I Can't Fall for My Own Wife Again After Reincarnation, Right? (GL) - Chapter 34

Xu Yingran felt her heart itch at Fu Qiao’s shy yet resentful little glance. She wanted to pull her into her arms right then and kiss her without restraint.

She wanted to capture Fu Qiao’s soft lips, to slip her hands beneath that oversized school uniform and do things only adults were supposed to do.

Xu Yingran thought to herself, she’d been here for a whole month already and still hadn’t gotten intimate with Fu Qiao. Before coming, she’d gone without for over three months. Combined, that was nearly half a year. She was practically bursting at the seams.

She really, really wanted to kiss her wife…

Xu Yingran parted her lips slightly, her mouth dry. The hand around Fu Qiao’s waist tightened, trying to pull her closer.

But Fu Qiao’s arms must have truly been exhausted, because the next moment, she lost her balance and crashed right into Xu Yingran’s face, straight into her front teeth.

“Mm, !”

“Ah, !”

Two pained cries rang out at once. Xu Yingran immediately let go, clutching her mouth. A metallic taste spread across her tongue, and when she touched her lips with her fingers, she realized Fu Qiao had actually split them open.

Fu Qiao wasn’t faring much better, her lips were bleeding too. Tears welled in her eyes as she covered her mouth and scrambled up from the bed, trembling from the pain.

“What were you trying to do?!” Fu Qiao was on the verge of crying, her eyes red as she glared at Xu Yingran, though it was hard to tell whether from anger or embarrassment.

When she’d lost her balance, it had been tooth against tooth, and that had been Fu Qiao’s first kiss. Naturally, she was both furious and flustered, her eyes reddening with frustration, making her look like a little rabbit.

Xu Yingran wasn’t unscathed either, her lower lip was already swelling. Sitting up on the bed, she looked at Fu Qiao’s equally disheveled state, unsure whether to laugh or comfort her first.

They had kissed, but the mood was completely ruined.

It looked more like a suicide attack.

“Sorry, are you okay?” Xu Yingran asked, still covering her mouth. “I was just joking around, where did you hit?”

Fu Qiao blinked back tears, looking up at her.

Xu Yingran examined the cut on Fu Qiao’s lips apologetically before murmuring, “Does it hurt? Should we put something on it?”

“How are you supposed to put medicine on lips?” Fu Qiao was a little annoyed now and didn’t want to talk to her.

Xu Yingran quickly got off the bed, standing in front of Fu Qiao and cupping her face to inspect the injury up close. “It doesn’t look too deep. I’ll go check if the infirmary has anything.”

Just as she was about to leave, Fu Qiao grabbed her wrist. “Forget it. By the time you find anything, my mouth will have healed already.”

Then she glanced at Xu Yingran’s injury and noticed her lips seemed worse than her own.

She should have been angry, but seeing Xu Yingran like this, Fu Qiao couldn’t stay mad.

Oh well. A first kiss was just a first kiss. Their relationship was already this close, kissing wasn’t a big deal. Besides, this had been purely an accident.

After assessing both their injuries, Fu Qiao could only sigh and give Xu Yingran a resigned look before deciding to forgive her.

“I’ve already packed your things. Yao Jin will bring them over soon,” Fu Qiao said, smoothing out the bedsheets before adding, “Let’s go home in a bit.”

Xu Yingran nodded. She was about to say something when she saw Yao Jin walk in, backpack slung over her shoulder.

As soon as she entered, Yao Jin froze in place, staring intently at the two people’s lips before finally saying after a long pause, “Did I interrupt something? Should I go out for another stroll?”

Fu Qiao’s face turned bright red in an instant, and she hurriedly explained, “It’s not like that, you’ve misunderstood.”

Yao Jin blinked and looked at Xu Yingran, asking, “Did I really misunderstand?”

“What misunderstanding?” Xu Yingran’s face also flushed involuntarily as she walked over to take her backpack, saying, “It was just an accident.”

Yao Jin drew out a long “Oh~,” making Xu Yingran so annoyed she wanted to hit her.

When they parted at the school gate, Yao Jin said to Xu Yingran, “Don’t forget about your own business.”

Watching the black Maybach drive away, Fu Qiao couldn’t help but ask Xu Yingran, “What business are you talking about?”

Why were they whispering secrets behind her back when the three of them were together?

Xu Yingran glanced back at Fu Qiao, thought for a moment, and said, “I’ll tell you tonight. Let’s go home first.”

“What is it that’s so mysterious?” Fu Qiao was puzzled but didn’t press further.

When they got home, Zhao Yu and Xu Chunjiang immediately noticed the mark on Xu Yingran’s lips, and both were slightly stunned.

Xu Yingran was also embarrassed, what should she do now that her parents had caught her kissing her wife?

The only thing to do was deny it outright.

“I bit my lip while eating at noon,” Xu Yingran said awkwardly to her parents. “Could you go easy on the chili in the cooking these next few days?”

Zhao Yu, picking vegetables with a sullen expression, drawled, “I don’t usually use much chili in my cooking, do I, Old Xu?”

Xu Chunjiang awkwardly rubbed his nose and said to his wife, “Hurry up and cook. I still have to work the night shift at the factory today.”

The two of them walked off, each talking about something unrelated, leaving Xu Yingran to sigh helplessly. She touched her still-throbbing lip and went to her room to change.

That evening, Xu Yingran knocked on Fu Qiao’s door.

Evening self-study sessions were starting the next day, and with fewer customers at the stall, Fu Qiao had been staying home to focus on her homework. When she saw Xu Yingran, she opened the door and welcomed her inside.

