Transmigrated as a White Lotus Heroine, but I’m Pursuing the Cold Villain - Chapter 21

She stood quietly by the door, waiting, her cool voice drifting through the crack of the slightly ajar door.

Her thoughts gradually soared beyond the horizon. Just as she snapped back to reality, Rao Jinqing finished her meeting.

Lin Qinglian only caught the last words of Rao Jinqing’s Robert’s forecast before the call ended.

When she opened her eyes again, Rao Jinqing was standing before her, gently waving two fingers.

Noticing her return to awareness, Rao Jinqing smiled softly. “What are you doing standing here?”

Lin Qinglian’s gaze involuntarily drifted from Rao Jinqing’s crimson lips to her eyes, which tilted upward at the corners.

She quickly lowered her lashes, then smiled warmly as she remembered her purpose, waving the documents in her hand.

“I came to deliver these to you.”

Rao Jinqing didn’t glance at the documents; her gaze remained fixed on Lin Qinglian. “Thank you. Since I’ve finished my meeting, what would you like to eat? I’ll take you.”

Lin Qinglian nodded.

Rao Jinqing returned to her study to retrieve a pen for signing.

Beside her computer, the phone screen had just lit up and hadn’t yet dimmed.

If Lin Qinglian had entered at that moment and casually glanced at the screen, she would have seen the words lying in the center:

Boss, it’s done.

The screen went dark only when Rao Jinqing opened the file. Since Lin Qinglian was waiting at the door, she wasn’t worried about her seeing it.

She didn’t want Lin Qinglian waiting at the door.

In fact, she had initially feared Lin Qinglian wouldn’t come in at all. But after considering that the study contained confidential documents, she abandoned the idea.

After signing the document, they left the office. This time, the restaurant was a conventional establishment.

Its decor and facilities were unremarkable, indistinguishable from other restaurants, except for one thing: it was located near a renowned riverside amusement park.

Any establishment that achieves prominence in its industry must possess unique advantages. In this case, the restaurant’s appeal lay in its simultaneous views of the shimmering river and the bustling amusement park.

As they neared the end of their meal, Lin Qinglian began glancing outside.

Her movements were subtle, barely perceptible—just a casual glance out the window as she finished eating.

Outside the private room’s window, overlooking the amusement park entrance, stood an ice cream shop. Its most popular item was a three-layered ice cream cone.

Almost everyone entering the amusement park stopped by the ice cream shop for a few minutes.

Lin Qinglian felt a craving—no, an intense desire—for the ice cream.

She had a sweet tooth, but she wasn’t the type to plan her next meal while still eating the current one. Usually, she ate whatever was available, or whatever caught her eye.

If she didn’t see it, she wouldn’t think about it; but once she saw it, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

After a couple of glances, she was already longing for it, thinking she’d sneak back later that night to buy one.

Across the table, Rao Jinqing said, “Do you want to go down there? Go have some fun.”

Lin Qinglian’s eyes lit up instantly.

She hadn’t felt particularly drawn to it herself, but Rao Jinqing, sitting opposite her, immediately noticed the sudden widening of her eyes.

Rao Jinqing thought of her Ragdoll cat, which she had owned before moving abroad.

Before she left the country.

It had big eyes and a round face, sleeping all day and wandering around the house at night. Once, when Rao Jinqing was late refilling its food bowl, it had nuzzled against her face as she slept soundly.

But unfortunately, Rao Jinqing as a child lacked the aloof, domineering CEO traits she possessed now, such as light sleeping.

She slept soundly until dawn, only to wake up and meet the dying gaze of her beloved cat.

At first, it weakly meowed a couple of times, trying to reassure the frantic Rao Jinqing that it was still alive. Eventually, it curled its tail around itself and huddled pitifully at Rao Jinqing’s feet, whimpering softly.

But when Rao Jinqing placed a bowl of food before it, its eyes lit up instantly. Its tail began to wag furiously, almost spinning like a propeller, and it devoured the entire bowl with gusto.

Lin Qinglian’s gaze was identical to that of the cat.

Decades ago, Rao Jinqing had willingly fed and cleaned up after a cat with a broken paw. Now, she saw nothing wrong with taking another cat-like creature to an amusement park.

Moreover, both this human and that cat were deeply infatuated with her.

After Lin Qinglian followed Rao Jinqing to purchase full-access tickets, she eagerly awaited their entry. President Rao took the tickets and led her into the park.

In the ensuing flurry of activity, President Rao even managed to lose the tickets.

In the end, she had to pay twenty times the original price to buy tickets from a young couple who were about to enter the park.

The young couple left beaming, the girl even wishing President Rao and Lin Qinglian a hundred years of happiness together.

Lin Qinglian: ⊙▽⊙

She was about to explain that their relationship was entirely proper when she realized that as her soon-to-be mission target, this relationship…

It couldn’t possibly be innocent!

She gave up trying to explain.

But there was still one problem.

Her ice cream seemed to be gone.

@_@

Never mind, she consoled herself. Isn’t this just the typical “level ten reading comprehension” quirk of a domineering CEO? I can understand.

After entering the park, Lin Qinglian gazed longingly at the streams of people passing by, each holding an ice cream cone.

I want some…

It looks so delicious…

Rao Jinqing, holding the tickets, had never been to a place like this before. After carefully studying the rules, she confidently asked, “Which area do you want to visit?”

Lin Qinglian leaned closer, glanced casually at the tickets, and pointed to a random spot.

