Transmigrated as a White Lotus Heroine, but I’m Pursuing the Cold Villain - Chapter 8

Rao Jinqing’s voice carried a clear note of amusement.

For a moment, Lin Qinglian wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole.

Fortunately, Rao Jinqing added, “I was just teasing. You don’t need to wash it.”

Lin Qinglian breathed a sigh of relief.

Rao Jinqing paused before continuing, “You don’t need to wash it today.”

Lin Qinglian felt like she’d stumbled into some kind of fantasy world.

Here she was, trying to seduce someone in their home in the middle of the night, only to be stuck washing a blanket instead!

But then she remembered she’d transmigrated into a novel. Could anything be more fantastical than that?

She glanced up at Rao Jinqing, who looked utterly serious.

Yes, there could be.

She seems completely serious.

Was this any different from going to her boyfriend’s house, clogging the toilet, and having his dad, the plumber, come fix it?

Good news: she got to stay over. Bad news: it’s to wash a blanket.

She looked down at the blanket lying defeated on the floor.

“I’ll definitely wash it clean tomorrow,” Lin Qinglian promised.

Rao Jinqing smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I was just joking.”

Lin Qinglian: “?”

Why did she feel like Rao Jinqing was being serious?

Rao Jinqing headed toward the guest room on the first floor. “I tidied up the guest room for you this afternoon. Come in and rest. I didn’t move you earlier this morning because I didn’t want to wake you. You don’t mind, do you?”

Actually, she hadn’t cleaned up, but since she and Rao Songning did a thorough cleaning once a month, the room was already spotless.

Lin Qinglian shook her head and murmured softly, “Thank you.”

Her face was pale, her head bowed slightly, and her cheeks and the corners of her eyes were still flushed. Her gentle tone made her seem inexplicably vulnerable, like a delicate white flower that would wilt in the slightest breeze.

Rao Jinqing’s gaze lingered on Lin Qinglian’s face for a moment before shifting away with a cryptic chuckle.

Clutching the blanket, Lin Qinglian stepped barefoot onto the floor and followed closely behind her.

The moment her feet touched the cold floor, she shivered violently, questioning her very existence.

She instinctively lifted the foot that had just made contact with the floor.

But even without looking up, she could feel the silent gaze fixed on her from nearby.

No! If I ask her for slippers, will I have to wash them tomorrow?

And if Rao Songning sees them tomorrow…

Would anyone really fall for a laundry worker who’s always huffing and puffing while washing clothes?

So Lin Qinglian pretended not to feel the cold and padded after Rao Jinqing on her pale feet.

Leaning against the doorframe, Rao Jinqing glanced sideways and noticed the edges of Lin Qinglian’s snow-white feet were already turning red.

A City had a wide temperature range between day and night. Even in summer, it got so cold at night that you needed a blanket.

Lin Qinglian was still wearing Rao Jinjing’s clothes.

After telling Lin Qinglian to change, Rao Jinjing had rushed off to a meeting and forgotten to notify her secretary.

Lin Qinglian had spent the entire day in Rao Jinjing’s clothes.

The clothes were a poor fit for Lin Qinglian. The sleeves and hem of the top were too long, and the pants had to be rolled up three times at the ankles, barely clinging to her slender calves.

As she walked, the rolled-up cuffs kept slipping down.

But Lin Qinglian remained silent, her head bowed as she trudged forward.

The room had wooden flooring. When Lin Qinglian’s bare feet touched the cool surface, she felt instantly revitalized.

It was like going from Antarctica to the equator!

She scrambled onto the bed with practiced ease.

Rao Jinjing paused in the doorway, turning to look at Lin Qinglian inside the room. “Good night,” she said softly.

The room was dark because Rao Jinjing hadn’t entered, and Lin Qinglian hadn’t yet found the light switch.

But the living room blazed with candlelight.

Rao Jinjing stood in the doorway, at the boundary between light and shadow, the bright light illuminating her back.

Lin Qinglian couldn’t make out her expression.

But she could see Rao Jinjing leaning casually against the doorframe, her shoulder resting naturally against the wood, looking utterly exhausted.

A wave of weariness seemed to radiate from her.

Lin Qinglian blinked, a wave of emotion dissected in her eyes, each of Rao Jinjing’s actions imbued with meaning. This was her method of perceiving emotions, a skill she had developed since transmigrating. By observing others’ words, actions, and gestures, she could sense their feelings.

The System had explained that this was to allow her to experience emotions in advance. Once her mission was complete, she would be able to perceive them directly.

“Would you like some hangover soup?” Lin Qinglian asked.

If she remembered correctly, she had caught a faint scent of alcohol on Rao Jinjing as they brushed past each other earlier.

Chi Jiheng had always loved drinking her hangover soup after drinking, and he would always emphasize certain words when he said so.

Even though she hadn’t made the soup herself, and even though she didn’t understand why, she would lower her head and smile shyly.

Rao Jinjing must be the same, right? If she wanted to win over Rao Songning, wouldn’t it be twice as effective to win over Rao Jinjing first?

Lin Qinglian pulled out her phone and opened a food delivery app, ready to order.

Rao Jinjing lowered her head slightly, watching Lin Qinglian.

Lin Qinglian’s bright, round eyes sparkled as she looked up expectantly, as if she would immediately get up and make hangover soup if Rao Jinjing agreed.

President Rao might be heartless, a ruthless capitalist, but she couldn’t bring herself to exploit a sick person.

The patient’s face was deathly pale, with a faint flush on her cheeks and at the corners of her eyes.

Rao Jinqing even worried that Lin Qinglian might be suffering from premature heart aging.

She sighed. “If you’re sick, you should rest properly. Go to sleep.”

