

Later, Cen Xiyao happened to chat with her and said that during that time, she spent more than half of her time sleeping. She rarely came to the main hall, didn’t train or do missions, and was often not seen for several years at a time.

At that time, a group of enthusiastic junior sisters formed a group and took turns standing guard outside her palace every day. If they knocked on the door and got no response, they would often sneak in to check for her breath, afraid that something had happened to her.

When Ling Qi was occasionally awake and heard someone knocking on the door, she would casually drop a cup to make some noise, signaling that she was still alive. Although sometimes she wondered if that even counted as living.

She had trapped herself in this prison named Yuan Shunhua, secretly hoping that one day they could reunite in a dream. But she waited and waited, and her old friend never came to her dreams.

That was the first hundred years after Yuan Shunhua left.

Later, she had also traveled alone to every corner of the Upper Realm, foolishly trying to catch a glimpse of her old friend. The Four Seas and Eight Deserts, nine hundred miles of clouds—there was no place she hadn’t been.

Ling Qi had also thought something despicable: If there was truly someone who looked like her—even if only a little—that would be enough.

It would allow her to remember that face, which was starting to get blurry in her memory, for a little longer.

She was really afraid during that time.

She wasn’t afraid of having to wait forever, until the end of time. She was only afraid that time would be too long, and she would forget what Yuan Shunhua looked like. When they reunited in the future, if there was even a hint of hesitation in her, her beloved would be very, very angry.

Of course, she never found her.

In these heavens and earth, among all the gods and buddhas, no one looked like her, and no one was her.

There was no second Yuan Shunhua in the world.

That was the second hundred years after her old friend left.

And after that, she started living like her.

She would help whenever she saw an injustice. She would lend a hand to anyone in trouble. That included Fu Xin, who had just lost a loved one and was being bullied by rogue immortals.

Fu Xin at that time was a little different from now. She was an uninhibited person who was eating an ice popsicle. She squatted next to her and said: “You saved me. From now on, I’ll listen to you. I’ll go wherever you tell me to go, and I’ll deal with whoever you tell me to deal with!”

“No need,” Ling Qi said. “I didn’t do it for you.”

She acted like Yuan Shunhua used to, acting with righteous courage and helping those in distress, living as the benevolent and good person that others spoke of.

I’ll live as you, pretending you’re still here.

This way, maybe I can remember you for a little longer, just a little longer.

That was the third hundred years after Yuan Shunhua left.

The warmth from behind her grew hotter and hotter, and her heartbeat became faster and faster, pulling Ling Qi out of her memories.

So, how could she not have recognized her?

No one knows everything about you better than I do, Ling Qi thought.

I’ve hidden all the memories about you—the sound of your voice when you speak, your tone when you’re angry, your favorite things to do, and the smile in the corners of your eyes—in the deepest box in my heart.

I believed that there would one day be a moment, maybe on a street, maybe in a shop, when our eyes would suddenly meet.

And then the box would open with a “bang,” and all the memories would pour out instantly, enveloping us.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait too long.

Ling Qi turned around, her arms wrapping around Yuan Shunhua’s shoulders, holding her very tightly.

Thankfully, eight hundred years wasn’t too long, she thought. I finally waited for you.

Yuan Shunhua had overdrawn her divine power too much, and soon, waves of drowsiness came over her again. She tried to hold on and not close her eyes, but Ling Qi saw right through her. She obediently lay back down in the bed, looking at Ling Qi with pleading eyes.

She looked quite reluctant.

“Go to sleep first,” Ling Qi said.

She leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “We’ll talk when you wake up. I’m not going anywhere.”

…

Just as Ling Qi closed the door, she turned around and saw a person standing at the door opposite, which startled her. It wasn’t until she saw who the expressionless woman in black was that her shoulders relaxed.

“Master.”

Divine Sovereign Fei Ling nodded and walked down the stairs with her to the courtyard.

The courtyard layout was symmetrical, with a tiered water fountain in the center and neatly trimmed bushes and palm trees on either side.

Symmetrical stone steps on both sides led to the innermost pavilion. Ling Qi followed Divine Sovereign Fei Ling inside, thinking she was going to sit there for a while, but to her surprise, the other person came out of the pavilion with a pair of scissors and a watering can.

Ling Qi: “…Master, are you really not going to invite the immortal attendants back?”

“Choose one,” Divine Sovereign Fei Ling said.

Ling Qi ultimately chose the slightly more tiring task of trimming the bushes. The master didn’t say anything, taking the watering can and walking toward the patch of grass that was a little darker in color.

Ling Qi squatted by the bushes, snipping away with the scissors, occasionally stopping to shake her wrist and stand up to straighten her back. When she stood up, she realized that the bushes she had trimmed were uneven, as if they had been chewed on by a dog.

Just as she was feeling a little frustrated, Divine Sovereign Fei Ling’s voice suddenly came from behind her.

She said: “I’m sorry.”

Ling Qi’s body stiffened. She turned around but saw that her master wasn’t looking at her. She was still turned to the side, watering the plants, but she was clearly a little embarrassed.

Ling Qi smiled and didn’t expose her: “I know, Master. You did it for my own good back then.”

Just like now, when she chased away all the immortal attendants and spirit beasts, Emperor Fei Ling always became very extreme when she truly wanted to protect someone, doing things that others wouldn’t understand but that she herself believed were the right things to do.

“But you didn’t like it.”

Emperor Fei Ling finally stopped what she was doing, straightened up, and looked at her with a frown.

“Yes, I didn’t like it,” Ling Qi said. “But you also don’t like it when I run off without a word and risk my life fighting with others.”

She said: “This is your first time taking on a disciple, and it’s my first time being a disciple. We’re both learning, so it’s okay.”