Though the Lin Qinglian in the novel had never been to an amusement park, the Lin Qinglian outside the book had visited at least eighty, if not a hundred, times before she turned ten.

It was only after her vehement protests that her mother finally stopped taking her to the weekly high-intensity amusement park trips.

What ten-year-old wouldn’t love these things? Only Lin Qinglian was an exception, due to her innate emotional detachment.

This detachment became a source of conflict between her parents, and her mother, unwilling to argue with her father, eventually relented.

When she heard the absurd theory that intense stimulation could make the heart race, accelerating bl00d flow throughout the body to mimic emotional changes, her mother repeatedly took her on the park’s most thrilling rides.

After each round, Lin Qinglian emerged from the amusement park with an unchanged expression.

Already uninterested in such activities, Lin Qinglian grew even more reluctant to participate. Yet the ice cream sold outside the park always looked so refreshingly cold.

Initially, she didn’t mind going to the park. But after never getting to try the ice cream at the entrance, she lost all desire to return.

However, there was always an exception, and the place that made her bl00d surge was that exception.

But her mother refused to accompany her for a second visit.

Rao Jinqing stiffly shifted slightly to the side, but the warmth of their skin touching still radiated from the person beside her.

The weather was already sweltering, and they were pressed together so closely.

Rao Jinqing’s body tensed into a rigid line, and she wanted to pull away immediately.

But she couldn’t. She had no reason to leave.

Tilting her head to the side, her sharp jawline was now clearly visible, but this position couldn’t prevent a faint, refreshing fragrance from drifting over from the person beside her.

A faint, subtle scent, almost imperceptible, like the fragrance of laundry detergent.

The moment Rao Jinqing caught the scent, she instinctively shifted slightly to the side.

This was beyond her psychological comfort zone.

From childhood onward, regardless of the person or the situation, she had always preferred to maintain a certain distance from others.

Initially, it was because she disliked the wrinkles that formed on adults’ faces when they smiled. Later, it was because she couldn’t stand the mixed scents emanating from men and women.

This wasn’t specifically about British white people.

Eventually, she simply disliked being too close to anyone.

Lin Qinglian turned her head the instant Rao Jinqing moved, thinking she was dissatisfied with the arrangement. Her eyes widened, looking bewildered and innocent as she gazed at Rao Jinqing. “If you don’t like it, we can change it!”

“No, I like it,” Rao Jinqing replied. “Let’s go.”

Lin Qinglian blinked slowly, her watery eyes curving into a smile. “Yay! Thank you for playing with me, Sis!”

“I told you before, you don’t need to be so polite,” Rao Jinqing said. “Just make your own decisions about some things.”

As Rao Jinqing stood on the plane, three thousand meters above the ground, accepting the oxygen tank from the safety officer, she asked, her voice tinged with uncertainty, “We’re jumping from here?”

Lin Qinglian nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, yes!”

Rao Jinqing glanced at the gleeful Lin Qinglian, then clamped her mouth shut. Her face, as cold as death, slowly donned her protective gear.

It’ll be fine… right?!

!!!!!

Just as she finished securing her gear and before she could even steady herself, a soft hand reached out from beside her.

That soft, icy hand gripped hers tightly, squeezing her palm before abruptly yanking her forward.

With a forceful shove, the hand pulled her backward, sending them tumbling into the void.

Rao Jinqing, who had just finished putting on her gear, could only manage a bewildered, “???!!!!”

At first, the white clouds behind her rapidly dispersed. Then, the vast blue sky filled her entire field of vision.

The sky, an impossibly deep azure, seemed so close she could almost touch it.

In that moment, time seemed to freeze. She plummeted endlessly, falling, falling, falling.

Drawn to the impossibly blue expanse, she instinctively reached out, the white mist-like substance dissolving rapidly in her hand.

Her heart belatedly began to pound, its frantic rhythm echoing in her throat as adrenaline surged through her veins.

A hand reached from her waist, gently waving in front of her face.

Her gaze instinctively lowered.

A smiling face with crescent-shaped eyes appeared in her vision, radiating an innocent and gentle warmth.

If only that hand weren’t pressing down on me, making us fall even faster, she thought.

Her mind went blank the moment they began to plummet.

She didn’t know how long passed before she regained awareness.

When she did, she found herself staring into a face with eyes curved like crescent moons.

A faint, clean fragrance drifted from her neck, as if emanating from beneath the fabric pressed against it.

Her neck was pinned beneath a layer of cloth, the subtle scent seeping through the material.

The moment Lin Qinglian’s eyes met hers, they brightened several degrees.

Lin Qinglian laughed loudly, shouting, “Want to go again?”

Her voice was loud, but so was the wind roaring past their ears. Yet Rao Jinqing heard her clearly through the howling wind.

This was nothing like the usual soft, pale, pitiful little dog that seemed ready to burst into tears at any moment. Now, Lin Qinglian resembled a Tibetan mastiff spotting a piece of meat.

Rao Jinqing met those eyes, and in that instant…

She frantically accelerated.

Thump, thump, thump.

Her heart pounded like a drum.

Rao Jinqing averted her gaze, afraid to look again. She opened her mouth, only for the wind to rush in.

She quickly closed her mouth.

Lin Qinglian shouted, “If you don’t say no, that’s a yes!”

Rao Jinqing: “……”

She suspected that when she had opened her mouth, her soul, along with a tiny braid, had flown away.