Future Love Contract (GL) - Chapter 4

Zhao Xinyun gave Gresya Antowa a smile and was about to open the car door to get out when Gresya suddenly leaned in and pecked her on the forehead. She hadn’t expected it at all, and her cheeks flushed uncontrollably. She quickly waved at Gresya in farewell and turned to run off like a startled rabbit.

Gresya didn’t try to stop her but instead closed the car door and stared through the glass at Zhao Xinyun’s retreating figure. She reached up with her right index finger to touch her lips—the very lips that had just kissed that forehead—and smiled with genuine delight. Such an innocent girl was truly a rare find these days. Although she herself had never been in a relationship, in this era of open-minded attitudes, even if you hadn’t tasted the meat, you’d at least have seen the pig run. Growing up as an orphan made her life a little more sheltered, but after several years in university, she’d gained plenty of exposure.

What she didn’t know was that Zhao Xinyun had time-traveled here from six hundred years ago. Though not naïve, and carrying memories from two lifetimes, she was still “purer” than those who had grown up in this era.

Gresya was tempted to sit in the car a little longer to see Zhao Xinyun’s reaction, but she figured she should probably leave now. If Zhao turned around and saw her car still there, she’d overthink it for sure. Besides, the sign by the road clearly stated that parking was limited to five minutes. Gresya glanced at her watch, then restarted the car and drove off.

Sure enough, Zhao Xinyun ran for a bit, estimating that Gresya’s car was far enough away before cautiously glancing back. Not seeing the car, she finally let out a sigh of relief. Her heart was pounding wildly. Though she told herself it was just from the running, she knew full well that the kiss had startled her more than she expected.

She hadn’t thought she’d react like this. Even though she’d seen plenty before the time-travel—ranging from adult comics to LV (no, not the luxury brand—the other kind of “film”)—seeing was nothing like experiencing firsthand. Even if a kiss on the forehead couldn’t compare to what she’d seen in the R-rated stuff.

Her face flushed red for a long while, and her hair was a mess. She had to find a restroom to tidy herself up. Staring into the mirror at her own familiar yet unfamiliar face—unfamiliar and familiar because of the dual memories she now carried—Zhao Xinyun fell back into tangled thoughts.

Why had Gresya made that kind of proposal? Was it like the clichés in cheesy romance novels (with the male lead swapped for a woman)? Did she genuinely find her attractive? Was it really just about easing the awkwardness of being forty and never having dated, like she claimed yesterday? Or was it simply that she was rich, and rent money meant nothing to her, so she was just teasing her for fun? Or was she looking for someone who couldn’t say no, to practice “falling in love” with?

That last one didn’t feel quite right. With Gresya’s looks and wealth, she wouldn’t need to resort to this kind of method to find a practice partner.

Jobs on Venus Second Base weren’t particularly hard to find, since everything was still under construction. As Gresya said, a blank slate meant endless opportunity.

During her job hunt, Zhao Xinyun hit a minor setback when a hiring manager from a Starfleet Federation branch gave her an obvious look of disapproval upon learning she was from Earth. Even though she was a time-traveler and not the original owner of this body—though she herself was also from Earth before the time-travel—it still pissed her off. But realizing she was new here and didn’t want to offend anyone just yet, she quickly made an excuse to leave. She hadn’t expected to encounter this kind of discrimination even in the future. Thankfully, she soon landed a job she was satisfied with and signed the contract to start work.

After work, what surprised Zhao Xinyun was a call from Gresya. In this era, phones had a new function—calls and texts could be notified via vibrations on a smartwatch. She glanced at her watch and immediately recalled that dragonfly-light kiss from the morning. Her face threatened to turn red again. She forced herself to focus and answered the call.

Gresya’s cheerful voice came through as usual: “You’re off work, right? I’ll come pick you up!”

“…Mm, okay.” Zhao Xinyun stood there in a daze. In just a few minutes, Gresya’s car came zooming toward her, and through the window, she was waving and winking playfully.

Zhao Xinyun turned away, partly to hide the possible blush on her face, and four big words surfaced in her mind: “Acting cute is a crime.”