“What did you want to talk about?” Fu Qiao asked curiously.

The layouts of their homes were identical, except Fu Qiao’s living room was practically a storage space, piled high with all sorts of things. Even the freezer took up much of the room, holding frozen goods. A faint smell of meat lingered in the air, though thankfully Fu Qiao’s bedroom was free of it.

Xu Yingran sat on Fu Qiao’s bed, glancing around the neat and tidy room before saying, “You’ve got a lot of stuff here.”

Fu Qiao pulled up a chair and sat down, nodding. “Mostly books and notebooks. I sell the ones I don’t need, but I’ve kept all my textbooks from over the years.”

“Keeping them is good,” Xu Yingran said, watching Fu Qiao for a long moment before finally speaking. “Fu Qiao, go take broadcasting classes.”

“Huh?”

“I know you haven’t talked to your parents about it, but I’ve thought it over. Since you’re interested, you should go for it. Don’t worry about the rest.”

Fu Qiao lowered her eyes at this, and Xu Yingran, knowing her concerns, continued, “I’ve already sorted out the tuition. Let’s go sign up this Saturday.”

“Tuition?” Fu Qiao looked up at her in surprise. “Where would you get that much money?”

Xu Yingran smiled at her and said, “You don’t need to worry about that. Just listen to me and go study.”

But Fu Qiao shook her head. “You don’t need to bother with this. I’ve made up my mind, I don’t want to waste the money.”

“How can investing in education be a waste?” Xu Yingran told her. “I can tell you really like it. Since you do, you should go learn. As for the tuition, I’ve already taken care of it. You don’t need to worry.”

Fu Qiao was about to say something else when Xu Yingran cut her off.

“I know you don’t say it out loud, but deep down, you’re envious,” Xu Yingran said calmly yet seriously to Fu Qiao. “If you miss this chance, it’ll be hard to learn later. You’re coming with me to enroll this Saturday.”

“Xu Yingran…”

Fu Qiao’s expression softened slightly. She fixed her bright eyes on the other girl and asked uncertainly, “Why are you so nice to me?”

Why was she helping her with the tuition?

Why was she saying all this?

Weren’t they just ordinary friends? Was there any need to go this far?

Xu Yingran wasn’t sure how to answer that question. She couldn’t very well say, “Because you’re my future wife,” could she?

Even now, Xu Yingran wasn’t entirely clear about her own feelings.

She did have affection for Fu Qiao, after all, they’d known each other since childhood and had been together for ten years. Even if there hadn’t been any feelings initially, they would have developed over time.

Yet Xu Yingran also felt she didn’t love Fu Qiao that deeply, at least not with the kind of passionate love people talked about.

Her feelings for Fu Qiao were more like a steady stream, so constant that she couldn’t tell whether they were friendship, love, or familial affection.

But whatever those feelings were, Xu Yingran would always be good to Fu Qiao. She would strive to fulfill whatever Fu Qiao wanted, and if someone bullied her, Xu Yingran would fight tooth and nail to protect her. Earning tuition money for her wasn’t even that difficult.

Still, since Fu Qiao had asked, Xu Yingran had to give some kind of answer, didn’t she?

“Honestly, I don’t know either,” Xu Yingran told Fu Qiao truthfully. “I just feel that since you like it so much, I should do what I can to support that.”

Fu Qiao’s eyes flickered slightly. She pressed her lips together, feeling a faint sting.

She really wanted to ask Xu Yingran if she was doing all this because she liked her, but the words stuck in her throat.

What if that wasn’t the case?

What if Xu Yingran admitted it?

Would Fu Qiao have to respond?

They’d known each other for so long, wouldn’t it be strange if one of them suddenly realized they liked the other?

If, Fu Qiao was just saying if, Xu Yingran really did like her, and she asked, would she say yes or no?

The idea of friends becoming lovers felt so odd.

But if she rejected Xu Yingran, would they still be able to stay friends?

The thought of that scenario made Fu Qiao uneasy. Though she sometimes found Xu Yingran a bit silly, their relationship had always been good. What if they couldn’t even be friends anymore because of this…?

How heartbreaking would that be?

“Hmm…” Fu Qiao thought carefully before finally saying to Xu Yingran, “Can I have some time to think about it?”

“What’s there to think about?” Xu Yingran had no idea about the internal struggle Fu Qiao had just gone through. She quickly jumped off the bed and grabbed Fu Qiao’s hands, saying, “No matter what, you have to come with me to register this Saturday. I’ve already had the money prepared.”

Fu Qiao thought seriously about it. She still couldn’t figure out how Xu Yingran, who was the same age as her, had managed to get over ten thousand yuan to pay her tuition fees.

“I’ll agree on one condition,” Fu Qiao said. “You have to tell me everything clearly. If this money is stolen or obtained illegally, I don’t want to be implicated if you end up in jail.”

Xu Yingran’s eyes curved into happy crescents as she laughed. “Nonsense! My money comes from perfectly legitimate sources.”

Fu Qiao wasn’t convinced. “Then tell me. Once you explain everything clearly, I’ll agree.”

After some thought, Xu Yingran told her about the arrangement she’d made with Yao Jin at noon, though she omitted certain other details.

Hearing this, Fu Qiao frowned prettily at her. “Can you really repay Yao Jin if you borrow her money? What if you can’t?”

“If I can’t repay her, I’ll serve her hand and foot during university, bringing tea, helping her dress, folding her quilts,” Xu Yingran said cheerfully. “Even working part-time, I’d find a way to pay her back.”