She didn’t say yes or no, but the refusal in her tone was unmistakable.

After speaking, she closed the door and left, pulling out her phone to see that the takeout order had arrived.

She set down her phone, quietly walked to the door, retrieved the order, and returned to the dining area.

The hangover soup from this restaurant was neither too salty nor too bland—just right.

Lin Qinglian urgently canceled an order.

She propped her chin in her hand, staring at the tightly closed door with a puzzled expression.

She couldn’t quite articulate what she was feeling. Her heart ached, swollen with an indescribable emotion.

It felt like something was stuck there, something she couldn’t dislodge.

Maybe I ordered too quickly, she thought. The platform will withhold the deposit, and my poor wallet will suffer.

Or maybe it’s because I’m used to taking care of Chi Jiheng like a son. Now that I’m suddenly not needed, it feels strange.

She pondered this for a moment before her eyelids began to droop uncontrollably.

Lin Qinglian yawned.

Enough thinking. Time to sleep.

She pulled the blanket over her head and drifted off.

In the final moment before sleep, a thought flashed through her mind:

Could it be that she just doesn’t like hangover soup?

After finishing the hangover soup, Rao Jinqing tidied up briefly, mainly organizing the living room and soaking the used dishes and utensils in detergent by the washing machine to make cleaning easier the next day.

When she was about to dispose of the hangover soup bowl, she noticed the distinctive five-star restaurant logo. After a moment’s hesitation, she wrapped the bowl in a blanket and tossed it into the trash.

Tomorrow was the weekend, and the company was closed, allowing her to finally sleep in.

The next morning at nine o’clock, Rao Jinqing yawned lazily as she came downstairs. Her pupils constricted sharply as she took in the dramatic transformation of her home overnight.

She turned away expressionlessly.

“Excuse me, I must have taken a wrong turn.”

Lin Qinglian emerged from behind the balcony, her hands still damp. She stood there awkwardly. “President Rao?”

Rao Jinqing whirled around instantly.

If Lin Qinglian wasn’t mistaken, Rao Jinqing’s entire back stiffened for a split second before she composed herself, turning back with a practiced smile. “Good morning.”

She paused for a beat. “What’s all this?”

Lin Qinglian glanced around.

The sofa had been cleared, the floor covered with a thick carpet, and even the tablecloth had been changed.

Everything was perfect, spotless.

Lin Qinglian replied obediently, “The Second Young Master asked me to clean up before he left.”

Her clear, black-and-white eyes gazed at Rao Jinqing, slightly moist.

Rao Jinqing swallowed the bitter truth that Rao Songning’s words were merely a tactic to reject others.

Rao Songning loathed all humans except for her and their grandmother.

At a recent banquet, someone had approached him with a glass of wine, clearly intending to offer a toast. As the person drew near, Rao Songning immediately prepared to leave, citing the table’s dirtiness as an excuse.

The man proceeded to wipe down all two hundred tables at the banquet.

Yet in the end, he placed the wine only before Rao Songning’s table.

What about Lin Qinglian?

What was her reason?

As Rao Jinqing gazed at Lin Qinglian’s docile face, she suddenly recalled the girl’s reserved posture on the edge of the bed the previous night, asking if she wanted hangover soup.

In that fleeting moment, she felt a warmth flowing between them.

At least for that instant, Lin Qinglian had seemed relaxed and at ease.

She found herself reluctant to ask, perhaps fearing Lin Qinglian’s true target wasn’t her. Yet she also wondered: Could Lin Qinglian’s affection for me be any more obvious?

Just by chance, she stopped before me, soaked to the bone.

Rao Jinqing refused to believe in such coincidences.

She believed only in human effort.

Just as she had never been qualified to take over the company, she had never even wanted to.

“You don’t need to pay him any attention next time.”

Lin Qinglian let out a soft “Ah.”

She seemed momentarily stunned, then nodded and suddenly asked, “So from now on, will I listen to you?”

As she spoke, she tilted her head back to look up at the taller Rao Jinqing, her expression earnest and her eyes fixed intently on her.

Rao Jinqing’s index finger twitched involuntarily.

She found herself thinking, for no apparent reason:

The heart is the system that supplies bl00d to the entire body, and the index finger is the part closest to the heart.

It wasn’t her finger that moved; it was her heart that leaped.

In that instant, it leaped violently.

Rao Jinqing: “If you want to, you can from now on.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew they were inappropriate.

They had only met five days ago, and today marked just their sixth day of acquaintance, yet they were already talking about the future.

Rao Jinqing detested discussing the future; it implied promises.

A promise means it must be kept, but she couldn’t fulfill some so-called promises.

So she fell silent.

Lin Qinglian sensed that what she had just said might have been inappropriate, but seeing Rao Jinqing’s earnest expression, she hesitated, thought it over, and ultimately said nothing.

The living room fell into complete silence, neither woman speaking.

Lin Qinglian gazed at her with wide, round eyes.

At that moment, her phone rang.

The default ringtone shattered the stillness.

It was likely the daily meal delivery person.

She had ordered a year’s worth of meals from several nearby five-star restaurants, arranging for them to rotate deliveries to her door.

She answered the phone, and her secretary’s voice came through, urgent.

There was a problem with the document from yesterday’s meeting with the Brit.

Rao Jinqing’s face darkened as she swiftly went upstairs to change.

Rushing back down, she saw Lin Qinglian standing awkwardly by the side. “Coming with me? Or should I have the driver take you home later?”

Being with Rao Jinqing means I can spend more time with her. She’s Rao Songning’s sister, Lin Qinglian thought to herself.

Then she made up her mind.

“I’ll come with you!”