The following days were more or less the same. Gresya was always proactive in helping Zhao Xinyun, which made her feel awkward. And Gresya always had some sort of excuse. For example, when she insisted on driving her home every day, her logic was: “If you took a ride on your own, I’d still be the one paying for it. I’m just saving myself money while finding chances to bond with my girlfriend. You wouldn’t say no to that, right?” She then added, with a mischievous gleam in her eye, “And if you say no now, that counts as breaching the contract.”

Even though this whole “fake girlfriend” thing was Gresya’s idea, wasn’t she a little too into it? Zhao Xinyun finally came up with the perfect phrase to describe her behavior: “Turning the fake into real.” At this rate, it really felt like Gresya was chasing after her—wait, and why was she the bottom?! Just because the proposal came from Gresya?!

A voice in her head rolled its eyes and said, “You? A top? Please. And you can’t even afford to support anyone anyway.”

It was a crushing realization, but Zhao Xinyun had to admit, the voice wasn’t wrong. Oh well, if Gresya’s enjoying herself, she didn’t really have room to object. Maybe she just wanted to practice, or maybe she just wanted to make it more convincing. Either way, since she was so into the role, Zhao figured she should play along too. She remembered Gresya complaining a few days ago about how the cooking robot messed up her food, so Zhao made a decision after work on the third day: She would cook.

The moment she had that thought, a line of ancient poetry popped into her head: “Three days after entering the kitchen, I wash my hands to make soup.” It had indeed been three days since she moved in with Gresya… Ugh, what nonsense! Zhao Xinyun slammed the brakes on her wandering thoughts. It’s just pretend! Not like I’m marrying her for real! Also, according to the original poem, the woman had a younger sister—and Gresya only had a brother. But what would her parents think—no, stop it, stop it! You just said she’s too into the act, now you’re the one overthinking it!

Ahem. Back to the point. Before time-traveling, Zhao Xinyun had lived alone for years, so she could cook basic meals. Tomorrow was Saturday, so all she needed was a little time to get familiar with Gresya’s kitchen before diving in. Oddly enough, she actually felt a little excited about it. Probably just because she was curious to try out a future kitchen. Definitely not because of Gresya. Yep, she quickly concluded.

So on the way home that evening, she brought up cooking. Gresya explained that when she first moved to Venus, she specifically rented a place with a kitchen, bought all the pots and pans—and then discovered she was a terrible cook. With robots available, she rarely cooked after that.

As Gresya explained, Zhao Xinyun fought back the strong urge to roll her eyes. “So… what was with you volunteering to cook the other night, then?”

Gresya licked her lips awkwardly. “Well… that was just a moment of overconfidence. And you saw what happened—I only made one dish. The other one had to be finished by the robot.”

Zhao Xinyun: “……”

Ignoring—or perhaps intentionally ignoring—Zhao’s silence, Gresya launched into a dramatic rant about the limited selection of produce on Venus Second Base compared to the abundance on Mars. Zhao Xinyun half-listened, picking up useful information between the lines. “Though I’m not picky or anything,” Gresya added. “I eat pretty much anything.”

Then why the long speech?! Zhao Xinyun grumbled internally. But she didn’t voice her thoughts. “Well, I’m not picky either! Total foodie here… So is that why you never learned to cook? Since you don’t mind what you eat, and there are robots anyway?”

“Could be. So, are we going grocery shopping now?”

“Sure, it’s still early,” Gresya said, glancing out the car window before tapping a few buttons on the control panel.

On Venus Second Base, day and night cycles were artificially set, with simulated sunlight and darkness mimicking Earth. While you couldn’t see real sunrises or sunsets within the base, the lighting changed appropriately. Real dawns and dusks could only be seen outside the base. Right now, the light resembled the golden hue of sunset on Earth.

Zhao Xinyun had mentally prepared for either extreme: either a store with just three kinds of vegetables and one type of meat, or something just like a modern-day supermarket. After all, the technology of this era should make produce far more abundant than six hundred years ago—but this was Venus Second Base, still under construction. Who knew what it would be like? Gresya was a “Mars rich girl” (why did that sound so weird?), so her idea of a well-stocked store might be very different. Zhao Xinyun braced herself for anything.